Recently I have been struggling with the notion of how much detail to put into the painting of 15mm figures. Do I paint the figures to stand out at arms length or do I paint them to be examined close-up with a magnifying glass. The third alternative would be to paint them somewhere in between. WW2, a few weeks ago I discovered a painter that uses a very loud painting style. He then takes pictures from a few feet away and they truly scream out at you. I know this method and have used this method for years but over the last two my painting, especially of 28mm have become much softer. No harsh screaming degrees of tonality or color, more of a sleepy and quiet look which requires a close look to interpret.
One issue I have always had with gaming at cons is that there is never any light. This has always gotten me crazy. I spend hours and hours painting these models. I then use them in a game and you can barely notice the work. This of course has been with the 25mm models. 15mm and less is a whole norther world. This is what I did-I took some models and painted them in a very discrete and subdued fashion using washes. I based and took pictures. Then weeks later I went back and added more details. Finally, I took them about three weeks later and added more detail but this time used more contrasting colors to bring them to life and make them stand out on the tabletop. The purpose of all this is to allow you to make out the details from a few feet away. I really like this look and think that it actually makes sense. At the end of the day it shows up pretty obviously in the pictures. You decide…
Original
Retouched 8th Army
Original
Retouched DAK