Talk Fantasy Football

I'm wondering what it takes to win best painted. Are there tactics to it? Best practices, etc... Are there colors that you should use to attract attention. Are matching colors better, colors that clash?

One thing I've gathered over the years of doing tournaments for a variety of games is that I've never been able to predict the winner. I often vote for the best painted in terms of using difficult to paint colors, and good blending and shading. However it seems to me the best "technical" painted models often don't win. It seems like models that were the most eye catching win rather than the "best painted". I remember one tournament I did win best painting in, I felt another person did a better job, only my models were brightly colored and seem to draw in more votes. Painting too realistic often means your models darker and less noticeable even if they are well painted a more cartoon like look seems to draw in votes.

I guess what I'm asking is for those of you out there who care or notice such things, what patterns have you seen? Do bright colors catch attention? Often your being judged by players so it seems you need something to draw in votes with some kind of wow factor that just seems to escape me?

Often the best painted team is a non standerd, converted team.

It is hard for a non-converted team to win best painted. I think the reason for this is, that it is hard to make a difference painting wise to really stand out. When a team is converted, it really catches the eye of the voters.

From my experience, you got to make it look nice at a distance so people notice your models. Strong colours, dioramas and center piece models all help you accomplish this. I also think it's more about the big picture than the actual techniques and individual models.

Have you seen someone win without a diarama vs a team that has a diarama? Seems like it would be hard, though possible I think.S.

Blammaham wrote:Have you seen someone win without a diarama vs a team that has a diarama? Seems like it would be hard, though possible I think.S.

I think I've seen more non-diorama B teams win best apinted than dioramam ones. Don't think a diorama has ever won the BB GT Best Painted for example.

nerdkingdan wrote: I guess what I'm asking is for those of you out there who care or notice such things, what patterns have you seen? Do bright colors catch attention? Often your being judged by players so it seems you need something to draw in votes with some kind of wow factor that just seems to escape me?

Great question and good observation now that you mention it: bright colours probably do make a big difference. Most tourney's are in halls or conference rooms with mellow lighting so it would be really hard to notice subtle technique used on darker figs. Plus, I don't think players spend a lot of time judging each team so you're going to get an instant reaction at 3 feet for a grade as opposed to what you might get if people had more time to examine them up close.

Noticeable Conversions (something severe enough that a player unfamiliar with the team could identify the change as a custom job) and bright colours would seem to be a good rule of thumb.

Given Warpstone's observations, would strong contrasts not also be advantageous? Like, if you're considering yellow and pink, wouldn't yellow and mauve be smarter?

Brilliant color scheme for a BB team:

viewtopic.php?t=28300&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Talking from a warhammer fantasy perspective:
The team must be noticable from far (You have to attract the voters) and have good painting from close by.

If you take two very off colours you probably get a "Pain in my eyes" effect and people will thnk "no" before they've seen the quality of the painting.

That team you linked to is a good example of best painted.
It is a coherent team in colours it has some attraction because of the white/yellow and when you get closer you see more details of the painting.

Blammaham wrote:Have you seen someone win without a diarama vs a team that has a diarama? Seems like it would be hard, though possible I think.S.

I did at Thrud 08 - Innerspins Norse were the ones I was worried about. The only converted model was an Ogre Kingdoms Ogre for the Human teams Big Guy.

It can vary from tourney to tourney. In the Ontario BB scene, we have modified the "Best Painted" to "Best Team". We did this because the same people were winning with the same teeams over and over again - nobody else stood a chance! This was because it was focussing strictly on the painting, and we had some phenomenal painters in the tourney scene.

What made these guys stand out so much was a very clean and crisp style, the beautiful blending and shading that was so far and above anything else!

The current Best Team award looks at the following:

Painting
Theme
Conversions

So even if your painting is not the best, you can still rock out with the conversions and a really cool theme and snag the award.