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I like the school buses... very nice! Need the little stop signs that swing out though.

Man I am consistently blown away by your historical stuff, those 15mm vehicles look great.

Plus at the *toot* *toot*.

Wiper smears on mini windscreens! are you serious!? that's the level of detail that widens the gap from 'good painting' to 'OMG HAVE YOU SEEN SIGGY"S STUFF'

@Gitsplitta: I got the schoolbus remark on two forums now!

@Shanks: Thanks very much!

@nerdfest09: Thank you, that's very kind. Well, there is only so much you can do with 15mm windshields.



Riptide WIP:


The legs are a bit more further in than the upper body, especially in terms of weathering and such.

Shadowstalker WIP:


It's a bit of a clichée at this point but: "He's prettier in real life"




Had another test game of "X-Wing adapted for WW2 pacific" last night. Time's getting tight for Austrian Salute where it's going to be showcased but the whole thing looks like it's working rather well. Last night we added changing of altitudes, changed a few things about heavy AA gun fire and japanese aircraft properties.








I guess it's time I get my own painting workshop organized for the Salute. Considering it's a four hours drive if I remember correctly and I have to set up everything prior to opening... argh.


Anyway, hope you like the Tau so far, hope you like the pictures of the game!

The riptide looks great, but it feels like its missing something from its left arm. Again the weathering looks amazing

You lead such a wonderfully varied gaming life Sigur, I'm quite jealous. Back when I was in school... we did the same thing, played different games every weekend. Things were a lot more interesting because you never knew what "adventure" you were going to have week to week.

@dantay_xy: Yeah, I left that thing off for painting. No need to make things unnecessarily complicated for once I thought. The upper torso and legs also weren't glued together for painting.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks and yup, I'm darned grateful for having connected with the local historical dudes. It's not like I'm not playing any sci-fi/fantasy these days but it's cool to have met up with people I'm on the level with when it comes to how we enjoy games. I spent silly amounts of money on new figures and as you see in this thread I'm getting into new stuff about every two months but it's not too expensive and it's oh so good fun. It's nice to share something with people, not only around the world like here on Dakka but also locally and have games and such. Good times.




Well, let's turn on the disco lights...











I hope he works for the army's big eye-catchy thing. Full well knowing that this is going to be his job (that and shooting things with ions) I ramped up the pizzazz, or panache if you will, a little bit.

Over the past months i noticed this trend of people using black background for their miniatures. It certainly looks very moody and makes certain colours come out much better. It also hides little mistakes, crappy painting and so on which for some people surely is a nice thing. Today on Facebook, which in some cases may be the biggest collection of bad miniatures photos in the world, I saw a picture that kind of took the cake. It was a black and boltgun metal painted mini with a little bit of OSL strewn in. That was visible but the rest of the model - nope, nothing. It wasn't badly painted (I think) and the photography wasn't bad either but it just baffled me how somebody chooses a matte black background for taking pictures of a black and dark metallic model.

It goes without saying that tomorrow I'll go out and pick up some black cloth. Because despite the fact that there are a ton of things I despise about trends in miniatures painting (or rather presentation thereof) nowadays I gotta "stay in touch" with that. Usually, when I start doing it it's often rather fun but many things I just don't get.

Anyway, the ramblings of some person who spent more than 20 minutes on 40k-related Facebook groups today. Five minutes really is the threshold before some of the things that go on over there get my blood boiling. But hey, if I still can get mad about the annoying people means I'm still alive, right?

Well, that turned dark and rambly quickly. It's good to be able to rant every now and then. What I MEANT to say is this: The Riptide's finished, I hope that you like it. Tomorrow I'll pick up a new background material which should lead to some really pretty photos as well.

We duffers need all the help we can get!

I use black purely because my camera has an easier time focusing on the models when i try and take pics, I prefer lighter backgrounds like the way you showcase your work, I agree black is easier to obtain an acceptable final image for us hobbyists who are just trying to show our models though :-)

and speaking of models!! Oh my lordy, you are painting what is my favorite Tau army scheme! everything just looks perfect to me, every model that you've done I want to take home, the Riptide is just simply great, it all ties in so cohesively I love it!

and each time I see your little boats on the table it reminds me of a pickup line I used on more than one occasion " Hi, do you want to come back to my place for a swim?....... I don't have a pool..... but i've got blue sheets!"

@Gitsplitta:

@Nerdfest09: I didn't mean to sound condescending about the background. Thanks for the comment on the Riptide, glad it gets so much positive feedback. And I really like that blue sheet line. I gotta remember that for when I run out of reasons for people to laugh at me.



Alrighty, new WIP! This time it's Tetras:



I really like these little things. Along with the Remora drones these must be my favourite FW kits for Tau. They look just fun and unarmed and sleek and not too complicated. They're basically city cars for two. Really fun models.

Great work on the riptide and tetras. Really nice scheme, painted beautifully.

On the topic of photo backgrounds; I never had much luck getting good pictures with a plain white (or even a plain black) background. They usually come out too light or too dark. Could be something to do with using a single lamp and a camera phone...

So I use a selection of different backgrounds which vary in colour and lightness/darkness and then I'll try each one with the model until I find the one background that maintains the contrast and colour ballance of the model. Then I take many many pictures and pick the best to upload.

Your pictures always look very good. Which is nice.

I didn't think you were being condescending Siggy! I just thought you wanted feedback about the ins and outs of why we do what we do sometimes! :-)

tetras!..... Gah...... you know it, I know it, we ALL know it...... looking good as usual! :-)

@Dr.H: Thanks, good Sir! Yeah, camera phones don't lead to the best results in the world. However, for lighting white paper backgrounds can help a fair bit by reflecting a portion of the light back.

@Nerdfest09: You and some other people may know it but I still won't get tired of hearing it! Thanks for the reply, buddy.


Okay, a bit of a late night insubstantial surprise update on the Zouaves:



Only the front rank is at the stage displayed, the second rank only have some base colours and some highlighting on the jackets done for now. On one of the guys you can see the half-hearted attempt at striped trousers. For now I thought I'd do everything else and just then proceed to the trousers.

Not sure if I mentioned it before but these fellas are supposed to depict the Louisiana 'Tiger Rifles' (1st special brigade or what the official designation was) so the uniforms are supposed to look a little something like this:



...which sounds cool in theory but as soon as you actually are confronted with not only white trousers but also white trousers with a lot of blue stripes you go

Mystery things! Unrelated to any of the above.

Dude you sure broke the hell outta that mirror!

Display base for an artillery piece and crew...

@nerdfest09: IT MOCKED ME!!!!

@Gitsplitta: Good call and almost spot on.





This is way more WIP than it may look like mind you.. Still, I thought that after two years it's time for an update again. :D

I like the little stream underneath it. Nice touch.

*insert old man voice* Ahhhh I remember back in the day..... yes a land ship looked a lot like that one does, twas a good long time ago mind.....

That's looking great. Really like the blue and yellow shields.

@Gitsplitta: Hey, in my article for Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Magazine I waxed on for a huge paragraph about why adding a small body of water is always a good idea in a diorama so that's a must. Thanks!

@nerdfest09: I checked and it seems like that I started painting this one in december 2011. Got it the August before that if I remember correctly.

@Dr H: Thanks, mate!



Alright peeps, this is how finished it will be at the show next week:











Yeah, it still lacks the flag and the freehand on the front shield is still quite raw BUT it looks quite sexy on the first look. I hope that you think so as well.

Disgustingly good. Great job.

@Dr H: Thanks mate, much appreciated.

Well, the pictures are posted, it's Sunday late at night, let's get to the bloggy stuff in which I pester you will walls of text with too much information from my weird existance.

This weekend was rather eventful I have to say. A few weeks ago a friend of mine who works at a radio station asked me if I wanted to partake in show on the radio in which he hosts have to guess a person's job and they always need new freaks with weird jobs. I have to say that I got a face that's quite suited for being on the radio so there was a perfect fit. I wasn't really sure weather I really should do it because this just isn't something my personality is made for. But then again I would have regretted it for the rest of my life so I just went and did it. Of course I wasn't clever or funny or good in the least but to think that I, as a miniatures painter, being on a live radio show for an hour with a host of whom I've been a HUGE fan eversince my early teens - that pretty much is wilder than anything I could have made up. For once, I think I got something I could impress 15 year old me with. The show can be listened to for the next five days on the station's website, it's in German and probably not highly interesting but oh well. I did that now.

Today I went to Vienna's army museum again because Go! Modelling was on again. A modelling show that's been on for a few years now and just this year I managed to go there. Originally I had planned to be there with a painting table and the whole show setup but it didn't work out so I just went as a 'civilian'.



See, army museum! Cannons in the parking lot and stuff!


...and of course a Saab Draken, for a long time the crown jewel in Austria's Air Force(tm) and the butt of many a joke.


Few years ago, in probably the shadiest arms deal ever, we got the Eurofighters now. Whoop-ee. I think we're still paying for them.

Upon entering I found myself in the Feldherrnhalle, starring a lot of larger-than-life sculptures of important military figures from Austria's past. Wallenstein(?) here seemingly did the information point. (Disclaimer: Not sure if the guy in the lower part of the picture is doing a rude gesture there. I don't think so but you never know.)



Look, it's old Pappenheim! I'm sure you recall him from my Thirty Years War project (yes, today's the test )


Emperor Franz Josef! If Austrians talk about "the emperor" they talk about this guy (unless they're 40k fans)who famously said "just another fad" when first confronted with a telephone.



Upon entering the second level I saw this:



A guy in the front ran a lecture on how he modified a ship model to be more realistic. I felt right at home. This is the stuff.


I have to admit that I "nerded out" as the kids these days say about the Thirty Years War stuff but I'll try to keep it to a minimum in here. However I really like the look of this rather comedic duo:



17th century cuirasses of course. And it's rather easy to tell which one's the wacky guy and who's the straight guy. One thing about these things is that people often overestimate their size. People indeed were a lot smaller then.

All the TYW stuff aside, there also was a rather nice display:

A whole room is dedicated to the long wars against the Ottoman Empire of course. Some remarkably pretty handguns as well:





If you're not as interested in that kind of stuff - look there's a naked butt in the second picture! ha!

Well, on to the models. There was a competition going on with highly specialized categories such as "armoured vehicles of scales larger than 1/48th". My attention was mostly drawn to the figurines and dioramas. A bit of Fantasy stuff was on display as well:



They also had a slightly modified Tau battlesuit and a Death Rider of Krieg who I swear I'd seen before somewhere.

Here's a pretty cool diorama with a clever little effect which worked GREAT at first glance. I took the picture so you can see what's going on. In the lower half you can see how it appears from most angles and in the upper half you can see the foil used. It did look really, really good though.



Here's another one:




Most of the tables had sheets, asking people not to touch the models but these guys got the message across even clearer:




Here's a little Gladiators diorama (1/72nd I think). Maybe good for some inspiration. Jugula! is right around the corner I think.



This guy... I KNOW I've seen him before, on the cover of some magazine or something. Such a great character bust. I have to track this one down.


Not really supergreatly done technically but it made me giggle. Obviously somebody had some leftover models and decided to have a little fun.


Another fun one - a just downed German pilot has to flee the wrath of a broom-swinging lady who's pumpkin field he ruined by accident:


The pumpkins of course I recognized. Used them on my 2011 Halloween vignette myself. They're really popular I think. I see them popping up in all kinds of places.

Today they also opened the "Panzergarten" outside of the museum where some tanks are on display. Nothing horrifyingly interesting because it's mostly old equipment of the Austrian army. However, there was some larger scale RC tanking going on:



This fella aside, there was a slightly smaller T-34/85, rolling off into the distance.


...possibly to find this fully grown version of himself:


All this got me musing as to why is it that tanks are so utterly fascinating. I think it must be the very same reasons most of us find dinosaurs so highly interesting.

Of course there were a bunch of non-military models kicking around as well:


Not sure if you read my articles on the Vienna modelling show from a few years ago but even today the nativity scene people showed up. I don't complain because they do some really nice stuff and to be honest I could see myself getting into such things. It's nice to have something peaceful to model for a change.


...but mostly it just was all about blowing things up, horror and bloodshed:









Here are some more notable entries I saw today:









This last one was massive. Something like 1/16th or something. Highly impressive stuff.


Well, that's that. I took a bunch more photos so if you want to have a look, please follow this link: http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/go-modelling-2014/

Hope you liked one or the other picture. Next weekend I'll travel to Salzburg for a wargaming show, this time along with all my painting stuff and display models and such.

Looks sick Sigur!
You don't know how lucky you Europeans are with your modelling shows. Down here we have a drought that lasts up until June..... June is really the only major modelling event month for us in Melbourne. One day I will get to euro militaire, and all of the other shows in Europe, one day..........

Thanks for the tour, that was awesome!

As for the land ship, the base alone is incredible, I'm out of words for the model itself...

And that is just the latest shown...

Did somebody actuallly guess what your job was?

Wonderful, wonderful stuff Sigur. Thanks so much for sharing all your photos!

Man that looks like a fun day! gotta love me a tiny tank :-)

 nerdfest09 wrote:
Wiper smears on mini windscreens! are you serious!? that's the level of detail that widens the gap from 'good painting' to 'OMG HAVE YOU SEEN SIGGY"S STUFF'

I will echo this. Your attention to detail is nuts and I love you for it.

@Tech Guard: Thanks for your comment and that's a really good point. Also a good point to consider for all the people who move out to live in New Zealand and Canada these days! On the downside, around here we got nothing to surf on and don't find obscenely huge and probably deadly poisonous spiders and lizards between our bedsheets. But you're right. I often complain about how fractured the historical wargaming community is here in Austria. The upcoming weekend I'll have to do a 3.5hours drive to a wargames show. I'm sure that in Australian terms this is more like "driving down the road to get some cigarettes". The Melbourne show is a multi-day thing like the ones they do in the US then?

@Littetower: You're very welcome. I'm kind of chuffed how these pictures resonate so well. Yeah, my job was guessed on the last minute basically after the director, who also was the umpire and the guy I talked to at the beginning and around the middle about what I do so the listener got an idea, gave them a clue. It was incredibly hard though to get to a common definition that actually would be guessable.

@Rabid Ferret: Thanks, love.



Here's a little detail picture I forgot to post earlier:


Took me long enough to bend the shield to be flat on one side, bent upwads and cracked on the other side so I can just as well post a picture of it.

Sigur, you are a legend among men! That museum looks spectacular, awesome show too. I really like the Messerschmitt(?), a fun diorama. I'm not sure why, but I really like the way that the German planes were painted. Bostin' job on the Empire land ship, excellent photos too! I think that they'd better catch the powder monkey, just in case