The ninth edition of Painting Crusade was held in the same location as last year: the Centre Armillaire in Jette, Brussels, Belgium. Unlike last year, I visited the event on Sunday, and entered some pieces in the competition.

The layout of the rooms was the same as last year. At the ground floor there was the painting competition display (on the left) and the second hand market (on the right). What also makes this event unique is the fact that the trophees are assembled on the spot (that's what the guy with the red shirt is doing).

At the basement level there is a big table in the middle where you can sit if you bring your own gear. Maybe I should really do so next year :)

There were also some traders present, like Smart Max Miniatures:

A guy selling display plinths:

Amon Miniatures:

And another one which name I forgot.

First a word about how the painting competition was laid out. Basically there were four categories: master, confirmed, debutant and sculpt. The master category was really crowded: with more than 3/4 of all entries. The level of this category was very high, with most entrants being international competition winners (including Golden Demon) and big names in the community. I'm not sure how the judging worked, but it's sure that all of your pieces are taken into account: your entire display is judged.

Here you can see an overview of the entire competition: the blue ribbons are used to mark the categories. Everything on the right is master category, left of that "confirmed", then debutant and on the complete left there's the sculpting category.

I decided to enter my pieces in the "confirmed" category. Before announcing the big winners I can already say I won silver with my display:

If you want to have a closer look at these figures, please check out my gallery.

Okay let's continue with some pictures of the masters category:

One of the figures of David Waeselynck, who took third prize overall:

This monk by Raffaele Picca is probably one of the most stunning pieces of the show. Those fish swimming in the cup were really amazing to see. Together with the rest of the display it won him the overall gold.

Two other pieces from his display:

Roman Lappat's display. He took second prize overall with his display and this particular piece won him the best of show award.

More from the rest:

Now we take a look at the "confirmed" category:

Sculpting category:

The judges at work: Michael Delcroix (black shirt), Steve Party (red shirt), and Thibaut Payen (kneeling):

The trophees:

The ceremony is about to start:

The entries were judged using an "open" format, meaning that in every category you could have multiple bronze, silver and gold. When these prizes were given, the three best gold winners from the masters category were awarded a "Golden Edmond":

David Waeselynck:

Roman Lappat:

Raffaele Picca:

After that Roman received the best of show award, for the best single miniature (for his Rhino). Winning this prize also implies he is invited to be the head judge next year.

Again I was really surprised by this event. Scale wise it isn't as big: but the quality level of the entries was simply amazing. It's the number one painting event in Belgium, that's for sure. It really needs more promotion in the future. See you next year!

This weekend it was Painting Crusade IX in  Brussels, Belgium. It was really amazing to once again see so many fantastic pieces in the competition. The level was so high the masters category took up 3/4 of all entries :)
I entered my miniatures in the "confirmed" category. My display won silver! I'm very happy :)

A report will be posted here in a couple of days, stay tuned!

This article will describe the process of stripping paint from a miniature using Acetone.

Acetone is cheap (I paid 5 euro for 1 liter) and quite easy to work with. Always use acetone in a well ventilated place, make sure you don't waste anything in the sink, on the ground, and keep the product away from children, pets, ...

I bought a bottle of acetone in a DIY store, you can find this product usually where other liquids like ammonia, white spirit and brush cleaner are.



Don't be fooled by the fact that acetone is often packed in a plastic bottle. The liquid and also the fumes will melt away most plastics, including those used in our hobby, both on models and bases. This makes it unusable for plastics. I haven't tried it on resin though.
This is the victim. Before submerging her into the acetone I removed the base.



Use a glass jar with a metal lid for the stripping process. A shallow jar is easier to retrieve the miniature. Put the figure in the jar (or more than one in one go), and pour a couple of centimeters over it.
Please notice I am doing this above the sink in my garage. By no means do this in your kitchen or anything. If you don't have a garage do this outside.



Now leave it to soak. How long is up to you and also depends on the paintjob on the miniature: is it covered in a thick layer of paint and/or primer? Is it only lightly basecoated? In my case the figure got an intermediate coat of white primer and some thin layers of paint.
Even minutes after putting it in the liquid I saw paint flaking off. So this stuff is quite violent to the painted surface. So my guess is, if you're in a hurry, you can already take out the figure after 30 minutes, or maybe less. I left mine to soak for 8 hours, but I assume there isn't much difference between a 4 hour soak or an overnight one. A lof of the primer has also dissolved by now:



Take the figure out of the jar with some pliers or tongs. Put it under some running water. Seeing the picture now makes me realize I'd better put a bucket or something in the sink. This is a must when working with small parts. You don't want any of those washing down the drain.



The result after the soak and the rinsing with water:



Now give it a good rub with a toothbrush, under lukewarm water and with some dishwashing fluid. The final result is quite surprising, all the primer came off. Only in the deepest recesses there is some paint left. If you want you can try to fiddle that out with a needle or something, but usually this won't be noticed when painting.

Vote on CoolMiniOrNot.

So far winter has been more like a cold autumn around here, but a bit more than a week ago things changed. With temperatures of -5 during the day and -15 during the night it's exceptionally cold this time of year. We had only one snow shower so far, which is a real blessing since traffic messes up pretty quickly here in Belgium.

The Drune unit is getting some delay. When I started working on them the plan was to get them ready before Painting Crusade IX, but since that's highly unlikely my motivation for the project has dropped somewhat :) But the figures have their skin basecoated and shaded already. It's going to be one of those on and off projects I guess.

For some reason Infinity has triggered my interest again. So I dug up a figure I bought years ago and paint it up quickly. I think there's about 4 hours of work in this figure:

And then for the title of this blog post. A new friend has joined me in the painting studio:

Knee problems caused me to quit running (which I did 3 times a week) and owning a racing bike is a dream of mine I have for a long while now, so I decided to make the investment. I'm not going to take it outside with those cold temperatures, so I mounted it on a roller. The downside is that I now have to choose again between painting and sporting when I have an hour time :)