Do Not Miss: December 2013

This is the selection of most interesting things read in December 2013. Happy new year!

• FiMaJe report by Édouard Negre in Masterminis: One of the last important events of the year, in detail.


• Create a realistic tree by Mirko Cavalloni: Interesting article on how to create a realistic tree by Mirko Cavalloni, in italian.


• Nemetis the Sacrilegious by Nadezhda Reka: Very cool and detailed step by step article on how Nadya based and painted this Wolfen from Confrontation.


• Ghost Warriors by Mörback: OH man these are cool. I want an army like this one!!!


• Martian Landscape tutorial by Dre4mit: Simple tutorial on how to create interesting alien landscapes.


• Belech by Roberto Chaudon: One of the regulars of this section, a new release by Roberto Chaudon for Mierce Miniatures.


• Capitaine de la Garde by Cesare Trevisiol in Hysteria Yard: Very long and instructive Step by Step about this Captain of the Guard.


• How to make icicles by bijou (in Spanish): Tutorial on an interesting way to make icicles, in Eureka Miniature. Only in Spanish.


• NMM tutorial by zwo: Very instructive tutorial on NMM, in Eureka Miniature. Only in Spanish.


• Shaetann by Dieguete: Super cool paintjob by Dieguete of this amazing release by Raúl García Latorre.


• A new world! by Oli (Honorguard): Amazingly detailed diorama by Oli. I can't stop looking at the brilliantly laid out landscape.


• A new world! by Oli (Honorguard): Amazingly detailed diorama by Oli. I can't stop looking at the brilliantly laid out landscape.


• Best Mickey's Fans: You know that I love original and storytelling vignettes. Well this is certainly one of them! Cool work by Damek.


• Eskimo fisherman by Romain Van den Bogaert: Romain strikes again with this amazing bust of an eskimo. Romain's hands are not from this world.


• The Big Three in Laserburn (only spanish speakers): Listen to our happy new year especial podcast program where The Big Three (Paloji-Karaikal-Volomir) make a very spanish (12 bell strokes) summary of 2013. The best program (or at least the most fun) so far! Again, only very very fluent spanish speakers.

My visual summary of 2013

My year of painting, shuffled, without words. No miniatures. Only 20 pics. Only the important part. Only people.

Painting Buddha Seasons 1.2 and 1.3 announced!

Good news for all of us Painting Bruddhas!

Painting Buddha is announcing the next two grand releases in their series of DVD tutorials. As of now, we had Season 1.1 Target Identified (I'm sure you all now that I took part in that one). That one was a 6 DVD set in which you could see how Ben Komets and I painted a little scene, each one using different tecniques (wet blending versus airbrush/layering). But now the possibilities broaden with the addition of these two new sets of the first season.

First we have Season 1.2: "Freehands & Banner" with Stephan Rath

The Freehand master reveals his secrets in this unique DVD set in which he will guide us through the painting of different freehands and banner designs, carefully explained to the highest detail. Aimed for beginners and intermediate level painters! No excuses to try awesome freehands on your own anymore.

Then we have Season 1.3: "Basing Alchemy: Earth" with Matt Cexwish and Ben Komets

The first of an "elemental" series (earth, water, fire, air, iron...) around basing techniques, tips and tricks to become a basing master. Ben and Matt will guide us through this wonderful world of creativity by showing us how they make different landscapes and terrains, for showcase and for tabletop miniatures alike. Wonderful for those who need ideas and guides to create awesome terrains! I know I will benefit a lot from it!

I'm really excited for these new sets to be released! Check out masterminis.net or paintingbuddha.com because early "beards" will get good discounts before the new sets are released around February. My personal recommendation: don't miss the opportunity while it lasts!

And also, very good news to all Spanish speakers: these new DVDs will also be subtitled in Spanish by no other than the mighty, the greatest, the wonderful and unique... me! :) Yes my friends, you won't see my face this time but I will be the mastermind behind the translation of everything Stephan, Ben and Matt say in these ones. Crazy subtitling days ahead!

About the Spanish podcast: The Big Three in Laserburn (only in Spanish)

If you don't know Spanish, sadly this post is of no interest for you because here I talk about a Podcast in Spanish that I am collaborating for with my friends David Rodríguez and Pablo López Jimeno. So it's not really worth translating this post to English! I'm sorry guys! Learn Spanish though... it's a great language and one of the most spoken ones in the world! It's really worth it, believe me! ;)

Hace tiempo que tenía que haber escrito este post pero entre unas cosas y otras nunca encontraba el momento. ¡Ya iba siendo hora de ponerlo aquí! Y es que muchos de vosotros ya lo sabéis, pero para los que no están enterados, aquí está la noticia.

¿Qué es el Big Three?

El Big Three es un podcast (bueno, más bien parte de un podcast) en el que colaboramos David Rodríguez (Karaikal), Pablo López Jimeno (Paloji) y yo. Es un programa mensual en el que este ilustre grupo de energúmenos (unos más que otros) desgranamos la actualidad del mundillo de la pintura de miniaturas desde varios puntos de vista. Lo que empezó como una anécdota es ahora una cita obligada y la verdad es que es un auténtico placer echar un rato hablando de lo que nos apetece.

David Rodríguez, el viejo mosquetero

Pablo López, Espadoji (¿o "es pal oji"?)

Está mal que lo diga yo, ya que soy parte del equipo, pero la verdad es que salen programas muy interesantes y divertidos (nosotros desde luego nos lo pasamos genial grabándolos) y os los recomiendo fervientemente. Si tenéis un rato, dejad de escuchar esa música pasada de moda que tenéis en el iPod o MP3, ¡y ponéos el último programa de Laserburn!

¿Qué es Laserburn?

Ah, ¡que no os he dicho lo que es Laserburn!

Laserburn es el podcast sobre el que está englobado nuestro programa. Un trabajazo de lujo hecho con el mayor cariño por un grupo muy selecto de entusiastas del hobby. Evidentemente, el resto de las cosas sobre las que se hablan (wargames, entrevistas a personajes del mundillo, tácticas, análisis para jugones...) no son nada interesantes comparadas con la sección del Big Three (Miguel me va a matar), pero si os molan los wargames en general no sé a qué esperáis para escucharlo (¡si es que no lo hacéis ya!).

Os dejo el enlace al programa entero del último mes, que fue especialmente "Volomiriano", puesto que me hicieron una entrevista de más de dos horas (agüitaaa), y en la sección del Big Three, que aunque nos quedó una primera parte un poco más triste de lo habitual por comentar la situación penosa de los Golden Demon, en la segunda parte hablamos de Monte San Savino, concurso al que sólo fui yo por lo que me escucharéis mucho más de lo normal (¡menuda suerte la vuestra!).

¡No os lo perdáis! ¡Ah! Y saludos a nuestro oyente favorito, ¡el ya famoso conductor de la EMT! ¡Seguimos esperando que contactes con nosotros!

Sometimes one is just lucky

It's so great, I never win anything! And suddenly I stumble onto this!

http://warpaintstudio.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/congratulations-to-rafael-aka-volomir.html

Well it happened that I was a follower of Warpaint Studios blog, and I won! Lucky me! For once!

And it's one hell of a cool mini! Make sure you follow Jason "Red" Martin, he's starting the blog currently but I'm sure it's going to be awesome!

Painting course in Barcelona: February 8 or 9 (in Spanish)

This post is to announce another painting course in Spain, this time in Barcelona! It will be in Spanish so if you are interested in attending I shouldn't need to translate the following for you! :) If you are interested in what this course (or others) offers drop me a line, I can organize others abroad and in English!

Los cursos de Volomir vuelven a salir de Madrid. Próxima parada: ¡Barcelona! Tendremos dos sesiones del curso de "Teoría y Técnicas a Pincel" en Badalona, a elegir entre Sábado 8 y Domingo 9 de Febrero. La organización ya prácticamente ha llenado un grupo entero así que daos prisa que luego no hay plazas. ¡Después no me digáis que no os avisé! :)

Este curso, del primer tipo de los que hago de un solo día, es un curso de temática fundamental y lo he llamado "Teoría y Técnicas a Pincel". Es el curso estrella por sentar los pilares básicos sobre los que se construirán el resto de habilidades. Una experiencia que cambia tu punto de vista sobre el mundo de la pintura de miniaturas.

¿En qué consiste?

El curso trata sobre temas fundamentales y básicos que son indispensables para adentrarse en el apasionante mundo del pintado de miniaturas. La estructura del temario es la siguiente:

• Introducción teórica al pintado de miniaturas (teoría básica del color, propiedades, luz, ambiente e intencionalidad). (1,5 horas)
• Técnicas de pintado de miniaturas a pincel. Práctica de pintura a capas de base, luces y sombras. (3 horas)
• Degradados y limpieza. Práctica de transiciones y veladuras a pincel. (2 horas)
• Contraste y definición. Práctica de perfilados y puntos de luz. (1,5 horas)

El temario de la parte teórica del principio es amplio y conviene estar atento a las explicaciones. Es conveniente leerse unos apuntes sobre la teoría que doy antes del curso para avanzar con más rapidez. La idea es practicar lo máximo posible, que es donde realmente se saca partido.

¿A quién va dirigido?

Si entras en alguna de estas categorías, o tienes alguno de estos problemas, este curso es sin duda de gran utilidad para ti:

• Pintor principiante
• Pintor de juego (tabletop, ejércitos, etc)
• Nivel medio, pintor autodidacta
• Desconocimiento o dudas sobre conceptos básicos del color
• Falta de limpieza
• Falta de contraste

Si no entras dentro de ninguna de estas categorías pero nunca has dado un curso conmigo, también sería recomendable ya que en otros cursos doy por sentado los conceptos que se dan en este.

Al salir de este curso, habrás abierto tu mente a un nuevo mundo de luz y color (nunca mejor dicho). El pincel ya no será un enemigo, sabrás cómo se afronta un pintado a capas, cuánto se diluye la pintura, qué es el contraste y por qué es tan importante. Sin embargo, el tiempo es limitado. Requiere practicar los conceptos aprendidos después del curso para poder asentar la técnica.

El precio del curso en Barcelona es de 65 euros. Como novedades con respecto a otras ediciones de este curso, vamos a pintar todos la misma figura esta vez, el Kenjiro de Tale of War, que viene incluida en el precio del curso y que se entregará imprimada y preparada para pintar el mismo día para no perder ni un minuto con raspuras. Por lo tanto, para el curso solamente habrá que llevarse pinceles (ya hablaremos de este tema) y quizá un flexo dependiendo de la demanda, aunque posiblemente esto no sea imprescindible ya que dispondremos de unos cuantos.

¿Te interesa? ¡No lo dudes! Mándame un correo. ¡No me paso por Barcelona todos los días!

Y si te interesa estar enterado de todo lo que se cuece sobre los cursos, echa un vistazo a la nueva sección de Cursos en el blog porque ahí explico con detalle cada uno de los tipos de curso que hay y podrás apuntarte a la lista de correo. ¡Esto es muy importante! En la última semana hemos montado un curso de "Teoría y Ténicas a Pincel" y dos del nuevo "Contraste y Definición" para enero en Madrid que no han salido anunciados en el blog porque ya casi están llenos solo con gente de la lista. ¿Quieres mejorar tu pintura y te vas a quedar fuera? Tú veras... :)

Y si tienes cualquier pregunta, ¡tampoco dudes en mandarme un mail!

Featured in Figure Painter Magazine #8

Look what's coming up!!!

This new issue of Figure Painter Magazine, #8, contains an interview they have done to me very recently, and they featured it on the cover! It makes me so proud!

If you have the opportunity, go check it out, it's only £1 and it's real good quality! Issue #8 is coming out December 15th, don't miss it!

Help me update Demonwinner! (part 2)

I knew I could count on you guys! The response has been massive! Just past Monday I received a ton of messages of people who wanted to help with information they had. Seriously, thank you all!

So far, I managed to update and complete GD Japan 2012 and GD USA 2012. I have been adding some other minor updates but not complete contests. What I realized is that with so many messages and links to stuff, it's getting overwhelming to do the updates. So I thought of the best approach for the updates.

If you know of any photo/miniature that is not posted in DemonWinner, send me an email with the photo to my email (volomir at gmail dot com). But wait! Don't do it yet! I need you to name it properly so I can process it easily. :)

The name of the file for the photo should follow this template:
country_year_category_position_namesurname.jpg.
Each parameter means something to me:

• country: obviously the country of that GD, from this list:
• uk
• usa
• germany
• france
• italy
• australia
• spain
• japan
• year: the 4 digits of the year, if the GD it was this year it would be "2013"
• category: the category in which it won. It can be one of these:
• singlefantasy
• unitfantasy
• monster
• single40k
• squad40k
• monster40k
• vehicle
• duel
• diorama
• lotr
• open
• youngbloods
• position: it can be gold, silver or bronze, but use a number instead, so 1 would be gold, 2 would be silver and 3 would be bronze.
• namesurname: name and surname (or surnames) altogether, without weird characters or anything

For example, let's say you want to send me a photo of my Dragon who won Gold in Monster Fantasy in Germany 2013 (don't bother, it's already updated obviously). This would be the filename: germany_2013_monster_1_rafaelgarciamarin.jpg

Easy, right? It's a little bit of effort on your part, I know, but it's extremely useful for me and it doesn't take that much time!

I am still mainly missing these contests:

• Golden Demon UK 2012
• Golden Demon UK 2013
• Golden Demon USA 2013
• Golden Demon Australia 2012
• Golden Demon Germany 2012 (Only the photos)
• Golden Demon Germany 2013
• Golden Demon Italy 2012
• Golden Demon Italy 2013
• Golden Demon Japan 2013

Help me glorious painting community, you are our only hope!

Help me update Demonwinner!

You might remember that I took over the management and updating tasks for the website Demonwinner, a very cool initiative which serves as the ultimate database for Golden Demons all over history.

My plans for this website were big, I was working on redoing the whole site so that it would be renewed and updated to nowadays web standards. Actually, I did begin working on it earlier this year, and spent quite some time rethinking everything.

However, the current situation of Games Days and Golden Demons all over the world destroyed my motivation completely to work on this project, and as of now I have to say that everything is on halt until further notice, and under serious risk of not being restarted because of the constant attempts of GW to destroy their flagship event.

Even so, hope is the only thing that should never fade. For this reason, and to prevent this great initiative from being forgotten forever, I am going to update all the contests that took place in 2012 and 2013 and that still haven't been updated in the old site. And for that...

Painters and Golden Demon lovers of the world, I summon thee! I need you all to point me to sites which have information, names and photos of winners for the following contests:

• Golden Demon UK 2012
• Golden Demon UK 2013
• Golden Demon USA 2012
• Golden Demon USA 2013
• Golden Demon Australia 2012
• Golden Demon Germany 2012 (Only the photos)
• Golden Demon Germany 2013
• Golden Demon Italy 2012
• Golden Demon Italy 2013
• Golden Demon Japan 2012
• Golden Demon Japan 2013

So if you happen to have any information you can share, please contact me! You can send me emails, facebook messages, comment here... anything!

Golden Demons may die in the future, but its true spirit still lives on in our hearts. I think it would be cool to at least have the database up to date.

Help me glorious painting community, you are our only hope!

WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 1

Previously on... WIP: Volomir's High Elf Army:

• Tribute to the Fallen
• High Elves Sea Guard
• Swordmasters of Hoeth
• High Elf Dragonlord

Not bad so far, right? :) But there's no time to rest on my laurels! I want more!

Next in line in my army of High Elves project, is this pretty unit of Ellyrian Reavers, again from the fantastic box of Warhammer: Island of Blood. They will be a very nice addition since they are interesting miniatures and the first ones on horses for my army. I hope this doesn't go too long in time but with many projects at the same time, one never knows! Come with me, I hope you enjoy the process!

Each Ellyrian Reaver is made of three pieces, one for each side of the horse, and the head of the rider. The quality of the plastic is amazing.

Even so, the sculpt have minor flaws (as usual) so that the casts are easier. One example is this plastic between rein and neck of the horse which is a bit disturbing for me. Fortunately it is easily removed with a knife.

It's a little bit like sculpting (shaping, mainly), and the result is very good.

Obviously, as with all the other elves, the scales in the armours are too big for my taste. I followed my usual scale sculpting process to fill the rows in between scales. Check the Sea Guard or the Swordmasters for more info. After that, as usual, I washed the miniatures with water and soap, let them dry, and then I fixed the miniatures temporarily to some big corks. You might have noticed that I was trying to paint miniature and base altogether to save time. In this case, the bases will need some work because of the idea I have (I will talk about this later) and I won't be able to paint them together. So for now, corks and patafix.

After this, I prime them black. You might have noticed in the previous photos that one of the riders was already primed with black and white, and even had paint on him. That was because I used the guy in a painting demo, but I will prime him too.

And then I prime them white over the top. This gives me a general idea of where the light will be when following a zenithal lighting scheme.

The most common surface in these miniatures is the silver metals (armour, helmets, plates and scales). I will paint them in a dark colour to serve as base for the metallic paints, in this case, Dark Sea Blue.

Now I wash the scales with black and blue inks. This is different to what I did in other units, where I just outlined the shadows after painting the metallic scales. I think this will save me some time.

Once this is done on the scales, I basecoat everything with Boltgun Metal. On the scales I was careful to leave the dark colours of the recesses that work as outline.

Lights on the metallic parts are done with Mithril silver and then Metallic Medium from Vallejo. Check out where the lights are placed. Especially on the scale parts, because it is important to simulate the shines from a fixed position. Illuminating a line of scales more than the rest, increases realism.

Further shadows on the metallic parts will be done using airbrush and blue-green tones, as with all the elves. Let's show the process once again on the sword of the Ellyrian Reaver Harbinger (the one with the feathered helmet).

First thing is covering the metal that will not be painted, in this case, with some masking tape. Then airbrush with Turquoise on the part opposite to where the shine would be placed.

Deeper shadows with Dark Sea Blue, airbrushed.

Further down with a darker colour, in this case mixing some blue and green inks with the Dark Sea Blue.

Once satisfied with one side of the blade, we do the same on the other side, keeping in mind that shines on opposite blades should be on opposite places (as a general rule if we don't want to think too much about how metal would reflect light).

Once it's done, the only thing left for this metal would be to take off the masks and then outline carefully all the details.

As you can see I added the turquoise blue to all the cloths that will be painted in that colour. I will do that on all the other riders, I want to get a glimpse of the whole colour scheme before moving forward.

But that will be on the next chapter! Stay tuned! :)

Continue to WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 2