Painting Tartans: How??

[Shalom]

Anyone have any advice or sourcebooks that teach how to paint
realistic Tartans and Kilts? I'm working in 25 mm, so that makes it
easier...
I know there are some 'tricks' to success: Any advice, books, or
URLS * GREATLY* appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Lari and Robert Kirby]

Plaid spray paint.
Robert.

[j...@elsegundoca.ncr.com]

I've had very good luck with 15mm doing the following: Get a very fine brush
and (acrylic) black ink. Lay out a grid with ink, tightening the spacing
parallel with any folds. Once dry, paint alternative rows and columns with
1/2 dilute colors. If you get it right, the black lines will give definition
to the pattern, while the dilute paint should glaze with mixed color and
strong color in alternative squares.

Jon.

[Mike Demana]

> Anyone have any advice or sourcebooks that teach how to paint
> realistic Tartans and Kilts? I'm working in 25 mm, so that makes it
> easier...

Having just added another batch to my 15mm Jacobite army, I can tell you
what looks good in this scale. First, realize you are NEVER going to do
an actual scale job of a tartan pattern. What you want is a paint job
that gives the EFFECT of plaids.

The method I use is very simple. Paint the cloth area a base color. Then
paint a "window pane" on top of it of another color. The window pane is
simply horizontal and vertical stripes that cross like you were drawing a
grid. Vary your colors, do black on red for one, light green on dark
green for another, light green on dark blue, etc.

Window Pane

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X X X X X
X X X X X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X X X X X
X X X X X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(The clear spaces are the base color, of course, the X's the second color).

Some other suggestions:
-- Don't paint every item of clothing a plaid -- it is too much and looks bad.
I do one item per figure. If the tartan wrap is plaid, then any jacket
will be solid, etc.
-- Painting your window panes on every other fold in a pleated kilt is
usually enough. Trying to make the squares too small looks bad, too.
-- Paint in relatively small batches (8-12), so you can get a handle on what
color combinations look good together. Then, repeat those more often in
later batches, dropping the ones that didn't look so hot.

Good luck!
-- Mike Demana

[NEil Phillips]

On Thu, 26 Mar 1998 17:44:59 +0100, Shalom <sha...@oneworld.owt.com>
saw fit to share the following wisdom:

> Anyone have any advice or sourcebooks that teach how to paint
>realistic Tartans and Kilts? I'm working in 25 mm, so that makes it
>easier...

> I know there are some 'tricks' to success: Any advice, books, or
>URLS * GREATLY* appreciated.
>
>Thanks!!
>

erm.,. never tried this, but apparently it's much easier if you use
low-quality Yellow and Orange paints (IE citadel :) ) for tartans, it
looks more like a Tartan, because you can see one colour under the
other..

[Theangl]

Assuming you're painting Scottish, and not Irish, tartans, the problem fairly
solves itself. This tip was given to me by a true Sutherland, and it's turned
out to be invaluable.

Almost all of the highland tartans have a base color of very dark green, very
dark blue, or black. The pattern is then overlaid in only slightly less dark
tones. This is especially true of the key highland units like the Black Watch
and the Cameroon Highlanders. The tartan patterns that you see on posters and
in books are usually lightened to make them more recognizable. Bright green,
yellow, and red tartans are almost always Irish.

The best-looking tartans I've painted were done by painting the very dark
(almost black) base color, and then lightly stroking horizontal lines in
slightly lighter colors on the raised creases of the kilt. Don't even try to
paint plaid patterns into the shadowy recesses; they barely show up on
full-size kilts, and they certainly shouldn't appear on something the size of a
25mm figure. Remember, the key is not to paint all the detail, it's to trick
the eye into seeing all the detail, whether it's there or not. I've gotten far
more compliments and "wow, how'd you do that?" comments on my "plaid-free"
tartans than on all the painstakingly detailed ones I sweated over.

The Angle