It's not silly and slightly sad, it's a scheme to depress wages. GW doesn't want another Duncan Rhodes or Perry Brothers, where their work becomes good enough that GW has to pay better wages or these people can use their portfolio to find better employment. So like the video games industry (another pillar of worker exploitation) they try to minimize crediting people with the things they do. GW has never sculpted a single figure since it's an idea not a person, but they steal all the credit from the people they pay to do so. And yeah, we should treat it more like theft than something to shrug our shoulders about. If GW wants to retain top level artists, I suggest they pay them like one or risk losing them to another company that will.
I agree that people should be credited but let's not forget that parts of the Warhammer fandom are completely deranged and the massive amount of hatred and bile that those deranged "fans" have spewed at certain people in the past as well as the present.
Yeah, I struggle to see a world in which Martin wouldn't be harassed on his social media following this whole thing. Shades of gray really. Not crediting them when they do well sucks, but not putting them on blast and instead making the harassment target the faceless James Workshop is honestly more than you'd get from a lot of other companies too.
totally, more personality and more of the author was in them than nowadays, to the point that some newer minis look AI generated based on 1 good sculpt lol
I don't feel bad for Martin Footit this was just a rough sculpt. He has made plenty of great sculpts. That high elf he did for his golden demon was amazing looking, and pretty much all his sculpts for the open competition.
The change of hair colour and skin tone makes a massive difference . There is only so much that you can do with a sculpture of that vintage. Overall really nice
I mean, the Black Coach is one of the finest models ever produced by the studio so I'm delighted whoever sculpted that is still producing amazing pieces.
"Dan and Other Dan" 🤣 Thanks for getting into the credit stuff. It's ludicrous. I went out of my way to find out and credit the sculptors for the new Tyranids in my video about the new bugs ♥
There's something charming about the almost cartoonish proportions and shapes. Wonkiness aside, the face looks like it would be easy to paint with those large surfaces. It made me think I should get something like this to stand in for the pilots of my Imperial Knights, or maybe a custom Inquisitor.
So many of the earlier GW sculptors have become so famous in their own right. It seems like GW deliberately wants to discourage their artists from getting recognizable enough to set out on their own.
@@charlesweinert4116 if you have a name you can push for better treatment. if you are still "nobody" and uncredited, you can be replaced without much fuss.
I think your paint job reflects your style - brighter colours, rosier skin tones. I don’t think it’s better or worse, but in a line up of identical models I reckon we could identify which one you did 😊
I don't think I have anything in my Warhammer collection that post-dates 1995. In fact I'm fairly certain Brettonia was still fluff and not a playable faction when I quit collecting.
I have learned, over a long long time in this hobby (I'm RT era old), to reserve judgment until I hold the mini in my hand or see it in person. Mini photography is a skill all on its own and even pros can get it wrong or like you said, be restricted by management's rules and just have to make do. I think yours is about on level with theirs. Its just a hard one to paint and shoot. Good job.
I love how you identified the restrictions the original painter had to deal with, personally I don’t paint eyes at all lol. Regarding crediting artists, in the 9th Oct 2023 warcom article “40 Years of Warhammer - Favourite Miniatures From the People Behind the Games” there are three different Toms interviewed! I assume one of them is Tom Walton, who shares his sculpted minis on Twitter (most recently the Night Lords kill team, but also things like the Imperial and Chaos knights). Wish more GW peeps could share their stuff.
I’m not gonna say which I prefer, but even if you don’t thing your paint job is *better*, it’s still a super interesting video to point out what painting tricks you can use to minimise things you don’t like about a particular sculpt.
Agreed, always loved the older models level of detail and less perfect shapes - makes the models have much more life to them when they are less perfect. Plus white metal is generally IMO more forgiving and easier to work in than the plastics (for one thing you can usually just gently bend a mini's arm/leg to repose it, and there tend to be far fewer glue lines between parts - just one mould seam)... Really the limitations of old sculpting methods and casting often leads to little details that seem a bit odd, and leaving lots of detail up to the painter, where the modern stuff in its million part plastic mould is so covered in sculpted detail you'll wear out a file if you want any detail to be different from the intention... I'd far rather have the former - you can do so much more with the paint when the whole surface isn't covered in detailed fluff... In this case I'd expect those fingers end up very long on the arm that is part of the torso to avoid a big undercut in the mould, or making his fingers really really short - so the other hand is made to match it. Can't be sure of that of course, very hard to tell just from a video.
If it weren’t for him holding a glove, I feel like people could improve the finger issue just by painting his hands as gloves. And I think your paint job does improve it quite a bit. It’s one of those instances where no particular change msg stand out, but the net effect is very noticeable.
The unstoppable urge of seeing a messed up guy and think "I can fix him" XD You did quite a solid job, still. I like the eyes the least, but they are very tricky to do, and the mini doesn't help. On the other hand, the heraldic colours look amazing and the golden details complement them perfectly.
I have a lore proposal for your Bretonian lord with regards to the green. He was part of a battle which included the green knight, the battle was going well, the enemy were close to being routed. Until the Green knight was dismounted from his horse, by a stray crossbow bolt. The Lord you painted, saw the knight fall and ran to the green knight's aid, and after beating back the enemy overrunning his position, the green knight was impressed with the bravery and Gallantry shown by the Lord. And so to honour them the green knight gave your lord his blessing to use green on his heraldry. So there, she isn't going against Bretonian Heraldic law, she's in fact honouring the Green knight after being given permission from, said knight to use green on their heraldry.
Since the creator was named after St Martin, the lord could have gotten that green fabric from the Green Knight who cut up his mantle/cloak to give it to him after that battle.
In the best possible way yours is a bit more cartoony - which actually fits the model really well The bold colours make it pop more and the face is definitely 10x better, you can actually distinguish the details - I love it!
I’d say that no one has influenced my current painting style more than Louise, your poppy, stylish, colorful flavor of painting is amazing and exactly the type of energy I want in the hobby more!
Red and green is always going to be a tough color combo. Hard not to go "Oh it's Christmas." I think there were some great areas in both yours and the studio painters. I prefer the eyes you did, and I do have to say the comparison did give me a new appreciation for the crispness that the studio painters regularly achieve. Great video!
"And I think I've been humbled." People use that word wrong all the time, so I expected the same here, but I was happy when you followed it up with the sentiment that you were actually humbled, haha. So, thank you for that! ♥
Your little guys hands and face are much better, the color scheme you used was definitely an improvement just overall for contrast. However the original artists lines are def more crisp and sharp in the details. The Rogue's paintjob was my preferred look, it just maybe could have used a few more hours to tighten it up and get all the little details sharper.
This is a great exercise in readability of a paint job and sculpt, hand in hand. Thank you Louise! As an aside, I'd love to see the little Squire transformed via a kitbash. A 40K/grimdark makeover with some spare little bits from kits - a cool experiment across time and settings. The little guy has been through so much already - why not give him a fresh hell to contend with? 💀
One thing you did better than the studio artist, who should have known better, was the irises. The most common mistake with the eyes is that people paint them in completely within the white sclera leaving the figure with that 1000 yard stare or the perpetual startled look. A tip for anyone painting the iris, look at your own eyes in the mirror and note how the iris are covered top and bottom by the eyelids. So the previous artist should have been aware of this if they are a professional and on that issue you leave them for dead. It is a surprise that such a small detail has such a big impact on a model but there you have it.
I have been playing and building bretonnians since 1998. I saw this figure release and bought it immediately. It paints up fantastically. And looks fantastic alongside his fellow knights and damsels. The wonkyness of the website images is a product of the angle of photography. When viewed top down as the model would be viewed on the tabletop he looks perfectly fine, or better than his contemporary sculpts. One thing i will say, the eyes on the sculpt are not at the same height (but neither are anyones) but it is noticeable when viewed from below.
Unsurprisingly, your model looks fantastic. I think you definitely fixed the hands. You were spot on on how to make the fingers look less elongated. Though I think the darker hair looks better aesthetically, I think the face looks about the same. I don't know if there's any way to truly fix that. Like with the hair and face, I think the color choices for the clothes were better but I wouldn't say it "fixes" the original as that's more of just a personal aesthetic opinion.
Really looking forward to this one! I bought the dude purely to paint. I like the "Get yeself somewhere safe lad, dem orcs ar comin up over't'hills" vibe him and his squire give off. He's a man of the people.
I think both versions have their merits - your darker color scheme I think actually lends itself better to the contours of the model - and in bringing out some of the details like that stag icon on the tilting shield. But the GW official studio model also has a bit crisper fine details like the purity seal script and some of the highlights on the beard and hair. All in all I think the model is still really gorgeous - old hand-sculpted minis have a lot of charm to me.
I happen to live fairly close to a company in the USA called IronWind Metals. You might know them better under the companies previous name: Ral Partha. Anyway, IWM sells cast metal minis and the designs range from very modern to stuff designed decades ago. Some of the older sclupts are a bit wonky, and no paint job can change that. That doesn't make them bad, just a product of their time. Faces in particular have benefited massively from modern sculpting methods. I'm sure if Martin were given another go at this model, we would all be amazed at what he would produce.
I come here for the positivity and I stay for the great paint jobs. I like this model, and I certainly agree that a lot of the techniques used improved the overall look of it. Martin is a much better sculptor than I could ever be!
Wonderful video. I really appreciate the way you explain the full history / circumstances of the mini in terms of when it was sculpted and how it was painted and then photographed. Your paint job is amazing and I really appreciated the tips you give on “fixing” older minis. Thank you.
Not being able to collect based on the artist is a travesty. Seeing an artist evolve and improve over their career is part of the fandom. It's not impossible, I suppose, but they've certainly made it difficult. This model is transcendent. A bridge from 'learner' to 'skilled' and (if Louise's hint at his other sculpts is on target), to 'master'. Side-eye at the squire would have been priceless.
6:20 The 6th Edition removal of green from heraldry because "It's associated with the fey" is one of the lamest things ever done to Bretonnia, only topped by the recent legitimising of the lazy practice of painting your knights all the same in TOW, so I approve of your green paint decision. I painted my Green Knight with glow paint, fluor paints, and sculpted glowing neon green flames, and I blast him with a UV torch before placing him on the table where he subsequently bathes the models he fights in his eerie light (though it only lasts a couple of minutes so he gets a UV top up at the start of every move/combat😋). Removing green to make him special shows an extraordinary lack of imagination.
I love that UV, think I'd go for making him actively electronic if I was doing that now. And I might as I never managed to finish the Bretonnian force I started... But actively flouresing/glowing is a really cool idea...
People demand Oldhammer. GW release Oldhammer (a literal previously unreleased Bretonnian model from WHFB) People complain that Oldhammer doesn't look like Newhammer.
Your paint job looks really cool and I like it very much (and it's way beyond anything I can ever achieve - but I was thankful for the tip with the eyes). I also liked that you gave the sculpter credits. I appreciate that your videos always have a positive spin to it and highlight the good things without leaving out the things that are criticized.
I can remember when Martin Footit was an Eavy Metal painter and I think he won the internal competition of the new (well, back then it was new - and it's still a really cool mini) CSM Lord - while this Bret mini could use plastic surgery or at least shades, his newer stuff (if it really is his, we shall never know...) is wonderful! I find your paint job improved the sculpt's face.
I havent bought or painted miniatures, or been even moderately devoted to Warhammer for 20+ years. But I find these videos so incredibly fun and satisfying.
Martin Footitt's progression as a sculptor has been insane. His 54mm High Elf is by far one of the greatest models I've ever seen. The new Terminator Chaplain is also amazing!
I appreciate your honesty about your paint job not necessarily being better or "fixing" the model. It's kind of a wonky face but doing things the old way that sometimes happened. Even now we still get goofy faces like the laughing chaos marine head in the legionary kill team. Sculpting faces was harder then than it is now, but it's still hard to get right every time and still make them distinct enough.
When he was revealed a while ago i thought he looked silly, but he absolutely carries that Oldhammer charm so i was pretty excited overall. Ive only been in the hobby a few years but i love the slight silliness of older minis. It's why i love this guy, and why im glad i got a ton of old Beastmen from an Oldhammer buddy in my group.
I didn’t realize it at first but I think they missed applying gold metallics to detail on the second glove in the studio art. I only noticed it because both of your painted gloves have gold detailing, but the one from the studio is the same brown as the rest of the glove.
1) yours is better, 2) due to understanding how to shape features with lighting, and 3) I have spoken to an ex GW sculptor and very accomplished painter and they told me that the studio has a step by step prescribed way to paint and it wasn't designed to account for how painted minis read at a distance. This model is from a different time and studio (probably under Morley rule?) but you have managed to make it look just fine, grats!
This is an amazing video, for a lot of reasons. I have been playing/hobbying for 25 years now, and a quarter century of price hikes, squatted armies, and nuked games can really turn you into a grumpy old curmudgeon. Thank you for your positivity and pointing out that not everything is awful 🙂.
I think both styles are evocative - the studio one feels like a lord from a city, a wealthy estate, and yours is more wilderness baron, more connected with the land, a lord of fields and forests.
Well done Louise! I enjoyed every step of the way, and I do prefer the look of your mini. You brought out the best in the sculpt and minimized the most awkward aspects of it. I appreciate that you celebrate the charm and wonkiness of the old school figures. I didn't collect them back in the day but I'm happy to have a new chance at getting the classic hand-sculpted minis. Nostalgia = coziness.
I think the darker hair helped bring the circlet out more, your color scheme looks great even if it is anti-lore, and while I'm not sure your work on the hands and face overcame the flaws of the model they definitely didn't hurt. I like the cloak change, it separates better from the white background which I guess is really only a problem on the GW store page but still. It may not be the fault of the GW painter due to company fiat, but that doesn't mean we all have to paint ours that way. You showed a different way to approach the mini, and your dissection of both the sculpt and the paint jobs is worth thinking over for anyone who wants to paint this guy. I'm one of those who finds charm in the slightly cartoony older sculpts, but I'd still give some of your tweaks a try if I thought I had the skills to pull it off.
This was fun! I really enjoyed the creative process of identifying those challenging areas and seeing how you came up with a fix for them. Also as a new comer here I'll add that your personality is every bit as vibrant as your colour choices! Looking forward to your next upload!
Hi Louise, I think you have solved the biggest issue, namely the elongated hand/fingers and face. Your solution works very well to define the borders and shift the focus. A job well done! 🖌🥳
I joined a few old miniature groups of Facebook to try to track down some older models from 80s and 90s, that I either had but lost or wished I had gotten at the time but missed out. There’s something about the old heavy pre-slotta models that is missing today.
Some of the smaller detail is really nice on the original, But I love your use of color and the way it makes your mini pop. Way more of an eye catcher, Great work!
I think the biggest improvement is the darker hair and beard. And I think you hit the nail on the head, the problem isn't really the miniature is badly sculpted, or badly painted ... it is the colour scheme and background were obviously not chosen by a professional, but some guy in a suit. Displaying the min against a black background is a MASSIVE improvement!
As a old timer I liked old sculpture, and there was nothing wrong with the old paint job, but yours was amazing. I learned a bit too. I doff my cap to you
What a nice video, its so refreshing that you concluded that the paint job was more complicated, (as opposed to a simple improvement) but jet the trying makes it all worth wile, good job! Love from Sweden!
Fair point that a lot of what makes your paint job better are choices that the studio painter wouldn't likely have been allowed to make, but regardless, yours is miles better to look at. I'm sure just picking a different skin colour would've helped a ton on the O.G.
The Squire doesn’t just GET a paint job. He’s a squire; he has to earn it. After a year of faithful service to his Lord, he MAY be given the honor of a base coat.
This video was recommended to me from the algorithm. I have to say, your paint job looks much better. The face looks less goofy. I personally wouldn't have used green. Maybe a darker color like the original paint job used, like a slate or just a grey might have worked, but I think your paint job looks really good. The cream color for the cape looks so much better than the pure white that the original paint job used.
I think you succeeded Louise. I would say you did better in some areas and the studio did better in other areas. Imo you did the face and hands much better. Your choice of going with the darker tones helps a lot for the face and hair.
The OG paintjob looks better than I first thought when viewed from different angles. That said, what you did to the fingers seems to be a big improvement - *_but_* the end result and comparison only really proves that there is no fixing that face without going in and sculpting a bushier beard to fill out that endless void beneath his cheekbones...
I really love older models. The single pose metal models for some reason just give me the warm and fuzzy all over. You did a great job with this guy. The only thing that ever really gets me is the crazy scale difference in those transition years from metal to plastics.
I think you did fix what you were able to (hair color, Cloak color, finger length) but other aspects are just inherent to the model. Thank you for sharing your process and aporoach.
Kinda feel like part of the fingers issue is also that they're all the same length, so ends up looking like a load of sausages lined up. Painting the ends of the fingers black to hide them is a cool technique for fixing them up
I started playing around 2004 or so, so for me I remember all the older sculpts so maybe I’m more forgiving cause I think he looks ok. Love both of these paint jobs
Oh awesome I've discovered another great channel. I love finding old models on ebay and repairing them/repainting them after being stripped. It's so satisfying.
Very good effort, but I agree with you that both paintjobs hold up just as well with a challenging model. Also I liked that you managed to include your London starving waif impression, too notch.
I prefer the one you painted, your techniques and skill as a painter are phenominal! The prices at GW have been ridiculous and getting worse. I'm new to your channel and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your videos. Cheers!
I do think you succeeded in making the face look fuller, but overall I prefer the studio's piece this time. And I think the turquoise packaging fixed the problems with the website's white background. I also think you did make the right hand look less goofy. I think you should be proud of your piece, it did achieve the main points you wanted to fix, and is still a good paint job.
Hot take: While the fingers are long, I think the bigger problem is the overall size of the hand - particularly the one gripping the sword. The width of a hand's knuckles is "typically" on a guy about the same distance as chin to nose. Even with this mini's elongated face, the width of that hand looks to go from his chin all the way up to the circlet. To paraphrase/misquote Walt Stanchfield, we all have 10,000 bad sculpts in us we just need to get those 10.000 out to get to the really good stuff. This one is probably around the 9,500th out of Martin's... And then the truly amazing stuff came out shortly hereafter.
I think your face is definitely an improvement over the GW face. The rest of the model is a draw between the two paint jobs. I love your color choices but I'm personally not a fan of NMM. But regardless of comparisons you gave it a fantastic paint job!
I have 0 problems with the model! It’s awesome, but I started playing GW games in the 90s so to me this is a perfectly good model. I like both paint schemes, you did good but then so did whoever that GW painter is. Thank you for being you, a nice person in a mean world. Good on you!
It makes me happy to see you standing up for the original artists! The internet can be very unfair to people sometimes. Very thoughtful and kindhearted of you, I wish more people would do stuff like that.