Painters- have you ever painted something on a mini and it turned out to be something else?

[charcon]

To me some of the sculpting gets what I call “busy”. Meaning there is a lot of detail which is great but also makes for a lot of extra perception of what some things are. Like I thought a bag was a fold of skin on a giant once and painted it as such. Any of you ever look back and say “duh now I see it’s a …”

[Zink]

I still like nice clean sculpts better than some that have while technically are outstanding just have too much clutter on them. I don't know if I've ever painted something and then realised it was something else although that is possible. I do know that quite often I don't see details until the paint starts getting put on. The more I paint the more I notice on a model.

[Chaoswolf]

Yup, I've done that. Actually, I've done both of the things you guys mention. Sometimes it happens while the figure is still in progress and can be fixed, sometimes it's not.

[ManvsMini]

Yup. I still don't know what some features are that I painted. Most tend to be on the back of early Bones models, under or near a cloak or on a belt.

[Glitterwolf]

Same here.

I even painted skin on legs when it turned out to be really tight pants...

[zemjw]

2 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

Same here.

I even painted skin on legs when it turned out to be really tight pants...

Yup, I've done that one. It was only the folds around the crotch area that tipped me off to my mistake

 

I find starting to paint and really stare at the mini tends to bring "oh, that's what it is, duh" moments. I've also found myself painting bits of flash that I'd taken as pouches, etc during cleaning. Those tend to require more effort to fix

 

I've looked at figures months after painting them and noticed that the part I painted wasn't what I thought it was. Those tend to be left alone, as I reckon that if I didn't notice in the weeks I was painting the part, then there's wiggle room in what it was meant to be 

[Cranky Dog]

Human druid Andowyn. It took me a while (and several posted pics) to realize she has flowers in her curly hair. After struggling to fix it, it was simpler to strip all the paint and start over.

 

Some of the older white Bones figures with softer details, also occasionally suffered from "what the elf is this supposed to be?" syndrome.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Cranky Dog

[Corsair]

This very reason is why I prime with thinned Brown or Sepia Liner. So I can try to pick out some things I otherwise would have missed

[aku-chan]

This happened to me today actually.

Was painting a sort of fur ruff thing, wasn't until I'd finished I realised a bit at the front didn't look all that furry. Honestly, I still don't know what that part's meant to be, I just painted it brown.

[Mad Jack]

 

 I can't think of a specific example right now, but I know that there are at least three figures I've painted over the years where I still don't actually know for sure what the happy hell is hanging off their belt, but I've made an executive decision to paint it as something else and just pretend I got it right.

 

 On a related note, there have been three-page discussions on this forum over what something on some mini or other was supposed to be before coming to anything resembling a consensus.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Mad Jack

[Rob Dean]

My strategy at that point is to paint it burnt umber and move on …