Do Not Miss: June 2014

To compensate for my lack of activity this month (so many trips!) the list of Do Not Miss June 2014 is unusually long! Enjoy:

• Beastman Warchief by Ringil: Very cool paintjob of this beastman warchief from Avatars of War, by Ringil.


• Painting the colour black in Massive Voodoo: Very thorough article on painting the colour black, by Roman in Massive Voodoo.


• Taking photos of our miniatures (in French): Interesting tutorial about photography to miniatures in le Blog dé Kouzes. In French!


• Ajax and atalanta with spotbot by River: Nice Infinity miniatures by Nadezdha Reka.


• 3D mask tutorial: The polish guys of fantasygames tell us how to build complex masks for minis.


• Painting true metal: Another approach to painting true metal in the 5th dimension blog.


• Dragon priest step by step: Tutorial on how to paint this miniature in Massive Voodoo.


• Painting a feminine face: Julien Casses walks us through the not so easy process of painting a feminine face.


• Avengers diorama by Arsies: Already started last month, but here are the next steps, 2 to 5. Don't forget to check them all!


• Boromir conversion by Flameon: It's not very common to see GW LOTR miniatures converted. This is very well worth the look.


• Space eldar army autarch on jetbike: River continues his work on the space themed eldar army.


• Primitivo, the base: Tutorial on how to build the base for this project in Massive Voodoo.


• How to do leather: Sara shows us the way she approaches the painting of leather.


• Roi Mort Vivant by Ángel Giráldez: Normally you'll see lots of Infinity miniatures painted by Ángel, but this time he paints something completely different and I liked it very much.


• Eul Grotbizar: More additions to this fantastic Ork army in Les Kouzés. Even more, here!


• How to create candles: Candles made easy in Massive Voodoo.


• Shaun Ram Tribe Warrior: Tutorial on how to paint this bust in Massive Voodoo.


• Fire Elemental by Raffaele Picca: I really like this version of this Drakerys miniature.


• Lizardmen by Roberto Chaudon: Roberto keeps up with his good work for Mierce miniatures. Check also this and this!


• Hechicera elfa oscura tutorial: Dani shows us how he painted the Dark Elf Sorceress in this tutorial, only in Spanish.


• Painting Wildcat: Julien Casses goes for an Infinity miniature in this article.


• The Transpoter: Kyrill uses the man who screams and runs, and makes this wonderful diorama.


• Arreat Crater level II: Solmar painted this Diablo barbarian and it is pretty nice!


• Painting drone patterns: Very cool pattern for tau or for any kind of sci-fi miniature.


• Carving plaster walls in Massive Voodoo: An article on how to work with scenery using plaster and carving it.

Back to Warsaw and Berlin, and see you later Fallen Frontiers

I just arrived from South Africa on Saturday, and I am already thinking about leaving Madrid. I'm going to Warsaw again tomorrow!

I hope to be able to meet again with painters like Bohun and the rest of the Polish guys from Warsaw, and have some nice vodkas and perogis. Also, this time I'm going to make a stop in Berlin on my way back, since I have to stop there anyway to fly to Madrid, and spend the weekend with my good friends from Painting Buddha (Michael, Ben, Mati and Matt). Can't wait!

I'm going to use some space in this post about my travels to comment on the weird cancelling of the Fallen Frontiers crowdfunding campaign, which, as you already know, I was very keen to see ending successfully. Being as I was travelling back and forth, I suddenly found that they had decided to cancel the campaign, and apparently, from what I have read and people have told me, it seems like there have been doubts surrounding the capability of Scale Games of making the project happen, and also about the size/scale of the miniatures, some people even say that Scale lied on this matter. (Mi thoughts regarding this last part: ¿?¿?¿?)

If I remember correctly, before starting the campaign, this photo was published, where we can all very well see what the size/scale of the miniatures is. I have seen comments saying that Scale mentioned in the campaign that the size was 32mm and then people said that they were 35mm, and because of this some part of the audience started accusing them of liars. I am personally amazed by all of this. Talking in terms of "x mm" to refer to a scale is a commonly extended technical mistake in the miniature world. The scale is really indicated by, for example, 1/30, 1/40 o 1/50, and no one is correct when talking about scale when this is not mentioned in this way. GW for example says that their miniatures are 28mm, when if they were truly 28mm in size, they would be smaller than what they are, and on the other side, their miniatures do not maintain the proportions between them. As an example, think about a Space Marine and an Imperial Guard: the miniatures are basically the same height, when an Imperial Guard represents an average human 6 feet tall, while a Space Marine is supposed to be around 9 feet. Considering all this, I don't understand where the problem is. The photo is very clear! A whole different thing is that people want to use the miniatures to be proxies for other games. That is great, but I don't think that was the point of Fallen Frontiers. I personally think that the size that FF was proposing is great (slightly bigger than the typical 40k size for example), and proportions in this case are properly maintained, so are they relative sizes between miniatures. Therefore, I don't understand why the hate campaign against this project!

Apart from this, apparently there have been doubts whether Scale would be able to produce the miniatures complying with quality and time frames. I can't say much about that because I'm unaware of how that was going to be handled, but I know first hand that Fallen Frontiers has been developed for two years now, it hasn't just appeared out of nowehere, and its a very serious project with the support of a miniature company that has been producing not only miniatures of very high quality, but also paints, and they also have the possibility of producing the miniatures themselves (a possiblity which I believe not all companies have). I was a backer of the project because I firmly believed that they would make it happen without problems, and I do not really understand very well why all the negative comments I have been reading all around. Crowdfunding, like any investment, has its risks, it's all a question of trust, but trying to actively destroy a project? That's a whole different thing!

I don't know, sometimes I feel like there have been dark interests behind this hate campaign against Fallen Frontiers. In Dakka Dakka apparently there was people convincing others to take their money out of the Kickstarter, I have never seen such a thing, inexplicable for me. If you don't like the initiative, do not participate. But trying actively to go against it? It seems weird to me. Dark motives, hidden interests, other companies, personal vendettas...? Certainly a very interesting and weird story that makes me think about a lot of things! Who knows!

So, basically, this is a big loss for all in my opinion. I really wanted to get those miniatures! I'm pretty sure anyway that all the work done will not be discarded so easily (especially the artistic part, which I know first hand that is top-notch) and they will probably make it happen one way or another. This will only delay the release, so I'm sure we will be able to get them in the end.

All that's left is the wait. They will come sometime! I have Siklas Feen at home in the meantime! :P

And now to South Africa!

And yet another crazy last minute trip in my quite busy life of late...

I'm going to Pretoria! South Africa!

Again, non miniature related since it's a work trip, but I will be away from my painting table all of this week. Siklas Fenn from Fallen Frontiers will have to wait until I come back next week!

Announcing Monte San Savino 2014

We're coming close to the end of the first half of the year, and before everyone goes crazy because of the Stressa World Expo in July, there is a very important yearly announcement for the miniature painting community, so that everyone has time to prepare!

Great portrait Loreta and Raffa! :D

Monte San Savino 2014! November 7-9!

Some people had doubts regarding this year's edition because of the World Expo taking place in Italy just a few months before, but Monte San Savino 2014 is going to happen. You can't miss it!

It's a DO NOT MISS event, tons of friends and fun and food and drink... and... miniatures I guess? XD

Meet your painting heroes and embarass them!

I'm a Special Guest this year, and because of that I will be performing a painting demonstration on Saturday, so the more reason to come! Time to organize the trip! Better to do it now than to wait because the town is very small and accommodation is quite limited. Don't say I didn't warn you in advance!

Only part of last year attendees are in this photo...

TO MONTE!

The great things you can suddenly find on your painting table

I'm back from Almeria!

But before telling you all about the weekend (which I can already say, it was great), let me show you what just arrived at my painting table!

If you are following the Fallen Frontiers Kickstarter you will already know what this is about... ;)

If you are a Fallen Frontiers backer and you pledged enough to be eligible for stretch goals, this is the first one you will get. I have been given the opportunity to try and see how it will look with some colour on it. I want to achieve something close to the concept of the great Adrian Prado.

Let's see if more stretch goals are unlocked!! I want a Dianne Tianseen...

Course this weekend and more on Fallen Frontiers

Just a quick post to say that I'm leaving for Almería!

Warm land of the south of Spain, with great sun and beaches. Also known for its deserts and for being the place where many spaguetti western movies were shot!

It's not the time to film another western though, it's time for one of my painting courses! It will be a weekend filled with paint, brushes and airbrushes... and of course, we will paint my Kasrkin mini! Let's see what the attendees can do in these two days. I hope to show you the results next week!

In the meantime...

The Fallen Frontiers Kickstarter is progressing very well, they are so close to being funded!! Strechgoals are coming near too and I anticipate lots of fun and also new stuff that the Scale Games team is yet to show! I'M SO EXCITED!

I'm collaborating now with the translation from Spanish to English of the beta rules set, which will be released very soon. I hope to have them ready today! I tell you... they look really promising! Also, my collaboration will trigger the opportunity to paint another one of the minis of Fallen Frontiers before the Kickstarter ends. Maybe one of the stretch goals?? I have to negotiate with them... which ones would you want to see painted?

Siklas Fenn?

Blaze??

Dianne Tianseen???

My god, I can't wait to put my brushes on any of these! They are SO COOL! And they will be unlocked if we reach the stretch goals... free for all backers with the appropriate pledges!!! Let's do it folks!!! I WANT THEM!

I am a Fallen Frontiers Backer. Are you???

What are you waiting for!!!

Painting with... Hugo Matte

From the far away land of Japan, today I bring you Hugo Matte, Canadian born but living the samurai dream, he managed to win Slayersword Japan 2013. The event is very new (only 2 years so far) and the competition is not as mature in terms of level as those of the old continent or the US, but could be a promising land for a huge new community. Let's see what Hugo can tell us about his adventures in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Hugo Matte / Ichiban Studio

Volomir: How long have you been painting miniatures? Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hugo: I've started to paint miniatures and do modelling for about 20 years. I've started pretty young doing military modeling. One day I walked into a Games Workshop store and i was in awe! I just had a revelation that tank can be different colors then just military colors. From that day on I've converted to fantasy and scify miniature painting. Then kept on painting and trying to get better and it push me to start doing a bit of commissions here and there. In 2012 I decided to try doing the hole multimedia thing, started a twitter account tweeting about the hobby and from there things unfolded pretty nicely for me. Ended up with a pretty good now YouTube channel and Facebook page allowing me to share my passion and enjoy my hobby.


Slayersword winner GD Japan 2014



Volomir: What drove you to paint miniatures?

Hugo: Military miniatures was definitely my dad, he used to build and paint models when he was younger and help me a lot and supported me to get better in the hobby. Then most likely the GW cover art drove me when i started with the wargaming figurines and from there the net fulled my passion ten fold.


Detail Slayersword winner GD Japan 2014



Volomir: How did you end up living in Japan?

Hugo: Its pretty easy, I came to Japan about 10 years ago for just one year to enjoy a sweet vacation. But ended up never leaving, love the country, culture, people, language... So I made it my home!

Volomir: Can you tell us something about the painting world in Japan?

Hugo: Japan as an amazing pool of incredibly talented painters and builder. You can find hobby supplies in any electronic stores to give you an idea how modelling is popular here, BUT unfortunately on the wargaming side of the hobby its pretty undeveloped. There are still amazing artist here but it less popular then in major hobby centers like in the UK or Europe and the US. There is still lot to be done in terms of growing the hobby but none the less there are still a lot of people playing and painting here.





Volomir: Have you participated in other Golden Demons around the world?

Hugo: Unfortunately not yet, but I am planing on it even knowing that the competition in other golden demon events are one hundred times stronger then in Japan.





Volomir: Do you attend other painting events apart from Golden Demon?

Hugo: When I'm lucky yes. I get to travel a bit. Last year I've been to Gencon where unfortunately I did place and I'm leaving soon for Adepticon 2014 in Chicago where the crystal brush is held.

Volomir: How was winning the Slayer sword for you? How did you feel? Have you noticed any difference in your painting life since you won?

Hugo: Those are really hard questions! Winning the sword was great! Knowing your model is the best of all in a show is great, then also knowing you won something so many painters want is sick (in a good way!) But and there's a big BUT... Its a second year event, so I cant in my mind not feel a little bit ashamed to have won. Let me explained: feel great to win something, feels great to know your the best on that day, but the slayer sword is such a highly praised trophy and the reputation it carries is so big and the artist that won it in the past are some of my idols. So for me to have the same trophy as them but to have won it in an event where maybe it would have been in England i would have maybe not even placed is hard to accept the win. As for if my painting life changed.. hummm not quite sure I'm busy I have commissions but it was the same before so I would say no. But i did have an extremely huge painting mojo boost after the event i was on a painting trance painting like a maniac 24/7 but as high did the high went, the low and dreadful painting burnout was right around the corner waiting for me around November. I'm still slowly getting back into it.





Volomir: Do you think there will be a GD Japan in 2014? What's your opinion on how GW is dealing with GDs lately?

Hugo: Good question, For the Golden Demon Japan in 2014 I would love to think there will be another one, unfortunately I do not think there will be one. Attendance was better this year than the first and so was the quality of the models but the organization was worst than the first year. For the 2 years they did it, they always waited pretty last minute to announce the event. And from a source I know its for the simple reason that they do not really want Golden Demon worthy people from other countries to fly in. On one side i totally understand since its a new event GW japan doesn't want to kill the event for Japanese people and discourage them into entering by seeing their event sweeped out by only foreign painters. There was a joke made by one of the high up the GW-JP food chain at the event during the speech saying "yet another year where the slayer sword is won by a foreign please bring the sword to Japan" pretty ironic since we don't actually get a sword here but a certificate here since they cant import swords into japan. But it does support the theory. Also the fact that they did cut 4 categories last year too. But to be honest those are all speculations we will see, probably only 4 months before the event like last year. Pretty short noticed to get your shit ready before an event.

As for other countries I think GW should do like Japan though, cut all the crap with Games Day if its so hard and just hold a Golden Demon contest and that's it.





Volomir: Are there any artists that influence your painting? What are your favorite painters of all time?

Hugo: So hard! Love your minis they are superb, Ben too, the guys from Massive Voodo, Bohun, my buddy Les from APJ and Mig Jimenez but at the same time there are so many more on that list, (lol) Arsies, Nakatan, Ana, Ctan, etc...

Volomir: A very tough question: what is your favorite miniature?

Hugo: Man..... again another hard one! hummmmmmmm..... I mean to paint it has to be a tank or any miniature I can make rusty and dirty, cuze that's what I'm good at but as for a miniature hummm I really don't know. But the one i had the most fun painting was the sexy reaver titan. Hoooo I got it! Never did one but I do think one of the miniature I would love to paint and own (that's saying a lot cuze i don't collect at all I sell most of the minis I paint) but its the Eldar Phantom Titan.





Volomir: Any advice you want to give newcomers to the miniature painting world?

Hugo: You guys are Lucky!!!!! You have the net and the magical YouTube! when I started I had non of that. So it was extremely hard to get good comprehensive tutorials, there for the progression was really slow and required me to get into many clubs for the hobby which isn't a bad thing but YouTube can really teach you a lot from the comfort of your house which is amazing!

Just keep painting and don't forget to try new stuff even if your not sure that's how you learn! Make mistakes and get better!

Thanks Hugo! He has a very interesting channel in youtube with loads of entertaining and instructive videos, make sure you check it out!