Painting toy soldiers is a young man's game

Whenever a friend or relative that has no prior knowledge of my hobby sees my efforts for the first time, the most common thing they say is "How do you paint so small?" I of course then explain that there are techniques like drybrushing, washes and contrast paints that do a lot of the work for you. I explain that there are definitely better painters out there than me, some that even paint eyes. 

I have been painting Roboute Guilliman for my son as he decided the model is too special and detailed to have a go himself. He always wants his models to look like the box art, I don't tend to stray too far from the GW paint scheme but within the limitations of my skill. So, I've been having a go. I am perplexed though, by the level of detail required. I will admit to having aging eyes and so glasses and another pair of glasses on top have had to be deployed for certain parts. What has stumped me though is the scrolling on his left leg. 

Photo from GW website (definitely not my painting)

He has a scroll on his left shoulder that has been etched with his surname, so some inking sorted that out, it's now readable. However on his leg the scroll is blank. That's fine I have a steady hand, I can do a bit of text. The text however is a bit more complicated.

Now old Roboute is a big chunky model, from head to toe he is approximately 55mm tall and doing a lunge on his tactical rock, so probably more like 60mm. This scroll however is 7mm wide and 3mm tall, plus those Eagle feet take a chunk of space up. There is no way I am fitting that text on that scroll, never mind having a steady enough hand and enough magnification to actually do it. I get it, people can paint small, hell,  people paint on grains of rice. You know what they use to do that? A microscope and a single human hair for a brush!  This lettering has detail within the letters. I am sure that it actually was painted by a human at Warhammer World and not some sophisticated AI painting bot, but I would love to see footage of it actually happening on a model that is actually that scale, just to see how they did it. What brush did they use and can I buy that brush in my local GW?

 

There was also the matter of two flaming braziers poking up from the base. These while lovely for some extra detail on the base are tiny and the poles are the thinnest plastic parts I have ever seen on a GW model. I knew they would snap off the second anyone breaths on them, so they are staying off.

In all seriousness though my eyesight isn't actually too bad, a very minor prescription.  I think in reality trying to paint a model that looks that good in close up photographs isn't necessary for me. I have full respect for those that do, however they do it. I just can't achieve that myself. So I finished my attempt and took a photo.

I can see issues with it now that I could go back and fix, but those flaws are really only visible in the photo. On the table,  I'm pretty happy with it. So what am I saying? Well, if you can paint to competition standard, crack on ( I don't have the time to spend a week on each model, my leadpile is big enough as it is!), if not don't worry too much. Just have fun. It's a hobby after all.