Thursday 26 February 2009

Review - Coolminiornot Ultimate Painting Guide


Important Note – Being an internet fiend that I am. I’ve travelled many a hobby/warhammer/miniature site and one thing that I first noticed is that lots of the guides, if not all of them can be found on the web for FREE! I think all of them are from articles section on the coolminiornot website, which to me makes this guide abit of a fraud. I’m not slating the content, just the manner in which this guide somewhat tricks you into thinking its new content and that it hasn’t been rehashed from there article section! So just a word of warning to you all.




Cost: It cost $9.99 or £7.00 from their online store. Now this is for a pdf download. You get sent a link where you can download it from after payment. Their store currently has an issue with the SSL certificate as their website doesn’t show it. The mods at the moment don’t seem to be in a chatty mood either and getting a reply from them hasn’t been particularly great. I took the risk anyway, but again a warning point if you are thinking of buying anything else from them. I paid by paypal, so I had some sort of protection if things went wrong.

Content: Well despite the issues with the store and somewhat fraudulent nature of the guide, its actually quite good, content wise. While you can find all of the articles pretty much for free online on their website, it is nice having them all together in one tomb.

It covers all the basics of mini prep and painting that you will find in most painting guides. Ranging from pinning to highlighting and shading and does it abit more in-depth than most of the guides that I’ve seen (using GW’s as a comparison). It also then focuses on other techniques such as feathering and blending, but not in enough detail. There are very few good written guides though on that subject, mainly due to its difficult nature, through the kraken edition DVD (review soon) is meant to be brilliant for it!

The guide also has some step by step guides on various bits such as lighting effects, bases and painting models. All these guides are well written and have a good supply of pictures (300 page guide in total). In general the guide is well thought-out and covers a broad range of subjects including basic sculpting, making this a fairly good guide for the beginner or average painter looking to improve. Its just let down by the fact all this info is free if you take the time to search which lets it down.

Evaluation: Content wise, I can’t fault it at all, well presented and ordered, with loads of pictures and useful tips. It could however spent abit more time on the advanced techniques as these guides are a little rushed, but other than that it’s a excellent guide. I would recommended it, but as I’ve said the ‘dodgy’ nature of coolminiornot’s online store and contact is a real put off for me as its rather poor at the moment. Also the fact that the majority of the content can be found for free online is also another let down. Price wise, if the content hadn’t been around online for free, id say it’s a good price and this along with the shop issues lead me to give it:

5/10.

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