Your worst painting mistakes?

[Flashcad]

My worst painting mistake?
Well, there's been plenty of them down the years, but this one still haunts me.
I had only been painting for about a year, maybe two, when I decided to stretch myself and tackle Pegaso's 75mm figure of a somewhat glamorous looking Boudica complete with mini-skirt and, according to the boxart -- a Burberry designer plaid cloak. Presumably she'd just returned to East Anglia after appearing on the catwalk with it at the (circa) 60AD Milan fashion show...

EDIT 1:- I'm not sure why the initial image of the boxart was so huge? In terms of pixels, it's actually the smallest image I've posted here, so this is a bit of a mystery at the moment.

EDIT 2:- I'll try posting a thumbnail instead.

Well, that worked a bit better.
Anyway, back to the narrative.....

Just to be different, I decided she'd get a cloak done in my own Clan's tartan, and give her raven-haired locks as well.


It was my first try at doing a tartan -- looked kind of okay -- and I reckoned her face looked pretty good as well, all things considered, despite that heavy-handed eye liner...
Then I decided to build a small diorama around her and while I was at it try to improve her face, plus for some reason I can't recall, change the color of her hair.


That went quite well and I was rather pleased with the results. Thinking to myself, "Yeah, this isn't as difficult as I thought it would be"...


But I thought her face looked a bit shiny -- and you've guessed it; I completely ruined all that work with a coat of matt varnish that went all white and flakey on me... ...
Couldn't blame the wife as she had gone round to one of her friends place for one of their all-night Mah-Jong sessions, so had to settle for a 15-minute performance of "The Dance of Death" around our living room instead.

Once I calmed down a bit I realized there was nothing else for it but to break out the tin of Nitromors paint stripper and start all over again. In addition, having just had my fingers burned, (so to speak), I decided not to try anything fancy this time and simply copied the boxart as best I could. Perhaps my heart wasn't in it by then, but I simply couldn't get her face to look as good as my first shot at it, (pre-application of that matt varnish of course).


The diorama subsequently ended up being featured in a UK hobby magazine, but I reckon it would've been so much better if the Boudica figure had sported the original paint job.
It subsequently took me ages to break free from just copying the boxart of kit figures after that little disaster. Lesson learned the hard way though and I only ever use W&N Galeria acrylic matt varnish nowadays -- I've never had a problem with it...

Cheers

[Xantippos]

The final result looks good enough . Personally, I've always imagined Boudicca as brownish-red haired, as I think some where was recorded in history, so blonde just seems off, and black hair also seems strange.

Although, looking so young, I would say she is one of Boudicca's daughters rather than her! or Boudicca at a younger age.

[Flashcad]

The final result looks good enough . Personally, I've always imagined Boudicca as brownish-red haired, as I think some where was recorded in history, so blonde just seems off, and black hair also seems strange.

Although, looking so young, I would say she is one of Boudicca's daughters rather than her! or Boudicca at a younger age.

Thank you for your feedback.

The only contemporary source we have for the Boudican Revolt comes from the Roman historian Tacticus and to be perfectly honest, I can’t remember off-hand whether he provided a physical description of the Icini Queen. Writing a hundred years after the event, (so how would he know?), Cassius Dio described her as, “Very tall and most terrifying in appearance. She had tawny hair hanging down to below her waist, a harsh voice and a piercing glare”. Hmm -- sounds like my wife. But getting back to the point, a tawny color can be defined as being a dark yellow-ish hue, or yellowish brown, or even a dullish golden brown – which to me, kind of falls within the wide definition of blonde. I would tend to think the idea of Boudica having long flowing red hair comes from the rose-colored spectacles of the Victorian Age, but who knows? Not I.

Be that as it may, I don’t consider the color of her hair to be any more, or any less, as risible as the figure’s somewhat ludicrous mini-skirt, or her Burberry designer cloak; both of which I pointed out in my original post. In fact, when Pegaso Models released this particularly whimsical white metal kit they were subjected to a barrage of derision from "Serious Modelers & Painters" for selling "A Fantasy Figure" and according to some, they compounded this atrocious crime by naming the kit after a historical person; shock, horror. While everyone is entitled to their points of view, my own way of looking at this is that it really doesn’t matter.

To some greater or lesser extent this hobby is based on the individual preferences of those of us who participate in what most of “Joe Public” would consider a rather niche, but ultimately harmless pastime. For some of us, historical accuracy is extremely, absolutely and totally important -- to the point of counting rivets -- and that's fine, whatever floats your boat as far as I'm concerned. However, it's not a factor for me when depicting figures from let’s say, pre-Medieval eras, or those that are not well documented. Even the Viking miniatures I've done can be said to be "Fantasy Figures" -- and that's also fine by me, as I'm not all that interested in turning out museum pieces in any case.

For these reasons, I tend to treat the "Historical Accuracy" aspects of this hobby with due caution and will paint any miniature according to my own individual interpretations of whatever I feel like depicting; and if that includes getting the hair color of someone who’s been dead for the past 2,000 years completely wrong, then so be it. Guilty as charged M’Lud. Slap on the handcuffs and drag me out of court to meet my just deserts at dawn.

Other hobbyists can follow their own inclinations and turn out whatever makes them happy. As long as the modeler is enjoying what they do, then it's all good.

All just my own humble personal opinions, of course, but gimme a day or two and I'll post up a few photos of a couple of dioramas. One set in 1951 that's as historically accurate as I can make it -- and one set in 1945 that's a product of my fevered imagination.

Cheers

[T. Dürrschmidt]

I started modelling in the 80s with 1/35 Wehrmacht figures.....and I painted the uniforms all in a blueish grey (the color was available and my dad said the soldiers looked like this)...so I painted all my soldiers in that way. On a school trip to Rothenburg I discovered two pots of Humbrol "German Field Grey" (Humbrol wasn´t available in the usual toy shops in my area) in a small toy soldier shop and was shocked......the color was so different to the one I used.....so I bought the two pots and started to repaint all of my Germans one after another....it took me months....

[Xantippos]

Flashcad, interesting. I would like to know how it was originally spelled in latin, as I've heard very few times the word "tawny" as to make myself an idea!

Certainly, ancient times, or just any other time where either perfect description or photographs exist, allows a large amount of imagination.

[Graeme]

Flashcad, interesting. I would like to know how it was originally spelled in latin, as I've heard very few times the word "tawny" as to make myself an idea!.

Yes I would like to know that too. As far as I know the interpretation of Boudicca's hair colour does revolve around the translation of the Latin word used by Dio Cassius to describe it; I have seen it translated as "Large masses of the tawniest hair". If it is tawniest rather than just tawny that suggests a distinctive colour rather than a more mundane one.

If tawny is reddish brown or yellowish brown I think "the tawniest hair" does not mean the brownest (the brownest hair is just brown). It must be the reddest of reddish brown or the yellowest of yellow brown. Blonde hair is, I think, more Norse or Anglian rather than Celtic, but I've heard that auburn hair is a common Celtic trait.

I have seen at least one writer (or the narrator of a documentary) quote Dio Cassius as saying that Boudicca had "hair the colour of a winter fox" I've got no idea how that was arrived at.

I believe you can see the Greek and possibly Latin text here. Let me know if you can glean anything from it, I don't read Latin myself:





My Boudicca has red-brown hair.














;

[Xantippos]

I see, sadly that is greek and I can't read it . If it was stressed by a roman writer, I would be led to believe it was of a very reddish hair, but then again, what was really the truth it will be very hard to ever know!

[dykio]

My wurst painting mistake was listening to my wife and painting one of our living room walls wasabi green

needless to say its back to white now

laterrrrr

dykio