GW Wraith step by step - part 1

The mini


I painted this miniature for 6th CofC Miniature Exchange. The reason behind this choice was lots of space for textures and freehands. Recently I paint mostly bigger scale, and ME mini has to be 28mm, so this wraith is win/win for me. Within the range of scale and enough of nice surfaces for some experiments.
By the time this SBS is published, the mini is with the recipient, but now I can only hope, he'll like it.

Preparation:
As you can see I skipped preparation of the mini. I was so eager to start working on this piece, that I forgot to take pictures. But the process of preparing this wraith for painting is pretty straightforward.
The mini consist of 5 plastic parts:
- 3 parts of cloak,
- hands and scythe,
- head (3 options available).
The parts fit together nicely, and the cast itself is clean, with good details. The assembly was easy and only small amount of putty was necessary to get rid of the junction.


The base

I decided to go for one of Scibor's bases from egyptian base kit.
I had an idea that the wraith is rising from the remains of a tombstone or something like that. To emphasise this effect I was thinking about somehow mixing the colours of the wraith and the stone on the places where they join. Or maybe simulate the 'sucking' of some sort undead energy from the stone to the wraith by painting thin, glowing 'veins' (in the wraith's colour) on the stone, gathering at the joining points.
But eventually I ran out of time to do that, so the message isn't that clear.

Preparation:
The Scibor's base was a little too big for the regular Warhammer base, and for what I was going to do with it, so I decided to modify it 'slightly'. On the photo below there is a base before and after modification. As you can see, I cut big chunks of resin, getting rid of most of the 'earth' and sand. I letf the insect on the cheek. I know it supposed to be a scarab, but it can also be a common forest beetle. I also separated the 'shield' a bit from the face, because after removing some of the earth from this side, it looked somehow odd.

After reducing the size of the base quite significantly, I made sure that there is a place underneath for the little rock wraith is attached to. I decided to glue it on the side, with both long ends of the robe touching the statue, to make it look like he's rising from the stone. I had to cut the outer side of the rock, and mask it with some sandy paste.

To make sure that both, base and wraith, are securely attached to the black base I pinned them together.

And now just a bit of  putty, sandy paste and few small rocks, and the ground is ready.

To emphasise the effect of life being sucked out of the terrain by creation of the wraith I decided to add few fern leaves half dry and dead. I know, a lot of Scibor's bases have sculpted ferns on it, and my idea isn't that original, but using etched brass fern should give me a bit more natural look than sculpted leaves.

Because etched brass is rather delicate, I thought it would be better to keep it and separately from the base and glue onto it when all painting is done. That's also the reason that all the moss was glued at the very end.

So at the moment the whole mini is ready for primer.
But more on that in the next episode:)


cheers

'e M

Demon (Evil Miniatures) - review

Today I will show you one of the last minis I got in my hands, Demon sculpted by Vlado Turek who's the man behind Evil Miniatures.
I found the mini on the PlanetFigure forum a while ago, and simply couldn't resist (and trust me I was trying:D).


The Mini:

(c)Evil Miniatures

Name: Demon
Manufacturer: Evil Miniatures

Sculptor: Vlado Turek

Material: Resin
Scale: 1:32 (65mm tall, 49mm to the eyes) 

The box:

In the box: 

As you can see from the photos above, parts are secured with rather thick cartboard box and few layers of bubble wrap. On top of that parts are placed in small plastic bags, so there is no chance something will get lost.


Quality of the cast:
On the first glance after removing parts from the bags, cast seems to be absolutely crisp and flawless. Under further examination I managed to find few small mould lines:at the back of his legs, at his back and one little below his back:D (the last one will be covered with the fabric stripes though). Front of the mini and other parts, as far I can tell, are free from any mould lines. 
I found also few airbubbles under the surface of the mini. There is only few of them, placed at the back of the thighs and on the chest (the sufraces facing up while the mini was casted I guess), and they're small and easy to fix. 
There is a little bit of flesh on his claws, but it goes away under a fingernail. Shoulderpads and fabric stripes are clean and pretty easy to detach from the resin bar, even though some cleaning of the detached surfaces is necessary.


Assembly:
As far I can tell at the moment, assembly of this model will be easy and very straightforward. Parts fit together nicely, and Valdo made sure to make it for us as easy as possible.
He even made sure that the places where we need to attach demon's arms are hidden under some sort of armbands, so no filing is required whatsoever. Shoulderpads and stripes of cloth also fit really nicely, and only minimal amount of putty will be required to hide the joint.
On the photos below, you can see some details of the cast and assembly.

Overall opinion:

(Once again I'd like to remind that the opinion is absolutely subjective and based on my copy of the mini and my personal, slightly twisted, taste)

I must say it's a great miniature, I absolutely adore the sculpture and I'm really happy with the quality of the cast, packaging, and 'customer care'.

cheers

'eM

Best freehand ever:D

Quick WIP of one of my many many projects... Bloody Yoda from Knight Models.
Quite an early stage, clothes are just mess after trying new technique (not really working thb;/), but the face is almost ready. Of course there is still some work to be done but at least you can see features of his face... And that's all freehand, seriously. At the poto below you can see him just after priming. only the nose and right eye are more or less visible... Left eye is just a blob, mouth... is somewhere under the nose. And tbh that's the face after an exchange;] The first cast it was just one porous blob instead of the face... So I must say, I'm proud of his face now, and of my freehand skills;]

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.

6th Cofc Miniature Exchange mini published

Here is the miniature I painted for 6th Cofc ME. My recipient Hellspawn, just received my package so I can post it here:

CMON

 cheers
'eM

Awesome blog collections

I'm constantly searching for, and discovering new and awesome blogs and websites about our hobby. Mostly by browsing known blogs and checking their 'blog lists'. And I must say sometimes I find true treasures this way. But recently I found two really awesome sources. I'm so happy about that, so I need to share my joy with you:


One is blog called The Pewter Brigade, written by Johan Kees, who specialize in historical pieces painted with oils (mostly ancient rome). On his blog you can find two really nice things. First is lots of reviews, photos of unpainted , freshly unpacked historical minis, and the second is really impressive list of blogs from our community.

And the other one is spanish 'Figure International Magazine'. I don't speak spanish at all, so I don't really know if the website itself is good or not, but their resources are pretty ipressive.
Not only do they have very long and very diverse list of blogs, but also equaly nice list of manufacturers and associations.

So if you're looking for something different than only wargaming pieces, those two places trully worth checking.

cheers

'eM

Port Royal - Inbox

While I'm working mostly on my 'secret piece' I can't show you any photos of the progress. So, in the meantime, I decided to do a review.
Yet another Andrea Miniatures lovely model, another of my favourites subjects: the Pirate


The mini:

(c) Andea Miniatures

Name: Port Royal, 1660
Manufacturer: Andrea Miniatures
Product code:PC-06
Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Material: White metal and resin
Scale: 1:32 (54mm)


The box:

In the box: 

As you can see, parts are secured very well with two layers of thick cartboard and thick sponge, so there is no chance that anything can move inside during transport.

Quality of the cast:
On the first glance, the cast seems to be very nice. There are some delicate mold lines and imperfections, but it is rather complex model, so I can understand and accept that. At this point I can say, nothing is damaged, and the metal surface is rather smooth.The resin parts are more rugged, but because it's only wall and ground, I can guess the extra texture was intentional.
Of course all the thin parts (blade especially) are rather thin and bend easily, so we need to be careful with them.


Assembly:
Well... The mini is rather complex... So I can expect some small obstacles and difficulties with the assembly, but at this point it's just my guess. 
But the very most important thing for me will be of course the order in which I'm gonna assembly the piece. So far I was experimenting with with that on different miniatures, and must admit the trial and error approach got me nowhere. I'm not sure if there is one right answer to that problem, but I'll do my best to find the ways best for me and the particular minis.


Other Andrea Miniautes reviews:
Menhom Dark Shadow 
Urmuth, Scars of War


cheers

'eM