Last of the tutorials

Ok, so I've caught up on all my old tutorials.  There are a couple more in the pipeline, but you'll have to wait on those.  I've also added a charitable projects tab.  I'll add and remove to that as projects come and go.  If there is something going on that I have not listed, let me know and I'll be happy to put it up on the page.

Finally, one more blast from the past. 

 

 

This is a miniature I painted for my wife a few years ago.  It is Reaper's Jolie, the scribe.  The scroll was scratch built and it was my first go at a marbled floor.  The Korean in the book means "wisdom".

 

 

The parade of tutorials continues and Blog Tuesday

Good morning everyone.  I hope you all survived your Mondays without much difficulty.  I've added another small tutorial to that section.  I have one more to go after that and the parade will be over.  I'm in the process of moving the paint station around; I'm moving to another room in the house.  It's a lateral move--a bit less space overall, but more sun.  Depending on how long that takes, I may or may not get the last tutorial up tomorrow.

Here's another of my favorite pieces from the past.  The skeleton pirate is from Reaper's Warlord miniatures game and belongs to the Razig faction.

 

 

 

I am also planning on making every Tuesday the day in which I highlight another blog.  These are places I've come across and enjoy visiting.  The vast majority of them will be painting blogs, but occassionally I highlight some gaming blogs or anything else that gets my attention.

 

Today's blog is from a great chap named Inso.  He is a man of many talents!  He paints like a a madman and can crank out pieces with amazing rapidity.  He is also a sculptor and has put up a piece for the Goblinaid campaign.  His Grymm conversions are excellent.  Rumor has it he can sing as well...  Congratulations to him as well on getting a piece casted up as well, which can be found at Grekwood Miniatures at http://www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk/index.php.  He sculpted the "Grekwood in a Fez" model, and a portion of the sale of his miniature will go to a charitable cause; take a look!  You can find his blog at http://insosworld.blogspot.com/.  He also has a second blog that catalogues his love for all things Grymm: http://grymnoutthere.blogspot.com/.

Another EFS tutorial added

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  The pictures are beginning to roll in from the Duke of Bavaria event, and as you might expect, there are some impressive and inspirational pieces out there.  If you troll through the blog roll, you'll see some folks that have posted their experiences.

I've added another EFS miniature tutorial to the tutorials page.  I think there will be two or three more tutorials that I have done previously and I'll be caught up there.  I have one tutorial not yet finished, but hopefully will be getting started on this month.

Here is another of my older pieces that I like very much.  This was a gift for my youngest daughter on her second birthday.

 

 



Another tutorial!

One more tutorial is up and running.  This is one of my older ones, but it was one of the turning points in my painting.  I prefer this style of true metallic painting (TMM).  It was pioneered (at least in my mind) by Seb Archer, also known as Automaton over at CMoN.  This tutorial summarizes my technique in a six step process. 

Welcome to my two new followers, Precinct Omega and Fabio Vollono!  I hope you enjoy your stay here and find some useful bits of information visiting here.  Precinct Omega is a great little operation in the UK.  He runs One Pound Wargames.  Check out his site here: http://precinctomega.co.uk/.  Fabio is there anything I can plug for you? 

For a bit of eye candy, here is a zombie I painted up earlier this year for WaMP's Red Box Games online contest.  I've always loved this pack of models sculpted by Tre Manor--they really capture the broken, shuffling gait of the dead to me.

Happy Star Wars Day!  A warm welcome to two new followers, Nissiana and Sanael!

I added another tutorial to that section.  It is an older one in which I did a detailed step by step of a wonder Eastern Front Studios sculpt.  A number of the pics are rather small and I apologize for that; the transition to the blog format shrunk them and I'm trying to figure out how to get them bigger again.

I hope my European friends are enjoying the Duke of Bavaria painting contest as well as IV Concurso Modelismo Zaragoza 2013 this weekend.  I look forward to seeing some of the amazing pieces that come out of these contests this year.

Yesterday was my eldest daughter's birthday.  She is a great fan of goblins, so I painted goblin for her again this year:

Have a good weekend everyone!

The work continues...

I'm continuing to add blogs to the list.  I also have gotten a few followers!  Thanks to Zaphod, Inso, Mr. Miniature Heroes, and Master Rozzell for joining me on this little journey.

I've posted up my first tutorial, which is a step by step on the construction of my first display style base.  It was for the Gentleman Scavenger for the Miniature Heroes online contest from a few years ago.  It was great fun doing and really sparked my interest in display basing.  I will be adding more tutorials in the coming days/weeks.  I've also set up the gallery, although it is still under contruction.

I wanted to show a relatively recently completed mini I sent off as a gift to a couple of great folks I met at ReaperCon last month.  I had known Sanael and Nissiana for some time on the Reaper forums, but finally got the opportunity to meet them both at the Con.  They are both active DM's and so I asked if they might have use for a 4 armed Alien-esque critter in their respective campaigns and they did me the honor of giving a home to this little fella.  I hope he serves them well....

For the Greater Good

Happy May to everyone!  It has been a beautiful day here, although it may snow tomorrow...

In today's post I want to explain one of the reasons I started the blog up.  Besides having a location for all my miniature work as well as my various tutorials, I wanted to bring attention to folks that are doing good for others.  I have found the people in our hobby as a very friendly group as a whole--they are very willing to share tips and tricks when new painters and share knowledge to promote the hobby as a whole.  I hope to continue that tradition!

I really like to do miniature exchanges as well, when I find the time.  It motivates me to talk with the recipient and come up with a tailored gift essentially.  Hopefully they enjoy the piece and perhaps even learn something as they get to hold it up close.  I have painted a number of miniatures and given them away to acquaintances on the forums.  While I really enjoy painting, I am not much of a gamer, so my models tend to just sit and gather dust.  I like the thought of my little metal/plastic/resin creatures and characters getting played with and fueling the imagination of someone, somewhere.  Perhaps a bit sappy, true, but I do like to hear back from people after they have received an unexpected surprise.

Some folks take it a step further, though.  They actively engage the painting community at large to aid a friend or a cause.  I will try and bring these sites and causes to the attention of anyone that visits my little corner of the web.

There are two sites now that I have grown to respect very much.  The first is Ian Newbold website at http://www.newboldworld.com/main.html.  It is a small website, but he has a great love for the hobby and he and his wife have a great heart for charitable work.  Usually, at least a couple of times a year, he will sponsor a competition, funding the prizes on his own and donating additional cash to charities in the name of the winners.  The Newbold Challenge as it is called was started in 2006 and has raised over 40,000 pounds for charities such as Children in Need and Children with Cancer.  You can read more of the Challenge here: http://www.newboldworld.com/Challenge/UMDream/index.html .  There is currently a Challenge underway and is open until May 31st, so swing by and submit a piece!

The second site is much more recently arrived on the miniature scene.  The original website is run by Michael Bartels and can be found at http://masterminis.blogspot.com/.  He has a love for the miniature hobby that is as strong as any I have seen.  He also has great heart and has big plans for helping others.  Last November, he launched a new company with some extraordinary painters and has created a new website Painting Buddha at http://www.paintingbuddha.com/.  It an unusual model; a significant portion of the profits from the sale of his items will be donated to charity!  You can read about the galactic president's big plan in a series of videos under the revolution tabs at the Masterminis website.  Check him out!

Finally, there is current a campaign going on for a long time friend of the miniature community named Kev Adams.  He is a sculptor and has long been known for his work with goblins and orcs.  Earlier this year, he was assaulted in his home and hurt quite seriously.  The miniature community has rallied around him and launch GoblinAid.  The facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Goblinaid/582169528462833. At least 30 sculptors have created pieces in his honor and the last I read, the organizers were hoping to get something available for purchase by the end of May.  Several sites are donating a portion of the proceed from the sale of Kev's piece back to him to assist with medical bills.  Wargames foundry is already helping out and can be found here: http://wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/goblinaid/.

Go check these out!