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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!

Good luck, Ezki!

Maria will surely catch the judge's eye.

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!

Good luck Ezki.

Cheers,

CB

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!


Thank you for reading!

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!

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!

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

Well done dude!!

Thanks guys!

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:



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.





I rarely link anything from my Instagram, but this time I'm making an exception. The OSL effect can be seen a lot better from this video:
https://www.instagram.com/tarkamos_mini_workshop/reel/DDaoyzdtwyj/

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!

Thanks for looking!

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!

Absolutely stunning Ezki! The nmm is ridiculously good. Another medal level paint job I reckon

Brutal, OSL is spot on, and the rest is magnifient.

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



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.


Some OSL practice:



Thanks for looking!

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

Kat is looking like another winning entry. The secret Santa Escher is great, too. Heck of a gift.

Thank you both!


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.


Thanks for looking and happy New Year everyone!

So it ends. Not with a bang, but with a POW! Amazing work! Happy New Year!

Damn Ezki, that paint job is fantastic.

Exalted.

Happy New Year.

CB

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

Thank you so much guys!


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!

Man, that's a heapin' helpin' of quality painting. Great year, Ezki!

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.

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!

Quality stuff through the year, Ezki. The Belladonna was quite impressive in real life as well.

Really stunning work.
Always fun to visit your hobby blog.

Stellar painting Ezki. Really inspirational.

Hey Ezki…

Just wanted to offer a belated congratulations on your placement in the event! Well deserved, you paint beautifully

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.

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.

Cheers! Glad you enjoy the content

blockade23 wrote:Stellar painting Ezki. Really inspirational.

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!

Thank you for looking. Catch you next time!