Last week my second daughter was born. Her name is Feline and she's doing very well. Here's a picture of her together with me and her big sister, Fiona.


Needless to say there won't be many updates in the next few weeks. Anyway: happy holidays!

Antenociti's Workshop is an online store selling all kinds of high-quality materials and tools for scenery building. From grass flock to ruins, they have it all at a really good price.

There's also an extensive articles section on the site, and two articles have caught my attention last week because they tackle two common problems when trying to create realistic looking ground.

First there's an article on ground covered by grass and how to make everything look very realistic: http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/Extras/extras%20-%20Groundwork%20-%20The%20Art%20of%20Flor(a).html

The second article is about creating realistic looking dunes and sand cover: http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/Extras/extras%20-%20modeling%20realistic%20sand.htm

I will have to read more of their articles in the future, because the level of realism achieved is fantastic! Of course I will post the links here.

I mentioned this little side-project in my latest desktop shot post, and here are the details. I've bought this boxed set about a year ago on eBay, but I never opened it. A few months ago I assembled and based the figures, and now I finally started painting them. I'm not really planning to use them for gaming purposes, and a very high-quality paintjob would take up a lot of time so I'm going for a very good gaming standard.

This picture was taken last week when I primed the figures and stained them using a dilluted mix of sepia and black ink.


After that I painted the skin area on all the models. Right now I'm focusing my work on two figures: Aragorn and Frodo. Here's what I have so far:

I'm working on several projects at the moment... so it's time for another desktop shot to give an overview.


In front of the paint bottles are some more Space Marines. They're tacticals with special weapons. On this picture they are only basecoated, but I finished the armour of four of them yesterday, and the others' armour is also nearly done.

At the bottom left you can see the latest addition to my Space Marine force: a Drop Pod. It was a joy to assembly, a bit tricky in times but I think it turned out OK. I used two colors of primer on the pod: black for the inside and the bottom, and white for the outside. At first I wanted to leave the pod in a few pieces to make the painting easier, but in the end I decided to assemble the entire thing in one go. This allowed me to put some extra glue on here and there and create a really strong structure and I avoided the painstaking process of assembling and touching up already painted parts.

In the center of the table (on the two bits of foam) is the Infinity mini I mentioned earlier. Actually this is 60% done, so I should really post a WIP here before it's done :)

And then the group of brownish figures in the center is my latest side-project: the Fellowship of the Ring. I don't play the game, but I'm really intrigued by it and the figures are great. The Fellowship box has been lying around my desk for almost a year now, so I decided it's time to paint this up finally. I'm going for a very good gaming standard. Right now I'm working on the skintones. A WIP post will be dedicated to these figures really soon.

I recently bought some small magnets on eBay to use in my Space Marine army (I'm thinking of magnetizing a dreadnought or maybe some tanks). Last week this article on magnetizing was posted on the official Flames of War website.

It's a good primer on the use of magnets in my opinion.

Finished these figures two weeks ago... finally had some time to take pictures. I'm really happy about the final result.

Last weekend the annual event Crisis was held in Antwerp by local club TSA. I missed last year's edition, so I can't really compare to the previous one, but compared to two years ago this one was much more crowded and more interesting shops were present.

Some highlights were Fantasy Gelände, with their new natural materials range, Black Cat Bases which brought Hasslefree Miniatures to the show and a small stand displaying a new game: Okko. This is yet another new game by some French miniature superstars and it is set in the Japanese universe of the comic strips and they offer both unpainted and pre-painted figures.

The painting competition was a very solid one this year. Not too many entries, only the single fantasy category had a high number of entries, but the average quality level for each category was very high. A rather small group of people attended the award ceremony afterwards, which added even more to the friendly and intimate atmosphere among the competitors.

When I first visited Crisis 5 years ago the painting competition mainly had historical miniatures. But now this is completely different. Several of the historical categories had only a few entries. Maybe the organisation should consider putting some of these together in one historical overall? The youngbloods category was also a bit of a disappointment this time, but the winner really deserved it. The best of show award went to Stefanie Arndt's piece 'Herbstspaziergang', well deserved I must say. Sven Wichert was another big winner, together with Brenda Gosman from Holland. I didn't enter anything new for this edition, but I won bronze with my Hell Dorado Demons unit :)

Here are some pictures from the event, expect a full photo report when I finally have a gallery :)

See you all next year.

The event was very crowded this year.

The different stands ranged from miniature manufacturers to hobby suppliers like this one.

An impressive table by a wargamers club from Dortmund, Germany.

Historical wargames still make up the mainstay of Crisis.

The beautiful demo table for the Okko game.

The crowded single fantasy category from the painting competition.

Some highlights from the competition entries:

Check this baby out. This is a planned release for February, when the new Lizardmen armybook comes out.

The Anima figures are completely finished, I took pictures last night but no time yet to put them online.

By the way you will notice a gallery is still missing here... I hope to fix that problem really soon.

And tomorrow is Crisis in Antwerp, I hope to meet a lot of people again, since I could not get there last year. Stay tuned for a report and a picture gallery of the event somewhere next week.

Spiel 2008 took place on 26 October. A great report can be found here. It's in German, but there are plenty of interesting pictures, for example this dungeon by Ziterdes and or those Alkemy demo tables (here and here).

After an avalanche of great stuff following the UK Games Day it was a bit a calmer period on CMON. But there were some highlights of course:

• Asaliah by blabla - great monochrome paintjob. Good base also.
• Daemonette by kai - check out the eyes
• Dark Crusader by Wappellious - great example of source lighting and very well executed
• Kin Strife by donga666 - another entry from the latest GD UK, I'm amazed it only got to the finals.
• Deathjack by Jens - looking at these warjacks so well painted really makes me want to paint one myself one day.
• Urmuth by automaton - Superb skintones.
• Sad Girl by fluffy - Strange sculpt by Poupee Canopee, very well painted. Note the pebbles in the water.
• High Elf by derwish - Super-human freehand.
  

Finally I found some time to continue painting the anima figures.

First up is Celia. I'm painting her in a similar color scheme as the studio paintjob: jeans, white top and shiny leather jacket. For the hair I decided to do something different to give the figure a more anime-style look.
I'm very happy about how she turned out so far. At first I wasn't happy about the highlights on the leather (too bright) so I put on a wash of black ink. When I see it on picture now I think it looks quite good.

Cordelia is a figure that takes up a lot of time, but at the same time it's very rewarding to paint. I'm going for a pink/beige scheme mainly. Right now I'm working on a secondary colour (orange/brown) for the top and details on the robe. I think I will use yellow for the rest of the details.

The third figure of the warband, Kujaku is still in a very early phase. I hope I can show some progress next time I post here.

Last week I stumbled upon this article. It describes how to create a cheap lightbox from an empty cardboard box.

Bell of Lost Souls has published a good article on the Drop Pod assembly. It covers several common errors that can happen during assembly and provide some tips for painting. Read the article here.

I'm working on several projects at the same time, so the easiest way to give an overview is with a shot of my workbench:


Lined up just in front of the paint bottles are the Alkemy figures which are nearly done (basically they only need to be varnished). In front of those are the Anima Tactics miniatures you've seen in my previous post. But this shot is dominated by the assembly of 8 tactical marines with heavy weapons. By the time this post is written they are fully assembled.

I just started working on a set of three Anima Tactics figures for a customer. The miniatures involved are Cordelia, Celia and Kujaku (sorry about the random links to the pictures, but it seems that Fantasy Flight Games doesn't keep a decent gallery of all their miniatures).

The assembly involved some pinning and filling, but nothing special really. The only problem is that Cordelia has this huge rifle, which is as long as she is tall. The barrel of this gun is quite thin, so the weapon is very fragile. The slightest touch could bend it so I'm very careful not to hit this too much.

Painting-wise I only finished the skin, but I decided to share the picture with you anyway:

Blue Table Painting has posted this review of the Space Marine Drop Pod on YouTube.

In case you don't know Blue Table Painting: it's a USA-based professional painting studio, run by miniature freak (enthusiast just isn't enough to describe his passion) Shawn Gately, who's also responsible for all the YouTube videos. Posting several videos each week you get to see the inside workings of the studio, clips of finished armies and tips and reviews like the drop pod video.

I'm not a huge fan of the studio's painting style, but the general overview of those huge 40k armies (and his other projects) amazes me every time.

I'm planning to pick up the new Space Marine Drop Pod kit in the next few weeks. With 89 pieces a project like that can be quite daunting, even for experienced modellers. So I'm sure this step-by-step assembly guide will come in handy for everyone working on a Drop Pod for the first time.

Finally finished this guy today. It's not a ground-breaking nor award winning paintjob, but I'm sure he will be a worthy leader of my Space Marine army that's in the making.

Last week I've started working on the metallics as well as some other details. On this shot of his back you can see I basically only need to finish up the piece of cord and the base... I decided to add a little freehand line to make the cloak more interesting. Nothing special though, I painted this line in about 5 minutes, so you'll probably see some mistakes here and there, but hey, it's a gaming model :)

Didn't get too much painting done over the last week, so here's another selection of CMON goodness for you to keep you busy.

Woldwarden by reyzambo - All-round great job on a great sculpt.
Eowyn by PrawnPower - This rather simple model keeps getting amazing paintjobs like this one.
Fat Boy by DarkEden - Gruesome piece of work.
Skink Chieftain by Durham Red - Once again: simple mini, great painting.
Kasrkin by emuse - Smooth skintones and okay colorscheme.
Ork looted piranha by Paaschburg - Those crazy Ork conversions keep appearing.
Trauma-doc by Pandora - Very realistic painting.

Welcome my second CMON favorites post, which features some more recent submissions.

Marneus Calgar by Brokenblade - Fantastic painting technique, and I simply love the overall style. It's full of contrast and bright colors, while still keeping it smooth.
Dalamyr by Avelorn - The work on the face of this mini is simply striking. The base is simple but good enough to set the scene. Work on the cloak and pants could have been a bit smoother IMO.
Space Marine Predator by paulvalenx - The complexity of this diorama alone deservers a 10, but on top of that it's awesomely painted as well.
Aurlok Totem Warrior by olliekickflip - Nice alternative paint scheme and very smooth work, with a lot of attention to details.
The Masque of Slaanesh by olliekickflip - Painted using a limited palette and lots of freehand.

You'll have to see this to believe it :)

Work is continued on the warband. The only things that need to be done are the metallics the bases and some details.

As a miniature enthusiast you most likely know CoolMiniOrNot.com. I don't attach much value to the scores given there but it's still the number one place to find the best miniatures on the web.

From time to time I will make a post where I link to some of my favorite submissions on CMON. I won't directly link to the images, because I hate when that happens to my stuff to, so I will post the CMON links here.

To start off, there are some entries that caught my attention the past few months:

• Mae'viir, Dark Elf Sorceress by automaton - Overall perfect, but the face really strikes me.
• Temple of Time by Theomar Pius - Brilliant piece of scenery, the church itself has been carved out of pink foam entirely.
• Space Marines Terminator Captain by Artur - An awesome idea very well executed.
• Amathor by Arjay - I really love this type of simple paintjobs which are full of character.
• Ready or not, here I come by SweetButEvil - This is what diorama making is all about: stuff it full of details that need to be discovered by the viewer.
• Where's the ladder? by akaranset - Great idea and very well executed.
• Gollum by Cruasan - Show this to your friends to explain our hobby :)
• Death Guard Dreadnought of Nurgle by Ana - Looking very, erm... Nurgle!
• Abism Haal by Rosman - I'm usually not a fan of miniatures with lights incorporated, but I really like this one.

Since the release of the 5th edition rulebook of Warhammer 40.000 became imminent, my best friend and I decided to pick the game back up. We used to play (well, at least a few games :) it a few years ago, but the lack of decent scenery and a good army building strategy made us abandon 40k pretty quickly. I painted a small army of Black Templars and some Tau back then, but sold them on eBay.

So now I'm back at it and choose Space Marines again: Ultramarines this time. I'm not really painting up bulk amounts of soldiers, just small batches to fill up the time between commissions and when I don't feel like painting showcase quality stuff. Another advantage is I get some more practice on terrain building. We're building quite a large table, with ruins, craters, etc. Probably more on this in the next few months when it's worth showing off here.

When I started reading this tutorial on painting Helle Möller by Thomas David I thought this was just another ordinary step-by-step guide. But when I scrolled down I noticed the special type of basecoat Thomas used... He started out with a black primer, and then used his airbrush to spray on a layer of dark gray, then two layers of khaki and finally a layer of khaki mixed with white. He held his airbrush above the model, pointing down to achieve a natural looking shade on the model.
So far so good... I've seen numerous people doing this with black and white primer. But I was really amazed how easy it was to paint the skin: Thomas used several glazes of skin color, followed by one was of ink. And check out the final result of the skin on this picture.

Pretty amazing huh?

For those of you who don't know: the game Alkemy is produced by a French company called Kraken Editions. It's a fairly new game, right now there are four starter sets available (one for each race in the game) and the third expansion wave has just been released. The company is made up out of a number of very talented French people, including some ex-Rackham employees. I've seen the official studio miniatures last year at Painting Crusade V in Brussels and I was very impressed with the overal quality of the product.

I never painted these figures before, but recently a customer asked me to paint the Jade Triad start box. The studio paintjob looks like this (click to enlarge):



I was asked to paint the warband in a similar fashion to the studio paintjob, but to mix in some jade color where appropriate. In my opinion the 'official' color scheme looked a bit to monotonous with all the beige, light brown and skin tones. So I decided to break everything up by painting the cloth around their waists in jade.

Here's what I have done so far (click to enlarge):



I just started working on the dark brown areas, the beige and jade, together is basically done, together with the skintones. You might notice the monkey-like figure on the far right: this model wasn't included in the starter set, but it was some kind of limited edition figure which the customer also wanted to have painted.

I'm not a real fan of the figures themselves, but I love painting them. The only point of critique towards Kraken Editions is the type of resin they used for the figures. This is so soft that blades and poles easily bend when touched, not really acceptable for gaming figures in my opinion. There were also quite a lot of mold lines in difficult places.

If you would like to have some of your miniatures painted by me, that is perfectly possible: I'm available for commission work. It doesn't matter if you want 10 Warmachine troopers painter, or a single 40K Ork Warboss, everything is welcome. I have more than 5 years of experience in the field of commissioned miniature painting, and I painted for people all around the globe, all kinds of armies and miniatures, all kinds of quality levels.

In the past I always provide my customers with a list of quality levels and approximate prizing. I've decided not to work with such a list here, because the complexity of miniatures is so different nowadays that fixing a price for a given quality level is extremely difficult. Complexity is measured by two things: the number of surfaces that have to be painted in a different color (for example a space marine with an entirely red armor versus an ork with armor, exposed skin and two types of clothing) and the required assembly (one part plastics versus multi-part metal miniatures that require pinning).

So the best way to get to know the price for the stuff you want to have painted is to contact me through gerrie.schenck@gmail.com. This is the information I require:

• The brand and type of miniatures.
• The total amount of figures.
• The desired quality level (more on this later).
• The type of basing you want.
• Do I have to buy the miniatures for you?
  
• If you provide me with the miniatures, what state are they in (new in box, already assembled and primed, ...).

The most decisive factor in the price of the finished miniature(s) is of course the quality level of the painting. What's the kind of miniatures you want painted and what are you going to use them for? A rank and file soldier could have enough with just a basic paint job: a basecoat, some shading and one or two highlights. Miniatures that could benefit from a higher quality paintjob are unit leaders or figures which fight in smaller group (typically in skirmish games). Here more attention will be paid to the paintjob, two layers of shading is quite common, and also two or three highlights will be applied. Still want a better quality paintjob? No problem, the only limit is the amount you want to spend on the figure(s) and of course your own imagination. Another factor that is important is the type of base you want: is some painted sand with static grass enough or do you want to put the model on a large base? Everything is possible.

Assembly is usually quite straightforward: all mold lines are cleaned, the model is assembled (using pinning where necessary) and any gaps are filled. After that the model is put on its base and primed using a high quality model primer. After the painting is done the base is finished and the miniature receives multiple layers of matte varnish.

Payment is done using PayPal (cash and bank transfer is available for Belgian customers). When I have to buy the miniatures for you I ask some money up front to cover the cost of the miniatures and also a bit of the final price as a guarantee. Shipping is done using Belgium national post service. Your items will be securely packed and shipped when all payments have been received. If you want some more information about shipping costs then please include that question in your price quote.

If you have any questions, require more information about a certain subject or of course for price quotes: please contact me by mailing to gerrie.schenck@gmail.com. Thank you!

Two weeks ago I decided to close down the Pendragon Studios website... I have various reasons for this, but the main one is probably that I have lost interest with the concept of the site. The team I had built around me was also quite inactive in the miniature painting field for the last year (including myself) and of course the site hosting and domain name costs some money. It was a hard decision for me, since I had turned 'Pendragon Studios' in some sort of brand name for quality painted miniatures, gaining some recognition on the field of miniature painting. Eventually the domain name will end early October 2008.

But I decided this shouldn't bring an end to my miniature painting activities on the WWW. A wide range of free services (including this site, Blogger) makes it easy to bring everything I am doing online. Over the years personal homepages have evolved into more blogging type of sites. Pendragon Studios also had a news page, but I always kept the messages short and formal. When I was thinking about what to do after the end of Pendragon Studios I was brought back to my very first miniature related activity on the web: the original Corvus Miniatures, founded in July 2003. Although the original link was called corvusminiatures.cjb.net, I advise you to follow this link, because the free cjb.net forwarding service will display some annoying and dangerous (mallware) advertisements.

The original Corvus Miniatures was started after I got involved in the CoolMiniOrNot website, which is still an important place on the web for miniature enthusiasts. I was very active on the forums at that time and got to know a lot of people from the online community. My site also allowed me to get a taste of commission painting and selling painted miniatures on eBay. Outside of the web my painting skills were increasing rapidly. I started to compete in painting competitions, and even won some of them.

The hobby became more serious: more commission work kept coming in and the competitions got harder. Because of this I wanted a new, more professional looking site. In 2004 I met Jasper Posson, an talented painter and great a person overall. Together with him I kicked off Pendragon Studios later that year. We worked together for commissions and competitions, some highlights included our showcase at Miniaturansichten 2005, Jasper's silver demon at the German Games Day 2006 and my best of show award at the Golden Spur Painting Competition 2007. In the meantime the Pendragon Studios website was reworked and the team was expanded with two more painters.

But like I said at the beginning of this post I lost interest with the concept of Pendragon Studios, each of the painters went their own way and I got tired of updating the site, making promotion, etc.

I get a very nostalgic feel when I think back about the original Corvus Miniatures and the starting days of Pendragon Studios... Because of that I decided to dig up the concept of my first site again: corvusminiatures.blogspot.com was born!

With a similar color-scheme this will be my new home on the web. I still don't know what I want do with this site (apart from blogging about my painting activities) but expect a small gallery, a collection of links and of course some info on how to get miniatures painted by me. But the first priority will be to create a logo and properly set up the layout of this page.

This post has come to an end, and I am asking every Pendragon Studios fan and miniature enthusiast to bookmark this site and come again very soon, because this really is the start of something new!

I hope to see you again very shortly,

-Gerrie