@chagadiel:
@MEGAEINSTEIN:
If you want me to be honest i think that the painting looks very amateur.
Some things that could improve your work:
- Use a base black spray coat from warhammer.
- put more water on ink so that is not to thick.
- use decalcs for roundels, don´t paint roundels cause that gives a really low quality look.
nope i am not a profesional i just like painting. i just thought i would share the way i am doing mine which is a bit differrent i also like to see other peaples to compare interpretations of colour style and ideas which i like and borrow for my own.
i agree with the decals especially the american ones i struggel to do straight lines and stars . a black base coat takes away colour and makes it dull, a white coat is better.
ANYways whats the point in it all when last night i was playing europe with my wife and she kept attacking me with backwards faceing t34s :-D
I know, I know, I shouldn’t be bringing up ‘dated’ negative posts but a couple on here struck a nerve.
First off, in my opinion, there are no professionals in painting A&A miniatures - for A LOT of reasons. First and foremost, there is no way to make a profit, let alone a living off of it. Considering how much time it takes - you’d be better off flipping burgers, in fact, McDee’s will probably pay you seven or eight times what you could make per hour, easily (if you want to provide a service at a ‘reasonable’ or ‘affordable’ price to the public). And let me tell you, detailing (not JUST painting) does take a lot of time. I started to clock myself from start to end on each piece, wow. And this excluded all the other costs involved (The paints & brushes - you’d be surprised how quick they go, even on these small pieces. The decals, the protective coating, shipping etc.). This cost factor gets worst if you make a comparative issue out of it… say compared to what you might already make in your full-time job.
Secondly, the painting jobs themselves can only be judged by one’s own aesthetic perception. Sure, a lot of it is based on the historical counterparts - but there were no ‘exact’ camo or color themes. Not to mention the fact that thousands of the units were destroyed so you’ll never know what all of them looked like. I personally go for what I have in my head as ‘memorable’ pictures of the unit… images of old comic books, movies and t.v. shows, visits to museums… If I’m unfamiliar with a unit - I of course peruse the Internet and find what appears to be a style that was most common (providing it doesn’t look too similar to another nation’s unit). But at the end of the day - its whatever you think works - which brings me to…
Thirdly. This ‘historically accurate’ idea… eh eh eh They’re too small of scale to be historically accurate. You can paint a general ‘historical resemblance’, but no way can it be done to ‘historical accuracy’. Go ahead and say otherwise, but you’re fooling yourself. Perhaps this is semantics, but that’s my stance. Panzerpainter and I talked about this, it’s hard for him to even try for historical accuracy on larger scale pieces (though he has and does do it - he’s awesome). Leading to the next area…
Fourth. These are game components, not pieces to just be placed behind glass for viewing. BUT, here is another area that starts to roll into personal choices. If you approached painting the pieces to say… suit all the ‘most common’ style of that particular unit, guess what? You’re going to have a hell of a time telling some of them apart during a game. It leads to arguments, “Wait… I thought that was a German ship? It is gray . I wouldn’t have done the attack if I’d know that!” Yeah, been there. Sure, that’s why there’s insignias, painted or with transfers. And perhaps between turns you should be bothering to study the board and get all of that sorted out… but I think it’s safe to say that some A&A games go a looong time. At whatever hour in the morning (and for those of the legal drinking age imbibing during a game especially), the pieces are not as defined as they once were. And anyone who has played global a couple times will know that this game in particular is now the longest in regard to gameplay out of all the A&A editions. But yet… ya don’t want to necessarily paint the Russians in fireman red uniforms… so it’s a personal choice. At one point does one start making a piece particular to the nation? I’d say, depends on the gaming group. I’ve painted some components for games to close historical resemblance of the most common colors/style - and they turned out fantastic I think, but we’ve spent half the game time trying to determine who was who and what was what.
So wait… this MEGAEINSTEIN person, you out there? Let’s see your work then ‘professional’. I couldn’t find any A&A pieces on here by you… thought we could turn that over-critical eye you put on these wonderful paint jobs on your own. Don’t get me wrong - I firmly believe any paint on an A&A mini adds to the game. People forget that you’re looking down at a board with tons of these pieces… it looks cool. Not many realize that posted pics of painted minis don’t do them justice, in fact, they are usually an injustice. You see things that you normally wouldn’t notice in the game at all, oftentimes things the naked eye wouldn’t even realize until it’s frozen in a photo (which can then be enlarged).
So in regard to this statement, “If you want me to be honest i think that the painting looks very amateur.” … I would A. completely dismiss the negative connotation due to lack of credibility, and the person is simply running off the head. B. take this as a compliment, as there are no “professionals” in this niche. There is no panel of judges, no certifications. The origins of the word (and its use as a noun) ‘amateur’, is someone who does something for the love of it, regardless of fame or fortune. You, like many here, have a love for the game and wish to enhance it to a point where you’ll spend some time detailing the components. In my opinion, all true artists are ‘amateurs’. The moment an ‘artist’ becomes a ‘professional’, is the same moment they lose the title… they’re now in marketing/advertising (which admittedly, is probably more profitable :| ). Hence the term, ‘starving artist’.
My apologies for the length of this… it takes someone who has painted a whole set to empathize perhaps. It can be mind numbing if one isn’t an amateur.
This has prompted me to start posting a detailed account of how I go about painting A&A miniatures… in hopes of having the pleasure of seeing many more pics of other people’s work. I like the idea of feeding off each other’s completed pieces rather than there being set standards. I’ll be using FMG’s.
