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Modelu figures in 4mm - first one painted

Ian H C

Entry posted by Ian H C

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Here's my first Modelu driver painted. The photos are a cruel enlargement of a 4mm figure.

 

Where the Modelu figures score is that they are modelled / scanned from real life so the proportion and pose is entirely natural. That shows up very well against most of the existing proprietary moulded or cast figures I've seen before. I don't know what the resolution of the scan is but at this size the figures lack a little facial definition. That makes them difficult to paint convincingly. You'll see this guy lacks eyes and mouth. That's not an easy thing (for me!) to paint on without it looking goofy. Some contour in this area would help to give the face some relief through washing or highlighting. On this figure the eyes are in the shadow of the cap so not really noticeable with overhead lighting. Is it a big deal in 4mm? When then figure is placed in a scene it probably isn't. Overall I'm very pleased with the result. 3 more loco crew to paint now.

 

For those wot's interested I've painted these figures using some basic military miniature painting techniques. I use acrylic paints (Games Workshop) since they dry quickly and allow rapid progress when painting a small number of figures. Goes something like this -

  • Base coat all over in matt black
  • Foundation for face and hands in dark flesh colour
  • Foundation colours for clothes in a dark grey and a dark grey/blue, leaving a little black in the folds and shadows
  • Lighter shade of grey and grey/blue for the clothes, leaving a little more foundation in the foods and shadows. Don't bother to try and blend the colours, you end up with something like a black/dark/lighter contour map. Dry brushing and washing blend them enough at this scale.
  • Lighter flesh colour on prominent areas like nose, cheeks, knuckles, ears
  • Detail around shirt, tie, hair etc
  • Dry brush highlight of pale grey and pale grey/blue over coveralls and jacket, picking out exposed surfaces like shoulders and edges of folds and creases
  • Sepia wash over hands and face
  • Finally a thin black wash to tone it down and bring the colours together


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  • RMweb Gold
Rowsley17D
  • RMweb Gold

Looks convincing enough for me. You'll not see the mouth, or lack of it once it's on board. I too have a number of Modelu, so this has inspired me to get my paints out, thanks.

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alanbuttler

Hi Ian,

 

It's always nice to see the results of my figures when painted, you've done a nice job on these.  Looking at the original scan it looks like the scan itself did not have a lot of facial detail.  For future figures I'm looking at rescanning the head and shoulders separately as this will allow for a much higher resolution face.  The scanner captures about 2 million triangles in the bounding box of the scan, so when you only scan the head and shoulders you are getting all 2 mill of triangular detail in that area.  Then it is a short edit job to marry the head & shoulder scan onto the full body scan.  That's the theory!  I'll see how it works out in practice with the next installment of figures.

 

Alan

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Ian H C

Hi Alan,

 

Sometimes the facial features are exaggerated a little on miniatures to give them 'character'. Easy to overcook it though. I don't actually think it's an issue at this scale, bit I'll be interested to see how the separate face scan works out. I'm also starting to model in 7mm and a figure that size will be a proper miniature modelling job. There will be an order in the Modelu inbox sometime soon.

 

Kind of by the way - looking forward to the brake van spring and axle box sample. That project will probably end up on here too!

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  • RMweb Gold
Dan Randall
  • RMweb Gold
Hi Ian,

 

It's always nice to see the results of my figures when painted, you've done a nice job on these.  Looking at the original scan it looks like the scan itself did not have a lot of facial detail.  For future figures I'm looking at rescanning the head and shoulders separately as this will allow for a much higher resolution face.  The scanner captures about 2 million triangles in the bounding box of the scan, so when you only scan the head and shoulders you are getting all 2 mill of triangular detail in that area.  Then it is a short edit job to marry the head & shoulder scan onto the full body scan.  That's the theory!  I'll see how it works out in practice with the next installment of figures.

 

Alan

 

Hi Alan. Just wondering if it's practical to swap heads (or even hairstyles), around amongst your figures? This would add some more variety and perhaps avoid the same characters/poses populating everyone's locos or line sides, whilst you're working to expand the range of figures on offer.

 

Nice paint job by the way Ian. It's reminded me that I have some 7mm prints of myself to have a crack at soon.

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

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alanbuttler

Hi Dan,

 

It indeed is and I have started doing just that :) Some of the loco crew needed hats (52,53,54 & 55).  I've also swapped heads around on a few where people have requested it.  I can do this to order, but I'll have to think on how practical it is.  

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