The Eyes have it

One of the decisions that the average painter has to make when painting 28mm figures is whether to paint the eyes or not. I admit I have flittered with either painting in  or leaving the eyes over time. I have now come to the realisation that in most cases the quality of the miniature itself will dictate that decision. Either that or I cannot face painting the eyes of a unit of  32 Crimean Russians.

This week I have made steady progress with my DAK  to the point where I am putting together and basing the figures. Just a few tweaks will be needed to finish them and this should all be done by tomorrow. Most of these are Perry plastics but I bought the Artizan DAK sentry pack before Christmas and have undercoated them and started on the flesh work. The sculpts are really good and the temptation was there to 'do the eyes' because there are only four figures whilst the remainder of the Perrys are 'eyeless' with a dark wash giving the impression of eye sockets.

For a long time I had problems painting eyes until a friend 'God bless you, Jim' suggested that I paint the whites, then paint two straight lines in black. One vertical across the centre of the eye and the next horizontal across the top to represent the eyelid. This is very simple and avoids the Mad 100yard stare (in most cases). If you do get this then it is quite easy to touch up and 'repair'.

However you still get a few nightmares. As I am right handed I find it easier to paint the left eye than the right and occasionally it all goes a bit 'Pete Tong'. As an example, here is one of the sentries before he was given remedial eye surgery.

I have named him Kristoff Toon in homage to Christpher Lloyd's character in 'Who framed Roger Rabbit'. You might see the similarity !

Having read and heard this subject debated I have come to the conclusion that actually in most cases I won't paint the eyes in unless the figure is a 'character' or I otherwise deem it necessary. However that hasn't really helped and I am back to square one.