Figure Giveaway Contest

I wanted to do a figure giveaway in honor of this blog's one year anniversary so here it is!  This will be a random drawing and the winner can choose between my 'The Once and Future King' piece or an unpainted kit(s).  I'm not sure which kits, but I'll have both fantasy (probably some Rackham ones) and historical for the winner to choose from as an alternative to the painted figure.

You may be wondering 'how do I enter?'  Well, there are two ways...

1) You can be a follower of this blog.  You have to be a public follower so your name appears in the list of members at the top right.  If you chose to follow privately then it's a secret from me too and I can't enter you in the contest.

2) You can leave a comment on this post.  Click on the post title and then, at the bottom, you should see box to post a comment.  Make sure the comment has your name or screen name.  Something so I can know who left it.

If you're a follower of this blog AND you leave a comment on this post you'll be entered twice, so double the chance to win.  The deadline is Friday, May 8th.  Over that weekend I will assign each person an entry number (or two) and setup an algorithm to randomly pick one.  Then Monday I will announce the winner and contact them for their mailing address and choice of prizes.  Best of luck and thank you for following this site!

One Year Anniversary!

Wow, so it's been a whole year since I began this painting blog.  It's been a busy year, lots of stuff has happened including a move from one coast to the other.  But this site is really about painting so let's focus on that.  In terms of major milestones, I attended two competitions but they both went quite well.  Back in July I entered the Bay Area Open and won best in show with my hobbit piece.  That was also a Crystal Brush Qualifier, so I received a free flight to Chicago to compete in that.  Crystal Brush was about a month ago and I was lucky enough to take golds in two of the historical categories.  I also joined two of the Los Angeles area painting groups (SCAHMS and LAMS) and have met a lot of great figure and model builders.  In terms of actual painting, here is a look at the figures I've completed in the past year...

Okay, counting that dark elf at the end may be cheating a bit.  The figure is finished but I still plan on making a new base for him.  Either way I'm quite pleased with the productivity.  And, with the exception of the mounted knight, all of those projects began in the past year too.  Of course there are still some projects lying around the work bench that need to be wrapped up.  Here's a look at the projects I've started in the past year that are still being worked on...

I hope I can finish all of those in the next year, although I've got a few new projects that will take priority once I can find some serious time to paint.  The Napoleonic figure has already had a lot of work done, so I know I want to finish that soon.  I've lots of a lot of my inspiration for Gokan/Slaine... but he's so close it seems a shame not to wrap him up too.  The gladiator and Roman have a looooong way to go, but I love the sculpts and I know I will eventually come back to them.  The Civil War figure will be a gift for my dad, so I'll finish him at some point.

I want to thank everyone who has been following this blog and all the people who just pop in from time to time.  I hope that what I post and share is helpful to the other hobbyists out there.  Seeing that people are visiting this site and following it really helps motivate me to keep sharing.  To show my appreciation (and in honor of this blog being one year old) I'd like to do some sort of give away to the people who've been following this site.  I didn't really plan this out, so I'm open to ideas/suggestions.  But my general idea is to post an official give away announcement.  Then, anyone who comments on that post or is already a follower of this site, will be entered in a chance to win one of my painted figures.  If you're a follower of the site and you also comment on that post then you're entered twice!  I'll set a deadline, maybe two weeks, and then randomly pick a winner.  What do you all think?

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A bit off topic, I just wanted to give a quick reminder that pre-orders for the Child Thief figure, based on Brom's artwork, are now open.  If you're interested in the figure contact terriblekidsstuff' at gmail.  I don't believe you can order from the site, so you have to contact them directly to reserve your copy.  The last figure they did based on Brom's sold out very quickly, so act quick if you like this figure,

Arena Rex and MV

I've found some time to do a little painting this past week and it was focused on my entry to Massive Voodoo's Banalicious contest.  For anyone who doesn't follow Massive Voodoo (and you should, their site is great!), they're running a contest which wraps up April 22nd.  They have categories for Fantasy and Historical entries, along with a few other special categories.  In Fantasy and Historical you enter a display (3-5 figures) instead of a single figure entry.  The rules are that one of the figures is new (ie has not been shown in completed form online yet).  Previously posted WIP pictures of the figure are fine.  As for the rest of the figures in the group, there is no restriction so they can be previously finished and posted work.

The competition is tough, lots of great entries, but they have a ton of random prizes.  At last count there were 45 random prizes so, if the number of entries is the same as their last contest, you've got a 1 in 4 shot of winning something just by entering!  There's only a few days left so finished whatever you're working on and submit something!

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2014/11/mvs-bananalicious-painting-contest-2.html

On second thought, the more entries there are the worse my chances of winning one of those random prizes... so forget what I said, don't enter.  It's totally not worth it. =P

Anyway, my entry into the Historical Masters category has been officially accepted, so I can now share the pictures.  Here is my display

The 'new' piece is Otho Mentulus from Arena Rex.  I'd started painting him a while back, but never finished him.  Partially that was because Crystal Brush took priority.  But it was also so I could use him in the Bananalicious contest.  Since I last posted pictures, I painted the feather crest on his helmet, took care of the base, and then applied blood splatter and a little bit of weathering pigments.  I also tweaked some highlights on his clothing.  Here is a closer look at the now finished Otho.

This figure was from the Arena Rex kickstarter.  They are currently shipping the final wave from the kickstarter and, after that, all of the kickstarter figures will be available in their webstore.  They've got a few non-kickstarter figures there now, but check back in a couple weeks and hopefully the rest will be there then.
http://arenarex.com/

Figure Announcements

I haven't had much time to paint since Crystal Brush, so no new pictures from me.  I'm trying to find time to finish up Otho so I can submit an entry into Massive Voodoo's Bananalicious contest.  If you haven't checked that out, it's worth a look.  Most of the entries are groups of figures (3-5) and only one needs to be 'new.'  Anyway, since I don't have any of my own stuff to show, I thought I'd post about two new figures on the market that I think are really cool.

First up is Rujo, a 75mm scale centaur from Tiny Leads.  They're a pretty new company, just started selling stuff a few months ago, so you may not of heard about them.  This is a great looking piece and one that has me very tempted.  It comes with an alternate head (I believe helmeted) and an alternative hand.

The second figure is another collaboration between Terrible Kids Stuff, Mumi, and Brom to create a figure based on Brom's book/art, The Child Thief (a dark retelling of the peter pan story).  About a year ago they did one based on Jack from The Plucker and it sold out very quickly.  This is another limited edition and only 200 will be available.  I believe it will be available for preorder starting April 18th, so if you're interested act quickly!

Okay, so what's next for me?  Well, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get much painting done for the next few weeks.  But hopefully in May I can make some progress on some big projects.  As I mentioned in the previous post, I will be starting a 75mm steampunk figure (Jessica Thunderhawk).  I also just received a fantastic bust from Young Miniatures that I'm hoping to begin as well.  It's been about 2 and a half years so I last worked on a bust, so I'm curious to see how my skills have improved on these larger pieces (roughly 150mm scale).  Young Mini's busts were two of my earliest historical projects, so the packaging, the smell, it all brings back some fond memories.  They make a lot of fantastic stuff but this one in particular caught my eye.  It's a Napoleonic subject, but the sculpt is really dynamic with a ton of movement (not easy for just a bust!).

The kit is resin, like all their busts, and there are some large chunks left over from the casting reservoirs that need to be removed.  As usual, they're all in good places (flat areas between parts) so that shouldn't be too bad to deal with.  The seam lines are almost invisible so that should be quick.  The parts will need to be washed to remove the mold release.  The sword has a slight bend in it, so that will need to be straightened.  Interestingly enough, the tassels on his hat come straight, so they will have to be bent into shape.  Again, they are resin so I'm left deciding if I want to heat and bend them, or just replace them with metal rod and bend that instead.  I've got some that looks to be the same diameter, so that may be easier to work with.

Announcements and Paint-Along

I've got a couple quick announcements, including a new paint-along I'm organizing.

First, I'm looking to take on some commission work in the next month or two.  If anyone is interested, drop me a line either at CMON or here (there's a contact form over on the right).  My focus is 54mm and 75mm figures, though I'll paint 28mm too if I feel like I can do the figure justice.  I don't normally agree to do that many commission pieces, so if you're interested now is a good time to ask!

Second, I've been talking with Caleb about teaching a painting seminar up in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The topic would be painting faces and skin tones.  Right now it's still in the very very early planning stages.  If it happens it will most likely be at one of the Game Kastle stores (either Fremont or San Jose).  There are also some shows coming up, so maybe I could do the seminar at one of those.  I'll post more details once we get things figured out.

Third, I'm doing another paint-along over at Cool Mini.  Here's a link to the thread.  The topic is steampunk and a number of us will be working on the Jessica Thunderhawk figure from Scale75 (although you can join in with any steampunk themed project you want to do).  The general idea is for this to run through April and May.  I won't have a chance to start for another two weeks, so plenty of time to get a figure and join in.

Here's a look at the Jessica Thunderhawk figure, in case you'd like to do the same one I'm working on.  If you're ordering from the USA, I recommend contacting Red Lancers.  She's not listed on their site yet, but they carry the rest of the Scale75 line and I'm sure could get her if asked.  Or you can order direct from Scale75.  Of course there are lots of steampunk options (Infamy, Guild of Harmony, Malifaux, etc).

The sculpt is clearly based on this piece of art from Olga Starodubtseva, which is a version of the comic book character Lady Mechanika.  I plan to use that character as the inspiration for my paint scheme, though I won't necessarily be following the colors from this image.