How much detail in the paint job?

[Janos]

I have a question guys -- how much detail do you put into painting your wargames guys?

I always love looking at the magazines, where the 25mm pirate figurine has his eyes painted, and a scar on his cheek, and the clothing is shadowed for extra effect. Everything is perfect.

I am satisfied with my army, but their faces are "peach" (no eyes, no lips, no scars, but sometimes facial hair) and I don't paint shadows on their clothing. Am I underdoing it? How much detail do you put into your guys?

JS

 

[jguritza]

Wow this is somewhat of a loaded question…

If I am painting anything 25mm or large I will spend the time adding some detail. This is for the sole fact that all my 25mm and up are for a skirmish type game and therefore I can justify to myself that each solider can be and should be a little different than his buddy next to him. Besides in skirmish games unique units are always remembered.

With 10mm that I paint and to a less extent 15mm there just isn’t a brush small enough to get the detail. I will admit I have a magnifying glass I can use to get some detail but it is really hard to justify painting so much detail on a 15mm figure when you have about 125 more to do. On top of that when you start basing units together you can get all the detail you want but half of the detail you paint will not be seen when you group units and base them.

I have done painting competitions and I can spend 3 to 4 hours doing one unit but in the normal circumstances of getting an army ready to use on the table I will spend the same amount of time doing a hundred troops in an assemble line style of painting.

 

[Overseer]

Depends on the importance of the figure, and just how many more of them I have to paint. If I'm doing a large army, than the detail goes down. If I'm only working on a small force that I want to look real good, then the detail goes up a bit. And generally my leaders or other really cool looking figures get extra detail. And there are some zombie miniatures I'm working on for WH40k that get tons of detail just because I love zombies!

 

[jguritza]

Come to think of it, past gaming experiences I am happy if the figures are painted at all. There is nothing like showing up to a battle with an opponent that has not even primed the figures he is playing with.

 

[Tiger1]

I'm doing 20mm figures and I just paint the faces and hands flesh tone,I'll paint hair and I'll paint straps,ammo pouches etc, I don't shadow uniforms or anything like that either. I get enough detail work with my models and 1/35 scale figures,I even need my glasses to do that now. I do like to look at nicely painted wargaming figures though. Some of those guys are just outstanding.

 

[Janos]

Originally posted by jguritza
Come to think of it, past gaming experiences I am happy if the figures are painted at all. There is nothing like showing up to a battle with an opponent that has not even primed the figures he is playing with.

That was always a rules violation with us. The guys have got to be painted.

JS

 

[jguritza]

If that is the case I should play with you!!

 

[Alan Hamilton]

In my armies the older figures are painted in blocked in colours - no shading or details.

Now I spend more time on them and the rank and file get average paint jobs with maybe a wash and a highlight on the skins of Zulus, n'Goni etc. Characters and officers get a better paint job. But I still do not paint the eyes except on very dark skinned characters.

The way I look at it is to visualise a real person at a distance where they would appear to be the size of your model (25-28mm in my case) and paint that way.

Yes, of course, I have some highly detailed models - some that I did in Iraq are like that because I had only a few figures to paint. But these are exceptions.

On the other hand my knights are very highly detailed - but then I like painting heraldry!

When I make vehicles, vessels or buildings I tend to make them in a simplified way so that the figures can stand on them. I've even used a different scale of soldier to crew ships (for example) to make them seem larger. A 20mm plastic figure manning an open gun on an offshore vessel looks OK in a 28mm game so long as the vessels stays out "at sea"! They would look foolish it the ship was tied up alongside.

Right now I'm painting some of Bob Murch's Excellent Pulp Figures and some Copplestone Back of Beyond.

 

[Patrick Carroll]

Why, I even paint meticulously detailed plaid kilts on my 2mm figures! Absolute perfection is a must.

Maybe that's why the only figures I have are the handful in a dusty old box that's been sitting around since I gave up painting in frustration back in 1976.

 

[Janos]

Originally posted by Patrick Carroll
Why, I even paint meticulously detailed plaid kilts on my 2mm figures! Absolute perfection is a must.

Maybe that's why the only figures I have are the handful in a dusty old box that's been sitting around since I gave up painting in frustration back in 1976.

:laugh:

It's all I can do to keep up with repairs!

 

[Larkin]

Originally posted by Janos
That was always a rules violation with us. The guys have got to be painted.

JS

That is one of the cardinal sins! To not play with painted models.

 

[Larkin]

Originally posted by Patrick Carroll
Why, I even paint meticulously detailed plaid kilts on my 2mm figures! Absolute perfection is a must.

Maybe that's why the only figures I have are the handful in a dusty old box that's been sitting around since I gave up painting in frustration back in 1976.

Woa! That's a wee bit obsessive!

 

[Patrick Carroll]

Why, I even paint meticulously detailed plaid kilts on my 2mm figures! Absolute perfection is a must.

Originally posted by Larkin
Woa! That's a wee bit obsessive!

I was being facetious, of course. In truth, I go to the opposite extreme: priming is painting, as far as I'm concerned.

Frankly, I've never liked the look of most miniatures. Most sculptors go too far, IMO, toward lifelike realism; and most painters carry it even further, trying to make their figures look like real soldiers.

To me, they're not supposed to be real soldiers; they're supposed to be game pieces. Most statues you find in parks aren't painted. Why should the statuettes we play games with be painted? I think of a miniature as a statuette representing a body of infantry, cavalry, or whatever.

Thus, the miniatures that come in the game Battle Cry are just perfect, from my POV (except that they're plastic and therefore too light; it's better if they're weightier). I can't believe some people go to the trouble of painting them. The blue and gray statuettes represent opposing ACW armies quite well, IMO.

So, I look for miniatures with a clean, elegant ("stiff," in some people's opinion) look to them; and I just prime them and paint them solid colors. My DBA armies end up looking like Battle Cry armies (only grouped on bases), and that's just fine for me.

I don't go looking for historically accurate sculptures either, btw. A stand of swordsmen or axmen count as "Blades" in DBA; and it doesn't bother me in the least to use Roman swordsman figures for Vikings or Normans or any other army. As long as the figure is holding a sword or ax and a shield, it's a "Blade."

Terrain features can likewise be plain and stylized. I'm not interested in realism, just the clear suggestion of a hill, woods, or whatever.

My taste in miniatures keeps my armies out of most wargaming clubs. But that's also OK. I end up playing mostly solo games anyway.

 

[Alan Hamilton]

The folks that I game with only ever field painted warriors.

The quality of the paint job does not matter so much as the effort taken to get ready for the game. The figure has to as close as the organiser feels to being the original.

Thus we do not fiels Romans and say that they are Vikings. But we might put Normans into a Viking army or German WW2 infantry into a Chinese 1920s or 30s army. They look sort of similar.

Nor do we paint the bases different colours - everyone gets a green base because our tables are all green. So our desert warriors have green bases (not sand).

As far as detail - it depends on the painter in our group - I've already said what I do.

John paints in superb detail - everything.

Brian uses block colours (he's colour blind and sometimes we see odd combinations).

Andrew paints officers in detail and R&F in block colours.

Heather paints beautifully but slowly - she does mainly fantasy figures but does the odd commander or hero for our other games.

Bill loves gloss paints and the "toy soldier" look.

The other John does not paint - he says he cannot. But he makes excellent terrain pieces.

Remember that if you ever paint all your figures you die!

I'm safe for the next 20 years.

 

[Fenrir]

I tend to paint just enough to determine the different units at a glance. I do some minimal shading/highlighting so the minis have a 3D look to them. I tend to go into detail only on officers/standards/showcase pieces.