Has thou eaten?

Hello everyone ^^

After recently commenting (although not all to graciously, at all) on a few models the 'Eavy Metal team had painted for the Ultrmarines movie, I noticed that i got quite a bit of angry feedback at my comment. I do agree that I didn't present my oppinions far to graciously, and that the fact that I for one don't think all the painters in the 'Eavy Metal team are as good as they are presented might have had some effect. Anyways, I didn't formulate myself vary graciously, at all. To be fair I more or less listed the mistakes I saw on the models.



Now, quite a few people got angry at this and started commenting, most comments being along the stupid line with the absolute worst argument there is: "Do it better yourself". Is this really something you have to be able to do to be allowed to say that a model has mistakes? Now, I don't think I'm a worthless painter, and not at all the best either, but just because I might not be able to paint to the highest possible standard, does that mean the faults they had made doesn't exist? Does it change the fact that some colour had been misplaced? Does the fact that I can't paint better than someone mean they cannot make mistakes?
I say nay!

One of the two models that 'Eavy Metal painted for the Ultramarines movie does have a large amaunts of faults on it, and I did list them. What I did forget to meintion was the fact that they do look quite good, and that they are definitely not the worst models I've ever seen. I do think that 'Eavy Metal can do better though, seeing as they've had tendencies to use quite odd highlighting methods that defy colour theory, but never before have I actually seen them make mistakes like this. I KNOW that they cna get the colours in the right places, but they were a bit sloppy with this one.

Now, the way I presented my oppinion was mroe or less merely a list fo the faults I saw on one of the models and a comment that I thought the green on one of the marines lenses were quite a boring pick of colour against the teal-blue of the armour (it doesn't really *pop*). This didn't feel all to harsh in my mind, but was, as I stated, greeted angrily. But, now why did I not think this was so bad? A few reasons:

1. The way I do when I've painted a model is that I sit and watch the picture and find the faults I've made on it, so that I can improve myself the next time I paint. This is something I do with all my models, I can for instance show you the pictures I made for my most recently painted model:

You can see here how I've marked every painting mistake I've made with blue circles. This helps me remember that there is still much to learn and that I have to work on some things. For instance, the biggest flaw on this model is the lower part of the back of his robe, where the shading has gone a bit wrong. This is due to a mistake at the early stages of the painting (first wash) were the colours had created an ugly blotch there. This is something I will remember to avoid in the future by being more caefull with my washes.
Not marked on this picture though is the fingers that REALLY need some different work, and also the metal parts on the back of his hands which got (as I call it) "coffe stained" due to a bad final wash.

2. The 'Eavy Metal team get paid for what they do, and I do think that they should perform better than this, since I KNOW they can. Seeing as they get paid for it, they should always strive to improve, no? What I merely did was comment on the few flaws I found. And it wasn't that many! Counting I think it was around four on the model in question, which is less than HALF of the mistakes I've made on mine

3. For some unexplicable reason, I was feeling like popping the "Oh 'Eavy Metal!" bubble that night (I was dead tired, so excessive brainpower was not available ^^'). I've found for some time that people always think the 'Eavy Metal people are "Oh so great", and i've never really agreed :/. They are good, yes, but there are a LOT better painters around. Just look over at Massive Voodoo for a sec and you'll see. So, for some reason I wanted to show that even the 'EM make mistakes, and that none seems to notice them.

Now, my comment could have been structured otherwise and should have marked a lot mroe that I liked the model with the green lenses, except for the fact that it had green lenses. My comment on it being "decent" I will still retain though. After being an excessive forum and blog surfer, my 1-10 scale has been a bit shifted. To me, a 10 is a 10, which means there are NO mistakes, at all. A 5 is a 5, it's over TT standard and is in my book decent. At 3-4 on the scale is where I place TT, and what msot people regard as TT i usually place at a 3. I've noticed that my TT requirements seem to be way higher than other poeples, judging from msot opinions on forums (people are sometimes a bit TO nice on forums). A 1 is abyssmal, end of story. This means that most of the models everyone thinks are so great, end at around 7-9 on my scale, seeing as it's damn hard to score a perfect 10, just as I believe it should be. I think I have in my 6 years in this hobby seen around 10 models that I would rank at 10, at least a hundred at 7-9, hordes of 4-6 and innumerable 1-3's.

I would put the 'EM's Ultramarine Proteus at a 6. It really isn't that super. And in a similar way, I'd put mine around 5-6 to, if it wasn't for the large mistakes i've made, which to me drags me down to a definite 5,and if I could just get my act straight, I think I could drag myself to the 7 mark at my current skill, and maybe in the future evolve up to the higher levels. (I hate judging myself though, since I feel like I'm NOT a impartial jury on the matter, no matter how much I try to be impartial I can never become so fully. It's really impossible for most people, so why would there be a differance for me?) Now, this is just me, and I'm a real hard-ass when it comes to my own models and I transferred my thoughts on this onto a "professional model" (being professional due to them being hired for it).

Now, rant over. Here's the model in question (I for one think they've failed with the gold on this model to...) Proteus . As a final comment I want to say that I should have presented my thoughts in a much better way, and that I really should have highlighted the things I liked a lot more. I just have a hard time swallowing the comic-book feel about some of 'EM's work.

Lux et Veritas.