Always go right?

[mikec55]

If my life was a musical, the soundtrack for painting would be 'If I Had A Hammer' :angry: . I've been painting for only 4 or 5 years & then for only about 4 or 5 months out of each year. Even with that, I can see baby step progress every year, which makes me look forward to starting that next figure just to spite the $#%*##$%!@&?+%$ brush fairy.

Mike

 

[amherbert]

Originally posted by RobH@Jan 28 2005, 04:21 PM
Robin..........not just the slip of the brush but the cursed glue while assembling!
Or "I'm sure that looked ok when I dry fitted it........what's going on!" which is usually after painting in sub assemblies.............so I'm always amazed when I see SBS's of part assembled figures........


How do they do that?

Too true!

That's the problem I had with the figure I've given up on. Repeated dry fitting and long preparation, then I had him mostly painted. Adding the arms after painting led to accident. Paint rubbed off. No problem retouch. Problems fitting the arms. Refit. Fix. Retouch. Much cursing because fit still bad. I wish the dog had chewed on it so I had an excuse! Retouch. Figure tumble. Rework. Move on!

Andy

 

[Lou Masses]

Robin,

Great thread! If I can finish a figure after 3-4 tries I'm in good shape. The best is when it looks "just ok" and you go to"fix" the eye (everything else is practically done and the eye looks fine) and you end up with a freak of nature for an eye and have to redo the face....then the back because you didn't realize your finger was holding it that way....then the legs, because you moved your hand down.

As for Bill, we can't compare to him. He sold his soul to the devil a long time ago and he just flicks his arm just so and the face is done in one fell swoop :lol: Just kidding of course (about the selling his soul part-not the rest)

Gary-Yeah I love those shows betweeh Norm building a replica 17th century cabinet in less than an hour (with about $100,000 in special machine tools) to the shows where they give the wife and daughter a cordless screwdriver and they have a new kitchen in 4 days. So much for "reality TV"

 

[BigDaddy]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I never have any problems, It's perfect the fitst time.... :lol:

Actually not!

Here is my list of Muphyisms:

The xacto knife will roll off the bench directly into a body part.

The part you really need will go flying when you least expect it.

The airbrush will spit a big glob of crap on your last pass on a part that will be really hard to touch up.

Once you thought you had the painting technique nailed, the next time you try it, it will be not even remotely close to the results you were expecting.

The drill bit will break in the last 1/16 of an inch in that hole you are drilling in the only leg that hits the ground.

You will spend 3 hours painting that perfect face, then discover after it is dry, that there is a imperfection under the paint that you did not see.

The super glue you used to assemble the figure is not that super.

You pull the tape off the base you masked for ground work to find the low tack wasn't and it pulled half your varnish off.

As you are proudly marching into the show hall with your "best" work, you take one last look at the figure to discover you forgot to paint the buckles on the canteen strap and helmet.


I know, this has all happened to me- and I bet to veryone else (even Bill).

But, it is a relaxing hobby

Matt Wellhouser

 

[Billhoran]

Matt, you bet it happens to me, although not as often as it has in the past. In fact, the figure I am working on right now had to be sawed in half to reduce his height, trouser legs resculptured twice each, as well as other hassles. Once I painted the eyes (I didn't resculpt them initially), I hated them, had to remove them and repaint them as well.

Sometimes you just gotta hang in there!

Bill

 

[Einion]

We all have times when things don't go as we want and we shouldn't get downhearted, believe me it happens to professional painters all the time - even paintings we call masterpieces will have areas (even if it's just a brushtroke here or there) that the painter wasn't entirely satisfied with.

I feel two ways about mistakes - some need to be corrected, like Bill sawing the figure he mentioned in half to reduce its height. Having the discipline/fortitude to correct things like this is important to producing work that lives up to one's standards.

Others are okay to leave so that you can move on, as Brent so wisely said, it's important to work through to the end on occasion (especially for the bulk of us who don't have a large output).

As the expression goes, don't sweat the small stuff; one of the worst things one can do is constantly revise something again and again because it's not working out quite the way you want it. Generally it's good to have something concrete to look at in the display cabinet to gauge our progress, regardless if we're entirely satisfied with every single element. Constantly revising the paintwork on a certain area for example can lead to never being happy with it. I'm sure many of us know people who have fallen into this habit - and they can be quite skilled - but they never get anything finished because they're too busy stripping and re-painting the same figure six or seven times before finally giving up and putting it away!

Correct important errors, live with the smaller ones and move on to the next project

Einion

 

[Lou Masses]

That would be me with one figure per year and an ulcer :lol:

 

[Marijn Van Gils]

Very well put Einion!

the perfect figure just doesn't exist, especially not when it is about your own work. In every project I finish, I can point out a huge number of "areas of possible improvement", but still I try to be happy with it untill the next one. Otherwise I would never get anything finished, and the fun would vanish. For me it is more fun to slowly move in the direction of the "perfect" figure through an entire series of finished projects, than to move slowly to "perfection" on one single figure only...

Marijn

 

[Billhoran]

I still don't get the stripping and repainting, stripping and repainting... deal. It just seems flat out weird to me.

Some of the best lessons I have learned are from the figures that didn't work out right. I did a figure of a 42nd Highlander during the American Revolution (photo below) a few years ago. I got a really nice comment from a guy at Chicago about the "cool bow-legged effect" I had acheived. Well, I never planned on that, and frankly it happened because I had drilled the leg pins too far apart ... and the more I looked at it the less "cool" I thought it was! Leg spacing had been a little problem I was grappling with in my figures at the time and that "compliment" was the best motivation to solve that little problem once and for all.

It's funny, though. Some modelers are almost commically self-critical, stripping and reworking the same figure for years, or starting, but never finishing figures, repeatedly. If it can't be perfect they won't complete it. Other seem blissfully unaware of the improvement their work requires (a little bit like off-key "American Idol" singing contestants!), and seem genuinely astonished that the hobby world doesn't hand them every possible accolade for their work (must be a conspiracy!).

Of course, the healthiest attitude is somewhere in between these two extremes. A healthy amount of self criticism is VERY good ... but not to the extent that it prevents one from completing work at relatively regular intervals.

Bill

 

[Chazman]

Originally posted by Billhoran@Jan 29 2005, 09:32 AM
Matt, you bet it happens to me, although not as often as it has in the past. In fact, the figure I am working on right now had to be sawed in half to reduce his height, trouser legs resculptured twice each, as well as other hassles. Once I painted the eyes (I didn't resculpt them initially), I hated them, had to remove them and repaint them as well.

Sometimes you just gotta hang in there!

Bill

Well Bill, in some twisted, perverse way.....I find comfort in the fact that even you, will take a well developed figure and make major revisions, far along in it's progress.

Of course, if you want to reach my level.......

Before sawing that figure in half, you need to completely paint him and mount him. Once you've trimmed his height, you realise that the the groundwork no longer works for you and his left arm is too long.

 

[Wlas]

My art instructer ( dead some 35 years now ) once said: If the Medium does not fight you....it is not Art.

Never has this been more true than when applied to miniatures.

 

[Robin]

Hi Guys

I have been watching this thread with great interest and would like to thank all for replying. I have got alot from it and shall now soldier on rather than getting despondent.

I suppose I just needed to know I wasn't all alone in my quandry.

Thanks again Guys

Robin

 

[JCOX]

Hey guys - great thread. A lot of good responses that are very accurate. The only one who made everything perfectly the first time, without a flaw, is God - and I sure ain't him! Don't know that I'll ever be completely satisfied with my own work, even after many 'touch-ups'.

I believe it all boils down to what we really love. If we didn't love this hobby - the first time our work didn't measure up to the next guys - we'd quit - not worth the effort, never be that good. But since we do love this hobby and see the beauty and excellence in a well painted/sculpted piece - we press on to pursue that excellence. Even when it gets hard and our work isn't quite as good as we'd like it to be. Some will always be better than others - it's the love of it that keeps us going and striving.

-jim cox

 

[Billhoran]

James: Amen, brother.

 

[Marijn Van Gils]

Another recent one for your entertainment:

yesterdaynight, I higlighted and weathered a jacket of a figure I'm working on. I left it to dry a little before applying a coat of matt varnish (I know most people avoid this, but it works for me as long as it precedes shading). During that time, I put a coat of satin varnish on a hand I had finished earlier.

Turning back to the jacket, I put some matt varnish on my palette (which also had all the highlight tones, the satin varnish and many other dried colours on it), and started putting it on the figure. After the first brushload however, I must have turned to the puddle of satin varnish that was still on the palette. It took me untill the end of the jacket to realize that it didn't dry the way I wanted...

Anyway, I applied a coat of flat varnish over it this morning, but some corners will still need extra attention...

Marijn