Young Miniatures British Infantryman Somme 1916

Young Miniatures British Infantryman Somme 1916 - Face Painting

Disha Mart 01, 2022

I really should do the faces first on my builds but I have to admit that the prospect of doing the eyes is not my favourite thing, so I tend to put it off, whatever my good intentions. So here we are toward the end of this particular kit and the time has come to delay the face painting no longer.

Lots of First World War figures are portrayed with a cadaverous hue, often using greenish skin, to the extent of bordering on a zombie-like appearance. This seems to owe more to our assumptions than to reality, and I really didn't want to go that far, but nonetheless I did want this figure to look pale, tired, haggard and above all traumatised. This meant red-rimmed eyes and a pale choice of paint colour.

I should add that apart from the image above most photos were taken hand-held at the workbench as I went along rather than using proper studio conditions and lighting, so quality is not what I would prefer. I'll add properly-lit shots in the next blog entry when the construction is complete.

Having previously given the head a layer of primer and then preshading and highlighting, as shown above, I largely stuck with the approach used on the gebirgsjaeger for the face painting, with the odd slight adjustment and certainly a lot less emphasis upon red noses and cheeks to portray cold.

Eyes:

We start off, then, with the eyes. These used a base of 820 Offwhite and 928 Light Flesh as a base, mixed with some gloss.

This was followed by a background iris colour using 899 Dark Prussian Blue and Black in a 50/50 mix, followed by 899 and 928 Light Flesh for the iris itself. His left eye proved to be a challenge, especially for my eyesight, and required a second attempt.

For the lachrymal colour around the base of the eyes I used a mix of two parts 835 Salmon Rose, one part 860 Medium Fleshtone and one part 817 Scarlet. At this stage he looked rather crazed.

Above his eyes I then drew a line using 50/50 Black and 817 Scarlet.

This was followed by dots of 918 Ivory on each eye as catchlights. I haven't done these before but thought I would give them a try here.

I added some thinned 930 Dark Blue under the eyes as preshading for a tired effect. Despite its name it is actually quite a light blue.

I was then in a position to add the base flesh colour and in this case I deviated from the gebirgsjaeger slightly by using 2 parts 955 Flat Flesh, one part 815 Basic Skintone and one part 876 Brown Sand.

This was applied in a couple of layers, although in hindsight I think I should have added at least another layer. We live and learn.

I then proceeded with the highlights and shading, using the same approach and colours as I used with the gebirgsjaeger. Above all I repeated the approach of attempting to blend the edges of the different colours, notably on the cheeks, etc. I should add that for the beard I used a dotting effect rather than the short strokes I employed with the gebirgsjaeger. I also added a layer of gloss varnish over the eyes as the final stage.

Hair:

As with the gebirgsjaeger, I used 872 Chocolate Brown as the base colour to which I added 914 Green Ochre for highlights.

Chin-strap:

For the chin-strap I used 984 Flat Brown, followed by ageing using 981 Orange Brown and 875 Beige Brown. The metal buckles used the same colours as the metal fittings elsewhere on the figure.

Cigarette:

The cigarette is, of course, something which I've added to the figure. I wanted to give the impression of a lit cigarette so over a background colour of 986 Deck Tan I painted the paper 820 Off-white. I then used a fine brush to add dots of 911 Light Orange and 817 Scarlet, followed by ash at the tip represented by 862 Black Grey, 992 Neutral Grey and 989 Sky Grey, leaving the orange and red colours behind the ash colours at the tip. The result is a realistic effect so this was a useful experiment.