- This topic has 42 replies, 35 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Given that pretty much every bit of 6mm I paint is my own product I want it to look as good as I can get it.
I don’t want to present my product in a way that looks a bit naff.
This also means that as all I play is 6mm sci-fi with my own stuff, it takes ages to get anything together as I paint sloooooowly.
Then couple that with doing 6mm as my ‘job’ and the fact it takes ages, I rarely get to play as nothing is ready and when it is ready I am sick of the sight of it.This is why I am trying some 15mm fantasy using other peoples miniatures.
Now, being new to 15mm it will take a while until I am happy with the quality, but having said that, as my income is not dependant on how well other people’s products are perceived I can afford to be less picky.This is what I am doing, I am painting things below my ability to enable me to get stuff done. (expect the heroes that Samantha and I will be using)
Now, onto the actual thing..
I have noticed that some of the models due to various factors, do not lend themselves to me wanting to put much effort in.Have you ever bought some models and not been arsed to do an especially good job on them due to their finish?
You’ve seen some of my work. Here it is again, in case you forgot:
I’m not that good, but very consistent. I block paint over white primer, very neatly, picking out all the detail I can see, and I try to create enough tone contrast that you can see the figure at three feet. No high-lighting, black-lining, nothing fancy. I like to paint irregulars, and use lots of earth tones and greys. I finish everything with a super-thin black wash, so thin you can’t see it, but it adds depth. These days I mostly paint 25mm figures, but my 20mm and 15mm are just the same. White eyes with brown pupils on the 25mm, just brown shadows on the smaller figs’ faces. I go over each figure several times, correcting every sloppy mistake. I’m a painfully slow painter.
A few years ago I learned how to dry-brush over black primer, and I paint some that style from time to time. The Indian on the right of the photo is an example. I’ve experimented with high-lighting on a few figures, not that guy. I’m trying to improve, even at my advanced age. Actually, I have more time to practice, now that I’ve retired.
My goal isn’t to create a masterpiece, but to finish another wargame unit to play with. Alas, OCD slows me down. I often buy painted figures at flea-markets and from marketplace ads…but then I have to ‘touch them up’, and I usually substantially repaint them. Sigh. At least I save time by using the original paint job as a base coat…
In spite of everything, it still feels great when I can get in the zone and crank them out!
You'll shoot your eye out, kid!
The awkward questions first hmm?
Mostly badly – I want figures to play with not to paint. Occasionally I’ll make an effort (and then prefer the bog standard ones!) – so mostly as above.
Having experimented in the past with 5-layer highlights and other excesses of that sort, I like to think that I have the skill to paint quite well if only I’m able to will myself to put in the effort (which is rare). Then again, I think the same applies to most people. With the exception of some “special effects” like non-metallic metals, translucent fabrics, source lighting and ultra-realistic weathering (you know, CMON kind of stuff), painting beautiful figures doesn’t really take much of an artistic eye (which I lack), it just takes a logical set of rules and a generous measure of time and effort.
As of a few years back, I’m much more interested in having the “unified big picture” look good than having individual figures be show-stoppers in close-up. I’ve come to think of myself almost like a comic book / graphic novel illustrator or an animator who needs to keep a consistent, functional, reasonable level of quality that allows for the continued production of new frames at a decent rate. To that end, I only ever paint miniatures with a single layer of highlights these days, and I intend for all future additions to my collection to be consistent in this way. It’s a little bit like a miniature-painting equivalent of cel-shading, or Hergé’s ligne claire, or something such. (Admittedly, a closer equivalent of ligne claire would just be plain old block-painting with no layering at all, although ultimately there’s a limit to how far the comparison can be taken).
Part of this approach is that I’m a consummate “collect both sides” type hobbyist and I never use miniatures painted by anyone else. In fact, by “anyone else” in this case I’m including myself from before I switched to this standard. I’ve become a compulsive stripper; I keep stripping old paintjobs of my own. None of my old paintjobs that are of a different style to my current one have any remaining value to me (with the minor exception that one of them is still my avatar at the time of writing). Some are too rough (I stuck with old-fashioned ink washes and drybrushed highlights for a long time), others too fancy-schmancy (like the aforementioned 5-layer highlight ones). They all get stripped off, and frankly I feel a bit more at peace with myself every time I’ve eradicated another one of them
As for rough sculpts/castings, if it’s too rough for me to want to paint it, then I don’t paint it. It’s pretty much binary to me; either I paint a figure to the same “functional” standard I paint all my other figures, or I don’t bother with it at all. There’s no middle ground. Similarly, with figures that have been sculpted “too fancy”, I don’t bother to go above my usual standard of painting quality even if the sculpting quality might seem to demand it.
Of course – really you need to define ‘well’.
It isn’t a fixed universal standard.
Style is a movable feast.
54mm Skirmish figure? Or 2mm blocks for Gettysburg?
If you’re using the same standards to judge your painting, you’re doing something wrong.
If you want people to pick your figures up and peer at them with a jeweller’s eyeglass, you could paint them to whatever is the current style standard, or gently tell them to put them down and look at them at the range for which they were painted to be viewed at.
Black lining was all the rage for a while. Doesn’t seem to be so popular now. Wet blending? Shading? Black undercoat and ever lighter highlighting? Or white undercoat and washes to build up the shading in the creases? Mad staring eyes seem as popular as ever – can you really see the whites of their eyes at average engagement ranges?
The point is – ‘well’ means different things to different people. Technical excellence is great – but you may not like the effect. And if it takes days per figure to achieve – do you want a battle with them or not?
I’m not against ‘beautiful’ figures, but know why you want to do it and what effect you are seeking. And remember fashions change: this was ‘cool’ once too
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
