"will deteriorating eyesight move us to bigger figure scales" Topic

If you are under 40, you may not be qualified to answer this – but to those who are now on their second or third pair of glasses, do you find it harder to paint in your chosen scale?

I like 6mm and 10mm and in younger years could have enjoyed the mass spectacle and still identified all the troops. Now I find that even painting 15mm is getting harder.

There is a perverse bonus, in that my painting does not have to be so good, since I don't really notice the sharp detail.

I am OK with 15's on the table as they offer me the compromise of being aable to determine troop type but still play a complact game.

I find the smaller scales harder to paint to the level of detail I used to do, but I jst don't do as much detail.

I find sitting down to play helps with identifiying the 6mm stuff, as does marking the bases.

Well, I've moved up to 1:1 and still have problems with the fiddly-bits :o). But yes, I've given up any notion of painting 15's and 25's are a stretch. I consider it my contribution to the painters retirement plan.

I'm finding that if I take off my glasses I can see as well as I need to to get those fine details. But I have to put my glasses back on to find the next figure, color of paint, paint brush, or to look at reference material (I'm near sighted).

The bigger issue for me is unsteady hands. I'm finding more and more that I need to brace my hands against something to maintain the same level of detail. Kevin

Well I am under 40 (just!) and I'm quite short sighted, but I'm managing to not only paint very small scale miniatures but sculpt them aswell!

As I have just said on another forum, I just have to move my head closer to the object ;)

For painting my arthritis in the fingers make far more of a difference than my eye sight. Eye sight problems I have always found a way around; memory of the pieces in playing, magnifiers while painting etc. But griping things with the arthritis is defiantly limiting me.

x42

I gave up on 6mm long ago. My preferred scale is 15mm. The key is good lighting and some sort of optics, usually a combo of reading glasses (cheap ones) and a magnifying visor. I do find 12mm isnt too bad especially since so much stuff is coming pre-painted.

Oddly, I have discovered the worse my eyesight gets the better my figures look. It works best with my 6mm, which look great, but not so well yet with my 28mm which still look bodged.

I am keenly anticipating total blindness. Then I will be able to paint with pleasure, rather than a sense of despair.

Pat

For painting, I don't think it matters. I'd use magnifying glasses to paint 6mm figures or the details of 28mm. The relevant details are about the same.

However, for recognizing stuff on the table--I need to think more about painting things so I can see them.

And Germy, being short-sighted isn't it at all. I've always been near-sighted (I'm assuming these are the same thing), but now I can't see too close. I have to move things away to see them at all, or use reading glasses. I think you've still got this to look forward to. :) This has happened in the last few years--I'm 43.

I do think that I'm better with my reading glasses than I was before. And I haven't played a 6mm game recently, so I don't know how I'm actually doing on that field now.

andy

It is certainly moving me to larger figures. In my long-ago youth I tended to go to ever smaller figures so that I could get more for my limited money. But these days 15mm is looking like 6mm did and I find myself buying and playing with 25/28mm figures more and more. It's not the painting that's the problem. With a good set of magnifiers I can still paint. The problem is that once they are down on the table I can't see the nice paint job I did! :)

I use reading glasses now when I paint 15/28s. I find that I can paint on the detail and do the shading but when I'm done can't see it with out my glasses. It's the great equilizer between painters.

Dan

I got specs recently, and they have proved a great help with the painting.

Simon

I am 57 and I use a magnifying visor to paint, it works great. It also helps that my catarcts have been removed too. I think my painting has gotten better. I should have used one years ago.

Tom

miscmini…..my exact problem as well.

I'm 48, been wearing glasses since age 9, graduated trifocals since age 40. I used to be able to paint sergeant stripes on 15mm figures freehand. With a magnifying glass I can still see that sort of detail, but my hands aren't steady enough anymore for that sort of thing.

I'm not moving to larger scales though. I'm just not buying as much new stuff. I already have a lot of 6mm and 1/6000 stuff painted and ready for gaming. I'm not about to start over again in a larger scale.

I'm 52 and wear bifocals. I gave up on 15mm & smaller a while back. Now concentrating on 28mm & 40 mm.

I have only started painting with glasses in the last 2 years or so (I'm 39). I am finding 15s and 28s harder and harder to paint because of detail I miss – 6s easier because I need to paint with greater contrast now to see differences as well. My overall work is getting better and easier to see on the tabletop because I notice the contrast problems when I paint now.

15s are a nightmare for me now – I can't see the detail but there is a lot to notice later. I do no new projects in 15mm from now on and I am migrating others to 6mm.

Sounds familiar -- 57, lifetime with glasses, now progressive bifocals. I have always used the largest brushes possible -- I love large flats with sharp edges -- and worked dark to light, drybrushing, primarily on 25/28 figures. So far so good, and painting continues to get easier.

Started out as short sighted . Now in my early 50's ,I think my long range vision has actually improved !

Difficult to paint 6mm at arms length though .

I'm so glad I bought an Optivisor . It's given me back the eyesight I had as a teenager.

Darn shame they don't make matching underpants .

I'm closer to 50 than 40 and have worn glasses all my life. I'm far-sighted and have definitely moved into the bifocal camp – in fact, I wear tri-focals. I paint under a lighted magnifying glass because the magnification visors bother me for some reason – purely a personal thing, there's not a darned thing wrong with them.

I've found that I paint 15mm figures better than 25s. The 15s are more forgiving, especially when given a good Magic Wash. The 25/28s tend to show off the fact that I can no longer paint a long, thin line or repeat a painted pattern evenly – or even paint a decent pair of eyes!

I use reading glasses and an Optivisor and have moved down to 10mm and 6mm from 15mm and to 1/6000 from 1/3000. Since I play looking down from table height anyway, the mass effect and the better looking range to figure size ratios actually improve the feel of the gaming for me.

In addition, I still get a great deal of satisfaction painting deck numbers on a 1/6000 carrier or shield heraldry on a 10mm knight.

Oh yeah, and that is with 56 year old eyes that weren't all that great at 46 or 36.

Contacts plus reading galsses now if I want to paint anything other than terrain.

Kind of puts a kink in my plan to paint all that lead I've accumulated for 35 years when I retire.

At 62 I've just moved from 15mm to 10mm

I've found a good light helps. But I'm also relying on the fact that most of the people I play with are of the same age so can't see how bad the painting is.

My biggest problem is my wife is 14 years younger than me with extremely good eyesight, and comments if my painting isn't up to standard! (And yes, her painting is good)

Geoff

I just turned 44, have been near-sighted since I was 15, and I still paint 15mm and even microarmor scale with no magnifying assistance. In fact, it's easier for me to focus on very close (less than 8 inches away) objects without any glasses at all. I usually paint holding the figure at about a foot and a half, so it's not a problem for me (so far). I get no eye strain and can still see even small details well. I'm hoping this continues for some years to come…

I'm 51 and my eyes haven't changed. Scale doesn't matter.

Thats why I love 40mm.I can nolonger paint eyes on 28mm figs.

Tony

occultwars.com

60 and bifocals. I take them off to pint--but I confess to liking pre-paints more and more.

Getting old is a bummer. But then, being young is a bummer too!

I'm 40 and I take my glasses off to paint. I only need them to see farther than the end of my arm.

I'm 45 & I've got an illuminated magnifier that greatly helps, plus I just got glasses 4 months ago.

The one game-related thing that is changing with my ever-fading vision is that I'm much less likely to tolerate charts and tables with tiny print. If it's a game I'm running, I can scan and print out enlarged copies, but if it's a convention or club game I'm more likely to have someone else read it for me.

A few of the old games I really liked when I was a young lad, e.g. Yaquinto's Panzer, are no longer legible to me without assistance.

Aches & pains, decline of the Mark I eyeball (trifocals)and blood clots if I sit in the same pose too long! Despite that 15s are my choice scale. 28s cost too much and take too long to paint well. Onward through the thickening Fog!

Hi

I have always been horridly nearsighted. This works as wearing magnifiers when I take the glasses off!

That being said, the "finding" stuff beyond the fig has always been a problem, so I wear lighted optivisors as well.

In my circles we call them "Geezer Goggles".

Rocky

I am rapidy approaching my half century and not only do I find it easy to paint 6mm, I also sculpt them and don't find any difficulty with that. Yes, my eyes are no longer as good as they were 10 years ago, but that's what opticians are for. With the right lenses in my glasses my corrected eyesight is as good as ever.

You've also to to make the distinction about what you expect to paint on a figure. If your idea of painting cuffs on Napoleonic french fusiliers is to get the red lower portion painted, followed by the white flap running up the sleeve, followed by the buttons and all neatly rounded off with the correct piping, then I pay tribute to your skill, your patience and accept that you probably need to invest in larger castings. On the other hand, I knock hundreds of the little feller just by putting a quick band of red at the bottom of the sleeve and above the hand of my 6mms. It'll never win a painting comp or earn the respect of my peers, but it looks good enough for me en-masse and doesn't give me eye strain.

Cheers

Peter

At age 40 I find that painting smaller figures is easier for me now than some 10 years ago. I am slowly moving from 10mm to 6mm.

I've gone to smaller figs, as well. Started in 25mm and am now firmly into 6mm. And that's with 55 yr year old eyes and having to wear glasses since I was 12. I do recommend an Optivisor, though, and have used one for the last 30 years (it just makes the painting easier). Also, good strong lighting helps a lot…

I've always enjoyed very good eyesight, up to recently.
Since about a year I have trouble focussing on anything closer than a foot or so away, and this distance increases when light conditions get worse.
So I got myself reading glasses (which are a terrible nuisance to use) but it didn't affect my choice on miniature scale (standing next to a gaming table there exist enough distance for me to see 6 mm figures as well as 28 mm ones).

I'm 46 btw.

Greetings, Frans.

link Hee, hee. (If you've seen this before, don't bother.

I've always loved 25-30mm scale because it was much more visually appealing (IMHO) than the smaller scales.

As I get older (I'm 44), I'm starting to dabble in 54mm plastics and 90mm Schleich/Papos for skirmish gaming, and have had my eye on those gorgeous 40mm figures from Sash & Saber.

So maybe there's some truth in the premise that as you age, you don't wanna go blind straining to see teeny weeny troops anymore.

Cataract & glaucoma ;-) one eye only, the other sure to follow.
Just ordered a mess of 54mm plastic Napoleonic Russians.
Looks like I'll just have to order DBN.

"you don't wanna go blind straining to see teeny weeny troops"

Afaik "straining" is actually good for your eyes, it's a lack of straining that is bad.
This is also why the use of glasses can accelerate the degrading of your eyesight (and why I use mine as little as possible).

Greetings, Frans.

I asked my optician about that and they said that glasses do not accelerate eye weakness

No.

My fading eyesight means I don't notice the rubbish paint jobs I'm outfitting my solders with.

I'm 53. with proper lighting and magnigication (electron microscope) I can paint anything. Eye disease, Cataracts, macular degeneration may change that some day, but a bigger scale won't help. Besides, a bigger scale just means more detail.

"I asked my optician about that and they said that glasses do not accelerate eye weakness"

My optician told me the opposite.

Maybe it depends on the exact deficiency?

Greetings, Frans.

Guys. It has been discovered that eating lots brocolli will seriously benefit your eyesight. A natural defence against glaucoma and all thfdsof othxz eyec;m fsisxm. :)

No, it's actually the eating of carrots that is most beneficially.

Ever seen a Rabbit with glasses :o)

Greetings, Frans.

I had Lasik eye surgey done a few years ago. Prior to that, I was near-sighted and needed glasses/contacts to see normally. However, I could paint and work close-up w/o the glasses.

Since Lasik, my normal sight has gone to 20/15 but close up is a blur. I use reading glasses to paint and it works very well. (Also, I can read without any blurriness--as long as I don't hold the book up to my nose.)