These models are being painted for the 2012 Clean-Slate Challenge, an attempt to paint all the forgotten models accrued over the years by an enthusiastic hobbyist.
This particular box was bought hastily a year ago but never ended up painted for the intended project. I saw the outside of the box said "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang!" and I was happy enough knowing that I was getting some snooty looking guys in suits.
The 2012 challenge is officially underway, and the first model on the table is...
This guy: affectionately named Colonel Harumph.
I had no idea who these characters were or who they were supposed to represent. Usually I do an extensive amount of research into the source material, but I purposely avoided it this time around. I wanted an unbiased perspective on how the models would come to life. If I started reading I would eventually see images and the project wouldn't be the same.
Micro-lesson: Shadows of a different color
Consider using a different color to form the shadowed area of a model. Very few things are purely one color in real life. The brown of the fabric in the Colonel's suit is shaded with brown, purple, and black. The purple gives the suit a new dimension, while the brown pulls it back toward a believable hue, and the black provides the deepest shades.
So how do you determine the colors to use?
Take a look at the color wheel.
If you want to push a shadow especially hard and in a realistic manner, use the adjacent colors on the wheel. In the case of the good Colonel's suit, he's wearing brown, which is a shade of orange and red. Therefore our best bet for a new shadow color is either purple or yellow, depending on your taste and the situation. Here purple wins out for the shadow, and I mixed some yellow in for the highlight.
What about grey?
Grey is both your best friend and your greatest enemy here. It can take almost any color on as a secondary, which gives it ultimate flexibility, but also forces you to make some hard decisions. My recommendation to look at the rest of the model and pick a color that compliments the other non-grey colors you're using. If you've got a warm color scheme, keep it to the right side of the wheel, cool keeps to the left. But if all else fails, go blue.
Here I used a softer blend of green and blue to form the shadows for the Lady's jump-suit. I wanted her to have that pleathery look, so I didn't push the shadows too far. The slightly flat color helps to give the fig that impossibly synthetic look that we've all seen in the movies.
I decided this guy should be named "The Crimson Parasol" for obvious reasons.
I admit, the pinstripes were an act of pure masochism, but the ends definitely justified the means. Now that I've seen him painted up like this, I can't imagine him any other way. Here the shadows had a lot of blue mixed in to give the grey some needed depth.
You can find the manufacturer's website here.
This project was a fantastic start to my challenge and I'm excited for the next few models I have lined up. 2012 is going to be a good year for painting.
