Euromilitaire results.

What a lovely weekend it was!
I had really great time, seeing all my friends,  making some new ones... indulging in the hobby, seeing lots of awesome paintjobs and buying some of the amazing products avaliable during the show.
It's a real pitty that now we have to wait a whole year for next Euro... I know, I know, there are some other great shows later this year (MSS, Hussar, Bugle Call and maybe more), and early 2015, but sadly I won't be able to go there... so I'm waiting for yet another trip to Folkestone, and planing what should I paint;]
But let's talk about this year's show for a while longer.

First shopping.
I bought most of it on Saturday, so chronogically it should be first.
As you can see on the photo, I didn't buy much.

• Just few unique bases, I love buying them during shows, where you can see them from every angle and find best ones that suit my models. One of them will be used right away, for my Diablito, cute little guy sculpted by Roberto Chaudon.
• A beautiful bust of Aquila, Roman Legionary, made by Nut's Planet, scale 1/10, casted in resin. I've seen it recently around painted by many amazing painters and feel like I'd like to give it a go. Not much of a chance to do it completely different than others (you know, the uniform and all that) but I hope I can leave my mark on it anyway.
• Battle Chick, One of new releases from Nocturna Models, a beautiful girl from the line Necrospace. The mini is 75 mm tall (according to the producer's website), 1/28 scale, cast of course in resin. I think I'll be doing some small changes to her equipment, but othet than that, she's trully gorgeous.
• And a piece I had in my mind for few years alerady. A gorgeous Mermaid from Origen Art. Another resin cast in 1/28 scale. I feel the right time came to finaly buy her and paint. I can't wait to start with all the rust and weathered parts, and the mermaid itself of course.
• Two video tutorials from Painting Buddha, about freeehands and basing alchemy (first part earth). I have their first set of DVDs and can't wait to see those two. 

Entries, and badges.
This year I entered 4 pieces, all of them busts, one historical and 3 fantasy. Luckily enough all of them got a badge.

Sapo - Gold
Old Gnome and Leon - Bronze
Landsknecht - Commended
I'm more than happy about that, as it shows some consistency in my painting, at least I'd like to think it does. And I gathered some valuable feedback from judges, so there is a chance my painting will improove in the mentioned areas:D
Below you can see a solo photo of my golden boy, Sapo.

Photos from the show:
I tried to take as much photos as I could. But both, social side of the event and my unability to take decent photos during such a busy show, stood in the way;]
My photobucket gallery. and some found in internet:
FB gallery of Andrew Nai,
FB gallery of Pekka Tapani Nieminen,
Platoonbritannica thread,
Photos taken by Rob Pollock and presented at imodeler.com: Part1, 2, 3, and 4,
Photos taken by a fellow PB-er Theunrealisticartist,
Photos published on militarymodelling.com,
Some photos found on the very nice blog The curious way.


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

Back from the 'dead'. Hopefully for good this time.

After months without the brush I finally felt like I'm ready to go back and paint with pleasure and some consistency. Well almost without the brush, I tried to paint from time to time, but it wasn't very successful. So right now after a few days with painting I really hope the 'dry spell' is over and I'll be creative again.

Because I'm not really a fan of preping miniatures, you know cleaning them, assembling, priming... Especially priming. I use Mr. Surfacer 1200, which smells really nice, but still is not the healthiest thing to inhale, so I need to use a mask and all that stuff, and it takes time... you know.
Well anyway, I decided to prepare bunch of miniatures, prime them at one go and be over with it for a while. Below you can see the minis I chose to be painted next. As you can see, mostly busts and bigger scale. I'm not quite sure if I knew what to do with 28mm mini right now:D

At this point, the minis are all primed and 'preshaded'. Because I use light gray primer, I couldn't just use white paint from the top to mimic zenithal lighting, it wouldn't be wisible enough. So first I applied a fairly diluted, dark gray paint from the bottom (+/- 45 degree), and then again diluted white from the top (+/- 45 degree). Thanks to that I can see much better lights and shadows on my miniatures, which should help me to build the volumes. The darker and brighter areas will also look a bit different when covered with paint, wihich is an additional help to the contrast.

And here the last step of my work with airbrush. Of course if I had all colour schemes planned out already I could do much more, but I'm still hesitating, so I did only flesh parts. Here again I applied first lights and shadows, but rest of the job will be done with the brush.

cheers

'eM