The Full Monty?

No, only a partial! This line-up of shady characters comes from the extensive range of Monty's Models figures, now sold by Dart Castings. All are cast in white metal in a scale of 4 millimetres to 1 foot (1:76.2 scale), and are supplied unpainted.

Each figure is accurately and cleanly cast with little sign of flash, but each will usually show some mould lines which should be carefully removed before painting. Many of the figures come supplied with a cast-on spigot on the sole of one foot to aid in fixing them in place once painted.

The sculpting is generally of a high standard, some of it being exquisite. It is hard to believe that these figures are no more than 24 millimetres high, and one could be mistaken for thinking that they are 7 mm/1 foot (1:43) scale.

I painted them using acrylic paints. After initial preparation, they were spray-painted with matt black car acrylic paint from an aerosol can to form the undercoat/shadow layer. Allowing 24 hours for the black to dry, medium grey and light grey artists' tube acrylic paint (mixed from Daler-Rowney System 3) was dry-brushed over the black base to form mid-tones and high-lights. The resulting monochrome figures (grisaille) were then coloured using glazes made from Winsor & Newton Galeria tube acrylic paints -- mainly selecting those paints that are classified as either transparent or semi-transparent. (The essential ingredient in the glazes is an 8:1 water to W & N Galeria Matt Medium solution to dilute the paint, rather than plain water.) Dark colours might only need one or two glaze layers, but light colours might need four or more. The important thing is to let the underpainting show through the glazes. All the brush painting was done with Pro Arte Acrylix brushes.

The Galeria paint and matt medium is not actually dead flat, but usually dries with a satin sheen. To cure this, I used an inexpensive Reeves Series R2 No 1 sable brush to apply well-shaken Daler-Rowney Matt Soluble Varnish to garments, although footwear and greasetop hats can be left as they are. This produces a superb matt finish where it is needed, and allows the underpainting to be seen.

My initial inspiration came from Brian Fayle's site, where I found his comments on shadows especially thought-provoking. The black undercoat and the dry-brushing is very much influenced by Brian's methods, as is the use of artists' acrylic paint in tubes. I like to think that this painting technique falls somewhere between the cartoon-like finish resulting from using a single, relatively thick and opaque coat of modellers' paint; and the incredible models produced by expert miniature figure painters with superb eyesight and rock steady hands!  Each figure took around two to three hours of painting to complete. The method is ideal for batch painting of half a dozen figures or more at one time, given the rapid drying time of acrylic paint. At a viewing distance of about a foot (30 cm), they seem convincing enough for model diorama use.