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DAN’S PEOPLE

(Not to be confused with Pan’s People).

It takes a brave man to present a live demonstration of something as delicate as the art of model figure painting. Therefore we were privileged at our 6th March 2024 meeting, to have exactly such a demonstration, presented to us by the one and only Dan Evason, of Tunnel Lane Model Railways.

THE PREFERRED STATE OF BEING

Dan’s first piece of advice; ‘Before undertaking such work, always make sure you’re in a relaxed state, in a quiet peaceful environment, away from distractions’. 

LET THERE BE LIGHT AND LOTS OF IT   

His next priority is good light, Dan’s preference is for a mains powered angle-poise LED striplight from Native Lighting.  However other types, including portable rechargeable LED lamps, will suffice. ‘Always position your light so as not to work in your own shadow’. 

SEEING IS BELIEVING

In addition to any prescription glasses, optical aids, such as an ‘Optivisers’, or other illuminated magnifiers are down to personal preference. (Dan, a mere forty-something, doesn’t even need to wear glasses!)

JUST HOT AIR

Dan’s painting technique involves layers of differing tones of paint, therefore a hairdryer is useful to speed up drying time between layers. It also dulls any unwanted shine (Maybe I'll try that on my head).

BRUSHING UP ON THE FINER POINTS

Dan mainly uses size 0, series 11, synthetic brushes from the Artmaster Pearl range. Other sizes are useful when working on larger scale figures. Dan reckons these brushes are good value and last, they retain their shape and a nice fine point.

TOTALLY TRANSPARENT ABOUT PAINTS

Dan's paint of choice is ‘Vallejo Model Color’ (made and spelt in Spain). This range of acrylic colours is extensive, 120 or more, even then very specific colours still need to be mixed. Dan suggests it’s best to mix paints from the same range and to always apply the paint thinned with water to varying degrees, it also dries to an almost matt finish. Any mistakes should immediately be flooded away using water because once dry, the paint becomes waterproof. But the real beauty of Vallejo Model Color is its semi translucent quality, enabling the observer to just make out earlier layers of colour through subsequent layers of colour. (This is similar to how watercolour artists work on paper). This translucent quality is very important to Dan’s technique, but more about that later. ‘Tamiya’ acrylic paints are thicker and are useful for picking out details, i.e. buttons, buckles, watch chains, etc, but not for spraying.

Enamel paints just don’t have the same semi transparent quality, therefore you have to paint the lighter areas and shadows on top of the solid base colours. This tends to make model figures painted in this way, look exactly like they’ve been painted in this way and a lot less convincing. 

ONLY THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE

Whilst Dan was talking, he had a display of static model figures and a rolling slide show. Both displayed the incredible range of highly detailed 3D printed figures that are now available, all in different outfits, from different eras, in different poses and in different scales, all of which had been exquisitely painted by Dan. 

The figures, mainly from ModelU, are scanned at 1 to 1 scale, which makes it possible to have them printed to any scale (provided they fit within the parameters of the 3D printer). Cost is dependent on the size of figure and they are made in a neutral grey coloured resin, ideal for painting directly onto.

Dan also uses cast white metal figures, however these aren't so detailed and need to be painted with grey or white primer before colour paint can be applied. (Looking at Dan's finished samples, his painting technique would be wasted on lesser quality mass produced figures, they simply don’t have the necessary detail that Dan's technique brings out).   

‘HELP! I'VE LOST MY FIGURE’

And the demonstration could have ended there, Dan had lost the unpainted figure he had intended to demonstrate his painting technique on. In stepped our ever prepared club secretary, Nick, he just so happened to have with him, an unpainted 7mm scale, 3D printed, station master, as only he could do!

FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE

Dan suggests working on several smaller scale figures at the same time, especially when they’re dressed in the same colours i.e. people in uniform, maintenance crews in high vis etc. He explained how he sticks his figures to a long thin strip of card, with plenty of space between. ‘So long as you paint the figures in the same order each time, it allows a bit of drying time between layers’.

HANDY TIPS

It’s a good idea to have something to rest your painting hand on, or against. Dan demonstrated how just using a little finger from your other hand touching against your painting hand's little finger, dramatically reducing the chances of the shakes.

WASHING IN THE SHADOWS

Using thinned Vallejo acrylic, Dan loosely painted washes into the Station Masters clothes, black where shadows would have occurred, white where light would have caught them. Areas of red were lightly applied round his eye sockets and either side of his nose. (At this stage, I have to say, it looked a bit of a mess and I thought perhaps it wasn’t going quite to plan).

OVER COATING THE OVERCOAT

Once all the base colour areas were dry, Dan was able to apply the top layers of paint, taking trouble this time to get the edges nice and crisp. The Station Master's coat and trousers were blocked in, his final skin tone applied. Only when these had all dried, did our man really start to come to life and the translucent quality of the paint really came into its own.

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAIL

Detail was then added, hat, tie, shoes etc. As mentioned before, thicker ‘Tamiya’ acrylic paint was used to pick out the Station Masters shiny coat buttons. Dan advises against attempting to pick out eye detail, particularly in the smaller scales, they always end up looking cockeyed! Given the demo model was passed around the assemblage for closer inspection at every stage, Dan completed the figure in remarkably quick time.

A MODELLERS WORST NIGHTMARE

Having advised us to work in a peaceful calm environment, Dan gave his demonstration, standing up, in a hot stuffy room, encircled by 25 seated blokes, all drinking tea, eating cake, demanding a closer look at what was going on and asking awkward questions……..the ever professional Dan coped admirably. 

We thank you Dan for a truly inspirational demonstration and talk.

Write-up by Andy Butler.

Photos by Sam Ryan.