Question on scores ... what really is a 5 or a 4 or a 3?

T

tzor

New member
The text on every page says \"10 is amazing, 8 is a great job, 5 is tabletop quality.\" Now I can pretty much tell when a mini is a 10, and even tell the difference between an 8 and a 7, but the middle numbers and the low numbers just confuse me.

So what really is a 5 supposed to mean? I\'ve seen minis that would certanly look good on a tabletop get a 4 or a 3 and I\'ve seen some real ugly ones get a 6.

I\'m really interested in what others think about how to grade the well below average minis out there. How bad do you think a mini should be before you give it a 2? Or a 3, or a 4 even.
 
Infidel Castro

Infidel Castro

New member
Ultimately, it\'s your own perception of quality. A five to me may not be a five to my Nan for example. I see a 9/10 as almost identical, whilst an 8 is far better than a 7.

Perception of the individual, and a right to vote according to that perception Mr Tzor!
 
D

Drake Farstrider

New member
What Rev said.

The only other thing I can add is that I think the base need to be at least flocked to get a 6 and the base needs to be dynamic to get naything higher than a 7.
 
D

dauber22

New member
Don\'t worry too much, Rev. Remember it IS Drake Farstrider who\'s claiming you make sense :D :p

But, as to the original question. I\'m sure that if you get responses from 25 different people, you\'ll get 25 different ideas. (well, 24 I guess since REv & DF agree)

Personally, I consider a 5 to be something you might see in an average army on an average gaming table - in other words, not that great :rolleyes: I almost never rate anything lower than a 4. I reserve 9\'s & 10\'s for something special, something particularly eyepopping or jaw dropping. So most things I score, I score between 5 and 8, though I also use half-scores a lot to fine tune my vote. And, like Rev said, I consider there to be a considerable difference between each level. A 6 is considerable better than a 5, a 7 considerably better than a 6. Kind of like the scale they use to rate hurricanes, where each increase in number is a doubling in the force.

THere! I hope that cleared everything up for you lol And... Oh my GOD :eek: I agreed with REv, too :eek:
 
R

Ritual

New member
I think something has to be really bad to get lower than 4. I vote 4 on things that I don\'t think would look good even on a gaming table. If the painting is extremely sloppy I can give 3 or even 2 (then there would have to be metal still showing and such). I have only voted 1 on things that have been bad jokes.
 
J

Jabberwocky

New member
I\'ll rate a 5 on a mini that has been basecoated everywhere and the base is done, no matter how plainly.

Subtract one if the base is not finished (not just done poorly).

Subtract one if the mini itself is unfinished, with metal/plastic showing; subtract 2 if significant portions are left undone (like a whole limb). Obviously, this doesn\'t apply to folks who are showing sculpted or converted WIP\'s :).

I don\'t think I have ever rated anything a one... ;)
 
R

RedDawn

New member
Picture quality counts too

If someone has posted a mini that you can barely see I will usually rate it pretty low (< 5). But they have to be REALLY bad pictures.

Like this one Bad Pic
 
W

Wolf_Fang

Guest
priming thick paint no base coat 1

base coat thick paint 2

base coat more then one colour mayb thick out of lines 3

as above only an atempt at staying in the lines and such 4

smooth paint in the lines a highlight or 2 (atleast dry brush) 5

and so on
 
Einion

Einion

New member
There\'s often a lot of subjectivity in rating and even if you make the effort it\'s impossible to be completely objective (and as we know some people don\'t even try :D)

I use 5 for dead-on average usually, but I\'ll give a weaker mini a 5 if it has a certain element done well, or to something I might otherwise give 6 to if there\'s an aspect done poorly.

Einion
 
T

Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
Horse: check
Stick: check
Horse not breathing: check

commence beating...

CMON ratings are random numbers generated by a program created by Chern and in no way bear any resemblance to how \"cool\" the mini is, or how \"good\" the paintjob is, or how many elite painter techniques you have used.

Alternatively the score is based on a bi-modal distribution relating to size of mini, ie small minis score high and large minis score high...

;)
 
No Such Agency

No Such Agency

New member
To get a 5 from me the mini has to at least look like you made an effort to PAINT it, and not just \"apply paint to it\". Of course, few minis under 4 (\"sloppy minimal tabletop job\" in my voting scale) are submitted here, because it takes a real effort to paint that badly! Most people who do play with miniatures that bad, don\'t care what they look like and so wouldn\'t post them here.
 
N

Naukhel

Active member
I read somewhere ... possibly here in the forums... that \'Table Top Quality\' or a \'5\' on the judging scale, requires:

1: Smooth looking paints.
2: At least 3 colours
3: A completed base
4: No major glaring errors (using a basting brush to paint won\'t do well)

Climbing higher on the scale soon becomes a matter of the viewer\'s personal taste beyond that.

Some styles are more popular than others, some people are voted on more leniently than others (like a 6 year old posting his/her first mini will probably get nicer votes and more comments -- and yes, we\'ve had them).

Or you can just ignore the numbers, and try to improve your work for your own self.

And that, in the end, should be all that matters.

Are you happy with your work? If you want to get better, harass people for comments. :)
 
N

Naukhel

Active member
Ah, yes. The monochrome style.
That one is a BEEEYOOOOTIFUL example of it, too.

And it is well deserving of its high marks, I say.

There\'s also that bronze one of the Reaper Female Justicar that was used as an award for a contest, a while back, which was also exceptional.

The list I gave before was just something I\'d read, and has no bearing whatsoever on the opinion of the observers. :)
 
green stuff

green stuff

Active member
Message original : Naukhel
The list I gave before was just something I\'d read, and has no bearing whatsoever on the opinion of the observers. :)
Click to expand...
No worries Naukhel, I fully understood that ;). I just wanted to give an example that broke the \"rules\" ;).
 
H

Hoblit

New member
Well, I figure my painting style should probably rate somewhere between 3 or 4 if unbased. So I tend to rate things based on that.

Same as, better or worse than mine.

Of course, I am trying to improve. so this is likely to change.
 
D

Drake Farstrider

New member
Originally posted by dauber22
Don\'t worry too much, Rev. Remember it IS Drake Farstrider who\'s claiming you make sense :D :p
Click to expand...

Hey, I am here you know! At least you could have the decency to talk about me when I\'m not around here. [size=-2]When that is I don\'t rightly know. [/size]

lol:mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back To Top
Top