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Hay all.

Ok i only started painting few months ago and i did one model then i had to stop for a good 6month+ as had no space to setup anywhere to paint.

So i stared in my second model tonight and its a ork with a open face helmet and i find it very hard to paint his face without getting the teeth and parts of helmet painted as well :(

I am using a citadel fine detail brush but even that feels to big for the job.

Do i need a even smaller brush or is it just what us noobs do starting out lol

Thanks for any advice.

It can be difficult painting the face inside the helmet. Personally, for a newer painter like yourself, I would say just paint the face and don't worry about getting the green on the helmet or teeth. When your done, go back over the areas you accidentally painted into with Boltgun Metal, Bleached Bone, etc. When I started in the hobby, painting the faces on the Mordor Orcs from the LoTR line was the same way.
Hope this helped and good luck!
Granesh

I've used the citadel brushes a few times before switching to a generic brush that I picked up at an art store.

The standard citadel brush is fine for painting ork faces, they should be a bit easier since their heads are bigger. If you find it difficult to stay within the fleshy areas, you may find it easier to simply paint the flesh colour over the teeth and helmet, then later paint over the said areas with the colours you intend to paint them to clean the model up.

Here's a picture of a face I painted some time ago using the citadel standard brush, I went over the eyes and teeth after I painted the flesh colour, as it's often easier to paint details after the main patch of colour.

Painting faces is hard, but as with everything you'll get better the more you practice. I don't know how much paint you have on your brush when you paint, but perhaps try less, which will mean less chance of the paint going everywhere. Another tool I find helpful is to use a magnifying visor thing I got from Maplins. It just helps to see the detail that bit better.

Brush control takes time, but will come. As others have said, paint the face first, and then the helmet for a better result.

My fool proof guide to quick effective human faces:

Dwarf flesh
Flesh wash
1:1 mix of dwarf & elf flesh on the cheeks and nose.

Particularly useful for horde armies.

Thanks all for the advice i will try again tonight after gf asleep

I don't have any washes atm though need to buy some soon

Thanks.

Easiest way to paint faces:

1. Tallarn Flesh (2 thin layers)
2. Drybrush Elf Flesh
3. Wash Ogryn Flesh

Hope it helps.

Thanks.

I did try again last night and made more a of a mess i think i am getting worst not better it seems lol.

I my main problem is when i did the primer i may of made it to thick on the face area and making hard to pick out details.

I should have some spare heads from my other boxset so i will try take off the head and restart that bit if i can.

Cheers.

A fine detail brush should definitely be small enough. The size of the brush is less important than the state of the brush though. If it doesn't come to a neat point then it's in a bad way and you're going to have problems.

The amount of paint you're picking up at one time can also be a factor. If you're overloading the brush it can cause three problems: 1. Lack of control, instead of just painting with the last 1/3 of the bristles you have to worry about the whole brush touching other surfaces. 2. Thick paint, it might feel like you're getting good coverage with more paint but all it's going to do is obscure detail. 3. If you overload your brush paint is likely to dry on the brush which shortens it's life span.

It sounds like you might have identified a big problem with priming. Maybe you're spending too much time trying to rescue obscured detail and you're just overworking the whole area. Take your time but don't worry about much beyond getting the basecoat on neatly.

Cheers plastictrees

I been checking my paint bush make sure its got a good point so thats ok.

Been watering down my paints and some times i think i make them to thin lol.

I have now taken the head off and got a spare ready to go on but before i put it on i am going to prime and paint it on its own.

It will make easy for me as well to do the chest part of the model as well

Thx