Kong's WIP thoughts - August #05

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Hiho Jungle out there!

Looks like this is my last post for a week. Finally there are some days of holiday ahead, can't remember the last ones. We - me and my lady are heading for Paris tonight and Raffa and Anci will join on Thursday. Beautiful days ahead I guess. Relaxation.

I am also looking forward to the upcoming painting class, the main reason because we are in Paris, at the weekend. This will be a lot of fun with me talking english - I guess everything will be fine, but I know that I will be pretty nervous in the first hours :D


Somehow it is pretty strange leaving our studio. I really love to work there and focus on things I got to do. It is a place of rest, endless powers, multisupermulti creativity, friendship and joy, but I am sure that it won't be bad for me to have some holidays ... I was busy the last days too and beside massive packing and preparing I started some Work in Progress ...



I also have some articles ready after the return, but I am not sure how fast they will hit the jungle. You know time can be spent slow and wild at the same time out there in the jungle. Take care of your time - it is something important!

Here you go with two previews - one will be another "Got pimped!-Article" about the "Prince of Autumn" and the other will be a little summ up + step by step about one of my latest comission pieces ...




More to come soon - after a break, holidays, a painting class and a safe travel home :)
Stay tuned! And thanks to everybody who likes and reads MV!
There soon will be 2 big things up for you and your Apes say thanks to you again after a long long time of being way too busy for mostly everything ...

Best Wishes and keep on happy painting!
Roman

Painting Class Information

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Aloa,

I am already fully prepared for the upcoming painting class in Paris next weekend. I can't wait and I am happy to paint with you all soon!

Little information about the two painting classes in Hamburg, Germany, starting late September, early October.- - there are still some places free after the big clean up! If you are interested check here and here!

Musica

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Another quote ... :)

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
                                                                                                                  Winston Churchill

Quote ...

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
                                                                      
Vincent Van Gogh

A frozen Moment

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Hello again dear jungle,

this Sentinel by Games Workshop has been my entry for this years Golden Demon, Germany and I was happy to win a final pin with it in a very strong vehicle category.

It took a while for me to get this one done.

... due several things. Most time was spent on icicles, creating more and more of them. And some more. After serious moments of deep thinking there have been more and more icicles and icicles and icicles again. After they were placed correcting their ancles and do some more icicles for repair works and in the end before the final end, even more icicles and icicles and icicles and iccicilllsllllllddrrrpppssss ...

This article shows you how you can do icicles.

The antenna was done using acupuncture needles. If you are interested in the technique check the following article but really be careful when doing so as acupuncture needles do hurt, believe me, true story. You can also find an article about scratchbuilding the little ladder, here.

Fine needles used to add special effects to your model.

 
If you want to do your own icicles check the link above but don't do too many, believe me, sometimes you dream of icicles and dreams with icicles are not often pretty cool or warm dreams ;)
There is a little tragic story behind this frozen Sentinel. 
The story is about Mischka. Let me tell you the pretty unimportant tale of Mischka, the Sentinel pilot
.
"Mischka, the pilot was out on a scouting patrol for the imperial guard on planet Nacika IV. 
This planet is a small imperial outpost somewhere in the 40K Universe and is well known for its cold temperatures. For sure the imperial guard was prepared for the cold athmosphere but they could not know that an iceage is shortly ahead. It hit Mischka pretty hard and in the first seconds of thunderous blizzard whirlwinds he tried to run away but he just froze to the ground ... and the tragic story found its end. Maybe."




I hope you do like him and don't worry to much about Mischka. Someday the iceage on Nacika IV will come to an end and he will be freed from his prison ... but maybe Jack, the little mouse inside the Sentinel survived due all the cookies from Mischka - who knows ...

Happy Painting!
Best Wishes
Roman
BTW: I can't wait to see some photos of Oli's damn cool Fantasy Unit entry!!!

SLAP!

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

After the Games Day I wanted to paint a pure relaxation project and so I did with this one ...


SLAP!!

Ordralfabetix 

Andrea Miniatures, 54 mm 

He was a lot of fun to do!

Hope you like him!

 Keep on happy painting!

 Best Wishes 

Roman

Kong's WIP thoughts - August #04

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


Ough! Ough!
The last weeks were pretty hard and full of painting for the Games Day Germany. You can read a full review here and also see a video of this nice weekend in Cologne. After the Games Day Raffa and my tasklist was full with finishing a comission of 9 Figures and now - after all is done - this week was full with relaxation and a handfull of friends visiting us during our work in the studio.

On Tuesday Thorsten, Bene and Max, the Maxican arrived and we really enjoyed painting together. Thorsten left us on Wednesday but his seat was quickly taken by Robert and Kurt. We really had some awesome painting days and I want to say thanks to my friends for such nice days. On Tuesday we did build up small airplanes by Revell and made some funny conversion with them. You see this week was not the most serious one when it comes to the work we have done. Some Impressions of the last beautiful days ...


Multi Supermulti Ultramarine Attack Airplane III:

Hans and Joachim in their Stuka Bomba with imperial lasguns:

Chok!!

Sky Cowboy!

AHHHHH!! BLURRY!!!!

Austrian Conan VI

Seize and Volumes contrast

We had the great idea to hang an old frame we found on top of our workplace to have some spots for additional lamps and to put some stuff there too.


Kurt's yellow grot bomber - WIP



















Robert painting a Knight by Simon M. ... finally!


Thanks for such great days my friends!!
Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman

Musica

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

There is but one song that always - no matter what time it is, no matter how dark the clouds seem to be, no matter whatever - that always keeps us on track and highly motivated ... truely a jungle classic:


Review: Miniature Mentor - Complete Guide to Photographing Miniatures

by Raffa

Posted by Raffa, Picster, Capuchin,...

Hey everyone!

In this review I'll be watching the Complete Guide to Photographing Miniatures by Miniature Mentor. You can get this DVD from Miniature Mentor, at the moment there is only a download aviable.

Weighing a hefty 9.5 GB download, this 7+ hours of HD material is a pretty big boy to download, so check your internet connection if you plan on getting this, otherwise you have to wait for the DVD version.

Normally Roman writes most of the reviews, but as I make all the miniature photos for him and myself, I think this falls in my field of work ;)

So, the person that will be your teacher on this DVD is Felix Wedgwood, a very experienced product photographer.


After watching the DVD I can honestly say I've still learned a thing or two.
This DVD is in my opinion aimed on the more experienced photographer. To get the most out of the DVD you should maybe be willing to spend some dollars on new lamps (the lamps introduced on the DVD are now in our studio and they are just AWESOME!) or a new camera if you don't already own a DSLR or good lamps.


But even withouth spending more money for new equipment you will get a lot out of the DVD, the knowledge shared is very good and also coveres the basics of taking miniature photos including a good light setup (without a photo box) etc.


The knowledge on the DVD is very in depth, Felix is a professional and he really shares his knowledge and experience for this topic. At very few points the DVD was boring to me, and I have to say I'm really not an unexperienced photographer.



My conclusion for this review:
If you are interested in improving your miniature photos, this DVD will pretty sure pay out.

Best wishes,
Raffa