Dirty reality or comic-book gloss?

[Margo]

Yesterday, for the first time, I dirtied up and stained a model to give it a more realistic look. Spilled some blood, drybrushed some soil and dust on the clothing, added some corrosion and rust to the metals. You wouldn’t believe what an emotional effort I had to make to force myself to stain a perfectly clean, glossy and bright mini! lol

Probably, this sort of realism is more appropriate on historical miniatures, but I know painters who apply this approach to fantasy and sci-fi models, making them look great.

What do you think about it? Should a fantasy or a sci-fi mini look \"realistic\", or should it be bright, clean and shiny, as if it was taken out of a comic book?

 

[green stuff]

I think both technics look good.

On the other hand, as much as I love what Cyril has done with his Marines, I think it\'s completely anti-fluff. I mean these guys get severe punishment if there is the slightest spec of dust on their armor, so imagine what would happen if they come home putting mud all over the place after a battle .

But hey, trash the fluff .

 

[Dragonsreach]

I think this is a \"Horses for Courses\" kind of thing.
I know that I\'m painting in a \"Comic Book\" style at the moment, but that\'s just me.
I can see nothing wrong in making a Miniature look realistic as if it\'s in the middle of a battle field. In fact I think that weathering, for a diorama is probably more in tune to the intent of the display.
However some display pieces (in my opinion) should not be weathered or painted up as grimy.

There is of course a proviso on this, Orcs (& Orks) have to be grimey. It\'s just not in their nature to be clean & tidy.

PS Where\'s the picture?

 

[Margo]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach I can see nothing wrong in making a Miniature look realistic as if it\'s in the middle of a battle field.

Yes, that\'s true. I\'m also painting in a comic-book style (and quite often accused for it). So I decided to try a weathered style for a change. Yet, when people tell me things like \"this mini is too clean!\" I say that, well, perhaps it just went out to the battlefield and didn\'t have time to get soiled

As for the picture, I didn\'t take one yet, there still are some finishing touches left.

 

[Klute]

PS Where\'s the picture?


Thats what I was thinking.
Was it liberating \"mucking\" up your mini?

 

[Margo]

Originally posted by Klute
Was it liberating \"mucking\" up your mini?

It\'s too soon to tell lol
It looks good. Very realistic and appropriate. Still, I\'m a little confused as this is something totally new to me.

 

[Trevor]

I like realistic, but for some things that can be clean, like a space marine before battle will be clean, but a space marine in the middle of battle will be in a total state.

I disagree with greenstuff, there is no way a marine would come back from battle looking clean, they might come back and spend a day cleaning and annointing their armour, but only if they weren\'t in the middle of a war, in a war they would just be fighting all the time, not time to clean their armour.

Space marine \"@#$%&!!! ork blood all over me armour, stop the battle whilst I wipe it off\"



lol

 

[Margo]

Originally posted by TrevorSpace marine \"@#$%&!!! ork blood all over me armour, stop the battle whilst I wipe it off\"

Hehe, that would be funny! Actually, I think I\'ve seen some tutorials on GW website about how to make chipping and weathering effects on SM models. They didn\'t only paint rust and stuff, but also scratched the minis with knive

 

[frenchkid]

I\'m a big fan of the comique book style like arjay and jason richards and I do really feel it looks great on a mini. On the other hand I don\'t dislike the realistique style either, a well painted mini stays a well painted mini. But if I had to choose one style I\'d go for comique.

 

[minimaker]

I was a tank scale modeller so I tend to go for realistic unless there is a good reason for it (like when painting a manga or city figure). The GW comic style (sculpting and painting wise) has never really attracted me which is one probably one reason I hardly have any of their figures. One the other hand I do like the Rackham comic style.

 

[green stuff]

@Trevor : OK for mud and blood ... but dented and rusted Power-Armors ??? ? Please ... .

 

[ralfmetal]

hi,know what you mean i posted my first sf mini on cmon and the comment that was left was that it was too clean. so what to do get the inks out or leave it alone.i would like to know what people think its at 74982 (its an clean orc sorry ..dragonsreach)

 

[Chrispy]

Like I always say, I like dirtied up real stuff, but presented in a clean matter.. If you paint blood really bad, it shows that you didn\'t put thought into it.. Which is why I like to say \"Okay, this is going to get this on it\" before I paint everything and try and blend it in to the mixes I don\'t have anymore!

 

[Mentor]

In my opinion, it\'s all a matter of personal preference, based on what fits your desired feel for the mini in question. I\'d like to think that I typically use a happy medium between the two extremes of ultra gritty and comic book.

I prefer to paint my models with drab colour schemes, as it suits the themes of the pieces I work on. This typically means painting worn and tattered clothing, rusted metal, and grime. However, I also like to use blending, glazing, and nmm on all of my figs, techniques which are better suited to a \'clean\' style of painting. Ultimately, this means that I try to paint my figs with \'clean weathering,\' using blending to achieve rust and grime, rather than drybrushing or inks.

Cheers,

Mentor

 

[Taer]

Have you seenYellowone\'s new Impy G with the eldar tokens? It\'s an absolutly fantastic piece with parts done in gritty realistic style (the guardsman) and others(the eldar crap) in comic book style. The end result is a ridiculously striking mini with the respective bits painted in a wholly appropriate manner....so erm, I guess I like both

:flip::bouncy:

 

[freakinacage]

taer, thats a good example. thanks for bringing that beautiful mini to my attention

 

[Primeval]

I prefer clean myself, I have been told my barbarians look like they just stepped out of a graphic novel, and that is exactly the look I am after. I can\'t even make mysefl paint blood in a dirty realistic way - still clean and crisp. But with the appropriate figure I would try the realsitic gritty look - I have a conversion in mind for a Heresy Berserk Boris involving large quantities of blood and gore, so maybe on that....

 

[Shawn R. L.]

One of the things I liked about the first Star Wars was that it was the first sci-fi to have ships that looked USED. The sparkley clean thing is nice but you get a little grime and wear going and you get an attitude that just isn\'t possible with clean. Think about it, these are soldiers. Guys with 10ft. chainsaws and their cloths are clean?? Be brave, GO DIRT!!

 

[Ebonbuddha]

I like both. I am starting to like the realistic look more. I saw a Space Marine on this site a while back and it was a Space Marine with battle damaged armour. IT LOOK AWESOME!!!

 

[Astonia]

Do we really have to choose? I like both