Old Gnome bust finished

And here another piece finished recently. An Old Gnome, gorgeous bust from War Griffon Miniatures. Bronze at Euromilitaire. Huge fun to paint. I learned few new things painting it, just need to use them from now on:D

Voting links if anyone feels like it:

cmon

pnp

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers
'eM

Landsknecht bust finished

Hi there,

not much to say really, just photos of a finished bust. As you know already it got commended at Euromilitaire.
I must say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and it was a pleasure to paint.

pnp

cmon

cheers

'eM

Wet on wet, for the first time

With Old Gnome waiting for the skin to be finished, I felt I need to 'warm up' a bit on another model. You know, it's always easier to start over again when only the face is painted, not the whole miniature. I decided to go with SK Miniatues piece.

Beautiful Landsknecht bust (scale 1:9), sculpted by Yury Serebryakov. Pretty big face, and the rest looking deceptively simple and fast to paint. And what's more important, I got it p repared already for few months now. At some point I decided to prepare and prime several miniatures and busts. If you're courious about my preping process, I described it in some more details few posts (and almost a year) ago.

And, as you probably can imagine, I got carried away.

With face basically finished (just few touch ups here and there, when whole thing is done) I just continiued painting. For the first time I managed to successfully use wet on wet technique. Till now I was struggling with big time. I've seen countless video tutorials on this technique (well maybe not countless but a lot for sure), but couldn't get it right. Luckily this time it just worked. I'm especially happy with the red of the tunic and black on the emblem on the front. Both red and black were really difficult for me to paint with high contrast, and this time I quite like the effect. I hope I'll be able to use this technique from now on without any problems. Below you can see a massive close up of the red and black elements. It looks kinda rough here and there, but please bare in mind that the photo is few times bigger than the whole bust, so of course all imperfections are well... bigger.

Right now it's almost finished, just like the Old  Gnome piece... And I can only hope I can finish both of them without further distraction.
The face is somehow desaturated on the photo. I seem to be unable to get the colours right on my new camera, but over all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Like I said I'll be doing some more work here, but I'm almost there.
For the rest of the bust I need: repaint the pouch on his chest (draws way too much attention away from the face), fisnish the belt, shirt, beret, golden elements, and of course beard.

cheers
'eM

Euromilitaire is upon us!

and I'm burried in nappies... instead of paints.

And with less than a month left, I'm affraid I won't be bringing too much to the competition. So far I have only  Leon, and Capt'n Sapo, two busts finished at the beginning of this year.

I'm hoping I'll be able to finish something else, but it all depends on how much sleep and free time I'll be able to  get these next few weeks. So far the most advanced is Old Gnome bust (from War Griffon Miniatures). At this point basically only the flesh needs to be finished, rest is more or less ready.

As always I'm struggling with the skintones, that's why I tend to leave it for the end. It's a real pity, as the face is the most important part of every miniature, bust especially. And if I won't do it good enough, the whole paintjob will be, well, wasted. So finger crossed I won't mess it up this time.

For the first time I'm trying to do directional light, shining on his left shoulder, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull it off. We'll see how it looks with the face ready. Hopefully it will work.

And if I'm really lucky, and wil be able to get into 'the Zone', I might even paint something else, something small and simple. If I'm lucky...

cheers

'eM

Gallery - The Veteran

Another finished piece, medieval knight bust from JMD miniatures, which I called The Veteran.
Due to some issues with the sculpt I decided to add some scars on his left cheek to hide some of them.

cmon

pnp

cheers

'eM

Gallery - Da Rock

Final photos of my orc bust ein Stein (Da Rock).
I've been posting so many wips from this project so there is really not much more to say about it. You can always check out earlier post about this bust, to see how it was shaping up.
I entered this bust into the EuroMilitaire competiton last weekend, in Folkestone, where it managed to get Silver in Fantasy Bust category. I must say I'm pretty happy and proud.
I hope you like it.

cmon

pnp

cheers

'eM

Euromilitaire 2013 photos, reports

Well it took me a bit more time than I expected, but finally I managed to gather together some photos and videos from last weekend.


Photos taken by me:
Part1
Part2
 
Euromilitaire - Best of Show, posted on PlanetFigure by Paco
Alex Long's gallery
Mario Delgado's gallery

Smudger1960 photos posted on PlanetFigure:
Part1
Part2
Part3
Part4

And some facebook galleries.
I hope they will be visible for everyone, not just for friends, but if that's the case, I'm sorry.
John's fb gallery
Pekka's fb gallery

Here you can find a proper report from the show done by Painting Buddha, Michael. And of course his photo album.

And a bunch of youtube videos published by:
Cursed Monkeys
Mr  Bob's build (flats)
Mr Bob's build (figures)
Mr Bob's (armour)
jamesbritton1

enjoy

'eM

Brock the Wanderer - review

I was going to try new formula 'Inbox: more pictures - less words' here, but I'm affraid the miniature I'm going to describe this time, begs for proper review. So here it goes:

One of my newest purchases (full set here): Brock the Wanderer from Scale 75, Scale World Fantasy range.
Product code: SCF-005.
The company name is Scale 75, so I'm gonna assume for now that he's 75mm tall. I'll check it with the ruler after assembly.
The miniature is multipart and casted fully in white metal.

The box:

Miniature is secured by two boxes, one external, more delicate, with the boxart and some marketing informations, and second, hard and plain. Inside the second box we can find two layers of thick foam and lots of pieces.

What's inside the box: 

As you can see the mini is divided into quite a lot of parts. There are:
2 different heads, one with helmet the other one with a ponytail (separate)
Torso,
2 legs,
Arm with the axe,
Arm with the hammer,
Sword in a sheath to be attached on the back,
Some sort of shoulder strap (brassard maybe??),
Back side of the cloth covering his private parts,
Base (which is kinda dull and unatractive, so I rather won't be using it).

And that's how the pieces look in close up:

As you can see there is a lot of flesh(?) and few mold lines, but it should be rather easy to get rid of.
Some of the parts have less smooth surface than others (i.e. torso or legs) but the pieces are quite big so cleaning it also shouldn't be a big deal. Some time with steel wool and sanding clothes should do the trick. The only thing that worries me is the way some parts are attached to the sprues:

I don't really understand why it has to be in the middle of hair or fur.  Was there no other places for it?
It's gonna be pain for me to restore facture there. Of course for many of you it might not even be a problem, but for me it is, I hate preparing miniatures. I can see few stressful hours spent on getting this little badboy ready for primer. Mr Bombel may even learn few new swearwords in the process:)

Assembly:
Parts seem to fit together nicely, I can't find any trouble spots at the moment. But after my experiences with Pegaso's Templar I'll be able to say it for sure after gluing the whole thing together. For now it's just an assumpiton.

Overall opinion:
Hard to say, really.
I really like the concept.
I like the packaging.
I'm even happy with the overall quality of the cast...
But I'm strongly dissapointed with the way head  and few other elements are attached to the sprues. Like I said, for some of you it might not even be a problem, but for me it is, and it brings down my joy of having this miniature.
This is my first Scale 75 miniature, so I have no idea if that's common thing with them or not, but I'll probably think twice before buying next one online without checking some reviews first. Which is very unfortunate, because I like quite a few minis from their range.

cheers

'eM

Euro Militaire - reports

I still didn't get round to processing my photos from Euro Militaire. It's not my favourite part of the event:D
Besides I spend most of the time shopping, socialising, tormenting judges and taking care of my extremely bored 'significant half', so I simply didn't take too many pictures in the first place. But I promise, I'm gonna post them at some point, because I'd like to discuss one thing with you by the way.

But for now I'm simply gonna post here links to the galleries I found in the Internet. I hope authors won't mind me doing that, it's some sort of publicity after all.

Les Chevaliers du Centaure

Megazord_man's photobucket

Mario Delgado's photos

Rafa Coll blog (check out more of his posts, lots of pictures there)

I found another report on Volomir's Blog

cheers

'eM

Euro Militaire 2012 - Shopping

Shopping wise it was a really good weekend, trust me.
So many nice stands with lots and lots of awesome models and accessories... All Vendors so nice and friendly:) Everything shiny and tempting:D

First group photo, ofc with Inspector Bombel:

You know, this cat is a big one (almost a stone). So taking that into consideration, the loot looks even more impressive;]


And because not everything is clearly visible on the photo, and because I'm still extremely excited about my new treasures, here is the list with official photos:

1. Landsknecht Soldier (Pegaso Models, 90mm)

(c) Pegaso Models

Sculptor: Andrea Jula
Painter: Diego Ruina

2. Iroquois 1760, or as I like to call him: pi**ed off Indian (Pegaso Models, 75mm)

 

(c) Pegaso Models

Sculptor: Andrea Jula 

Painter: Franco Mocci

3. Francois L'Olonnais (Pegaso Models, 75mm)

(c) Pegaso Models

Sculptor: Maurizio Bruno 

Painter: Danilo Cartacci

4. Port Royale (Andrea Miniatures, 54mm)

 (c) Andrea Miniatures

5. Norse Lord 800 A.D. (Andrea Miniatures, 54mm)

 (c) Andrea Miniatures

6. Brock the Wanderer (Scale 75, 75mm?)

(c) Scale 75

Sculptor: Joaquin Palacios

Painter: Alex Varela

7. Apache Lipan (La Meridiana, 200mm)

(c) La Meridiana Miniatures

Sculptor: Carles Vaquero

Painter: Danilo Cartacci

8. French Courtesan (El Viejo Dragon Miniatures, 1:10)

(c) El Viejo Dragon Miniatures

Sculptor: JR Arredondo

Painter: Pepa Saavedra

9. Gem Smith (War Griffon Miniatures, 1:10)

(c) War Griffon Miniatures

Sculptor: Raul Fernandez Romo

Painter: Adrian Hopwood

10. Leo Bust (Yedharo Models, 1:10)

(c) Yedharo Models

Sculptor: Fausto Gutierrez

12. Animal set (Mantis Miniatures, 1:35)

(c) Mantis Miniatures

12. Few bits and pieces : airbrush holder, a plinth (so called einzelstucke;p), set of sanding cloths,  few pigments.

I do believe it's all...

I think I should be done with buying new minis till Xmas;] Or maybe,  if I'm really lucky, till Salute next April;p

cheers

'eM