I'm currently enjoying my last days of vacation. I took a Cryx starter set with me to do some casual painting. My expectation was to have finished most of the lot by now, but only three of them are halfway done.

Too bad they are plagued by a bad primer job, it ended up very grainy. But this is totally my fault, since the spray can I'm currently using has a clogged up spray nozzle, and I'm too lazy to get a new one :) Well maybe it's time for a new one now, before I really ruin a rare or expensive mini.

Here's a picture, I went for a streaked look for the armor. The green bits were also fun to paint. Most of the areas which are left now will be done in metallics.

Another project I'm working is a new design for this blog. I never really liked the current design, but it was a quick solution for my needs when I started it and never felt like putting too much time in it. So a while ago I found a template which I really liked and started tweaking it to suit my taste. Along with the new design I will also introduce a couple of dedicated pages such as a gallery. There's no ETA for the new template, but don't be surprised when the look of this blog suddenly changes :)

Some of the best basing materials can be found outdoors, even in your own garden. A nice touch to any base is a tree stump, a branch, a dead tree. Unless your sculpting skills are far more superior than mine, the easiest way to achieve a realistic effect for these is to use natural materials.

Small twigs are nice to simulate tree stumps or fallen trunks, as used on my Red Karnagh Drune's base.

But to be used as a small tree, they are usually not suited. The best solution can be found underground: plant roots often have the gnarled, twisted shape one needs for a fantasy-themed base.

A good example can be seen in this WIP (Rackham's Souffre Toile from earlier this year, a project which I have abandoned for now).

Last weekend I was removing some rose bushes from my garden. I admit some of them look a bit crude since the bushes were quite big and old, but I decided to add them to my collection nonetheless.

Well, not a lot of painting happened since my last blog post... I've been very occupied with work around the house. In fact I did quite a lot of painting, but 1:1 scale :) There's still a lot to do, but I expect to have painting time increase from zero now to at least a couple of hours each week by the end of next month.

Currently I'm preparing for a relaxing holiday at the seaside, and as usual I'm taking some painting gear with me. A while ago I bought a Warmachine Cryx starter box because I wanted to check out their plastics (which are excellent by the way). Last week I assembled the figures and primed them, so I can go right ahead and start painting them. I'm not going for a very high standard with them, just some casual painting :)

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the German Games Day this year (you can find my report on last year's edition here). Anyway congratulations to Matt Cexwish for winning the Sword, he really takes miniature painting to the next level. Here's a cool video on his winning entry:

The next event I am most probably attending will be DuZi, held on 8 and 9 October. It will be the first time I go there, and I will likely enter the painting competition with one or more entries. Nothing new I'm afraid, I'll probably take Han Solo... oh we'll see, it's still a long time until October.

The biggest bit of community news from the past month is the relaunch of the Chest Of Colors website. It received a completely new design and technical overhaul, now being more able to host galleries and articles. The plan is to write some articles for them myself, since I'm now part

of their team. I've been on the Chest Of Colors forum since the beginning, but still it means a great deal to me to now be officially part of the crew. I'm there right next to Ana (painting mum blog), Demi Morgana (plinth country), and others, all of them important figures in the miniature painting community. Check the member page here: http://chestofcolors.com/about-us/about-chest-of-colors/.

I hope to see you very soon in the next blog post!