a - Basic Hang Glider Colors

Finalist Jana Wang has kept a log of her painting progress. She writes:

October 23

What miserable weather. What a great day to paint.

I begin by looking over the flyer and noting it has very clean casting lines, only two small lines to scrape away. I do a dry fit and notice there will be a slight amount of filing to do later.

Then it's out to the garage for the first coat of primer. I use GW white in a spray can. I like the fine chalky coat for its smoothness and the way it absorbs acrylic paint.

October 27

Four days and a solid coat of primer later.... I start the actual painting.

I've begun with Reaper Pro Paint 08023 Walnut, which is a dark brown I like because it covers well in one coat and does not rub off if I handle the figure. It takes about half an hour to get the brown on the wood frame areas of the glider.

Here's a scan of the brush I'm using. Notice the point: it hasn't got one. Actually, though it is fuzzy and hook tipped when dry, when wet and covered in paint it has a fine point. I should switch to a new brush soon, but this one is comfortable and broken in.

October 28

I've already decided that the color scheme for this piece is going to be in warm tones: red, brown, yellow, gold, brass, etc. It helps that the model has "natural" elements like wood and cloth that look good in warm tones. I've also decided that I am going to use a wash later on to help bring out some of the detail, particularly on the wings and on the pilot.

Used Aleene's Ivory on the cloth parts of the wings. I want to start with a very light base color so that the wash effects later will really stand out against it. This particular ivory has a slight yellow tint to it which warms it up. You could use white if you wanted the end result to be a cooler grey-brown.

This part is pretty-straightforward painting. I use a moderate amount of paint and brush it onto the wings, drawing it out in long strokes. You don't want to glop the acrylic on as it will leave ridges and texture on the wings, which we don't want. Using the brush I pull paint along the base of the "wood" supports I painted already, again taking care to not have so much paint that it covers what I already did. This is one of those places where less is more.

November 1

In keeping with the color scheme I chose, I added two more colors tonight. I painted the flamethrower with Polly Scale metallic brass, being careful to get the gas tank and hose, but not the bellows. I'll do that later in wood and leather tones. I make sure to cover all of the flamethrower with the brass, working down into the crevices, putting on a second coat in the areas which are larger and better seen. If I miss a spot in the back or one of the deeper crevices I am not too worried, as I will use a wash on this later which will fill in any small spots I missed.

After that I went over the various ropes with Aleene's Yellow Ochre, which is a medium darkish mustard gold color. It takes more of a light touch than a fine brush to paint this detail. The trick is to use a small amount of paint on the end of a damp brush, and apply it one of two ways. I get a drop of water on the brush and mix it with a blob of paint in the cap of the bottle. You could also squeeze out a drop onto a pallette and add water to that. You want it thin, but not watery.

Dip the brush and wipe it briefly on paper so there is still a good amount of paint on the brush but not a glob of it. Now drag the side of the brush over the detail. If your brush has a hook-tip, hold it so the tip points up at you and drag the bottom of the curved bristle over your detail.

Alternately, you can lightly drag the tip over the detail, which gets you a pretty fine line of color. This also requires frequent reapplication of paint and rinsing and wiping off the brush to keep the tip clean and free of dried paint in between strokes.