15 mm Flesh Pots

Painting the different shades of human flesh on 15 mm can be a trial. To make the figure "pop" it's important that there's enough contrast in the flesh to define muscles etc.

Single colours look flat and uninteresting but if you highlight the areas too much the effect is garish and looks false to me. In the end it's all about balance.

I've recently painted a some early Libyan, Bedouin, and Nubian warriors with lots of exposed flesh and have developed quite a few new recipes which I thought I'd record for myself and anyone else interested.

European
This is my basic recipe and I use it for most Eurasian skin types as it really brings out the faces.  However, it's not ideal for lots of bare skin as it's far too bright.

Base	Red Brown	Plaka 52
Shade	Tanned Flesh	Miniature Paints 72
Highlight	Shade plus Pale Flesh	Miniature Paints 71

What now follows is a set of three recipes from tanned through to African flesh illustrated with very unforgiving close ups of 15 mm figures. To see the overall effect click on each image.

Tanned

Base	Red Brown	Plaka 52
Shade	Tanned Flesh Beige Brown	Miniature Paints 72 Vallejo Model Color 70875
Highlight	Shade plus Pale Flesh	Miniature Paints 71

Dusky

Base	Burnt Umber	Decoart DCA16
Shade	German Camo Medium Brown German Camo Pale Brown	Vallejo Model Color 70826 Vallejo Model Color 70825
Highlight	Shade plus Tan Earth	Vallejo Model Color 70874

African

Base	Chocolate Brown	Miniature Paints 83
Shade	Base plus Light Brown	Vallejo Model Color 70929
Highlight	Shade plus Light Brown	Vallejo Model Color 70929