The last couple of days I spent a few hours in the wonderful world of army painting. The Hobbit box contains two sprues of goblins, each containing 18 figures. My goal is to get the figures for the first scenario finished as soon as possible: 12 goblins and a goblin character, 4 dwarfs and of course the scenery.

A batch of 18 figures of course means some sacrifices on the level of quality. On the other hand I have set some rules to ensure a good level of quality and contrast, for example I want to stay away from techniques like drybrushing and washing. Instead of edge-highlighting I'm trying to do zenithal highlighting as well. Actually the technique to paint these resembles my technique to paint showcase level miniatures a lot. Only the paint is less thin, there are less layers, the brush strokes are a lot less precise, etc.

At this point I have spent about 5-6 hours painting them. This means somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes per figure.

Some close-ups.

This was the last post of this year. Enjoy your holidays and see you in 2013!

Remember those Fellowship of the Ring miniatures I stripped back in July (post here). Well, a couple of weeks ago I created a display base for them (I noticed I didn't show it on my blog yet) and recently I started painting them. I decided to start with some of the Hobbits...

Focus was good on this project, it seemed that I could paint at least all Hobbits without too much distraction... but then another Hobbit appeared, one by the name of Bilbo Baggins:

So now I find myself in the middle of painting a batch of 18 goblins... I have seen the movie as well last week, very inspiring!

The plan is to get the stuff for the first scenario finished asap: 12 goblins + captain, 4 dwarves and then of course the scenery. When I finish all the scenarios I'll see where it goes from there... this is going to be my first miniature game in years! I'm not really used to painting rank & file figures but I must say I can apply a lot of stuff I use in showcase miniatures as well, only a bit less thinned, a bit less precise, less layers :)

November was pretty cool :) I finished another piece: Dark Vlad by Enigma Miniatures. It's also my highest ranking miniature on CoolMiniOrNot. It even made it to the Top Last 7 Days :)

Another cool thing was my invitation to Putty & Paint. Check out my gallery here: http://www.puttyandpaint.com/Corvus

Okay let's continue with the other highlights:

Festus the Leechlord by C'tan

Dark Elves by James Wappel

Hellgate Diorama by Karol Rudyk

Stegadon duo by James Wappel

Scourge Witch by Sproket

Beastman by Dark Knight

Flames of War tanks by Steel Demons

Skaven Warlord on Brood Horror by C'tan

Gandalf by Cladazx

Dirz Army by Karol Rudyk

Also, Games Workshop released its next big thing: The Hobbit miniature game. I wasn't very impressed at first, but I must say the releases, especially the starter box, has started to grow on me, from a gamer's standpoint of view that is. From a painter's standpoint this is what I think:

No I'm not going to pay 60 EUR for a box with 4 figures of which I want only one :)

Recently I got invited to a new image gallery called Putty & Paint. The site is definitely worth checking out as the average quality level there is amazing! It is currently invite only, so they have control about how many and which members they let in. That's one concern of mine: as soon as they release the site to the public then how will they manage to keep the quality level that high? Anyway I'm very proud to be part of the first 100 people who got invited.

Check out my gallery here: http://www.puttyandpaint.com/Corvus

Did some painting on this little guy. The base is going to be orange-brown, so I decided to give him a turquoise jacket since it will contrast well with his surroundings :) He's mounted on a toothpick so very small indeed!

In this video I will explain how I use balsa wood on a base and how I improve the texture and hardness. This video is available in HD: when the video is running, click the cogwheel in the bottom right corner and switch to 720p.

For the first time in my miniature painting career I made it to the top last 7 days on CoolMiniOrNot, wow!

It's also my highest ranking figure on CoolMiniOrNot. The one after that, with a rating of 8.5 is a figure I painted more than 8 years ago. A decent piece of work, but voting standards have definitely changed the last couple of years. CMON link here.

A very early WIP of an unnamed project. The only thing that's sure right now is that it's my entry for the Bananalicious contest at Massive Voodoo :)

Dark Vlad by Enigma Miniatures.

Vote on CoolMiniOrNot.

Apart from some touch-ups and final glazes Vlad is nearly done. Base has a lot of work left, will add a lot of grass, plants, etc.

October has been a great month! Getting quite a lot of painting done (for my standards at least), having finally finished the Blood Angels Death Company and having a great time at Scale Model Challenge 2012. One thing is missing from the list below however, no new releases have caught my eye... except maybe for the art book by Roman & Raffa... but that one is not even released yet :D

Painted Miniatures

Chaos Cultist by Emuse
Tomb King by Sproket
Yürgen Malapipa by Suou
Severus: Renewal by automaton
Dragon Slayer by rusto
Abyssal Warlord by C'tan
Migail The Selenite by We7

Other

Basing ideas by Serpentarium
SMC 2012 report by MaGie
Indiegogo Art Book campaign by Roman Lappat & Raffaele Picca

After several years in the conference hall of the Metropolis movie theater complex, it was time for Crisis to move to a bigger location. After they decided to cancel the painting competition two years ago, I skipped the event since then. But this year I wanted to see what the new location had to offer. Now being held in the Waagnatie (a former port hangar), it offered more room, creating a much more relaxed, less crammed, hot and sweaty experience :).

The recipe still is the same, apart from the painting competition: lots of traders, focusing on wargaming (all scales & genres) and then some participation and demo games by an international selection of clubs. Now spread over two huge halls, it has all a wargamer needs: miniatures, games, terrain, etc. Maybe a bit too much in my opinion, apart from Ammon miniatures being there I didn't really see which was specifically oriented towards showcase painters, no wooden display plinths or something of the like for example. My memory could fool me here, but in my opinion there was more of that stuff a couple of years ago. Now there were at least 4 traders offering the full range of Army Painter products, to give you an idea...

But for wargamers this really is a must, lot's of traders offering serious discounts on starter sets etc.

On to the pictures...

Well located near the entry was Micro Art Studios' booth, with this nice demo table for their Wolsung skirmish game.

Earlier this year Micro Art Studios and Discworld Miniatures split up as a company, but it's clear they still have very close ties with each other:

Smart Max with their Smog range.

The highlight of the show for me was Taban Miniatures showing off their game Eden.

The center of the first hall was filled by participation and demo games on big tables like these:

Freebooter's Fate demo table:

And some of their miniatures:

Pardulon from Germany with some excellent resin scenery:

Overview of the second hall:

Bushido:

Lots of manufacturer we selling laser-cut MDF, like this:

I hope you enjoyed this report. Pictures are also available on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.511621928848888.122712.115014731842945&type=1