Reply To: What Are You Painting Now?

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Entry number one.  King Leonidas of Sparta

This is from the Wargames Illustrated Giants in Miniature range.  I have painted him so he can be used in a game, which limits what you can do in terms of basing.  The model is hardly historically accurate being based on Frank Miller’s 300.  In terms of the scoring categories, how do I think fares?

Proximity to Theme

It’s definitely a champion and I would say that Gerard Butler was most certainly glorious however I don’t necessarily think that the pose itself is particularly glorious.  Menacing perhaps.

Originality

I find their marking in this to be highly inconsistent because originality is somewhat subjective.  Is it original?  Well it’s hard to be original here, the miniature is what it is and the film 300 was what it was.  I think to paint that model any other way would have done it a disservice.  However in a competition where nearly everyone submits some sort of 40k model (and even worse, mostly Space Marines), one could argue anything that strays away from that is original.  However I suspect I am going to lose points here, probably for all three

Painting Skill

I like to think I have done a reasonable job with it.  This is another area where I often compete in this competition at a disadvantage.  When you are up against people entering mostly plastic GW miniatures, going with a metal miniature – especially a low cost one – can lead to issues.  Some of the casting/sculpting quality on the miniature wasn’t the best – the musculature on the torso was a bit off near the top of the stomach for example.  However I do think miniatures like this have so much character.

Homeworld

This is hard to earn points in when you are limiting yourself to a 25mm base rather than making a full on scenic display base.  I do think that it meets the criteria though, it definitely looks like a dry, mediterranean landscape.  So hopefully the judges won’t be too hard on it.  To be honest, I think there’s a skill, possibly an under appreciated one in some places, to creating simple bases that communicate a theme or convey some message about the model.  But that base could be recreated on an army of hoplites very quickly to create a very effective basing scheme

Photo Quality

This is an area where I am confident I will score well.  I put a lot of effort into taking photos of miniatures and making them interesting.  In this photo, because it’s a historical/fantasy image I have used a parchment effect background.  I did this using a mousemat that I purchased with the pattern on it but you can just as easily use textured paper to get the same effect.  I then added.  Then, because part of the rules state that you have to display your name against the model (because when the competition kicks off you have to show an image of the unpainted model with your username) so I do that using Paint – and I also add a sort of title of the work.  In this case I called it “Come home with your shield Spartan, or on it”.