I guess smaller is better, sometimes
Mind-Boggling Miniature Painting Contest
A few years back, I got obsessed with sci-fi tabletop wargamming (namely, Warhammer 4000). I even ran a popular sci-fi game modeling site for a time. As part of covering the hobby (at least that’s what I told the taxman), I attended several Games Day conventions in Baltimore. I thought my painting and modeling were pretty damn good. And then I saw the Golden Demon Awards, the model conversions/painting contests held at these cons. The conversions were incredible, the paint jobs were absurd. Keep in mind as you look at these images that these figures are 28mm scale (that’s about 1.1 inches!). You start with bare metal, and after hours sometimes counted in the hundreds, you end up with results like these. An eyeball on one of these models is like the point of a pin, and yet, these painters manage several levels of highlights, reflections, and glints. A current trend is painting lighting effects, torch light or laser blasts reflected on models and scenery. Crazy.
These must be heterosexual nerds, the gay ones do have a sex life that keeps them from achieving that level of artisanship.
With the same detail showing up on rice grains, I would have thought one inch high was lazy man art. Gay or Straight.
I was a Model builder (Kits…) in my teens. Never had the patience to go to that extra detail. But, hey… try to detail a soldier at 1/72 scale. The damn thing is half inch high…
Once I built a German WWII tank (an Elephant.) It was medium sized @1/48. Tamiya if I’m not mistaken. That one I built a diorama and stuff. It was kinda neat. I remember the pains I had to put the look on the Officer: three day beard and blue eyes… I used the tip of a steel nail…
Ahhhh… Don’t have the patience now for this… Maybe when I grow some grandchildren…
#2
Either way gay nerds get laid and straight nerds don’t 😛
If you went to the “Games Workshop’s website” link at the end of the article you would see that a chic “Natalya Melnik” won most of the first place awards. So some must be getting laid and she’s not bad looking either.
Speaking of time wasting obsessions: I recently had the brilliant idea of making animated videos; I had the studio, and a considerable body of hobbiest level work (songs), and I figured to mix little animations with my music and relaunch the old web site with Google Ads adorning the side panels then sit back and watch the money trickle in. (I don’t need much more than a trickle, I’m kinda sorta off the grid, even with a day job.)
Right about then I discovered the lie the purveyers of 3d modeling apps tell you when they tell you all about how quick and easy it is to be doing “professional level” work in no time at all. By the time you get into shaders, map textures, posing and all the rest of it the idea knocks gently against your head, like an anvil swinging on a rope, that maybe somebody has twisted the truth.
I’d have been quicker painting up those tiny scale models, doing stop motion photography, and even had time to get laid, if I wasn’t too tired. I’m old, you know.
I recall back in my AD&D days buying those lead figures and just looking at them. I knew to a moral certainty that if I even TRIED painting them, they would turn out like crap. that is some impressive stuff.
talk about jumping on a stereotype bandwagon – the winning artist is an attractive female – and apparently she is one of the most famous miniature painters out there
Hi! I a small, little, tiny person. You would barely notice me at work or in public because I’m nearly microscopic. This is my work, and it took years.
Squint, and respect me, giant human thing! Bow down (really, really low down) before my pinhead painting. Buying enough paint for a canvas is for artists, support your local dweeb!
LOL @ #1. Well said. A female with any interest in them would go off like a bomb and decimate all their minture toy painting time.