30 November 2012

Musica

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

BANANALICIOUS Painting Contest - Important Update!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Aloa,

again it is time for some BANANALICIOUS Painting Contest Update.

First I want to thank another sponsor dropping in. CrazyWenky brings another special price for the best display in the whole contest (a cool figure transport box) and some cool additions to the random prize pool! Many thanks for that!!


You can check the list of prizes


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IMPORTANT Addition to the rules:

 - You'll have more time. The Contest ends February 15th 2013. 
One additional month for you to work on all your entries. We thought this fair as we feel that Christmas will bring enough hectic to all of us.

- Judging Information added to the rules.

- Additional photo rule:
When you enter we need one photo showing this follow up banner with the figure/s in one seperate photo. Save it, print it, write your name and date on it, if you are not able to take this one, just write on your own paper the same information:




__________________________________________________________________________________


Many thanks for all the help of our sponsors:



GAU 54 mm Minis
Masquerade Mini 
North Star Models


Special thanks for support to:


Tim
  
 
UPDATE SOON!

Jungle Interview: The Visual Flies

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca...

Hey everyone,

as there is a new blog popping up lately I thought it would be interesting for everyone to get a little bit more background information about this blog.

Hello Alfonso!
Would you please introduce yourself to our readers.
------

Currently you are about to establish a new blog, "The Visual Flies".
Can you introduce the people behind this blog to us?
------

Why did you and your team create this new blog and what is your goal?
------

Is the blog all about miniatures or will there also be other content in the future?
------

Is the blog planned to be on spain language or will you also introduce translations of content on the long run?
------

Do you think the painting world is going through some change? If yes, which kind of direction is the hobby going?
------

Thanks for your time!

MV booth on the road

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Yesterday evening Raffa and I spent the time after we have been invited to an event by the chamber of commerce and industry of Swabia (IHK), here in Ausgburg. The reason for this event was to bring politicians and the local small business sector together with creative artists and groups from the area. It was a kick-off event, the first one with these subjects.

Organised by the IHK Swabia and the team of KuPa (Kulturpark - West) where our studio is located.




We for sure brought some of our miniatures but we did not expect much somehow. C'mon, how could a local brewery for example benefit from our offer to paint figures? We don't know the answer yet, that is why Raffa and I try to bring figure painting more and more into the public world at such events. What we know for sure is that most of the people don't even know about figure painting and when they see it in real they are all amazed. That is why we try to take every chance to spread the word. Thanks to the crew of Kupa for giving us these chances.


In the end it was a very informative evening with a lot of talk, discussion and even music. In the end we both felt that there was maybe not enough time to really get connected with the visitors because of a) a lot of informative talk and b) limited time.

We are looking forward to another chance in the future ...

Spread the word about miniature painting -
 it is for sure a passion that is worth it and we all can be proud of!

Keep on happy layouting ... uhm, painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

28 November 2012

Kong's WIP thoughts - November #05

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Again - as time is limited - just some short quick views on our workbenches. Beside finishing the Artbooks we can arrange to be in the studio for some hours twice a week. This change is so healthy for us as the time we spent with layout work or Raffa sitting in the dark the whole day to work with calibrated colors makes of kind of crazy ... some say we already haven been before :)

Some Work in Progress teasers ...


Watching from the inside ...

Workbench

the gang so far

 well ... wow!


Keep on happy painting and may the gods of layout save us!
Best Wishes 
Roman and Raffa

27 November 2012

BANANALICIOUS PAINTING CONTEST - German rules updated too!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



All german painters interested in entering the one and only bananalicious painting contest can now be happy as the german rules are updated now too!

Go check them here!

Musica

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


26 November 2012

Figure Art Artbook - Campaign News

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Hello Jungle friends,

this news is about our Figure Art Artbook campaign that recently passed.

Massive thanks to everyone who supported us there. Really we are overwhelmed by all your help, nice comments and for sure by this success we did not expect.

We want to keep you all updated as daily there are questions dropping in about the further process, for example like this one:

"Is the book already shipped?" 

Right now after the campaign is over and we got final numbers of books we have to print we are working hard on getting the printing files of the books finished these days. We expect this week and maybe some days of the next week for this. After this is done we will give the order for the print in early december. Then we have to wait until everything is printed and delivered, followed by us signing all the books and making your parcels ready. The last step will be shipping them. As it looks like we will manage this before Christmas, at least we work and hope for it.

Another questions that was asked several times:

"I was too late for the campaign and want to buy a book now, please?"

Sorry for the moment. The high priority Raffa and I are working for is getting all supporters of the campaign happy in time. So the official normal sale of the books is definatly not starting before the campaign is fully done and finished. The campaign will be finished when everybody of you who supported us there has recieved his order.

So, before writing more I am back at layouting :)
Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman



Gnaaa!!!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


25 November 2012

Ebay - Primitivo!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong










Are you in search for a very unique Christmas gift? 
"Primitivo!" could be in someones Santabag this year ... 

Click at the banner to get directed to the auction and further information!

My project from the "Russian Alternative Battle 3" hits ebay tonight with a small teardrop in my eye. I really love the project but I am in need for more free space of cabinet and mind. So I hope it will find a good new home - maybe it is your home?

Happy Bidding!

Mu 27 - Sergeant Blackart, Terrible Kids Stuff, Roosevelt, 1:35

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Hello jungle explorers,

another time, another post - this time again a Miniature Unpacked.

This time we are taking a closer look at a pretty young, dynamic and cool miniature company from Italy. Young but for sure not boring. Sergeant Blackart himself gave me the order to show you all one of their cool and unique figures and do this Miniature Unpacked. What is the thing a good recruit is best in? Yes, following orders. So let's get it on ...

Let's start with some basic information about the Figure "Roosevelt" 
(taken from their homepage):

Category: Gangster's Planet
Concept: Andrea Jula
Sculptor: Benoit Cauchies
Painter: Fabrizio Russo
Material: White Metal
Pieces: 17
Weight: 180
Size: 54
Scale: 1:32

 ... and the promotional paint job that shows the figure in full colour HD:


 Now what I can say from my first impression - these figures are truely unique from their style. Never seen such ideas before and I am really fascinated by the unique ideas of the italian minds behind those sculpts.

What I can say is that I already was impressed by just the cardbox in which the figure arrives. Very cool design, a lot of fun while unpacking and again ... very unique. I have to say sorry for the first photo as I already unpacked the figure and the left cardboard stripe was brought back on the box with a big fail - upside down und not so nice - that was my fault ...yeah, I know.



After opening I already was kind of confused. Now what is this - the white paper sheet. Strange, never seen something like that before. If you look close there is a threedimensional watermark of Terrible Kids Stuff on the paper and it is "classified". Ok, my confusion grew but I took a deep breath and opened it up:


... which brought me to some stickers and the Artwork of Roosevelt. Pretty nice and again pretty unique style. I was even more corious now to see the sculpt and removed the first layer of foam. And again unique perfection:


I was counting the pieces as the Sergeant told me to do and counted 11. I said to the Sergeant "Sir, there are only eleven pieces, Sir! Not my fault, Sir!" but the Sergeant just replied in a grim tone "Dumb ass recruit, dig deeper!" ... So I did and found a bag of plastic beneath the second layer of foam. And the Sergeant said "Recruit! That pin is yours now!"



"Sixteen, Sir!"

Sixteen pieces? Oh dear I can't tell the Sergeant. He is expecting seventeen. So I have to take a closer look on the pieces now which arrived in white metal. The figure is pretty complex with so much pieces but is easy to handle as the parts are fitting together very well. There are some mouldlines here and there which are pretty normal and can be removed easily with careful use of your hobby knife. As far as I have seen the mouldlines do not affect very important areas like the face. They are placed with sense, not randomly and that is nice to see.





CLOSING WORDS
What I can say is that the sculpting work is truely outstanding. As said in the beginning the figure has a lot of parts and a very unique charme and theme. I think the figure can be a healthy change from the 100st zombie or space marine to paint and for sure a lot of fun. I am already beginning some ideas on what I will do with the figure and ...

"RECRUIT!!! Stand still and shut up! Why are there only 16 pieces!!! I hope for your mothers butt that you did not lose one piece!!"

"Sir, I counted while I was in the Studio and now I am at home writing this Miniature Unpacked, Sir! I can't have a look right now where I did los ..."

"You dumb clown of your own! Did I allow you to talk, Recruit? You are not a recruit of mine ... go searching again, and search well! Maybe check this one piece with the cross hair if there is another piece hiding and if not I will make you clean that dirty ground of your studio by using your toothbrush!!!!" 

"Sir, yes, Sir, Sir!" 




24 November 2012

Mu 26 - Hobby Zone, Tables for Painting

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Good Morning Jungle visitors,

another Miniatures Unpacked rolling in.
This time it is more a "Material Unpacked" but let's have a look together.
Today I will have a closer look on

Tables for Painting 

by the polish company Hobby Zone.

___________________________________________________________________________

I was pretty corious on what arrived at the studio, a big but not heavy box which included two small and one big box again.


The boxes contained (info taken from the company webpage):


Profesjonalny stolik do malowania figurek i modeliProfessional Paint Station

Size: 60 cm x 40 cm x 8 cm Professional three row table for painting miniatures and models, can also be used as a modeling position. Dimensions: 60 cm 

 

 

 

 

Paint StandPaint Stand

Size: 42,5 cm x 18 cm x 9,5cm  Paint stand is a perfect solution to keep order while painting models.

 

  

 

 



Large Paint Stand

 Large Paint Stand

Size: 60 cm x 23 cm x 14 cm  Large paint stand is a perfect solution to keep order while painting models






Raffa and I started unpacking the Professional Paint Station first and let me tell how the first moments of doing it felt after showing you the first impressions:



I first was shocked about the work ahead, but that is just something reasoned by my lazyness, maybe.
No just kidding. I was looking forward to build it up and was happy I found the instructions needed, already prepared some PVC glue:


After some seconds of preparing everything I was already whining and Raffa jumped the boat to help me because he feared my McGyvering skills in combination with the glue. Together we managed to start. It is not that hard but as I felt this day just wasn't my day of glory.

For the first goal ahead we had to prepare the single parts. The material is a hard cardboard, it's not heavy and easy to handle, IF your name is not Roman, the destroyer. There are some thin parts which have to be put in place gently and I broke one pretty quick.


Raffa then showed me how I can gently work with my hammer (this truely sounds ultraweird) and we managed to get everything in place without further complications caused by the cardboard berserk. Therefore we used the PVC glue like described in the manual to fix these spots. The next steps where bringing the prepared parts together like described in the manual.

 



As you can see in the picture above it is truely a real hobby table, you can easily carry it to another place if you are in need to clean up your table after painting, put colours, brushes, tools on it. Truely nice. You even can bring on to side arms to storage even more or put your WIPs while painting. In the end we did put it aside and put some heavy stuff on it to let the PVC glue dry.



I really like the professional paint station with all its option but after putting it to my workbench I found out that is kind of too big for me as Raffa is sitting close to me and he somehow got distracted by it. So we talked and talked and found ourselves unpacking the smaller boxes to build up the Paint Stand and the Large Paint Stand. We found this solution better for our working table, if there would be no Raffa I would have used the Pro one, but as we are a team and look after eachothers ideas and thoughts I brought the smaller ones in place.

Both of the paint stands are pretty easy to handle while building, not that complex like the pro one, even the pro one is simple if you are not Roman, the destroyer. What I did in the end with the 2 paint stands is - I primed them black.Wohow why you might think? I personally was too distracted by seeing so much white on my table, in front of me, where I paint, where I concentrate on colors. So I just primed it black and now I am really happy with my workplace.




CLOSING WORDS
If you are searching for a nice solution to store your colors and stuff on your workbench I really can recommand Hobby Zone products to you. They have different seized solutions where you can find your prefered one for sure. The products are not expensive and I really recommand to give them a try.
High quality for a low prize and you'll be an even more happy painter after the construction if you don't destroy things as easy as Roman, the destroyer does.