Maintaining Standards

Hello people,

A potentially oblique reference to a musing that came to me in a similarly oblique manner.

Over the weekend I've had some brush-time with the last 30 rank and file Commandos, representing every last figure that currently have built for the project. In short I've been block painting like the pedant that so many of us are to have them all basecoated and washed.

Having recently read an article, Carmen's Painty Fun Time, about the various standards of painting that we apply to such projects it occurred that if I based them all at this stage they'd look good enough to be deployed as a fully painted army while I finished off the highlight work at my relative leisure.

This also set me to thinking that the whole subject around standard of painted figures / armies is a highly subjective one.

So tracking my own thought processes;

- When starting a new project I won't wait until everything is painted before putting it on the table. I will make sure that it's built to the point of WYSIWYG but otherwise I'm all good with that. An undercoat will make me feel more comfortable though.

- On the gamer / painter balance I'd say I'm probably bang in the middle. Playing with a force that I'm currently painting motivates me to get stuck in with the brush.

- My minimum painting standard for all my figures involves based coat, wash and a couple of layers of highlight.

- I still paint figures as individuals though I'll take a bit more time and effort with a skirmish force than a horde. It does seem that most skirmish and command figures require and allow more painting of them. I still paint by batch when I need to upto a dozen or so at a time.

I suppose, as with so many aspects of the hobby, all of this is subjective to the individual. Back when I worked for GW  we'd encourage a three colour minimum to count as painted. For myself it's whatever the figure requires. I do find that it tend to make more conscious effort with historical figures for a flatter more realistic finish. I suppose that's probably a reaction to my Sci-Fi / Fantasy upbringing.

Anyway another 30 Commandos to a "tabletop standard"....just not quite MY tabletop standard, at least not just yet :)