Faces and Hair #1

Over the last few days I've been pondering the issue of faces, hair, skin tones, that sort of thing. Colours for armour, weaponry, and bases can be a little experimental and things still turn out, but the unhelmeted head of a Space Marine really has to be done right the first time. It will ruin the whole model if the colours or tone are too far off, and the detail is easily obscured if a little too much paint is used.

With that in mind, I found there wasn't too much on google for the new Citadel range of paints, though there's a fair amount for the older paint set, so I figured it couldn't be too different.

The Face

Much of the face is based off reading this blog (a good read), found simply via a google search, with my own tweaks and subtle differences.

The first thing I did was base with Rakarth Flesh. This is far too light of a colour for human flesh, but would probably be just fine for something like Dark Eldar, or Legion of the Damned. It doesn't really suit a Death Company marine though, so that was a bit of a mistake, but it may have actually helped out in the end.

Over this a layer of Cadian Fleshtone was applied, with touchups where I felt the base was showing through that little bit too much. This is a much nicer colour for use on the face.

Once dry, Reikland Fleshshade was washed on, just to darken things a little. A touch of Agrax Earthshade was also set under the eyes and lower lip. It's amazing how such a little thing brings out the expression that much more. A very good tip from the afore mentioned blog. The lips were then touched with Wazdakka Red, mostly on the lower lip. I also used some Agrax Earthshade on the inside of the mouth just to make it dark. The next step was to highlight areas back over with Cadian Fleshtone, including a very, very thin layer over the lips because the red was a little too vibrant. Getting the lips right is going to be one of those tricky things.

The last step for now is something I just made up on the spot: "highlighting" with a base of Ratskin Flesh. This is probably the colour I should have based with in the first place, but the idea here was to apply it thinly to the cheeks, darkening them, creating a slightly blushed effect. Someone yelling out a battle cry is going to have a flushed face from it.

The eyes aren't finished yet, but that's a topic for next time.

Same stage from different angles and lighting.

The Hair

Wanting this model to have golden blonde hair for the whole angelic appearance, I didn't really find anything appropriate in the paints that looked right. This one is pure guess, but it seems to have worked out ok. When doing this, note that the model doesn't have much detail about the hair - it's not a finecast. The paint will have to fill that void and make it look like hair in addition to being coloured like hair.

The steps were rather simple in the end:

• Base with Averland Sunset
• Highlight with Yriel Yellow. This step is "messy" - the highlight shouldn't be even. It's hair, not armour plating.
• Extra Yriel Yellow along the fringe, and a little more sort of drybrushed to give the hair a bit more of a textured look.
• Wash with Seraphim Sepia.

And that's it. Very simple, and I'm happy enough to leave it as is. Next time I paint a marine with hair, I'll probably look into building it up from layers of brown, just to see the difference.

-- silly painter