I decided that this figure has been sitting on my desk for way too long so in a spare hour on Sunday afternoon I decided to finish it. I always thing there's still a lot to do on a figure when it's nearly done, but then I'm surprised as how quickly it's done after all.

vote on CMON

I want to let you know about a blog which really deserves your attention. It's the personal website of fellow countryman Jan 'tuxit' Van Sweevelt. He's a very technical painter, drawing a lot of techniques from material like the miniature painting dvd by Jeremie Bonamant. Another source of inspiration for him are historical miniatures. He once told me the fantasy scene lags behind technique-wise, I can completely agree with him. But it's also true that only a few of us study the art of historical miniature painting to learn new techniques. Jan is one of those few.

Enjoy the blog and Jan, keep those updates coming, and maybe a tutorial sooner or later? :)

Blog address: http://tuxitsminiatures.blogspot.com/

Running the name of my latest project (Souffre Toile) through Google Translate it translates to "Suffer Canvas". I don't know if this is completely correct, but one thing's for sure: this isn't a very easy mini to paint :) Lots of tiny details and hard to reach areas... but it will look very good in the end, I'm sure.

You might notice (from the previous post) the arm carrying the staff is gone, it broke off while handling the mini right after priming it. Not a real problem, since I was somewhat regretting having the arm already attached, since it would have been hindering my brush when working on a lot of areas. So far the skin and the robe is done...

With busy times at work and both the kids sick once again I didn't do much painting the last couple of days. But last week I finished the Undead Pirate by Black Scorpion Miniatures, so this is a great timing to show it to all of you.

Except for the sword the painting isn't all that smooth, but in a way I like the crude build up of contrast on the jacket, especially on the back. But I still suck at painting bone...

This mini was painted for a competition on YouTube. One of the requirements was to mount the figure on a plain black base.

At the time of writing the results were still unknown.

For this edition of Painting Crusade the organizers had to choose a new location, located in Jette (Brussels). Not as atmospheric as the previous one (an old church) but it suited the event very well I think. On the ground floor there was a second hand shop and the painting competition. This room also offered a view on the basement, where retailers and painters where occupying some tables. Special guests of this edition included Julien Casses and Raffaele Picca, who both had some impressive pieces on display. The event might seem a bit too small for some people, but I went there to see well painted miniatures, so I wasn't disappointed at all.

It's a two day event, but I only visited it on Saturday, together with my old-time painting comrade Jasper. It was calm, but the amount of miniatures (and especially the quality) entered in the painting competition was very impressive. After a quick first glance at those I spent some time at the second hand tables, buying some Rackham miniatures. Then we descended into the basement. Few retailers were there, I bought some wooden display bases there and a set of skulls by Fenryll. After checking out the guest display we went back upstairs and spent the rest of our time looking at the miniatures entered in the competition.

Like I already said the level was very high, the masters category was stuffed full, but the other entries also looked very good. I recognized quite a lot of entries from the last German Games Day, and some from CoolMiniOrNot or blogs like Massive Voodoo. Too bad I couldn't come back on Sunday and check who won, because the jury must have had a very hard time deciding!

Now let the pictures speak for themselves...

Last weekend's Painting Crusade was great, although I only went on Saturday for a short while. There were already a lot of entries in the painting competition and the level was extremely high, with several winners from the 2010 German Games Day. But I hope to have a selection of pictures online in the next few days. I even did some filming there.

There was a very small second had market at the event also. And I couldn't resist buying some Rackham miniatures, including the one you see below. I'm still riding on a wave of excitement after seeing the contest entries at the Painting Crusade so I started working on the figure right away. The miniature tree on the base is actually a root I stumbled upon while working in the garden last summer. I decided to keep it because of the awkward shape. I think it suits this figure really nice.

I wasn't really familiar with the figure (I think it was one of the very last Rackham releases) so I looked up both the studio paintjob and the official artwork for inspiration.

First of all a reminder if you live in or near Belgium: don't forget it's Painting Crusade this weekend. Two days filled with some of the best miniature painting art, a painting competition, second hand market, painting demos by Jullien Casses and Raffa Picca, ... what more do you want? Place to be is Le centre Armillaire de Jette in Brussels. If you plan to go drop me a line so we can meet up! If you can't make it be sure to stay tuned for an extensive report of the event. Check the site for more info: http://paintingcrusade.be/WP/

Although I had very little time to paint last week, I made good progress on the Zombie Pirate. Here's a quick WIP shot from my desk, it isn't the best picture (flash went off) but I think it shows the NMM on the sword which I'm quite pleased with.

EDIT: the plinths mentioned in this article are no longer manufactured by VoodooWorx but are now sold by Secret Weapon Miniatures.

VoodooWorx owner Wil Davies was so kind to send me some resin display plinths for me to check out. I'm happy to take a closer look at his high-quality products.

VoodooWorx was founded a year ago by UK Golden Demon winner Wil Davies. There's already quite a big range of products available and there are a lot of plans for the future, including gaming bases and resin terrain. But for now the company focuses on showcase painters, supplying us with some very nice plinths.

Two types of plinths are available: display plinths, which are plain, and themed plinths, which have a texture on top. All plinths come in cube and cylinder shapes.

I got three themed plinths, two 25mm Cobbled Stone Floor plinths and one 40mm Ruined Stone Floor plinth. All of them are very nicely textured, one of the small plinths has a well detailed sewage cover on it. The 40mm base features some stairs.

I'm not a huge fan of the stairs because I think they look slightly out of scale when you put a 28mm figure on it, but it can certainly be used for that as well as larger scales.

I guess there's not much to say about these plinths than that they are of the highest quality. Very finely details, crisp casting. And everything just breathes quality, even the packaging they come in. Just check out the website and you will know what I mean: a lot of other online stores can learn something from this one. What is also good is that all the textured plinths can be seen in a painted and non-painted version.

For the plain display plinths there might be some cheaper alternatives out there, but the textured plinths are certainly worth checking out if you're into serious showcase painting and do not want to waste too much time building a base.