Fred showed us the drafts of the new banner and promotional leaflets that he had been preparing for the Group, these were very well received and after discussion one or two minor tweaks will be considered before final approval at our next meeting.
Our Saturday Skills slot then continued with Bill giving an excellent talk on figure painting which he has been doing for thirty or forty years both for railway modelling and war gaming, so we think he’s probably getting the hang of it.
Bill brought along several examples and talked about the various manufacturers of both plastic and metal figures that he used.
It was important, he said, to buy anatomically correct figures in order to get a convincing model.
He spoke about the various paints available and tends now to favour acrylic as opposed to enamel paints many of which come from
the war gaming world.
He said that plastic or metal figures are best washed first to remove any chemical residue and also flash or mould lines taken off. Metal figures are best primed before painting but that is not necessary for plastic ones.
Bill likes to work from the inside out so starting with faces, then shirts, then waistcoats and finally the outer clothing.
After giving his figures a base coat Bill then glazes them with a thin coat of paint or varnish.
This then introduces shading to the clothing and greatly enhances their look.
Depending on the product used this may produce a gloss finish in which case a coat of matt varnish is then applied.
To demonstrate this approach Bill went on to varnish a figure he had painted earlier and showed how easily depth and tone could be added to the model.
After questions Bill was thanked for his most informative and interesting talk.
Chris M
