"How good is good enough?" Topic

I believe that there are really two things being talked about here, art and work.

In part yes, but the focus of my initial post was more the question of how separate the two things truly are and how much overlap others would like to see or can afford to permit between the two.

Much is made of the fact that gamers take pride in the aesthetics of the miniatures they assemble for their armies, and that if it were solely about the gaming paper counters or plastic pawns would serve just as well. Yet that doesn't seem to fit with the idea of not paying sculptors to produce the best miniatures they can.

Unless the issue is one that gamers like to feel they are improving castings through the time they spend painting them, rather than spoiling an excpetional casting by not being able to paint it to a standard that does justice to it's refinement? I know as a proffessional I can now sculpt to a higher standard than I can paint, and as such painting my own work isn't necessarily the best move I can make in terms of presentation.

Is it perhaps the fact that fantasy gamers are wanting to spend longer on painting miniatures for display than historical gamers that means they are willing to accept smaller armies in order to spend more on each casting, rather than the cause and effect being the other way around and that fantasy gamers through needing less miniatures are willing to allocate more resources to each miniature. Is there any other reason why fatasy gaming rules should be writen to utilise smaller armies than historic gaming rules than the fact they are written by people that like to collect and paint really detailed miniatures and they couldn't spare the time or money to do that with rules demanding huge armies?

That's another thing. Getting "museum quality" figures, for some of us, doesn't fit our painting skill set. There's some really nice looking figures that I could trash in an evening's worth of painting.

But that's my subjective opinion (being my own harshest critic). I've bought painted figures and ended up wondering why, since the paint jobs I could have gotten out of my 5-year-old grandson.

Although, I don't think the sculptor and painter bring the same thing to the table.

I don't think a painter can "rescue" a sub-quality figure (not enough to matter), but a painter can take a masterful figure and turn into something less than acceptable.

What I want is an army that you can pick out when someone walks up to the table and say, "that's a regiment of ACW infantry" or "that's a company of IJA infantry" or that's a Sherman and that's a Tiger". I'm not concerned with making it so one can say "that's the 7th Wisconsin" or "that's the 2nd company of 3rd battalion, 2nd AD". Back to the limited budget again, I want troops that fit into a larger period, not a specific two week period of 1943, etc.

And instead of sourcing all the figures from one vendor (who typically can't offer enough variety) I gather from multiple vendors to get the variety of poses I'm after.

Very interesting thread and lots of information here.

I recently started my own miniature line, link
because I just couldn't find good enough 28mm historical figures for my painting purposes. It has always puzzled me the lack of quality in most of this scale/size figures. Gamers or painters of 28mm fantasy figures can get (and demand) quality on their figures (Studio MacVey for example), but 28mm historical gamers or painters don't usually demand this quality, and there are very few figures that can be compared in terms of quality with 28mm fantasy figures.
I will keep on producing 28mm as I think they should be done. I know it's a lost cause (I cannot compete in prices with mayor manufacturers or cheaper brands) and will have to prop it at some point, , but I will try to keep on producing this kind of figures to other painters, gamers, collectors, who do like them.

Saludetes

There ya go, fixed your own problem.

But if I need 100 line dogs to make an army, I want 100 figures I can afford and that when painted look like the line dogs I wanted. When I want a half-dozen specialists, I'll hunt around and find the best available BECAUSE smaller amounts cost less. Kinda like a chess set, we really don't care what a pawn looks like, but the rook or bishop, we'd like them to stand out.

I admire excellence in craftsmanship. But that doesn't often translate into purchases due to the cost. Example: there are multiple ranges of ACW cav figures that are well above average sculpt-wise. But at $3 USD/per, it's out of my reach to do Brandy Station with them. But at less than $.50 USD/per, plastics make it highly affordable. When you get to 500 figures a side anything over 10mm becomes cost prohibitive, for me anyway.

Mass production means that there are limits on what you need in the sculpt as well as what you can do with the sculpt.

I think all you have to do is look at the average quality of miniatures today and 40 years ago to see that thinking in terms of limits only limits you. The comfort zone today was once outside what was thought possible.

I think the question is between satisfaction and money. In your idle hours you don't contemplate the stuff you churned out for a buck, you think about the times when you did your best. The more of these there are the more content you will be with what you did with your time.

"n your idle hours …you think about the times when you did your best. The more of these there are the more content you will be with what you did with your time"

amen