posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa!

Oh dear, it makes my heart heavy to post above Matt's magnificant diorama and i feel a bit ashamed about it, but i have to. If i won't my head would explode as there are many things to tell. The last weeks have been very busy with a Painting Class in Hannover and some relaxed days of vacation in Graz, Austria. I now just start to write down my mind. If you are getting bored by my talk you can do this for your chi!

900 Followers were reached in the jungle yesterday - Wohow!! Thanks to all of you for your support. Big Jungle Celebrations are already in the progress of planning and there will be 2 cool things for you to win soon. Stay tuned and excuse the Jungle Crew for another delay. Just another reminder at this point: If you like what happens here in the jungle,  if you like the article section and all the monkey stuff please remember that you can support the Jungle by doing a small donation. For sure we are massively happy about all the emails and comments, but you know even bread and bananas cost a coin :) - Thanks to all those who are listed because of their help and support.



About the Ultimate Plastic Knight Challenge:
Both of the Surprise boxes are getting further packed. Here you can see the progress of packing, but meanwhile the boxes already got filled up even more. 1st place box, packing progress:







Painting Class Hannover Review is the next little topic i want to talk about. I already started writing my little report about it, but it still takes a while as these days are again busy. We are in wait for some visitors and friends in the upcoming days to visit our headquarter. Australian friends are already visiting Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Moment together with Raffa and will soon be here at our home. I already know Mister nice guy Weisern, this time he brings his sister and Sebastian aka automaton :) - After their stay I am happy to see another guest from Hong Kong, Hon. They are all in Europe as the World Expo took place last weekend. You see the next weeks are again busy, busy, busy and there won't be much time to get it all done. So i ask for some more patience and have 4 preview photos from the Review:




As mentioned, soon more to come!
Stay tuned!!














Ok, mmh...What else to say? 
Pride and Shame ...
I am painting again after those busy weeks of mostly no brush time. I made a hard decision and was bored of being stuck in too many projects so I arranged a new case in my cabinet: The case of shame, a place in my cabinet where mostly all my actual projects got freezed until i find back to motivation to finish them. Suddenly i am really motivated again, more about this later on... the case of shame:


Where there is shame there has to be pride and after i have won my first demon he got some space in my cabinet beside the finished stuff. Maybe there will be more someday, who knows :) - the case of pride:


I did finish Hon's exchange miniature and also a WHF great sword soldier whom i have already given away to a long time friend who was visting us some days ago. And yes - i found my motivation again and do some smaller projects just for the thrill of it. Smaller? Nope, not really while taking a look on the base i have build lately - Work in Progress:


























Finally i guess my brain seems empty enough to grab the vacuum cleaner and clean the flat and afterwards do some happy painting!

Thanks for your time and may you enjoy the sun, at our place it feels like i am a steak at a barbecue :)

Happy Painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

PS: Sorryio Matt!!

Hi Di Ho!


Uff... It is Finally Done... 2 1/2 Weeks after the German Games Day in Cologne, Hundreds of Hours of Packing Out, Arriving, Dusting, Setting Up, Improvising and Borrowing Equipment we have finally managed to take some Pictures, Videos and Experimentally Documenting the Slayer Sword Diorama "The Return Of The Warlord - Two Sides Of The Medal"...:D... Yaaaaaay...

So, please take your seat, cancel your appointments, for the next 30 Minutes I will try to make your little break from Reality really worthwhile...:)... I recommend at least 1 big Cup of Tea and a Cookie to go through all of this, hehe...

It has been a loooong Journey after all and if my Monkey Brain is not tricking me I have spend around 2 years of planning and working on that one... The Idea developed from the basic Idea to Work with a Song Title once again, so I chose "Return Of The Warlord" by Manowar (hehe...:D...), but it quickly got twisted around through a lot of very different influences... I have Drawn a lot of Scetches before starting anything, then eventually I began to think about the Mechanical component, the Viewpoints, the Characters and the Details...

It is not easy to describe all the thoughts behind this thing, even harder to explain what exactly it "does", so please have a Close Look at the Two Videos We made to start with...

360° View accompanied by Some Sweet Music...

The Mechanism And Melody...

Welcome back...^_^... I think it is best to Describe the Diorama with a little Tale, so it stays interesting for you to read...

The Life Scene:




The Warlord. The Piper. The Money. The Flower. The Carrott. Each stands for a certain aspect that is needed to Plan, Maintain and Execute War. The Piper is the Propaganda, that tranquilizes Consciousness and Critical Worry. The Money finances the War, buys New Weapons and lubricates certain processes. The Warlord is the Brain that makes sure that War is Guided in the Direction deemed necessary. The Flower is Sweet, makes an awful thing taste great and lures people calmy and softly into damnation. Last scene of all, That ends this strange fellowship: the Carrott. Being the Stick that ferociously beats the foe, this Aspect executes the Will of it´s Masters, dim and dull, chewing his Carrot, marching one Step after another closer to the Edge. It is a Sunny Day. The Villagers are all ever supportive, eagerly throwing flowers in front of the Iron Hooves of the Steam driven Horse. An early Nuthatch found the Worm that it will now happily feed to it´s kin. The Children are trying to get a glimpse on the Glorious Procession in all it´s Shiny Pride. It is a Good Day, an Important Day. Bagpipers Play the Tunes of War. War is Coming.


















The Death Scene:






The Warlord has returned. His Endevours were a Great Success, for many foes have been slain by his hand. He bravely fought with his sword. His Duty for Country and Crown is now fulfilled. He died a glorious death on one of the numerous Battlefields. "Come back with your shield or on it.", some have said. Now he is finally rested on his Cart that brings him on a last Parade to display his glorious Victory for everyone to see. A Medal has been rewarded to him for his braveness. The People from the Life Scene have now changed, they have been de-Humanized into Objects. The Bagpipes lie in the Mud, ripped open to release it´s last Whistle into the Night. Money is of no Value when you can´t buy Bread that has not have been Harvested, not even planted on the fields. The Banker has lost it on his way into the Cold Waters in which he was thrown in for supporting the Warlord. The Flowers are long rotten, the Fruit and Vegetables now turned back to Dust. Men, Women and Children have died, leaving others back. The Rain has started some days ago and doesn´t seem to end. The once bright Future is now rattled, uncertain like the Flip side of the Medal.


















The House: The House itself is build as an metaphor on Life and Death as well... If you look at it with a little bit of imagination you might be able to recognize the different parts as Head, Breast, Stomach and -well- maybe also it´s Butt where the Chimney is... At first, Home is enclosed and safe, Warm and Protected through the Roof, the Wooden Floor and the cosy Furniture... War destroys homes as it destroys Humans, so the House on the Death Side is Burned, the Wooden Floor came crashing down giving it the appearance of a ribcage, the Rain is coming in from Outside, it´s Cold and the home is cracked open, so the Little Orphan of War has to seek Shelter underneath the Eating Table...

Some Crazy Details to Look at: The Composition on Both Sides is absolutely Balanced... The Weight is exactly the same for both Scenes (had to do it in order to allow the Mechanism a smooth spin without one side being "overweight"...)...

In addition, the Composition is More or Less the same on both sides with an Element standing for it´s Counterpart on the other Side... The Death Side can be seen as a kind of a Dimensional Reflection of the Life Side...

The Colors in the Life Side are Warm while the Death Side sports a Cold Palette... I achieved this Effect by using a Yellow and a Blue Foundation Color and using Yellow for the Light and a little bit of Green for the Death Highlights... This resulted in a somewhat Nightmarish Atmosphere, an unreal, spectral Procession in which the Characters appear more like Ghosts then like Mourning Villagers...  

The Little Boy is the Son of the Bagpiper, they share the same Medieval Cap...^_^... I have decided to get rid of his Sister, because she was Stupid (with that idiotic Mega Ribbon of hers... that´s just Wrong...)... Pieces of her Vegetable Sales Stand are used to barricade the Door in the Death Scene...

The Life Scene includes a lot of Details that represent Life (surprise, surprise...), e.g. Vegetables, Eggs, Children, Warm Colors, Flowers, Happiness, Music, Flowing Water and so on, while the Death Scene shows decaying Elements, Burned Wood, Rain, Dirt, Trash, Rotten Fruits, Skulls, Broken Weapons... There is an Orange in the Life Scene that is a Homage to the Godfather Films... Whenever there is an Orange involved something terrible will happen shortly after...:D...

The Scenes are not ment to represent a Continous Scene (the "Return of the Warlord"...), but a Different Reality in Another Dimension... The Scenes are more likely to take place at the same time...

Hope that was not too much for your Monkey Brains and that you get some of the ideas behind it...:)...


A bit about the Mechanism: As long as the Melody is playing you are supposed to Curb the Curb. I have found the Melody after a nearly impossible journey through a couple of Children Toy Stores in Berlin... I was close to giving it up after an unholy hail sermon of "Happy Birthdays" and "Wedding Marches" until I have finally discovered this one stored in the "Rock & Roll" Section...


 





In case you missed it... The Diorama is obviously a critical comment on War as a subject in Wargaming Dioramas, that we see mostly, in the past, presence, hopefully not so much in the Future. It shows what War means, what it brings, that there always is Shadow where you see Light, always another Side of the Medal. No Victor without the Defeated, no Win in Victory. Everyone loses.

Now some Experimental Ways of Presenting Miniatures... Let´s call it the Juju Slider of The Before and The After... :)... (I got the Idea after seeing some B & A Tsunami Satellite Footage...)...


Juju Slider Of The Before And The After Front View


Juju Slider Of The Before And The After Back

Please feel free to check out the CMON Links and to leave a Comment over there as well...:)... Thank you very much for your Time indeed...:)...

So this is the Vote Link to the Life Scene...

And This Is The Death Scene...


Once Again, this would have not been possible without a little Help of a Whole Army of Friends, Supporters, Haters, Critiques, Commentators, Clowns, Mothers, Grandmothers and Monkey Workers... I want to thank you all...



































The Massive Voodoo Crew for the kind words at the Games Day, Roman, Raffa, Robert and all the Monkeys... Love you soooo much...

Aaaand of course a big THANK YOU to all my Friends, Foes and everyone I have not mentioned until now... :)...


... I am Going On Holidays on Thursday... See you in about 3 Weeks, Ughh Uggggh, Stay Creamy, Junglefriends...:D...


Ooh, Time to Sleep... Have a Wonderful Week, everyone and don´t forget to Eat at least One Orange... Fights Them Skurvies...:D...




Pa Pa Pa... Matt...

posted by Oli, Honour.Guard, silver leaf

Kulmbach 2011

Crazy Start
My day started at 5.20.. I set in my car and turned my navi on.. and I saw that the arrival time is 10.49. And I had just had time to 11a clock to enter my miniatures in the competition. Finally I had no idea, where it is in Kulmbach :D

4 hours later, I was in Kulmbach at 10.20 and tried to drive to the castle, because my dad said me the expo is on the castle.. but no. In the city was much trouble and I parked my car somewhere beside the street, and packed my stuff and walked in direction to the castle..^^
I wanted to walk up the hill to the castle.. but a woman said me that the competition is in the big tent 100 meters away from me.. and I didn't see it.. what a luck.. ^^
After I was at the tent, I saw my friends, Thomas and Thomas, they showed me where I could enter my stuff.. thanks mates :) Overall a very crazy drive and I wondered why I didn't drive on any highway, but when I came home.. my father checked the navi, and the Highways where turned off.. What the fuck.. who turns this off, that the machine find me a route without highways..? But so I see a little bit more about the beautiful landscape :)

The Expo itself was very affected from historical and especially flat figures, what did really wonder me, because in all competitions I visited before, they weren't many flats enterd.
I bought myself some flat miniatures because I was really impressed by some artworks I saw in the big tent. The cool is, the miniatures are very cheap, 1 Mini - 1 euro and I think it is a good train in painting freehands :P
Also my friend Thomas showed me the Valdemar miniatures some really great sculpts in 1/72 scale. I have to show you some painted versions of these in the next days.. I paint every day and don't take me time for making photos or writing anything on our blog.. In all this trouble I forget my camera.. but my other friend Darkknight sended me some good pictures from the weekend.
Overall I enjoyed this weekend, meeting some friends, looking miniatures.. and winning something inthe competition :P



I would like to say that this miniatures are painted from me, but they aren't.





Diorama from Thomas with 1/72 miniatures, I really like the scene, good job mate ;)



So far.. good night.. damn after a week of non-plus ultra Painting I have to go to work tomorrow once again.

Best regards Oli

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Big Red Box Games ugly Swamp Troll now ready to fight in your army - he goes to ebay with a fair starting price and i hope he finds a good new home. He is removable from his socket and you can use him with his WHF Monster Base to make him charge your enemys during your wargames ...

Happy Bidding!