"Today I commited a terrible Crime painting Figures" Topic

Today I am ashamed of myself a grown man committed to realism and today I weakened and painted my figures unrealistically. I have some new 1/72 scale modern men carrying a Carl Gustav. This is an approximately a 1m long drainpipe painted pretty much NATO green. The man is dressed in NATO green. Now I should have just painted the whole figure NATO green, including his face which would be cammoed up along with blackboots and gloves (which is correct).

Instead I committed a terrible crime and painted the drain pipe black. At wargames ranges any subtly on the green of the drainpipe and the man would be total lost. Was my crime justified?

It does beg the question on painting figures, do you paint them unrealistically with none existent contrast? OR paint them excessively with subtle colors which is a pointless waste of time as this will be invisible at war games ranges, or admit that as kids we go it right and one color and maybe black boots and gloves is the most realistic when used as war games figures? Should painting proper be left to 28mm figures and above where you just might see the model differences at 4 ft when you glance at them.

has anybody looked at research that shows what does show up at war-games ranges. Close up who cares I am not interested, I don't get within 6" of a model when I am playing.

As an afterthought painting the figures correctly may have other massive advantages. The enemy may not be able to distinguish what sort of weapon is being carried, more realism with less effort. maybe as wargamer's we have lost the plot, including me.

Death to the heretic!

You could have shaded the green, and will the CG still be in pristine condition? A few flecks of silver showing through at the edges ?

As to the figure – mud splashes, scuffed boots ?

But as the op says, not noticeable at a metre. I painted different regiments of Russian Civil War troops in various shades of khaki-green and I can barely distinguish them close up, let alone under poor lighting.

Here it is the black bits are not even on the 1/72 model nor should they be way to small to represent. This is before the guy and the weapon get dusty.

link

I really says we are not even realistic in what we paint.

Death to Fanatics!!!
Oh, wait…

Are you going to display the figure or put it on a table and roll some dice?
If displaying, then shame on you.
If dice are involved, then you need to be able to identify that trooper from across the table, so take some "artistic license" and move on to the next shiny project.

But as the op says, not noticeable at a metre. I painted different regiments of Russian Civil War troops in various shades of khaki-green and I can barely distinguish them close up, let alone under poor lighting.

All true….but the OP invited castigation, and who am I not to oblige ?

I paint detail, shading etc. on my figures because I enjoy it. I take any license I feel like. This is a hobby. I am under no obligation to anyone. If my figures offend you, you are free to go play somewhere else.

Styberg, display? DISPLAY I am a WARGAMER Confuseing me with a MODELLER how dare you insult me with such terrible insinuations.

My son, your penance is to say five Hail Perry's.

Ego te Absolvo. Go and sin no more.

I love to detail my figs but I gave up painting things people don't see a while ago

Now that I am doing a lot of 6mm my approach to detail is, shall we say, a bit less OCD

Very good young novice. You detected my subtle trap and easily defeated it. You are growing strong in the ways of wargame-fu. Perhaps, with practice and dedication, you may one day run a convention game!

Do what you want, but know that for ever after you alone will notice the shortcut and cringe!
The curse of the gamer!

Give the weapons an N.Grn or gunmetal wash; You've already given them a black undercoat… ;-)

I draw the line at figures not painted or just primed on the gaming table. Otherwise, suit yourself.

Look, painting miniatures is not anything like the tree falling in the forest situation.

The tree is something you find when you're hiking and you imagine that it made a noise when it came down.

The miniature is something that you created, and you know whether the Carl Gustav is black or green -- or green with black grips and shoulder rest -- and whether or not you and your players can see it when standing around the table, you still have to decide whether you can live with what you've done.

Luckily for you, you can make amends. If we were talking about using silver instead of blued steel for a samurai sword, we would have no choice but to offer to read your death poem and stand by as your second while you performed your seppuku.

Oberlinders, Its not really that what I have done so much as the awful realisation I have over the years wasted so much time painting for no gain whatsoever. I realise that so much of wargaming is tradition without logical foundation, everybody say you have to paint figures and the more detail the better regadless of th actaul gain.
Because it was a "more realxed game" than typcaly last night I did manage tyo snatch a second or two to look at the latest offending figures. I realised I could not even tell the gun was black! Hence Just a very basic colour is really all that is neccessary, the rest is art for arts sake with no gain on the table.

"The rest is for art's sake with no gain on the table".
That's why we're not using counters. I've played the same scenario with cards for units, and with figures. The figure game felt different.
But between a cardboard chit and a Golden Demon winner, it's all personal preference. I tend towards your current view, UshCha.

I think the thing is we need to be inclusive and not anti-folk who don't see the need to paint more than the absolute minimum say one or perhaps 2 coloures in some cases to game with figures.

I never paint eyes anymore. Just a slash for the eyebrow.
I hardly ever bother with buttons either or buckles.

There was apparently a short vouge for having readable TARE plates on N Guage Locos but you needed a good maginfying glass to read them. I have to confess it never struck me as something to aspire too. However I am not toatally immune. I did produce as accurate as possible (given stdard M gauge rail is not scale) english steam railway buffers as the commercial ones were to me inadequate. But wargames just need a quick colour and they are good to go.

I once needed a lot of 1/72 ACW cavalry really quickly. I slapped bay coloring on the horses, black manes and tails, brown saddles and girths, green bases. Quick blue and light blue on the riders (they were Union), hands and faces, black boots, and hey presto.

During the game, I had trouble distinguishing these slap-dash figures from the ones where each bridle and rein was carefully picked out with a .0000001-size brush.

The moral? I needed new eyeglasses.

Grumble87106, OR you have wasted years painting figures to a pointless standard ;-). Think of all the games you could have played instead of painting!

UshCha: OR for years I had very few opportunities to play, so I concentrated on painting figures and maybe went a little overboard. ;-) Then suddenly I had a big cavalry game to run and not enough figures.