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look terrible? After watching a lot of tutorials and videos of painted minis on youtube I can't help but notice that the GW representations of the figures they sell in comparison look painted in such a bad, blocky, visually unpleasing way.
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m890055a_99120216001_BeastmenGorsAdd2_873x627.jpg

The body of the one on the far left and all of their fur just makes me cringe.

I know a lot of people that crack jokes about 'Eavy Metal painting

And yes, GW can be so bad that they can make an entire box look unappealing just because of the "official" paint job. Minotaurs for example

I think they look fine. The weird yellow/purple skin one is a bit funny looking, but its effective.

The deadlines they give the 'eavy metal team are probably unsympathetic.

Its a matter of them finding the right paint set, that shows off the model. You also need to realize that the people painting those models maybe take as little as 4 hours to paint them. That in my book is a damn good job. But yes they still suck. At least they don't look like old 'evay metal. Where they chose to use bright red and yellow on everything.

They look fine to me. Its not meant to be a golden demon entry.

They also need to be bold to stand out in magazines and on packaging.

Their techniques are quite good, but their choice of colours and taste is often seriously lacking. Most of the time I dislike their painting schemes. Too bad that they don't allow alternative painting schemes by other painters to be featured in Codices anymore.

It's a matter of accessibility, IMO.
Finding a balance between presentable tabletop quality minis and the ability for people outside the hobby to look at it and decide they could do that or better.
If it was untouhable golden demon quality on every fig, the average (kid) gamer looks at what they painted themselves, and wonders why it's such garbage. They then quit after buying about 5 figs and 4 jars of paint.
GW sad panda.

I always see them as a little cartoon like. Flinty makes good point about the deadlines, I bet they don't have a lot of time to spend on each model.

i couldnt get those quality paint jobs in 4 days let alone 4 hours...

lol i suppose i can see where people are comign from in terms of color schemes but their paint jobs are okay to me, some figures are amazing others are standard depends what you look at and how old it is.

you should have a look at some third ed stuff they did, like iron warriors for chaos lol, in fact it was one of the how to paint tutes in the codex back then and it went a little like this:

1. Base in black
2. Drybrush boltgun metal
3. highlight some bits in gold
4. your finished

can you imagine the figures from just something so simple? they don't look terrible, but they are definitely nothing special.

however Archim3des raises a brilliant point that never occurred to me and thats accessibility. Looking at the tutorial and figures that made me laugh a little when i first saw them makes me respect what they were trying to achieve much more now. They made reasonable table top figures that everyone can paint and be happy with and subsiquently enjoy the game and spend money for years to come (hopefully).

Well, to me their painjobs look great. Their choice of color sometimes sucks, but most models, especially the orks, RULE! I mean, look at this model for example:

The map on the piece of cloth between his legs! The detail on the gun! Thats my fav mini.

But yeah, there are a few that actually look crappy....

They are usually limited to certain colours, rather than being given free choice, which is the main killer.


Most of the methods they use look ace, but i agree that its the colour that lets them down from time to time.
The minotaurs box is a good example of this.
Amazing tones and shading, poor colours.

Is it just me, or does the OP sound kind of pompous?
The GW paint jobs look great to me. Sure I've seen better mini's when surfing the net, but most of them are works of countless hours. I think hating on GW paint jobs seems like just another attempt at a cheap shot towards GW.

racta wrote: I think hating on GW paint jobs seems like just another attempt at a cheap shot towards GW.

Welcome to dakka! lol

racta wrote:Is it just me, or does the OP sound kind of pompous?
The GW paint jobs look great to me. Sure I've seen better mini's when surfing the net, but most of them are works of countless hours. I think hating on GW paint jobs seems like just another attempt at a cheap shot towards GW.

I'm not saying I could do any better or asking them to hire me, it just made me wonder if that was considered a "good" paintjob.

As a brand new painter I really don't know where the standards are.

racta wrote:Is it just me, or does the OP sound kind of pompous?
The GW paint jobs look great to me. Sure I've seen better mini's when surfing the net, but most of them are works of countless hours. I think hating on GW paint jobs seems like just another attempt at a cheap shot towards GW.

Go troll around CoolMiniOrNot for about 5 minutes and you will see that comparatively Games Workshop paint jobs are not very good. If they cared, they could hire better painters. I'm guessing they're just too lazy and apathetic to keep up with the Joneses.

MrMerlin wrote:Well, to me their painjobs look great. Their choice of color sometimes sucks, but most models, especially the orks, RULE! I mean, look at this model for example:

The map on the piece of cloth between his legs! The detail on the gun! Thats my fav mini.

But yeah, there are a few that actually look crappy....

the decals on the ammo drum here are awesome. This is an exceptional paint job by GW, which to me is rare. But then I have stupid high standards for what should be displayed to represent an entire product.

Emerett wrote:

racta wrote:Is it just me, or does the OP sound kind of pompous?
The GW paint jobs look great to me. Sure I've seen better mini's when surfing the net, but most of them are works of countless hours. I think hating on GW paint jobs seems like just another attempt at a cheap shot towards GW.

Go troll around CoolMiniOrNot for about 5 minutes and you will see that comparatively Games Workshop paint jobs are not very good. If they cared, they could hire better painters. I'm guessing they're just too lazy and apathetic to keep up with the Joneses.

While GW's paint jobs aren't "the best thing ever"--they're certainly not as bad as you, the OP, or Aerethan are making them out to be.

There's a key factor involved with GW's paint jobs, which is something that Jackal already touched upon.
The painters are limited as to what they can do in more ways than one. They have to work within a set of colors, they have to work within a deadline, and they have to work within a set of guidelines which GW has set down which by some accounts, has the painters moved towards making even the display armies looking like something which is "obtainable" by your average painter.
Characters and the like? Yeah, the painters can go nuts on those in some cases--MrMerlin even showcased one. But the Studio painters aren't simply painting one army or unit at a time. Sometimes they're working on up to 3-4 projects at a time for display work. That adds up, in terms of workload and sheer burnout for painters.

I didn't say GW"s painting was bad, I said it is rare that I'm impressed with it as I have high standards for what impresses me with a paint job.

Aerethan wrote:I didn't say GW"s painting was bad, I said it is rare that I'm impressed with it as I have high standards for what impresses me with a paint job.

Maybe it's just a misunderstanding on my part; but the phrasing you used for your statement is a bit different to what you're saying here.

Well, let me clarify. I view a GW average model as decent quality. Not all of them are great, Razorgor being an example. Now, that said, the average GW paintjob on infantryman 105a or whatever doesn't impress me. It is average. Nothing special.

Exceptional paintjobs to me are ones that I know I can't currently accomplish, such as that Ork captain thing. I can't do complex patterns like the diamond pattern on the gun, or even do blending like the pink to red on the feather of the hat. And don't get me started on the awesome map. So, to me, models like that from GW are the exception and not the rule.

CMON just happens to have more examples of exceptional work than GW does, and for many reasons. First there are no real rules to what one can paint on CMON. The sky is the limit. There is no army book that you have to adhere to or some designs team directions. Second, there is no time crunch(in most cases) on the painter to finish. This means that more time can be spent doing the things I can't do like wet blending and OSL, Zenithal highlights, NMM etc.

GW's painters are good. I would hazard that Confrontations painters were much better, or at least the studio models were for whatever reason. GW in general doesn't do advanced techniques like those mentioned above. The Confrontation models had tons of NMM and wet blending, making their models look almost animated.

I'm not a GW fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, but most of the time their painting is sufficient to sell the product, and in some rare cases it excels beyond that to a truly awesome work of art.

Thank you for clarifying Aerethan. Like I said, I thought it might just have been a misunderstanding on my part, but it is good to know for certain.

You are absolutely right in how your follow-up post stated--the GW paintjobs on their standard infantry? It's nothing but average. There's a few characters or bigger monsters where the painters have gone full out and done some pretty nifty things (the High Elf and Skaven characters within the Island of Blood set, for example) while not going too far overboard--but again, they are pretty bog-standard.

I have to wonder though if maybe the difference between Rackham/Corvus Belli's display models and GW is simply the amount of models they would do for the display work?

Kanluwen wrote:Thank you for clarifying Aerethan. Like I said, I thought it might just have been a misunderstanding on my part, but it is good to know for certain.

You are absolutely right in how your follow-up post stated--the GW paintjobs on their standard infantry? It's nothing but average. There's a few characters or bigger monsters where the painters have gone full out and done some pretty nifty things (the High Elf and Skaven characters within the Island of Blood set, for example) while not going too far overboard--but again, they are pretty bog-standard.

I have to wonder though if maybe the difference between Rackham/Corvus Belli's display models and GW is simply the amount of models they would do for the display work?

I agree that model count may have a role in that. Rackham seemed to have fewer models for their games thus more time spent per model. That and Confrontation wasn't a rank and file game.

During the lurid and unpleasant days of the Red Age, the 'eavy metal and studio types were told to make their paintjobs simple and strong coloured. So that they were more easily aspired to, a nearer goal to achieve.

The more recent work has been far more polished than that and I've seen some very good paintjobs from the studio, both the sales pics and the displays. I do wish they'd let the studio guys and girls go a bit more mad though and create what they want.

I don't think any of us mourn the passing of the dark time known as the Red Age.

I think the main purpose of those painted figs is to show off the sculpt and make a relatively achievable paintjob, but not amateurish. This way, new painters would not be intimidated: I know I would be if I saw GW paint jobs and they were painted in GD levels. And that's the normal product shot.

While having never had the experience of going through it, I'm slightly now ashamed to say that I thoroughly enjoy the look of the "Red Age" 'Eavy Metal paintjobs.

It's old timey and silly in a good way, IMHO.

Either way, on topic, while I may not like the look of some of GW's paint schemes, I have to admit that 'Eavy Metal does some good work much greater than I can currently achieve.

Troll finger nails and beastmen horns should never be Blood Red.

Come to think of it, does anyone have a gallery of old Red Age GW pics? I'd love to relive some of the old erm, glory.

Wow, this thread has succeeded in making me lose respect in the paint job of my models. What a pompous and arrogant community I have found myself in. Shame, really, because I do like the game.

I think the beastmen look fine, better than what I could've done. I apologize for not winning any golden demon awards, I guess I should sell my models.

Anyone know a cheap way to paintstrip?

Don Savik wrote:Wow, this thread has succeeded in making me lose respect in the paint job of my models. What a pompous and arrogant community I have found myself in. Shame, really, because I do like the game.

I think the beastmen look fine, better than what I could've done. I apologize for not winning any golden demon awards, I guess I should sell my models.

Anyone know a cheap way to paintstrip?

Ah, don't let the elitists get you down.

When you spend all your time judging the paintjobs of truly talented individuals, the ratings of 9 or 10 on www.coolminiornot.com, it's easy to dismiss any 'mortal' painting out-of-hand. The fact of the matter is the 'Eavy Metal paintjobs are exceptional. They leave 99.99% of 'mortal' armies for dead. It's only a tiny, tiny minority of people who can equal and exceed the standards set in white dwarf. So don't sell your models or strip them just yet!