Bam, she is finished.
It was quite the run, but managed to get her done before the deadline (both the dakka monthly challenge and MPO 2023).
This project definitely had it's challenges, even if the usual problems with resin prints are not counted (breaking pieces, smoothing out the textures etc.).
The large even surfaces for example felt very scary at first. The sheer amount of detail and different textures provided additional challenges to overcome.
I also struggled with the eyes quite a bit. Just when I thought I got them about right, my girlfriend offered her harsh judgment: "they look weird" or "now they look too uneven".
After maybe the 8th attempt they were "hmm, guess they are alright" and I decided to call it before stacking too many layers of paint She rarely sugar coats when I ask for feedback, which is quite helpful. But as she is not very "art oriented" and more "logical", I take her feedback with a grain of salt haha.
As a huge fan of the original character, she was however happy with the end result.
When it comes to practicing NMM, I'm still not very familiar how the light works with metallic objects. For example the axe's edge was clear enough, but especially the middle part proved a bit difficult. One can watch hundreds of reference pictures, but still not find the exact same shape. After consulting a few fellow painters at the Finnish mini painting discord and watching Vince Venturella's "Non-metallic metal axes" I got the most important tip: "don't sweat it too much" and decided to wing it.
There are a few things that could be fixed a bit of course, but regardless I'm actually really happy how this turned out.
Especially the axe and the weathered leather turned out quite well. NMM was something that felt too overwhelming, but I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it.
It's still slow as heck to paint, so not going to do that for tabletop miniatures.
In addition to this being the first large model, it's the first actual step towards display painting.
This does not mean that I will venture away from tabletop miniatures or start painting purely display pieces, but I will definitely broaden my horizons in the future!
Excellent stuff, she certainly seems to be a step up in display painting, though from an already high standard! You weren’t kidding about the nsfw tag either!
The hour is late and my eyes are quite strained for painting quite a few hours during the last couple of days, so I'm keeping this short even though I would have a lot to say about this project.
But here's the latest work.
Continuing with the Baldur's Gate theme with Shadowheart.
Painted this for the Dakka challenge, but did not manage to get her completely done. Doing a full round of NMM in this scale (~70mm) was a bit too much for a single month's endeavour.
The base is still in the works and there are a few unfinished areas (like the hands and the gold on her backside), but other than that I'm calling here done.
Taking a small break and painting something else before I get back to it.
Definitely out of my comfort zone, but a very interesting challenge and a blast to paint.
At first I was about to give up on the whole thing, as the NMM scetching started looking horrible and I was at a loss.
Luckily there were many reference pictures of this character, so I kept on brushing away. After a while, the shapes started to make a bit more sense and I started feeling a lot more confident.
Poured my heart and soul to this and I'm actually really happy how it turned out. Hopefully I have the energy to finish the base later. Maybe... MAYBE even tackle that OSL from the candles?
Your paint game lately has been TIGHT. Excellent work on her. The nmm wants to be center stage, but the work on the face keeps pulling me back. Just stellar.
That's just a very beautiful piece- all of the techniques combine to make a perfect whole. NMM, skin tones, detailing, simply wonderful. Please finish the base and add the OSL for the candles.
I enjoy looking at all the pics that folks post here on Dakka: some show the improvements we gain in skill with practice and advice, some are funny, some detail difficult techniques that most of us will never try, some are breath-taking in their scope and some very few are simply for looking at and marveling. This is one of the latter.
Thank you so much for all the comments everyone. I'm flattered.
I've yet to paint the OSL effects on Shadowheart, but I'll get to it in due time.
And sorry for not getting back earlier.
Meer_Cat wrote:That's just a very beautiful piece- all of the techniques combine to make a perfect whole. NMM, skin tones, detailing, simply wonderful. Please finish the base and add the OSL for the candles.
I enjoy looking at all the pics that folks post here on Dakka: some show the improvements we gain in skill with practice and advice, some are funny, some detail difficult techniques that most of us will never try, some are breath-taking in their scope and some very few are simply for looking at and marveling. This is one of the latter.
Well done, indeed. Rock on.
Thank you so much for your kind workds!
Looking at different miniature pictures in Dakka and/or Instagram is one of my favorite pass times and that summed up really well why it is so addictive.
So.
Since Shadowheart, I've managed to paint just one miniature: a Triss Merigold bust.
Some of you saw her already at the February Dakka Challenge.
I was planning to do a post here soon after that, but then things happended.
Me and the missus caught the good old 'rona. Both of us were under the weather for a while.
The timing was truly impeccable, as we were moving in two weeks and were in the middle of packing our old home.
Once we survived that, the real work began: decorating the new home.
Usually I'm not one to care much about decoration (or so I thought), but something hit me.
I spent my free time browsing the net and running around different furniture stores with the missus. It was both exciting and very stressful at the same time.
Add to that, I did not yet have any place to do any painting as my old desk did not fit the new hobby room.
But now, finally sitting in my new armchair, I'm able to take a breather and finally post an update.
Triss Merigold. Sculpted by H3llcreator.
First bust I have ever painted and a fitting project for the Dakka challenge "Out with the old, in with the new".
Painting in this scale offered many new and exciting challenges.
The larger surfaces made it possible to play around with textures but at the same time were quite intimidating.
And the face. Oh that was truly scary. But I think I managed quite alright, despite messing up many many times, especially with the eyes.
I tried to replicate the original color scheme the best I could by mixing different tones.
I did not record the time very accurately, but I'd wager that it took around ~55 hours to paint this.
Usually I'm spent after 20 hours into the same project, but this time I wanted to see it properly through.
No shortcuts under the sleeves or on the backside or any other place which I would usually just base coat and slap a wash on.
After looking at the pictures, there are a few things that could be improved upon a bit. Regardless, I'm happy how it turned out.
Busts were something I was previously terrified of painting. Maybe now some of that fear is gone.
She immediately found a new (temporary) place in our new home.
And to keep the engine running, a sneak peek from the next project:
I'm still looking for a new hobby desk (preferably an old secretary desk), but I setup a temporary painting station on my work desk.
Started working on Yennefer. Cannot have one without the other.
Finished the face last night. Tried to replicate her "cold personality"
To compensate the hiatus, I'm hitting you with a progress update!
Face nearly complete and started on the clothes.
Differentiating the hair, the cloak and the black fur is going to be hard, especially as at times all three of them overlap each other
I think I'm finally calling Yennefer done.
This project had a lot of ups and downs. I think I went through the whole spectrum of emotions with her.
I'll do a more broad write up when I get a proper photo set up figured out in the new apartment.
In the meanwhile, here's a couple quick shots from last night fresh from the desk:
The raven is bound to fall off when I as much as look at it wrong.
One of the legs snapped when I was cleaning the supports, so I carefully removed it for the painting. Here's hoping that it'll stick...
Oh! And I finally managed to score an old "Secretary Desk" from a thrift store.
Still have to figure out a thing or two with the lighting setup etc., but other than that I'm quite digging it!
Don't mind the white pantyhose on the lamps. "Poor man's diffusers" or something like that.
Nice to see her finished. Amazing work! Always not fun when fiddly bits break off at the wrong spot. Could you even pit a pin in those raven legs? At least it’s a decorative bust and not a game piece so it doesn’t need to worry about getting knocked around the battlefield.
Cute little desk set up. Very classy looking! I’ve gotten spoiled by giant slabs of space I don’t know if I could go back to something that small. But it makes for a great little dedicated space the packs away nicely. And frankly space is not the important thing, it’s lighting and position.
Pupper is looking good. I’m guessing you spend a lot of time plucking that fuzz off of your minis. So fluffy....
Superb bust, really satisfying dark textures throughout. I can't quite tell if it has really subtle blue OSL going on, or those are my eyes playing tricks with the overall cool tones. Either way, exalt!
Nevelon wrote:Could you even pit a pin in those raven legs?
Pinning might be the solution if and when the legs snap!
Nevelon wrote:Pupper is looking good. I’m guessing you spend a lot of time plucking that fuzz off of your minis. So fluffy....
... All the time. And from my palette. And the paint pots.
Boss Salvage wrote:Superb bust, really satisfying dark textures throughout. I can't quite tell if it has really subtle blue OSL going on, or those are my eyes playing tricks with the overall cool tones. Either way, exalt!
Thank you so much!
There is indeed a teeny tiny OSL effect going on. I want to make it really subtle, as the rest of the models is quite "lit up".
So, Yennefer is done.
This project definitely had it's ups and downs.
I started painting her on a temporary painting station in the middle of our move. I tried to score an hour here and there of painting time in between unpacking boxes and trying to find new furniture.
The stress of moving really had an impact on the early stages of the project and I encountered many setbacks.
Rushing to remove the supports had me going back and forth between painting and cleaning and repainting the areas again.
I even managed to break a few of the feathers and had to sculpt new ones.
The cloak was a bit cracked and full of print support marks, so I decided to carefully remove it for cleaning.
As a happy accident, I thought that the model looked rather cool with the short cape.
There were positives too.
I really liked painting the face, even though that's something I'm usually terrified of. I tried to capture the cold and determined look of Yennefer.
I also really liked experimenting with the feathers and different textures. At first I decided against doing the OSL effect, but ended up giving it a try!
When the project began, I wanted to get her done rather quickly so I could focus on other projects that I had lined up.
Time spent on going back and forth with cleaning and redoing different areas felt like wasted effort. "Why even bother, this is a waste of time!".
I stressed the end result all too much and was afraid of failing. I jumped to other projects for a while and almost decided to give up on this.
Then something happened.
We were at our summer cottage and I was repainting some old Warhammer skeleton models, as I've been planning to create a small Mordheim display.
It was fun for an hour or two. Then I started feeling anxious. I had a bunch of pieces I "should be doing" instead of wasting my time repainting old skeletons.
"Why am I wasting my time, these will not be good enough anyway. I should be finishing my competition pieces. Or painting something unpainted. This is useless".
Luckily, I vented out loud. My dear girlfriend noted, that "you do that because it's fun".
Those words hit me harder than I could have though.
The next day, we went home. I headed to my painting desk and looked at Yennefer again.
"Heck it" I though and started mixing different tones of blue for that OSL effect I was so terrified of. "It's only paint after all".
I opened Youtube and listened to Roman Lappat's videos while trying to channel his "Happy Painting Philosophy".
I ended up painting until 3am. I really, really enjoyed myself.
What I learnt that day is, that I often forget why I paint miniatures. I forget to have fun.
I often create this mental project queue that "I have to follow or else". I get stressed if I cannot finish a project quick enough, as I would rather be painting something else.
Honestly, I often get the feeling that I'm not good enough and stress about the final result. I'm afraid of trying new techniques fearing that I will ruin what little I have to show for.
These thoughts are something that's common even in the top painters in the world. No one is the best. There is always someone who is better.
Everyone who is having fun is good enough.
From now on, I will allow myself to differ from my "set path". I will not paint for the judges, social media or anyone else. I will paint to have fun. Or at least try to.
This does not mean that I will not take part in competitions or challenges. Quite the opposite.
By changing the mentality from "painting for the judges or likes on Instagram" to "painting to have fun and create something cool" often yields better results.
Of course there will be projects and events on my hobby journey that will provoke the same feelings. But that too, is alright.
It's all part of "the pain of creation" and getting to know ourselves.
In the end, I'm really happy with the result.
Not just for the sake of painting, but for learning a lot about myself and overcoming the fear of experimenting.
Just wanted to share the range of emotions that went into this project.
Anyway, here's the finished result.
Forgot to scale the pics. So smaller pictures here, full sized in the gallery She was a tough model to photograph, as there is so many dark tones!
Thank you for reading and looking.
Until next time!
Remembering it’s a hobby and that we are here to have fun is an important thing to keep in mind. And also easy to loose track of. I set all sorts of goals for myself, but I try to remember that it’s OK to miss a few. I want to paint better, finish projects, reduce the pile of shame, paint different things etc. So I made goals to help focus me. I’ve never hit them all at the end of the year. And that’s OK. If you make 100% of your goals, you probably are not reaching high enough.
But when they get in the way of fun, it’s fine to ignore them. Like when choosing my project for last month’s painting completion I was pushing myself to choose an entry that would check boxes off my yearly to-do list. But I wanted and was excited to paint the bike chaplain, so that’s what I did. And he was fun and I’m (mostly) happy how he turned out.
We are out own worst critics when it comes to looking at our own work.
Yours, as always, is amazing here.
And you can talk the good talk about just painting for yourself and not for the judges, but I still expect to see you in our monthly comps occasionally. You brighten up the the podium whenever you show up, glad to have you with us when things align to let you.
Awesome job, as usual! Seriously, the face, the layers so good!
Enjoying the process is the key, and it is "tricky" to stay in that zone.
I always though that the "master" will eventually succeed (financially and personally, for own life and soul) But that is not true.
Best of luck on your journey! Your work and the progress you share sets the bar for us, for me, and it IS very inspirational. I do get a spur and burst of enthusiasm when I see something outside of my ability, so thank you for sharing, it is a small thing, but it valuable.
To quote:
Spoiler:
"I also saw something else here on earth:
The fastest runner does not always win the race,
the strongest soldier does not always win the battle,
the wisest does not always have food,
the smartest does not always become wealthy,
and the talented one does not always receive praise.
Time and chance happen to everyone."
-Ecclesiastes
Love your painting corner! Do you have a nice tea/coffee station near by? Feels like there must be a dedicated tea/coffee station that is a support add-on to the painting corner.
Nevelon wrote:Remembering it’s a hobby and that we are here to have fun is an important thing to keep in mind. And also easy to loose track of. I set all sorts of goals for myself, but I try to remember that it’s OK to miss a few. I want to paint better, finish projects, reduce the pile of shame, paint different things etc. So I made goals to help focus me. I’ve never hit them all at the end of the year. And that’s OK. If you make 100% of your goals, you probably are not reaching high enough.
But when they get in the way of fun, it’s fine to ignore them. Like when choosing my project for last month’s painting completion I was pushing myself to choose an entry that would check boxes off my yearly to-do list. But I wanted and was excited to paint the bike chaplain, so that’s what I did. And he was fun and I’m (mostly) happy how he turned out.
We are out own worst critics when it comes to looking at our own work.
Yours, as always, is amazing here.
And you can talk the good talk about just painting for yourself and not for the judges, but I still expect to see you in our monthly comps occasionally. You brighten up the the podium whenever you show up, glad to have you with us when things align to let you.
Well said Nevelon. Thank for your kind words.
I need to start thinking about goals differently and not let them take the wheel completely. And let some of them "slip". Like you said, reaching all of them means they are too low!
And you are right, I will jump into the monthly challenge whenever the stars align. You can count on it!
Mothsniper wrote:Awesome job, as usual! Seriously, the face, the layers so good!
Enjoying the process is the key, and it is "tricky" to stay in that zone.
I always though that the "master" will eventually succeed (financially and personally, for own life and soul) But that is not true.
Best of luck on your journey! Your work and the progress you share sets the bar for us, for me, and it IS very inspirational. I do get a spur and burst of enthusiasm when I see something outside of my ability, so thank you for sharing, it is a small thing, but it valuable.
To quote:
Spoiler:
"I also saw something else here on earth:
The fastest runner does not always win the race,
the strongest soldier does not always win the battle,
the wisest does not always have food,
the smartest does not always become wealthy,
and the talented one does not always receive praise.
Time and chance happen to everyone."
-Ecclesiastes
Love your painting corner! Do you have a nice tea/coffee station near by? Feels like there must be a dedicated tea/coffee station that is a support add-on to the painting corner.
Thank you so much Mothsniper!
I'm truly glad that you find my work inspiring. Over the years, I have gathered so much inspiration from these forums, that it warms my soul to be able to give something back.
I will save that quote.
Unfortunately I don't have a tea / coffee station as I don't have the space in the hobby room, but I do have a little thinking corner with an armchair and a tuffet!
youwashock wrote:In the end, we are all screaming into the ether. Satisfy your own sensibilities before anything else.
That said, I think she has turned out amazing. Have fun on the next project.
Well said!
Thank you Youwashock.
Captain Brown wrote:Ezki,
Exalted the post, she is great.
Cheers,
CB
Thank you Captain!
It feels good to be honest about the feelings associated with this hobby of ours and being able to share them with like minded people.
This community is truly wonderful. Stay awesome everyone!
A little update.
I have a bunch of different projects going on, which I have been working on whenever the inspiration hits me.
Some of them I have worked on just a session or two, some of them I have started a while back.
Here's a little collection of the current on going projects.
Some of you might remember Shadowheart. I took part in the January challenge with her.
I got her almost finished, but there were still a few things I wanted to improve upon, such as making the chest piece a bit brighter and redefining some of the details.
Trying to get her done finally. I already started working on the armor a bit more:
The Cloven Hoof album in the picture above has one of John Blanche's artworks on the cover. One of my favorites.
I bought the necromunda "Belladonna" character a while back, which I'm guessing is designed after that artwork.
A sudden urge hit me, that I had to start painting it. This is one of the more recent projects.
My girlfriend was running a short D&D game for a group of her friends, so I painted new minis for their characters.
They are Reaper and Pathfinder minis, which I painted mostly using Contrast Paints.
And last but not least: A rough sketch of a diorama I have been thinking for a while now.
I have been wanting to create a little vignette using the wounded Sister from the Hospitaler kit and a krieg guardsman.
The goal is to portray some sort of "warmness" and show a more emotional side of 40k. I know that Kriegers are "emotionless clones", but that is exactly why I picked that model.
I'm really excited to work on these projects!
All of these are something that I have not been "able to start" due to all the reasons I listed in the last post.
But now I'm trying to just follow the inspiration to the fullest and have fun doing so!
This means that I might jump from one project to another even more so than I have used to haha.
I am loving that diorama already. It has the makings of an epic piece. Belladonna is a great model with roots that run to the heart of the hobby. Your work on her is great so far, and I can't wait to see the green when it's done.
I’ve got to agree with all of the sentiments here, I’d also add that your girlfriend is a very wise lady! Hobbies are meant to be fun!
Yennifer turned out fantastic all round. The latest batch of minis are looking great too. The contrast minis are amazing. The nmm on belladonna is coming together fantastically and the diorama is looking ace so far. I like the concept of adding some humanity to 40k on a small scale
"thinking corner with an armchair and a tuffet"
That is perfect! Any self-respecting artist must have a tea/coffee corner to think things over and ponder.
That gradient work is serious business! The D&D figures are nice.
I put stickers on my sketchbook too! Is that a sketchbook?
I'm glad that the diorama seems interesting and the idea is not outright rejected haha.
Mothsniper wrote:I put stickers on my sketchbook too! Is that a sketchbook?
It's actually the cover of my wet palette!
I have gathered the stickers from various tattoo artists and some nerdy conventions.
You would not like to see any of my sketches. Seriously
I headed to the summer cottage again and decided to work on Belladonna bit while heating up the sauna.
Felt quite relaxing to listen to an audio book (stories about the Finnish folk myths), have a glass of red fermented grape juice and do a bit of painting.
Redid the eye, changed the lip color again (back towards the original artwork) and painted the hair. Added a few details.
Shadowheart is finally finished too!
But I'll post some pictures when I get around playing with the proper camera again.
EDIT:
I almost forgot:
We finally got some furniture to our new gaming room and I dusted the old fold-table as a temporary solution to play a game of 40k!
First game in almost two years. My Speed Freeky Orks versus Tau.
Orks won, but barely. Many things have changed in the 10th edition. A lot to learn.
I think I'll have to paint a unit or two for all the different armies in the "not so distant future".
And I managed to thrift a display cabinet for a good price from a nearby thrift store.
Finally a worthy spot for the Stompa.
It does not fit all my armies, but the most important models from each force.
And the ones that are the most annoying to carry around in a case, such as the spiky Dark Eldar ships.
That is a killer case! Very successful thrift indeed.
We got wood burning sauna, so I can imagine that you must of had super relaxing day of painting! Keep that up, that is a good combo: sauna, audiobook, solid drink, and a mini to paint.
That’s one awesome looking cabinet full of lovely painted Warhammer goodness! Looks like you had a fun game with the speed freaks. Belladonna is living up to her name too!
Absolutely beatiful work on the previous page! I've always admired your work, but I feel that with these larger scale models and busts you've really upped you game! But that's not to say the smaller stuff is lacking, Belladonna is shaping up to look incredible, and those D&D minis look great as well. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the diorama!
Mothsniper wrote:We got wood burning sauna, so I can imagine that you must of had super relaxing day of painting! Keep that up, that is a good combo: sauna, audiobook, solid drink, and a mini to paint.
Sidenote, this one was very inspiration for me, check it out, and also, get inspired.
Spoiler:
Wood burning sauna is the best!
We have one at our summer cabin as well. Which is just a traditional old little cottage near the woods passed down a few generations, like in many Finnish families. Not an actual huge summer house, like those rich folks have in other countries haha!
There's of course a sauna at our home too, but that one has an electric stove.
Haha, I had forgotten about that sketch! Did it's job I guess!
Great video, thanks for sharing!
gobert wrote:That’s one awesome looking cabinet full of lovely painted Warhammer goodness! Looks like you had a fun game with the speed freaks. Belladonna is living up to her name too!
Thank you gobert!
mcmattila wrote:Absolutely beatiful work on the previous page! I've always admired your work, but I feel that with these larger scale models and busts you've really upped you game! But that's not to say the smaller stuff is lacking, Belladonna is shaping up to look incredible, and those D&D minis look great as well. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the diorama!
Thank you sincerely for your kind words. I'm glad you have found my work enjoyable!
Over the last year or so, I have focused more on learning new techniques and trying to up my game.
One reason is the fact that we had no place to play for a long while, so I started painting for display rather than the tabletop. For me it was a completely new way of approaching miniature painting Instead of trying to get the models done as quickly and effectively as possible, I decided to really focus on them. Meaning of course, that it took way longer to paint a model than I had gotten used to. Those busts and this Shadowheart took somewhere between 50-70 hours per model to complete. In the past, my patience usually run out at the 20 hour mark at the latest haha!
On the other hand, I have to thank the good folk of Dakka and the Finnish group dedicated to display painting called "Cold Tone Society" (you can find them on Instagram or Discord).
All the feedback has been valuable and the great community truly makes this hobby so much more enjoyable!
To the matter at hand: Shadowheart is finally finished!
After a four month break with the model, I wanted to finish her for good.
There were a few hardly painted areas and the breastplate required more brightness, so that the thigh would not steal the show too much. I also redefined most of the golden parts, clothing and the base.
The scary part was to paint the slight reflections and bounce reflections from the candles. I wanted to keep the effect fairly light and focused only on her left leg.
I can tell you, that I was very afraid to start messing with the red and yellow paints on top of the finished leg armor! I used a real candle and a few shiny metal objects to get some idea on the reflections.
The effect might not be the most realistic, but I'm quite liking it!
Before showing the model, a few thoughts about my journey with Non Metallic Metal.
I put it in spoilers, as it kind of got out of hand. Completely optional!
Spoiler:
Like I have mentioned many times, Non Metallic Metal has always been the one technique that I have found so scary to try.
At this day, I have used it for quite a few projects, but a few years ago, I could only dream about learning it. It was the one technique, that I thought I would never ever learn.
I thought it required perfect blends, seamless transitions and complete understanding of light. I thought it was a technique reserved only to the true masters of the brush. "Why even bother" I thought.
How wrong was I.
After sitting down at an NMM workshop at the local nerdy convention a year ago, I realized that it's not rocket science after all.
It's not about smooth blends. It's not about perfectly placed reflections. It's about drama. Alternations of dark and bright tones. Using high contrast and interesting colors.
Like the renowned painter Vince Venturella said in his video about painting a NMM axe, "don't worry about being realistic, just make it look interesting!" (not his exact words, but along those lines).
It can be a difficult technique, I'm not going to lie. I still find it really hard to understand how the reflections should be placed and how the light works.
It takes a bit of brush control and understanding blending or glazing does help.
But more than anything else, it takes a hell of a lot of time and patience.
This model was done by layering, stippling, glazing and looking at dozens of reference pictures.
Each panel took hours and hours of going back and forth. Failing to succeed, and succeeding to fail.
When we look at pictures of finished miniatures, we often forget the time and different steps it took to get to the end result.
To be completely transparent, here's a couple of early work in progress pictures that I did not post earlier.
The first one is after 10-12 hours of work. It really took me that long to get the base tones and draw the first white thick lines.
But by squinting your eyes really hard, it already kind of looks like shiny metal! Something I learned in the workshop, but only now starting to really understand.
At the time, I had zero trust in this. Nada.
Over the next 5-10 hours, more tones were added.
At the ~30 hour mark, it started to look a lot better.
The white edge highlights really brought it alive. At this stage, I started believing that this could work!
And so, by adding more and more hours and building on that gradient, the end result was born.
What I'm trying to say here is, that the younger me should have not been so afraid to try new techniques out of fear of failing.
I would tell him to be patient. To take his time. To try the scary things. To trust the process.
There is still much to learn. I still struggle a lot. But Rome was not built in a day after all!
With these longer projects, more feelings and thoughts seem to emerge from the void.
Just wanted to share a few.
Well, here she is.
She can finally join Karlach in the cabinet, so she does not have to fight the dust monsters alone!
Thank you so much for the comments youwashock, muette, blockade23, gobert and The_Retromancer!
I'm glad you liked it and the NMM effect worked
Once again, took a while to write an update post.
I've been painting Belladonna of House Escher.
She's a model I've been wanting to paint for a very long time and finally decided to do it.
I happened to have the "Hoven Cloof" album with one of my favorite John Blanche artworks, which I used for inspiration.
At this point, I have already worked on this for a month or so.
Some progress pictures have been posted to the "Centerpiece" Dakka Challenge thread.
Here's the current state of the model.
I'm going with the "official" color scheme, with a hint of inspiration from John Blanches artwork.
Not going to do the yellow patterns on her armor, as I wanted to play with the volumes a bit more.
I built a display base for her using foamcore and some old Necromunda terrain pieces. The cracked floor is from one of the new GW buildings.
The wires are from greenstuff, using a GSW "Roll Maker". I decided to do some tentacles for the bottom floor using the same tool.
The floor is from a textured plastic sheet, also from GSW.
After messing around with "Futuristic graffiti" and enamel weathering, it looks something like this:
Hopefully I'll be able to tie the model's bright tones to the base. I want to make her stand out, but also look like she is fitting the scene.
Maybe by slightly adding some pigment powder to her feet and adding a small purple shimmer from the light, could that be achieved.
Thank you all!
I'm glad you like the base. It was an experiment of many different techniques, including "matte NMM" haha.
I've been working quite hard for the last few days, as the yearly role playing convention "Ropecon" is at hand, and with that the painting competition, "Cold North Open".
This year the competition has changed to "open" format, meaning that you can take part in each category with multiple entries. You can still get only one price per category, but you don't have to choose just one model to enter. Furthermore in an open competition, there will be more bronze, silver and gold medals rather than the usual one of each. This means, that each work that deserves a gold medal, will get one. More or less like in the "big global competitions", Golden Demon being the exception for some reason.
I have decided to take part in the Bust, Large Miniature, Single Miniature and Vehicle categories.
I had many ideas for the diorama category as well, but did not have the time to work on them!
The convention starts in 12 hours. I decided to take it easy before bed and do a little "retrospective" here.
Firstly, I managed to finish the base.
As usual, during the final 24-36 hours I get the feeling that everything is going wrong. I start second guessing every decision.
I nearly drove to the local hobby store to buy some rats or something, as the tentacles I created (GSW roll maker for the win!) somehow looked "wrong". I'm glad they did not have any on stock.
"Trust the process" and so on.
Cleaning the edges and integrating the tentacles to the base AFTER it was painted was not smart. Took quite a bit of work to make it look somewhat natural.
Lesson learned: plan the sub assemblies better!
Slight tweaks were done to the model as well, such as moving some of the brighter volumes and refining the NMM on certain parts.
Gluing the model to the base was a mess.
Every position looked wrong, even though I had originally decided it. I removed it multiple times and had to fix the glue stains. Not fun.
I do not have the proper finished picture just yet, but will post one after the convention when I get the camera out!
Next up I decided to dust off the old Stompa!
Many broken parts were glued back together, so it may stand proudly. This guy won't win any medals, as the magnets are very visible and there's a ton of mold lines visible. Might surprise though.
Anyway, I thought that due to the sentimental value and the history of this model, it deserves to take part in an event!
I applied some A&K Interactive "Ultra Matte" varnish to most of the models, as I have grown fond of matte surfaces.
Usually matte finish looks better, as the real light will not change the shape of your highlights. However, on flat surfaces with minimal contrast the end result might be a bit too bland. Lesson learned.
I also had a crisis with the Busts' stands, as I applied way too much varnish and it started peeling off while trying to attach them to the models. Another lesson learned.
I actually wanted to paint one unit: a group of Hunters from the Bloodborne miniature game, thinking I could finish them "in a few hours".
Now, at 4am I suddenly decided that "No, this is not fun anymore" and put down my brushes. I will finish them some other time. Lesson learned.
Last year, I finished the diorama at 6:24am and slept like four hours before the convention. Not something a sensible person does haha.
Trying to learn NOT to start last minute projects, but that might be nigh impossible.
Gang lined up and ready to go for tomorrow:
So, many lessons learned. Especially over the last month and more so over the last couple of days.
Will get back with pictures after the convention!
Good luck at the convention. Have fun. I’m sure you will do well with your entries, if your results from our own little long running international competition is any gauge.
Wow, that necromunda diorama is amazing, and you have really captured the mood of a slice of the underhive.
Love the narration of the finalisation of the diorama (base seems totally inappropriate!) - this is the usual process that I am sure many of us find familiar, but good to see someone else articulate it for me and remind me it is not (merely) my own madness..
Nevelon wrote:Good luck at the convention. Have fun. I’m sure you will do well with your entries, if your results from our own little long running international competition is any gauge.
Thank you Nevelon. The Dakka Monthly Challenge is the first competition I have ever entered and to this date, it has a special place in my heart. It is one of the things that have motivated me to push my brushing skills more and more with each entry!
IGtR= wrote:Wow, that necromunda diorama is amazing, and you have really captured the mood of a slice of the underhive.
Love the narration of the finalisation of the diorama (base seems totally inappropriate!) - this is the usual process that I am sure many of us find familiar, but good to see someone else articulate it for me and remind me it is not (merely) my own madness..
Thanks for sharing
Thank you! I'm happy that you say it captures the mood, as it's just what I was aiming for.
Building a diorama or a display base (which many times means the same thing more or less) is an interesting topic for sure, as you have to think about the narrative. Every element should be painted in a way that it looks coherent ant that they work together seamlessly. At least that's what I've learned from painters far beyond my skills. Not an easy task for sure!
So, the convention is over. What an event it was once again.
I will do a small "event coverage" first, but those who wish to see the finished pictures of Belladonna, can skip to the bottom of this post
The convention run through Friday to Sunday. Containing many workshops and talks covering various topics, the painting competition was just a small part of the whole event. For me though, it was the main attraction.
I brought my entries on Friday and the prize ceremony was to be held on Sunday afternoon.
I was really worried to carry all my entries to the competition, as many of them were fragile 3D prints. To my relief, every piece survived the trip.
However, all did not go as planned.
I had attached my entries to a large cardboard box with blue tack, which seemed to work just fine. While removing the entries from my carrying box, Yennefer managed to slip from my hands.
Boom. She was a goner.
Many loud swear words were spoken at that moment. I'm admit, that I can be rather harsh with my language at times. A trait I got from my father for sure.
At a public events and such I contain my words. However, I did not manage to do so at the time.
It felt like a bad dream. For a moment, I hoped someone would pinch me awake. I just stared at the broken piece in disbelief, trying to hopelessly attach the arm and the bird in place. Without glue.
I took a few breaths and placed the other pieces in their places. I was lucky in a sense, as the competition area was a 20 minute drive away from my home and the deadline for the entries was on Saturday.
This meant, that I would be able to fix the thing in the evening when I got home.
The rest of the day went quite well, even thought the broken model shadowed my thoughts all evening.
I took part in a Improv workshop and a dinner with fellow painters that took part into the event.
For my great surprise, the Guest of Honor, Alfonso Giraldes "Banshee" attended the dinner as well. Sharing my thoughts and hearing other stories from such incidents from various trips eased my mind.
When I got home around midnight, I sighed and sat at my hobby desk. I knew, that I had to sacrifice some sleep to get the model fixed.
I glued the parts back together and applied some greenstuff to the cracks. Then, I carefully replicated the tones and fixed the paint job.
All was good.
The next day, I brought Yennefer to the competition area in one piece. I was so relieved.
The rest of the convention went great. I met some amazing people, painters, artists and other nerdy hobbyists.
I even managed to meet the fellow who played Captain Fakov and Captain Festerbester in the Finnish cult classic movie "Star Wreck". I'm guessing not many of you are familiar with it haha.
That, was truly a moment when my inner child woke up. While taking a picture with him, I was not able to contain my smile.
And like mentioned earlier, I met Alfonso Giraldes "Banshee". In addition to the dinner, he organized an eye opening 90 minute workshop.
He talked about how the miniature painting world is obsessed with "clean and smooth" paint jobs and how we so easily forget to paint with our hearts.
His philosophy is: "F*ck smoothness". Something I should think about, when working with larger display miniatures.
On Sunday morning, all the finalist entries were marked with "Commended Entry" tags.
To my happy surprise, all of my entries got the little cardboard piece. Except for the Stompa, but that was to be expected as all the magnets and glue stains were visible.
Then, we move to the prize ceremony.
Triss and Yennefer busts did not get a price. Understandable, as they were painted "smoothly" rather than "interestingly". The standard was really, really high.
Shadowheart managed to get Bronze in the "Large Miniature" category. "Wow. Among all the amazing entries, this was truly a surprise."
But then, we moved to the "Small Miniature" category. The judges showed the pictures, one by one. Two bronzes, nothing. Three silvers, nothing.
I thought this was it. I would have to up my game for the next year. No way I would win gold with that.
First gold...
Second gold...
"And the last gold, and the best in the category: Belladonna".
I was flabbergasted. I could not believe it. Still can't.
During the Spring, I had tentatively mentioned to the painting group that I would take part in Golden Demon in Germany this year.
I stepped down from the trip, as I started feeling stressed about not having an idea for an entry. It felt relieving.
I thought, that I would first want to at least get a prize in a the local competition, before even thinking about it.
And then, this happened. My mind raced.
After asking for feedback from the judges, one of them mentioned: "I'm sad that you stepped down from the trip. This could do well in the Necromunda category".
Not a promise of a price of course. But for a guy who thought that he was not ready for such an event, that truly meant something.
I would have to fix a few things before that though, such as the volumes on her left arm. They are mirrored to the other reflections, so it looks a tad unnatural.
In addition to that, the entry I thought was the "sloppiest" and took the least amount of time, was the most successful.
That is a huge lesson in itself.
It seems that I have a lot to think about.
A few words of the model itself.
For the first time, I wanted to build an actual display base for a single Warhammer 40k miniature.
I was worried, that the base would be too large. But as I heard, it was well within the limits.
The goal was to use very desaturated colors on the base itself, while the model was painted very brightly to create contrast and draw the eye.
Purple was chosen for the tentacles, as it is the opposing color of the yellowish rust. The whole display follows the "60 / 30 / 10" rule of colors (Rusty orange, Green on the model and purple on the tentacles).
The weathering was done using AK Interactive enamels and pigments. Metallics on the base were mostly dry brushed and slightly glazed.
While painting the model, I was not overly stressed about smoothing the transitions. Rather, I focused on volumes and contrast. It seems to have paid off.
Right. Enough words. Pictures.
Took the opportunity to change the profile picture as well.
In hindsight, a guy holding a cigarette might not have been the best of pictures to begin with
Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share a thought or two again.
Fully deserved! Watching her come along so nicely over the past few posts has been a privilege. Hopefully you can get a spot at GD in Germany and chance your arm with her
Congrats on the gold! Indeed, "feth smoothness" is something I wish more painters went with, results in very doll-like finishes at times, even when it might not be appropriate. The eye loves texture
Your work is the intersection of skill, patience, imagination, practicality, and eye for color coordination and flamboyance. Rock on!
Many words, flattered!
gobert wrote:Fully deserved! Watching her come along so nicely over the past few posts has been a privilege. Hopefully you can get a spot at GD in Germany and chance your arm with her
Glad you enjoyed the process!
We'll see. If I cannot arrange the trip this year, I will try the next! It is one of the events, that I have to see at least once!
tauist wrote:Congrats on the gold! Indeed, "feth smoothness" is something I wish more painters went with, results in very doll-like finishes at times, even when it might not be appropriate. The eye loves texture
Thank you!
You are correct. For some reason smoothness is the one thing I unconsciously aim for all the time, usually losing a lot of contrast in the process.
There is a place for smoothness, but it's not "everywhere all the time".
Speaking of smoothness, or the lack thereof, I painted a few Hunters from the Bloodborne board game.
Wanted to work on something a bit quicker as a palette cleanser and to get some more models for the D&D table.
I bought the "Hunter's Dream" expansion a while back just for the models, as I don't own the base game.
The models themselves were quite good, but some of the details were very fuzzy at times making it hard to understand which bit ended where.
There's a bunch of these guys and gals in the box, but I finished these for the monthly challenge.
Aimed for "quick, dirty and definitely Feth Smoothness".
Even though the models were a bit unclear, I quite liked painting them.
Bloodborne being pretty much my favorite video game. Right there with the Dark Souls series. And Resident Evils of course.
Fun fact: I have a sleeve tattoo on my left arm, that has two characters from Bloodborne. Lady Maria and Vicar Amelia (in human and beast form).
Not sure what to do next. Either I'll start slowly working on another bigger model or start doing test schemes for the sisters. Or something completely different.
Thanks for looking!
Congrats on the trophies! Belladonna is absolutely gorgeous, and from what I can see the gold was well earned! Every bit of your diorama looks to be well thought out, and executed to a high level.
I'd really like to go to Cold North Open some day, mainly to see some awesome minis "in the flesh" and to get to show my work to mini-painting peers. The open judging system sounds good as well, though I think I'd have to up my game for a chance at the trophies...
mcmattila wrote:Congrats on the trophies! Belladonna is absolutely gorgeous, and from what I can see the gold was well earned! Every bit of your diorama looks to be well thought out, and executed to a high level.
I'd really like to go to Cold North Open some day, mainly to see some awesome minis "in the flesh" and to get to show my work to mini-painting peers. The open judging system sounds good as well, though I think I'd have to up my game for a chance at the trophies...
Thank you mcmattila! Would be great to meet you there one day. And fret not, I believe you would do just fine!
I've been more and more lazy on the writing side and have focused my hobby hours more on the painting.
Though those hours have suffered a bit due to yard work at the summer cottage and planning our D&D campaign sessions after the summer break.
Quite a few models have been finished since the last update though!
After the Cold North Open, I've been drawn more and more towards gaming miniatures rather than display pieces.
Not sure why that is. Maybe because I realized that I had finished only 5 miniatures in 6 months, or just to change the pace. Get back to my roots and all that.
Or just the simple fact that I have been able to play some games again in our gaming room!
Anyway, more pictures, less text this time. I will combine the last one and a half month's progress into one post:
Painted a bunch of cultists from various ranges (mostly Reaper Miniatures) for our D&D games. I had started these some time ago.
I finished them in our summer cabin, hence the table cover
We organized a small "painting 101" session, where couple of my friends and my girlfriend took their first steps into miniature painting (one of them had painted a few times before).
It was a blast and they finished small "critter" style miniatures for D&D.
Here's their first miniatures. The lizard is painted by my girlfriend, the the fairy by my friend.
Would not be a first painting session without the classic "nuln oil accident":
Spoiler:
Meanwhile, I finished my "Underdark Mushrooms"
After playing a game with my Dark Eldar army, I got the inspiration to create another Archon and some Mandrakes.
There are many more ideas brewing for this army, but I need more bits and kits to start working on them.
For the Mandrakes, I decided to use "Spirit Hosts" from the Age of Sigmar. The kit contains three "tri-spirit thingies", that I assembled as singular creatures.
I wanted to create models that look like "shadows with weapons", as they can appear out of nowhere on the tabletop.
For the second Archon, I once again used the "Crimson Court" kit, like I did for the previous conversion.
This model entered the September's Dakka challenge "Absolute Unit".
The head is from one of the Witch Elf kits and the Blaster is from the kabalite kit (if I remember correctly).
While painting, I have been listening to the R.A Salvatore's "Dark Elf Trilogy" from Bookbeat.
And for my surprise, they were translated in Finnish! I could listen them in English of course, but there's just something about hearing all the monsters being translated like in nature documentaries haha!
Anyway, those books made me want to continue the Underdark theme a bit and I wanted to paint a few more drows for my collection:
Phew, that's quite a few weeks worth of painting crammed up into a single post.
I have, however, finished one more unit as well. This unit might or might not be a squad of Sisters. About time right?
Some of you might have seen a teaser already on my Instagram, but I'll save them for the next post, when I hopefully have taken some better pictures!
Plenty to like there. Huge fan of the Archon and Drow Sorceress. Excellent idea for the Mandrakes. And good on you for pushing the habit onto unsuspecting innocents!
Thank you youwashock, Warboss_Waaazag, endtransmission and The_Retromancer!
Before the main event, a few more Drows were finished along with a couple of quick Banshee thingies to a D&D session we had on the weekend.
These Drows were some of the Wizkids minis, so the quality was not nearly as good as the previous minis.
The time has finally come.
Like I've mentioned previously, I have wanted to create a small force of Adepta Sororitas for as long as I can remember.
When I was a kid, I could never afford the metal models. I swore that if they ever got plastic kits, I would buy them all. Well... I did not.
Long story short, some of you might remember me buying a box of them a year ago and testing out some color schemes. That too ended in a hiatus, as I could not quite figure out what I wanted to do with them.
The main problem was, that I wanted to create a color scheme that would meet the following criteria:
- Fun to paint
- Looks nice on the tabletop
- Would not take an eternity to finish
I love the official black color scheme, but I'm not a fan of painting black in that quantity. So I decided to go with white, somehow thinking that would be easier or more fun?
Tackling the above criteria with white power armor and finding the balance between a somewhat speedy process and a look that I wanted proved to be a lengthy process.
Now I'm thinking I have hit the spot somewhat. There are a few things that I'm still tweaking, but so far I'm liking the direction.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.
One with an Escher head. The "rebellious sister".
Flamer from the Escher kit as well.
And a sniper. I'm aware that the squad cannot get such a weapon, but the concept was too cool to pass!
Some of them are a bit messy, as I did quite a few iterations of different colors and corrections.
But still, I'm quite happy!
I had the flu for almost two weeks, so had quite a bit of painting time in my hands while my condition allowed me to sit in front of a desk.
While blasting through an audiobook, I managed to power through a trio of Paragon Warsuits as well!
I got them readily built from a friend in our gaming group, as he did not have any use for them.
I'm not sure how big of an army I will build out of these.
I still have five Seraphim half painted. After that, I don't know.
If I'm to do a full army out of these, it will be a long process. There's so many different projects going on and I'll try to do a few display pieces every now and then.
No point trying to figure it out yet though. I'll let my inspiration guide me.
One more thing is missing though: The name for the order.
Something dark, yet fitting to a group of religious fanatics loyal to the Emperor. Something that rings fear to the enemies of the mankind.
... As a "Xeno guy" (if Krieg are not counted), these words feel weird in my mouth. What is happening to me.
Beautiful work as always- and both Yin and Yang in this instalment! Dark Dhrow wonderfully done without losing detail or visual interest and white-armored Sisters- always a difficult color to work, well done.
With a hat tip to Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, perhaps your chapter could be the Loyal Order of Lysistrata? I think the Ladies from Hades was their nickname in that book!
Sisters look amazing. I wanted to compliment you on using the really vibrant basing tufts as well - They really help dark models stand out without hiding the paint job. I have found myself using them more for dark bases as well. The attention to detail on the weathering for the sisters is intricate and really lends a feeling of realism (cough in a sci-fi wargame cough).
Meer_Cat wrote:
Beautiful work as always- and both Yin and Yang in this instalment! Dark Dhrow wonderfully done without losing detail or visual interest and white-armored Sisters- always a difficult color to work, well done.
With a hat tip to Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, perhaps your chapter could be the Loyal Order of Lysistrata? I think the Ladies from Hades was their nickname in that book!
Rock on!
Thanks Meer_Cat! Not a bad suggestion!
Might take a while before I lock the name though. My Dark Eldar nor Eldar still have their names missing and I've been collecting both for 14 years or so! I'm quite indecisive.
blockade23 wrote:Sisters look amazing. I wanted to compliment you on using the really vibrant basing tufts as well - They really help dark models stand out without hiding the paint job. I have found myself using them more for dark bases as well. The attention to detail on the weathering for the sisters is intricate and really lends a feeling of realism (cough in a sci-fi wargame cough).
Thanks blockade23! I saw the magenta tufts a while back and had to get them without even knowing where I would use them. They proved to be fitting for the Underdark theme.
I agree, colorful bases add some nice contrast for the dark models
gobert wrote:Stunning stuff as ever Ezki! The White sisters look amazing, a great scheme! Well done for dragging others in to the hobby too!
Thank you gobert!
I'm sure hoping that was not the last time they grabbed a brush! I think At least they had fun. One of them even commented, that while painting they forgot all the stressful things of the boring adult life. Sounds like a victory to me.
Sounds like that I need to organize a few more painting sessions in the future!
Five Seraphim are in the works, their base colors laid out.
But of course, me being me, there are a bunch of other projects going on simultaneously.
Therefore I wanted to make a little work in progress update to show some of the different projects that I have on my hobby desk.
Some of these have been started weeks ago, some just recently.
Let's start chronologically.
I have showed one picture of this "Kriegsman and a wounded sister" diorama some time ago.
I started the concept in June and not much has happened since then. Other than me trying to position the characters again and again in different configurations.
I'm not sure what kind of background I want for it yet.
But I'm thinking, that I might want a head without a helmet for the kiregsman. This of course is very much against "the lore", but I think it would emphasize on the humanity of the scene.
Just wanted to show it as a refresher.
After playing a couple of games with my Dark Eldar, I noticed that the Beast Pack (Beastmaster and a number of different beasts) is quite the viable unit again!
I have a bunch of old half painted beast conversions which I made back in the fifth edition. Half of them are broken or otherwise unfitting to the current army.
To continue the "Space Drow Vampire Pirate Undead Whatever" theme I got going on, I decided to create something very different.
The idea hit me right after a game the other day: an undead horseman whipping his hell hounds forward!
Here's the concept. Used all kinds of bits and pieces I found lying around. Currently this guy has been base coated, but I don't have any other pictures currently.
I also wanted to add 5-10 more Scourge into my list. I could not just buy a box of Scourges and call it a day now could I.
Maybe two to three years ago, I bought a box of Age of Sigmar Khinerai with the goal of turning them into Scourge squad.
Long story short, I noticed that I had used most of them to another conversion projects. So, I had to run to the local hobby store and get another box.
The weapons proved to be problematic, as the Scourge box only contains one of each. It's also quite hard to fit them to the Khinerai or any other similar model. That might be the reason why I never even started this project back when I first bought a box.
Then I remembered Horizon Zero Dawn, the video game. They could use their spears as Haywire weapons! Just add some components to them and call it a day.
Here's a couple of concepts I got going on. Combining Scourge and Khinerai bits.
The heads are weirdly positioned, as they are held on with blue tack.
Will continue working on these in due time.
Then, for the latest project.
Since the last large painting competition, I've been focusing solely on tabletop miniatures. I wanted to change the pace a bit and start working on a display piece as well.
A friend printed this Lady Maria from the video game Bloodborne for me a while back. I think it's finally time to paint her. Especially, as it fits the October Dakka Challenge quite well!
Here's the current progress.
Most of the colors have just been sketched.The eyes are nearly final though. Took almost as long as getting the rest of the model to this stage haha.
Trying to replicate a sad, yet angry expression. Might add some smeared mascara or tears even.
The skin is a bit rough, as I'm trying to find the volumes before spending more time on the blending.
Making the eyes somewhat even was quite the hassle. After many many iterations, I think they look quite alright.
I'm planning on building (or buying) a small plinth for her and add a backdrop. For the latter, I'm thinking of trying to paint some sort thematic art. The lack of drawing skills definitely limits me on that regard.
The current plan is to have some sort of light shining from the back, which I'm trying to depict on the model. As well as some rather bright bounce lights on the front.
I'm attending the "Monte San Savino Miniature Show" in Italy next November. Depending how this turns out, it might be one of my entries there.
So, that's all this time!
Maybe next time, I'll have some of these finished. Or yet another half a dozen projects started.
That huntress face is already amazing as it is, loving the eyes. And good job on the sororitas, I specially like the Warsuits. Looking forward to seeing the progress on that diorama, looks really promising
Thank you for the comments! I'm glad you like the eyes!
Been doing this and that again.
The scourge conversions have progressed somewhat.
Managed to finish one of them using a Daemonette leg and head. The other two are still in the works, as I'm trying to figure out which head to use.
It has taken me quite a few hours just to test fit different bits and trying to figure out what to do with all the plastic from three different kits haha.
Some progress on Lady Maria as well.
Initially I thought that this would be a rather quick project. Just to get a character from maybe my all time video game to the cabinet. But the hours seem to go by and it's far from finished.
Not that I'm in a hurry or anything. But sometimes I do set some imaginary (and often way too optimistic) hourly deadlines for myself and get frustrated when they don't succeed. Just one of my many quirks.
Worked on the neck cloth and the jewellery today.
I think I worked on it for 5 or so hours and did not manage to progress much on that time. I think I went back and forth with the blood and the white cloth like half a dozen times with glazes, stippling and the likes.
In the end, I realized that I could have just painted the area red and worked my way from there. Would have saved me a lot of time. Well, live and learn and all that. Not the best of days. But can't have the good hobby days without the bad ones.
I guess the blood looks alright from a bit of a distance though.
Decided not to make splatters and instead tried to make it look like that the blood has flown from her neck (as some argue has happened to her in the game).
From another angle.
During a couple of remote meetings, I managed to get a spectator and two gazers painted!
Quickish three hour project, including the basing:
They were quite fun to paint as a little palette cleanser. Used them in our D&D game last weekend
Been chipping away on the bust.
I also finished painting the Drukhari Beastmaster conversion!
The Beastmaster was a painted mostly during different remote meetings Aimed for quick and dirty on the horse while putting more effort on the rider.
Now I just need to figure out how to convert the beasts.
I do still have the models I used back in 5th and 6th editions, but they are mostly broken and otherwise beaten up. Might use some of them, but especially the Razorwing Flocks have proven to be troublesome.
Like said, some progress on Lady Maria has also been done.
I practiced painting NMM on her sword. Multiple times. Hours and hours of reworking it again and again haha.
Watched a ton of reference pictures and played around with different techniques.
This was the first iteration. I quite liked how it looked in all it's shininess.
I posted pictures of it to the Finnish display painting discord chat and instantly got some feedback: too symmetrical and the bright areas are too even, as they should alternate in brightness. Also for a sword that bright, it should reflect the brown clothing a bit. Makes sense. Looks nice, but not realistic at all. I guess.
This was the second iteration. I added some randomness and toned the top part down. Also added a slight brownish bounce light.
It looked wrong somehow. There was too much alternation.
Third iteration: removed one of the dark areas on top, added more brown. Still too much dark.
I tried to look at steel swords and even pictures of Lady Maria's prop swords and did not find a single picture with such dark areas.
Fourth and so far final iteration (on the other side this time):
Evened out the lighter areas and added much more warm brown to the middle area. Now, it looks like a steel sword. I would think. Quite like it! Now I just have to do the other side haha.
I wish I had a bunch of these swords, so I could save all the iterations. Maybe make a small "learning to NMM diorama".
None of the above iterations looked particularly bad in my opinion, but they were not what I was after. Even though I had to repaint the same area again and again, I think it's part of the learning process.
Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's tedious. This sword proved to be both! But I had more fun than not, so a win?
And here we go.
Some more work needs to be done on her face, hair and the leather. Also some more refining and cleaning up.
I also ordered a plinth for her, but it won't arrive before the end of the month. So I'll post this to the Dakka challenge without it I guess.
That’s some serious dedication! I’d have stopped at the first one for sure, but that’s probably my stagnation talking! The brastmaster looks cool too, hopefully he has some beasties join him soon
Lady Maria was finished for the Dakka challenge. But... it was really not quite finished.
I worked on her face, hair and some of the other small details a teeny tiny bit. Well, the face took quite a few hours as I redid again and again a couple of times.
There's a time when I should learn when to call something done. When the subject in question requires high attention to detail, or just to get some color on it. Or something in between.
Well, all of this is a learning process.
A few words of the model itself:
I wanted to practice painting different textures and volumes. I also wanted to make the model less "flat", when compared to the Yennefer and Triss busts I did. I still like them very much, but they are, like I said, a bit flat.
I also tried to force myself to continue with the "feth smoothness" mantra on most of the clothes etc. The face and the sword were an exception to this.
When it comes to the sword, the goal was to create tonal variation and bounce lights from the brown leather. As shown in the last update, it took quite a few iterations For the leather, I wanted a worn look with a few scratches here and there. There's also brighter parts where I thought the light would hit when it shines from above.
The face also took a few iterations. First it looked too muddy, then too round. I then reshaped the highlights and added some warmth to it by glazing. And glazing. And glazing again...
I hope that this middle ground approach works haha.
Anyway, here's the updated version.
After all the ups and downs. Broken parts, mental breakdowns and small victories, I really like how she turned out. One of my favorite models so far.
Which leads to the next update: she will travel with me to Italy tomorrow!
I'm heading to the Monte San Savino Miniature Show. Maybe the most prestigious miniature painting competition there is. All the big names will be attending, such as many of this year's Golden Demon winners.
Of course I will not be competing against them, as there are two different main categories: Standard and Master's. I will be in the Standard. I hear the quality is phenomenal in that too, so I'm not looking forward to winning anything haha.
But it will definitely be an experience! Really stepping outside my comfort zone here, but I'm happy to do it.
With me, I'm taking the diorama from last year, Belladonna and Lady Maria.
I did some small alterations to the diorama. Such as creating new "info plaques", added a "don't touch" sign and fixed a few of the miniatures.
The new plaque on the right.
This miniature had broken off, so I had to glue her back on.
Meanwhile I repainted her skirt and shirt. I wanted to create a "latex look", as I would imagine something like that would be quite common in a cyberpunk world.
Not the most realistic effect, but I guess it works decently enough when observed from a distance.
Everything packed and ready to go! Lady Maria went to another case and Belladonna has her own box under all the foam. Really hoping they survive the trip!
This last week has been a roller coaster of emotions: fear, excitement, joy.
When I first started painting miniatures, I would never have guessed that I would travel to another country with my miniatures. And now it is happening. I can't quite put the feeling to words. Maybe I can after the event.
When I'm back, I will do a write-up from the event. Medals or not, it will be an experience!
Yeah, I agree with Nev. I think over the past couple of years you’ve really upped your game to consistently knock out High quality miniatures. Surely a commendation might be in the offing. I still love the concept of bringing one of your earliest painted miniatures to a painting competition! Quite the juxtapose against the nmm on lady Maria! Phenomenal stuff!
Nevelon wrote:If you feel that you are not in the master class of painters, the quality must be truly mind-blowing up there.
I’d put you in the Golden Demon range. We are not exactly a small pond here, and you are one of the big fish.
Good luck and have fun!
Thank you Nevelon for the kind words. Truly appreciated.
gobert wrote:Yeah, I agree with Nev. I think over the past couple of years you’ve really upped your game to consistently knock out High quality miniatures. Surely a commendation might be in the offing. I still love the concept of bringing one of your earliest painted miniatures to a painting competition! Quite the juxtapose against the nmm on lady Maria! Phenomenal stuff!
Thank you gobert! I have tried to focus on learning new techniques
youwashock wrote:Good luck, Ezki!
Maria will surely catch the judge's eye.
Thank you youwashock!
blockade23 wrote:Your work is doing amazing. I used the scourge kit to make my Swooping Hawks but your conversions look excellent as well.
Also the busts's paintjob is impressive!
Thank you blockade23! The scourge kit is a great source for Swooping Hawks!
So, I'm back from the Monte San Savino Show. Actually I arrived monday evening, but it's been so hectic that I have not had find the time to write.
Spare time has been used for working on a few new projects.
To summarize the roller coaster of emotions that I went through before the show, I'd say excitement and anxiety were the two main combatants.
I have not traveled abroad that much and never have I done it alone. There were 7 other Finnish painters joining the trip, but I had only briefly met them before. So in a sense, I did not "know" anybody I was traveling with.
So in many ways, I really stepped out of my comfort zone. The usual artistic thoughts such as "is my work good enough" started arising as well.
After packing my entries and heading to the airport however, most of the tension was gone. The last bits of panic and self doubt disappeared after the three hour drive from the airport to our accomodation, where the rest of the group was waiting.
There were eight of us in total, all from Finland. Sharing thoughts and talking to fellow hobbyists really eased my mind. Great guys all of them!
Quite quickly, we headed to the exhibition area. It was in the centre of Monte San Savino. The exhibition itself was held in a few different buildings, one of them which was an old chapel.
The sheer amount and quality of entries really blew my mind. Even in the Standard category, the entries were really good.
While unpacking the entries, a small disaster happened. While the Lady Maria Bust was lifted from the case, it fell and the sword snapped in three pieces! Adding to the drama, I was not the one that broke it haha.
Despite the catastrophe, my mind was at ease. I had arrived to the exhibition to have a good time, and I would not let a broken model ruin that experience. I could fix the miniature back in our place and bring it in the next day. No panic. These things happen.
After a while however, I heard that someone has all the required tools with him and I could fix the miniature on the spot! I approached the guy in question: a big fellow with an orange beenie standing with his back towards me. He turned around, offering a wooden box filled with a bunch of tools. He was no other than Roman Lappat. The one and only. He had some paints, glue, brushes and other tools that I could use. I was over the moon!
With a beer in my hand and Roman's fixing kit in front of me, I got to work! Luckily it was a rather easy fix.
The weather was beautiful and there were a bunch of other hobbyists hanging around, so it was a lot of fun despite the tragedy. At that point, I actually joked that I was lucky that the model broke haha!
After all that, all the miniatures were set on their places. A moment I had feared, but when it finally arrived, I felt really relaxed.
Diorama in "Standard Storytelling" and the other two in "Standard Fantasy Painting".
The whole weekend was a blast. I honestly felt like I had arrived home.
I met dozens of amazing people and got a bunch of new friends. I had the opportunity to talk to many high level painters, such as Vince Venturella, Mamikon, Sam Lenz and a bunch of others. I got to see amazing miniatures and gained so much inspiration! Especially all the works in the storytelling categories were eye opening. I very quickly forgot that the whole event was a competition and could not care less about whether I would win anything or not. This trip was a win in itself!
In addition to the exhibition, we made a quick trip to Firenze to see some of the sights. The trip was quite compact, so we did not have much to browse the stores. We did however manage a quick trip to a local art supply store, form which I bought a few handmade sable brushes. And a leathery brush holder as a souvenier for my girlfriend.
Come Sunday, and it was time for the price ceremony. Due to having so many entrants, the ceremony had to be moved outside to an old amphitheatre for safety reasons. The usual place would have been too crowded. Luckily the weather was good.
The competition was in open format, so they would announce as many bronzes, silvers and golds for each category that the judges deemed worthy. So not the regular "top three". With almost 2000 entries, it would be quite harsh after all.
With my father's old "flame beanie" equipped, I was ready for the event!
Despite saying that I would not care whether I won something, I felt excited. When the judges started announcing the winners for the Standard Fantasy Painting category, my heart raced. Really hard.
The announcer kept calling the winners' names for bronze. Two of my friends were called on the stage. I felt really happy for them, but thought my chances were gone.
After a few very long minutes, I heard my name being called. I could not believe it. Silver in Standard Fantasy Painting! With shaky hands, I arrived to the stage with a bunch of others. I was over the moon.
Then it was time for Standard Storytelling. Boom, another silver!
The result was not something I was expecting. At all.
To be honest, I was hoping for something in the Storytelling category, but definitely not on Fantasy Painting.
When the 10-year old me first started painting miniatures, he would never ever have guessed that he would travel to another country and manage to win a trophy. The whole experience was quite emotional for me.
I think it was only fitting, that my very first miniature was there with me, as a part of my diorama. To remind me, and all the other painters, of the long journey we all have traveled.
In addition to the people I traveled with, I want to thank the whole Dakka community. Even though I have not been as active I used to be, I have always found this community very inspiring and super friendly. Ever since the early days, Dakka has been the one place where I could share my dumb ideas without being afraid of being judged. It's a place of joy and inspiration. Every comment and every shared idea has drove me forward. The monthly challenge has motivated me to push my painting forwards and it has a special place in my heart.
I might have said these exact words before, but they needed to be said again. Thank you sincerely to each and every one of you!
Time to get back to work with a bunch of new projects!
Sounds like a fantastic adventure, you even had a dash of adversity thrown in for good measure! Truly well deserved with the silvers for some fantastically well painted minis. Glad to see you’re already eyeing up projects for the next competition
Nevelon wrote:I knew you could do it! Grats on the pair of silvers!
Next time, gold. Or up your game to the master’s level and take some of their prizes!
Thank you Nev!
Getting something from the master's would be quite something. That's a motivating goal to aim towards!
youwashock wrote:A round of applause!
Great job, Ezki! You've survived a trial by fire (broken mini at the event) and come through carrying two silver medals. Congrats!
Can't wait to see those new projects!
Thank you youwashock! Trial by fire indeed haha.
gobert wrote:Sounds like a fantastic adventure, you even had a dash of adversity thrown in for good measure! Truly well deserved with the silvers for some fantastically well painted minis. Glad to see you’re already eyeing up projects for the next competition
Thank you gobert! One has to have a bunch of unpainted minis staring back from the corner of the hobby desk. Might get lazy otherwise!
Been working on a few projects since the last update. Finished one display piece for the Dakka challenge and a few kill team miniatures.
I'll post the latter a bit later, when I'm able to take good pictures of them.
For the November "Ancients" challenge, I painted Erza of Dedheim by Kingdom Death.
She had been waiting for her turn in my cabinet for ages, like many other KDM miniatures that I have. I guess I was "too afraid" to paint her haha.
The model is based on the artwork by KyuYong Eom. Even more NSFW than the model, so in spoilers:
Spoiler:
I wanted to follow the original scheme to an extent, but add my own twist to it. I took quite a bit of inspiration from the NMM though, nearly fully replicating the positions for the reflections.
The goal was to create a "dark fantasy" style look for her by using quite desaturated and somewhat unified colors. I added the same shadow and light colors for nearly every area to keep the tones coherent, even for the OSL effect.
In the early stages of this project, I got lost in the "Instagram comparison phase" for a while. I found a few reference pictures that I tried to unconsciously mimic and got frustrated, as my brushwork did not look exactly the same.
I kept forgetting, that the beauty of this hobby is to create your own interpretation. There are of course some advantages in trying to copy a technique or practice color matching, but that's a different story.
After taking a small break and coming back to the project with "fresh eyes", it started looking better. It started to look mine (to an extent of course, as mentioned the scheme was not completely original).
Once again I had to remind myself to get inspired, not to compare. This is something I might never learn, but trying really hard to do.
When I changed my mindset from trying to perfect every area to creating a cool and thematic piece, I really started to enjoy working on it.
Instead of smoothing everything to near perfection (it's quite rough in places when observed in hand, the camera works in my favor on this one!), I focused on mixing colors and creating atmosphere with the OSL
The most important lessons learnt which I will definitely practice more in the future were:
- Desaturated "fiery colors" look more natural than using red, orange and yellow "out of the pot"
- Applying the same shadow tones throughout the whole project is a good way to create an overall pleasing color scheme
- Highlight positioning and contrast is lot more important than smoothness
Overall this must be one of my favorite works yet, especially given how quickly it moved from the workbench to the cabinet.
I think I have said that with every display piece I've finished though!
youwashock wrote:It's one of my favorites from you, as well. I love KD, and your work on this model is nothing short of amazing. Love her!
Thank you youwashock! KD miniatures sure are cool as heck and I'm jealous of your collection! I do have a few pinups still unpainted, which I should tackle at some point.
gobert wrote:Absolutely stunning Ezki! The nmm is ridiculously good. Another medal level paint job I reckon
Thank you gobert! Following the volumes and reflections from the original artwork definitely helped, as I still struggle to understand where to place them without references
muette wrote:Brutal, OSL is spot on, and the rest is magnifient.
Thanks muette! Glad the OSL effect works
Here's a few minis I finished a while back.
First a bunch of traitor guardsmen that I used for kill team.
We organized a kill team chirstmas party at our gaming room and I decided to go with the "Bloodied" team as I could utilize most of the Necromunda Chaos Cult gangers.
I did not have time to paint a new team, but I did manage to get a few traitor guardsmen done the night before the event.
I followed Roman Lappat's style of speedpainting: just splash different colors and have fun with it!
This was a completely new way for me to paint. With gaming miniatures, I usually follow the "Eavy Metal style" to an extent. This time I wanted to focus more on the grim feel rather than get every detail done right.
I mostly used the leftover colors from my palette that I was using for Erza.
It took me around 2.5 hours to paint all four. Three with the bases.
Another model that I finished a week ago is this Escher sniper kitbash.
The finnish display painting group "Cold Tone Society" organized a secret santa event and this was my contribution. They wished for a Necromunda mini.
I think this kitbash is a lot cooler than my own Escher sniper and I almost decided to keep it for myself haha. So I guess it's a good present then?
In spoilers just in case, if Discord nickname La****32 is looking
Spoiler:
And as an update, my current project that I'm working on for the Dakka Challenge: "Kat, the Witch's Apprentice" by BigChild Creatives.
It's a fun little scene, that I have wanted to paint for a long time.
Lovely Blooded guardsman, I’ve really enjoyed playing them. The kamikaze with the Brimstone Grenadier is always hilarious, even my opponents enjoy the absurdity of it! Hopefully you all had fun too
Both ladies are looking great, La32 is one lucky present recipient. The OSL on the cat wizard is cool, especially on the floor and pages :thumbsup
Managed to get Kat completed before the end of the year!
I think I painted around 20 hours over the last three days or so haha.
A really really fun project to work with!
It offered many challenges, especially the OSL effect and all the metal trims. I also wanted to break my "norm" and go with a very saturated palette, instead of my usual greyish / brownish style.
For the first time in a while, I actually enjoyed the whole process. Well maybe the face still had me swear a bit, but other than that!
A fitting way to end the year I'd say!
I'll do the usual retrospective and share some deeper thoughts on different projects after the New Year's Eve.
What a way to bring in the New Year! Amazing work Ezki and even better that it was an enjoyable process, it certainly looks a fun model. I’m sure 2025 has plenty more prizes in store for you as well
I'm running a bit late here, but here's my 2024 recap. Better late than never!
I have been painting quite a few tabletop minis already, but I'll post them in a combined post a bit later.
For now, let's focus on the matter at hand.
To kick things off, here's a poor picture of all the models finished in 2024.
The theme of the decor in our is quite dark and moody (there's only a chandelier with actual candles in our dining area), so it was quite hard to take pictures of the whole bunch.
65 models in total of which 7 were display miniatures.
The number of painted models is a bit smaller compared to my usual numbers, but I definitely spent more hours at my painting desk than ever before. Especially during the last half of the year.
Moving house in the spring and not having a proper hobby area for a couple of months hurt the numbers a bit though.
To summarize 2024 in a few words, I would say it was "the year of firsts".
I painted my first bust, tried NMM and OSL effects in a larger extent for the first time and created my first display backdrop. I also took part in a competition abroad for the very first time.
In addition to that, I FINALLY started working on my Adepta Sororitas army, albeit slowly. As some of you might remember, it has been a long time dream of mine.
Not sure if I'm going to create a full multi-thousand-point army out of them, but at least a small display force.
Over the last year or so. I've become more serious about my painting.
I'm still having fun and want to paint tabletop miniatures for Warhammer, D&D and the like, but I also really want to improve and keep on creating more display pieces.
There are times, when I struggle to define my hobby and myself as a painter. Not that I should, but it's something that happens unconsciously.
For many years, I kept on painting with the same techniques and just focused on getting as many cool minis on the tabletop as possible and while it was a lot of fun, I was afraid to try anything new.
Recently I have been trying to analyze my painting habits and break the usual patterns. This has lead to quite a leap in my work; more so than over the last couple of years combined.
Spending more and more time at the hobby desk has taken a big chunk of my already limited hobby time.
Playing video games, working on my cars and playing airsoft have undoubtedly been left in the shadow. I still do all those things, but in a much smaller scale than before.
It has mostly been a conscious choice, but there have been times, when I have been feeling almost guilty if I'm for example playing games instead of painting.
I'm aware that the adult offers only so much free time and I cannot do it all, but I'm also aware that if I want to keep on improving, I will need to keep investing the hours. No way around it.
Finding the right balance is the key here. And taking a break or two every now and then might do some good haha.
Spending more time actually painting has affected my activity on Dakka as well.
It is still a daily habit for me to open the forums and to browse all the wonderful stuff you all have been creating, but it has been harder to find the time to actually sit down and write comments or thread updates.
I'll try my best to fix that, as I really enjoy following what everyone is cooking!
This journey has been a roller coaster of emotions. Joy, sadness, regret, disappointment, frustration, excitement and love. The whole spectrum. "The pain of creation" as some might call it.
That being said, I think I have never enjoyed the hobby as much as I've been recently. It has truly been a blast!
Meeting new and wonderful people, being a part of the hobby community (special shout out for Dakka!), sharing ideas, getting inspired and just having a great time applying glue and paint on the little plastic soldiers.
What a lovely hobby we all share!
To finish the recap, here's individual pictures of most of the finished models.
There are a few picture collections, so it's quite the long list.
Fist bust ever painted: Triss Merigold:
Second bust and a real roller coaster of emotions:
Shadowheart was "finished" twice. First in January, then in June.
Belladonna. First display base for a small miniature and won Best in Category in Single Miniature at Cold North Open.
Some Bloodborne Hunters.
Some cultists.
Converted Mandrakes.
Female Archon.
Bunch of Drow.
Finally painted some Sisters.
Spectator and some Gazers.
Beastmaster conversion for Dark Eldar.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. Third ever bust and won silver in Monte San Savino show "Standard Fantasy Painting".
Erza of Dedheim. Really liked painting this one!
Secret Santa project.
Final model of the year and I think in terms of pure technical aspect, it's my best:
Thank you for reading and thank you for being part of this amazing journey!
The quality of your stuff is just out of this world! I loved that last piece with the POW! thing, and it was fitting that it won the painting comp for December.
Time management and priorities are hard. So many things that want or need to be done, so little time and attention. We all do what we can. Despite being a fairly prolific poster, I wish I could do more. I just toss in my 2 cents when I can. Put paint down when able, and get games in when the stars align.
Wishing you the best for 2025. I’m sure you will outdo yourself!
Thank you so so very much everyone!
Your words mean a lot.
youwashock wrote:Man, that's a heapin' helpin' of quality painting. Great year, Ezki!
Thanks youwashock!
ZergSmasher wrote:The quality of your stuff is just out of this world! I loved that last piece with the POW! thing, and it was fitting that it won the painting comp for December.
Big words. Flattered. Thank you!
Nevelon wrote:Amazing work, all of it.
Time management and priorities are hard. So many things that want or need to be done, so little time and attention. We all do what we can. Despite being a fairly prolific poster, I wish I could do more. I just toss in my 2 cents when I can. Put paint down when able, and get games in when the stars align.
Wishing you the best for 2025. I’m sure you will outdo yourself!
Thank you so much Nevelon! I wish you the very best as well!
Sherrypie wrote:Quality stuff through the year, Ezki. The Belladonna was quite impressive in real life as well.
Thanks Sherrypie! Glad you think so, Miniatures in real life are a whole different story than in pictures. Hope to see you next time!
Tommygun1918 wrote:Really stunning work.
Always fun to visit your hobby blog.
Thank you! Happy to inspire. I've taken so much inspiration from this community over the years, so it's wonderful to offer something back.
XvArcanevX wrote:Hey Ezki…
Just wanted to offer a belated congratulations on your placement in the event! Well deserved, you paint beautifully
Thank you XvArcanevX!
Syro_ wrote:Thanks for the recap Ezki. Beautiful work that is fun to look at again. With so many amazing show pieces, I didn't realize how much you had painted.
Cheers Syro! The total amount if miniatures surprised me as well
I ended 2024 by painting a couple of quite demanding display pieces, so I wanted to start the year by painting a bunch of tabletop miniatures for D&D.
Also booted up the gaming rig and Playstation to spend some time in Cyberpunk and Bloodborne (which I've finished about a dozen times haha).
The first minis I painted were from the Bloodborne boardgame. I need some cosmic monstrosities for the D&D campaign I'm running, so these might fill that role.
First mini of 2025 was this "Moon Presence". I spent one evening painting it with a lot of drybrushing and contrast paints and another evening creating the base from bark and small hubris.
A hard miniature to take a good picture of.
To continue the Bloodborne theme, I painted these Executioners. I wanted to try out a quick NMM strategy by drybrushing and creating messy lines as highlights. I painted the metals in ~40 minutes for both models.
The purplish clothes were highlighted with a mix of complementary color (yellow) to create more interesting tonality.
... And these Winter Lanterns. For the clothes I used the same trick as above.
We had a "Wine and Paint" evening with a couple of friends, who have just started painting their own D&D miniatures. I showed them the basics, while painting this angry little Deep Gnome Adventurer.
Some of you might have spotted him in the challenge thread. A bunch of fun to paint!
Continued with these two archer by Axios Miniatures, which I got as a freebie when buying a model in the Monte San Savino Show.
Wanted to make them look very gritty and purposefully show a bunch of brush strokes and texture.
And last but not least, the "Iconic Sorceress Seoni" from Pathfinder by Reaper Miniatures with a custom color scheme.
I thought about painting this in one or two evenings, but ended up working with it for a bit longer. Wanted to test the waters with a... water base (bad pun, sorry for that) and painting some random patterns on her clothes.
It's been a lot of fun trying out new techniques and experiment with different styles to break a bit from my usual way of doing things.
Will continue experimenting in the future and got a bunch of ideas brewing already; both for tabletop and competitions.
Looking forward to get my hands on a bunch of new things I've ordered recently and start working on them!
Amazing round up Ezki, the quality and consistency has really ramped up of late. The confidence from those competitions seems to have helped too. Cracking start to 2025 too, the quick nmm is ridiculous, I thought it was done with metallics at first.
No real done since last update, but I've been working with a few display miniature concepts, both old and new.
First is the corrupted sister.
I think I posted some concept pictures of her back in late 2023. Finally got fed up with staring at the bits collection I had gathered for her and wanted to refine the concept.
I'm thinking of creating a snowy base for her. There will be ashen footprints behind her, leaving a "trail of darkness".
She will be holding either a skull or a sister's helmet. Thinking of naming the piece "Are we still sisters?", inspired by the TV show Arcane.
The bits are still held on with blue tack, but I'm starting to like where it's heading. Since taking the picture, I have filled quite a few gaps and cleaned some mold lines.
Next up is a new idea. Or rather a newly defined idea.
I have painted all my traitor guardsmen except for this sergeant. I have always liked the sculpt and wanted to save him for a display or a diorama.
Suddenly got the idea of the fellow standing on top of a smoldering ruin. I think I'll be painting quite a bit of fiery OSL, sparks and embers.
Last but not least, another old concept: "The Wounded Battle Sister" (name pending).
I've shown a concept for this before. Since then, I have been pondering how to position the characters and what to do with in general.
While building the traitor guardsman, I got some new ideas.
Everything is still held with blue tack and the ruins will not stay the same.
But I want to create a dark scene, with more saturated and bright colors in the middle (where the main characters are).
I'll also try to create a sense of depth with silhouettes of sisters / kriegsmen marching in the background.
I think I've spent a better part of 10 hours cleaning mold lines, fitting parts together and filling gaps with sprue goo / green stuff.
I've always loved building and converting, but it's a lot scarier when done for pieces meant for display.
On tabletop miniatures a gap here or there won't hurt, but especially in competitions a single visible mold line could ruin hours of painting. It's something I'm not overly stressed about, but still try to avoid if possible
Not sure when I have the time to start painting these, but I'm already feeling very excited!
And speaking of tabletop minis, I even got to play two games of 40k with my "Space-Dark-Elf-Vampire-Pirates" (Dark Eldar).
Had a blast!
Some progress. Lot's of hours, not much new to show. Mostly just cleaning, sculpting and repositioning bits.
Here's a few pictures in any case.
Built the hand for the corrupted sister.
Also filled the gap from the custom shoulder pad (don't even remember where it was from, maybe from some of the cultist kits?).
All primed.
I think it turned out surprisingly clean!
Feared that the file marks or the putty would be visible after priming, but that's mostly not the case. Most of the small mistakes can be hidden with actual paint.
Also primed this guy. Sprayed some red tones with an airbrush to sketch out the OSL. Sprayed way too much though!
Now I just need to figure out the color schemes for these chaotic individuals! Something quite dark I'm guessing.
In other news, the kriegsman for the diorama has been nearly built. Tilting his head downwards was quite the effort, but it's done. No pictures of that yet, but I'll take some soonish.
Also built the Hospitaler and some other miniatures that will be used for gaming in the future.
The corrupted sister looks cool!
Skull shoulder pad is from the Goliath gang sprue if you need more of them.
Looking forward to seeing how the mini-dioramas turn out...
blockade23 wrote:Excellent progress already. That corrupted sister looks like the potential seed of a whole army!
Thank you!
Converting and painting whole army with this phase would take an... eternity! Would be cool though no doubt!
Maybe I could build a chaotic sister predator or something in the future!
Guardling wrote:The corrupted sister looks cool!
Skull shoulder pad is from the Goliath gang sprue if you need more of them.
Looking forward to seeing how the mini-dioramas turn out...
Ah, that's where the pad was from! Thanks for the notion. I started building the concept over a year ago, so had totally forgotten.
Thanks Guardling!
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:I really like how your vignettes are coming out. Those conversions are really impressive.
Thank you Warboss_Waaazag!
Took a small trip, so have not had much time on the painting desk lately. Some progress painting wise nevertheless.
Did some airbrushing / drybrushing on the background.
I was supposed to use this plinth for the Lady Maria Bust with a moon in the background. Got the idea of trying it for this one!
The location might change a bit and some painted ruins might be added. Still undecided.
With this, I wanted to create light effects from two sources: the moon and the burning ruins. Both will be very strong and impactful, without leaving much space for other colors on the miniatures clothing.
Instead of realism and perfectly following "the rules of light", I'm going for a cool effect and try to practice mixing colors and creating contrast.
Backside is quite bluish. Still very much in the works:
Spent a lot more time on the front. First it looked very dull, as I was afraid to push the contrast far enough.
Took a break and went back at it with more courage.
Doing a palette check against the background.
Still quite a bit to do, but getting there!
I'm trying to keep this as a "quick" project when it comes to hours spent. Might lower the scary bar of experimentation!
I've been very lazy on my writing side once more.
But I've not been idle on the painting side.
I will post my recent works in a few separate updates, trying to keep them somewhat thematic.
Starting with the first and last pieces I have finished. Both for display purposes.
I finished this Traitor Sergeant for the February Dakka Challenge a few weeks ago.
It started as a quick concept, which developed more and more while working on it. I had wanted to paint this model for ages, but lacked the idea how I wanted to present it.
Object Source Lighting is something I have feared to do for the longest time (much like NMM some time ago).
I have understood however that one can theorize and plan for ages, but learning comes from actually doing the deed and moving away from the comfort zone. So I did.
In addition to the lights from burning ruins, I wanted to create a cold counter light from the moon. Instead of smoothing everything, I focused on volumes and trying to place the colors somewhat correctly.
Here he is:
A good friend of mine suggested adding a "rim light" from the moon to the character. I think that's a good idea and could fix the problem of him not standing out enough. Will definitely try to do that at some point.
In hindsight, I could have used more red than yellow, such as I did on the background ruins.
Other than that, I'm still fairly happy with the result. I'm especially happy for finally doing this project and getting the finished piece in my cabinet!
The second project is another display piece, which I finished painting yesterday: an fairly old Succubus model from Reaper Miniatures.
I was browsing my D&D miniature collection, while the idea of a "cozy scene" suddenly hit me. I cleared my desk from all the other projects and got to work!
I wanted to depict the character in an alternate environment. Something these types of creatures are rarely seen I guess. Imagined her living happily in a cozy cabin somewhere in the woods.
The project was built and painted over the course of a few days. To be honest, I spent quite a few hours on it, but it was still a fairly quick one!
The size difference between the character and the base elements was kind of a happy accident.
I did some miscalculations while building (actually, did not calculate anything as I probably should have), so the character is smaller than originally intended.
But in the end, I think it actually adds to the scene. Who knows how tall these creatures really are, so I guess some of them are way shorter or even halfling sized!
As the model is fully unclothed, I will post her in spoilers.
Spoiler:
This was kind of a "feel good" project and I had so much fun working with the base!
Turned out kind of cute, kind of cozy. Just what I aimed for!
Stunning work Ezki! That traitor guardsman is a masterpiece. I actually quite like that the foreground is more yellow than the background, gives a feeling that he’s closer to the source I think. The base on the little lady is fantastic, really realistic, looking like a little woodland glade quite a break from the grittier works
gobert wrote: Stunning work Ezki! That traitor guardsman is a masterpiece. I actually quite like that the foreground is more yellow than the background, gives a feeling that he’s closer to the source I think. The base on the little lady is fantastic, really realistic, looking like a little woodland glade quite a break from the grittier works
Thank you gobert! I agree, that the yellow might make it look that he's closer to the source. Regarding the succubus, I wanted a little break from all the grittier schemes I usually do!
Continuing with my unposted works from the backlog:
Spent an evening painting an Elven Ranger from Reaper Miniatures.
Approached this project with a "oil painting like" mindset, with very visible brush strokes and texture. Turned out quite alright for a few hours of work!
A couple of weeks ago I did some progress on the slowly growing sister army.
While listening to the "Book of Martyrs" audiobook. As the main character in the first story is a Hospitaler, I thought it would be fitting to paint one!
Continuing with the grim white / magenta theme.
I needed a new Sister Superior / Canoness for the army. I got an old metal sister gifted to me by a good friend, so I thought it would fit the bill. Added the backpack from the Repentia Superior.
Also finished painting the five Seraphim I started some months ago, but I don't have any good pictures of them. My phone camera has some real difficulties on taking group photos. Should set up the photo station and try to take some with the old DSLR.
Too long since I last posted here! Fabulous work all around, both display painting and "tabletop standard". Looking forward to seeing that Sister/Kriegsman diorama finished, I think the idea of soldiers fighting in the background is brilliant! You could maybe paint them something like the traitor sergeant, red light from flames illuminating them.
I've been meaning to ask, how do you think painting display and competition minis to a high standard has affected your "tabletop" painting?
mcmattila wrote: Too long since I last posted here! Fabulous work all around, both display painting and "tabletop standard". Looking forward to seeing that Sister/Kriegsman diorama finished, I think the idea of soldiers fighting in the background is brilliant! You could maybe paint them something like the traitor sergeant, red light from flames illuminating them.
I've been meaning to ask, how do you think painting display and competition minis to a high standard has affected your "tabletop" painting?
Good to see you!
Hmm, reddish light might be a good idea! Will have to ponder about it while thinking for color schemes.
At first I read the first half of your suggestion - "paint them something like the traitor sergeant" - and immediately began thinking of scenarios, where a traitor would show some humanity and come back from the darkness. Even for a while. Ideas are happening...
To answer your question, whether painting display and competition minis has affected my tabletop painting: yes, very much so. But it's complicated.
I'd say the biggest impact is related to the use of color and being more brave with different techniques.
Over the early years of my hobby, I was impacted most by the 'Eavy Metal painting style both from the Warhammer box covers and the official tutorials. This style stayed with me for the longest time and I tried replicating it the best I could. To specify, there is nothing wrong with that style, but it definitely values smooth transitions and clean lines. Following these guidelines, I became nearly obsessed with trying to smooth everything out all the way to the point that I actually avoided certain colors or models just because I could not make them smooth enough. This is not particularly the fault of the said style, but maybe the mindset many miniature painters have.
Mind you, I'm still learning not to be obsessed with these things, but it's a long process.
When I started entering competitions and paint display projects, I began looking at miniatures very differently. I took note on color schemes, techniques and visible brush strokes. Even trying to find intentionally rough color transitions that I might have previously thought as mistakes. After taking part in short workshops by Roman Lappat and Alfonso Giraldes, I finally began to understand the basics of color theory, ambiance and the importance of "contrast over smoothness" (contrast meaning both tonality and temperature). Hearing feedback from the judges and having discussions with other artists in events have further broaden my understanding of these topics. But in a way, I have also understood that the main difference between painting tabletop minis and display pieces is more of a mindset, rather than a set of certain skills.
All this has impacted my tabletop painting quite a bit. Instead of replicating the box art, I atleast try to bring my own touch to each piece. I do still follow the official color schemes and / or artworks of various minis, but I try to focus on what's important, whether it's the actual color scheme, the weathering or a set of textures for example. If a miniature is supposed to be rough, I make the paint job rough. Sometimes I still struggle with this, but "letting go" a small part of the perfectionism has actually made painting gaming pieces a lot more fun. However, I have started to find batch painting horrendous, which is kind of a negative when it comes to painting full armies. Luckily I do have quite a few painted 40k minis in my collection!
Hopefully this made some sense. I have a lot of thoughts regarding this topic, but it's hard to turn them into words.
It was a really good question! If we were to meet in an event one day, I would be happy to discuss this further!
Speaking of display projects, here's my newish entry. Which I now realize I actually finished nearly a month ago.
Have not finished any new models since, but I've definitely been hobbying. More of that later.
This was my entry for the Dakka challenge with the "Space Marine" theme titled "From Another World".
It does not have a finalized base yet, but will have one when I can figure out how to realize my idea.
The most keen eyed of you might recognize the color scheme from a video game character. To be more precise, D'va from Overwatch.
I have not played the game, but I liked the colors. And the character is quite a popular choice for cosplay.
Which brings me to the actual idea: the theme for this year's Ropecon (Role Playing Convention) is "New Worlds".
As a theme entry to the convention's painting competition "Cold North Open", I wanted to create a piece, that would combine elements from various worlds and realities.
The model in question is from the Infinity miniature game, but I wanted to paint her as a cosplayer. She is currently taking part in a cosplay contest with the same theme, "New Worlds".
As her entry, she is depicting an alternate version of D'va, from a dystopian future where she is more mundane an meaner version of herself.
I purposefully painted her very roughly, trying to mimic the foam / worbla texture that was maybe used to create her cosplay props.
For the background, I'm thinking of a photobooth or a stage, where the Ropecon logo would be visible with the title "New Worlds Cosplay Contest" or some such.
Anyway, tot sure if this will catch, but it was a fun idea and I had to at least paint the model for it!
Bonus pic for scale. A friend suggested, that I should do more of these.
In other news, I've been working with the wounded sister diorama quite a bit.
I will compose another post discussing that soonish. Hopefully on the weekend.
Thank you muette!
I don't think I've seen any neither. Not sure if the final product will look like cosplay though!
Right. I've been busy within the hobby and outside of it.
A trip to Italy, getting the summer car ready and hosting a painting workshop at a library has kept me busy. But I have managed to spend quite a few hours with the "wounded sister" diorama.
I showed a small concept of it a few months ago. It took me a long while to decide which ruins and models to use, as I began to overthink everything.
It does not have to perfect, as it will not likely be a Golden Demon work, but I still wanted to make it as good as possible. But to once more quote Roman Lappat (I think I have mentioned him like a dozen times already): "Just glue it!".
So I did. Glued the ruin pieces and the base bit from the Hospitaller kit. I added some Milliput and putty to break the even surface.
The initial sketch had an intact window piece. I really liked the window effect on that one, but the composition looked off. This is more symmetrical and gives a nice triangle shape to the piece.
Not that I actually know much about composition.
Then the ground was covered with different texture paints. I used Dark Ground from Vallejo and Stirland Mud from Citadel.
Took me a few iterations to hide the molded base piece and all the gaps.
I wanted to make the other side look like the inside of a chapel. I iterated with a few different floors, using textured plasticard and readily cut tiles, but they all looked wrong.
Decided to use Milliput to sculpt the floor tiles myself. The seams were sealed with sprue goo.
Fun fact: a few people on Instagram commented, that this looked like a cake. They are not far off!
Added some debris and piping to make it more interesting.
Drilled a few bullet holes to bring narrative elements to the piece. Test fitting the background heroes.
Some more narrative details!
Barbed wire, to show the that the battle has been going on for a while. Tossed Lasgun to emphasize the Kriegsman's disregard for his own safety.
Open water bottle, which was offered to the sister, but then dropped from her hand. The cap is there too, but I doubt it will be very visible.
I have drilled many bolter / shoota barrels, but drilling one for lasgun was quite interesting.
Everything still felt too symmetrical and the top was "off" somehow.
I played around with different ruin pieces and decided to add a simple ornament on the top. To add to the interest, I think I'll add a cherub there too!
Some flying pigeons will join him in the future.
And boom! After a couple of dozen hours, the thing is finally primed!
I bought the Hospitaler kit almost a year ago, so on some level this has been in the works for quite a while.
The primer is currently drying, but I will be adding a zenithal highlight on the diorama later today. Then it's off to painting!
I'm still trying to decide the color scheme for the kriegers and the terrain, but I'm so excited to start slopping paint on it!
I think the diorama will be called "The Final Prayer" or "Pray With Me".
Great insights in to your hobby world Ezki. Judging by your diorama though I’d say you’re pretty good at composition, the positioning of the minis is good but the extra little ornaments gives it loads of extra interest and fun things for you to paint on them.
Also loving the seed of a new diorama that mcmatilla laid
In it's primed state. It looks quite peaceful.
At this point, I started to think that it might actually work.
Base colors on the base. At this stage, I felt completely and hopelessly lost. I kind of liked the ruins, but the ground looked so flat and uninteresting.
I tried different iterations and tones to fix it, but conventional means did not cut it.
I started to think about lighting and how to play with shadows to make it "pop" more. A friend suggested "vignette style shading", which I immediately put to the test.
After falling in love with the initial sketch, I decided to change my direction.
I think this is a lot better! I might even emphasize the effect a bit more.
With miniatures.
I still need to think about what to do with the ruins and how I want the light to affect them.
But that's a topic for another day.
Nevelon wrote: You doing lighting as a spotlight highlighting the scene? Or as the sister radiating the Emperor’s light? Which is on-brand, but not always litteral?
A little bit of both!
The light will seem like it's radiating from the sister, but some of the shadows will still be present in the deepest recesses of the clothing for both of the main characters.
I'm trying to use the ways of traditional art as inspiration to draw the eye, but not going for ultra realism with the shadows. One could call it "artistic effect" or some such haha.
Some more progress!
Something was still way off with the pictures above. Every time I looked at it, my eyes kept on bouncing to the center of the middle pillar.
I iterated a few times, as I somehow thought that the highlights would "flow" better if they followed the shapes of the ruins.
After pondering it for a while and getting some feedback from a few friends, I decided to do the metals all over again. This time aiming for consistency with the vignette effect.
Iterating and repainting the metals took quite a while.
It felt quite daunting to paint over the rather smooth blends and redo them again a few times, but I'm really happy that I did do it.
Going back and forth is part of the process after all, tedious as it is.
Thinking I'm finally moving to the right direction and the colors help the story come alive:
I'd say I have crossed the 50 hour mark with this if building is counted.
There's still a lot to do. The base needs some more attention, after which I have to start working on the characters themselves.
I'm still unsure of the color scheme for the kriegers, but that's something I need to experiment on!
Thank you so much everyone! I'm glad the lighting is starting to take form.
Tyranid Horde wrote:Love it Ezki, been following along on instagram, cool to see it being updated here too! Love the purple notes.
Trying to post some written updates here too whenever I have the time!
Some more progress! Mainly on the characters.
I painted the Battle Sister to near completion. Only thing missing is the weathering, which will be done in the very final steps.
Close up of the head. Could have been a bit smoother, but the stippling style matches the armor I guess.
Seems to be working quite well with the surroundings.
Also worked quite a bit on the Kriegsman. I thought they would be quick to paint, but I forgot how many details they have.
Still missing all the golds, the book and the armor pieces.
Something with the base still feels a bit off. It looked better under a warmer light, so guess I need to warm it up a bit.
Or create more contrast between the cold shadows and the warm light.
Had a small break from the diorama, as I'm taking part in Gregor Pilarski's Walker painting workshop (three time golden demon winner and the creator of this piece for example.
We will have to build and base coat a walker (all the armor panels and metallics etc.).
I chose the Chaos Wardog, as I just love the armiger model and chaos versions are always so cool.
Here's my progress so far.
Added quite a few transfers. It was quite fun, but I had to practice a bit as it's been nearly 20 years since I've last used any of these on a scale model.
So shiny after adding some gloss varnish to cover them. Hopefully the AK Ultra Matte will be enough to break the shine.
A more picture heavy and short worder update this time.
Thanks for looking!
Should the NMM reflection on the left side of the middle strut be to the right of the diorama, rather than the left as is to give consistency to the light source?
Should the NMM reflection on the left side of the middle strut be to the right of the diorama, rather than the left as is to give consistency to the light source?
Thank you!
Could you elaborate a bit more (take a screenshot and mark it maybe?). My sleep deprived ass could not catch exactly what you mean.
Unless you mean this bit. If so, that's a good catch! The steel parts are still very much WIP, but I definitely need to think about reflections and bounce lights.
JoshInJapan wrote:I really, really like the spotlight effect you applied around the dead sister. Very subtly, and very effective.
Thank you so much! Glad the effect draws the eye.
Also, she's not completely dead yet
So, I'm back from the workshop by Gregor Pilarski and oh boy did it ignite the love for weathering and painting vehicles again!
Been a bit under the weather for the week, so posting the update was a bit delayed (of course I'm sick on my summer holiday ).
Gregor showed us his weathering techniques step by step, while providing personalized feedback to each and every one of us.
It was a blast! Him not being from Finland, we of course had to show him how to enjoy Sauna the proper Finnish way
I thought I would be able to get the Wardog finished during the workshop, but that proved quite the challenge.
There were quite a few steps to follow and painting all the metallic parts took quite a long time.
Instead of trying to rush every step for all the parts, I decided to focus on the melee arm for the whole second day.
It was fun to find new ways how to paint true metallics and how to control the oil washes to achieve different effects.
There's still a lot to learn of course!
When I got home, I started working on the gun arm.
That still needs a bit of work, as I went overboard with the dark glazes. Gotta bring that brightness back a bit!
This project will likely go on hold for a moment, as I really want to finish the Final Prayer diorama for World Model Expo.
Will try to complete the Wardog over the summer though.
The flu still has a grasp on me, but I've been able to do some painting. Not being able to focus on display projects, I've been working on my Dark Eldar army for an event at the end of the summer.
I finally got the Scourges painted which I started working on back in September, if memory serves me.
The wing patterns were fun to paint, but all the small details and the bony parts were tedious. But a fun project nevertheless!
Over the next couple of weeks I will be working with the diorama quite intensely. I have three or so weeks to finish it if I'm to bring it to France.
I also need to fix a few mistakes on my other entries.
A bit of an messy post, but just wanted to throw a bunch of pictures and update my progress.
Thank you for looking!
gobert wrote: Seriously gritty work on the war dog arms, it’s gonna be a superb doggo.
Love the textures on the scourge wings, was that stippling or deliberate individual brush strokes?
Thanks gobert!
The texture / pattern on the wings was done by stippling using a sponge (actually a piece of foam from a miniature tray, but nearly the same thing!).
Starting from very dark red and moving from magenta towards pink and finally a hint of Cadian Fleshtone into the mix. So a few passes for each wing.
Surprisingly fast. The bony parts in the middle took three times as long!
So, quite a bit of progress has been done with "The Final Prayer" diorama.
World Model Expo is closing in and I'm on the final "crunch" and every minute is precious, so I will let the pictures do the talking.
Just wanted to give one last work in progress update before the event.
The characters are practically done. I will maybe add a bit of weathering and finish their boots once they have been glued to the base.
I ended repainting most of the sister's armor (or rather touch up all the volumes etc.), as the previous iteration did not match the same quality as the kriegers.
At first, I had planned to paint this rather quickly. But then something happened and I decided to take my time with it. More so than usual.
Face is a bit messy, but I think the eyes turned out quite nice.
Details! Skulls & chains.
Wanted to make the backside a lot colder.
Light volumes! This looks a lot better from up top. Maybe I should position it like this in the competition haha.
Test fitting! Still needs a bit of warmth.
That's it for today folks!
Still a few days left before the event, so time to get painting!
Wish me luck!
I'll hopefully post the finished pictures after the trip.
Good to see you!
Hmm, reddish light might be a good idea! Will have to ponder about it while thinking for color schemes.
At first I read the first half of your suggestion - "paint them something like the traitor sergeant" - and immediately began thinking of scenarios, where a traitor would show some humanity and come back from the darkness. Even for a while. Ideas are happening...
To answer your question, whether painting display and competition minis has affected my tabletop painting: yes, very much so. But it's complicated.
I'd say the biggest impact is related to the use of color and being more brave with different techniques.
Over the early years of my hobby, I was impacted most by the 'Eavy Metal painting style both from the Warhammer box covers and the official tutorials. This style stayed with me for the longest time and I tried replicating it the best I could. To specify, there is nothing wrong with that style, but it definitely values smooth transitions and clean lines. Following these guidelines, I became nearly obsessed with trying to smooth everything out all the way to the point that I actually avoided certain colors or models just because I could not make them smooth enough. This is not particularly the fault of the said style, but maybe the mindset many miniature painters have.
Mind you, I'm still learning not to be obsessed with these things, but it's a long process.
When I started entering competitions and paint display projects, I began looking at miniatures very differently. I took note on color schemes, techniques and visible brush strokes. Even trying to find intentionally rough color transitions that I might have previously thought as mistakes. After taking part in short workshops by Roman Lappat and Alfonso Giraldes, I finally began to understand the basics of color theory, ambiance and the importance of "contrast over smoothness" (contrast meaning both tonality and temperature). Hearing feedback from the judges and having discussions with other artists in events have further broaden my understanding of these topics. But in a way, I have also understood that the main difference between painting tabletop minis and display pieces is more of a mindset, rather than a set of certain skills.
All this has impacted my tabletop painting quite a bit. Instead of replicating the box art, I atleast try to bring my own touch to each piece. I do still follow the official color schemes and / or artworks of various minis, but I try to focus on what's important, whether it's the actual color scheme, the weathering or a set of textures for example. If a miniature is supposed to be rough, I make the paint job rough. Sometimes I still struggle with this, but "letting go" a small part of the perfectionism has actually made painting gaming pieces a lot more fun. However, I have started to find batch painting horrendous, which is kind of a negative when it comes to painting full armies. Luckily I do have quite a few painted 40k minis in my collection!
Hopefully this made some sense. I have a lot of thoughts regarding this topic, but it's hard to turn them into words.
It was a really good question! If we were to meet in an event one day, I would be happy to discuss this further!
Sorry I haven't replied to you sooner, but thank you for the detailed answer, it was an interesting read and definitely made sense! I think I'm still mostly in the 'Eavy Metal phase with all it's edge highlights. I try to break out and do a "messier" model every now and then, but it's really difficult for me as well. Of course, it's not a big deal since I pretty much always love the end result. It would be interesting to attend a painting workshop by a master, just to see if it would affect my painting/mindset.. I'm not currently looking to push my skills to competition painting - I don't have the time/opportunity - but I'm sure there are plenty of tips for all skill levels.
It would be cool to meet some day, maybe Cold North Open '26?
I'm back from the trip, but I will do a more detailed post about it when I manage to get pictures of the diorama!
Those of you who follow my instagram might have already seen the results. So in a typical Finnish way, I'll be prompt: Highly Commended in Master's Fantasy Painting and a bronze medal in Master's Fantasy Wargaming!
More of that later.
mcmattila wrote: The diorama looks awesome, really looking forward to seeing it finished! Hope you have/had a good trip!
Sorry I haven't replied to you sooner, but thank you for the detailed answer, it was an interesting read and definitely made sense! I think I'm still mostly in the 'Eavy Metal phase with all it's edge highlights. I try to break out and do a "messier" model every now and then, but it's really difficult for me as well. Of course, it's not a big deal since I pretty much always love the end result. It would be interesting to attend a painting workshop by a master, just to see if it would affect my painting/mindset.. I'm not currently looking to push my skills to competition painting - I don't have the time/opportunity - but I'm sure there are plenty of tips for all skill levels.
It would be cool to meet some day, maybe Cold North Open '26?
No problem! Glad it made some sense haha.
I think your quality and style is already really good and it would definitely hold it's ground in Cold North Open! Even this year But if you decide to take part in Ropecon this year or the next, just give me a message or "vedä hihasta" at the miniature area
I'm not seeing the photos for Ezki's work and several of my other favorite creators- just a small square icon; any suggestions on what I need to fix at my end to be able to see the work? Thank you.
I'm not seeing the photos for Ezki's work and several of my other favorite creators- just a small square icon; any suggestions on what I need to fix at my end to be able to see the work? Thank you.
Hmm, hard to say.
Try with another browser? Or update the current one. Sometimes certain embeds (such as forum images) might break on different browsers or versions.
On my work PC all youtube videos went bonkers with artifacts, so I had to update the BIOS and chipset drivers. But I doubt it's anything that serious.
So, event report!
The Versailles World Model Expo 2025 was... interesting to say the least.
Enough have been said online regarding the poor organization of the event and I don't want to throw any more fuel to the fire.
Some videos have already emerged in Youtube and I imagine more will follow.
If all that is not taken into account, the trip was great!
There were 10 of us in total; 5 painters and our better halves. It was a lot of fun to meet both old and new friends and talk about miniatures for the whole weekend.
When I finally managed to see the show itself (so very very long queues), the miniatures on display were simply amazing!
Like in many shows, there were quite a few categories. More so on the scale modelling side, but still half a dozen on the miniatures side.
All these categories are divided into "Standard" and "Master's". Like in any other show (except Golden Demon), the prices are given with the "Open Principle", meaning that there are more bronzes, silvers and golds than the usual one of each.
Initially I had planned on entering the Standard categories, as I thought it would be cool to have a better chance to actually win something.
After pondering for a while and getting encouraged by my fellow travelers, I decided to make the jump into Master's! That's the one I'm aiming for in the future, so why not see where I stand.
To my great surprise, I got "Highly Commended" with the Kingdom Death model Erza of Dedheim in Fantasy Painting and a Bronze medal in Fantasy Wargaming with the diorama.
There is no higher standard in any of the miniature painting competitions, so these rewards were more than I could have ever hoped for!
I have attached some pictures in the spoilers, so those who are here for the miniatures can skip them.
The other reason is that I posted a few shots from some of my favorite works there, and some of them are NSFW.
Spoiler:
The main venue was a beautiful building. Shame there were no lights on the tables.
The other one, not so much. It was a hot and a dim gymnasium. But the models were cool!
Finnish display in Master's Fantasy Painting. The lady with the cross won a bronze medal. The others were commended.
Fantasy Wargaming category. My diorama truly had to fight for attention next to Erkka's duel, which won gold in Golden Demon last year!
Some of my favorites:
Sin City style bust. Not mine.
Witch Horn bust. Not mine.
Mindwork Game's "Star Witch" based on the artworks of Gerald Brom. Not mine.
Howling Banshee bust. Not mine.
Loved the metallics on this one. Not mine.
Lady Haera. Won Notable Entry in Golden Demon last year. Not mine.
In the price ceremony. Despite everything else, the medal was really nicely done!
And all the loot from the trip. A few miniatures, some paints, plinths and of course... some wine! Both our bags were quite full!
And to the matter at hand. The diorama itself.
Like a few times before, I will start the display by providing a song that fueled me through the project which you can listen to while looking at the pictures.
For some reason this really hit me and worked as a theme song for the piece.
Spoiler:
"Eyes fixed forward, the cold men of the 308th marched through ash and ruin,
their hearts long buried beneath duty and sacrifice.
One slowed. One knelt.
There she lay, beneath the broken shrine, still and shattered.
Around them, the war pressed on, unceasing, uncaring.
And in that stillness, warmth stirred.
A moment of shared faith,
passed between the devout and the dutiful.
The final prayer."
In the end, I'm really happy with this piece and I think it's my all time favorite. Even if I do say so myself, I think the emotion comes through quite well.
There are few things that I will look into before entering it into Golden Demon, such as increase the edge highlights, add small details and do some cleaning here and there.
But that will have to wait a while. I will jump back into creating some tabletop miniatures for an upcoming event and maybe do a few smaller display projects before getting back to it.
Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoyed the piece.
I'm not seeing the photos for Ezki's work and several of my other favorite creators- just a small square icon; any suggestions on what I need to fix at my end to be able to see the work? Thank you.
Hmm, hard to say.
Try with another browser? Or update the current one. Sometimes certain embeds (such as forum images) might break on different browsers or versions.
On my work PC all youtube videos went bonkers with artifacts, so I had to update the BIOS and chipset drivers. But I doubt it's anything that serious.
So, event report!
The Versailles World Model Expo 2025 was... interesting to say the least.
Enough have been said online regarding the poor organization of the event and I don't want to throw any more fuel to the fire.
Some videos have already emerged in Youtube and I imagine more will follow.
If all that is not taken into account, the trip was great!
There were 10 of us in total; 5 painters and our better halves. It was a lot of fun to meet both old and new friends and talk about miniatures for the whole weekend.
When I finally managed to see the show itself (so very very long queues), the miniatures on display were simply amazing!
Like in many shows, there were quite a few categories. More so on the scale modelling side, but still half a dozen on the miniatures side.
All these categories are divided into "Standard" and "Master's". Like in any other show (except Golden Demon), the prices are given with the "Open Principle", meaning that there are more bronzes, silvers and golds than the usual one of each.
Initially I had planned on entering the Standard categories, as I thought it would be cool to have a better chance to actually win something.
After pondering for a while and getting encouraged by my fellow travelers, I decided to make the jump into Master's! That's the one I'm aiming for in the future, so why not see where I stand.
To my great surprise, I got "Highly Commended" with the Kingdom Death model Erza of Dedheim in Fantasy Painting and a Bronze medal in Fantasy Wargaming with the diorama.
There is no higher standard in any of the miniature painting competitions, so these rewards were more than I could have ever hoped for!
I have attached some pictures in the spoilers, so those who are here for the miniatures can skip them.
The other reason is that I posted a few shots from some of my favorite works there, and some of them are NSFW.
Spoiler:
The main venue was a beautiful building. Shame there were no lights on the tables.
The other one, not so much. It was a hot and a dim gymnasium. But the models were cool!
Finnish display in Master's Fantasy Painting. The lady with the cross won a bronze medal. The others were commended.
Fantasy Wargaming category. My diorama truly had to fight for attention next to Erkka's duel, which won gold in Golden Demon last year!
Some of my favorites:
Sin City style bust. Not mine.
Witch Horn bust. Not mine.
Mindwork Game's "Star Witch" based on the artworks of Gerald Brom. Not mine.
Howling Banshee bust. Not mine.
Loved the metallics on this one. Not mine.
Lady Haera. Won Notable Entry in Golden Demon last year. Not mine.
In the price ceremony. Despite everything else, the medal was really nicely done!
And all the loot from the trip. A few miniatures, some paints, plinths and of course... some wine! Both our bags were quite full!
And to the matter at hand. The diorama itself.
Like a few times before, I will start the display by providing a song that fueled me through the project which you can listen to while looking at the pictures.
For some reason this really hit me and worked as a theme song for the piece.
Spoiler:
"Eyes fixed forward, the cold men of the 308th marched through ash and ruin,
their hearts long buried beneath duty and sacrifice.
One slowed. One knelt.
There she lay, beneath the broken shrine, still and shattered.
Around them, the war pressed on, unceasing, uncaring.
And in that stillness, warmth stirred.
A moment of shared faith,
passed between the devout and the dutiful.
The final prayer."
In the end, I'm really happy with this piece and I think it's my all time favorite. Even if I do say so myself, I think the emotion comes through quite well.
There are few things that I will look into before entering it into Golden Demon, such as increase the edge highlights, add small details and do some cleaning here and there.
But that will have to wait a while. I will jump back into creating some tabletop miniatures for an upcoming event and maybe do a few smaller display projects before getting back to it.
Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoyed the piece.
Mate, the diorama turned out spectacularly well! I’m not in the least bit surprised that you came away with a medal! Good luck in Golden Demon, though I’m not sure where you’ll be able to improve these
Ezki wrote: No problem! Glad it made some sense haha.
I think your quality and style is already really good and it would definitely hold it's ground in Cold North Open! Even this year But if you decide to take part in Ropecon this year or the next, just give me a message or "vedä hihasta" at the miniature area
Thank you very much! I'll definitely get in touch when I can make it to the 'con. This year is a no-go, as it's on the weekend that we'll have my daughter's birthday. Of course, that means that it'll be a similar situation every year, but if I can schedule the trip a year (or at least a couple of months) in advance, I should be able to arrange it.
Huge congrats on the latest awards, well deserved! Heh, that would be a nice medal to pin to your suit if you ever get invited to the "Linnan juhlat"
You brighten up the the podium whenever you show up, glad to have you with us when things align to let you.
so good!
