Group photo

Not much to say to be honest.
Just a proof that I'm ready;]

cheers

'eM

Viking's base, phase two - painting

This time it's not gonna be step by step article. I will focus more on separate parts of the base: the trunk, bark, mushrooms and rotting foliage on the ground.

The trunk
Even though the piece of heather I used, looked already pretty much like a fallen tree, I decided to paint it anyway. For one thing I felt it lacks some discolourations and delicate moss here and there. But mostly because I feel that natural, unpainted materials look weird next to painted miniature. Painting them unifies the whole piece.

So first I took care of the naked parts of the trunk. Using GW washes, GW Graveyard Earth and P3 'Jack Bone I covered the areas in paint creating way stronger contrast and some variations in colour that could appear in a wood exposed to the weather for a long time.
The damaged parts of the front were a bit more tricky, as it was quite difficult to reach the deepest recesses with a brush. With a big and old brush I managed to introduce darks washes and some Catachan Green (GW) to emulate moss that could fint it's way there.


The Bark
For this part I used mostly dark brown, some GW washes, a bit of P3 'Jack Bone and lots of GW Catachan Green.  Brown, washes and 'Jack Bone was used to even out the colour (with drybrush), and introduce some contrast. Thin layers of green placed mostly under the trunk and in the recesses look like a moss that often grows on the older trees. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, just google 'old bark moss' and you can find lots of various examples.

Below you can see various stages of painting, from the very natural unpainted wood to the final version. I decided to post only one set of photos for both, the trunk and bark because they would be very similar, and you can see all the steps of painting here

Mushrooms
Mushrooms are the exception on this base. They were mostly left as they were in natural state. I was affraid that too much paint would cover the natural pattern of the tabacco stalks reminding so much the true mushrooms. I just used some GW washes (brown and green) to unify the colour a bit with the rest of the base. But as the shrooms are quite alive, unlike the fallen trunk, they grow and feed on, I kept them in warmer colours.
Below you can see photo with shrooms just after glueing them to the base and after washes. On the third frame, under different angle, you should be able to see the pattern I was talking about, darker an brighter lines creating some visual interest and emulating the real mushrooms.

Dead leafs and ground
This parts were painted mostly the same as bark. Dark brown washes and some  'Jack Bone to create contrast and unify these parts with the rest of the base and some green washes to emulate moss that starts to grow on the leafs. I was focusing the green mostly under the trunk, at the front, and in deep shadows, but there is also some amount of moss in the open areas. I assumed that if the leafs are laying there for few months, and starting to rot already, there should be some moss growing on them as well.
The photo below isn't the best one, but you should be able to see some greens on the ground.

Fern
Fern was painted mostly with the airbrush, with Catachan Green as a base and some mixture of GW Desert Yellow and Snakebite Leather to do the highlights. For the shadows I used various GW washes. I have no photos from painting this part (even though I'm pretty sure I took some), so you need to take my word for it:D

And I thinkt that's all I could tell you about painting this base.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful. And if you have any questions, or comments, just leave a note underneath, I'll be happy to answer.

Viking's base, phase one - building

cheers

'eM

Viking's base, phase one - building

Originaly the Viking miniature comes with a base shaped as a stone step or something like that. As far as I know vikings culture was based on wood (I might be mistaken though), so I guess it symbolises mighty barbarians riding more architecturally advanced cultures (i.e. roman churches and monasteries). But for me the pose, and facial expression doesn't say conqueror after a battle looking at what they just plundered. It's more like a seasoned warrior, a chieftain, standing on a cliff looking at the sea, and planning new excursion, or maybe just thinking about what the future holds. That's one of the main reason, why there is no blood on the mini. And that's why I decided to create forest like base, with a fallen trunk (to substitute the step) and some fern and grass.

Here you can see all materials I used for the base: a bit of heather, etched brass, artificial grass, tobacco, grounded sponge, tea, sandy paste and some milliput.

Old branches of heather are great as tree trunks, mostly because they're rearly ideally oval in profile, there are very often some sort of deformations, indentations, recesses that create visual interest. Also the facture  and size of the bark looks convincing in scale and represents tree bark very well. It also falls of really easily, leaving nice, smooth surfaces and it makes the trunk looks like old and damaged.

First I had to choose right piece of heather and cut it into the right size. I went for a branch with a split end, like it was broken by the wind or lightning, not cut down by the axe. Falling bark adds more character to it, making it look like something that's laying on the ground for a while now.

Cutting the other end was a bit more tricky though. Heather is pretty hard, so you need proper saw to cut it precisely.

Then I placed the cut piece on the base on a slight angle, with damaged end pointing the same direction the Viking will be looking in. It should create some harmony in the piece. Around the wood I placed some milliput to create ground and socket for other foot.

When I was happy with the shape of the ground, I covered it with sandy paste to add some texture. Even knowing that most of the ground will be covered in some sort of foliage, I thought it's a good move, just in case some of it will shine through.

With the ground more or less ready I reached to my tobacco stash to create some mushrooms on the trunk.

To be fair, the whole idea of using tobacco as mushrooms is not mine. The credit is due to guys from MassiveVoodoo, and here you can find the article that inspired me to try it on my bases. And here, if anyone's interested you can find a photo of the best 'mushroom material' I could find so far. I'm not gonna publish here the photo as I'm against smoking and I don't really advertise it any more than necessary.

With all that done I placed the mini on the base. First I had to cut a hole in the trunk to hide the piece of metal under viking's foot and started work with fern.
First I shaped some of the leafs in more natural way, trying to mimic different stages of growth. And then placed them around the trunk in bits of blutac, just to find out the shape of the plants. When I was happy with that, I placed some grass around, for now without glueing it, just to find out the right spots. Because I had to paint every fern separately, I took few photos from different angles to be able to place them more of less the same way after painting. And of course to make sure I won't mix them, I was keeping every bunch separately while painting. I took photos of this stages but I guess I lost them so you need to take my word for it.

With all foliage in place or at least planned, I could move to the moss and dead leafs on the ground. I decided to add dead leafs because even in the middle of vegetation period there is always some amount of fallen leafs under the big trees in the forest.
For the moss I used grounded sponge, you can buy in almost every hobby store. They come in various colours, and I decided to use slightly yellowish, warm shade of green to add some variety of colour. I glued it mostly under the trunk and fern.

For the dead leafs I used some tea bags. Tea leafs in the bags are usually really crushed into small pieces so in the scale it looks like old, broken dead leafs, that are laying around for months at least.
A bit of glue between the tea makes it look even more like decaying foliage.

After all was painted and glued together I used some more tea and grounded sponge to mask some more ground under the fern, and grass.
And at the very end I carefully placed few bits of bark around the trunk as if it just fallen of under the viking's shoe.

Viking's base, phase two - painting

cheers

'eM

Viking Chief finally finished!

Well, after almost a year or so, I can proudly present my second part of Pegasus Project finished.
And yet another mini moved from Hall of Shame to Hall of Fame:D

Cmon

pnp 

cheers

'eM

Landsknecht Soldier - Inbox

The mini: 

(c) Pegaso Models

Name: Landsknecht Soldier
Manufacturer: Pegaso Models
Product code: 90-052
Category: Europe XVI Cen.
Sculptor: Andrea Jula
Material: White metal
Scale: 1:20 (90mm)

The box:

In the box:

Quality of the cast:
Cast seems to be very clean and crisp. Beautiful details and design, quite reasonable parts and few delicate mould lines. As far as I can see, there is only one unnecessary small chunk of metal, on the outside of his left leg close to the knee, but it should be easy to remove/cover with the ribbon.


Assembly:
Looks to be pretty straightforward. Few small and delicate parts may require some subtleness, but with a bit of care it should be fine.

Other Pegaso Models reviews:
Viking Chief
Templar Knight
Iroquois, 1760

cheers

'eM