"Do you paint eyes?" Topic

I do not as I primarily collect 15/18 figures, however even in my 25/28 mm armies I have had through the years I did not paint the eyes.
In fact, I hate the "painted eyes" look.
I view a wargame army -- not as individual figures -- but instead as units in mass.
I do not really see individuals, but entire units and armies.
What is your preference?

Russ Dunaway

No. Take an image of a typical person. Shrink it down to the size of a 28mm or 18mm figure. See what the eyes look like. You'll be hard pressed to see eyes, unless the person is bug-eyed.

I hate when sculptors actually sculpt the iris and other parts of the eye, only because their figures' heads are pumpkin heads.

Oooo, I am a bit opinionated on this, aren't I? 8-)

I refuse to believe that painting eyes is even possible. Pure myth.

I've tried and failed.

15/18mm and no

I also think they usually look like fish eyes.

Russ Dunaway

Very rarely.

I usually do unless partially concealed by the visor or brim of the headgear. 25-28mm btw.

Not with anything smaller than 25mm. With 25's they sometimes look good and sometimes not. But it was a pain.

+1 DrSkull

Nope. Dark wash in the recess is fine.

Of course, monsters have eyes, but they're probably a red, orange, yellow, amber, green, blue or even black, with no pupils, irises or whites.

Not often. Usually the figure has some sort of headgear that prevents one seeing the eyes anyway. I think I can paint eyes that don't look big-eyed, but it's a pain and usually reserved for personality figures like general officers.

But usually eyes on figures tends to give them the look of startled Pug dogs.

On the rare occasion they are particularly pronounced on a 28mm + figure. Otherwise no.

No.

Ages ago I played a game involving a whole slate of noobs, me included. The guy across from me had a 15mm ACW Union force on which he had painted eyes.

The whole army looked like they'd just had the biggest surprise of their lives.

i play in 2mm scale and always paint the eyes lol

Sometimes I paint the eyes, sometimes I don't.
I'm actually inclined to stop trying to paint eyes.

Rarely on anything smaller than 54mm.

In 28mm I use a .05 pen for eyes.
Not technically painting.

Nope, not in any scale. Almost no one can do it properly.

If they are sculpted, I paint them.

Never – all scales!

No. But my eyes do hurt when I paint.

Nope. No eye painting on anything that goes on the wargame table.

Nope. A darker wash is enough for my taste.

Eyes painted all too often look like the guy is stoned, so I rarely do! I tend to use a fine art pen and do a line instead.

The only time I attempt (note attempt) this is for individual figures for D&D or similar RPG. For mass units, no.

Only on skirmish figs. I did on my Saga and DMH figs. I really dislike the bug-eyed, surprised eyes. They need to be subtle and barely there.

Cool! I thought I was the only one that did not paint eyes. I feel much better now.

I think it makes them look like this:

I like just leaving a deep wash in the figurines eye sockets-- as mentioned by others here,

Russ Dunaway

Never

Hells to the No'

For 28mm & 1/35, I make my own eye decals. The trick is to cut them to a thin sliver so as to avoid the deer-in-headlights look… ;-)

Most of my armies 25mm and larger have eyes. I think the exception are any 25mm Minifigs because the sculpts are a little too primitive for such things. Anything less than 25mm gets the brown wash for eyes.

I've found painting eyes to be reasonably easy after all these years. The key is a good brush. Using Micron pens can make it even easier, although it is not really painting as previously mentioned.

It is not for everyone, or apparently most people who have posted. You can see some odd looking results as others have mentioned.

Eyes are usually sculpted on for 28 mm figures, so they get painted. Basically, head painted skin color, then a slash of white for each eye, then touch up with skin color. Shade around the white with a brown or black 005 Micron pen, and then appropriate colored dot with a Micron pen for the iris/pupil. Smaller scales: just make a dot with the Micron pen.

Yes, over the years, there have been some "unusual" looking eyes, but most look fairly good.

Grelber

Never.

Only 54mm and up humans and 20mm and up horses.

Irl you can't see people's eyes from any sort of distance, just deep shadow in the eye sockets. So slap on some dark brown wash and don't worry about it.

To me figures are Just 3D playing pieces and my 1/44 figures are almost always prone. I have realiesed that on 1/144 figures a simple splash of colour is all that is needed. So painting eyes, no not even on 1/72, the guys have helmets shading their eyes, so you neve see them on the battlefield from above.

Very rarely & generally on larger animals not people.

Rarely, I've used the Micron pen for a dot some times and my LotR Goblins have a red slash in the eye socket. 90% have just a wash.

Always on 15mm+. Sometimes its frustrating, mostly not. Nothing like painting equipage. Ugh!

I stopped a long time ago on the cannon fodder. Then I only painted eyes on the command of my 40mm AWI then I realized that I was spending a huge amount of time on getting the eyes just right compared to the time to paint the whole figure.

Now I don't paint eyes at all. And most of what I've seen is not a good look. Leave it to the professionals.

I always paint eyeballs and eye brows.
If you are going to compete in the SAGA Grand Melee, you have to do the painting.

Yes. That is why, generally speaking I limit myself to 28mm figures.

Sort of. I leave the sockets shaded to a darker flesh tone, then add a small pupil using a .01 brown marker. No whites (or grays actually – white is too bright) or any other detail. I sometimes do a thin line for eyebrows. I typically do that in a shade slightly darker than the hair color I've chosen. Mind you this is in 28mm. 15mm? I let the wash or original base color stand as is for eyes.

Depends on the mini- for anything smaller than 25/28mm, no – but for the 25/28mm (OK – 28mm) if the eyes are sculpted I paint them; if not a wash with something like the GW Earthshade which fills in the recesses nicely; when I paint eyes I tend to use a black artist's pen over white

No! Most who paint the eyes make them look google eyed.

No, except on a very, very few 28mm specialty figures such as a force's commanding general.

Jim

I used to..
link

Yes, always. I collect 28mm. As my own eyes age, painting eyes on figures has become increasingly problematic.