SVC05 Blue Matt for Soft PVC Figure

A blue matte for vinyl castings

Blue is the cool pole of the palette and on a figure it is used in two different ways. Either it carries an area of its own – a uniform, a cloak, the cooling panels of armor – or it is mixed into something else and moves the tones into shadow. A gray with a drop of blue looks cold and distant, whereas the same gray with a drop of brown pulls the attention forward. In painting figures that difference often shows more than the choice of the main shade itself.

Brush, or airbrush

For a brush the paint is taken thicker, only lightly thinned, so that the mark does not bleed into its surroundings and the edge stays legible. For an airbrush it is thinned markedly instead and run at low pressure; a pliable surface does not need the force of the stream, it needs patience. The nozzle is held further away than on hard plastic and the stream is run smoothly without stopping over one place. Anyone masking should reach for the tape with the weakest adhesive they have – a strong adhesive stretches soft compound and on being pulled off tears away the dried paint as well.

The small things last

Blue takes a final lightening with white along the edges well, which draws the shape of a figure out of the flat. The transition is made over a dried coat and with an almost dry brush, not with wet paint. If an area seems flat, it helps to place a darker tone into it from below and leave the lighter one only where light would fall. A matte finish then unifies the whole work and rids it of unwanted gloss from the heavier places. The casting is meanwhile best held by the areas that are not visible, because a fresh surface is easily burnished by a fingerprint.