How much is too much?

Started by fsn, 05 October 2016, 06:25:01 PM

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fsn

I've been watching a fair number of painting videos recently.

Some of them I think "well that's impressive", but on more than a few I think ... "well that looks awful." Now this is after the video maker has trimmed and scraped, primed, base coated, added three coats of varnish and been very careful about using the right shade of pig snot green on their KV2.

My daughter is a musician. We discuss guitars. Is a £200 guitar twice as good as a £100 guitar? If so, is a £400 guitar twice as good as a £200 one? This means your Les Paul's need to be considerably better than a Stagg.

So if you spend 4 hours on your KV2, is it twice as good as if you spent 2 hours?  Will spending 8 hours make it twice as good as a 4 hour job?

Part of it is style. A few videos I've watched produce results that I would never emulate. What "looks" right to you may look a right bu**er to someone else. 



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Roy

Well, from experience and taking the wargaming line.

I once saw a mate win a GW 40K gaming competition using nothing but cardboard shapes to act as bases, with the supposed figures names written in pen atop the crappy bits of card.

He beat many a finely painted army, and won the competition.

The GW staff running the whole show frowned on him not having purchased any of their toys, in fact on him having not a single figure in sight in any of his games, and stripped him of the prize the winner should have won - which was a free 40K army of his choice (He would have asked for the toys that he was meant to be using in the first place!).

I think that is one way to answer your question.

Bigger isn't always better. Expensive doesn't always guarantee qualtity. Spending feck all won't win you anything, especially not in a GW competition  ;D
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Techno

I shall come back to this topic.  ;)

Just as a start, though, I'd say that in a painter's very early days, if he/she was to spend twice as much time......Yes.......You'd get as twice as good a result. (Though that's very, very subjective, of course.)

BUT....as the skills improve, you'd have to spend longer and longer to 'double' the impact......Doubling up, time wise, doesn't make it look twice as good....It's a definite sliding scale...which, to my mind gets worser & worser. (sic)  ;D ;D ;D

Like I say.......I'll be back.

Cheers - Phil


d_Guy

05 October 2016, 07:47:35 PM #4 Last Edit: 05 October 2016, 09:13:06 PM by d_Guy
Sort of an inverse square rule.
Prehapes a Techno Scale could be developed where a T1 is twice a T0, a T2 four times, and so on.
T3 consistently win the annual painting competitions - although most of us are T0's with about 30% T1's and a smattering of T2's and 3's.

If I don't take pictures of my guys and post them they are really quite acceptable with colour blocks and a black or brown wash  :)
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fred.

I don't know, I generally get bored long before I can spend many hours painting a figure. Thats why I like painting 10mm, I can paint a unit in a few hours. Whereas in 28mm I never get much stuff finished as I loose interest.

But its definitely a case of needing to spend lots more time to gain small improvements in appearance. There is a base amount of time that needs to be spent to get paint of the right colour on all the right bits. Then after this shading and detailing takes time for smaller degrees of return.

It depends what you are painting for, good looking units on the table, or small groups to look good when photographed. Both might take the same time, but the former gives you far more troops in that time.
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Matt J

Once you get to a certain level you need to spend something like an extra 100% for an extra 25% improvement. It all depends what you want to achieve. I'll spend many hours on a competition entry and even then still find bits that can be improved.
An average 10mm model will take about an hour which people may think why? I think why not? If I had to get 2 armies painted for to recreate Hastings next month I may think different, but I haven t so I don't  :)
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Fenton

Quote from: d_Guy on 05 October 2016, 07:47:35 PM


If I don't take pictures of my guys and post them they are really quite acceptable with colour blocks and a black or brown wash  :)

That's all I do. Maybe a little highlight occasionally
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Steve J

I think a lot depends upon the distance you view the figure. On a wargames table, lots of intricate painting and detailing simply disappear; hold it close up and it's another matter. As an example a friend sold 1/48th scale Sherman tanks as kits and they were wonderfully detailed etc. One of the top AFV painters painted one for an article in a magazine. The results were stunning when viewed in said magazine. The chap then kindly sent the finished model to my friend to keep and to be honest, it looked a fairly normal paint job when viewed a foot or so away. You could only appreciate the effort put in via photographs, not by the naked eye.

Subedai

Each to his own. If you want to spend a massive amount of time painting and have no time left for other aspects of the hobby then that's fine. If you want to spend as little time as you can painting and they look fine to you then that's okay as well. Some painters use 3 layers  of shading on 10mm, others don't use any it's all a matter of personal choice. What works fine for one might not work for another. It's your hobby so do whatever you want to whatever standard you want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

By the way, I work to the 2 foot observation rule.

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Techno

All good points, team.

Cheers - Phil

Ithoriel

I've no idea how much is too much but long experience has finally taught me that enough is when you have models you are content to put on a wargames table.

It's nice to have people say nice things about your figures but better still to have people say nice things about you as an opponent.
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fsn

Interesting stuff.

There's a sort of chart that can be drawn plotting gaming vs modelling. I think I'm fairly high on the gaming side, and mid on the modelling side. I like to get my stuff painted and can't be fashed with three coats of varnish and scenic basing of more than some static grass.

I also have the two foot rule, but my eyesight is awful! 
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Norm

Older eyes have allowed me to be a little cavalier about painting standards - increasingly everything looks good :)

One of our problems here is that modern tech encourages sharp pictures and these can be zoomed into, so 6mm and 10mm can be studied on our screens at a ridiculous level that is seldom kind - their true strength is in general painting that is then presented en-masse.