Long-term project: Gladiator Arena

Hey there,

Most of you should already know about the kickstarter "Arena Rex". Highly detailed 35mm gladiators & mythic creatures packed with nice rules.

As its a skirmish system it's perfectly made for people like me with way too less time for this hobby.

Painting a small amount of miniatures and playing some games which should be pretty fast compared to the classic tabletop games are the key argument for me to buy those right after they are available. Why not yet supporting the kickstarter? I can't really afford that much money right now. So I have to wait.

To shorten the time (8+ months left) I decided to build an arena as a gaming table. Instead of starting a huge scratch build I choose to use something more easy. It's a Playmobil-Arena I found for some bucks at eBay. Perfectly for this usage.

So be prepared to see some progress on that project from time to time.

Who let the dogs out?

The last days me and my wife had some visitors. So I took every single chance I can to paint at least a bit during the days because our visitors slept in our living room... also my painting room.

Here's the progress I made on the base and the 2 Schnauzers:

 

(click on pictures to get a higher resolution)

Right after I've finished the grey Schnauzer and glued him on the base I somehow felt not happy with the result. I wanted to get some variety painting 2 different colored dogs. But the grey one stands far behind the other Schnauzer. Something I'll work on the next painting session.

Here are some pictures I've made during the progress with my mobile phone to talk about with some friends. Feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge and discover all the details I've added to the bridge.

 

 

 

Memes

Sometimes a friend of mine sends me a meme to give his meaning more expression or make it even funnier while we're chatting via Skype (mostly about painting miniatures or photography).

I came to the conclusion that some of them are way too good to not share them. So I decided to show you some of those every now and then.

Every credit goes to Daniel Gütl aka Nathelis. He's a member of the Austrian painting connection "pumpkin painters". Check out their blog to see some of their work.

Here are the first in line of several memes I have collected so far:

Both were created during a chat about brushes and their condition. Those I am currently using are mostly dead (single loose hairs, fishtail, non-accurate tip...).

One was for my girlfriend to pick the right present for my birthday, which is very soon. The other one... well, he has humor :)

If you've got a nice meme around painting miniatures and want to spread those around the net feel free to send me an email to 10tacles@brushbrothers.de with your meme attached to it.

Product tested: Brush Conditioner by TTS

Today I want to introduce you a product that could renew the life of a painters most important tool: Our brushes!

But first things first.

While I was looking for something new to paint at our local hobby store one of the owners called attention to a new product. It's a small pot with a blue liquid inside - a brush conditioner. I was curious and asked for more information... and bought it.

This happened some weeks ago.

Like most of us I take care of my brushes and clean them carefully after every painting session. But there's always a point of no return for a brush . single hairs get loose or the tip starts to split into a fishtail. Another brush for painting bases.... I do hate these moments! With this in mind I've tested the brush conditioner.

How do I use the brush conditioner?

The usage is quiet simple. Clean your brush like always (e.g. fresh water, brush soap,....). Dip the bristles of your brush into the conditioner afterwards. Let it dry for 2-3 minutes before you attach the brush safer and put it to the others in your box. Finished ;)

That's it.

How does the brush conditioner works?

After soaking a bit of the conditioner into your bristles and it dries you'll recognize that it will stick all bristles together. Most of the new bought brushes were dipped into a similar liquid to keep the original shape. This reduces the chance of single loose hairs or the worst case: a fishtail.

Here's a comparison before and after the use of the brush conditioner for better explanation:

Important notes:

- You're not able to renew a heavily used brush!

- The brush conditioner just works with sable hair brushes!

Does it really renew the life of my brushes?

After testing this conditioner for some weeks I am really convinced and will definitely buy another pot of it.

I've recognized much less loose hairs then before using it. So it's worth my money.

Where do I get this brush conditioner?

Clickediclick!

A base for Melissa

Just a short post for our dear readers...

The last 2 days I've spent my painting time to build a base for Melissa and her 2 Schnauzers.

Here's the first alternate test I did (really, I didn't tried this out while building the base!):

Tomorrow there's a painetrs meeting with some friends at my place. I'm really looking forward to it. I guess there'll be a huge update for Melissa on sunday.

Have a nice weekend!

Worth a look: Fan'Fig' Webzine

During my daily ride on the newswave deep into our world of miniatures I've explored a webzine which is new for me. 

It's called "Fan'Fig'". A French magazine downloadable for free!

Before I am going to dive deeper and take a closer look on every issue published until now (9 right now!) I want to share this with you. 

I know that the French language is not for everyone, but we all know that pictures sometimes tell more then words do. The latest 3 issues are full of step by step articles.

I absolutely recommend to take a look at it! Here are just 2 sites for a sneak peek:

Clickediclick! Jump to the magazine

Dissolution of Humanity

They say the world was coming to an end...
Well...
It was by our own hand
Turned out the world kept turning
Only we ended
All the evidence was there...
The punishment of faith
Creating animosity between our brethren...
The dissolution of the humanity in all cultures...
The reluctance of acceptance for others...
Bigotry, ignorance and narrow mindedness
Destroying our world...

That really sounds like a postapocalyptic scene, isn't it?

One of my next projects in line will be a gift to a good friend of mine. And he's addicted to postapocalyptic stuff. What's better then painting a small diorama?

But first things first.

Some weeks ago my friend, Steffen, gave me this beautiful painted miniature by Origen Arts (more pictures right here!):

Again a BIG Thank you out to Steffen!

So I feel that I'm in the need to give something back to him. I was looking for a suitable miniature for some days and found something, that will make him happy - A 1/35 postapocalyptic character by Evolution Miniatures.

At the beginning I just wanted to create a wasteland scenery with the stalker, but the more i was thinking about it, the more I've got crazy ideas. So the final idea slowly formed itself in my head.
Here's a small sneak peek of what you could expect to see (with a full coverage of the WIP):

 

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Minecraft 2.0

...or: How we play with bricks

While preparing another interesting post I'll share something of my private life with you.

From time to time my son asks me to tinker / craft something with him (like his daddy). Instead of building houses or a zoo with worlds most famous bricks we are using special ones I often use for building a base.

I guess you know what it is. A huge collection of HirstArts bricks...

For scale, it's a 1:35 vehicle you can see there ;)

Enjoy your day and keep watching this blog.

In love with Melissa

Long time no hear, time to change something. 

For some days there's a strange hunger inside of me, that wants to blog and share my projects and thoughts again. So here's the first post in line of some others that I've already prepared for you. 

Currently i am working on Melissa, a nice miniature of the Darksword Range. 

For me it's the first time to paint such a small true scale miniature. And I have to admit: I love her :)

For the last finished projects there was always something I've tested out. First there was artificial water (I'm using 2K water produced by NOCH) and snow (used a mix of several components) followed by creating a deep jungle using paper plants and selfmade ones.  There'll be a separate post about that jungle project later. 

On Melissa it's more a painting experiment then something that has to do with basing. I'm giving NMM a serious try for the first time. 

I'm struggling a bit with contrast, which is a very important part of NMM. So...push push push the contrast! "Don't be afraid Arne! You can do it!" 

A (painter-)friend of mine has kindly shared his recipe for his NMM gold. I've taken this as a base and will refine it to my personal taste. You can find it right here. 

Here's my progress so far:

As you can see there's a LOT of work to do. From now on I'll concentrate on single areas till completion (or at least as close to as I can to leave some final touches for later). 

Here's the first step of further work on Melissa after I've made the pictures above. Worked on her face and hair:

I hope you like it and will visit this blog again to find out how the progress goes on. 

Enjoy your day and keep in mind to always paint with & for joy and happiness!