Just found this site today ,and could not believe the wealth of knowledge herein.

I am, ( cliche alert) an old man, and returning to the hobby after a 45 year hiatus.

Unfortunatley my eyes are not as good as they once were and my hands shake a little . But I am determined to improve my figure painting skills which right now are somewhere between pathetic and abysmal.

thanks to all in advance for the help.

Welcome. You will find a wealth of information concerning figures, here. In just a few years, my abilities(due to this sight) have improved exponentially. What scale figures interest you?

Thank you

German second world war , though i really cannot do skin or just a basic uniform with shadows highlights etc let alone SS cammo.

my plan is to buy some cheap tamiya figure sets and practice on those before attempting my first diorama with the more expensive resin kits. I have bought some winsor and newton series 7 brushes and some vallejo paints so hopefully things will get better.

Welcome back Marten, You're going to find a ton of usefull stuff here. Ah, Vallejo paints are great for figure painting. Just started using them earlier this year, no more model master for me. And don't worry about the eyes, mine haven't been good for years, so I wont see misstakes to much, L.O.L.

I would suggest looking for some of the older Dragon or DML sets to practice on. They may be a touch more expensive than the old Tamiya ones, but if you're looking to improve painting skills, then your canvas needs to be decent as well. It's hard to paint a masterpiece on an old hand towel, ya know?

I'm working on my skills as well (which is why most of my kits don't have figures) and will agree with Bob D. that Vallejo acrylics are really good for figures. I would suggest that their retarder works wonders if you're trying to blend those quick drying acrylics.

Welcome!

For my first diorama i bought a verlinden base with a wall with a hole in it and a pak 40 thought that woould be straight forward . have the crew firing the pak through the hole in the wall.

unfortunatley the pak was to big for the base even though they are both 1/35 scale. so there wasn't room for the crew, which is probably just as well as they all looked like zombies , some of them had one eye that was three times bigger than the other , they were the lucky ones some had eyes on there cheeks !! none of the uniforms matched , so I see what you mean about not using figures just yet.

But i will keep on trying as things can only get better.