Where’s the painting ?
31/08/2013 3 Comments
As some of you should have noticed, no new painting from me for a bit.
There’s two reasons, or rather points to make about this.
First I’ve started the Hobgoblins:
As you can see they’re all unique poses (10+ poses in a single unit of 20). On top of that all the poses no matter how close are very varied in terms of equipment and style.
These figures were done back in 1984-1987, and were done well before mass Warhammer armies really came into vogue – they were more for RPGs when individual poses were more important. Since the 1990’s the sculptors have limited the poses to units and so you only get 4-5 poses for rank and files and they are very very similar. Which is great when it comes to building and painting units of troops because you can churn them out quickly.
So this isn’t going to happen:
Sounds like a spray can of orange, pick out details then blast with an army painter dark or mid brush on and then matt varnish…basing and done…c’mon crack on.
Too much details, too much variation. 😦
So I’ll be trying to do them as fast as possible, but that degrades the quality as I don’t have time to treat them as character figures.
As you can see I have a Dark Elf Witch Elf, and a british Mortar crew on the go as well. This is for variation
Next point brings us on to:
Rick Priestly as a veteran gamer and rules writer still involved in the hobby has had a go about the ever higher standards of painting in the hobby (historical and GW). Article is here.
Basically there’s an issue of how high standards are becoming for painting. Talking with some of the Byakhees this is also a concern for them. We have agreed that we aim for a wargaming standard, no great shakes. Some of us are able to do really good stuff but we’d prefer to field armies of troops (100-200 figures) rather than aim for perfection. This is also especially true as some of our group are not painters and have limited skills/experience.
So the question is how far do you go in getting the well painted figure ?
How far to you go to get an entire unit, or indeed army to field ?
Versus the perfection and variation of say characters figures ?
The Lost City of Carcosa 
I try and paint everything to the best I can.
I spend the same amount of time on troops as characters.
My painting isn’t great but I think it is at least tabletop quality.
Nice quote
Any painted army looks much better than an unpainted one (got plenty of them) so I always think paint to suit the force size, allowable time and if possible a deadline. If there is time to spruce up your characters even better. The quality of forces Giles and the team put on the mega tables are always inspiring. Like many things in life do what suits you and a pair of British bow fingers to the rest!