Workshop Review - Berlin

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Sometimes i just can't stay off when my mind is full with many things. I promised to me to do relaxing stuff today and what is better than remembering a great weekend we had in Berlin at the Painting Class. Here is some fine music you can listen too if you are interested in fine music.

Thank you round up
First of all I want to put big depth in my voice and thank the persons behind making this event happen. Thanks to Peter, Gerd and Fabian for organising the event. Also I want to say thanks to all the participants who took part in the class, without you the room would have stayed empty. Also thanks to Philip, Stefan, Jens and Robert for sending me their photos for this review as I wasn't able to take my own - I was teaching hard. Many thanks to Battlefield-Berlin for being Battlefield-Berlin. Thanks to Steffen, the Sockelmacher.de for sponsoring sockets to the class. In the end thanks to all the helping hands around the place. Special thanks to Raffa and Mati again.

Class Review
On Friday we did meet up and everyone was settling down, preparing his workspace while the class was prepared from our site (material, stuff and stuff and stuff). After this the class started right away with an introduction from our side.




As you can see on the last photo - the participants have been imprisoned - just take a look at the window - nobody was able to flee as we started to prepare the plastic miniatures for painting. Beside the work of cleaning and cutting and glueing we had some theory, nah - not really theory first - we just looked up some inspirational pictures to get an introduction to later on work on the ability to feel colour harmony. Sorry that Friday took so long, but we had some waiting time in the start - thank you for being such a strong and powerful class - Bases, yes we did also build bases for our little demon ladies on Friday beside all that massive theory.










It is always good to see the progress of your projects during the process. Here you can see a big bunch of bases done on Friday, ready to be primed on Saturday morning. You might realize not only Demonettes as models. This is caused by the rule i got for the class. If you are taking part in the class for the first time you have to paint a demonette as the model really binds the content of the class later on when painting and leaves endless colour variations as it is a demon. No brain activity on "the model has to look like this because of an Artwork or something else that makes you paint with rules" - just pure brain- and heartwork of the participants needed - and there you can get most of experience from.



We closed Friday night with even more theory and meet up early again on Saturday morning, for final sanding the base, painting colour circles, more theory, basing with common earth and finally priming the models.









After lunch we finally started painting and painting and painting, using the theory we had in our blood. First we started painting the base with a pure freedom of just mixing colours together like painting a canvas. It is good to start with something so easy and so cool in the effect after about 5~10 Minutes of work. Fun and Joy is the key to learn so mad base painting goes always first at a class to make the participants click out their brains of planning and thinking - just doing ... As we were many people i did split up the class in two smaller groups for showing practical presentations from now on.










At this point it was important to make sure everyone understands the fact that we are sketching at the moment - bringing up a sketch to the base and model.We slowly sketch our way through light and shadow and added little details over complete Saturday. Main focus was the base painting and the skin of the demon lady. Both went hand in hand, from rough to smooth. Last thing on Saturday night was again some theory and black painted armoury parts as groundwork for next days true metallic paintings. 

Saturday was a very long day and i want to say sorry to my friends, Raffa, Philip and Mati who had to sit in the next room where it was cold and they had to freeze for around 10~12 hours - they did not even ask for a tea - i am so proud to have such strong friends and there were even more as Matt and Ben drop by to visit the class and warm the hearts of all of us.  Some impressions of Saturday - a bit mixed and randomly but a joy to look at the progress.



























On Sunday morning we went into detail work like metallics, leather, skin, more contrast, overall athmosphere, eyes, final basework - simply the day with the most practical content but with us already being exhausted from saturdays marathon. Here are some final impressions of Sunday's class content. It was my pleasure to have you all as participants of the class and i am very proud of your class models. Special thanks to Jens at this point for giving his class miniature to me as a gift. I am very honoured and you got me close to tears.













In the end there is always a group shot of the whole gang and some final more private moments from your apes. Unfortanetly i did not get any photos of the final demonettes - i would love to see some, feel free to sent them to me and i will include them in the review. Found at least one photo of the final models from Sunday evening. Thanks to Phil and Stefan again for so many photos - i got to bring in some more impressions...













 Raiden!!





Thanks for such beautiful days in Berlin.
Thanks to everyone involved in the class and thanks to everyone who made this possible. Special Hugs to all our friends in Berlin. It was great to she your sparkling eyes and fire on the brush and i hope you will always do happy painting, when you paint.

If you are from Germany and want to take part in an upcoming class, check the Workshop Announcements!!

Best Wishes and a little music to jump into the weekend!
Roman

PS: @Fabian: Yeaha! You made my day - thanks for your parcel - we'll listen as soon as possible and bring some feedback and thanks for that laserpointer thing - this will make me even more calm now :)

Nurgle is blough!!

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Nurgle progress - now off til Mondayyyyy!!
I think i will name my version Fist of Nurgle :)
Peters General is a Standard Evil Nurgle Gangsta :)




Ay! Watch out now ...

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

First i want to introduce this mix of Kong Fu and Work in Progress to you - this weekend, the one ahead really gets my like a magnet. While i am sitting here painting with Peter at my place i realize that i not really took a break from work and painting after the Painting Class in Berlin lately. For sure while sitting 6 hours in the car i relaxed a bit but in the end i am really looking forward to the weekend. I try not to think about miniatures and stuff. Just share some days without miniatures in my brain with my lady.

Therefore i got to say sorry to those who are waiting to get an email reply, or wait for the Berlin Workshop Review or something else from my side. I am just exhausted and need some rest. Monday will be the day when energies are back in place and disciplined working will start again. At the moment i am just off balance and close all cases until monday - i hope you understand. Emails and Review will follow soon.

Another important information about a great issue from some well known french sculptors to help Japan. There is now a set of 8 exclusive Miniatures related to Japan for Sale - i can say i've waited for it and already ordered mine - here you can get a preview:


8 exclusive miniatures box sold for the benefit of the Japanese Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake of March 11 in Japan, 2011

More information here: http://www.atorgael.com/japanaction/the-box-action-for-japan/


Peter and I do paint a relaxing fun project today - the new GW Nurgle General on foot, one slightly converted and with a mad colour sketch which is mine. Peter is going evil too with a straight colour mix of Miss Piggy for the skin.Both are at an early stage of progress. We have no idea where these two will end but we enjoy throwing colour on them right now. Meanwhile i have finished the Ogre i have started at the Painting class in Berlin and the Deathwing Terminator Aphotecary - final photos will follow. I also started to work on the Studio McVey's Hooverboard girl ...







Please don't you forget to take a photo of your workspace to celebrate MV second Birthday with us and win a Skype session with one of your Apes! There is only time til Octobre the 18th. 4 days!!!!

So i am off for the weekend - happy painting to you all!
Best Wishes
Roman


PS: And press your thumbs ugly for Raffa's Golden Demon Trip to Italy!!

New Monkey In The Jungle!

by Phil

Heyho, I am the new monkey in this jungle. My name is Philip or the macaque and I live with my wonderful girlfriend in Cologne, Germany. It is a huge honor for me to be among all those crazy creative people here.

Some words about how I got into this hobby. If you don't like blah blah just skip to the last paragraph …

When I was about 18 I painted my first few miniatures. A couple of months later I already dropped the hobby. Why? Because I had no inspiration or influences. Last years fall and more than a decade later I wanted to give my girlfriend a bonsai as a gift. I thought a little samurai would be nice under the tree. So I was looking for a little samurai on ebay. And then it happend. I stumbled upon miniature sites and I instantly wanted to paint again. But … I was very busy working that time so I started to devour tutorials like a baby milk on mamas breasts.
When I bought some basic equipment I began to wake up early, very early, just to have some time to paint before work. I took my miniatures to work so I could prepare them in the train. Somehow I got into Space Marines and started a Blood Angles army. I never intended to play wargames. I never even liked armies. I thought it would be the best way to learn and get into routine. I was wrong.

Magic moment one – Just painting, no brain fuck.
In february I attended for the first time at a painting class of Roman and Raffa in Munich. 
The most important lesson I learned at my first painting class was to release the bonds in my head. Just let your creativity float, the rest will happen by itself. If you have been to one of Kong's classes you know what I mean, otherwise you should do it.

Magic moment two – Try the unknown. 
When I was back home I learned there was a sculpting class by Mati close to my hometown. I thought, let's try it, you have nothing to lose. I had never touched Sculpey or Greenstuff before, but sculpting was love at first sight, thanks to Mati I quickly found a good sense for material, tools and shapes, as he is very good at identifying your mistakes and leading you to the right way. OOMMMM.

Magic moment three – Dare the complex.
A few months later I attended my second painting class of Roman. At this workshop I painted a non GamesWorkshop miniature at 54mm for the first time. I converted a King Maulg into a Viking Björlg. Woohoooo. Much more fun than a Space Marine. There was no need to be afraid of larger and detailed miniatures after all.

Magic moment four?
I am pretty sure it will happen at Matt and Ben's painting class I just registered for. I am really looking forward to learn from these two insane monkeys, too!

Without this jungle and all its tutorials, classes and inspiration I could have never learned so much in the last year. I hope I can give you monkeys some inspiration back someday. But for now I am just a Padawan …

Enough jibber jabber! You can find some of my recent miniatures on my still empty cmon gallery.

See you soon,
Phil

Visions of Hatred - and more!

by Raffa

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

Heeey everyone,

what a nice moment this is... finally i finished another big project that was taking a lot of my time over the last months.
I'm talking about my Demon Prince conversion that maybe some of our readers have already spotted from time to time here on Massive Voodoo or on some other spots.

Now some projects are finished quick and some projects really are time eaters just like this, so i'm really happy i can say it is finished now.
Thanks again to all my friends for support, advice and ideas especially Roman :)

I'm pretty unhappy i didn't take many work in progress photos, but to make up for it i already recorded a 360° view video and uploaded it on Massive Voodoo TV :)

Ok finally, enough talk, at the moment i am a little bit exhausted, i think i will post more on this later :)

Visions of Hatred



And finally the 360° View... do yourself a favor and watch in 720p :)

I really hope you enjoy this mini as much as i do!

Oh and apart from this.... i also finished another two miniatures :)

No Mercy - Rohan Command

Frozen Heart

Aaaaaaaaand more 360° Goodies:
Frozen Heart - 360°

Traitor of Mankind - 360°

Butcher Pete - 360°


I really hope you like the minis! If you visit the italian Games Day this weekend you will have the chance to see them all in person!

Cheers,
Raffa

Tutorial - Using Dayglow Colors

by Raffa

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

Hey everyone,

as i recently found out about this little effect when i started using dayglow pigments i had some experiences i want to share with you.
At first you maybe never heard about dayglow pigments or colors.
Dayglow - with this term i mean the color somehow glows under light, so with a little light the color is much brighter than normal acrylic paints.

To get such dayglow paints with a good quality i decided to mix my own colors.

First you need dayglow pigments, you can order them online (google for a shop in your country) or you can buy them in artist shops. But inform yourself about the quality of the pigments, in miniature painting you want the highest quality possible.

Here i compared Orange and Pink Dayglow Pigments with the GW Colors .... you can clearly see how much more power the dayglow colors have!

Now you need some acrylic binder (Schmincke in my example) and mix it with your pigments, thats the way to make acrylic colors with any pigments ;)
I like to add a little drop of matte varnish and i put it inside a vallejo styled dropper bottle for easier use. I also add a small steel ball (from a BB gun) to improve the mixing ability.

You can then use the color like a normal acrylic color... if it is too thin, just add more pigments to the mix.


Now for the interesting part... practical use ;)

Normally i just paint the figure with normal colors and add thin glazes of the dayglow color to desired spots to bring in the light effect. In the photo above you can see the effect pretty well.

Another good example for the use of dayglow color... here i wanted to give the balls a mysterious look. I painted them normal and afterwards dabbed some dayglow color on it.
After this step i gave the balls 2-3 coats of gloss varnish to give them a glassy look

Here on my latest project you can see the use of dayglow color to give the fire a glowing appearance :)

I hope you liked this tutorial and you try out this technique!

Cheers,
Raffa

Ben & Matt SMARTMAX Painting Class 2011, 09.12. in Lüdenscheid Germany!

by -Matt Cexwish-


We (Ben Komets and Matt Cexwish) would like to proudly present our Next (and -of course- veeery Special) SMARTMAX Sponsored Steampunk Painting Classes, which will be held from 09th - 11th of December 2011 in the West of Germany, Lüdenscheid... The Painting Classes are for German speaking Students mainly, but we do have monkeyman coming over from the UK already, so we will make sure that English Speakers will be able to learn and recreate our Tekunikus well, too...:)...

For more Info´s, please follow this little Link... And do not hesitate to ask any Question you want, we will try to answer them all...:)... Domo Arigatooo...

Follow The White Rabbit...