Purple

Violet as a tool for cool shadows

Oil colors came back into the modeler's equipment because they can do something acrylics cannot: they dry so slowly that they can still be blended out on a surface long after they have been applied. Pigment mixed into a binder can be drawn out into an invisible transition, pulled down into a vertical streak or left to settle in a recess. Violet holds a special position among them, because a shadow mixed from it comes over as cooler and more alive than a shadow made with black.

What it is suited to

• Deepening blue and red surfaces without losing their saturation
• Cool shading of the gray paintwork of ships and modern aircraft
• Underpainting the folds of uniforms and the shades of bruising on the skin of figures
• Colored filters that unify surfaces painted one by one
• Mixing with the other shades into tones of your own across the whole range

A procedure that has proved itself

Squeeze a little color onto an absorbent cardboard surface and let it stand a while, so that the excess oil is drawn off; it will stay more saturated that way and will leave no greasy rim. Always work on a surface sealed with gloss varnish, because in a matte layer the color bites in and can no longer be pulled away. Apply literally a dot to the model, blend it out after a few minutes with a clean soft brush or a cloth and lead the movement from top to bottom. It is thinned with mineral spirits, which also serve to clean brushes. Do not combine too many tones at once on one surface; the result then turns gray and the depth for which oils are reached for is lost.