Aloa Jungle,
well "aloa" is not the right greeting for such an icecold article. In fact it is all about ice and snow. A tank in the middle. It is a short article, but a free one, free of any charge, not hidden behind a paywall. Why I mention this so loudly? Well, seems nowadays that this is something special, eh?
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You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
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Allright, to the topic.
A short article on my project called "Ghosts of Winter".

This article will give you insight in my approach, but frankly not as much as you might wish for. It aimes to give you something else instead: An insight into what I call "project ping pong". I am pretty good with this. I work on several projects at once and listen to the creative voice of the muse who is whispering in my ear.

I start projects by several reasons:

1. comission work
2. because I want to paint a model and it calls me
3. A mix of the upper two
4. because I want to test something and learn on it
5. because I want to test a new product and learn something on it

I am pretty good with pushing all projects to an end that satisfies me. A vision fullfilled. Sometimes I have remains of mainly projects of group number five that are getting lost in the cabinet of shame where I do not find a good connection point to get back into the project again.


This tank by Heer 46 was one of these test pieces where I tested rust by Modelmates.Upper picture: This is how I left it abandoned after the testrun with no idea how to proceed.
I can honestly tell that years passed with this tank rotting in a shelf of my cabinet of shame, but then I wanted to get back to it during my game of "project ping pong". And so I did. Sitting in front of it I really enjoyed the texture of the base, but where I initially might have planned a muddy base I decided to go for an icecold winter, a tank wreck freezing in a snowy desert.


This was my result I came out of this and I am really happy that I went back to the project once again.
Never expected this ...

First thing I decided was - like I said - snow. I used some masterclass snow effects on the base in a pretty rough way to mainly make the base white.


My whole plan changed finally. Even it took me years, but my studies in visualising winter helped a lot. Sometimes you have to experience new things before you can finish old ones.



After this was done I had snow but no cold feeling for the piece. I added blues here and there with brush and airbrush to make it colder. When this was applied I added a gel that dries clear. I used one from Lascaux, but there are other brands too you can use. You can call it one component clear water effect or so. If you use google or your hobby dealer of trust you will find what you are looking for.


I added more snow on top of this and spent pretty much time on creating icicles and bring them in place. They are so delicate. Also added snow and ice to the tank itself. See the blues?

Feel the blues? :D




I retouched snow areas with pure white paint to have a difference in its look.

And in the end I made something out of a project I thought I will never see again. Well, this happens, frankly not with all projects but when it happens it is a great feeling. In the end this was just icicles, icicles and more icicles. Gna!





What I learned on this:
If you are doing miniature painting or scale modelling as a hobby do not start to force yourself through something. Listen. There is a voice inside you telling you what you want to do, nobody tells you what you have to do and believe me you get more done if you listen to your inner voice.

To see more photos of Ghosts of Winter,
check Putty & Paint.

Keep on happy painting!
Roman

_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
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Do something that you have never done before
and do it again. As often as you can in life. Give things you are scared of a new chance. Grow and learn by enjoying life. Close old chapters from the past and continue to move forward. Help others and be a great person. These words mean a lot and it is only recommended to breathe them.

If you are an early reader of Massive Voodoo,
you might remember our honored member of the Team, Robert. I just tried to link his profile up, but found out that he did not write one, for example like Philip.I you do not know Robert from his miniature project it is not your fault. He has been inactive for a long while now and this is nothing bad. He is following the upper tip and enjoying it. If you want to know him for his creations I can only recommend checking out Frutty di Mare.

On such a project you can explain many great things for the figure painter. Back then we somehow just explained how to scratchbuild lamps. Why? Hahahahahaa! There is also a video filled with great memories with a lot of insight.

Well,
while we can all agree that this was stupid to not write more or whatsoever, but we also learn to close old chapters from the past it is time to see Robert again here on the blog, so everybody who knows him can remember him, not for his new creations, but for the creation he is:


Miss ya, bro! You should move closer!
Roman

Hello Jungle, 

time to speak about something very special for me.




Something that developed over a long time and started briefly one year ago. This article will explain this process and is about many decisions.

You all know that I sculpt once in a while.
For example I sculpted this ogre. As I found myself having many ideas for miniature concepts I had to take a decision.

• Can I find the time to train my own sculpting skill to be satisfied?
   
•  Decide if I want to paint more or sculpt more?

I decided to listen to my heart and paint more as I am more a painter than a sculptor. At least this is what my inner voice told me. Nonetheless I have these concepts of figures in my mind that I personally miss in the wide variety of miniatures and figures out there.

I decided to draw one of these concepts out of my brain.
Something different, something nice and beautiful, something peaceful, with no weapons, no wish to kill nor a heroic masculin female with fake breasts. Something that I miss out there. Something that I can show my mum and she understands it on the first glance. Something no one would think it is gruel or agressive or brutal. Something I also learned not so long ago during the chats I had with visitors of my first art exhibition.  One of my many ideas is a Treeman, a gentle, friendly fella. I made some thoughts on this and did some sketches.

I made some additional thoughts via superfast sketching.



And I knew that I will not sculpt it. So I decided to find a sculptor out there to comission him with this idea. I thought about whose style would do this idea best and who will understand this exact feeling I want to catch in the sculpt. My decision was:

Romain van den Bogeart. 

Always a great fan of his sculpts, not only for painting them. He is just supertalented and friendly and I am little fanboy, yes :D

I decided to contact Romain
if he would be interested and to get details on his charge. As soon as this all was settled down I was really happy to see this come to life in the future. With deciding to have Romain sculpting my idea of it I felt very secure and let him work freely on the concept. He did sent me updates once in a while and from this moment on I knew that letting Romain work freely with no
restrictions is the best way. I was fully convinced already decided to save money to pay Romain what he is worth.

These are some of the photos I recieved from Romain during the process. I so much loved that he had real wood lying around for reference of the structure. Man I am a fanboy! You can not learn from nature without references.




From this point on
it was clear that I was happy and looking forward to see more of it come alive. I was already urgently looking forward to paint it. I was thinking about doing this project all for me, so just unique personal project to have, but then decided to find a way to distribute it to make it's beauty available for a wider audience. You.

Romain strikes and sculpts some amazing Owls

The additional squirrel from my initial concept also had to made it in the sculpt and I was very happy to paint up my version as soon as some mastercasts were in my hands.




I can not explain how I much I enjoyed this paintjob. Maybe you see or feel it in the painting. I had a blast and already several new ideas to paint him again. So many possibilities. I will also have a full step by step ready on the progress of painting this bust. Did a lot of research and learned that Owls are funny, but also creepy as hell. What predators!

I decided to ask
Kyle from Mr Lee's Minis if he would be interested in distributing him. Mr Lee's Minis has such a great concept to help figure artists from all over the globe to bring their creations to life. A really fair concept that is based around the artists. It was clear for me that this is my decision and Kyle said yes. I have some more ideas of sculpts that I plan to see realized in the future and so I decided to have a fancy name for my personal ideas and projects "Silverback Miniatures" was born. It is not old yet, but it will grow bigger I am sure.

It took quite the while to streamline everything and I learned to release a figure it is not just having a sculpt. It is hard work from every end.

I want to thank Romain and Kyle again for the great collaberation and the trust.

You can pre-order Fehur,
the Treeman via Mr Lee's Minis from September 2nd on.

More information, a step by step and much more things I learned during its creation - from idea over a sculpting comission to my painted version - will follow in the future.

Why Fehur?
This comes from a nordic rune, called "Fehu". It has different interpretations in rune historics and esoteriks. I am not very good at both, but somehow Fehu means a fresh and creative process for me. This rune somehow relates to my inner child when it comes to creations. This song marks that feeling for me and again I see that a lot of things and everything happens for a reason :)

Here are more photos of the painted bust, decided to keep it in a natural forest theme and put all my other crazy ideas out of the way :D

Fehur, the Treeman is also on Putty&Paint with even more photos.



I am at the NOVA Open 2017 right now and have the first six casts of this bust with me. If you are interested and attending the NOVA too, hit me up.
:)

And do not forget to visit Mr Lee's if you want to preorder yours!
I hope you enjoyed the insight into my mind why this idea was born and I also hope that you enjoy the result of this collaberation.

What would be your idea for Fehur?
If you want to know how the paintjob was done stay tuned for the step by step in the future of Massive Voodoo.

Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Hiho jungle,

Starting today in Washington D.C.,
the largest East Coast event when it comes to wargaming and tabletop, plus a ever growing miniature painters community gathering around capital palette and seminars:


I am there right now, but bet pretty busy with fun and seminars and will just move with the groove. Hopefully I am able to show some impressions via MV's facebook. Can not promise, but try.

You can also check back with NOVA's twitter: https://twitter.com/novaopen
... or NOVA's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenovaopen

Do not forget to check back with NOVA OPEN Charitably foundation - really cool auctions and lotterioes for a good cause!

Expect a full show report by me in the weeks after NOVA!

Keep on happy painting everyone!
Roman

Hi Jungle,

you can call this a brain fart I had back in ... oh wait, when? A long time ago, definatly some years back. A small conversion of a Games Workshop Tau Stealth Suit to a Mech. Playing with scales once again. It was standing around as unfinished brain fart #374, but I finished it up recently. Enjoyed that.









If you want to see more photos of this project, follow this link!While showing such tiny scale figures many people do ask me where I get them. There is a local artstore in my hometown also selling architecture and railroad figures. Company calls itself "Hermoli - Model Figures". Scale is 1:200. Enjoy!

This unique figure is for sale, if you are interested in making this a piece in your collection and in the same time supporting me in what I do for a living, feel invited to check my PDF cataloge.
Keep on happy painting!
Roman

Hello Jungle people,

another step by step drops in from a model that I have painted back in 2016.
Again this article is free of any charge or hidden behind a paywall. If you enjoy what MV provides you with feel invited to drop a jungle donation and help us buy coffee for the studio and garbage bags and ship out stuff for our running contest.

A barbarian model by Ares Mythology, called Zorkh-Seth (somehow a confusing name for this guy) and a model that called out for me to paint it.

I heard the voice really strong and just started.
Usually I take many photos during my painting process, with this one I was not able to do so because the vision was stronger than everything else.


What a grim guy! Grrr!

Well, I can not give you  step by step insight in this project as I just did not take enough photos, but I want to write about something that makes this article stand out:

The vision.

This is what Wikipedia says about the word "vision" and what fits best to describe this articles content:

• Goal, a desired result
  • Vision statement

A strong vision or goal or idea is what you need to successfully push through ups and downs during a project. To keep your motivation at a high level over a longer or shorter period. I often have these visions for a project. I learned to start only the ones I hear calling for my brush. Even with comissions. There is no sense in painting something where you know already in the beginning that you will not like to paint it. Fact.



The vision is my path while painting, not techniques or something else. I see a full picture in my head of the project that I paint. An idea that I thought on since I heard the call of the sculpt. This can take long or not so long. This vision or idea of its final look, guides me through color choices, basework, atmosphere and different materials and painting techniques. I paint to reach the goal that is my vision and it is easy to work like this - there are only two questions to yourself important:


- How do I reach my goal?


... and this question is answered by the second question:



- What do I see that I do not like and how can I tackle it?


Zorkh-Seth.
Back to Mr. Nice Guy.
I had a strong vision for him, so strong that my first painting session of some hours lead me to an overall sketch of my vision. Fast slapping my sketch on the project. Freely, full of confidence. Why not?





I knew from my studies of painting white that white is never white so my basework on the fur was everything else but not white and I somehow wanted that dark orange from the base all over my vision.



Bases are really important for me when it comes to find my vision. They are an extra guideline for my color choices. I work from rough to clean until I see my vision fullfilled.


After my first initial sketch I worked out large areas in terms of the colors I wanted to see there. Just following my final vision. Even the fur turns more whitish and highlights started to appear everywhere. Not thinking in technical terms while doing so, just following my vision. If I miss something here or there I place it. If I do not like something I change it. If I like something I push it a little further. Still the guy looks angry.



Non white turning to white.

Man he looks angry ...

Nipples are important too.

While I play project ping pong - always painting on several projects at once and let the muse and motivation guide and jump me from one to the other - it was time to see Zorkhi on the table beside others:


I realized many things while checking the above status of my work. I see my vision, but I miss more intense colors here and there, stronger shadows, stronger highlights, even tattoos ... so I placed this all:


Painting freely and following your vision not a pure technical approach made me a happier painter. A strong vision pushs me to an end of a model.

Recently I heard a friend tell me something like this:
"I really like my models, but often I think the last 3% are missing!" ... Well, my answer was that I do not know about such things or stopped thinking and painting like this. I am not painting in percent. I just paint until I see my vision fullfilled. This is a very personal thing and I am sure everyone can do it. If you paint the same way this article is not aimed at you, but if you find yourself struggle during your projects as your only approach is a technical one, painting area by area by recipes you might have to start working before you actually paint and learn to read your visions.

My final vision for this project - more photos via Putty&Paint:







If you make your visions clear for yourself, you can read its content. It is something you can learn by yourself or by visiting me for a private coaching as I teach this in my topic atmosphere with much more insight and tools that help you find your vision. Blunt advertisment :D

If you have a strong vision of your project it will follow you during your days, even if you are not painting. You will think about it, even while not thinking about it. You will feel it and want to go back to your project as soon as the next click moment in your brain happened. 


Zorkh-Seth, 
were the hell did you find your name? Sounds like long time digging for a bogey.

Keep on happy painting!
Roman
_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________