posted by Robert, muhani, chimp

... finished something. This time two Death Korps of Krieg.

As this minis are based on the uniforms of World War 1, I stumbled across the book "All quiet on the Western Front", while I was searching for some inspiration. The book was written short after WW1 and provides some terrifying impression about the living and dying in the trenches during the war. There is also a movie based on this book that was filmed in 1930(!).

Well, maybe too much thinking again .... the scene became dark and muddy - somehow ... in my oppinion it became nearly war-glorifying, what was the exact opposite of what I wanted.
That's why I decided to place Rackham's Rose in position in order to turn the effect into another direction. That's it. And dead rats. Hope you like it.



Here is a cmon-link: http://www.coolminiornot.com/267510.
Critics are very welcome.

I take the opportunity and wish you all happy Xmas! Enjoy it with your family.

Cheers,
Robert

Posted by Raffa, Picster, Capuchin,....

Heeeeeeey everyone!!!


Big jungle party time!!! Let's bring the best coconut glasses and bake the very best banana cake we can afford! It's celebration time again! 500 follower!

It seems like yesterday i announced the 400 celebration.... and it's sooo great to have you all here!
May the gods bless your brushes and may send you to paint side by side with the fellow brothers of the painting jungle!

Gratitude to all our fellow readers who fill the jungle with the life and spirit that it has developed over the time. We hope you have a great time here!

And now for the best part of every jungle celebration.... you can win a free miniature!

As you have maybe already guessed from the banner i created especially for celebration purposes this time you can win a deamonette lady!

Again, it has been painted by our austrian friend Robert aka Muhani aka Chimp and he has given it to us as a gift for the 500 celebration. YOU'RE DA MAAAAAAAN!!!!

Here's a photo of the mini... you can click it to see some more details!

Sooooooo, you maybe already know what to do!


In about 3 Weeks (11th January 2011) i will randomly ( http://www.random.org/ ) choose out one of the mails and this person will get the mini!

You don't have to pay shipping or anything, it's a completely free gift as a thanks!

Try your luck!
The Massive Voodoo Crew

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Oh dear - we reached 500 followers on the blog in just this moment of time... oh dear, celebration again!! There will be a miniature to be won soon, but we are still in the celebration preparation of this event... oh dear!!

Gratitude!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Hiho jungle friends and followers. Raffa did show me a cool video last night while we had our Monday night painting time. A very handsome and sympathic guy shows how he works on a monster Manga robot with tons of skills. I don't get a word of the language he speaks, i guess it is japan but i've learned many things by just watching this 2 videos - i hope you enjoy and really don't worry about japanese, there is without doubt a ton of tricks in this video - go have a look:





I hope you liked it the way we did :)

Keep on happy painting!
Best Regards
Roman

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

A true classic for the modern Miniature Painter:



It always should be an epic moment when you are painting at your little shrine of colours :)
May your painting time be blessed!

posted by Raffa, Picster, Capuchin, ...

Heeeeey everyone!

As the "Hunter or Hunted" step by step is a bit delayed (it will be printed in german in the next "Tabletop Insider" so i delay 2 month ... exclusivity etc.) i thought i could maybe give you at least a small part of it.... how i made the socket label.

The goal of this tutorial is to create a socket label that somehow looks like a old parchment.

The first step is to cut out a piece of brass sheet (you can also use aluminium or copper) in the size you want the socket label to be. I also sanded it a little bit so the color sticks better to the metal.


Now you have to destroy it a little bit... at first i cut some edges in with a hobby knife and cut out smaller pieces with a small scissor... use whatever you want!
When you stressed the edges, bend the corners of the sheet inside....


To work with the label i sticked it onto some kind of holder with pattafix/bluetac.
Then i put a coat of white basecoat on the metal and painted a basecoat with dheneb stone.... you can basically use any parchment style color... like bleached bone + fortress grey or graveyard earth + white.....
I used Sepia Ink from Vallejo Game Color to bring a brownish color gradient to the edges.
To do this i used the technique i showed Here around 7:50min (sorry.. german, but the technique is understandable without words... ;)


In this next step i added some more gradients into darker colors. I used a mix of Sepia Ink and Vallejo Model Color Dark Sea Blue that was glazed into the dark corners.
Again i used Sepia Ink to make those splotches with a blister sponge.
The large stains were created by putting on a pool of color, waiting some seconds until the border of the pool is drying and then pulling the color down with a damp brush.
I added some highlights with bleached bone following the rules of zenithal lighting.


At this point i made a sketch of how the text should look like.


With a technical pen i copied the design to the label and painted it with diluted dark sea blue.
To bring in some interesting contrast i used red to give the Letters a twist ;)

The label is now finished and can be applied to the base with superglue.
Hope you liked this small tutorial :)

Cheers,
Raffa

posted by Roman, jarhead, kong

This ain't a tutorial, just a little thought of mine that might help the one or the other - i mostly paint my sockets black because it is neutral and gives a good view to the model. Most of the time i do paint my miniatures (small scales, busts, big scales, etc.) on a fixed display or gaming base.

After bringing up the first colours on the models there comes a moment where i take some black colour to paint the socket black. The model is not finished yet and might be still in early process but it helps my eye to get a good focus at the model when the bright wood colour disappears. It helps me to see how it will look in the end, it helps me to get a clearer view. I am really doing this in the beginning after the first colours. By holding it in my hand there will be some damage on the black that i have painted earlier but i just clean this up with another layer after the model is finished.

I also got an example on how the black socket or base edge helps me focus to the important area on the model. Here you can see some of my actual Work in Progress again and taking a closer look on both the Roman Matrona busts shows that a black socket helps the eye more than a bright socket, the bright one somehow distracts from the model itself - at least it works for me:


I have no idea if this might be of interest for you, but i hope so... it really helps my eyes to concentrate - am i getting old?

Keep on happy painting!