Coral reef

This tutorial is really simple and really short. I'm just gonna describe materials I used to create my version of something you can call reef. I deliberately  did that this way, as a sort of shore during the outflow, to alow my Walter to run thorugh shallow water (the water is not there yet, because I'm s till working on that mini).
But you can use the same method and materials to create proper reef with deep water.

But first few reference pictures:

As you can see reef is full of vibrant colours and various shapes.

To recreate  this I used:

1. Caribou moss (wiki)
Some of you might think that it's the last thing  you would use on your base (and in any other case I'd probably  agree) but in this case it defends itself pretty good.

2. Xanthoria parietina -  leafy type of lichen  (wiki)
My favourite  thingy I use for basing. You can find it growing on the roofs, bricks and trees. You can use both, middle and edges to create different effects.

3. Drop of superglue. To create this kind of shape, you'll need deep bowl filled with water and superglue. Just drip a glue into the water and wait a while for the glue to cure. You need deep bowl and a lot of water to prevent drops of glue from reaching the bottom and sticking to it;]
Smaller drops will stay on the surface, creating flat shapes you can use as a shelf coral, bigger will drown, creating round-ish shapes of brain coral.

And when it comes to painting all those weird things, it's an easy and quite pleasant process. Paints stick to the surface of lichen without any problems.  Well they soaks slightly in the caribou moss, but it's not a problem anyway.
Just remember to use more contrast than normal if you're planning to cover it with a thick layer of water.


And I think that's all
Ways, how you can use those materials, types of reef you can create, are limited only by your imagination.

cheers
m

Mushrooms.

This tutorial has been relocated to my main site, Minichix Studio.
Read the full article here:
How to make magic mushrooms.

Is it still multitasking, or maybe a madness already?;p

Lately, I've been wondering how many started projects do I have stashed in my drawers at the moment. And I found out that a lot;p I'm not gonna give you any exact number, but it's two digits.
And this is worrying me seriously, because that's the reason I have so little finished minis. I simply start a mini and never finish it, just because there is something new and exciting.
So now it's time to deal with it, and make my, not so little 'Hall of Shame' at least a bit smaller.

That's what I'm gonna do. I'll be showing you 2 or 3 projects at one time, and maybe that will actually motivate me to finish them.

1. Irix (the ultimate edition) by Rackham.

She's seriously beautiful, and full of grace and majesty.
I decided to do her on a swampy base (partly to match Eclipsante), and at the moment only the base is more or less finished:

Later, when the mini will be ready, I'll ad some creepers/lianes to create more swampy/jungle feel.
Here is the picture of bigger part of Irix on the base to give you an idea how it all gonna look.

2. Akanke by Hasslefree.

This time mini is way more advanced than the base. Still a lot of work needs to be done.
I might even add something to the back of the base, a litlle suprise hidden under the stairs.

3. Lord Marquis of Carabas made by Smart Max.

This one needs to be ready really fast, but situation is rather complicated. Base was almost done, but now I think I need to change it quite seriously (partly as a result of a critique on CofC forum, partly for a technical reasons). And the mini itself... heh, tbh it was a pain to prepare it... The first impression was quite good, but later the amount of litte flaws and issues sucked all enthusiasm and joy of painting. But on the other hand, resin is not my favourite material.


At this point I have no pictures of a mini, but here are some details of a base:

That's what I've done so far

Here are minis I've painted in the past, starting from early 2009. I'm not gonna describe every and each of them, but I think it might give you an idea who I am as a painter, what's my style and what can you expect in the future.

Miniature painted for 3rd Chest of Colors Mini Exchange  for Szczurek.

2nd place in 'Monster' category at Salute 2011.

Miniature painted for 4rd Chest of Colors Mini Exchange for Irkuck.

And yes, I know he should be in blue armor, but it's 'emo librarian':)

cheers
m

Dodgy Drexel (Red Box Games)

Mr Drexel is ready.
Tiny little creature, but such a pleasure to paint.

Hussar 2011!

http://en.hussar.eu/

Biggest polish painting competition in just 50 days! For me it's time to panic and start working on my entries.
It's gonna be my first polish comp, so I'm quite nervous and I feel like I need to show my best skills (not to embarrass myself;p).

New arrivals

Today I received  my first mr. hobby paints. And they are no ordinary mr. colour, but mr. colour super metallics;]
I really hope they'll be worth the price and effort to get them in my hands.

 
As you can see the bottles are around the size of P3, so more or less 18ml. And they look fantastic. Metal pigment is really tiny, so they should give smooth surface and cause no problem when used with aerograph. The only drawback is that they need special solvent to dilute them: mr. colour leveling thinner and that can be slightly inconvenient while painting with acrylic paints.
And well... there is the smell... not entirely unpleasant, but quite intense.

Anyhoo, can't wait till I'll be able to use them. It makes me almost eager to prep 5 of my raptors (old GW metal and not really great casts).

cheers
m