Source: Whitestork Miniatures

Hey all,

this is David with another little review. This time, I'll be looking at a small set of 1/72 miniatures by the Polish manufacturer Whitestork Miniatures. Before I dive right in, here's the usual disclaimer:

This is my personal opinion; I bought the minis myself and have no relevant relationship with Whitestork Miniatures.

Whitestork Miniatures

Whitestork Miniatures is a Polish company run by Mariusz Bienczyk, who have specialized on producing nicely sculpted historical miniatures. Their products are available through well-stocked online model shops - or directly through their website. They also are regulars in the vendors' areas of large modeling shows such as the Scale Model Challenge.

Currently, the company's portfolio features civilian and military-themed minis with a temporal focus on the period around World War II. In addition, they also produce accessoires and equipment sets, ready-made diorama bases, and a small selection of busts. In terms of scale, Whitestork offer 1/48, 75 mm (1/24) - and, to my great joy, 1/72 minis. The figures are 3D-sculpted and cast in grey resin.

The Rendezvous

My review today will center on a nice little set of two civilian figures called "The Rendezvous". As you can see from the unboxing pic, below, the set includes two resin sprues, one containing the couple's bodies, and the other the two figures' heads. The sprues came securely stowed in the blister pack:

The sculpts

The sculpting of both minis is superb: the proportions are nice and realistic, depicting a couple that fits perfectly into some European or Northern American city-scene in the period between the 1920s to the 1950s. The folds of the clothing are falling naturally and are perfectly to scale, and the sculptor has caught the movement of the two people casually walking next to each other in a very natural, convincing way.

The same is true for the heads and faces: both appear very natural and well-scaled, and in 1/72 the facial features and hair are very delicate. I personally prefer painting my figures after completely assemblying them, but especially for the male figure's head, which is wearing a hat, it might be an added benefit for some painters that the head comes as an extra piece and thus can be painted separately.

The cast

The cast of the figures' bodies and their heads is nice and clean, there are no mold lines to speak of; only between the legs there is a bit of flash, which can be easily cut away with a sharp scalpel blade. However, the sprues are a bit thick and sturdy, and it will require some careful work to remove the figures from their sprues. I recommend using a resin saw for that and to work VERY carefully as the legs and feet - especially of the female figure - are very delicate.

My conclusion

With "The Rendezvous", Whitestork Miniatures has produced a unique set of civilian miniatures that will be a memorable eyecatcher for any diorama, but would also work great as the center of a stand-alone vignette showcasing one or both of the miniatures. The workmanship and production value are excellent. And even though one needs to be very careful when cutting the minis from the sprue, preparation for painting will be minimal. I highly recommend checking this set out and creating some wonderful pieces of miniature art with it - I already have a project in mind for which I will make good use of the male figure. I can't wait to put him onto some city streets and get some paint on him. Check this place for an update on that project!

In te meantime, make sure to check out Whitestork Miniatures' exciting range of models through their website and contact Mariusz directly through the email address given on the site if you want to order something. As always, feel free to drop me a line or two in the comments section, below, or through my email at

david [at] massivevoodoo [dot] com

All the best, talk to you soon!

D.

Hey all,

this is David with a small teaser for an upcoming, larger series of individual but interconnected posts. I call this collection of posts a project diary. Different than the diary on 1177 B.C. I wrote a while back, this is not so much intended as a sequential series of WIP-shots and explanations of how I created a single miniature. Instead, this diary will mainly feature pictures of finished miniatures, together with some accompanying thoughts and bits of information, that are part of a larger project of multiple individual miniatures and multi-figure vignettes.

The project

The title of the larger project is Bornhöved, 1227 A.D.. Bornhöved is the name of a small town in the middle of nowhere in the northern German region of Holstein. In 1227 A.D., a battle took place there, in which the troops of German princes and cities fought the invading army of King Valdemar II of Denmark and his German allies - and which had great consequences for the further development of (Northwestern) European history. The goal of the project is for me to learn more about this period in medieval European history - by recreating (some of) the people who participated in that battle in 1/72 scale.

What lies ahead

Over the coming months, I will use the diary to document what I learn about some of the people who (possibly...) participated in that medieval battle. And, of course, to show off the miniatures I created while doing so. In the first article in this series, however, I will start out with a little historical primer about the Battle of Bornhöved. So, stay tuned for a little history lesson dropping in next month!

I'd be happy if you followed along - let me know, in the comments or through my email (david [at] massivevoodo [dot] com), if you have questions. Thanks so far - and see you in a bit!

Best, D.

p.s.: A big, chunky thank you! to my jungle-brother Roman for creating the wonderful header pic for my diary!

Links to all published diary entries

1. Prologue
2. A Little History Lesson
3. Two Older Minis

Hello everyone,

It's Andy, again. Today, I want to show to you my finished project “Tokyo rain”.

First ideas - Street fashion

The miniature is from NutsPlanet called Agent Aida (1/35). As soon as I saw her, I had a scene of street fashion walking on the pavement in mind. Of course, the pistol in her right hand was too much, so I decided to cut it away and did a slight repositioning of the fingers of the right hand.

I started the project with priming black and white and some Grisaille underpainting. To get the first impression of my idea, I tinted the different parts with GW Contrast paints. 

Refining the idea – Tokyo by night

The plan was to finish the lady at the MV-Family-Meeting from this point on in a cool comic style with bold black shadows.

At some point during the Meeting, Roman came up with the idea of a strong atmospheric light to create an additional punch and I really appreciated the input. The idea of rainy Tokyo with all the neon lights arose. Just google „Tokyo rain“ and you’ll see it :)

To paint such strong athmospheric OSL effect, I usually start with a darker tone and continuously define the effect with increasingly brighter tones the closer I get to my imagined light source.

The easiest way to do that is with an airbrush. Grab your color of choice, dilute it to have more control about the opacity and shoot it from your preferred angle, just as simple as that. 

With a brush it’s a bit more challenging but also doable – paint a small mark at your base in the preferred angle to save the perspective and touch every surface visible from this angle with the color of your choice.

Tokyo Nights – in the rain

Working on the OSL and neon atmosphere I had another idea to make the project a bit more interesting. How about adding rain to the scene? The effect of raindrops was on my bucket list of things to try for years and this was the perfect project for it. I painted some circles on the ground and used the icicles tutorial to create the water-drops. 

Final results

And here are the pictures of the final results.

Thanks for reading and your interest. Feel invited to comment in the section below.

Andy

It started as a short burst of thoughts and ideas that go through my head as I gear up for SMC in two weeks. Even monte is only about a month away and I have barely touched a brush for the last 3 months - mostly for family reasons and because lots of non-painting stuff had to be worked through - but there are always reasons, right? As I am looking at the pre-registration for SMC and what I would like to bring, I realize I have little to show for the last 12 months. Mostly some gaming pieces, certainly nothing worth bringing to a show. 

• Obviously my inner Diva wants to be awesome - I want to be recognized for the brilliant mind I have, for the great ideas and personality I bring (or wish I brought) to the table.
  
  

• But at the same time, the Judge sees this for the hubris it probably is, tells me that nothing I can cobble together in the evenings of the remaining two weeks will amount to anything worthwhile. If I put it in exhibition, it‘ll likely not even suffice for a bronze in standard and in the end, what remains will be that my worst fears of mediocrity will be substantiated and revealed for all to see: That I can‘t really create a piece of art worthy of recognition. I‘ve been a failure for not pushing myself throughout the year and now I reap the reward.
  
  

• The taskmaster tells me, that going there without exhibiting means I don‘t belong. If I don’t make it on the stage and get a medal I obviously don‘t belong. I spent the evenings of the last two months doing all kinds of things to avoid working on my pieces, probably even this writeup - technically its 6:30 in the morning now, but yeah… On the plus side, my office/studio looks better than ever before and everything is sooooo ready for painting that next year I‘ll be ready to rock the world ;)

Hey everyone and welcome to this year's Massive Voodoo Orctober Challenge! If you missed the announcement last month, I’m Momo, a digital sculptor and new member of the jungle family!

I’m super excited to be part of the crew and as a little initiation treat, I brought you all something! For this year’s Orctober, I prepared a special orc figure! I hope you are all sick of big boobed beasts and axe swinging monsters, because this one will be a bit different. 

This was the idea for my ‘Orc Grandma’. Not that battling, angry orcs aren’t great! But once in a while a little change of scenery is a nice refresher. So if you’re looking to change it up a bit and you’re ready for a cozy fall painting session, this might be just the Orctober project for you!

HOW TO JOIN THE CHALLENGE So how can you join the #MVorctober challenge 2023? Just follow these steps: