Tutorial - Martian or Demonic Ground

Hello friends,

Some people asked me how i made the base for my Sgt. Connor miniature or for the Daemonette, so i decided to write a little article about it. 

The technique is very easy and very fast. Beginner or advanced painter, anybody can do it and achieve the same results.

First of all, there's the needed materials list :

- A Dremel

- A round drill bit

- Some Milliput

- A pot of modelling paste
- Protection glasses
- Respiratory protection
- A random sculpting tool

- Your big fingers

Start to add some milliput on the plinth to give a solid base. If you want more security you can add pins in it (sometimes it happens the milliput doesnt stick well to the plinth). It is also the right moment to see where you will place the miniature. Do it while the milliput is still soft so you can mark the feet.

Now take more milliput and add some shapes of different sizes and forms, simply where you feel it. Be careful there's no gap between the milliput elements. It is also time to fill the gaps under the feet of the piece so it wont look like it is flying. 

The next step is the most funny one. When the milliput is dry, take your dremel with the round drill bit, your protection glasses, your respiratory mask and go outside as it will create a lot of dirt. Then simply go on the base with your dremel. What you want to do is to remove the surface coat of the milliput everywhere, the dremel will do the rest. You can also dig holes, going deeper or not, it's just your taste. You can also use different sizes of round drill bits for more variety.

After that take your pot of modeling paste and cover the wood areas, it will make the painting easier. If you dont do it you'll notice a difference of texture between the milliput and the wood areas. You can also give a last touch with sandpaper on the sides for a perfect finish.

Once done and before the primer, it's better to clean it with a toothbrush and tap water to remove all the dust. Then and once dry, prime it and paint it like you want! You can also add some elements later if you want, like snow, grass, mud or whatever!

Have fun!

Daemonette - JMD Miniatures

Hello,

I've just finished something i started at the end of july, before to decide to go to the Games Day. It's a little Daemonette from JMD Miniatures, a great company that sadly stopped it's production. Well it's a 54mm. piece, sculpted by Mr. Carrasco and i must say the cast was very good. I only did resculpt the hair, because i lost the little resin piece... Anyways i think they are better like that with more dynamism.

On the paint side it's classical for a daemonette with pinkish skintones. As i wanted her to be in a cold atmosphere i just added some blues. As always i tried to be very clean, achieving smooth transitions. It's even more important when painting that kind of female with very soft volumes. It's painted only with the brush, acrylic colors, a wet palette and tap water, no additives such as mediums.

If you want to give her a vote, it's here coolmini or here Putty&Paint , thanks!

I'll write a very little tutorial soon about the base. It's the same technique as i used on the Sgt. Connor, very simple and very fast to achieve. It's good for martian or daemonic bases.

Hope you like, cheers!

Games Day Italy 2013

Hiho,

Back from the Games Day 2013 in Italy, i'll try to write a few words about the event and what happened. But before that i want to thank my friend Max Richiero (Amon Chakai) for his great sense of hospitality and all the rest. So... thanks man! And sorry for the french rap in the car on the road to Modena :D .

In fact many things have been already said lately on the legiopictorum forum (thanks google translate!), on Skullsmini or on Facebook about the expo, the place, the few people, the price of the tickets, the judges... and so on. I wont repeat what has been already said.

I decided to go to Modena this summer and had no clue of what i would like to paint for it. I dont like most of the new GW stuff, except the plastic wraithguards. So painting one would make my first entry (40k single). As i started my projects at the end of august, i couldnt plan to paint monsters or big stuff like that. I decided to focus on little singles, with relatively simple modifications to spare time. My two other entries would be a skeleton standard bearer (Whb single) and an Eowyn (Lotr).

On the painting side i sticked to my usual style, without trying to paint huge freehands or crazy colors (italians are the best for that anyways). But focusing on a clean result with smooth transitions and the lights at the right places. That means, in a way and compared to other styles, that my pieces can look "simple".

Let's start with the piece i spent the most time on, the wraithguard. Most of the "out of the box" positions are really static and i wanted more dynamism. So i repositioned the legs, the arms and resculpted what needed to be. The sword & the tyrannid head also recieved some minor changes. My desire was also to give him some life, thats why i represented him as a hunter in the jungle, looking for war trophies. About the painting i always loved the Ulthwé color sheme. Another point is, knowing a bit about GW recent marketing strategy, it's often better to paint something that respects a minimum the fluff. Another detail, the plants from the base come from here : Minisocles . A great store with great products. But enough talking, here are the pics of what took the Silver Demon in the 40k single category :

Now my second entry, the tiny Eowyn. I wanted to enter something in the Lotr category simply because it's very tiny, so it's very fast to paint. I always liked the movies and her fight against the witch king. I tried to stick to the real color sheme, as it is on screen. Luckily for me it took the Golden Demon :

Now let's give some words about the skeleton that took the Gold in Whb single and the Slayer Sword!!! I've read a lot about it the last two days, positive & negative things, depending the forums and the topics. Some people already gave him a name that i will keep, "the ugly little skeleton". But no, i wont feed these discussions anymore. Sorry my friends, the popcorn time wont happen here :D .

So yes, it's based on a plastic skeleton warrior. I added more changes on it that most people might think and if you know the plastic skeleton sprues you'll notice it. It's very tiny, and even if it's a skeleton i wanted to give him some life & a strong face. I also worked on the atmosphere, even if the base is quite simple. I wanted people looking at him imagine an army of skeletons raising behind him facing the cold wind, while he shouts his commands before the fight. As for my two other entries i remained sober in my color choices & in the paint style as you can see :

I want to say three more things. First a special thanks to my french friends i spent the day with, it woulnt have been the same without you, at all! I sincerely hope you'll catch some demons and even more in the future! Second, thanks to Francesco Farabi and another italian finalist i sadly dont remember the name (sorry :() for the very kind words after the ceremony. To finish and obviously, congrats to all the participants!

Thats all folks, my daughter is screaming! :)

Cheers!

In the Shadow

Hi friends,

I finally found the time to take pictures of something i finished one month ago, the superb Einstein bust from Figone, sculpted by Allan Carrasco.

Once again i started it during a painting session with my friend Matthieu Rouèche. I had an idea of something dark but still very colorful, with bright lenses giving the focus. I had already seen so many great versions of this bust and i didnt want to paint the classical green skin ork. So i started on something more blue. No... it's not a smurf! But in the shadow an ork would look almost blue, thats a fact (or not). Anyways i was happy with the skintones. The basic work done i added some nuances with browns/blues/greens that... you  cant see on the pictures... But yes, they are here, trust me!

You'll notice the lenses arent that bright and arent that much eye catching, as it was in my first idea. I painted them at first very bright, almort fluo, and in my opinion it was killing the work on the face of the badguy. So i muted them down and now we can see there's an ork under them :) .

It has been quite a fast painjob (20 hours with the prepping), done only with the brush and acrylics. But enough talking, here are the pics :

Hope you like him, cheers!

For Sale : Avalonian Retiary

Hello,

Another oldie is up for sale on eBay, the Avalonian Retiary.

If you're interested, here's the link to the auction : LINK

More interesting updates will follow soon, stay tuned!

Cheers!

Blood and Sand - Scale75

After watching all the seasons of the Spartacus television serie and even if painting historical minis is new for me, i really wanted to paint a gladiator! So found this murmillo gladiator from Scale 75 and i liked the very dynamic pose, it will make the painting more interesting (where to paint the lights, etc.). It's also a miniature that hasnt been seen a lot on the internet yet.

The sculpture is good even if it's not the best. Some details are a bit strange or are missing, like the guy's nipples, but i was too lazy to resculpt them ^^. The base will be very simple as he's fighting in the arena, simply some sand. But i added a net made of twine and superglue, so we have the feeling he's fighting a retiarus, avoided the net and now charges to give the quietus.

I wanted something realistic, with desaturated colors, approaching what we can see in the tv serie. But before giving the colors used, here are the pics :

About the colours i used, i cant really tell you the mixes, proportions or the detailed process as i never write it and it would be way too long. But here are the colors i used :

Skin : Cork Brown, Tan-earth, English uniform, Burnt umber, Violet red, Burnt cadmium red, Bronzed flesh, Ivory, Scab red, Prussian blue

Reds : Burnt cadmium red, Burnt umber, Flat black, Iraqui sand, Mepthiston red

Leathers : Burnt umber, Ivory, Cork brown, Tan-earth, Scorched brown, Iraqui sand, Burnt cadmium red, Siena ink, Sepia ink 

Metallics : Boltgun metal, Chrome, Dwarf bronze, China ink, Cryx bane base, Flat black, Smoke, Tin bitz

Blood : Clear red X-27, Flat black, Scab red

Vallejo - Games Workshop - Andrea - Pébéo - P3 - Tamiya

Hope you like, cheers!

Sgt. Connor - Martian Sunrise

Hi friends,

Some days ago i finished my version of Sgt. Connor from Andrea Miniatures with their Dark Nova series. The piece is quite big and casted with resin & metal parts. The cast was quite good so i didnt spent too much time on the prepping part. But i didnt like the original gun and the haircut of the guy, so i gave him a big military knife. After a long night of fights it sounds logical to be out of ammo, no? :) I also added him a headset with a mic, done with fimo and an acupuncture needle. The gun on the floor is made of parts of the original weapon + some resculpting.

I wanted to be a bit original in the painting so i decided to make a lateral lighting, after all the sun is rising! It was also an opportunity to paint some osl effects. I didnt see many green versions yet on the internet so green will be my color. It was also, in my mind, an "easier" color to use for a realistic lateral lighting.

I used the airbrush to paint the base of the color and to save a lot of time. I'm also a real beginner with this tool so it was cool to train with it. Then the real brush work could begin. But here are more pics, after you'll find the colour reciepe.

Armor

Base : Camo Green (GW), Kabalite Green (GW)

Lights : Ivory (MC), Mat Yellow (MC)

Shadows : Dark Sea Blue (MC), Black (MC)

Osl : Hawk Turquoise (GW), Ice Blue (GW), White (MC)

Rust / Scratches : Bestial Brown (GW), Scorched Brown (GW), Bloodstone (P3), Black (MC)

Metallics : Boltgun Metal (GW), Chrome (ModelAir), China Ink (Vallejo), Smoke (MC)

Hope you like, cheers!

The Swamp Keeper - 28mm. - Alkemy

Hoï,

Here's something i finished at the beginning of the month, just before the AFM Montrouge. Some of you may have seen it at the show. As it's difficult for me to find some time to paint i prefer working on little pieces, so i can finish more pieces during the year.

Matthieu Rouèche and me did plan a little paintday together, and i had nothing on the worktable... So i quickly searched a little piece to start with him and i found this great avalonian. I prepped the piece in 10 minutes just before taking the road and moving to his place. I undercoated it in my car on a stop area as it was raining (be careful to not spray your seats!) and it was neraly dry when i arrived :) .

The next step was to find a color sheme and i really had no idea. But luckily Matthieu was painting a commission work in "night mode". It was looking great and this is something i never tried before, so let's go for the night mode!

Some hours later the piece was finished :) . I hope you like!

Welcome!

Hi friends,

Welcome on my new blog! Well it's basically the same as the old one... :) . Only difference is it's not the same host & adress. I moved because the new version of the administration of Overblog is very, very bad. Things are much easier here!

Bad thing is i lost all my articles... But there will be new ones :)

Cheers & happy visit!

Abyssal Warlord & Viking Warrior

I finished two projects some months ago, but couldnt find the time to share them... until now.

First one is my version of the well known Abyssal Warlord from Scale 75. It was an opportunity to try sculpting a weapon, as i never did it before. So i made a trident and i also added him a fish aileron in the back.

The colors used are a bit strange and honestly i cant remember the pots used. The paintjob didnt really turn how i expected, thats why i went very fast on the base. But in the end it's not so bad :) . No doubt i'll paint another version someday, i love this model!

The second one is my first historical complete model, a Viking Warrior from Andrea Miniatures. I like trying to paint historical minis, it's always good to try painting different things :) .

                                       

Hope you like them :)