Mittwoch, 29. August 2012

"Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles" finished....

....well, almost. There are still minor things to do. A little bit of blacklining here and there, some more details on the base, dust on the cloack and some matt varnish with the airbrush for the entire mini. However, I would like to share this guy with you. I hope you like this mini, sorry for the terrible pictures. Let me know what you think.









Chris

Mittwoch, 22. August 2012

WIP Finubars Pride: update #1



Painting is so much fun at the moment, I can't remember to have enjoyed it that much during the last two years. Sorry for the blurry pic, it is the best I could take. I hope you like it, let me know what you think.



Chris

Samstag, 18. August 2012

WIP: Finubars Pride


I started this project right after the first pictures and information about the last GD Germany came in. The increase of quality in that competition has really motivated me and I am eager to enter as many miniatures as possible next year. I have already finished one entry and I aim to go there with at least six or seven entries. As I do not only want to enter in Single Miniature (40k, Fantasy, LotR), I felt it is time to go for another regiment of Warhammer Fantasy. I have always been a great fan of Bretonnia, The Empire, Wood Elves and High Elves. With the Island of Blood box, GW released tons of great figures at a really fair price. After my Bonecrusher from this box, I will now paint a unit of 5 Lothern Sea Guards. I struggled finding a good colour concept because in my opinion, these minis have been painted perfectly by Volomir. The only thing I knew was the fact that my version should show no similarities with his regiment. As he used mostly cold colours, I decided to go for the opposite. I also did not convert the minis, I will paint them right out of the box.
The current state shows the musician after maybe 5 hours of painting. I will try to finish each miniature in about 15 hours, maybe 20 for the Champion and the banner bearer. Including the bases, this project should be finished in about 100 hours of painting, what is quite effective in my oppinion.

I hope you like the mini so far, let me know what you think.

Chris

Sonntag, 5. August 2012

Games Day Germany 2012 preview


Next weekend (August 12th) another German Games Day will take place in Cologne. As i said before, I will not take part this year, the reasons for that are numerous yet unimportant. If you are still thinking about a trip there, or if you are painting the final brushstrokes on one of your entries, you might find the following links helpful.

  • You can review the rules for the German GD here and here (in German only, sorry).
  • Here you can check out who will do the painting demonstrations during the day.
  • Go to the Bemalforum to check out a full list of international painters and their entries (go to the last page).
  • If you like to visit the painters dinner on Saturday, check this out.
  • A 360-version of the GD-miniature can be seen here.



Chris

Updating the blog

You might have already noticed that I added a few top-tabs that I will update as often as possible. To avoid long searches, I have put all my tutorials on the front page. In addition, I have put up a gallery of some of my miniatures.


Chris

Freitag, 3. August 2012

WIP update #2: "Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles"

Here is a current update on my progress with the Spanish guy. I struggled painting the pants, mainly because I missunderstood the sculpt und painted it totally wrong. For the second try, I chose another colour and avoided hard lines. That part is not finished yet, I will add a few brown areas to make the shadow parts stand out a bit more. At the moment, the pants seem too flat. The pictures don't show it but I also painted some sort of  texture effect. I hope his comes out better in the next update.
The rest are minor things, I painted the red feather using a colour recipe I got from Picster, it makes painting red really easy. In addition, I painted the shirt collar. The pictures take away some of the contrast, looks too flat here.





Chris

Mittwoch, 1. August 2012

Tutorial: how to pin a miniature on a base

You usually don't think that much about  the best way to pin a miniature on a base. Gamers don't do at all because of those fancy cases where each miniature is protected on its own. I started thinking about this after my first serious accident on my way to a painting workshop. I opened my miniature box and found a terrible battle ground. About 4 miniatures were heavily damaged because ONE miniature wasn't pinned correctly to the base. The collateral damage was breathtaking. ^_^

I spoke about this problem with Stephan Rath (derwish) and he smiled my problem away. He shared his way to pin a mini, and I would like to share this way with you today. It is very simple, not even worth the name "tutorial". 


The first step is to file the area that will be pinned. In most cases, this will be the foot. If the miniature is standing on both feet, take the time to pin both of them. Pinning one foot will be sufficient for your showcase at home but not for longer trips by car, train or plane. I usually drill a hole into the heel, as this point can't be seen from the front. Make sure that the hole is a little bit wider than the wire. Very simple so far.....



The wire you choose must be very hard, you should not be able to bend it with your fingers. Now comes the simple, yet very effective idea that Stephan came up with. In order to get a more stable pin, you need a huge, uneven surface that can be covered with glue. Your wire is neither huge, nor is it uneven. Therefore you need a small amount of tissue. If it sonsists of several layer, take only one. More layers will be too thick in the end.



Cover half of the wire with superglue and let it dry about 1 to 2 minutes. After that, surround the wire with one layer of tissue. The paper will make the glue dry instantly. Now you have am absorbent, very rough surface. Repeat this step with all pins you need for the miniature.








The rest should be clear. Put the wire with the prepared ending into your pinholes and let it dry. When you are pinning your miniature on some kind of armature for painting, like I always do, don't put tissue on the other ending of the wire. Instead, just glue it to your armature. When you have finished the mini, remove it and glue tissue to all pins, then glue it to the finished base.






From my experience, this way of pinning makes it almost impossible to remove a mini from the base without really wanting it.

Have fun and please let me know if this works for you.



Chris