"How to paint redheads and blondes?" Topic

Okay, I'm new to the hobby (relatively) with just a few hundred 15mm Napoleonics under my belt. So far they're all men with brown or black hair. I'd like to add the odd redhead or blond. But my first few attempts have been less than successful.

Any suggestions?

Strangely enough, I was thinking upon similiar lines earlier regarding some ancient brits. I tend to leave hair undercoat black mostly, with dark brown highlights. I've avoided doing blonde, as I had the feeling that over a black undercoat, blonde highlights would look 'tipped', and evoke early 1980s video for Adam & the Ants...especially on Napoleonics...

Paint hair pale straw/pale orange.
Put on wash in mid brown
That's it.

Use Dark Flesh by Vallejo and put a diluted brown wash over it for blonde.

For redheads at that scale use GWs fiery orange with a brown wash.

Redheads and blondes are odd?

Seriously, I do them like this. I prime white with a good commercial Flat White spray paint (Rustoleum, etc.) I paint mainly with Ceramcote craft paints, with some others. My first step is to stain the figure all over, or just the flesh and hair, with Spice Brown. When dry, I drybrush with Mediul Flesh. I paint the red hair with a Raw Sienna, and stain with GW's Chestnut Ink. If I want it brighter, I will drybrush an appropriate color, like pumpkin or Golden Brown. If you drybrush Old Parchment over the Spice Brown, it gives a nice blonde hair color. Note that you NEED engraved hair detail to make this work.

Why some, including "pro painters", just slop on yellow is beyond me.

For blonde I undercoat with brown and drybrush yellow. Red is the same, with a red base and orange drybrush.

Orange and then chestnut wash. That gives you a good firey red head.

Yellow and orange wash gives a good cartoony blonde. You can use a thin medium brown wash for a more realistic look.

Blonde-Start off with a medium brown-drybrush yelow ocre and finish with a db of a light yellow

red-Reddish brown basecoat or vallejo red leather DB a medium orange and highlight very lightly with yellow ocre

John is right, you cant just slop on paint and expect a natural hair color, you need at least 2-3 tones to simulate hair.

Something that works surprisingly well for fiery red hair is to take a light straw-yellow base and wash it with GW's Flesh Wash. You can drybrush with light yellow if you feel compelled to.

A techique for blonds that a friend told me about was to paint the hair a "Caucasian flesh" color and then dry brush it yellow. I tried it and it works fairly well.

I use 3-4 shades of Vallajo browns 1 black and an odd gray or horse color chestnut for the 15mm ACW. I paint them without the highlight due to the small surface area exposed on the back of a head under a forage cap or slouch hat.

Just make sure on other figures that the drapes match the floor.

Ask very nicely ... and carry a big brush.

I put down a base coat of yellow, anything from pale straw to mustard to golden. Then over that a wash of brown, depending on what shade of blonde I am going for, or a red-orange if I want a redhead. Sometimes, to tone down the red I add a wash of brown. Then highlight with the base color or a lighter tone. It's all about layering the colors.

For blonds I use a pale yellow washed over with a beige color with off white hi lites. I havent done many redheads. The most recent that Ive done was with a base coat of valejo dark flesh with hi lites of a mixe of dark flesh and orange working up to a final hi lite of lite yellow. Wash the whole thing with a waterd down wash of dark flesh

Speaking of blonde miniatures...

A blonde soldier was on sentry duty at the main gate. His orders were clear: No car was to enter unless it had a special sticker on the windshield.

A big Army car came up with a general seated in the back. The sentry said, "Halt, who goes there?"
The chauffeur, a corporal, says, "General Wheeler."

"I'm sorry I can't let you through. You've got to have a sticker on the windshield."

The general said, "Drive on!"

The sentry said, "Hold it! You really can't come through. I have orders to shoot if you try driving in without a sticker."

The general repeated, "I'm telling you, son, drive on!"
The sentry walked up to the rear window and said -

"General, I'm new at this. Do I shoot you or the driver?"

Another tip for reddish-blond is base coat with GW Elf Flesh then wash with GW Flesh ink.

It's a bit bright, but it works.

For blond on 15's I use a basecoat of GW Snakebite then highlight with Bubonic. If you need a third highlight then Bubonic mixed with a bit of Bleached Bone . . .

For red on 15's I use a basecoat of GW Bestial Brown follwed by light touches of Vomit Brown

I've stopped trying to "wash" or super detail 15 mm napoleonics hair. Just not enough hair or detail showing to make much of a difference (just a little strip under the shako). Had some good luck with plain old yellow ochre (from Americana or Ceramcoat). If enough hair is showing I will drybrush it with a pale yellow or even raw linen or ivory. Not a bright yellow but enough to let you know "this guy has different hair color." No magical one color paint for red heads yet.

Just my .02, seeing as how I mostly drybrush over black primer, 25mm fantasy at that, but I did have some success with redheads by mixing by eye red, gold, and yellow paint (drybrushed over black). The metallic flecks in the paint give very good hair highlights, and cutting it with the reddish orange keeps it from looking too coppery.

If you're not looking at a carrot top red, then I find that GW's dark flesh gives nice reddish brown hair. You can tone it up or down with drybrushing with a lighter color, orange (but not fiery orange) or non-metallic gold or something of that ilk. I used to have a small pot of something called autumn gold. No clue who made it (it's been years, after all), but it was great for redheads.