Samstag, 28. April 2012

Update-update...finishing move

As promised it's finished.
It's just getting dry and then I'll finish it (off) with some base coat....

Pics below show the finished but still wet AoPp - hopefully in half an hour I can start coating...
(please forgive my repetition. Last night messed up my head and I'm really really happy when it's done:))



Enjoy life.
I'll do so for the rest of the day... beautiful weather outside... sunshine^^

Stay tuned.

Yours Edo.

AoPp- UPDATE

Hi everyone out there in the world wide web...

After returning from the movies (Battleship was fun) here some new "data" aka pics.


My plate is only about a few steps away from the 50% marker ...
I hope that maybe tomorrow afternoon it'll be so far that i can start painting or at least putting some base coat on it ;)

As you can see a massive use of (2 component) resin is involved - creating a ca. 5mm thick ground layer in which two moon craters of "GW's moon craters set" were set in.
Moreover I've put some rubble and monster bases to it.

I'm very looking forward towards tomorrow hoping it'll look as good in reality as it does in ma head by now... base coat, colour, finishing it...


Stay tuned and keep on happy painting/ molding/ sculpting, etc.
Enjoy life ;)

Yours Edo

Mittwoch, 25. April 2012

Chaos Dwarf AoPp... WIP



Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning everyone...
These 3 (three) pics show my WIP AoPp (Armies on Parade plate)...
I hope DPD will bring my package of silicone today - cant wait to finish this one, too.

Some mor pics...
I added cannons + a bit of rubble + fixed some connection problems...






 

 The red dwarf shown is for size comparison (only ;))...

so stay tuned, enjoy life ;)

Your's Edo

Sonntag, 22. April 2012

sunday summary

Another week passed, another week of freedom and time to do everything I wanted.
After years of studies, with barely free time, I really enjoy this.

What happened this week?

Lets start with some changes to the design, I took the time to fix some annoying problems this morning.
The background will no longer scroll while reading (made me dizzy all the time) and has a nice solution.
And I thought it would be nice to welcome our visitors with a more suiting and personal header.
If you have suggestions that could help us improve design, or the blog itself, feel free to tell us!

There are also two new pages, first a direct link which will magically guide you to my DeviantArt galleries.
You'll find tons of pictures there, those of you interested in the photography part of this blog will sure have a good time over there.

Second, some kind of market place, where you can find auctions from time to time.
This week you have the chance to bid on a big deal of chaos space marines for a more than fair price.
In the future there will also be painted miniatures and some of the stuff we craft.
To sell my stuff hurts my heart whenever I am forced to do so, but we all have to pay our bills and a student's life is a poor one.

Yesterday was a happy painting night, I had the great pleasure of a nice guest and we both painted some oil on canvas. I kind of taught her step by step and our paintings grew together, I love it when this happens.
Whether miniature or canvas, there's nothing more beautiful then to see how other people discover their love for color and art with your guidance.
I explained some of Bob Ross way of painting and chose a very simple scene to show some basics.



















Considering the fact, my friend never used oil before and never painted a scene on canvas, I think her painting turned out very well.



I just can recommend painting together from time to time, it sure is fun to explain what you are doing and maybe you could find out something new about your own technique while talking about it.

To end this summary, an impression of Friday night, spent with many friends until the sun rose again.
This night gave me inspiration, energy and the right mood to work on some unfinished projects again.





Donnerstag, 19. April 2012

GI-GAN-TIC (chaos dwarf) cannon...

I've finally made it. My enormous cannon project for my chaos dwarf army is finished. At least in construction.
- As announced or better, as shown in some pictures in an earlier post, I was totally investing my spare time in this project. I even kept my "Armies on parade-plate" project waiting. Now that I'm finished with this one I can switch again and keep on planning and constructing my "AoPp".
But now some pictures of my cannon project from WIP to finished construction.
(I'm not sure which colour scheme to use yet, but I hope Farbfanatiker will help me finding one;))




The last two pictures show some size comparison. First a mug (starbucks...), second a Chaos Hellcannon and a Chaos Dwarf.

So.... Keep on happy painting/ constructing/ molding, etc. Enjoy life.
Yours Edo.


Sonntag, 15. April 2012

Cheap Hobby Stuff - candle holder as sockets, socket wip and some impressions

Hello out there,
time to write again.

Today I'll start with some very cool things I found while shopping at Ikea.
They have nice tea-light holders, which are perfect to build some sockets for our miniatures!


I payed 6 Euro and got 12 new sockets, nice deal :)
I think it is a good way to get started with cabinet basing, you don't want to buy an expensive socket for your first steps.
It doesn't hurt that much if your test object was cheap. (I know how bad it feels to know you just ruined 20 Euro)

Let's have a closer look:



With my new sockets, I started to play around this morning.



Think they'll turnout as chaos shrines, both will get some more attention later.

Today also some things on Ebay are ending, I was forced to sell some of my old tabletops stuff.
If you are interested in Chaos Marines or classic terminators, you might want to check this links:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/270952793549?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.de/itm/270952804887?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

To say good by, some impressions, my hobby room, things that help me through my projects and some more furniture :)


 Once more, I am addicted to Energy Drinks, I think I'll never get rid of that stuff^^

 Our new atelier starts to work, much place to store all the hobby stuff and tools.


And much stuff that wants to be stored :) Chaos soon will be defeated.

More color for my wardrobe. He still needs some work, but I start to like him. And hey, no more white that disturbs me.

Have a nice day everyone!

Montag, 9. April 2012

Review and Tutorial : go create crackle coating

Today I'd like to show you some great stuff we found in a big hobby store.
It is called go create crackle coating and is an acrylic painting medium to achieve an old, used look of color.
Many of  you will know the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint, which was shown in a great tutorial over at Massive Voodoo : http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2011/03/tutorial-working-with-crackel-medium.html

The stuff we are talking about today is really different, other ways to use it, other results and other possible scales.
I'll begin with a short introduction of the product it self, how it is used, what should be known about it...and so on. The second part of todays post will show a little project I am working on right now.

Part One - The medium


As I said, the medium is acrylic based, so it can be thinned with water (I didn't try how this affects the results yet) and you can clean your brush with water and soap after applying it.

We bought that stuff at Boesner, a huge art shop.
I'll add their web address, so you can check out whether there is one near you, or you'll have to use their online shop: http://www.boesner.com/boesner/servlet/frontend/articleDetail.html?btUid=bt_Article&iDf_id=c0a81e6:-4cd97d27:10a032c891a:35c8&3rdKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-77a1&2ndKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-77a4&showAll=true&1stKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-7944

The medium isn't that expensive for the big amount you get I think. It's very fertile.

You have to prime your surface with any colour your cracks should have in the end.

Then you apply the crackle coating, the bottle says to use steady brush strokes in one direction.
In the end, 80 % of the big cracks will run with the direction of the stroke, so you can achieve a more chaotic pattern by simply ignoring the manual :)
Another thing you can follow or ignore is the thickness of medium you apply. The manual advises a thin coat,
but a thick will intensify the results.

After everything dried (be sure it dried...or else you'll rip off the medium with the first brush stroke) you can apply any acrylic colour you like.

Again the manual advises us to use: short and gentle strokes with a thin coat of colour.
Fat coats will again intensify the result. (and have a way more intensive colour)

That all sounds very theoretical...and so I made a few tests to show you what results can be achieved.



You can see different consistences (more or less water)  from left to right.
The first row shows the colour applied thick, without taking the water out of it with a paper towel, your hand...
The second row shows the colour applied thin.

The red and green spots on the right where Tamya Clear Red and Liquid Greenstuff. Both weren't effected.

As you see, the results very really strong.
I'll do some testing on miniatures (I am thinking of sockets with a worn look, and old wood with really thin colour) and will show you my experiences soon.

Part Two - Bigger scales and use on furniture
I decided to redo my wardrobe, it is old kitchen furniture a friend gave to me when I moved into my new flat. It had stains, scratches and was white...nothing I like :)



So I took the first thing to hand, some chaos black spray because I wanted strong contrast between cracks and colour.


If you want to do something really big, like this door, don't use anything as a pallete then the big thing itself.
I used some bowl, but most of the medium wasn't usable, because it liked that bowl so much...the stuff is tough and sticky.


I decided to ignore the manual, as I always do, and applied very different layers of medium, some areas were thin as advised, others were really fat and needed hours to dry.
The medium keeps its shine in some areas, even when it dried. So testing around is your friend, if it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is dry.


Then I applied some colour, simple wall paint I used for my whole room.
Nice to know: You'll just have one stroke per area...if you brush over it again, you will take much of the medium with your brush and much of the color. So be sure your colour covers with thin layers. 
That problem didn't trouble me at the testing card I showed above, so maybe it was the wall paint or the fat coat of medium....don't know.

The crackling starts immediately.

After 20 minutes...


Everything dry and ready for further work.

Where the medium was really thick, big cracks showed up, that run into one direction, in the thinner areas you find small cracks that run chaotic, just as the Tim Holtz Crackle Paint achieves.

Have a nice day everyone

Sonntag, 8. April 2012

playing with my furniture...

Trying around with some crackle stuff, to add a new feeling to my wardrobe.
I am changing lots of things in my flat this days, new paintings on my walls, new furniture or old one redone.
I love to work in, and WITH my flat, guess it is a big project I can interact with every day, adding new lines of script wherever the thoughts hit me and some marker is near, coloring our freezer, washing machine....think you'll get what I mean :)



I will do some turorials and WIPs of this whole thing, for most is cheap but can make the difference between a place to live and your very own personal place to live.
And miniature stuff I am doing isn't worth a word right now, somehow I managed to forget how to blend...well I hope it will work better tomorrow.

Read you soon, when the door has dryed and I can see how the final result is...and what further work could be done.

Dienstag, 3. April 2012

Awesome-O-MVE-20-12 FINSHED, some philosophy and photos

It is done!

But first, the threatened philosophy part :)
Every time I reach the final works on any project, I notice again what the hardest part is.
It is not to start (which can be very hard too), not to endure, not all the thoughts and facts about color schemes and technique...it is to end the whole thing.
Knowing when the moment to stop has come is really important, so many projects never get finished because one missed the point to say: That's fine, no more.
When I miss this point, I start to go mad on my project, discovering more and more things that could be improved (maybe I learned something new, maybe I was too tired, or just don't like it anymore) and I try to redo all those things...and never end, because there are always new ones.
My cabinet is full of projects like this.

So this time I wanted to end it, when it felt right to do so. I know, there are many things done fast and maybe not as clean as I could do them, especially the weathering was kind of problematic this time.
Don't know what went wrong, but I had big problems handling the oil color, which normally is the most easy part for me.
But that is ok, I smile when I look at him and that gives me the certainty that he is ready.
He will get his own place in my cabinet, opening a new floor of finished projects.
Believe me, this feels really special :)

Aaaaand here he comes, the incredible, sweet, and absolutely unhideable easter egg robot, the

AWESOME-O-MVE-20-12



For bigger pics, and if you like to vote for him, you can find him here at cmon:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/302567

As always I am unable to take better pics of him, I may be a passionate photographer, but I don't know how to get a miniature look like it should.

But gladly, there are other things to take shots of :)
My Nikon is a true companion on most of my ways, a few impressions of what we saw during the last weeks...


The DR 18 201, the fastes funtional steam locomotive. She visited Dresden a few days ago.
A big printed version will be the easter gift for my father, who loves the machine and introduced me to the old times of railways.
Can't count how often we chased that baby to take pictures or film her.


I also started to work on the first Paris shots, there is still a lot to do but I like how this two turned out.



Thanks to everyone who read the last days articles, we hadn't that much readers for a while.
And special thanks to Roman and the MV-Crew for that crazy happy contest :)

Have a nice evening everyone, I am going to spend my time on some good red wine.

Awesome-O-Live-Wip-3

Wow...5 hours and it feels as if there was just one, painting, painting, no thinking.
This was what I needed to free my mind again.


In Soviet Russia...the easter egg is searching YOU! ;)



I'll finish him after a few hours of sleep.
Oil color to do the rusting, some last scratches on the wheels, some more personality on his head.
Refining some details and then it will be over.
This little fella took my heart by storm, I felt the magic of painting again.
No thoughts about my past, none about the future, just the brush and me again.