Good Morning Music

posted by roman, jarhead, kong




As Raffa and I are hitting the road today for another painting class I am already into fine music this morning due some final packing works ...





See you again jungle - after the weekend - may you enjoy yours :)

Mech #7 and Pilot

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Another project done and finally - thanks to Mr. Queng Teng - I can present it in the jungle.

The figure was the special figure of the Painting Crusade 2010 and I did paint my version up to Quentin for saying thanks for his hospitality during our stay for the Painting Crusade 2012. I did a little conversion work - here you can find the basic model without the Steampunk-Mech look - nicely painted version my bibab Raffa did as a present for Quentin 2 years ago. The figure measures around 4 cm without the socket and the pilot is really tiny. It comes from railorad accessoires. I hope you like this little scene ... thanks big Q. for the photos :)

Mech #7 and Pilot

Painting Crusade Special Figure, 28 mm

If you like to vote for the Mech #7 and the pilot -

click here!

It was really a pleasure to prepare and finish this gift and a joy to convert the little fella. 

Happy Painting!

Best Wishes

Roman

A look on the table - March

posted by roman, jarhead, kong




Aloa fellow jungle visitors,

again it is time for a look on the table. I got struck by the thought to keep this a series over the weeks of a month. Sure my timing is pretty bad as this is the first official "Look on the table" of March as it ends pretty fast :D

So this is a look on the table #1 for March.
I got also struck by the idea that every monkey who got some work to show could easily follow up with the number and just write to inform you that which table you are looking at. So - as a good example - this is Roman's table, shortly before heading to a painting class on Friday. Preparing stuff, packing tomorrow and so on ... I recently did finish some figures again so let's start with a short overview and for sure bad pictures, done with lightning from my camera, better ones shall arrive when they are done

... and again I got struck by an idea.
Here is my cabinet with bad pictures from the camera lightning but in all its glory from top to low. Recently I switched my exchange figures I did with other painters in my second etage to have them closer to my heart. You can also find a pretty weird base to the lower left where you can find Matt's exchange figure he did while at his stay. It is so cool and there will be soon better photos of it. Thanks a lot Matt and everyone else who finds himself in this floor of my cabinet.

In the first you will find all that is done. This will shrink tonight pretty much when I start to pack the sold figures of the latest ebay auctions. They will be shipped tomorrow. I kept "Maestro" for a while in my own cabinet even it is a gift to Raffa. Be sure I asked about it. The gladiator will be gone soon too as he is still an exchange figure with Felix and yet he stands at my place. Soon we will meet brushbrother and I am really looking forward.I did finish Aragorn, another Liche King, Rose an exchange figure to Raffa and a little Red Box Games Goblin there.

The third floor holds my Work in Progress stuff that I am working on. Not the Bellerophon base as there is no space left. Yes, I am thinking of a second cabinet for quite a bit now. But still lots of stuff in process, some close to finish others far away from putting my hands and mind on.

In the lowest corner you still find the floor of shame. There you find stuff that is planned but there is not the time right now. You also find the box Matt sent to us with the Gorilla head for Celeberations of the 1000 Jungle friends. Damn, I wish I could see this done. But proper purpose and so much other things keeps my mind busy at the moment ao for the moment it stays there but will be seen free soon, hopefully ... promised, maybe ... damn :D - Enjoy:

Looking on the table it shows some basing work, preparing two projects for the upcoming painting class to use as explanation figures and bases.

Another look on the table shows a batch of Sockelmacher's fine pieces of wood for the upcoming painting class. All arrived safely - many thanks my friend. If you want to support the jungle get your sockets at ...

So what's up with the Chimera and Bellerophon?
Still the base is at work. Will take a little while as it is not really small :D

What else to say ... mmh, nothing, the sun made many promises today and kept the day warm in every single moment. Love the sun and look forward to get ready for the painting class ...

 I wish you sunny days and a fine mood and some happy painting and hope you liked this Look on the table that struck my mind ... maybe it will become something staying in the jungle or it will fade away ... who knows, only great Manitu does and he won't speak with me :)

Best Wishes
Roman

MV Easter Season Challenge Reminder

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Heyho eggcited people!

We already have our first entry in and can't wait for more cool ideas on what you can create with your egg -
check out the MV's Easter Season Contest Rules here.

This is just a little reminder to keep you focused on your entry :)

There is a bunch of stuff rolling in for the MV Surprise box. There will soon be another update photo on the box but here is what dropped in from Masquerade Miniatures - a brand new Fur Hair Sculpting Tool and two Tube Tools to create tubes for your projects:

Using the tube tool

Masquerade Miniatures Tube Tool in Action.

Make ready to take your chance on this massive box. 

Get your egg projects rolling in! 

Keep on happy painting!
Your MV-Team

Monkey bro' visits ...

posted by roman, jarhead, kong




Yesterday night arrived our guest, ape brother Matt Cexwish in our little hometown to spent a Monday painting night with Raffa and myself. He will hit the road today again to travel further to Italy. We really have some nice moments with chats about figures and share deeper thoughts together. Matt was brutally forced to paint an exchange figure with me but was rewarded with 10 minutes of time to play with the cats ...

Matt is the reason why the jungle is a bit quiet lately - we are busy planning the future ... more soon!
Have fun on your further travel, Matt and have fun on the road!

Tutorial - How to keep your brushes clean

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa and first of all I wish a good start into this new week :)

This little article shows you how you can easily keep your brushes clean. Sounds irritating for me that I write up this article as I am really a wild boar when it comes to care about my brushes. For me brushes are like guitars and if I would be a good musician I would destroy my guitar after a concert I think. Don't take me as your archetype :)

This article is kind of similar to "Room for Freshness" where I also clean and tidy up my material. Funny thing is that I wrote that one almost one year earlier - Spring is the reason I guess for the will and strength to clean up my material. So I hope you enjoy this article and if you like to say thank you for this article or those many others you can drop a donation to the jungle. Thanks to those who did in the past.

Room for Freshness

Cleaning your workbench, talk about brushes, colours, material, spirit etc.

As told I am really not good in keeping my brushes clean. I use them like a tool and tools get dirty. When I clean up my brushes like I do in the following describtion it is way more than just tyding up my tools. It is somehow meditation, preparation of the mind for further things to come, leaving the past behind. Now this gets really pseudo emotional, ain't it?

The brushes I am up to clean are all those I am working with at the moment. I still do have the jars of the death row, those brushes who long time stood against color and fought til the end. Those will rest on my brush graveyard. So cleaning my actual brushes means also feeding the graveyard if needed.

Musica:


The Clean Up - Round 1

When I start cleaning the brushes I take them all and use a little amount of Airbrush cleaner by Revell. I do put some in a extra plastic jar, dip the brushes in and pull them over a tissue for a while until everything gets clean and shiny again.

When you put your brushes into the Airbrush cleaner (or whatever you will use for the first round of cleaning) make sure you only put the brushs hair into it. Not the black or green wooden stuff or it will destroy your varnish and paint on the brush.

When you pull your brush over the tissue make sure you pull it to your body. It is not pushing away from your body, pulling to your body is the right movement. Also take care that you don't clean the brushes like this - you will destroy them - so this first example is WRONG:

This is RIGHT:

You will do this for a while if your brushes look like mine, you will do this with less amount of time if you keep your brushes clean more often. After a while your tissue looks like this. Sometimes I really do remember where I have used the red or the blues coming out of those dirty fellas. This gets us back to the meditational part again :)

I also used some tape to mark my old brushes that I am still working with. The ones you use for the rough work. I was tired always searching for them, now I got them marked and ready for a fast take.

The Clean Up - Round 2

Second step in cleaning leads me to the bathroom to get some Shampoo from my girlfriend as I have no hair left and did not use shampoo for about more than a century. You just need a little bit or you can also use curd soap too. Some brushes are delivered with a brush soap - it is no joke, use it. Again I did use a small plastic jar to put in some shampoo and water - agitate it to mix it.

The reason for this shampoo thing is: If you mostly use synthetic brushes this ain't be very important for you, but if you use natural hair brushes the clean up round 1 made them clean for sure, but the Airbrush cleaner makes them pretty dry and in the end they get very hard if you just stop after round 1. The shampoo/soap attendance makes the hairs soft again and a dream to paint with. It gives the hairs back some grease. So I did put them all in the shampoo bath - just the tips - and did not clean them fast after it. I let them rest for about 2 hours so the shampoo/soap has time to gently invade the dry hairs with grease.

Next is the final clean up. Caring about the protective covers of your best brushes is important. Never lose them or you might get in trouble while starting a wonderful painting night finding your favourite brush dead due maybe a fail moment.

These brush boxes are from a german art store called "Boesner". I am not sure if you can get them worldwide so far. I did put my favourite, well protected brushes in the upper area while I did put the hardcore ones with the tape into the lower area.

So this was a little guide to clean up your brushes. Sure you can do this with the material you prefer but what is most important is that you take your time to take care :)

Happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Work in Progress - yet very early

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Repair and Rework I - Gladiator bust

posted by Peter aka Baphomet

Hey guys,

I think most of you remember the disaster with my cabinet on Monday evening... well, fist I want to thank all of you who commented the topic with your nice words. It really helped to get over the situation and to start the repairs quickly...

After I reinstalled my cabinet (this time the right way...) Which miniature would be the first to be repaired and - as I had the opportunity now- to be reworked? Roman did this some time ago with another bust and I thought it would be some good practice ;) It´s quite interesting to look at some older miniatures and to consider what parts you would improve with more developed painting skills. So as I was looking at all my miniature-parts I quickly chose my own Gladiator bust, I finished last summer. Every time I looked at it I recognized some parts worth to be improved and so I took the chance to change this...

First of all the old pictures (for comparison reasons):

Here the situation after the cabinet´s disaster:

There were two things I wanted to change: the painted metal and the face. In my opinion the metal I painted last summer was not very "realistic". It was dull and even as it looks quite good on the photos, it wan´t that good in real... the face was quite good, but I missed some more colours in the skin and a clear light-situation.

After some hours of painting I think I did quite some good work... I´m not toally satisfied with the result, but I have to go on to repair some the next miniature and somehow to finish my project for the Duke of Bavaria-show... perhaps I will invest 2 or 3 hours more for the Gladiator-bust (this time perhaps for the breast... I did´nt change anything here).

So here the final result... sorry, but the metal is quite bas on the pictures... In real it looks quite good (damned lamps)...I would be happy I you could tell me if you can see an improvement, too ;)

Regards,
Peter

Quote of today ...

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

"Everything will be good at the end,

if it ain't good already it is just not the end."

...