Wednesday 9 December 2009

[FTW] Worst Painted / Modelled in your experience?

Hey guys,

As part of our collaboration with FTW (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com) each month there'll be a collaborative post that each blog registerd with FTW posts about on a subject.

"What is your absolute worst personal example of modeling/painting?
We've seen the best, collected them and archived them... now let's see your worst stuff.

I'm talking about stuff gone wrong, things that didn't turn out right, conversions that don't look anything like what you planned, that kind of stuff. Stuff you would never show anyone in a million years."


So go on lads and ladettes, what's your worst examples of painting and modelling over the years?

To get the ball rolling, I'll share mine with you. Mostly mine occured through playing Lord of the Rings, starting off painting, modelling and gaming with that, then later moving onto 40k where I had the majority of skills built up from practice.

I've also not got many pictures, as things have since been repainted, stripped or sold on. It's hard to pin point some prime examples, but they all tended to be in the first year or so of painting... a few I can remember fondly:

- Ringwraiths from LOTR, which were painted with Black paint, no shading or highlights etc, then scraping the black paint off the armoured areas, as I thought that showing actual metal would always look better than painted metal.

- Painting all 4 Hobbit characters from the Fellowship box, I decided "Why try and leave black shading near the eyes or in the mouth? - I'll just give everything an overall wash of Black Ink". It made them look like they'd cried Tar out of their eyes, it was really bad.

- My first attempts at painting were a box of LOTR Goblins, which were painted armour Mithril Silver, skin Goblin Green and anything else whatsoever on the model scorched brown. The effect looked like it could have been achieved by a paintball gun.

- I once also went the cheapskate option and used a spray paint from a model railway store to undercoat my figures, only once it had been sprayed on did I realise it was glossy finish. So I had 40 Uruk-Hai warriors in shiny black armour. More fitting to Dark Elves I suppose.

Also, last night I went to find some images for this post at my parents house, where I've left all of my LOTR models due to space, and found this chap... who at one point I thought was one of the pride and joys of my collection:



A knight of Minas Tirith, which by the time of painting I thought I was quite well practiced at painting horses. Looking back now, flat Codex Grey over Chaos Black was a no-no.

Also, tied in with the modelling, I decided that I wanted to make my Knight's horses stand out more from the other ranges of knights and cavalry, so I tried to use Greenstuff to make barding for the horses.

Rather than think things through, roll the GS flat, cut it to shape and then drape it over, I decided to just attach parts here and there, stick my fingers in it and then deal with the consequences and in the end it ended up looking a mess.

The funny thing is, I then went and did this to 4 other Horses because I thought it looked good at the time... and let's not even get started on the Orc that's being trampled on the base!

So, I'll leave it there for now, and open it up to everyone else - What are YOUR prime examples of bad painting / modelling?

4 comments:

  1. My worst model is the very old space marine captain i painted when i was about 10 years old. He is blood red with a yelloe and a green shoulder pad and a blue knee cap. At the time i though he looked cool, almost like an 'all chapter' commander, now i cry when i look at him.

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  2. The worst painting i have ever seen was by Matt with his stand and shoot Khornate army of feel no pain doom with leopard skin crotch cup. *shivers* that makes me cry just thinking about it

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  3. As for my own creations of horror, there was the majority of my Eldar before i repainted the worst dry brushing everything silver doesnt always work. My worst conversion was more recent, last week to be precise, making my Necromunda Gang Leader with one arm facing backwards and to one side the other arm off to the other side his body slightly twisted and his head looking forwards. Taught me to plan before glueing rather than glue one bit at a time and then plan the next. The New gang leader looks much better

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  4. Mine was in the old days of Epic I got a warlord titan in the Space Marine Boxed set I painted it a multide of colours but forgot to undercoat it over the period of a bout 3 weeks the paint peeled it ended up looking like a patchwork moster. I then tried to strip it in turps and it started to melt ended up looking like something a nurgling would throw up. Not good. Put me off painting anything till my first rhino 2 years ago. Now im a painting machine.

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