I've been working on them way too long, mainly because they got mixed up with some other projects I was painting at the same time, so I'm happy they're finally done.

It's not really the showcase quality paintjob I wanted to give them at first, but I think the painting really does these figures justice. It's a good gaming quality paintjob for a good gaming quality figure.

Talking about Mantic: they will present their new army (probably undead) at Spiel 2009 this week. Since I'm visiting that event Sunday, expect some preview pictures soon!

Anyway here are the finished Elves. Difficult to take decent pictures of such a group... Oh yeah: they're based on GW bases, in case someone wants to know (again :).

This isn't really a desktop shot, but rather an overview of all my current work in progress projects.
It's a bit too much yes, so the plan is to finish them one by one. Actually the Mantic Elves are almost done at the time of writing, so this picture is a bit outdated:


A couple of Eldar Rangers I'm doing for a friend. Going for a quick paintjob here: basecoat, wash and then two layers of drybrushing.


The Infinity mini which has been sitting on my desk for the last couple of months. The rifle needs to be finished and then the base. I plan to enter this figure at the painting competition at Crisis 2009, together with my Red Karnagh Drune.


The Valkyrie is still here... not much changed since the last time you seen it, apart from some metallics which have been basecoated. I guess this will remain a work in progress for a while, since a project of this size is typically something you want to take a break from from time to time. The only risk is setting it aside for too long :)


The Space Marine Drop pod: about 90% done. Stopped working on this months ago since I got seriously demotivated after painting the yellow-black striping. The yellow basically needed 4 layers to get right, and the paint also reached the other side (the outside of the door) so I needed to correct this. After correcting this I noticed blue paint on the yellow, so I had to correct this too.
But the current plan is to pick this up again after the Infinity and the Mantic Elves and simply finish it. It's no more than 1 or 2 hours work I guess.


Bought this Assault on Black Reach dreadnought on eBay a while ago and already assembled it. It's supposed to be the next addition to my Space Marines army so I will start working on it after the Drop Pod is done.


So I really hope I can tackle all those "nearly done" project as soon as possible and focus one or two things at the same time. Well maybe three when that Valkyrie isn't done. I think one project for my Space Marine army and one small showcase or test piece is the best for me to stay focused. Of course I will keep you all updated.

A couple of years ago I experimented with this technique to make small rivets. The results were quite good, so I want to use them for larger objects too. I've been looking for some more information and there are some very good resources on the internet about this.

• Green Stuff Molds on Youtube (part 1 of 3)
• A Guide to Green Stuff Casting on Warseer
• Green Stuff Mold-Making on Heresy-Online

My plan is to decorate some of my Space Marines with additional heraldry, and to avoid buying a load of Command/Dark Angels/Black Templars upgrade sprues this technique might come in handy.

Last month I showed you a pre-production sprue of the Mantic Elves spearmen. Well actually that sprue comes together with another one in the same box: the command sprue, which I want to show you now. I've only took pictures of half the sprue, since the other half is identical to the regular spearmen sprue. I can't really add much to my previous review... the molding is excellent again and here too there are plenty of options and extra bits. Check them out:



I've also received a lot of questions concerning the size of the bases and how they compare to those of Games Workshop. They measure 20 x 20 mm and have straight edges. For a comparison: check out the pictures below.

In my blog post about the Monde Du Jeu 2009 report, I mentioned something about the pricing of the Mortebrume starter set. Apparently this wasn't really a starter set, but simply an exclusive deal for sale on Monde Du Jeu only which contains all figures.

One of my blog readers, Dimitri, cleared up things in his comment:

"About the prices, this was a limited edition and there was no real "starter pack" at monde du jeu 2009. 130€ was the price for all the figures they were selling which means the four armies. Having a talk with lutin (the boss), he told me that by the end of october (when the game will be released on stores) you will have a starter pack for 15€ (figures, book, dice and everything)."

Thank you for this Dimitri :)

Check here for a nice picture report of the event.

Finally there are some pictures of painted Mortebrume models. I was really looking forward to the figures and the game, but after seeing the pictures my enthusiasm has dimmed. I don't like the figures at all, they look bulky and do not match the high standard of the other French games (Alkémy, Hell Dorado and of course Rackham). Also the starter kit which contains all the figures costs 130 euros. One figure costs 13 euro. No thanks!

I plan to attend these events this fall:

• Euromodelbouw 2009, 10-11 October, Genk, Belgium: this event is held every two years and is mainly meant for scale modelers and miniature railroad hobbyists. I've never been there, but I'm going to take a look around for inspiration and for some materials which might be useful for the fantasy & sf miniature painter too. Probably going on Saturday.
  
• Spiel '09, 22-25 October, Essen, Germany: in the past I always visited gaming events in Belgium and Holland, but this one has to be huge from what I've heard. So this is also the first time I will visit it, I'm going to look around for games and miniatures. I will probably visit on Sunday.
  
• Crisis 2009, 7 November, Antwerp, Belgium: the one event I never miss (well, I missed it once but that's never the plan really). Big fair with all kinds of miniature and gaming related traders, demo tables and of course the painting competition.

Of course you can expect picture reports for each of these events.

Are you also attending any of these? Do you know of an event which might be interesting for me too, but which isn't here? Please comment!