Making the grade......

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chrismisterx

New member
Well after my last few minis all getting a solid 6 - 7 score, I feel I have learnt loads and can paint a solid gaming mini.
The type of mini when on the field of battle the other players go ohhh nice :)

But my question is how do I make the jump from that to the nicely painted display mini ?

Thats my next target to improve from a soild 7 < which in my mind is great table top> to a 8 - 8.5 which I belive is a good display piece.

Once I can do that standard often, my next goal is to hit the dizzy hights of 9+ which in my mind is competition standard.


So peeps hope you can help me, I have learnt so much from you guys already, and for that I am really grateful, but I need to push on to the next level and would love some help doing so.

thanks loads for your time reading and hopefully posting some tips, tricks and advice on improving my painting.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Well having a quick look at your gallery the Tau Auxillary is one figure where I see a few things to suggest.
(This is just my opinion of course and shouldn\'t be taken as gospel)

1: Your photography is holding back some of the scores. The lighting is very subdued and not showing the mini to it\'s best advantage. Take a look at Banshee, Arjay, Bragon and Arkaal\'s photographs to see some of the differences lighting can make to a mini.

2 That Tau Auxillary is very neat but lacks either the subtle shading or greater range of highlighting which seems to characterise the higher scoring minis. If you follow the \'Eavy Metal suggestions of 3 levels of highlights, forget it and extend the levels by a factor of 3 at the very least. That doesn\'t mean having very sharply defined transitions of colour but smooth work as I\'m suspecting from this piece you are actually doing. Perhaps the edges of the armour could benefit from having \"Keypoints\" picked out as White, which shows up in real life. (The Flare on steel edges, Glass etc..)

Hope this helps.
 
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chrismisterx

New member
Thanks, just the sort of advice I was needing. I have been following the GW painting guide until now, was a good starter guide but I think I have out grown it.

The photos are a problem, finding getting good photos and editing them a real pain, will have to work on that some more.

thanks for the advice Dragon :)
 
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War Griffon

New member
Biggest part of getting decent photo\'s is arranging your lighting correctly.

You don\'t need to spend a fortune on the correct lamps, I use 3 desk lamps from Asda/Tesco\'s and fit them with day light lamps toal cost for 3 lamps and 3 day light bulbs about £25.

I would also recommend a light tent, it doesn\'t have to be a huge one if you are doing single figures or small items then a 12\" x 12\" light tent is more than sufficient and can be got from EBay quite cheaply.

Look through the articles section here on CMON there are some excellent articles on painting techneques and on photography aimed at all levels.

If you get your photographic set up right then all you need to do in your editing package is adjust light levels and maybe crop the size or unwanted space then save it for the web and post it on CMON takes me a very short time indeed.
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
Originally posted by chrismisterx
Thanks, just the sort of advice I was needing. I have been following the GW painting guide until now, was a good starter guide but I think I have out grown it.
Click to expand...

If you can get your hands on some of the older GW painting guides (assuming you like their guides) you might be pleased with their lessons. The newest \"How to Paint...\" from GW is not even close to the same quality as their older one. Seems to me GW doesn\'t not have the quality painters they used to AND seems GW has dumbed down their newer guide to teach only basic/tabletop skills. The older guides spent most of their pages working you towards competition quality painting.

Also pour through the guides here on CMoN, lots of good stuff in there and it\'s free!
 
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generulpoleaxe

New member
gw\'s eavy metal team are fantastic painters.
they are told to paint to a much, much, much lower standard than what they are capable of.

it\'s also none (high quality) painters that often write the articles. as well as that they are told to condense the stages as to save space that the article takes.

if i remember correctly, they asked dragons reach to condense his 13 stages of sisters painting into 5 stages, or something like that. (not including mike in the none painters group, christ my fingers where on the chopping block then !)

i would recomend cry havoc magazine as well as the darksun book. (if you realy have to spend money that is)

you could always use the wip thread and get some tips from those who frequent these boards.
(i\'m slowly getting all of there secrets, or is that hashmalums lucky charms
lol )
 
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farseerlum

New member
unique minis also get better scores.

conversions and mixed paint colors will help. as long as their done well of course.

that said using minis that people are already familiar with can also help. a converted space marine done in unique chapter colors can earn a whole point more than a less well known mini.

these are theories of course. the best common theme i see in higher scoring minis is very well shaded and highlighted with a good color scheme.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Originally posted by generulpoleaxe


if i remember correctly, they asked dragons reach to condense his 13 stages of sisters painting into 5 stages, or something like that.
Close Enough, I painted 13 SOBs in a good standard for White Dwarf and in the end they only used 5 of them. Which was a shame.
They also missed out the complete step by step listing of Citadel paints used.
(not including mike in the none painters group, christ my fingers where on the chopping block then !)
Close call there Chris!:D
Click to expand...
 
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