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I was told by a judge my paint score was low due to I didnnt weather my tanks. I dont want them weathered. What do you all think.

What was your army? I have Orks, Eldar, Tau, SM, and CSM, and the only vehicles I put any weathering on are the Orks. In my mind, the other armies would be too proud to let their machines stay dirty for very long. YMMV, of course.

swordbrotherjim wrote:I was told by a judge my paint score was low due to I didnnt weather my tanks. I dont want them weathered. What do you all think.

I think that if you enter events where that judge is assigning paint scores, you will score low if you don't weather your tanks.


Different events have different criteria for paint scoring. If in doubt, ask them to make their scoring criteria available before the event, so you can decide what to do to improve your score.

I wanna see the tank in question please.

That's why I hate painting scores, personally. If you don't paint the way the judge thinks you should have then you fail.

I don't like the look of tanks with heavy weathering either, and for some armies it doesn't really look all that good anyway (like Eldar/Dark Eldar). It's also way easy to overdo, too, and you can completely ruin a paintjob because you got careless with it. Oh well though, some people like gakky-looking models I guess.

To be fair, weathering tanks looks awesome. I didn't want to before because I was scared of messing up the paintjob, but since then I've found it's tons of fun to do it and it makes your tank look awesome.

Brother SRM wrote:To be fair, weathering tanks looks awesome. I didn't want to before because I was scared of messing up the paintjob, but since then I've found it's tons of fun to do it and it makes your tank look awesome.

I disagree. Most weathered vehicle paint jobs I've seen look like theyve taken skill and patience to pull off, but I dislike them and if I ever get around to paint my predator it won't be weathered.

As said - get the criteria beforehand. Paint scores are 100% subjective.

Paint scores dont have to be subjective.

You can assign points based on levels of painting
for example.

0 pt - unpainted
1 pt - three colors
2 pt - three colors and based
4 pt - completely themed army

For best overall have the armies on display for a 30ish min before the tournament starts and have all the players cast a vote.

This rewards the effort while at the same time eliminates the judges "tastes" from the tournament score.

Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

BrookM wrote:Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

Because, you know, they spend so much time in the dirt...

Did he mean to try and weather the exhaust vents for scorch marks? Darkening the exhaust would make sense.

BrookM wrote:Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

Weathering is more than just dirt. Rust streaks, nicks in the paint, dents, battle damage...

He showed us a tank of his own as an example of how it should be done. Aircraft are not bumper cars.

BrookM wrote:Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

I work on real combat aircraft.
they are dirty, smelly, and oily.
Weathering is entirely appropriate.

marv335 wrote:

BrookM wrote:Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

I work on real combat aircraft.
they are dirty, smelly, and oily.
Weathering is entirely appropriate.

But are they also rusty and scraped all over? I hope not.

BrookM wrote:

marv335 wrote:

BrookM wrote:Could be worse, there was this guy telling us to weather our flyers. fething idiot.

I work on real combat aircraft.
they are dirty, smelly, and oily.
Weathering is entirely appropriate.

But are they also rusty and scraped all over? I hope not.

In a combat zone, sure.

lets see this offending tank eh

darefsky wrote:Paint scores dont have to be subjective.

You can assign points based on levels of painting
for example.

0 pt - unpainted
1 pt - three colors
2 pt - three colors and based
4 pt - completely themed army

For best overall have the armies on display for a 30ish min before the tournament starts and have all the players cast a vote.

This rewards the effort while at the same time eliminates the judges "tastes" from the tournament score.

Very old school and should be used in tournament play. Unfortunately we have too many Art Snobs in this hobby that dictate what is the standard scoring practices are in tournament play.

I'm one of those people that like non weathered tanks. As stated before painting is Subjective. I have seen crap that won in Golden Demon Awards and people get nerfed because it was not painted a certain *cough GW cough* way. Enough is enough already unless you want more people flipping the bird and just leave the hobby all together.

I use a variation of darefsky method in scoring in my tournaments I run, and depending on the tournament, painting is a separate award given that does not effect the outcome of the tournament in question.

Painting is part of the hobby. Don't make it a reason for people not to paint or leave the hobby all together.

All my marines and tanks are not weathered. They will never be weathered. I personally don't like that look. If I don't win at painting, oh well. I'll just win all my games and take Best General home

Brother SRM wrote:To be fair, weathering tanks looks awesome. I didn't want to before because I was scared of messing up the paintjob, but since then I've found it's tons of fun to do it and it makes your tank look awesome.

Every tank? For every army?

That's where I disagree. And then, like I said, it's still really easy to overdo it and ruin the entire thing.

In some armies weathering makes sense and in some it does not. Many IG regiments and SM chapters spend a lot of time making everything look nice and shiny to show off their colors before a battle. Some don't and sometimes the ones that do just don't have the time to do it. To have points deducted from a paint score for not weathering it seems kind of silly to me, but that is a pitfall you deal with when competing in any event with subjective scoring.

I certainly don't think 'weathering' should be "required" for the majority of painting contests.

On the other hand, I've seen vehicles that were beautifully painted but without weathering. They can end up looking very 'detached' from reality, especially if they are lacking in some sort of touches to make them look human.

I consider it kid of like the way some historical miniatures forces are posed in 'parade formation.' It looks nice on display, but can look artificial on the battlefield.

Ill post some of the pics tomorrow in my gallery.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It is the 41st millenium. I think they have paint and bondo....

BrookM wrote:He showed us a tank of his own as an example of how it should be done. Aircraft are not bumper cars.

You're obviously not using aircraft the Orky way then!

Sidstyler wrote:
Every tank? For every army?

That's where I disagree. And then, like I said, it's still really easy to overdo it and ruin the entire thing.

Yes, aside from tanks I painted before I started weathering. Imperial and Chaos tanks anyway; I don't know how much dirt and mud I'd like to slather on a sleaker, cleaner looking vehicle like a Tau or Eldar hovertank. Those I'd probably keep clean. Rugged tanks like Rhinos and Leman Russes though? You bet those are getting dirty in the field. I don't want to give the impression my tanks spend all day parked on a parade ground

swordbrotherjim wrote:Ill post some of the pics tomorrow in my gallery.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It is the 41st millenium. I think they have paint and bondo....

You're right. You'd think they would combat rust better too.

Brother SRM wrote:Yes, aside from tanks I painted before I started weathering. Imperial and Chaos tanks anyway; I don't know how much dirt and mud I'd like to slather on a sleaker, cleaner looking vehicle like a Tau or Eldar hovertank.

...so in other words, "Yes, every tank. But no, not every tank, because for some armies it doesn't look good."

Which is kinda what I was saying. : \

Sidstyler wrote:

Brother SRM wrote:Yes, aside from tanks I painted before I started weathering. Imperial and Chaos tanks anyway; I don't know how much dirt and mud I'd like to slather on a sleaker, cleaner looking vehicle like a Tau or Eldar hovertank.

...so in other words, "Yes, every tank. But no, not every tank, because for some armies it doesn't look good."

Which is kinda what I was saying. : \

But what you're saying is kind of silly I think, Sid.

Weathering grav vehicles is completely appropriate, but not if you're simply copy/pasting the same techniques as those on ground vehicles.

Especially not having metal scratches on things like the Craftworld Eldar vehicles, which are made of Wraithbone.
The big thing would be various dust streaks on the front of the vehicle/bottom I think.

Kan has it right! For instance, I like it when people paint an engine burn on the engines of Tau vehicles - they're still exhausting heat after all! But covering it with rust and scratches and junk just looks a little silly since it's supposed to be hovering off the ground. I wouldn't paint a treaded vehicle without weathering it though, unless it was meant to be sitting on a showroom floor at Bob's Used Rhinos.

I think that the scoring was a little bit too subjective. I think weathering looks cool, but I can't do it. What is wrong with a fresh tank? And what about Blood Angels? It is in their fluff that they take extra good care of their vehicles.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:I think that the scoring was a little bit too subjective. I think weathering looks cool, but I can't do it. What is wrong with a fresh tank? And what about Blood Angels? It is in their fluff that they take extra good care of their vehicles.

Forgive me for being off topic, but don't blood angels drop their land raiders onto the battlefield?

And I want to see the tank. Personally, all of my tanks(when I'm done) will look like they came out of Degobah, but that's just for the fluffy bits in my army. Aren't some of the imperium vehicles hundreds of years old?

Brother SRM wrote:Kan has it right! For instance, I like it when people paint an engine burn on the engines of Tau vehicles - they're still exhausting heat after all! But covering it with rust and scratches and junk just looks a little silly since it's supposed to be hovering off the ground. I wouldn't paint a treaded vehicle without weathering it though, unless it was meant to be sitting on a showroom floor at Bob's Used Rhinos.

Well Tau are supposed to have poor eye sight, he could very well be flying through ruins and such.

The nicest thing I think about weathering is there is so much room open for interpretation. The lack of it could be explained away as the army just entering battle. Heavy can be explained away as a force deep in a campaign where there are greater priorities when it comes to their vehicles than how shiny it is. Either way when painting it is good to not only pick a theme, but to also pick a setting to go with it. The models are frozen in time after all, why not do so at a key point.

xole wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:I think that the scoring was a little bit too subjective. I think weathering looks cool, but I can't do it. What is wrong with a fresh tank? And what about Blood Angels? It is in their fluff that they take extra good care of their vehicles.

Forgive me for being off topic, but don't blood angels drop their land raiders onto the battlefield?

Drop, but more in a they are quickly deployed way rather than the launched through orbit or dropped 100s of feet as it seems to give the image of.