Would you intentionally skip painting some details?

[Kilofix]

Clearly in the interests of time / resources / ability, we all skip painting some details.

 

But, assuming you had the time / resources / ability, would you intentionally skip painting some details?

 

Reason I'm asking is that (because I'm slightly obssessive compulsive) I like painting every detail on my models. But I've started to notice that because they're so small, they can start to look way too complicated and distracting.

 

Take Possessed Chaos Space Marines for example. I have base armor color, gold trim, bone parts, flesh parts, silver parts, black parts, red hair, cables, etc. (not to mention highlighting) - it can look like a mess of colors from a distance - even though my paint work is clean and adheres to codex.

 

In fact, when I place my detachment next to a friend's detachment that has skipped doing alot of detail and highlighting; his models tend to look much more coherent, identifiable, and neat; which may suggest a 'better' overall paint job. I guess the other thing is that his loyalist Space Marines don't have as complicated trim and bits as Chaos anyway.

 

I'm starting to think that in the next detachment I work on, I should just save the details for close-up photos.

 

Thoughts?

[JeffTibbetts]

That's an important question and I think it's a pretty personal choice. There is more than one way to get around it. If your army is chaotic (in terms of character, not the codex) I think it's fair to have a less cohesive scheme. Sometimes even a riot of different colors can look cool if there's something to tie them together still. Space Wolves can pull this off, for example. It's easy to go off the deep end though and end up with a mess. For my army, I take another approach. 

 

I like to paint all the details as well, but I get away with it by severely limiting my color palette. I use green primarily, bronze trim, some black, red only for weapons and eyes and metal bits here and there, and then occasional small bone details and purity seal parchment. That's just about it. They end up looking mostly green on the field. On bare heads I do paint their flesh of course, and character models have jade accents. Most models are just the basics scheme. The big choice for me was deciding what should be black. Most of my soft metal is black, cables and tubes for the most part, any pouches (Space Marines using leather instead of plastic? Not mine) or extra details are almost always black. This makes those elements contrast nicely with the green but on the tabletop they recede. I keep metal for weapons, mostly, and around the backpack, and face grills because I want those to pop a bit. There are also many things that I keep green, especially on vehicles, because it seems to be the case with real-world tools and machines that even nuts, bolts, studs, etc. are all painted along with everything else. That includes armor details on the marines. Little plates, technical bits, and things like that remain green. I usually don't pick out minor rivets and things in a metal color, except where it's very conspicuous or intentional, like Mk. 6 shoulder pad studs. 

 

Maybe you could post a couple pics in this thread so we might give you some tips? Feel free to look at the army log in my sig if you want to see what I'm up to.

[Chaeron]

It depends on how detailed the models themselves are - I know the Cultists from the Dark Vengeance set were an absolute chore to paint because they were so fantastically detailed, and I wanted to do them in a variety of colours - which in turn, made my life a lot more difficult. Often, it's hard to choose colours that appropriately contrast without being overused, and remain consistent throughout forces (e.g. straps, grenade colours, etc.). It'd be interesting to see some specific examples, and see if there are any ways to get around it?

[Lucien Eilam]

I always work to limit the colour palette rather than skipping details. The more colours you have, the harder it is to keep it looking coherent.

 

So I'll pick one spot colour for cables, gems, purity seals, helmet crests, maybe even plasma coils, etc., and only introduce another when it's absolutely necessary. You can get a lot of mileage from highlighting/shading materials differently even from the same base colour. I paint leather pouches, purity seal parchment, and white squad markings all starting the same way, I just stop highlighting one at brown, one at bone, and one at pure white.

 

You can also tie materials closely together by starting from the same base and mixing in another colour. For example, painting flesh and bone on Possessed. Rather than introducing another colour for flesh, I'd paint it by adding a dab of flesh tone to the bone colour, just enough to give it a bit more warmth. They'll still be very close, but different enough to tell them apart when they're right next to each other. Texture will help to separate them too.

 

When I have silver and gold on the same model, I tie them together by making sure I highlight the gold all the way up to silver, and use a wash on both that includes some deep, oily brown. They're still distinct, but it doesn't look like two completely separate colours because the deepest shadows and brightest highlights are the same.

 

I also like John Blanche's old trick of washing the entire model with the same colour after base-coating. By the time you've finished highlighting and shading, it'll be very subtle, but enough to help bring things together.

 

And finally, start thinking about these things when you assemble the model. If you don't stick accessories like grenades, pouches, holstered pistols, etc. to the model in the first place, you don't have to worry about them clashing. My aim is always that when you look at the squad, you can tell they have grenades, they have spare ammo, they have pistols, but any individual model might have only one or none of those things.

[TeaReks]

I always work to limit the colour palette rather than skipping details. The more colours you have, the harder it is to keep it looking coherent.

 

So I'll pick one spot colour for cables, gems, purity seals, helmet crests, maybe even plasma coils, etc., and only introduce another when it's absolutely necessary. You can get a lot of mileage from highlighting/shading materials differently even from the same base colour. I paint leather pouches, purity seal parchment, and white squad markings all starting the same way, I just stop highlighting one at brown, one at bone, and one at pure white.

 

You can also tie materials closely together by starting from the same base and mixing in another colour. For example, painting flesh and bone on Possessed. Rather than introducing another colour for flesh, I'd paint it by adding a dab of flesh tone to the bone colour, just enough to give it a bit more warmth. They'll still be very close, but different enough to tell them apart when they're right next to each other. Texture will help to separate them too.

 

When I have silver and gold on the same model, I tie them together by making sure I highlight the gold all the way up to silver, and use a wash on both that includes some deep, oily brown. They're still distinct, but it doesn't look like two completely separate colours.

 

I also like John Blanche's old trick of washing the entire model with the same colour after base-coating. By the time you've finished highlighting and shading, it'll be very subtle, but enough to help bring things together.

 

And finally, start thinking about these things when you assemble the model. If you don't stick accessories like grenades, pouches, holstered pistols, etc. to the model in the first place, you don't have to worry about them clashing. My aim is always that when you look at the squad, you can tell they have grenades, they have spare ammo, they have pistols, but any individual model might have only one or none of those things.

 

 

This, this and more this.

 

Try to limit yourself to maybe 8 colors max.  Design your theme around analogous colors and use complementary colors sparingly.  I always have a bit of white and black available to soften or darken a color without changing the overall tone of the model. 

 

Instead of focusing on the right way to paint each part of a model, focus on the whole model.  On my White Scars I am able to use a light tan that comes across as yellow without pulling attention away from the white.  On my deathwatch, that same tan is the base for my cloth and purity seals and could be mistaken for white.

 

Try looking at some of those brain teasers that involve color perception to see what I mean.  Knowing this has really improved my painting by large margins.

[Major_Gilbear]

[...]

 

So much good advice! :D

 

I agree with pretty much all of this, and was only going to elaborate a bit more on colours themselves: Use drab neutral colours (browns, greys, soft blacks, tans, some khaki) for the bits, and stick to bolder colours (as in: limited palette, strong tonal contrast colours) for the main parts of the model. Licien Eilam's quite right that you need to limit this palette quite severely if you don't want it to get lost and look a mess. However, as long as you keep all the gubbinz in neutral tones that don't clash with your scheme, then they will visually recede.

 

With metals, it's best not to pick those which are similar, since with highlights and shading you can get a lot of milage from just one. If you much have more than one metal, make them distinct, and think carefully about where you put them; generally you will want a dark metal and a bright metal to get further visual separation.

 

Check out pictures of Iron Warriors models if you want to see what I mean; those which look really good have the balance between the diffrent metals, gubbinz, hazard striping and spot colours right, wherease those that look less good are ususually missing one or more key element. Also, check out pictures of Necrons to see what small alterations in colour choice do to unify a force without it looking muddled. These are good subjects to contrast with one another as they are both typically "mostly-silver" schemes. :)

[Bannus]

I quite often skip details that people will won't even look for. That area between the bolter and the Marine's chest gets minimal attention from me (partially because I completely assemble my minis before painting for strength). I have never had someone ask my why I didn't paint the side of the bolter next to the Marine's chest.

 

That is just an example, but I do it all of the time. It is amazing how the mind can trick itself into thinking something is there when in reality there isn't.

[Kilofix]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. What I take from all this is; Paint all the details I want but limit it to similar or neutral colors.