Hello jungle people!

and welcome back to the conclusion of my introspective on shows. Last time I went through a bit of a diatribe about whats going on in my head before a big show like SMC. 

Today is a bit of a reflection on the effect of the event as whole but also and especially on the emotional fallout of putting something in the contest - and not winning a medal. (Full disclosure: I DID receive a highly commended on the piece I entered merely as a novelty though - it was nice but really didn't satisfy the craving). 

How did I deal with not winning anything and what did I take from it for the future?

The setting at the scalemodel challenge is pretty similar to most shows in so far as that the exhibition gets closed off sometime during saturday afternoon and then the judges start their grisly work. Depending on the number of exhibits, the work will always take several hours before its done and the usually there will be some kind of notification near the displays that have been awarded something - be it a medal or a "Highly Commended"-Pin. 

However, for someone to win something - someone else needs to not win something - otherwise there is no distinction and the whole exercise would be somewhat pointless. This chance element ist what creates excitement, curiosity and to a certain extent emotional investment into a contest, thats perceived more than just an exhibition.

This year, regrettably for the first time, I took the time to really focus on myself - on my feelings and emotions when entering, during the judging period and especially when he exhibit opened on sunday and I went there to see if I got something.

My excitement peaked for the first time when I went near the exhibit hall. It was pretty crowded as a lot of people went straight to their pieces and I managed to convince myself to go to the shopping area first. After about ten minutes I swerved back thought and made a beeline to the bust I had submitted in standard fantasy painting. On the way I realized already that the system had changed from the last years - cards have been replaced with stickers. From several yards away, I could already see that there was no sticker on my piece. When I arrived, I craned my neck, trying to see against my better sense, if the judges for some reason had stuck it to the back - they did not. In the first few seconds I got the cold rush of realisation, that I didnt get a thing. My "best" piece failed - even though I knew it wasn't actually good.

Frustrated, with a hot face and sunken gut I moved on - saw that many of my friends got something, got a bit more sad and continued. I did not belong. Next I went to my second piece - aforementioned novelty. It is a pretty small piece, so enough space to stick anything to it.When I moved up to it I noticed something stuck to it! I rejoiced after all - Thats a medal! Well, its not great but obviously the novelty of tinyness paid off... When I walked close to see,  I finally realized how cruelly the stickers for highly commended and medal looked very much alike. Another rush of embarrassement - this time for being so stupid not grasp the difference immediately and also for believing this little thing could be a medal.

I walked through the exhibit and I felt like there where few prices in general - that must be it: They judged harshly this year - and maybe I even entered into the wrong categories. Probably, by entering the categories that better suite my pieces, a judge could get them and would award me something.

I wish I could say that it only took a few minutes to recover from this and get back to enjoy the show. But it didn't. It took at least an hour of meandering through the halls and feeling sad and lonely. 

A bit later I walked into Tue, one of the judges and asked him if they didn't judge a bit harshly this year. He pointed out, that pretty much every second display was awarded a price. This was the point where I started to make it out of my loop. 

Within the next hour or so, I ran into a bunch of other friends: Richard from Australia, Dave from the US, Petra from our MV-Team and many more. Throughout the day I had another bunch of great conversations: On creating things, on expectations for and from contests and also how important it is for some of us to get a medal. Sometimes because it is important for the livelyhood, sometimes because its important for our mental health and sometimes just because we are competetive and want to win.

In hindsight, I received precious feedback from the judges - thanks especially to Tue Kaa and Martje Giesbers for that!

Learnings:

Especially the conversation with Dave also brought one major point to mind: When we envision things, we create perceptive realities. Our brain isn't really good at differentiating between things that we envision and reality. When the envisioned outcome (winning a prize) doesn't happen, we actually suffer real loss. When we put things in a competition, we tend to envision the success, the moment we see the medal notification etc. And if this doesn't happen, there is loss.

• Losing at contests causes grief - there are multiple stages to it and in hindsight I can clearly identify the 5 stages according to Kübler-Ross:

1. Denial (Maybe its stuck to the back, maybe they picked the wrong sticker...)
2. Anger (My work was too shoddy, I was lazy, why did they award so few prices in general)
3. Bargaining (Wrong category..9
4. Depression (Wandering around sad)
5. Acceptance (Being happy for the winners and everythin else)

• Contests are stress, contests bring emotions. You can brace for them and try to observe and learn. Its Ok to be angry, sad, depressed. 
• The contest is one optional part of a show. Not participating (or putting stuff into out of competition) does not invalidate the rest.

And here are some ideas I will try to implement for the next show:

• If I am not in the emotional state to deal with the outcomes (due to stress in personal life, my work or anything else), I am not ready to compete. If I am not ready to compete - I won't!
• I'll visualize not finding anything the next day and clapping for my friends from the audience. 
• I will converse with myself early on and be honest with myself on my hopes and expectations.
• I'll express my thoughts and feelings to others - there is no point to be ashamed and no one to blame. Talking creates communion.

By the time the awards ceremony came around, I was happy to be there and with great joy saw the medals that my friends and fellow artists reaped. This wouldn't work if everyone is on the stage. If everybody is outstanding, no one stands out. We can (and maybe) should argue about the need for and necessity of competition in something we consider not only artisanry but also art. But there is little point in arguing that in the framework of a competition there can not only be winners.

 Hey Jungle,

I realized I really need to catch up with some long overdo posts here on the blog.
Time goes so fast these last couple of months and I have been very busy with many, many things.


Roman NEWS:
I decided to seperate my work "romanlappat.com" even more from this beloved Massive Voodoo blog. The MV blog should be a place for the MV-Team and not a mixture of my work and the Team's work.
Therefor, I will write all future posts about Workshop and Coaching Reviews via an area of my homepage www.romanlappat.com.

Also older ones will move there in a good overview of reviews. The organisational aspects for all my workshops will also move there. At the moment I am reconstructing, updating and doing a big overhaul on the page to get all this ready for 2024. Besides that I am also launching a Patreon soon (November 1st 2023) where you will have chance to support me as an artist in the form of a classical patronage.

I will do only my own hobby posts here and speak about miniatures that I have painted and just become a normal part of the MV-Team, not a main focus for this blog. All I can say is that it is lovely to see the Team so active lately.

More about this all soon!

Here is my version of Connor!
A great bust sculpted by Ivan Mata.
Guess what? Can you see the small scars? They are made from my beard hair and matte varnish, then painted. Yak! This bust is sold and in private collection.

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: