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!

On the workbench

Greetings beeing!

I just wanted to share with you the projects which are currently on my bench waiting to e finished.

As we have some visitors this weekend I won't be able to paint like I wanted to, but there's always a Monday, right?

So, let pictures talk:

Feedback - Some thoughts about it

Hallo und Willkommen auf Painters Delight!

Mir ist gestern erneut etwas in einem Forum aufgefallen, was mir bereits seit einigen Monaten "Sorge" bereitet. Sogar so sehr, dass ich zusammen mit 2 Hobby-Freunden ein neues Forum gegründet habe (www.brushbrothers.de), um das Problem zumindest dort anzugehen. Es geht darum, auf welche Art und Weise die Nutzer in den verschiedenen Foren ihr Feedback zu einem entstehendem oder vollendetem Werk schreiben.

Welcome to Painters Delight fellow painters!

Yesterday I've recognized once more something in a forum that I am reading daily that fulfills me with sorrow for some time now. There was enough sorrow to create a new forum (www.brushbrothers.de) together with 2 friends I know due to my hobby to get a small place to do something against it. It's all about the way people are giving feedback on other peoples work.

"Super, gefällt mir!", "Wahnsinn!" oder "Perfekt!" Schmeicheln zwar jeden Künstler und zaubern ihm ein kurzes Lächeln ins Gesicht, aber mehr als Anerkennung kann er daraus nicht erkennen. Einigen geht es beim präsentieren ihrer Werke möglicherweise nur darum zu zeigen, was man wieder vollbracht hat. Aber ein Großteil möchte sich auch weiterentwickeln und ist dankbar für Hinweise auf Schwächen, beispielsweise "Wow! Das gefällt mir sehr gut. Wenn du XY noch so und so abänderst, macht es richtig BAM!". Gleiches, und das ist aus meiner Sicht und Erfahrung noch viel wichtiger, gilt es natürlich, dieses auch bei entstehenden Werken zu tun. Ein kurzer Kommentar, was einem nicht gefällt ist weit weniger Wert als jener, der eine kurze Erklärung beinhaltet, warum es nicht so gut gelungen ist und vor allem: Wie man es besser machen kann. Hier hilft die simple Erläuterung oder, sofern vorhanden, der link zu einem ausführlichen Tutorial (Quellen könnten hier zB das entsprechende Forum sein, Blogs wie zB MassiveVoodoo oder die riesige Sammlung von Tutofig).

"Good, I like it!" "Wow!" or "Excellent!" Although each artist flatter and conjure him a brief smile in his face when reading such kind words it's more like a recognition of his work. Some may only show there work to present it. But the majority would continue to develop and would appreciate your comments on weaknesses, such as "Wow! I like that very well. If you are going to paint XY this way it really would make BAM!". The same, and this is from my perspective and experience, is more important to do with a still growing project. A short comment that just displeases ones work is far less value than that which includes a brief explanation of why you don't like it. And above all, how he can make it better. This is where the simple explanation, or if present, the link to a detailed tutorial (sources could be the appropriate forum, blogs such as Massive Voodoo or the vast collection of Tutofig).

Mir ist bewusst, dass es mehr Zeit in Anspruch nimmt, einen solchen Kommentar zu hinterlassen als ein kurzes "Wow!", aber hilft man dem Künstler damit nicht weit mehr?!

Ich schreibe lieber eine etwas ausführlichere Antwort mit Hilfestellung als 10 unqualifizierte, leere Phrasen weil mir für die Ausführlichkeit die Zeit fehlt.

I am aware that it is more time consuming to leave such a comment as a little "Wow!". But you're going to help the artist much more doing it that way.

If my time i short I prefer to just write down my thoughts about 1 project instead of hasting and typing 10 times "I like it".

Ich will keine große Rede über dieses Thema halten und euch gar langweilen (und damit diesen Artikel bewusst kurz halten)...aber geht doch einmal in euch und überlegt, was ihr mit nur 2 Minuten mehr Aufwand bewirken könnt. Ich freue mich jedesmal, wenn sich jemand die Zeit nimmt, ein ausführliches Feedback über meine Werke zu schreiben. Selbst dann, wenn er sich nur ein oder zwei Punkte heraussucht. Der nächste wird sich vermutlich andere Punkte heraussuchen und so wird jeder Bereich abgedeckt.

I won't hold a great speech on this subject and more important I'll prevent to bore you (and keep this article deliberately short) ... but just gather your thoughts about this article and think about what you could do with 2 more minutes invested in writing a comment. I am happy every time someone takes the time to write a detailed feedback on my work. Even if he just picked one or two things i could do better. The next will probably seek out other points and then each area will be covered.

Diese Art von Hilfe kann wirklich jeder leisten. Es ist hierbei keinesfalls relevant, ob man bereits jahrelange Erfahrung im bemalen von Miniaturen hat, oder ob man erst vor kurzem begonnen hat. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Personen schreiben ist sicher unterschiedlich, aber selbst ein Anfänger kann kundtun, was und warum ihm das nicht gefällt. Vielleicht hat er keinen Lösungsansatz, aber womöglich springt der Nächste auf diesen Zug auf und ergänzt seine Antwort um die entsprechende Lösung.

This kind of help can really afford. It's not relevant whether you already have years of experience in the painting of miniatures, or whether you have just begun. The way how these people write is certainly different, but even a novice can tell what and why he did not like it. Maybe he has no solution, but the next jump on this train and supplemented his answer to the solution.

Mir fiel es zu Beginn schwer, Feedback zu geben (gerade bei den "großen" Malern). Ich war mir unsicher wegen der fehlenden Erfahrung und hatte auch Angst, etwas falsches zu schreiben. Doch je häufiger ich Feedback gegeben habe, desto sicherer wurde ich mir. Es geht doch immer darum, ob es einem gefällt oder nicht - Facebook ist das beste Beispiel: I like it! Also einfach etwas Mut sammeln und die ersten Schritte wagen.

At the beginning it wasn't easy to provide feedback (especially for the "great" painters). I was uncertain because of the lack of experience and was afraid to write something wrong. But the more feedback I've given, the more confident I became. It's always a question of whether one likes it or not - Facebook is the best example: I like it! So just gather some courage and risk the first step.

Von solchen Diskussionen ernährt sich ein Forum - dein Forum! - warum sollten wir es also nicht qualifiziert füttern und so am leben erhalten?

Ich würde mich freuen, wenn dieser kurze Text seine Runden durch das World Wide Web dreht und so möglichst viele Forennutzer kurz zum nachdenken anregt. Vielleicht ist das ja der kleine Stein, der alles ins Rollen bringt...

A forum lives of such discussions - your forum! - Why should we not feed it with qualified comments to live on?

I would be glad if this short text makes his rounds through the World Wide Web and encourages users to consider briefly. Maybe this is the little stone which brings everything to roll ...

Alpha Legion - Still WIP

Time is slipping away when you have 2 little buggers at home... Yes, our daughter dropped and is fulfilling the heart of me and my wife with love.

So the time invested in painting miniatures will be reduced drastically. There are more important things right now. ;)

But let me share my actual progress on my Alpha Legion Chosen of the chaos space marines:

Brushbrothers & Sisters

Der ein oder andere von euch hat es sicher schon mitbekommen. Wir, das sind The_Count, Serafin und ich, haben ein neues Forum für die Malszene erstellt, dessen Schwerpunkt rein auf dem bemalen von Miniaturen liegt. 

href="http://www.brushbrothers.de">
http://www.brushbrothers.de


Ziel ist es, durch ehrliches Feedback den Malern Schrittweise zu besseren Ergebnissen zu verhelfen. 

In der bisherigen Testphase war es nur möglich, sich dort durch die persönliche Einladung eines bestehenden Mitglieds zu registrieren. Nachdem diese Phase positiv verlaufen ist, haben wir uns dazu entschlossen, das Forum für alle Interessenten zugänglich zu machen. Ihr könnt euch nun auch ohne Einladung registrieren. 

Was erwartet euch auf Brushbrothers- & Sisters?

Nun, neben den "klassischen" Elementen wie einem Schaukasten und dem WIP-Bereich sowie modernster Forensoftware haben wir ein ständig wachsendes Repertoire an Blogs, deren Beiträge automatisch  in einem Bereich des Forums gepostet werden. Hier kann rege über die Beiträge diskutiert und das ein oder andere hinterfragt werden. Die Betreiber sind allesamt bereits registrierte Mitglieder und können entsprechend darauf Antworten. 

Weitere tolle Inhalte sind u.a. ein Chat sowie der Bilder-Upload (kein File-Hoster mehr notwendig!). Schaut einfach mal vorbei, um weitere spannende und hilfreiche Funktionen zu entdecken. 

Wir freuen uns auf euren Besuch und die vielen neuen Gesichter!

 

Sanity is for the weak!

Hey hey, seems like I've lost motivation for blogging quiet a long time! As I have to get a new job there's some more free time for me that I am spending with my family and for long nights full of painting until iwas anle to find a new working place.

So, what happened the last weeks?

First of all I've worked a little bit more on the skin of my King Maulg project. Maybe something that will took me ages to finish. But I just wanted to add color if I am in the right mood for.

Here's a shot of the current status:

Beside my most favorite miniature I managed to complete another miniature from Reaper. It's the new Ice Queen. 

I didnt liked her staff so replaced it with a little selfmade staff that is less messy an more suitable for the design of that miniature. 

There were 2 main goals for this mini. First of all: Working with water effect. The second attempt was to add snow. Both experiments turned out more or less good. Had some issues using the water. I've tried to create some On top of the water surface to cover it with some snow. But my first attempt wasn't what I've expected. So ive decided to use my "rescue 1mm" and added another layer of water effect. Sadly with way too much color mixed in. So it turned out pretty bad! 

After giving it a try to hide that layer below a lot of snow I decided to bravely remove that layer with a dremel. So, careful as i am i removed a really thin layer after layer until I've reached the water. Looked like there was a real snowstorm:

That's it so far. Will do the last 5% within the next days. So be patient to see another finished miniature. 

2 running projects aren't enough, right? So there are 2 more I am working on. 

First things first. Here's a picture of the first brickwall I've created lately.

Not that bad I think. 

While I was starting on the base I wasn't sure which miniature could stand on it. My first thought was a dkok commissar. Sadly the base is way too big for him. So I quickly jumped ahead to one of the few space marines I own. Much better ;)

First colors:

In the meantime the new WH 40k Box Dark Veangeance was released. That's where project no. 4 comes into the game. 

The first miniature I am going to paint is one of the chosen chaos space marines. During the preparation work I found out that it's a typical TT-Miniature. Some of the details are not as sharp as we would like to see. But in summary it's a pretty nice CSM!

I'll paint that one together with some other painters in some kind of battle. So look forward for some fast progress. 

Read you soon!

My new Paint-Station from Warlord Games

It was deadly quiet during the last weeks, big sorry for that delay of informations and progresses to all our readers! I`ll promise to post some more pictures of ongoing works, interesting and inspirational links and whatever I like concerning our hobby.

Die letzten Wochen war es ruhig auf und um Painter`s Delight. Zu ruhig... ich will euch versprechen, in zukunft regelmäßiger Links zu Inspirativen und interessanten Bildern, Videos und dem aktuellen Fortschritt meiner Arbeiten zu zeigen.

I recently ordered 2 of the paintstations from warlord games. You can find them right here. Compared to other paintstations the price is in the lower midrange. The service was superb! Right after I`ve placed my order I`ve got an automatically sent eMail comfirmation - like most shops do. Later I`ve got a 2nd mail. They told me that they`ve got everything in stock and are going to pack everything for the long way. A third mail arrived the day after: Package is on it`s way and should arrive soon! Happy man!

Ich habe vor einigen Tagen 2 neue Farbregale bei Warlord Games bestellt. Preislich liegen diese im mittleren Bereich derer, die ich mir angesehen und in die engere Auswahl bezogen habe. Der mir gebotene Service von der Bestellung bis zur Lieferung war top! Ich erhielt nach tätigen der Bestellung neben der Bestätigungsmail noch 2 weitere eMails, die mich über den aktuellen Verlauf meiner Bestellung informiert haben. So wünscht es sich jeder ungeduldige Kunde!

Those arrived yesterday and I want to show you those. As I have to always reconstruct my working station and am limited in the space I have to keep my stuff I was looking for a new solution to get my paints out of their current box (better talking about prison - there`s not even 1 square milimeter space...).

"Gestern", das ist nun schon eine Woche her, erhielt ich diese auch endlich. Da ich meinen Malplatz nach jeder Malsession wieder abbauen muss, bin ich auf eine Kompakte, transportable Lösung angewiesen. Genau dies habe ich mir von den Regalen versprochen. Lasst uns schauen, inwiefern diese meinen Wünschen gerecht werden.

After opening the package I`ve seen about 50 different types of laser cutted wooden pieces. I thought it`s the easiest way to put away the bill and take a look at the instruction paper. *searching* ... *searching* Damn, there`s no instruction inside!! Okay, let`s see if I was able to manage this puzzle without it (in my rage of testing and puzzleing I`ve totally forgot about taking pictures during the process):

Der Inhalt des Paketes erschlug mich fast.- Etwa 50 einzelne Stücke lasergeschnittenen Holzes lagen vor mir. Der schnellste Weg zu einem aufgebauten Farbregal sollte darin liegen, die Anleitung zu nutzen. Diese lag aber leider nicht bei (und ist auch im Webshop nirgends zu finden). Also ran ans puzzeln... ;) In meiner Vorfreude auf das einsortieren der Regale habe ich es natürlich versäumt, Bilder der einzelnen Teile sowie meiner Fortschritte zu erstellen. Aber hier das Endergebnis:

Those paintstations are really stable (without any glue, nail or whatever!), lightweight and do not need much space in our shelf. Perfectly for my usage! There`s only one thing I would complain about (if I wouldn`t love it...;): The lasercutted pieces are "smelling". I would compare it to the scent of your clothes after standing in front of a pile of burning wood.

Dank eines ausgeklügelten Stecksystems sind die Regale ohne das verwenden von Leim oder Schrauben sehr stabil, leicht und platzsparend in unserem Wandschrank zu verstauen. Also genau das, wonach ich gesucht habe. Einen kleinen Nachteil haben diese laserzuschnitte jedoch: Es riecht nach verbranntem Holz. Und das selbst heute noch, gut 2 Wochen nach dem aufbau. Ein Glück, dass ich diesen Geruch mag, aber so wird es vermutlich nicht jedem gehen.

I am using both, Vallejo and Games Workshop paints, so I needed 2 different types of holes inside those floors. Let`s start to sort colors from their prison to those stations:

Da die Farbtöpfe der unterschiedlichen Hersteller auch unterschiedliche Größen / Formen aufweisen, habe ich sowohl eine Treppe für kleine Vallejo-Flaschen als auch eine für GW-Farben geordert. Die Töpfe der beiden Hersteller passen hervorragend in die vorgesehenen Löcher. Selbst voll beladen lässt sich diese Farbtreppe gut anheben.

Aha... looks cool! This should shorten the time I am wasting for searching the right colours!

Wie ihr seht, habe ich das Regal bereits gut bestückt UND farblich sortiert. Ein kleienr Wehrmutstropfen bleibt: Es lassen sich leider keine GW- / Vallejo-Töpfe in einem Regal unetrbringen. Hierfür habe ich zum Glück die 2. Treppe :)

 

Words of wisdom

Nur mit den Augen der anderen kannst du deine eigenen Fehler gut sehen.

Ready for priming

So heres a little update of my current project. Everything is primed an prepared for painting!

Hier ein kleines Update von meinem aktuellen Projekt. Grundiert und vorbereitet kann jetzt losgemalt werden.