There has been a lack of Z gauge quality (avoid the the Chinese rubbish, I was given 200 by a retailer, they are dreadful) pre-painted people for years, especially from Preiser.
I bought a pile of Trafofuchs people which are very good & they also fill in many gaps in creating various scenes which is brilliant.
I bought a pack of Preiser 160 "nude" figures for backup/if I ever get around to painting them, which has about 130 people plus animals, because there was barely any pre-painted figures available.
I don't actually have a shortage of people, still well over 100 people to place on my layout, but a layout looks too "thin" without a good number of people. My recent very small snow scene swallowed 29 people & could do with a couple more.
I bought some acrylic paint, they were out of stock of so many colours & some colours were gloss only, you need mat/flat, but I am pretty good at mixing colours. Bought some empty bottles for my colours.
It is easier to buy the colours you need, they are not expensive in relation to the cost of pre-painted people, but if there are issues, get primary colours, also white, black, & a few half way colours including a light grey if possible.
If mixing colours do a tiny brush size sample before actually mixing in a jar. It is surprising how colours can very easily go wrong very quickly even with one single drop of another colour.
Original colours right, mixed colours centre. The alligator clips were handy, about 8 to 12 would be the go, I only had 4 (they are good for torturing figures, clamping by head or feet to paint other end. The alligator clamps don't damage already painted ends to any obvious degree). I bought primer but didn't use it as I felt the overall thickness of paint would be too much.
Z gauge, you don't heed to be too fussy with detail, the bloody things are so small. Paint bigger areas where you can. I jumped around a bit painting this & that, but you will pick up a feel for painting. You use so little paint don't worry wasting a bit dipping brush in solvent & cleaning on tissue paper, to change colours.
You can buy stainless steel ball bearings to put a couple in each jar to mix paint. I had 1/8" stainless steel wire which I cut off pieces about 15 - 20mm, ground ends smooth, to chuck in each bottle. A stainless steel screw will do, maybe file off the sharp end to avoid damaging lid seal.
The 75mm bits of stainless steel were handy for transferring paint colours (if they weren't cut a whisker shorter could leave them in sealed jar), buy a handful of spare Tamiya jars for mixing colours, the tiny square ones are a touch small but that's all they had, they are cheap enough.
Took a day to paint the figures. Came up pretty well. I have previously only bought painted people, especially for my architectural work, just couldn't afford the time painting people. Now that I have done it, it's not that bad painting figures.
If you don't have one, get a Winsor Newton Series Seven 000 brush. I bought another one $69.50 ($43 a few years ago. Probably gone up because all the Sables (millions) that were put down due to Covid) actually after I painted the figures as this brush was a spare (have about 20 of them all up), but they are worth it.
Learn your skills on the Preiser men with raincoats first. Lastly use your refined skills on the nude girls with G-strings as they are more challenging to get desired results with the fine lines required for successful outcome!
Edited by user 08 June 2023 05:34:04(UTC)
| Reason: Auto correction issues
