MASSIVE VOODOO: December 2012

31 December 2012

Quote of Today

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery,

but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present."

- Babatunde Olatunji

Have a colorful, wonderful happy new year everyone! But with gifts as this sunrise everything is possible! :)

Best wishes,
Raffa

30 December 2012

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca

Cheers ladies 'n gentlemen!

Tommorrow my girlfriend and myself will travel to a place far away, ... Graz in Austria, to celebrate new years eve together with our friends. Many nice friends to celebrate with, what better thing life can offer?

Another great thing life has to offer is music! And I found a very nice album of a german artist containing some dope beats. So if you like hip hop beats, especially boom bap styled, check this out!

Between The Lines | CØDA

Hope you like this!

Peace,
Raffa

Tutorial - Hanging plants

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca

Hey everyone!

This tutorial will be in our documentary book and we thought about keeping it exclusive for the book.
But as this book will be exclusive for our Indiegogo supporters it would be a shame to keep the knowledge for a "small" circle of people.

„Keeping knowledge erodes power. Sharing is the fuel to your growth engine.“

Have fun with this small but interesting tutorial!

What it will look like:

What you will need:
- Angel hair (decoration for christmas trees made out of fibre glass)
- PVA glue (white glue)
- Super glue
- A Toothpick
- Colors, an airbrush is recommended

Step 1
First, use some super glue to glue a strand of angel hair to a toothpick.
You should wrap the hair around the toothpick like shown on the photo.

You can get angel hair at a hobby store at christmas time. It is normally used as a decoration for christmas trees. It’s very cheap and you get a big bag of it.

Step 2
Put some white glue (pva glue) on your fingertip and sweep your finger over the angel hair, beginning at the top and going down to the tips.

It dries very fast and should look like on the photo.

Step 3
Now use your airbrush to spray it in some greenish tones, depending on your project. I used some strong green color to let the plants pop out when applied on the base.

To make it look even better you can give it a gentle spray with some dark brown tone at the top.

When dry, just cut the strands off the toothpick with a hobby knife ...

... and apply the pieces to your base with super glue.

That's it! If you like this tutorial, tell us in the comment section :)

Best wishes,
Raffa

29 December 2012

Sasha

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca

Hey everyone,

finally I got my version of Sasha done.... much too late but there was just too much stuff going on... anyway, enjoy the mini! :)

So long,
Raffa

27 December 2012

Tutorial - Making a leather loincloth

Posted by Raffaele "Picster" Picca

Hey everyone,

today I will show a simple way of creating a leather loincloth for your figure conversions or sculpting.

What it will look like:

What you will need:
- Milliput (other sculpting mediums will work, but for this technique Milliput has some advantages)
- Baking paper
- Sculpting tools

Let's start!

Roll a ball of Milliput and leave it to cure for around 30 minutes. It should be harder than in the beginning but still sculptable.

Place your Milliput ball on a piece of baking paper, cover it with another piece of baking paper and flatten it with some round, cylindrical tool until it has the desired thickness. Less than a millimeter is desireable!

Remove the baking paper on top, it should be easy to remove and should not stick to the Milliput. If it still sticks to the backing paper very much, just wait 10 minutes until it cures a little more.

Now use some sculpting tool or a hobby knife to shape the thin piece of Milliput to the desired shape. Just rip of the sides to get a shredded and used look on the edge of the piece.
If you like to you can dab the piece with a rough brush or a rough sponge to get some leather texture.

Use a fitting sculpting tool like the "Zahle A" to mark the lines where the leather patches will be stitched together. On the edges of the piece you can bend the small corners inside.

Now use a tool like this to mark the holes for the leather band that will be added in the next step.

Roll a small piece of the left over Milliput to a very thin sausage, it should be as even as possible.

Now cut small pieces of this roll and put them on holes like shown on the next photo.

The next step is to use a tool with a small, flat head to pinch the sausages into the pre-made holes.

Almost done! Now just redefine the holes like shown on the next photo. Imagine how the leather is hold together by the leather band.

The last step is to apply this finished piece onto your miniature. As the Milliput is pretty hard at this point you can easily touch it without the risk of leaving fingerprints on the surface.
Just bend some folds into the piece and place it where you like to have it on your miniature.

You can also tear some holes into the leather like on the leather piece next to the demonstration piece.
The size of the leather band can have a huge impact on the overall look and the scale of your piece.

The big disadvantage of this technique is that your piece has no backside. This can easily be fixed by adding some fur to the backside. It even adds some more believability as it looks like some stitched together animal pelts.

I hope you like this tutorial and give it a try!

Best wishes,
Raffa

24 December 2012

Merry Christmas!!!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

We wish all our friends, readers and jungle visitors a beautiful Christmas 2012.
Enjoy your time with your family and may you have some magic moments in the circle of your loved ones.

Your MV Ape Team

MV's ZSM 2012 - December 24th - Merry Christmas!!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

December 24th - The alternative Advent Calendar - Merry Christmas!!
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you miss what this is all about? Go check:

December 1st
December 2nd
December 3rd
December 4th
December 5th
December 6th
December 7th
December 8th
December 9th
December 10th
December 11th
December 12th
December 13th
December 14th
December 15th
December 16th
December 17th
December 18th
December 19th
December 20th
December 21st
December 22nd
December 23rd

The storyline goes on by the end of the story which won the best stories end, but first ...

At this point the Jungle of Massive Voodoo wants to thank everybody for their help, for their game they brought into the story during the last couple of weeks, for their ideas and for their time they invested. Sorry again about yesterdays fail by my side. I can say from my personal view I was a bit scared in the beginning while I thought about doing this alternative Advent calendar. I knew it will take much of my time everyday for 24 days and I really thought about not doing it, BUT with such energetic people helping the story to grow it was just a pleasure in the end. Thank you all! For me - as this year I did not have my own Advent Calendar I found it here everyday - with the answers and ideas you have shared. Many thanks! We hope you had your fun too ...

Your final words about the story are all cool but one has to be chosen to win the single double badge and I have decided for ...

Harald, for bringing up the Happy Ending that I had expected myself for the story and that I liked the most. Hard decision.

The Story goes on ____________________________________________________

"You close my eyes.
When You open them again the green light is still outside the window.
But the room has changed significantly.

Everything is coloured white. And there are two persons close to the window.
When your sight gets clearer you recognise the faces.

Its Eduaro and Jessica!

They are looking at you with worried faces. You can ´t belive it.
Now you realise that you are in a hospital room.
Your head aches like back in that metrowagon....

Your aching head starts to swim. With a shaking voice you ask them what had happend.

They tell you that the long painting session with them as you wanted to finish your latest project was the reason. And as you had done the final brushstroke you stood up, grabbed the miniature and danced around the room with it cradled in your hands.
As you handed it over to Jessica to show it to her you stepped back and tripped over your miniature-box.

You hit the corner of Eduardo painting desk with the backside of your head. You spilled the brushwater all over the place.

You had hit your head so hard that you were knocked unconscious. Because there was lots of blood as well, Jessica called 911 for help.

You can´t belive it, it was all a bad, a really bad dream?
Then you remember about the things we talked while painting.
Eduardo talked about the zombiegame he had put on his christmaswishlist, and how eager he is to paint those models. Jessica told that she bought the "die hard" collectors box for her dad. And we all had fun recollection the story of John McClane.

Then a Doc entered the room, he did some checks and told my that my friends haven´t been away the last day for a second. Eduardo even canceled his flight to Italy to be with his family and Jessica called her mom that she wont come with them to the alps to spend christmas in the snow.
He said that you can feel proud to have some friends like that.

Finally he said that everything is fine. They had sewn a big gash at the back of your head and that there is no further damage done.

He told me that you may go home tomorow. "So you can enjoy christmas eve" he added.

You wanted to spend it like in the last couple of years.
At home, eating wieners and bread, drink a few beers and watch a movie... alone.

But you changed my mind instantly, and invited Eduardo and Jessica to my place. To celebrate together.

They gladly accepted and promised to pick me up tomorow when you are allowed to leave the hospital."

The Story ends here ____________________________________________________

AS said, many thanks to all your help. We will count the badges for final results and will call out the winner, the one and only Zombie Survival Master 2012 after the Christmas days and will do a little "Best of Post" about it. Stay tuned and enjoy your Christmas days.

Your MV Team

23 December 2012

MV's ZSM 2012 - December 23rd

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

December 23rd - The alternative Advent Calendar
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Storyline goes on with the decision made in the comments:

Moderation: Sorryio! Today was and still is a truely busy family day and I still got to read all your cool stories to find out who wins the double badge. So today there is nothing behind that door. Only mystery and expectations. I ask for your patience and you will see the secrets of yesterday revealed tomorrow.

Sorry - I mean it!

22 December 2012

Target Identified!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Mysterious things happened in the last weeks on Masterminis.net.
Some we did not understand, some that went totally weird and now it looks like the secrets are revealed. Here is a little video from Paintingbudda.com that explains what we all can expect:

Check the other videos that explain even more!
One good reason to look forward to the new year!
Keep on happy painting!

Musica

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

For another moment of silence and rest ... enjoy!
I call that skillz!!!

MV's ZSM - December 22nd

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

December 22nd - The alternative Advent Calendar
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Storyline goes on with the decision made in the comments:
B) Go the rough way and do the kiss to her/him as fast as possible, open her/his mouth with force and bite of a piece of the tongue!

Three people will gain a badge for their help, - we are using their ideas to bring the story further. Take a sheet of paper, note your badges if you got one (we do the same) - in the end the one with most of the badges will be the winner. Don't hesitate to comment, we still got badges for 4 days to give away. The promoted ladies and gentleman for this row are:

Nehr, for lirting with the Queen of the Underworld.

Engineer Jeff, for doing what has to be done in a military way.
Harald, for his neverending hope!

The Story goes on ____________________________________________________

Today is the day to ressurrect the world!
Its a tongue after all, and you doing this to save your friend, and for that matter, humanity as it stands.

Now in the room it’s only the Queen and you, the Oracle was clear: You have to kiss her and bite her tongue. George is keeping her frozen in place but you still feel a sense of fear looking at that green possessed eyes. You try to gather all your courage to accomplish the task but you really can’t avoid seeing Eduardo’s face, looking at “her”…just the idea of kissing your friend…a French kiss…I don’t know if you are more amused, repulsed or threatened. But “a man/woman must to what must be done” (.cit) so you try with all your strength and decide to use all your charm trying to reach “her” and have a body contact. This is truely kind of strange.

You try to adulate her and slowly approach: “Oh great Queen, finally I’m with you. I tried to reach you in every way, for long time. It was so hard, but now you are here and I can do everything you want. We can be together; we can have this entire world at your feet. I will be your strong harm, be at your side”.

You have reached her and you take “her” hand in yours, creating a contact. Keeping the adulation you slowly move your head nearer to hers. In the beginning “she” seemed quite rigid, but now you feel “she” is letting herself go a little. “Perfect” you think, “It’s the moment!” In that precise second, you move as fast as possible and use all your strength to open her mouth, using my hands, than you put roughly your open mouth over “hers” and use your teeth to tear off a piece of “her” tongue. …

You gag as the blood rushes into your mouth, and you hear a slight "yelp" as whatever part of Eduardo that is still in there must have felt the pain. His eyes briefly flash back to their normal color. "DUDE! What the he-RRAAAWRRRR!" and the vampire bitch reasserts her control.

Eduardo went offline, no green gliming eyes anymore. You blow out all the candles in this room (not that the house burns later on) and take your friend to carry him upstairs on a couch. He is bleeding from his mouth and while you carry him you are proud of yourself - you carry Eduardo! - You must have grown muscles the last horrible days ... During your walk to the living room you don't see any Zombies around, not in the garden, not in the house and the world seems pretty quiet except George yelling "Last Christmas". You decide to switch it off now. But what has changed now???

A noise from the main door distracts you from cleaning Eduardo's mouth. You turn around and there is a lonely ...

... entering the living room. Oh no! Nothing changed???
You can barely breathe by the thought of that fact.

You prepare yourself to get your knife-broom-spear and charge the Zombie but suddenly the whole world outside glows green - a true strong light and you are scared to get blinded ... the Zombie turns to the light and the last thing you see is him walking away into the light ...

Now it is your turn again!

Explain to us what your world is like when the light fades away and you get on your feet again? What did that green light do? Is the Queen still out there? Is the world again a place of beauty or is Santa hunting Zombies outthere?

Be creative! The most creative storyline will get the badge!
There is only one badge for tomorrow and it means double!

Happy storytelling!

21 December 2012

Kong's WIP thoughts - December #05

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

And it still all is Work in Progress ...

Christmas arriving and we'll leave work behind during the Christmas days. We won't be in the studio for a while now. Some of us traveling to see relevants during Christmas and some of us staying home with their families. I think everyone knows what I am talking of: Christmas is coming.

For me personally yesterday was the last day in our studio until the new year arrived as we are back again. Back from a trip to our austrian friends that my girlfriend and I are looking forward and start on December 26th. A little snowy holiday in the mysterious austrian mountains. So I had to say goodbye to all my Work in Progress pieces yesterday. Which made me kind of sad but hey that is the way life goes.

I am still working on Sergaent Corwinn and there is still so much work in front of me that I'll enjoy. I learned an important lesson for me during the last weeks of painting I enjoyed with my friends. I was kind of lazy when it comes to contrast from dark to bright. Yeah, just lazy. That happens when you are confronted with figure painting everyday. You eyes go blurry. In retroperspective my problem was that I started the basic color - the overall color of an area way too bright in the past couple of months. I had my issues working into the light spots as I had problems in working out the contrast. For me it is good to start darker or darken too bright areas first to have the option to work on the contrast range. I somehow forgot about that during painting and painting.

There is still a lot of paint to do before I will call this bust finished. I am working my way through the armoury damage, from rough to detail at the moment. Working my way on contrasts on the armour parts. Did not do anything on the face so far, still got to do the eyes but as said concentrating at the armour at the moment. I am already happy with some areas but with others I still now how much time will be spent there to achieve the same result. I paint hours and meanwhile I think nothing ever happens with all these small dots and lines and edges but then after a while I enjoy the figure more and more. So it is good to invest the time and the figure is a pure joy to paint.

I finished another little project yesterday which is an exchange figure with Matt Cexwish. Once when he was visting us in Augsburg he made a little girl to my collection and I finished mine back to him now. I will for sure make better photos as this is just a blurry preview - you can take it as a teaser if you like. Final photos will arrive in 2013, but maybe you can get the story behind it even with this horrible photo :D

Blurry Preview Teaser

Raffa is painting a very nice bust at the moment from JMD and has a lot of fun by doing so. Yesterday on our last painting meeting for this year he really made some big steps further on the bust.

He is also working on some new tutorial stuff that will drop in for the next year - I guess you have no idea what this will be in the end :)

Bene was with us painting yesterday and even Peter and Wolfgang were there for some hours. Really a nice end of this year's painting. I can only say some cool projects are rolling in by our friends. Bene finished a very small bust and started a female Red Box Games Lady:

As this might be the last post of "Kong's WIP thoughts" for 2012 I just want to say thanks to those who support me with their oppinions, inspiriational ideas and thoughts about my WIPs. I am really thankful. Before I forget - I did paint some more on the Enigma Troll guy ... very cool sculpt and a joy to bring him to life - finally with contrast :)

Now it is time for me to say goodbye to colors and my dirty brushes, to hours filled with music, to hours filled with joy. Time to relax and breathe. I am looking forward to the new year and with a little teardrop in my right eye I leave behind my cabinet with the Work in Progress stuff :)

Keep on happy painting to you all who hold a brush once in a while!
Best Regards
Roman

MV's ZSM 2012 - December 21st

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

December 21st - The alternative Advent Calendar
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Storyline goes on with the decision made in the comments.

All people whofought the monstrous Zombie, will gain a badge for their help, - we are using their ideas to bring the story further. Take a sheet of paper, note your badges if you got one (we do the same) - in the end the one with most of the badges will be the winner. Don't hesitate to comment, we still got badges for 4 days to give away. The promoted ladies and gentleman for this row are:

Wild Chevy
Harald
Alba
Nehr

The Story goes on ____________________________________________________

... wow, what a fight.
You take a fast but deep breath after you stand on top of the Fatty remains. You made it, you fought this monstrous walker with just your hands and now you can end this tragic story ... but a kiss to Eduardo and an evil bite to his tongue is all that stands between you and the healing of the world. Will it work? Will everything be the same again like in the days before?

You don't know but at least you got to give it a try. Slowly you approach your friend Eduardo/Queen of the Underworld who is still paralyzed by George Michael's Music. Mmh. You have no idea how you can kiss him and how you can bring yourself to bite off a piece of his tongue.

Now it is your turn again!

A) Kiss her/him gently and hope to make the Queen longing for more during that kiss - hope that she will kiss you with her tongue ... and then bite!

B) Go the rough way and do the kiss to her/him as fast as possible, open her/his mouth with force and bite of a piece of the tongue!

C) Stop this madness - this is Eduardo, or is he not?

Happy deciding!

20 December 2012

Russian Alternative Battle 4 - News!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Just recieved these news about the Contest's deadline:

"I would like to inform you that the deadline for the contest The Russian Alternative Battle 4 has been changed to 10 MARCH 2013, so that more high profile painters could take part.
Regards Sergey"

Now this should work with way more people to raise some undeads for the contest! More time is always good! Yeaha! Great News!

MV's ZSM 2012 - December 20th

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

December 20th - The alternative Advent Calendar
____________________________________________________________________________________________

All people who asked the oracle, will gain a badge for their help, - we are using their ideas to bring the story further. Take a sheet of paper, note your badges if you got one (we do the same) - in the end the one with most of the badges will be the winner. Don't hesitate to comment, we still got badges for 4 days to give away. The promoted ladies and gentleman for this row are:

Roger Verdaguer i Serrat
Harald
JP
Wild Chevy
Alba
Nehr
Siggi

The Story goes on ____________________________________________________

After you asked the oracle of Doom on what you can do to save the planet you recieved the following hints:

"ssttttttthhhh .... queeeeen of the underworrrrrrrrrld .... 32 teeeth ... 5 less ... a toothless kiss ... and the tip of the underworrrrrrld's queeen tongue ... bite!!! May the fortune be with you, lisping visitor!"

"... where to find the queeeeeen of the underworrrrrrld? ...... dream a little dream .... while listening to the original version of "last christmas" in reverse playback ... the queen will await you on the other side .... "

"The queen of the underworld has to lose the tip of her tongue. Harald knows how to find her, and Roger knows how to accomplish. Bewaaaaaare of George Michael!!"

"Start by doing what is necessary, do what is possible, and then do what is impossible.
Attract her, kiss her. Bite the tip of her tongue. Don't get bitten. Beware of the christmas-carol singing man wearing sunglasses. Good luck!"

"Be George Michael! ... but bewaaaaaare - he's theeeeeeere!" (To avoid death)

"Things can't be undone without stopping words being spoken by the false tongue."

"We not know usbcharger. Use the perfume of malodorousness to find your path. Mix it!"

Ok you think - this sounds truely weird. A lot of information by the Oracle but you take your time to understand the sentences you have written down, those messages by the Oracle. You take a moment of rest and look outside the Window to see what Eduardo is doing ... a lot of Zombies vanished somehow, you can see some walking down the road. And there is Eduardo, walking into the basement - you are scared in the moment he looks right up to your window. He is staring at you with his green glowing eyes. Damn, you have to help your friend and fight this undead queen you have resurracted. Christmas is coming and this won't be a beautiful Christmas if the world stays as it is right now. You go back to the sheets of paper, near the book and concentrate on translating the Oracle's message.

After hours full of concentration passed you managed to translate the miracles written there and the message of the oracle is:

"You have to kiss the Queen of the Underworld, her presence and bite off the tip of her tongue! As you know the queen of the Underworld is now in Eduardo's body and so you have to kiss him and bite off the tip of his tongue. Beware of not getting a bite by him/her. The Queen of the Underworld has to listen to this song while you do the ritual this prevents your soul from getting frozen in front of her! It has to be this song and George Michael's voice - do not change the tunes as this is truely important!"

Ok then, you have to play that song - you prepare the stereo and play it on repeat, done. C'mon damn Miracle now I have to go downstairs and kiss Eduardo and bite his tongue? You must be kidding me, oracle? How ... stupid and grose!

You put all your strength together - you are the reason why all this has happened, why the world is going down in fire and horror. You can change it and may at least have a nice Christmas holiday with Eduardo - who might be in the hospital then because of your upcoming tongue bite! Oh dear!

Down in the basement you find Ed... the Queen of the Underworld in front of a table with millions of candles. From above George Micheal is yelling and the Queen seems to be frozen in her movements because of this song. The Oracle was right, almighty Oracle! Suddenly you hear some mourning from a dark corner on the right and from the shadow there appears ...

Damn, you thought all zombies were gone but this one must be the Queen's bodyguard. Oh dear that is a big guy and all your equipment is not here in the basement. You left it behind upstairs. This guy is big and strong you guess and you have nothing but your hands. No time to look through the room ... oh no!

Now it is your turn again!

Describe how you fight this monstrous zombie with your bare hands or find another solution to solve this delicate situation and reach your goal: Eduardo!!