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Thank you everyone

Meer_Cat wrote:Huzzah and well done!

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!

Amazing work as usual Ezki.
I especially like the paint job on the one with the pistol, but the one with the big sword is my favorite model.

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...

Congrats, Ezki!

Cool work on these minis. They don’t suffer from you not chasing smoothness at all. In fact some of the textures add to them I feel

Thank you guys!

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":



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!

I second the love for the converted Archon. She came out great.

Oh I love the idea of the spirit hosts being the Mandrakes; that's a really cool take on the concept. The Archon also looks fantastic!

Amazing drows there!

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.

Thanks for looking!

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!

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).

Those sisters are looking great! Excellent paintjob, and I too agree that the basing is spot on.

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 for the comments everyone!

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.

Thanks for looking!

That face is beautiful.

Those eyes are amazing. The painted cloth texture on your SoB is also really impressive.

Some cool conversions in the offing Ezki! The eyes on the bust are absolutely stunning as well

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


Thanks for looking!

That is gorgeous paint work on the Lady Maria bust.

The leather work is blowing my kind. Cute little eye monsters, too.

It's amazing how real you can make these busts look when you paint them, Ezki

Thank you Tommygun1918, youwashock and Syro_!


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.

Thanks for looking!

Amazing work on the sword. And everything else…

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

Dedication to the craft, indeed. Going to be another stellar piece, Ezki.

Thank you guys!


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!

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!