"28mm Figures Eyes or No Eyes ?" Topic

Hail fellow painters,

I am firmly in the no eye camp, just wondered what the general consensus out there on this topic was. To me its very hard to get the "eye" to look right, if you can do it great, but bad eyes can ruin an otherwise excellent figure.

I go for a general feel on a face and try and give the impression of the various features and expression with colour and lines, a bit like a cartoon, so from a couple of feet away you can't tell the eyes haven't been done.

I am painting for the wargames table not to enter competitions and find the extra work with the eyes not worth the extra time.

To eye or not to eye ? that is the question.

Regards, Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

To eye or not to eye ? that is the question.

No i-dea!!
Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll get me coat …

Not paining the eyes in AWI gives the British player an unfair advantage.

it depends on whether you are painting for the tabletop or for showcase

Not painting the eyes in AWI gives the British player an unfair advantage.

Subtle … but I like it!

I've seen very few painters do eyes well. Usually they detract, rather than add to the paintjob. For me, a simple wash gives more than adequate definition.

On a serious note, I never paint eyes on my figures – far too fiddly and as others have said it often detracts from the overall effect.

I think it's different when you are doing individual 28mm characters-your gaze is naturally drawn to the face, and the eyes are central. You see some remarkable work by the experts.
I try to do eyes on 28mm skirmish figures but probably wouldn't if I was doing big units. My OWN eyes are too old!

No eyes for me. Washing creates dark recesses and that suffices for me.

No eyes! Better off painting more figs than trying to get those two white and black spots correct.

No eyes. Never.

I top my cap to Historical gamer. That is what I try to do.

No eyes. I used to paint them when I first started painting 28's (I started with 15mm), but too many figures with, surprised, pancake sized eyes.

I agree with the folks above, it just detracts if not done really well, and too fiddly for me. Can't see them when pushing lead on the table.

no

No eys ether. .. I just looks like they're staring out into space or on crack.

8)

I use a super-fine sharpie and then wash. That looks best to me.

I think most men that are advancing toward their doom are squinting with grim determination. When eyes are painted it doesn't give the right feel, however figures meant to represent surprise, uncontrolled rage, dead etc can look amazing……just my two cents worth

Outline the eyes. Period.

No eyes. Even on "character" models.

Damon.

Mostly no eyes, I might do them on a character figure if he doesn't have a hat or helmet. I do a wash and if the figure doesn't have a hat or helmet I will paint eyebrows. Much easier than painting eyes and accents the shadow from the wash in the eye area.

No. It rarely looks right.

Professionally painted, but I like it. Also keep in mind this is about double the size of the actual figure (unless you're viewing on a cell phone).

What about for 28mm Horses? I don't do human eyes but to me the horse just doesn't look right without the eyes painted.

No eyes. You can't see the whites of someone's eyes very well even at conversational distance unless they are bug eyed or opening them wide on purpose (in which case they might be crazy). Much less see them on a 28mm model.

No. Eyes. Don't do it! (Saves a lot of time and headache anyway).

I've stopped doing eyes even for character figures. While I think eyes look good on some figures, they look just as good without--and it's so much easier!

Black dots, for me.

This was brought up before and someone said they painted the black but not the white of the eyes.

I found a picture of some people and zoomed them down to 28mm and I could see the iris/pupils, but the white became flesh colored at that scale/zoom.

Horses seem to have huge black or brown eyes, so I would just paint their eyes entirely black.

Yes, nearly always eyes!
As long as they are sculpted well on the mini, I try to paint them.
But always dark outlined. A very tiny spot of white, for which I alway use a 10/0 that I trim especially for it.
And than a tiny black dot with a Artline 0.2

The white should never go over the dark outline, you do not want them to look like Marty Feldman.

Have to admit, you do not see the eyes very well when the mini's are on the table….

Unless there is a late surge it looks like the "no eyes" to the right have it.

Quite surprised how few "eyes" there are, must be out of vogue at the moment. Sure that 10-15 years ago most people tried to paint eyes, might be my poor memory.

Cheers for the lively debate.

Regards, Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

I paint eyes on my 28mm figures. I have left them off some commission work per the customer's instructions.

No eyes on figures but yes eyes on horses.

On command figures I concentrate on details but not the eyes. For rank and file soldiers I never do they eyes. My painting sucks as it is and I do not need any additional aggravation caused by painting the eyes…

It depends on the sculpt. Especially character or fantasy/sci-fi figures. Besides, if I mess up the eyes, it's easy to paint over them.

Depends on the fig. Werner Klocke usually leaves a good clear eye area to paint, while Sandra Garrity sculpts are usually more squinty. Painted up a bunch of Bob Olley orcs recently and their eyes were easy to paint on too.

Not generally. Most of my 28mm are Napoleonics. They wear shakos. Shakos usually have a visor, which is directly in the way of seeing the eyes. If you think about it, the visor is there to keep the sun out of the guys' eyes, and if you are standing over the tabletop, you are effectively in the same position the sun would be. So painting eyes is a waste of time.

I do, however, paint eyes on general officers. Those guys usually have a bicorne, which doesn't have a visor, so the eyes are visible. They are also the figures most likely to be picked up and ogled. Since I like to think I can paint a decent eye, the generals get eyes just to show people I can do it!

Eyes.

Grimm

In the old days there was sculpting style that made the painting of eyes easier to accomplish. These days a lot of sculptors have a more realistic "squinting eye" that makes the painting of eyes unnecessary. Take a look at an old Minifig or Lamming miniature as compared to a Perry or Castaway Arts figure. I prefer not painting them whenever possible.

No eyes for me. I've seen very good paint jobs completely ruined by saucer eyes. Why? If you can do them well, hats off, but why risk it?

I'm a dark-brown-dotter.

Once in a while I'll do eyes, but usually not. Mostly I let the dip define the eye area. Often times the eyes are sculpted well enough that the dip darkens the area around the eyes just a touch so it almost looks like I did paint the eyes.

I do eyes. White paint, then outline with brown 005 Micron pen, then make a blue, brown or black dot with a Micron pen. Yes, I usually have a bit too much white. Yes the pens tend to give me a sort of short vertical line if I'm not careful. Still, I like the look. I think I will keep this thread in mind, though, since I paint Vikings some of whom wear helmets with a sort of glasses visor, and there just isn't room to get in there and do eyes. I think a little shading will suffice for them in the future.

Grelber

Not normally. Some figures need it though.

Eyes for humans, most of the time; and no eyes for horses (I just fill in the eye socket with black paint).

Not generally, but if they are clearly sculpted on the model then I will paint them.

Nope, no eyes.

Little black lines for eyes.

Sturmpioneer : "No eyes! Better off painting more figs than trying to get those two white and black spots correct."

I recall a good miniature painter raving about the "black spots" : Black ? They are men not fish….

So there you go from one extreme to the other ….

I do paint the eyes (with black dots** blue for Viking), but I do them in oil paint. A lot easier since you have far more controll for small surfaces. Saved me a lot of headache on the subject and you only need 2 oil tubes wich will last a lifetime.

I don't even paint eyes on 54mm

Mike

No, I'm trying to paint the effect of seeing a person at distance so I just put in shadow. Impossible to paint them in scale anyway, eyes are pretty small – I've just measured the depth of mine at about 9mm. On a 28mm size figure that equates to painting an eye of less than 0.2mm deep if it's to have a realistic proportion.

For 28mm's, if the detail of the sculpt is good, I'll give the eye areas a white wash, dot the eyes, then use flesh tones to 'shape' them horizontally (to avoid the bug-eyed Steve Buscemi or Marty Feldman look. ;-) For females, I'd line in 'mascara' before using the flesh tone. For minis less than 28mm, I very rarely paint in the eyes…