Dwarf and Arrows - Tutorial voting time again!

Heyho!

Raffa, Sanne, myself and maybe Bene got some busy days ahead as we are moving the studio to a little larger place next door and with that we'll do a big spring clean up. More about that soon for sure!

Meanwhile MV's year of the painter brings another tutorial choice for you all.
Voting lasts until Monday next week - make your choice wisely via comment!

#1
This article explains how you can attach Bowstrings to your figures, what you have to take care of; explained on some figures from "the Nightwatch".

For Bowstrings vote "Arrow" in the comments

 #2 
This article explains and shows a painting strategy on quick display figures. All explained on a nice Dwarf from Hasslefree. You can say this one is a little build up to the Zombie-Article. This time not for quick gaming figures, but for a quick display project.

For the Dwarf vote "Dwarf" in the comments

Your turn now, vote the article that you want to read early next week!
Don't vote for "dwarf arrow", that won't work and they don't hurt!

Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Work in Progress - Caravan Guardian

Hey everyone,

at the moment I am working on a 28mm sculpture for my own range of figures (Forged Monkey).
It's almost finished, today I will give it the last finishing touches!

He is a caravan guardian, one of the best. He protects the kings caravans, keeps an eye out for bandits and robbers and is ready to fight to the death to protect his shaikh's precious belongings.
The shaikh is very thankful for his service and so he is allowed to taste all the strange and interesting fruits and meats that are brought from all over the world to the palace once they arrive ... and he makes great use of his sheikh's offer.

 

The photo is some days old, a lot changed... more photos soon :)

Best wishes,

Raffa

MV Quest: Can you stamp it?

Hey Jungle dwellers,

again it is time for another MV Quest.
A Quest of glory for sure, but this time rather about exploring unknown terrain, searching for little wonders and gaining experiences in the world of little wonders. Best of it, taking part will not take you a lot of time.

You have seen the latest article about "Using stamps in your Milliput".
This quest is completly focused on this. Read the lower rules for details.

Thanks to CMON who made this quest possible by sponsoring prizes.

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Quest Rules

- Collect some cool things to make stamps from, keep your eyes open to find them (Explore)
- Do some stamping work to see what you like the most (Experience, have fun, go crazy)
- Make a photo* of your favourite "Stamp"** in Milliput or other Putty
- Sent the photo via mail to jarhead---at---massivevoodoo---dot---com
- Name the mail like this "MV Quest - Can you stamp it? - *your name*" to take part
- Sent your photo until 1st of April 2014 - we are judging the coolest stamp idea, craziest ones, funniest and impressive ones, etc. - may the most creative of you win! (be genius)

FAQ
How many stamps can I submit?
You can submit as many stamps as you like but you have to tell us your favourite one - we will take our judging on this one. We think with everybody showing as many stamps as he likes all the readers have more fun and inspiration.

*entries will be made public on Massive Voodoo
**Important: We need to see on the photo what you took as a stamp (for example: Stone) and your stamped base._____________________________________________________________________________

WIN one of those three prizes, sponsored by CoolMiniOrNot:

We will give away these three prizes to the most creative and genius stamp ideas.
PLUS: Everyone who takes part in the Quest will take part in a random lottery of a big jungle surprise basing box.

Now it is up to you? 
What you waiting for? 
Collect some stuff and do some experiments. 
If you got questions, please feel free to drop them via comment.

Quest is online and live!
Happy stamping to you all!
Roman

Musica

Tutorial - Stamp your Milliput

Hello miniature painters,

another article hits the jungle. Really, another one?
MV's year of the painter brings you excellent hobby tips, tricks and inspiration.
This article will not be different.

Btw I hope you are enjoying how MV heads straight back to its roots: Bringing you articles from our everyday workbench (for free) to help everyone having more happy painting time at their workbench? Let us know if you like it or if you got questions, write more comments if you enjoy the articles or hit the donation button once in a while. That is the only feedback that we get :)

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INTRODUCTION
Well, this article is about basing again. I will show you a funny and enjoyable way on how you can create different textures on Milliput, Standard Yellow. You can also use different clay here, for basing I prefer using Milliput, which is just my personal taste.

PRACTICAL EXERCISE
This technique is really simple and can lead to great results. Just mix your two component Milliput Standard Yellow 50/50 and take your time for that. It should really be mixed well or it will not dry hard as a rock.

When it is mixed you have around two hours of working with it from now on. The first hour the Milliput will be more soft, in the second hour it will get hard slowly (Good to know!). After those two hours it is really hardening quick, but still you can do something with it. Soon more about the different stages.

STAGE ONE - STAMPING
I place the mixed Milliput to a wooden plinth (you can also do that to a gaming base). You can see on the example below how my fingers already made a funny texture to it while pressing it in shape. I could already leave it like that, but that is too simple I say.

Now all is about your collection of material to makes stamps of. Your collection can grow if you keep your eyes open to the world that sorrounds you. Stones, wood pieces, your kid's toys, some garbage you found useful and so on. You can really use everything that has an interesting surface. I will now show you some examples:

The stone I am using here leaves the following texture ...

If you don't like the texture it produces just wet your fingers with water and make it plain again to make the surface ready for another stamp test.

Next I used a piece of a column to make a stamp from it ...

Next one is a piece of cork ...

Next one was done during a painting class. It was done by the help of a stone who got holes in it, like this one here! The stone was stamped into the Milliput to achieve the look of bubbles in lava or slimy water.

Next one is a piece of plaster from Hirst-Art and we will spent some more time with that one. It is already a little damaged but I don't care about that, just makes my stamp more interesting I hope. Free your mind for such tests to find what you like and don't like. Open up and do experiments.

I used mainly the side of the plaster piece as I like the structure there the most. Now I press from the side into the Milluput to stamp it there and bring the whole base in the shape that I like.

Push from the side ...

I use its flat bottow to bring bigger surfaces to a plain area. All done with that one piece of plaster, but I hope you know that you can do this with tons of other "stamps" that you collect. It does not have to be the same plaster piece I am using here. Keep your eyes open, find your own ideas, follow your inspiration and stamp like you never did before to gain your own experience.

Push from the top ...

STAGE TWO
So stamping is over now but my plinth still looks a little messy? After one hour the Milliput gets harder I told you. Now is the time to prepare it a little more to be a base in the end. I took my scalpell to cut away the side of the Milliput and make it a plain ending to the plinth:

STAGE THREE
After two hours the Milliput really gets hard. Now is the time to cut some detail stones with the scalpell and bring in more detail to the base overall. Chop! Chop!

Even the Milliput is not completly dry yet in this stage I can already prepare some additional materials. I used some small plaster pieces for debris and a skeleton torso and placed a Hasslefree Dwarf Warrior on top of that quick base.

When the whole Milliput is completly hard (next day) I work my time at the the still unclean edges of the plinth with using sandpaper to make them smooth. Easy procedure and that's it. Ready for priming.


CLOSING WORDS
This article is mainly to inspire you. Give it a try, search for stuff that you can use as a stamp and have fun by exploring your endless options. Make sure to keep your eyes open, really do as I can already give you a little hint: This article is connected to the next MV-Quest that lies ahead of you all ...

Read you soon and keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Matt´s Base Building Workshop January 2014 - Thoughts and Pictures!

Hi Di Ho!

A good Month has passed since my very first completely Self-organized Basing Workshop in my Home City, Berlin, and I finally found some time to write a thing or two about this very rewarding Weekend... :)...

First of all: Why organizing a Base Building Workshop? Because a Base still is the Backbone that holds most Miniature Projects together... I don´t necessarily mean this simply in the straight forward way of saying that you will need a base to glue your Miniature to (you will need it for this, too...;)... A Good Base really makes the difference in every Miniature Project since it transports a Huge Portion of the Story, sets the Atmosphere, Gives us something to discover and truly challenges us to watch and think about many things around us (Construction) or in our minds (Imagination)...

From my Experience, People in our Art and Craft often struggle to achieve exactly the brilliant or very personal Ideas they carry around their minds... Some have big Plans and start out very enthusiastically without even noticing all the boundaries they set onto their Projects right from the beginning, only to end up being frustrated if the result doesn´t meet their expectation... Only with careful and honest analysis, reference and plans they will be able to see, what exactly they see as given (as the first step)... To continue to develop their Ideas and finally overcome the Boundaries of their Minds... To truly achieve to display something that has been stuck in their dreams and to share it with the World...

In the Presentation that I use to start my Workshop out I show a Picture of a colourful Train that is joyfully de-railing over the Edge of the flat "Earth"... This is exactly, what I want my Students to do... Overcome what they think is possible, to merrily derail into the Unknown and Impossible... I wanted them to Sketch up their personal Vision, then to develop this initial Idea by using some of my Techniques (Creativity and Developing Techniques) and then to execute that Vision as diligently as possible...

However, there was also a Plan B for those, who would find it difficult to accept a free floating Train as their Guide on their way to learning how to build a proper and nice looking base: The more Standartized, Dice Box Base Method... This Method utilizes a Standard Dice Box and a more straight forward Way of Construction, even though it is supposely more limiting to what can be build (actually, I was proven differently as some of the Dice Box Bases turned out extremely Creative and Visionary...)...

So, how well was everything achieved on the First Workshop? I would say fairy well! If I look back at the Bases the Students built I cannot help myself but be VERY proud of the courage and efford all of them have decided to put into this, reaching far beyond their own comfort Zone...

Let me write something of the Projects that I currently have Photos of and remember as something unusual (although all of them were absolutely unique, great, marvelous, cool, important... and much more, of course, of course...:)...)...

 

 This Project here, for example, was build by someone who started out with the Idea to build a Base that displayed a Fire Fighter (a personal choice, his Grandfather saved a lot of Kittens from trees when he was a younger age :D)... After using some of my Idea Developing Techniques, he decided to focus on the Fire Hydrant and an adjacent Sidewalk / Sewer... He has build a TINY folded Paper Ship that was taken by the flowing Water... Frankly, I did not forsee the Student to come up with such a poetic Idea so fast... He also told me that he surprised himself quite a lot with how much energy he developed in order to finish this Beautiful little Scene (still WIP before painting, hope to get the Finished Pics from him later)...;)...

Then there was Siggi´s Base, that I remember very well... I really loved the Idea of a Base that stands completely by itself, telling a Story to those, who are prepared to observe, think and listen... Siggi had the Idea of a Huge Meteroid Shard that has hit the Ground a long time ago and that was reconquered by Nature in form of a single, young tree at the tip of the celestial visitor...This Base opened so many topics (Ancient Vs. New, Stoic Vs. Dynamic Clash, Formerly Energetic Vs. Now Powerless... etc.) and incorporated a very unusual section that I really liked the result...

Then, also Paul´s Base, a very stylish interpretation of a great, abstract narrative: A Weary Warrior is sleeping in a cave after a long Battle... While he might be safe from his foes, his destiny is overshadowed by the dark Omen that is the Cave itself... It resembles the Huge Maw of a Dangerous Creature about to devour the Brave Warrior (still to be found as a Miniature...)...

You see that the Stories behind those Bases are really exciting and interesting... I hope, that the Students chose to finish their Projects up with the same passion they had displayed during those three amazing Days and that we will soon see some Photos of the Finished Versions on here...:)...

Something about the Venue... The Battlefield Berlin Store is the perfect place for Workshops... It´s a bit like Candy Land for Children (Children with a lot of money that is, hahaha), since you can buy everything you need for creating Miniatures, Bases, whole Worlds from all Major Miniature Companies actually... The Guys at Battlefield made a huge efford to help with the Organisation and Preparations... Many, many thanks for allowing us to work and develop our Visions there! Since a lot of Material was needed by every Participant, a lot of space is needed...

I will leave you with some impressions of the three Days... Please let me know if you would like to see us somewhere near you in the Future and we will certainly consider traveling to you, so you can also become part of your own exciting Journey...:)...

 

Some examples of the Bases shortly before painting...Very happy to see that some people left their comfort Zone and tried some Free Form Bases, too!

These Sketches were drawn bymy Friend Gus that came all the way from the United Kingdom to learn how to make Bases out of everything he drew... Amazing Visions and absolutely stunning Enviorments Gus has completed in a couple of hours... His Sketchbook is simply wonderful! I  can´t wait to see all the things he will come up with in the next couple of years... Just imagine... Every Sketch a potential (and very interesting) Story and thus Base by itself...

The Group and some Weird Ape climbing the Winterly Walls!

 Thanks to all Students, the Battlefield Staff, Ben, Micha, Fabian, Gerhard... And most importantly to the cutest, bravest Girlfriend in the Universe for making Slate Rocks at 3 am for everyone to be ready for the next Day... :*... 

Also, thanks for Kyle for the Photos, Feedback and long Trip! :D