LP-66 Flat Flesh

The color

A matte flesh paint listed under the designation LP-66 Flat Flesh from the Tamiya LP lacquer line. The tone is light and without sheen, so no artificial gloss appears on skin, which would give a small figure away at once. Take it as a starting point, not as finished skin: the real color of skin differs from person to person and is also changed by the light of the scene you set the figure in.

Working with a lacquer paint

• Mix the paint thoroughly before use; the pigment settles at the bottom.
• Thin it with the lacquer thinner of the same line; neither water nor an acrylic thinner is suitable for this paint.
• The paint dries quickly and forms a thin hard film that takes masking and further coats well.
• Spray carefully onto bare plastic, and preferably over a base coat, as a lacquer paint is more aggressive to plastic than a water-thinnable one.
• Work in a ventilated room or at an extraction booth and store the bottle out of the reach of children.

Tips for painting skin

Apply it in several thin coats; one heavy coat fills the fine relief of the face and the expression goes with it. Once dry, shadow and detail are best built up with shades that do not attack the hard lacquer film, that is, with oil paints or acrylic. The shadow belongs under the chin, in the eye sockets and in the folds, while the light goes on the forehead, the nose and the cheekbones. Hands tend to be a little darker and redder than the face, and it is exactly this difference that makes a figure look alive.

Terms of supply

What is supplied is the paint alone. Thinner, a primer, a final varnish and brushes are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.