Round 5 - Celtos Gael Warband vs. Honor Guard

[Prof.Witchheimer]

[Doomhippie]

looking at these two I am glad I don't participate this round. I wouldn't have had a chance... Great work, guys!

[Faber]

great dwarves! 

[Pil]

Great Celtos models too! Both entries are very nice!

[phreedh]

LA, great job - the shield turned out great!
DK, got the eyes down good and proper. Nice dwarves!

[syrinx0]

Great flesh tones on both entries.

[Drachenklinge]

thanx for the nice comments!

@ LeadAsbestos
very cool, to see these old Celtos minis (and also well painted, too)! Got two or three myself (never managed to grab the rune-smith/dwarf, though). I really like the fur of these horses ... very smoothly made! Also the metall of the war-wagon ...

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[LeadAsbestos]

Great work on the dwarves!

I was hoping to get some feedback on my first ever scenic background, but I think everyone is being nice, and didn't say anything...

[Drachenklinge]

actually I like this gravel-like rocky surface. Although Your picture is - like mine ^^ - a bit overexposed. What I need to make for my own pictures, too either more scenic terrain for a better background myself, too. Meaning: more trees or mountains or whatever for the horizontal "level" or some of this blue-ish sky-like version. Both is imho better than pure white.

I never mananged to make my terrain with this more real-like feeling. With mine You can always see this game-like motivation. I like to cover that shortfall with "it's my style". 

To me this outcome never was so sure, as it looks from the voting! I expected more of a draw, to be honest. There are a few other pairings (not my entries), which are way off my  expectance and very astonishing in their outcome.

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[LeadAsbestos]

Same here! These boys fight on the tabletop, and my only opponent is 8yrs old! He has less-than-discriminating tastes, like his old man  , so I had to piece together my crap terrain to get even this!

[Dr Mathias]

LA- I like the scenic background of the Celtos group quite a bit. I think the irregular horizon edge is a good move. If you want some constructive criticism (and I didn't even notice this until to mentioned asking for feedback, so I looked at the background more) you might see if you can move the sky gradient back further from the scene. It looks like the trees are casting shadows onto it. Very slight, but if you're striving for perfection...

The figures look great as well, really crisp.

Drach- I'm really enjoying the sharp highlights and the reddishness of the faces. The faces have an 'intensity' to them.

Not sure what is accounting for the voting split, as both are painted very well- although in very different styles (one with subtle shading, one with high contrast). People may be voting on their stylistic preference, and I think contrasty minis or ones with a wider value range in the shading do better in general. I also think close ups can swing the vote in otherwise equal quality images.

Good work both!

[Orctrader]

...I also think close ups can swing the vote in otherwise equal quality images.

I think that's probably right.  Especially with evenly matched pairings.