Last weekend the 2015 edition of Painting Crusade was held in Namur, Belgium. This year I did not compete in the competition, but I spent the entire Sunday afternoon at the show, looking at the miniatures on display and taking pictures. Here is the result:

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This year's edition was a very crowded one, it looks like SMC just keeps on growing! The layout of the main hall was improved and offered more space for clubs, there was a separate expo zone and an incorporated game zone. Last year's game zone was replaced by even more traders. Scale Model Factory, the organizing club, did another flawless job, everything was just perfect.

Just like the last editions, my friends Maartje, Gert, Pascal and myself occupied a table in the club area. We decided to put all of our models on one side of the table, which offered a more impressive showcase. But we also noticed that there were a lot less people inclined to start a chat with us, as opposed to the previous years where we displayed our miniatures right in front of us. But we also spent less time behind the table, there was simply too much to see!

The expo zone was dominated by Massive Voodoo, again with some nice models on display:

Also good to see some of my friends from Paint Your Imagination also had a nice display set up:

Also on their table, a very nostalgic figure and paintjob, the Rackham Dirz bust by Dirk Stiller, fantastic to see this one again!

But the eye catcher of the main hall was probably the huge diorama displaying the Clervaux (Luxembourg) castle during the heavy fighting of World War II. This was the final show where it was put on display, it will now be moved to a museum. The entire thing is 25 square meters!

Just behind the corner the trade area started. The nicest booth there was probably the one from Painting Buddha. I also managed to have a talk with owner and fellow blogger Michael Bartels, what a friendly guy, with a lot of devotion to the hobby.

The painting competition was also bigger this year, with more than 800 entries. The downside to this was that especially the fantasy & sf figure categories where really full, so there were a lot of figures in a small area, making it hard to quietly have a look at the figures and take pictures.

And then it was time for the super-long prize ceremony with me winning silver in the standard sf & fantasy figure category :D

All pictures are available on both Facebook and Google+, and please check below for a compilation of clips I filmed at the show. See you all next year!

Scale Model Challenge 2014 gallery on Google+
Scale Model Challenge 2014 gallery on Facebook

When last year's Scale Model Challenge was over, I thought it was hard to do any better. But it seems this event is still growing more popular! A huge show overall, with tens of clubs and traders, and a painting competition with nearly 800 entries. And now the rumour goes that this event might cover an entire weekend next year. We'll see, but it's good to see this is still growing.

It's been a fantatic day overall, I met a lot of new people and others which I haven't seen for years. The day was definitely too short :)

The painting competition went pretty well for me. It hasn't been a very productive year for me competition-pieces wise, but nonetheless one of my two entries managed to win something. My Haqqislam Remote won me a silver medal in the SF & Fantasy figures advanced category.

I planned on buying some new Infinity, or something else 28mm gaming related, but alas most traders were geared towards military modeling and larger scale figure painting. But last week I removed all my useless paints from my collection, so I had to replace some of them. I also bought a couple of plinths.



I now have more than 200 pictures and more than 50 video clips to go through, so I hope to put a picture gallery online in the next few days and a video by next weekend.

It's that time of year again (yes time flies): Scale Model Challenge is upon us! Just like the last two years I will have a table at the club area together with my regular partners in crime: Maartje, Pascal and Geert. Please don't be shy and stop by for a chat!

In case you missed it, check out my 2013 and 2012 reports and the SMC website.

And did I mention Infinity? Yes! Lately this fantastic line of figures seems to have gotten even better, so I could resist picking up some of the more recent sculpts. These guys are called the Morate Vanguard Infantry. Going for a good gaming quality paintjob here, with the emphasis on contrast. I hope you like them!

A while ago I got invited to book a table for painting demos at Impact Miniature Event in Uden, The Netherlands. I never really heard about the event, but decided to anyway. It's more of a gaming event than a painting event, but I had a good time there nonetheless. I had a table with Pascal Rooze and Maartje Giesbers (usually one of those is always involved in such an event :), next to us there were some members of Scale Model Factory and on the other side Peter Zuidgeest from Scar's Miniature Madness together with Michiel Coppens.

There was also a small painting competition there, which I didn't really plan on entering. But since all the other painters were entering something I decided to take on the challenge and to enter something. To my surprise my Project PC-MMIX won first prize in the regiment/diorama category! And on top of that I was also awarded a very nice trophee by Scale Model Factory, for the most creative entry.

Below you can find a picture of that trophee and then some pictures from the show. For the full gallery go here.

Small "mood-video" I compiled from a bunch of clips I shot last weekend.

If you are looking for a full photoset of the event, please check out the Painting Crusade XI gallery.

A youth house on the hillside of the small town of Champion near Namur was the place to be for the eleventh Painting Crusade. For the first time the urban scenery of downtown Brussels was traded for a more rural location at the forefront of the Belgian Ardennes.

Last year's edition was fantastic, the best so far (read my report here). When I heard the location was about to change my expectations were that it was to grow even further. But on the contrary, the youth house was much more cosy. The entire event was held in one big room, with the usual big painting table, a couple of second-hand tables, an "indie shop", a bar, and then in the back the painting competition, together with some display cabinets with work from this year's jury.





This year the jury consisted out of last year's overall winner Benoit Menard, sculptor Patrick Masson, and Denmark's number one painter: Jakob Rune Nielsen. Pretty big names if you ask me!

Here they are in the process of judging the Masters category:



Some of Patrick's sculpts on display:

What's so about Painting Crusade is that every year I get to see several legendary figures, like the Centaur by Jakob Rune Nielsen:



Other figures were on display as well:



And finally Benoit's amazing work.

I arrived just in time for Patrick's sculpting demo, which was held in a separate room. I'm not really into sculpting, but it was very interesting to see a pro at work. Patrick is also very good at explaining what he doest. Kudos to the Painting Crusade team for the camera and beamer setup.

After that I went back to the painting competition to check out the figures. Overall there were a lot less entires than last year, but the masters category was again filled with top-notch paintjobs.

Like every year there was a special edition category, with entries containing last year's event-only figure. I was very happy winning gold in this category with my project I finished the night before the competition. The hard work paid off :) Apart from that I also won bronze in the confirmed category with my Brood Master.



The other figure that won gold in the category.

It was really great to see those figures, which really are a blank canvas to unleash your inspiration upon.

Some pictures from the masters category. 

A very cool turtle by this year's overall winner: Maxime Corbeil.

Another legendary piece: War for Macragge by Julien Casses.

Remember you can see much more pictures in the Painting Crusade XI gallery. Finally here's a short "mood-video" I compiled from a bunch of clips shot during the day.


I went home with some mixed feelings after this Painting Crusade. As usual it was very fun, the overall level of the pieces on display was insanely high, but I was a bit surprised by the smaller size of this year's event. This all has to do with last year's edition I suppose, which was so awesomely good that it's very hard to do better. Personally I don't think this will be the start of a downfall for Painting Crusade, but rather a new start. All in all the organization has done a terrific job once again. Several big names in the painting scene still visit this event, proving this isn't your regular painting competition organized by a small painting store or club.

There is no doubt I will be there again next year!