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

Welling Model Club Show 2013

Yesterday I visited really nice show. It was held in Welling (London) and was organized by Welling Model Club for the 39th time (next year is big 40!!).
It was a  nice day, even weather was merciful and it was warm and sunny. It is always a pleasure to meet fellow modellers and painters, talk about the hobby, exchange experience and buy a new mini or two.

The competition itself was really friendly and well organised (some of the judges are judging also at EuroMilitaire). I managed to take photos of some of the entries, but because I forgot to take my camera, and was forced to use my mobile... most of the photos is rather crappy and doesn't do the justice to the paintjob, sorry guys. But yesterday i had rather hectic morning, and I'm happy I didn't forget my entries...

I must say I'm glad I didn't, as I managed to win some medals there.
I took 3 miniatures to the show, and two of them placed really nice.
Urmuth Scars of War was awarded with gold in the Fantasy/sf category, and The Grinder with bronze in Bust category.
Poor Yoda the Bloob got nothing... but I received some nice feedback and might tweak him a bit before Salute to give him fighting chance.

And here's a short photo gallery from this event. Just please remember, before you check it out, that these photos were done with my mobile and they're mostly horrible and don't do any justice to the miniatures:( Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to link another gallery here, with decent photos done by my friend John (who won silver with his Wolf!)

cheers

'eM

Textured material - approach 1

This article on how to paint fabric texture has been moved to it's new home: Minichix Studio website.

You can read the new, better version of the article about texturing materials here.

The Grinder is ready

Finally I managed to take photos of finished Grinder. I hope you like him. It was a real pleasure to paint, and I learned quite a lot.

 

 

 

cmon

cheers

'eM

My EuroTrio;]

Here are my boys:D
Quick groupshot for now, but everyone should have a solo photoshoot closer to the next weekend.

cheers

'eM

The Grinder - almost there

Ok, Grinder is almost ready.
I had to attach him to the plinth so I could glue swords in place and work with the skin knowing exactly what will be visible.
I still need to fix some issues on the skin, but other than that I can't see any other areas that need to be corrected. Ofc it might be because I lost my objectivity here;]
If you can see any other problems than the skin, please let me know.

Photos are rather mediocre, I know. But I was in a hurry, and they're not final ones so you know...

cheers

'eM

The Grinder - little update

Still lots to do, mostly skin (and eyebrows!!), but I guess I can see the end here;]

Leather elements and that fabric around his hair are finished.
Hair itself and metal elements need some final definition. Other than that, only skin left.
At this point I must say I'm particularly happy with the look of the cloth (some close-ups below). That was the first time I was trying to mimic this kind of texture.
And what do you think? Does it look real or not really?

 

 

 

cheers

'eM

Textures - leather

This tutorial has been relocated to my main site, Minichix Studio.
Read the full article: Theory of painting realistic leather on miniatures.

The Grinder - forgoten photos

I just realized that I totally forgot about posting these photos here.
You may know them from CofC or PB forums, but I guess they should be also shown on my personal blog, don't you think??:).

They were taken good few weeks ago but tbh they show how Mr Grinder looks at the moment (I guess I should finish him at some point).

I was working mostly with the leathers here, and I can say they're almost finished. I may need to change it a bit when the skin is ready, but rather not too much, because I'm happy how they turned out.
Paints used for the leathers are mostly oils (on the acrylic base ofc) but I guess I could use some acrylics to do the damaged parts.
Maybe at some point I'll do a short tutorial to show you the way I paint leathers.

And here are few close-ups:

cheers

'eM

Almost there - WIP

Menhom is amlost ready:D
I need to fix the OSL and dress, add some dust, but the work is slowly coming to an end.
What do you think?:>

And here are few pics of Grinder's swords. Except metallics, all with oils  and WIP ofc:D

And a close up. I must say, I love the blending you can achieve with oils:D I definitely need to learn how to use them on higher level:D

cheers

'eM

The Grinder vs Oils - WIP

Finally I decided to try oil paints. I bought them months ago, but never find enough courage to use  them on a mini.

First impressions?
OMG!!! It's weird!!! Seriously, it's completely different than acrylics. I have no experience with oils at all, so I'm mostly guessing.
And I guess it wasn't the brightest idea to try it on a competiton piece;p Finger crossed, I won't mess it up totally.

I  touched leathers, skin and hair (and that last one was a mistake;p)

You probably noticed that the contrast on the leathers is much bigger than on the skin... It's because on the skin I use acrylic method of adding shades and lights. I was trying to gradually add shadows, and that's definitely not the way.
With leather elements I just used two very contrast colours and the blending just happened in the middle:P And the effect is much better.
I'll try to fix skin first thing tomorrow.


cheers

'eM

Cancan dancers and other minis - WIP

Like Slawol rightly noticed, armless Menhom looks more like a skeletal cancan dancer not an ancient and powerfull undead warrior.
Hopefully with arms and weapons in place he'll restore more formidable look. But for now he's gonna stay in this more amusing state. I need to finish the dress first, and because I got big plans for it, poor Menhom can be armless for a quite long time:P

And maybe later I'll think if there is a chance of converting another Menhom into an ancient cancan dancer:P

Not too many changes here. I just added metallics, redo leather to get rid of the metallic paint outside metal parts and worked a bit on the red thingy on his head.
I'm still not sure if I should do the leather dark, worn and a bit shiny or more matt and fresh like it is now. I really like the matt look of the fresh leather, but all depends on how it's gonna look with the skin.
So next stop with this not so little fella - base skin tones:D

Glossy eyes and other works - WIP

Monster bottle:

As you can see, I added lots of delicate redish and blueish veins in the corners of the big eye, gloss varnish and some light reflections. I'm affraid I need to redo them, because the natural ones from those two lamps, I was doing photo under, look way better:)
But other than that, I'm quite happy how the 'face' of the bottle is looking now.

The Grinder:
Not much to say for now. This is an extremely early stage. Only the leather elements are touched. I'm hoping I'll be able to try oil paints on this one. All these flat surfaces seems to be perfect for that, but I can't be sure if I won't chicken when it comest to that.

Menhom, Dark Shadow:
Next project I'm about to start;p
It's almost ready to be glued together, and I'm really excited to paint this one:D I even have clear vision of colour scheme and base, and that's rare for me.

At this point I think I should start new part of this blog: Hall of Shame, for all those started and abbandoned minis. I got the feeling that my HoS is allready huge, but I tend to hide unfinished and abbandoned minis in my drawers, so they don't make me guilty for starting a new one:P Maybe looking at them all in one place, would motivate me to finish at least some.
I do envy people who are able to work on one project from the beggining to the finish without distractions. Or at least are able to work more methodically than I do.

And how would you describe your workflow? Methodical or rather chaotic and full of various projects 'on hold'? I'm really curious if I'm the only one with ever growing  Hall of Shame?

cheers

'eM

Scarification take 2 and misterious WIP

 
Unfortunately I destroyed the first one while cleaning the bust for priming, so I had to do new one.
I guess the second try looks better:P



 And here, my misterious project;p
Probably everyone knows the model by now, but shhhh, it's a secret:D