How to Paint Flats

by Assistant Doc Jason Moses  of Deus Ex Machina: Home of the True Believers

This article describes how I went about painting a fairly difficult two-dimensional, or "flat" miniature.  Such miniatures are about 30 mm tall, and are essentially wafers of tin, with lines etched on each side of the wafer.  Painting a flat in such a way as to make it look like it is three-dimensional is a challenge that I, by no means, have mastered.  Challenges, however, are fun, and every flat I paint teaches me something about painting "rounds" (three-dimensional miniatures), and vice-versa.  This particular flat is especially difficult because it depicts a semi-nude woman.  Painting large expanses of two-dimensional flesh is difficult to convincingly pull off, and I felt that if I could manage this, I could manage just about anything.

The first step in any miniature paintjob is to prepare the figure.  In the case of flats, this involves many of the same processes that are required of rounds; namely, cutting and filing off the flash lines, and applying a basecoat.  Below you see my flat with a basecoat of tan paint.  Use the basecoat to get a good look at the figure.  Flats should be painted as if an imaginary light source is shining on them from either the left or the right.  If from the left, then surfaces on the left will be highlighted, while surfaces to the right will be in shadow, and therefore darker.  Remember that humans (and their arms and legs) are essentially cylinders, and contemplate how light makes a cylinder look like, well, a cylinder.  Typically this means that one side is a lighter shade of a particular hue, the other side a darker shade, the top especially light, and a stripe of the lightest shade running right down the center (see below).

After contemplating the figures, I decided that I would place my imaginary light source to the left, because I would then be able to do some interesting shading tricks with her torso.  Because I expected that painting her torso would be the most difficult task of the paintjob, I determined that I would do this first.  I would hate to spend a lot of time on their garments, only to later botch her torso so bad that I might as well throw the flat away.  (I should add, however, that painting flats is like painting rounds in that one should paint the lowest surfaces first, working up to the outer surfaces: "from the inside out".)  I gave her torso a coat of flesh-colored paint (see below).  I would suggest that painting flats, perhaps more than rounds, requires the use of oils.  This is because flats must be blended so as to achieve the three-dimensional look.  I've had trouble blending acrylics myself, although I suspect that some have mastered the task.

I then applied two contrasting coats of basically flesh colored paint (see below).  On the left (toward the light) and upper surfaces (shoulders, upper hip, tops of the breasts, etc.) I applied a light coat of flesh, while the right and lower surfaces (under the breasts, the armpit, etc.) received a dark coat.  Dabbing my brush tip in thinner and wiping most of this off, I then stabbed my brush tip at the line where these two shades came together, until I managed to merge, or "blend," them together into a third shade.  This process is depicted below.  The top panel shows two shades of blue next to each other.  The bottom panel shows the appearance after the harsh line separating these two shades is blended into a softer line.  

I then mixed some white into my light shade of flesh and applied this somewhat sparingly to the uppermost surfaces (the tops of the breasts, the shoulder, the upper swells of the hip and belly and the clavicle), blending it into the existing flesh paint.  Next, I mixed some brown into my darker shade of flesh and added this to her lower arms, some of the contours, like that between her belly and hip, etc., and blended this in as well.  Finally, I picked out a few top areas (and the lower swell of her belly button) with just a little more white, and the especially shaded areas (like the hollow of her belly button) with brown.  A couple shades of pink on the nipples, and the result is what you see to the left above. 

A few things should be noted.  First, although her right breast is obviously on the right side of the flat and therefore, seemingly, on the shadowed side of her cylindrical body, it must be realized that on a three-dimensional figure, this breast is a shape unto its own, and needs to be painted as if it is independent.  This is why her breast, like her body, has light-hued left and upper surfaces, and dark-hued right and lower surfaces.  Sometimes it is difficult to remember that the two-dimensional flat is intended to represent a three-dimensional figure.  This, of course, is the fun and challenge of painting flats.  Second, her face got roughly the same light/dark treatment as did her body.  Flat figure faces don't have a great amount of detail (see the man's), and everything must be suggested with highlights and shadows.  I'm uncharacteristically pleased with how her face came out.  Finally, notice that even the darkest shaded surfaces, like the bottoms of her breasts, sometimes receive a little bit of reflected light, which bounces off nearby objects, serving to highlight these surfaces.  Thus, you can see a thin line of light paint on the bottom of her breasts.  In later pictures you may notice this on the right swell of her belly as well, and on some of the right surfaces of his garments.  This reflected line really adds something to the figures.  In terms of the cylinder I spoke of earlier, this reflected light is assumed to bounce of other objects and planes to the right of the cylinder, highlighting the extreme right side (see the thin blue line on the right of the cylinder below).

After painting her hair (black with brown accents), the next step is her torn shift.  White is a challenging color to convincingly represent, as it is too easily over-shaded.  In other words, white doesn't have the range of shades that, say, blue has.  White is basically white, with maybe just a little bit of gray or blue or tan.  A common error when painting white is to try to do the entire shading/highlighting routine, which often just results in a dirty looking gray.  I began by painting a light bluish gray in the especially shaded portions of her dress (see the left panel below).  These are mostly just the folds that are furthest from the light source.  Everything else was painted pure white.  One advantage of white, on the other hand, is that various shades of white can be achieved by adding different shadow colors.  In this case I added bluish gray for a "pure" looking white.  Alternatively, I might have used tan for a dirty or "soft" looking white.  As you later will see, I mixed white with purple on the man's shirt sleeve to accent the lavender of his coat.  White can be fun.  As always, the two shades are then blended together, resulting in the figure in the middle below.  I found that this resulted in too much gray, and ended up adding another coat of white to the highlights, which I then blended in.  After considerable fiddling, and the addition of some dark gray shadow lines to accentuate that her shift has been ripped, I achieved the white on the right below and considered myself fortunate.  And with that, the maiden is about done.  

Having just said that I specifically did something to highlight that this maiden is on the verge of a probable sexual assault, a few comments on this figure might be timely.  I purchased this figure sight unseen as part of a 30-flat series entitled Pirates Plundering.  I was expecting that I would get pirates and cannons, parrots and treasure chests, etc.  Much to my surprise upon their arrival, almost all of the figures involve semi-naked women (often tied up), screaming babies, begging grandmothers and, most importantly, male figures that don't look anything like pirates.  A more appropriate title for the series might have been Sadistic Soldiers Raping and Pillaging.  They're finally executed flats, and having received them from Australia, I felt that I was stuck with them.  I admit, however, that their subject matter makes me somewhat uneasy.  As a painting exercise I couldn't ask for better, but as something that I hope to frame and display, well, let's just say that I'm not sure where I'll ultimately display it.  I like nude women and erotic topics as much as the next guy, but this stretches the boundaries of social propriety.  Suffice it to say that Mom won't be getting this figure for Christmas.  Anyway, having said this, on to the rest of the paintjob.

The male is next.  As with the female, I began with his face and hands, just because I find painting flesh difficult and so much has to be suggested in the shading and highlighting of the face.  I kind of crossed my fingers and got to work.  Again, I'm fairly pleased with the result (see below), although he came out too boyish and you'll find that his unibrow has been separated in later shots.  His chin could use a little more highlighting, and I wish I dared try the scruffy look, but he'll do.  His hands came out well.  Notice the light highlighting on the upper surface of his hand, with just a dab of blended white on his knuckles.

I expected his boots to be the next big challenge so I got to work on those.  It's easy to overdo black in a round figure, but flats really need a lot of contrast to make their surfaces and “three-dimensionalness” evident.  You may see highlighted gray on the left of his boots to indicate which direction the light is coming from, but the right side of his boot has also received a little gray in the form of reflected light (see below).  I confess I have no idea what happened to the boot buckle.  The coat received two contrasting coats of purple and some of the light highlights have been blended in as well.  Finally, I gave the base a coat of black just to see what it would look like.  I like the black because the base then fades into the black velvet against which I usually mount these figures.

The rest of the colors of his coat and vest have been added in as a basecoat here, and the white of his sleeve has been completed (see below).  His unibrow has also been removed.  Notice also that the reflection line on the right of her belly has been added.

In the picture below, the light surfaces of his coat have been blended into a shaded brown.  The light band of his hat has also been given a white highlight.

And here the coat is largely completed, including the facings on the coat, vest, and hat (see below).  Notice the blending of light green into the vest and hat.  The facings are white, but I first painted them in a bluish gray, then painted white lines over it.

The crossbelts are next.  In the picture below I've applied a layer of gray to the portions that would receive direct light.  I also started the brown of his pants and painted the sword sheath black.

I then blended the gray of the crossbelts into the black and applied a streak of white, which...

...is then blended in as well (see below).  Having completed the rags in his hand, and added a hint of tan to his kneecap, I'm almost done.

The tan on his knee has been blended in, and the final highlights added to his sword pommel and the buckle on his crossbelts.  This figure is done.

Just a few final comments.  If you like this figure I have about 29 others I would be willing to trade for other flats.  Send me a note and we'll see what we can work out.  If you enjoyed this article, I might suggest checking out the only hobbyist websites I've found dedicated to this subject, entitled Zinnfiguren, Flat (Tin) Figures.  This page has a links page that shows other retailer sites.  If you should come across other websites on this topic, I sure would appreciate it if you would let me know of them.  Finally, I welcome your comments and will be happy to offer answers or advice (and listen to some myself).  Take care, and feel free to contact me (jmoses@mail.aacc.cc.md.us) with questions or comments.