"What are you bad at painting?" Topic

This is not a "what don't you like to paint?" question.
I always mention white straps. The truth of the matter is that I'm not bad at painting them. I just don't like to do it.

No. This is a poll on what you are not good at.

For me, it's actually painting on a flat surface. I love modern figures, with creases in the cloth, detailed faces, elaborate armor, etc. These are easily dealt with by staining, dry brushing, layers, etc.
my problem is when I actually have to DRAW something with a paint brush.
So, to start this discussion, I will freely admit that I am bad at:
1. Knight shields.
2. Horse barding.
3. Eyes

If the face is sculpted well enough, you can avoid or fake eyes. But if you're going to do Knights….. Thats a Lion Rampant? Really?
For some reason, I'm not that bad at hoplite shields. A do a mean Gorgon head! But Knights?

I'm ok with tartan, but I'm really bad at
4. Dicing on the hose. (Diagonal. Why does it have to be diagonal?)

I am not "bad" at painting anything, I just am "bad" at getting motivated to actually bother to paint.

Dots. I can't paint round dots. Blotches, yes. Odd shaped eggs, of course. But round dots? Nope. No can do.

Eyes

Shields etc. I deal with by using decals

John

Faces, all my faces seem to look like Kabuki characters.

Everything.

I don't even try to paint eyes.

buildings..

Figures

Straight lines, always wobbly or too fat, too thin.

Miniatures mostly.

Shields.

Really big figures, because I have to use a magnifying lamp and they are hard to get under it. I can paint them but not to my best.

Spontaneity.

Give me uniforms, and I love varying within dye lots and weathering and worn knees. But give me a random crowd of zombies, Vikings, or civilians, and I simply draw a blank when it comes time to pick out wardrobe colors.

I look around at the real world, and see everyone wears jeans and black hoodies. I try to replicate it, and it starts looking like uniforms again. I look through Sunday ads to see what models are wearing, and realize all my paint colors seem to be green, khaki, or gray.

The spare room…

Heraldic animal designs. My rampant lions look like smashed bugs. My boar's heads look like spiky blobs. ANY animal looks like a splat. And I'd make an even bigger hash of applying decals.

Flat surface designs in general like what Winston mentions. And LETTERING! I can't letter with a brush, even worse than with a pen.

I'm not good yet on animal fur, getting the shading and ticking to look good.

Not very good at recreating complicated, printed cloth patterns or designs, e.g. ancient Persians or Thracians or just modern chintz cloth.

I can't do those tricks with semi-opaque clothing, or to make glass look real, like other painters can.

I am always freehand painting British union flags in cantons and as regimental colors and I never get the stripes to come out straight, or proportional. I will only struggle so long to fix these things and then I give up and make the best of what I've done.

Eyes, camouflage patterns.

Eyes.

Tartans, shields, checkerboard patterns and so much more…sigh

White uniforms never come out like I'd wish.
Marco

The same things Winston mentions, plus lettering as per piper. Russian Jagers have their regimental number in brass numerals on the front of their cartridge cases, and I can't even do a credible job with pens. Eech…

The swallows nests on musician's uniforms.

The wargames shed.

Things that aren't uniform--I seem to lack imagination.

Yep, the dicing on highland stockings is the worst.

I know this is slightly off-topic, but assembling things--1/300 scale planes, 28mm armored cars or vehicles, not good at it and it freaks me out.

figures in general

Faces. I don't even try anymore. Just a base color, dry brush highlights and a wash. From 6mm to 54mm, same process.

White straps.

And brown straps. Black straps. Beige straps.

I always dork it up and have to cover some part of the background cover. Then redo the strap. Until I get tired of it.

Got to be the Tartans; better yet painting those figures which no two look the same; Vikings, Barbarians or even Native American Indians.

@Extrabio1947
Use a rounded tooth pick with a pointed tip…got that tip from that girl who paints figures for WSS on YouTube. Works like a champ.

P.

Insignia (on aircraft and vehicles) and flags. They just don't look nice when I do them by paintbrush. Unfortunately, I also suck with insignia decals and paper flags, so my WWII fighters and horse & musket command stands look like crap.

Looking at my previous (LONG previous) work, I did just fine at dicing, checker patterns, stripes, tartans, etc. but painting such things makes my eyes cross and if I persist, eventually I start to gibber insanely like a man seeing Cthulhu for the first time. I prefer to pay other people to paint these things for me.

- Ix

I know this is slightly off-topic, but assembling things--1/300 scale planes, 28mm armored cars or vehicles, not good at it and it freaks me out.

You have PBSD – Post Biplane Stress Disorder. It's a perfectly normal reaction to assembling multi-wing aircraft, and it can affect other parts of life too. Does assembling a tent or shelter with poles make you want to curl up in a ball and mutter to yourself?

- Ix

Can't stand painting tires and tracks.

I'm bad at painting faces, insignia, and letters. That may be why most of my figures are wearing advanced armor (like Traveller battle dress or combat armor).

I have some decals for vehicle insignia and ID numbers that I'm sure I'll apply someday.

I did some starships a long time ago, and tried to paint the Traveller Imperial sunburst on them. They came out so bad that I think I should paint over them and use some really small decals. (Ad Astra used to make them, and maybe still does.)

On the other hand, my Zhodani trefoils came out very well. I used round stickers as masks for spray painting.

I think that I paint camouflage and dust and dirt pretty well.

Faces for me too.

You have PBSD – Post Biplane Stress Disorder.

I did do ten Swordfish torpedo bombers in 1/300 by two different manufacturers. They were awful. Gives me shivers to think about it. A friend just suggested we do a re-run of Taranto, which would mean painting many more Swordfish in a different color scheme. I don't think so.

That's a good tip, above, about using pointy round toothpicks with only a small amount of paint on the end to "dot" nice round circles -- I discovered this on my own years ago. Not only often the best way to apply nice small dots or dotted patterns on things, but I find this the best way to put a tiny dot of paint on a raised button, or to make a thin line on a raised buckle. Much better control of where the paint goes than with even a fine brush.

I did do ten Swordfish torpedo bombers in 1/300 by two different manufacturers. They were awful. Gives me shivers to think about it.

I giggled all the way through your blog postings about that project. :-)

I've heard enough stories like yours to put me off trying to build biplanes (or triplanes). Apparently even plastic models with the parts precisely cast aren't perfect.

The only biplanes I've ever built were 1/1200 Swordfish, and the top wing is just glued on – easy. (But putting roundels on 1/1200 scale planes – NOT easy. Ugh.)

A friend just suggested we do a re-run of Taranto, which would mean painting many more Swordfish in a different color scheme. I don't think so.

Just send them to Kevin at miscmini.com and pay him to do it.

- Ix

I'm really poor at painting armor/vehicles; especially camo

Designs, like on flags, or other flat artwork. I envy cartoonists… ;-)

Never tried a face on a 15mm figure.

Can't stand painting tires and tracks.

+1

German WW2 Splittermuster – this was, by far, the most common camouflage in WW2 but the angular shapes are very difficult to paint.

Tires on 6 mm vehicles. I end up with too many trapezoids, not enough circles. I gave up and have much better results by using ink pens with brush tips.

Eyes. One of the reasons I've tended towards Space Orks and Marines in 40K :)

I am not bas at painting anything, but I can say that I HATE painting Highlander socks ( hose ). They really get under my skin.

My most recent project proves that I cannot paint aliens as well as I would like.