Italian acrylic paint manufacturer Lifecolor has joined forces with modelling publisher Mr Black, to provide the former’s first ever painting guide.
Learning to use a new-to-you paint brand can be a little traumatic if you’ve relied on something different for years. Many paints have their own idiosyncrasies and react differently to thinning, brush painting and use through an airbrush.
With this in mind, Lifecolor has teamed up with renowned figure-painting studio/publisher Mr Black, to create the Lifecolor Painting Guide Vol.1. It’s a concise 36-page softback, almost portrait A4 in format, and the practical use of this acrylic brand is explored fully via three separate projects.
The first is a 1/35 scale female Soviet sniper figure (by Life Miniatures) with a scenic base/background, and the book tells how to achieve the height of realism with Lifecolor paints, liquid pigments and filters. Quality step-by-step photos relay the results, and it’s fascinating to see how the subject develops. A full list of products used and Lifecolor colour chips are provided, along with gallery-style finished model images. Adding interest are separate pages exploring the Mosin-Nagant M1891 rifle, and Soviet female snipers of World War Two.
The instruction then turns to painting high-quality 1/35 German Army figures, for vignettes and dioramas (using airbrush and paintbrush) in just 2 1/2 hours. This section relies on two Panzer Art resin figures, and educates the reader through paragraphs on flesh, eyes, hair, clothing and much more. Again, paint codes and colour chips close the chapter, along with an information panel on the Soviet PPSh-41 sub-machine gun, as it’s caried by one of the resin figures. Both this – and the section on the Mosin-Nagant – have colour photos of the real weapons for reference.
The final chapter imparts rather different skills necessary to achieve the so-called ‘rat look’ on a 1/24 Revell VW Golf GTI. Rat look vehicles, either by accident or design, exhibit a high degree of wear and tear, and corrosion, and the tutorial on how to achieve this in scale form will be highly prized. Competitively priced at just £10.99, this book ostensibly offers a wealth of painting advice, but of course, it’s also a promotional tool for Lifecolor paint. However, this is obvious from the outset so there’s no excuse for anyone feeling as though the wool has been pulled over their eyes.
Acrylics have revolutionised modelling and figure painting, due to their quick drying times, but they do require a different approach to, say, oils or enamels – and any structured hand-holding through the processes involved can only be useful. For more details, or to order, visit UK distributor The Airbrush Company, at: www.airbrushes.com
