House painting

It may have been Mike Brose's book that mentioned using house paint to paint figures. No matter where I first heard about it, I decided to give it a try. I was wandering around a Home Depot several years ago when I ambled by the paint department. I browsed through color samples until I found a hue I thought would be perfect for Caucasian skin color. I ordered a sample and took it home. After applying it to a figure I was building, I was amazed at how much better I liked it. Here's why:
- The paint brushes on very smoothly
- It dries quickly and VERY flat. Even with so-called flat "artist-quality" acrylics, I never liked the shine. The house paint was so flat it almost had a soft aura-glow quality.
- The brushes cleaned up easily.

For a while, I was embarrassed about using water-based house paint. I kept it a secret because most figure builders I knew always touted "artist-quality" acrylic paint. But I attended the Vent Haven Convention one year and signed up for a seminar on figure building by the great Alan Semok. During the workshop, he discussed painting figures and touted the use of... you guessed it... HOUSE PAINT! I've been unashamedly using it ever since.

I just applied the first coat of Behr "Coronado Dunes" flat house paint to my Winkle figure. It usually takes three coats for a solid finish. I don't use any so-called "protective coating". It tends to add shine. Just flat house paint. Works great!