Quick Question

[finn17]

It's shiny!

Blast it with dullcote and you'll probably make up the 0.7 your concerned about.

Purely IMO, but shiny miniatures never score highly because they look like toys...?

 

[Sir Wulf]

I sympathize with your frustration: My first submissions to the site were rated so low that I was quite discouraged. Your mini doubtlessly looks excellent at the front of your armies, but some things that work well on the tabletop become a detriment when blown up 6 or more times for a photo.

The figure's colors are bright, with strong contrast. At normal size, that helps details "pop" out for the viewer. When blown up to the size of the photos, such colors can look garish. Similarly, a glossy finish would be realistic for a suit of power armor, but doesn't always reflect the light attractively in photos. A matte finish lets you control your highlights: Viewers only see the highlights you painted onto the mini.

When crafting your figure's base, give thought to make it match the figure. Make the figure fit into the landscape. Even a spit-shined, parade-ready suit of battle armor will slightly reflect the tones of the ground it stands on. If you like your figures to look clean and neat, make any weathering subtle, a dash of grayish dust color on the feet and lower legs. Add minor details to the base to suggest the sort of environment the space marine is standing in: debris, bones, alien weeds, etc.

 

[MrPickles]

This is, quite simply my untrained opinion, and you're free to take it or leave it. I think you're overdoing the highlights, and don't have unified lighting for the whole model (for both your models).

For the red marine:
The OSL is way overdone. There's no way the light from the eyes would shine on the forehead, and the OSL light looks just as bright as the eyes themselves. You would probably get better results mixing the bronze and green before applying than layering the green over the bronze.

The white joint-things are way too bright. There's no way the joint on the back of the knee would be completely white, in shadow.

The weapons are a bit boring. They don't need to be completely metal! Try doing a few grays for everything except the working bits (barrel, bolts, teeth).

The scripty writing isn't fooling us at all. You don't need to actually write stuff, but I think short vertical lines or more variation in height would be better than long horizontal lines. I believe there is a tutorial around here somewhere.

You're going to hear this until you finally give in. The bases really need to be much better, and you might even be hurting your score over a plain base. Those rocks actually look a bit like gravel (minus the white/black) or coal, and have their place, but not covering the base.

Librarian:
I agree that this mini looks better, but you've still got some of the same things going on. Obviously base. The lighting seems completely random, at times contradictory. I'm not a fan of edge highlighting like that, but to each his own. The tops of the thighs look especially over-highlighted. You could probably go darker with the blues, as it seems to jump from blue to black.

I do think you should be looking at minis which are significantly higher score, rather than close, if you want to improve. Here are a few random ones, which show shading, more interesting weapons, and unified lighting source:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/281165

http://www.coolminiornot.com/281326
http://www.coolminiornot.com/281328

yaya. most of the stuff you say is just nitpick details that most people dont even notice or care about.

that ultramarine standard is VERY nice tho. the low score it has is insulting. that model is high 7, low 8.

 

[MrPickles]

good advice iv taken away from this thread:

-FINE I'LL WORK ON THE FRICKEN BASES. LOL. for now the plan is paint all the rocks and stuff dark brown, devlan mud wash, lighter brown highllighting on top and i'm about to order some tufts.

-maybe line hightlight the red with orange. but then maybe not. the scores are the same. the blue librarian is at 6.1. i guess it's all personal preference.

-spraying it with matte varnish to remove shine.

 

[Benihana]

yaya. most of the stuff you say is just nitpick details that most people dont even notice or care about.

You say that while posting on a website where people spend all day nitpicking details on minis. You also asked what made the other mini better, but don't want to hear what would make yours better?

that ultramarine standard is VERY nice tho. the low score it has is insulting. that model is high 7, low 8.

You'd be hard pressed to find a "regular" marine above 8. Two examples I found were (pay attention to the comments I made on yours!):

http://www.coolminiornot.com/274047?browseid=62926
http://www.coolminiornot.com/262603?browseid=62926

Is it possible your scale is simply skewed?

I forgot to mention, your red marine is photographed about 2.5x larger/more zoomed in than the librarian and the brown one you linked. That's probably hurting you more than helping. Try photographing the red marine the same way as your librarian and see how it turns out.

 

[MrPickles]

You say that while posting on a website where people spend all day nitpicking details on minis. You also asked what made the other mini better, but don't want to hear what would make yours better?

that one isnt better at all. let me get my bases looking better. id be willing to bet you money that mine would sell for alot more money on ebay than that emp. champ.

You'd be hard pressed to find a "regular" marine above 8. Two examples I found were (pay attention to the comments I made on yours!):

http://www.coolminiornot.com/274047?browseid=62926
http://www.coolminiornot.com/262603?browseid=62926

Is it possible your scale is simply skewed?

I forgot to mention, your red marine is photographed about 2.5x larger/more zoomed in than the librarian and the brown one you linked. That's probably hurting you more than helping. Try photographing the red marine the same way as your librarian and see how it turns out.

the second one is nice. it's pretty amazing how he takes the highlights up to pure white. first one is good but looks like he screwed up on the eyes pretty badly.

 

[AlanShutko]

I'll admit one of the things I find daunting about CMON is that you need to be able to do several things well in order to score well here. You need to pick a great mini, paint it well, provide an interesting and appropriate base, and then take a good, well-lit picture of a small item and correctly post-process it to look good. Folks who score well on CMON are doing a good job at a several diverse tasks.

That's why I haven't posted any pics here yet. Right now, I'm working on improving my painting. (Which is often better than my friends, but we all started painting at the same time and all of us lack experience, I've just got a bit more patience.) I use my minis for tabletop RPGs, so I'm not really that interested in basing, and the elaborate and exceptional bases you find on many minis here would be impractical for me right now. And while I've got a good camera and a great macro lens, I haven't had time yet to work out the photography yet.

So, I'm working on painting, and eventually I'll figure out how to take pics and post here, but I know that my potential scores will be limited because painting only gets you so far here. That's ok, the players at my table are good at oohing and aching. (Perhaps in fear of random encounters. Whatever works.)

 

[finn17]

I'll admit one of the things I find daunting about CMON is that you need to be able to do several things well in order to score well here. You need to pick a great mini, paint it well, provide an interesting and appropriate base, and then take a good, well-lit picture of a small item and correctly post-process it to look good. Folks who score well on CMON are doing a good job at a several diverse tasks.

Spot on!

I've never posted a picture here either, because I am entirely happy with what I do with my own miniatures. I nearly gave up painting when I first discovered CMON because I never realised how utterly crap I was

Thing is, it's like comparing chalk and cheese...I'm happy with my modest efforts, I neither want to improve or have the time available.
I have leeched truckloads of information from the good folk on CMON and am happy to return the favour with whatever knowledge I've gleaned after 40 years of painting minis but I'm not going to get myself bent out of shape by posting piccies...

I love the site, and the community but will stay away from the competitive bit...just as I'd avoid CoolWifeOrNot, BigDickOrNot...etc etc

 

[clansizemore]

A personal favorite for a quick and easy base is using cork board. The flat cork board is cheap, looks great, and is versital. Trace out the outline of the base you are using on the cork board, then cut it out. Then tear a chunk out of the cork board so the newly cut out piece looks like pac-man. Next put a coffee stir staw in the mouth of the pac-man looking piece. Add a bit of glue to torn area with the straw. Sprinkle sand onto the glue. Now base-coat. After the base coat paint however you like. There ya go, cheap and easy...like my ex.

 

[Dragonsreach]

You say that while posting on a website where people spend all day nitpicking details on minis. You also asked what made the other mini better, but don't want to hear what would make yours better?

that one isnt better at all. let me get my bases looking better. id be willing to bet you money that mine would sell for alot more money on ebay than that emp. champ.

A few things here;
There's a general consensus on these forums that you don't denegrate or 'slag off' someone elses mini when comparing against your own,
secondly its also "bad form" to make rather arrogant statements like that ebay one,
also there are a lot of people here making suggestions, which you seem to be responding to in a somewhat offhand and dismissive manner. People have taken the time to type out these suggestions, you could do a lot better by responding to them less defensively or with more consideration to what is being said.

 

[MrPickles]

A few things here;
There's a general consensus on these forums that you don't denegrate or 'slag off' someone elses mini when comparing against your own,
secondly its also "bad form" to make rather arrogant statements like that ebay one,
also there are a lot of people here making suggestions, which you seem to be responding to in a somewhat offhand and dismissive manner. People have taken the time to type out these suggestions, you could do a lot better by responding to them less defensively or with more consideration to what is being said.

sorry boss. u can delete the thread if you want.