Aloa Jungle,
like I said I was teaching a lot recently and still do.
After cleaning up the MV studio from a crazy wild
Basing Workshop one the studio had to stand the second round of it very closely, timewise.
Basing is such a cool thing
that you can guide you to very intense miniature projects.
Of course I am not speaking of gaming bases, they can be an art of themselves when it comes to themed armies. Display bases. Bases that help to tell a story.
Bases that take the viewer on a journey.
I want to thank
my students who took part in this class for trusting my teaching skills and travelling from far and close. Thanks to Peter who helped me organise this seminar.
If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with
This seminar started with oupss!!!
Due life I missed to organise plinths, which is bad on a basing class where every student needs one.
I had to go to the tool store and buy some wood. Unfortanetely they only had 2,20 meter ready and I had to take the public transport with this wood bar. Felt like a celtic warrior waiting for the train and caught a lot of smiles.
Arrived in the studio with it.
Decided this will be the first tasks for my students :)
Still in my head ... wtf? :D
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Jar's Basing Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat
In this MV class Roman takes you deeper into basing. No gaming bases.
What makes a good display base? Learn more about composition rules you
can put to use while basing, learn different focused material aspects on
the subject: "After the postapocalypse, nature returns".
Classes in 2018:
23 - 25 February (3 days): Basing class (English) (Download PDF)16 - 18 March: Basing class (German) (Download PDF) - 14th - 16th December (3 days): Basing Class (English) (Download PDF)
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So first tasks first.
Cutting this big piece in shape like professionals. Do not forget your protection glasses
to avoid hobby accidents!
Friday night was packed with theory.
A big load of it. My students got introduced into the theme and topic of the base. How to develop a story around a character and how to plan a bigger base with art history composition rules.
After the theory part was done we went straight into the night party time: Checking back on the learned composition rules and how to put them to a test in real scale:
First with a little chaos ...
Then with serious composition tasks by me
... my students did really well! Check it out!
So much fun, but at the same time a big learning curve.
On Saturday we took our plans, drawings and ideas and started building the bases. I introduced material in several stages and the bases grew and time flew by with good chats and fine music.
Saturday night results:
It was a true joy to see these bases grow.
On Sunday morning
we primed the bases after some final touches and were ready for the painting process. Nature strikes back! Massively!
We pushed through a sunny sunday and created and finalized our story-telling bases. Colors, nature, and detail love. So beautiful results. Happy students and a very proud teacher were able to see these born from a wooden plank:
Thanks to the supporters of
this class who made the class wonderful due
their help in sponsoring some of their products, beside Roman's crazy
material collection:
If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with
I want to thank the gentlemen attenting this seminar once again.
Again for being awesome students, for the wonderful time spent together, filled with good food, fine music and good talks about life and bases.
Life is your base,
you build it and can do it with composition :)
Man, Hansrainer!! Still makes me laugh out loud when I see you on the group shots :D
If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with
Keep on happy painting!
Roman
Hansrainer
wrote up a great review from his perspective, thank you!
I’ve been planning to take one of Romans
basing classes
ever since he started offering them. Initially I was always put
off by the fact, that he only offered them in Augsburg, but after my private
coaching in December, I didn’t dread the long ride as much anymore and I had a
good friend join me for the class and we managed to get a decent hotel. As an
added bonus, the class ended up being held in the MV-Studio, just a few minutes
away from our stay - and we were only six participants!
Having been there three months ago,I wasn’t
just as excited as my friend Christoph to visit the holy halls of Massive
Voodoo - still quite excited though, truth be told. As usual, we were the last
to arrive there, in our excuse, everyone else had a much shorter trip to Augsburg.
Roman had already prepared the studio and set up some additional workplaces,
making room for all 6 of us.
As usual in Romans classes,
the friday was an
intense trip into theory land, learning about composition, mood and life-size
basing… We had a lot of fun and the photos taken during the live-basing
exercise speak words of it. As always, every new theoretical concept (golden
mean) was supported by several practical examples, making studying seemingly
easy. We learned a lot about how to use different implements to create guiding
lines in a base setup, guiding the eye of the beholder to the desired focal
point of the scene.
As an added bonus, we all got to huddle on the
couch around Roman, unfortunately I believe that no pictures of that were
taken. At the end of the day, I was rightly tired, head full with new concepts
and eager to try some of them out.
On saturday
the base-building started in
earnest: First of all, we all drew lots - and by lots I mean a miniature out of
box full with Hassle-Free Miniature goodness - thanks for those by the way. It
was a really good Idea to get the creativity-juices flowing. Everyone got a
random miniature and should come up with a name and short story that the final
base was supposed to tell in the end. And then we all went back to pen and
paper (or pen and tablet) to start making sketches and concept drawings of our
base-project. My concept was based on “the worst toilet in scotland” from the
movie trainspotting. Just transposed into this post-apocalyptic world. The
toilet would be the worst - but at the same time the best toilet - because it’s
the only one left in Scotland. So Mark, the protagonist of the movie returns to
the smallest room to find some peace.
With the concepts in hand, we set off building
our bases, starting with the big and coarse elements and going into more and
more detail, as the day went on.
Roman gave us a long excurse on the loads of
different bits and doodats in his huge repository. I dare say, the MV-Studio is
probably the paradise of every basing enthusiast - I mean they have TOILETS
(model toilets that is). We also learned a lot about random placement and the
effects of symmetries on the overall perception of a base.
Most of the day went by in a blur, we had nice
conversations and listened to a lot of music. At some point Peter from MV
stopped by for a few hours to work on his latest projects. We had really good
food in a nearby restaurant - Roman forgive me, I can’t for my life remember
the name :(
Unfortunately I got quite carried away with my
base project and forgot to take any pictures during the construction process,
suffice it to say, at the end of the day (coming earlier for some and as usual,
later for me) we all had a more or less finished base construction. I ended up
working some overtime, but I can say it paid off. Lesson not learned: Less
chatting, more working...
Short interlude:
I have been a student of
Roman for a few years now, my earliest class dating back to 2013. Yes, I know I
am a Fanboy, but I have also been a teacher for years. It always impresses me,
how good Romans instinct is, with regard to when to push students (and which
students) to adhere strictly to the curriculum and when to let go of the
proverbial leash. That is a rare gift, even among teachers and I can only
recommend to trust him if you ever take one of his classes. It usually pays
off, even if it feels wrong to begin with.
So, Sunday arrived and it was time to whip out
the paints. After giving our bases solid 2-color base coats, we started setting
the atmosphere (if you want to know more about this - see the advanced class -
shameless advertising!) and painted our bases to the point, where we could start
adding the finishing pieces, mostly greenery nature to the bases. Eventually,
the day ran its course and we had to pack up.
Conclusion:
I had only been painting busts in last months
leading up to this class, but I was hoping it would rekindle my interest in
working in smaller scales again - and it did! If you have seen pictures of
Romans beginner-classes, you know that base-building is a very important part
of that already and I can say, the basing class adds a lot on top of it. It
provides a solid theoretical foundation for the things done before and adds a
lot of tricks and best practices with the different materials available for
basing - be it things collected outside or bits unseen before (by me at least).
Admittedly, this specific class had added charme because it took place in the
famed MV-Studio, but I think it would have been equally awesome in the school
it was planned to take place in originally.
Most important though: It was a fun weekend
with nice people, good food and music!
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