Austrian Pikeman
In this short article I will try to show how I painted a historical figure in 1/72 scale. As a model, I used a pikeman from the Zvezda set 8061 17th century Austrian Musketeers and Pikemen. Zvezda is one of the most famous producers of plastic 1/72 figures and plastic models in general of highest quality, and the set of figures itself is very suitable for making a diorama of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683.
To start, the figure needs to be separated from the sprue with sharp hobby pliers. Care must be taken not to damage the figure. Therefore, it is better to cut away from the figure, and later cut off the excess sprue with a sharp hobby knife (for example no. 11). This is followed by the removal of mouldlines, and it is recommended to wash the figure in warm water with the addition of soap or dish detergent. Such figures are produced by injecting plastic into metal molds. To make the plastic easier to separate, the molds are coated with a mold releaser. Traces of this oil-like agent remain behind on the figure and can cause the primer and color not to be adhere well to the surface of the figure. Therefore, washing the figure is highly desirable.
After the washed figure has dried, I fastened it to a plastic stopper with "patafix" and painted it with a gray primer from Army Painter. When the primer had dried, I coated the whole figure with a layer of Nuln Oil wash (GW) and let it dry again. The wash itself did not have as much of a "preshading" role as I wanted it to highlight details on the figure that I would have to paint later. This step is not so necessary, but it makes painting easier.
After the figure was prepped, I applied the base colors to the figure. As a reference, I used an illustration and an example of a colored figure on a box (boxart) which greatly shortened my search process for historical literature. The colors I used are Flat Red + Black Red (sleeves and feathers), Medium Blue (pants), Black (hair, beard and shoes), Gunmetal (armor, helmet, sword and spearhead), Basic Skintone (face), Leather Brown + Biege Brown (gloves), Bone White + Biege Brown (socks), Biege Brown + Orange Brown (pike). All paints are from the Vallejo Model or Game Color series. Leather Brown paint from Revell was used for the straps.
I then applied Reikland Fleshshade (GW) to the skin and Agrax Earthshade (GW) to the brown parts. All other parts (metal, red, blue) I coated with Nuln Oil. Already after this step, the figure took on a satisfying appearance that will be enough for some wargamers to play. However, I decided to do two "highlights" for each color (except black). I got the "highlights" by lightening the above colors, with the second "highlight" covering a smaller area than the first (layering). The glazing technique for coloring was out of the question because the figure is quite small. Eventually, I arranged the base and coated the figure with a layer of varnish. I mixed matte varnish (Pebeo) and satin varnish (Ammo by Mig) and diluted it a bit with water.
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Science behind Acrylic Paints
- Binders (eng. resin) – form a film – in our case probably pure acrylates, I suspect they are styrene acrylates.
- Fillers – in addition to adding volume to the paint, they also affect the viscosity, coverage and appearance of the dry film
- Pigments – the main division is into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Inorganic ones are more covering but have less vivid shades, while organic ones are often quite poorly covering (yellow for example) but their shades are vivid and bright
Additives:
- Anti-foam
- Rheological modifiers – affect the behavior of wet paint on the substrate (e.g. spillage) and the behavior of the paint when a force is applied to it (brush, roller, spray, airbrush). Rheological modifiers also include thickeners that affect the viscosity of the paint.
- Dispersants – envelop pigment and filler particles and prevent their agglomeration during standing. Good dispersion of pigment and filler affects the coverage and uniform appearance of the dry film. There are a bunch more but I won't go into too much detail
- Solvent – in this case water.
Contrast paints and speed paints – high pigment content, but not so much that it causes high coverage. They are formulated to spread, not to stay where you put them. The result of spreading is that the paint collects in the recesses, where a thicker film of paint remains than on the protruding parts of the miniature. Where the film of paint is thicker (the recesses), the shade of the contrast paint is more pronounced, unlike on the protruding parts where the film is thinner, which is why the shade is then influenced by the color of the substrate.
Composition:
- Binders
- Pigments
- Additives – all listed above + surfactants that reduce the surface tension of the wet paint film, which is why it flows
- solvent
- I would say they do not contain fillers, or contain very, very little of them
Washes – similar in formulation and behavior to contrast agents, only they have a much lower proportion of pigments, certainly no fillers, a higher proportion of surfactants, lower viscosity, and probably less binders.
If we want to greatly dilute acrylic paint or contrast, it is better to use a product intended for this purpose from the manufacturer of that paint rather than water, because it contains all the necessary amount of binders and additives for that paint to retain its properties.
" ["content_hrv"]=> string(4306) "U ovom članku, naša Dunja nam otkriva znanost iza akrilnih boja.
Akrilne boje – visoki udio pigmenta i dobra pokrivnost. Ako su dobro formulirane ostaju tamo gdje ih naneseš, ne ostavljaju „brush marks“ i suše se dovoljno sporo da stigneš napravit što želiš na minijaturi a opet dovoljno brzo.
Sastav:
- Veziva (eng. resin) – formiraju film – u našem slučaju vjerojatno čisti akrilati, sumnjam da su stiren akrilati.
- Punila – osim što dodaju volumen boji utječu i na viskoznost, pokrivnost i izgled suhog filma
- Pigmenti – glavna podjela je na organske pigmente i anorganske pigmente. Anorganski su više pokrivni ali manje živih nijansi, dok su organski često dosta loše pokrivni (žuti npr) ali zato su im nijanse žive i jarke
Aditivi:
- Protiv pjene
- Reološki modifikatori – utječu na ponašanje mokre boje na podlozi (npr razlijevanje) i na ponašanje boje dok na nju djeluje sila (kist, valjak, sprej, airbrush). Pod reološke modifikatore spadaju i ugušćivači koji utječu na viskozitet boje.
- Dispergatori – obavijaju čestice pigmenata i punila i sprječavaju aglomeraciju istih stajanjem. Dobra dispergiranost pigmenta i punila utječe na pokrivnost i ujednačen izgled suhog filma.
- Ima ih još hrpa ali neću toliko u detalje
- Otapalo – u ovom slučaju voda.
Kontrastice i speed paints – visoki udio pigmenta, ali ne toliki da uzrokuje visoku pokrivnost. Formulirane su da se razlijevaju, a ne da ostaju tamo gdje ih staviš. Posljedica razlijevanja je skupljanje boje u udubine gdje onda ostane deblji film boje nego na isturenim dijelovima minijature. Tamo gdje je film boje deblji (udubine) nijansa kontrastice izraženija, za razliku od isturenih dijelova na kojima je film tanji zbog čega na nijansu onda utječe boja podloge.
Sastav:
- Veziva
- Pigmenti
- Aditivi – svi nabrojani gore +
- surfakanti koji smanjuju površinsku napetost mokrog filma boje zbog čega i dolazi do razlijevanja
- otapalo
- rekla bih da ne sadrže punila, ili ih sadrže vrlo vrlo malo
Washevi – po principu formuliranja i ponašanju slični kontrasticama, samo imaju puno manji udio pigmenata, sigurno ne sadrže punila, veći udio surfakanata, manji viskozitet i vjerojatno manje veziva.
Ako želimo jako razrijediti akrilnu boju ili kontrasticu bolje je koristiti za to predviđen proizvod od proizvođača te boje nego vodu, jer sadrži svu potrebnu količinu veziva i aditiva kako bi ta boja zadržala svoja svojstva.
" ["created"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" ["modified"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" } ["Member"]=> array(10) { ["id"]=> string(2) "64" ["group_id"]=> string(1) "1" ["first_name"]=> string(9) "Krunoslav" ["last_name"]=> string(8) "Belinić" ["first_name_mask"]=> string(9) "krunoslav" ["last_name_mask"]=> string(7) "belinic" ["username"]=> string(5) "Kruno" ["password"]=> string(40) "eb3fda45fbec0258e90d809803b10491c548b22f" ["born"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:19:00" ["created"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:20:39" } } Krunoslav Belinić, 20th November 2025 - We attended: ModelMania 2025 Marko Paunović, 5th November 2025
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