Pimp my working space - Part I

As previously stated, christmas brought some very nice presents for me, one of the a daylight lamp with a magnifying lens (yes we are not getting younger). But to bring the lamp into place and good use, I had to rethink my working place a bit. So after a bit of shopping and a bit of screwing (and testing my new cordless screwdriver) I had much more place for my stuff without making a big mess and having to rebuild our complete "office":

New working place - Step 1

The new rack has a slot with two drawers, one slot with just a door and two slots with glass doors and inlays like a cabinet. This leaves me with enough space to store my paints, tools and crafting stuff and started projects and clearing enough space on my desktop that it doesn't always look like a big mess (and being a happy playground for our cats).

WIP - Chaos Dwarf

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and didn't explode from all the delicious food you got :) Since here the weather is really bad (rain instead of snow and most of the time pretty windy) I couldn't prime my harpies (I have black as spray can primer) so I loaded up my airbrush and searched for a victim for my painting madness :)
But before starting to paint I had to pimp my working space since I got some really nice presents from the "Christkind" and additionally did some shopping in a big swedish furniture store. But more of that later.

Perhaps some of you remember that I had won a Scibor Chaos Dwarf some time ago. Since I have some days off at the moment I started painting this one. While basecoating two of my brushes died a miraculous death (the points just bended and the hairs feathered out) although I had always treated them well (even cleaned them with brush soap). But these where old ones so I don't have to mourn about them, I just switched to the more expensive ones

Nonetheless here are the first WIP shots from the chaos dwarf (I really have to adjust to my new painting setup especially for WIP pictures).
Everything seems a bit blotchy at the moment but the idea behind this massive brown basecoat is to give my bronze a nice base. And on black/white or pure grey the color just doesn't "shine" enough.
The fur I want do shade down a bit and give it some drybrushing and the coat should be a dark red. The washing didn't tune it down enough, so I think I will start shading it manually.

Before starting to basecoat the armor in brown, I did a short test with the shield of this chaos dwarf. And I really really liked the result. It was just a basecoat in brown, one layer of Vallejo Glorious Gold, a heavy wash of Gryphone Sepia, some highlights with a  mixture of the gold and Vallejo Gunmetal Metal, a final highlight with nearly pure Gunmetal and a final wash with sepia.

For me this gave exactly the look of a used but well-kept shield I wanted.

Stay tuned for more WIP of him. I really like the details of this miniature and are happy that I got it from Mr. Lee (even if I had some nightmares while preparing it for painting).


So long,
Paradox0n

Merry Christmas to you

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Craciun fericit, Wesolych Swiat, I'D Miilad Said [...] !

Traditionally (at least in my family) we give best wishes to all especially we wish for health and luck. So I wish that to all of you too.

I hope you have some pleasant and calm days with your closest ones.And get lots of presents ;) 

And if you have your Christmas on the 7th January I hope all those wishes last until then and come to fulfillment then.

So long,

Paradox0n

How to Play/BatRep - Flames of War on BoW

Normally I am not into historical wargaming. My time when I played with tanks and build those fantastic Revell kits is looong ago. I even had some trenches and bunkers then.

But yesterday the second part of a introduction of Flames of War was uploaded from Beasts of War and I really enjoyed this one. Therefore I put the parts together in a playlist and want to share them with you. As soon as they put up part III I will add it to the playlist.

So watch Warren & Dave play a game of Flames of War:

Important note: These videos completely belong to Beasts of War. I just share them for easy access and enjoyment.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hitting the next milestone: 20.000 views and over 300 comments

Wow! Slowly and quietly my blog reached another milestone: The 20k views and 300 comments mark (even if about one third of the comments are from me I think). That's totally insane especially since it was only in July when I hit the 10k views (which took me nearly a year).  So twice the fun in half of the time :)

Thanks to all who regularly return to this place and read the (sometimes weird) stuff I write. And since this makes the blog a bit more to a happy place, I am in the writing of just the next few articles. Not necessarily hobby related, but in line with some of the other posts I did recently.

So stay tuned.
Paradox0n

MMM - Woodkid

Wonderful Black and White art in his videos and very cool music in a way I haven't heard before: That is Woodkid.
Maybe you know Run by Run from an advert campaign of a big mobile provider (which itself is also very nice especially the start with the animated cat/robot).
I came across his music a while ago and my wife really liked the song on the advertisement and immedeately bought the album :)

The videos are really great and take you into a very unique black and white world.

Woodkid "Iron" from WOODKID on Vimeo.

Woodkid "Run Boy Run" from WOODKID on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoy them as I do and have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Still alive :)

First things first: Sorry for not posting this long. At he moment I am pretty much fully stretched at work and since I had a colleague to train (and everything had to be done in English) I am pretty exhausted when I come home. Most of the time its preparing food, spending some time with my wife and relaxing on the couch (or having some "leasure" time with my colleagues at Adventsmarkt or Christmas Party which is also most of the time in English).
Nonetheless I will return on blogging around christmas (maybe Father Christmas will bring me some nice hobby stuff). I also found some interesting stuff (not only hobby related) on the AEther and tried to make some pictures of stuff I am working on. Sadly the pictures aren't presentable, my Photobucket definitely comes to its limits with bigger miniatures/models.

Adobe Elements suite arrived!

After testing some stuff out and being forced to use IrfanView or even Picasa as picture editing tools I had enough and couldn't resist and buy me Photoshop Elements as it was in Amazons Cybermonday Week.
Additionally my trial for Sony Vegas has expired and I bought me the Adobe Premiere Elements. Since the two came in a bundle, more the win than ever :) I think I have spent 40€ worse this year (especially if you look at retail price!).

So at the moment the programs are installing and I am really curious if they do what I want them to do (always worked with the CS/Pro variants until now since I have them in my office at my disposal). But for easy stuff like color correction and easy editing they should be more than enough.


So long,
Paradox0n

FFotW - Creating Neon Signs

It is time for another Friday Finding of the Week: Rob Hawkins shows on his blog how he created neon signs for the Wild West Exodus terrain he did.
Very good step by step tutorial he did there and a great effect you can achieve with it. If you don't know this one already have a look I can really recommend it.

And if you are there you can also just have a look at the other terrain tutorials or the loads of stuff he has on his blog.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: Welcome aboard Zzzzzz. The next wave of Majorca impressons is work in progress and will be posted soon :)

MMM - Sunshine Reggae

Winter is coming! Yesterday evening we had 6°C and I didn't worry too much about the cold but in the morning I had to unfreeze my car because it had -2°C. De-Iceing the windows isn't fun, really. At least I get my winter tires today.

And to get some warm feelings on this bitter cold day I thought of posting some summer feelings: Sunshine Reggae from Laid Back.

Have a good start into your week.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: Welcome aboard Zab. Take a seat and enjoy the journey.

Dark Elves - Harpies WIP (color scheme)

Just a short update on my Harpies: I tested out a color scheme with just priming them gray, heavy black wash and cleaning the puddles up... Didn't work and don't like the result so I repainted the whole miniature in black, the wings purple and gave it a heavy drybrush of increasingly lighter graytones. Then glazed the wings to tone down the gray tones again to purple.
One thing I want to try after cleaning everything up is to gave it a marble look (yes my Harpies will be made of stone as I use the Gargoyle models from Mantic here). First time I try this, curious how this will turn out.

Please excuse the crappy picture but my camera goes havoc at the moment and I just didn't want to use my photo bucket for this short update (or buy a new camera :) ).


Have a good start into your weekend,
Paradox0n

Dark Elves - Harpies WIP

After pillaging through my whole Kickstarter stuff I found the Gargoyles from Mantic which could be a nice
replacement for my Harpies I used this far. So I spent the last two evenings (first time using my laptop cushion) with removing the mold lines and trying to get these thingies into a state that I can prime and paint them.

And oh boy... They have lots of mold lines. I am somewhat disappointed by the quality of these miniatures (as with the Orcs I started for Orctober and stopped painting before I threw them out of the window). But at least here the details work and you don't have to question yourself which part of the model this is you look at...

To be honest I like the sculpt pretty much, the mold quality is the problem here. But as with all the Mantic stuff: Its cheap and you get a good deal for your money.
The first miniature is already primed and awaits color getting brushed on. I want to do them in a very easy and simple color scheme: black/gray with the folds of the wings in purple. That should be just a lots of drybrushing and stuff.
So lets see what I can do here :)

Stay tuned and have a nice Sunday.

Paradox0n

Blogging update - Bug rant and moving pictures

Lately I got some serious problems with some disappearing pictures. Be it in the Followers Widget, in my Related Post Widget or even in my articles. Today this miracle is solved! I don't know why but the appropriate Picasa folder changed the displaying rights and therefore all links to the pictures in it where broken... I hope know this will now be solved and not happen again (had to correct  five posts, my widgets and some other stuff here). So be careful with your Picasa stuff, you never know what can happen :)

Another thing is, that I want to do some videos some while now. Perhaps you remember my posts from April where I started thinking about this topic and showed my camcorder and stuff. This weekend I played a bit with some stuff I found (and a trial license of an editing software) and don't want to keep this experiment from you. It nothing fancy but hey you have to start somewhere!

And I have two new adventurers on board! Welcome Remco and Old Fogey. Enjoy the travel and I hope you find your fortune on it.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Basics - Cleaning your stuff

Today I had a very frustrating moment (to be honest moments): Since the wheather here is REALLY bad I loaded my wet palette, got my miniatures I wanted to paint and switched some nice music on. Then I wanted to do the first brush strokes and BÄMM! One brush stuck together nearly to the point and the other brush divided itself into two nice halves... And worse to that, my airbrush completely stopped working and I had to disassemble it completely. And oh boy... it was nearly completely glued together (although I cleaned it after every usage like I described earlier). After calmly counting to 10 and taking some deep breathes I gritted my teeth and set to the task of cleaning my stuff. The brushes are my everyday brushes and its not really a loss if I can't rescue them but with the airbrush it is somehting completely different.

Lesson learned Number 1:  Keep your brushes in safety from your cats. Seems they found a new toy to play with on my desk and made things even worse...
Lesson learned Number 2: The Vallejo Primer I reviewed some time ago is a bit more sticky than normal paint and a normal blow out and cleaning isn't enough.

To see the positive in this disaster I thought on doing another Hobby Basic post on cleaning your stuff the advanced way :)

Impressions from Majorca - Part I: Attractions

As promised I will start with some impressions of our Majorca trip a week ago. It is not easy to sort and select all those pictures (we did ~370 pictures in one week) so I decided to separate the pictures into two categories: sight seeing and landscape. With the sight seeing I will start today and dive directly into the pictures of the cathedral of Majorca, the town's landmark. So watch out: Picture heavy and wall of text ahead!

The "Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma" or just "La Seu"is a gothic roman catholic cathedral build on the site of an earlier existing mosque (Majorca has a pretty turbulent history with lots of captures and stuff). The construction began ~1230 but was finished in 1601 when the main portal was sanctified. Around 1850 the main facade was reconstructed and was only finished in the early 20th century.

The cathedral now is on of the main attractions in Palma and you have to pay to visit it (~6€ pP). We did that and spend some time there. As I know many Gothic churches/cathedrals here in Germany (especially the Freiburger Münster) I wasn't that impressed by La Seu. It is beautiful and especially the altar is quite impressive.

Dark Elves - New miniature videos from Games Workshop

With the new Release of the Dark Elves it seems I have to rethink my complete army and stop my projects like my own Cauldron of Blood and the like. And I finally have to go to do the Harpies/Gargoyles I got from the Mantic Kickstarter and all the other stuff lying arround. Too many things to attend to, don't know where to start first...
But first some look at the new miniatures after the break.

Papercut - Small house

Since my Photobucket is too small I just had to shoot this one on my cutting mat. Therefore the green background. As the posted Shack a while ago, this is the papercut house from the 5th edition starterbox from Warhammer Fantasy.

As the shack this was just glued on a cardboard base, flocked with static grass and the folding lines where painted in the corresponding colors. Again nothing fancy but it does its job pretty good (and this since the late 90ies). This is why the base is slightly warped, I think this thingy was based in the late 90ies and saw lots of games in this time :)

So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: Again a new passenger on board! Welcome Peter, your blog already is in my blogroll and thanks for commenting :)

Some late summer pictures from Europa Park

Before I am posting some of my pictures from my trip to Mallorca (which I still have to sort and select first) I post some late summer pictures I took on our last day in Europa Park (when our annual pass ran out).
These are from late August and it was a beautiful day there and we once again had lots of fun there. The park has some really cool places which are most of the time ignored or you just run by because you have to get to the next attraction.

The first two are from the children wonderland the first is the giant from the Grimm's story "Das tapfere Schneiderlein" (The Valiant Tailor) the second is a Gnome with snail pets from a children rollercoaster. There are many such things for kids when you have a keen eye and really look out for it (or you have kids and therefore have to look for them).

Life signs

Yes I am still alive. I just had a very interesting one week trip to Mallorca (or Majorca as it is written in English) with lots of driving and walking around on lots of sports on the isle. I had to dive immediately into working again so I am just catching up with all the stuff happening in the blogosphere.

I think I will post some pictures of this trip soon because I really was surprised of how beautiful this island is (if you don't go to places like El Arenal I suppose).


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Way Back Home from Danny MacAskill

Todays Monday Morning Music is a bit of mixture between really nice music and incredible Thinkbike skills. It's Danny MacAskills: Way Back Home. The music is from Loch Lomond "Wax and Wire" and The Jezabels "A Little Piece".

Have a good start into your week.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: And a new traveller onboard our airship. Welcome czaki. I couldn't identify if you have a blog yourself, if so please drop a line and I will add you to the blogroll.

Hobby Basics - Wet Palette Tutorial

As many of you, I also use a wet palette for mixing and keeping my colors fresh. Inspired by Mr. Lees post about his way of doing it, I thought about making a "wet palette my way" post too. Et voila here we are. First of all: This is no rocket science, and I think most of you already know or use a wet palette these days. If not: Do it! Even if you are a beginners painter you will feel the difference between using a wet palette or just fetching your colors from a paint pot.
But I think everyone does it a little different and its best to experiment a bit with the stuff you have until you are satisfied and it really works for you.

Orctober - First WIP: Mantic Orcs

A while ago I read a nice article on Sean's Wargames Corner about the Orctober.  The original post comes from Erny's Place and as I read it, the Orctober is also a giveaway contest.
As I have a lots of stuff in various packages I pillaged through the stuff and found some Orcs I wanted to try out some time ago and now seems a pretty good time.
As you can see, the Crazy Christmas Box contained (among lots of other stuff) some fantasy orcs which I wanted to test out because in the Kickstarter Armydeal there are lots more and they are part of the Abyssal Dwarves army from Kings of War. This small sprue contains three Orcs with axes & shields and two minions (which I will use for something different).

I chose to build one with two axes (he could also be build with axe & shield like the other ones) and the other two with axe & shield as there is no other option for it. As you can see in the picture there is one head, one shield, one arm and the two minions left from the sprue which will happily wander into my bits box :) Already freed from molding lines but not completely glued together because than some places would be pretty difficult to paint.

So lets see if I am able to paint them up. A short vacation is also waiting for me and I will do a short trip to Majorca next week :) Stay tuned.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - I don't want to set the world on fire

As someone who played Fallout a lot I also am a fan to the Fallout radio music. One of the favorites (and one I loved to head while playing Fallout 3) is: I don't want to set the world on fire from The Ink Spots.

I really love the moody and lonely feeling you get while playing the game(s) and at the same time the game(s) give you the feeling of hope and perseverance. It is really seldom that a game can achieve transmitting such feelings while playing.

And something on my own behalf: I forgot a rather important point (for me) on my DVD review for Painting Buddha Season 1.1 and therefore updated the article (added something about the shipping costs). So if you haven't read it already just have a look :)

Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Review: Painting Buddha - Season 1.1:Target Identified | Tale of two painters

Alllriiiiight!!! So we start directly with an insider you will understand if you have watched the first three DVDs with Ben Komets :) After watching the 6 DVDs I was completely smashed and to be honest: I had some difficulties to find a way how to describe this set and writing a review about it. Not because it is bad, on the opposite, but because it has many different things to see AND you have two different painters who have a somewhat different approach to painting those two wonderful miniatures I already wrote about.

So where to start? Perhaps some general stuff first...
The set is completely in English with subtitles in English, German and Spanish. You get a DVD set from two painters with pretty different approaches how to paint exactly the same miniatures. Ben does everything "by hand" where Rafael starts with using an airbrush.

The menus are in English and describe the parts which are painted of the miniature (not the techniques though).
Both painters are setup straight in front of the camera and Zaphod does some Q&A while they are painting. These comments from the OFF are sometimes pretty funny e.d. that is where the ALRIIIIIIGHT!!! comes from :) Maybe here is some space to optimize so that the painters are watching a bit more into the camera and not to the side where Zaphod and/or the self-monitor is placed. Telepromter effect you know? And one odd thing I noticed: The aspect ratio of the filmed material seems to be a bit off on my TV. Some parts of the screen is cut off, I tried to fix it with on-board possibilities of my TV but nothing worked. On my PC everything works fine.

MMM - The Doctor's Wife

Picture from Mike Savad

After visiting the Dentist once again today (lucky me only for a follow up check) and getting examined by the "doctors wife", which does the substitute at the moment, this song nearly immediately came to my mind for my (unregular) Monday Morning Music post:

The picture is "Waiting for the dentist" from Mike Savad. Check his page he has some more nice pictures there!

"The Doctor's Wife from The Clockwork Quartet"

Yes I know the text doesn't match my morningly visit but I really like this song :)

FFotW - Charlie Chaplin: Final speech in "The Great Dictator"

If only people today would take the words said here by heart... This speech is so breathtaking. Unbelievable if you think WHEN this movie was filmed.
Nothing more to say here, just listen...

So long,

Paradox0n

P.S.: I hope you don't mind posting me stuff far from our beloved hobby. But blogging for me isn't always just posting pics of miniatures or writing tutorials but also letting some of my personality shining through and giving a view beyond the horizon.

Quick tips from Kris Belleau

I just wanted to share some nice quick tips recently posted from Miniwargaming.com. To be precise the Quick tips"-series from Kris Belleau. I collected all those free videos into one playlist. There are even more in the Wargaming-Vault but since I don't have access to that I just wanted to share and point out those nice videos.

Hope you enjoy it.


So long,
Paradox0n

Nightmares coming true

I really hate it when my nightmares are coming true. Perhaps you can remember my worries with the Scibor Moscal Boyar Lord I received from Mr. Lee this week. I feared that cutting the axe head and shield from the sprue may cause some problems... I really shouldn't have said that because exactly this happened. While carefully trying to cut of the stuff (with a new blade for my scalpel and everything) there was a short snap and the axe head broke in two halves. Maybe you can think of all those curses on my lips...
Apart from that I also have some problems with the casting quality of some of the parts. You can clearly see some miscasts and the problems the stamp technique brings (sharp details on the surface but on the melting areas you can see the different layers). The miniature itself is great, the additional stuff so lala. Overall I hope I can fix all the stuff and make this a beautiful figure.


So long,
Paradox0n

Battered airbag from Turkey

Yesterday I had an unexpected information leaflet from our "Deutsche Post" in my letterbox. A registered letter has been delivered to me and waits for pickup at my local post office. So I went there today at 8 o'clock and was disappointed that the office opens at 9 ... I asked myself WHY they write on the leaflet "Pick it up from 8 o'clock tomorrow" but OK... So I went there again just some minutes ago and TADA there was a battered airbag from Turkey waiting for me :) And perhaps you can already guess it, it is my price from Mr. Lee's 100k views contest, the Scibor Moscal Boyar Lord.

If you compare the two pictures (the one on Mr. Lee's blog and mine) you can only guess what airmail, customs and transport did do this poor airbag. But happy me the miniature itself wasn't harmed at all.
Its the first time I have one of those Scibor miniatures in my hands and to be honest: On the first look I am rather impressed. I've read lots of how bad those stamp techniques are and stuff like this. But the miniature has clear details and nearly no molding lines. Clear details and a stout and resolute posture give this miniature the perfect look for such a stubborn Chaos Dwarf Moscal Boyar Lord. The only thing which DOES worry me are the additional parts like the axe head and the shield which are cast on an extra sprue and seem to be rather heavily attached to it. I hope I can cleanly cut them off the sprue, especially the axe head which really seems to be a problem. The miniature is delivered with a small scenic base which looks pretty good. Again I am impressed how clean the casting is. I slowly understand why these miniatures are so expensive (in Germany at least).

The Lord will be a nice addition to my still secret army :) Ok ok you can guess it: I have some Chaos Dwarves (to be honest some Abyssal Dwarves from Mantic) flying around which wait for assembly and paint. Since I think I got all those miniatures from the KS (have lost the overview) I think I finally can start to put everything together with this lovely Lord as start. I hope I can give it the love needed, especially since it is such a nice price from the contest.

Stay tuned for more sumpy, grumbly, evil madness :)

So long,
Paradox0n

Motivation - Or at least some loss of frustration

Today I checked my stats of the blog and just blinked my eyes because I had some increased of views in the last two days. Normally I fell back to just a small dripple (no wonder because I don't post as much as last month) but on the weekend I was added to another bloglist: The Blogs of War. Don't know who runs this blog but thanks for adding me :)

That brings me to another point: I really was a winner in Mr. Lees 100k view contest. And since I placed second I was lucky to get the miniature I wanted, the Scibor moscal hero. I hope I can find the time to give this miniature some love and paint it the best I can.

And the next thing: As you may have read I procrastinate and rather drive my new bike than painting BUT this has a major impact on my (caution Buzzword alarm) work-life-balance. Since my wife and I cycle together we spend much more time with another. Pretty cool. And watching some of the MTB stuff (especially the following video) I feel like I can fight dragons or climbing mountains.

Review - Laptop cushion as paintstation

Today I want to show you my new painting station which I can use if I paint in front of the TV. Since my wife has to sit alone in our living room when I paint or tinker and we only have these evening times together, she bought me thisthingy which she thought would be cool for painting at our TV desk. Normally this is a laptop cushion with a pencil- and cup holder. And a small LED lamp. The lamp is powered by batteries so no need for some nasty cables. The surface is somewhat rubberized so the stuff on it won't slide around.

So what will I gonna do with this thing? Slot for pencils = slot for brushes, slot for cups = slot for water pot and rubberized surface to keep my painting pots and wet palette on place. Check! I did some testing with arm position and the like and it seems pretty decent either lying on the table or resting on my legs. The LED's give a rather cold light, no clue how near or far away from daylight this may be... But for some basecoloring or stuff it is more than enough. The light also is so focused that I can paint while my wife is watching TV and we could spend some time together. And maybe it can motivate me for some more hobby time :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Goldfish Salvation

Not a real Monday Morning Music after all but some kind of mixture between relaxing music and unbelievable 3D painting. I hope I do post the original video because this artist should get all respect possible. If someone only told me what he is doing, without seeing this video I wouldn't have believed him.

The art of Riusuke Fukahori is simply amazing. Just watch the video and stand amazed at the finished pieces. (especially the oil pieces).

Hope I will get better soon so that I can post a bit more stuff.

So long,
Paradox0n

Procrastination - Blogging laziness and Late summer

Perhaps you already wondered why there are so few new posts on the blog at the moment. To be honest I am taking a step back from the blogosphere do some gaming and most important taking the chance to enjoy the last rays of sun and mild temperatures for a reborn hobby. But first things first:
I think I have some kind of hobby burnout. Most of the time I fight alone with my hobby stuff, have fun with it, but mostly painting or crafting alone isn't really motivating. At least my wife supports me and lets me piling up my stuff and so but at the moment I see all those plastic miniatures (or started terrain stuff) and am disheartened be the amount of stuff I have flying around. Lots of ideas but no creative power to execute all those ideas. Somehow this is really sad but if your work also kicks in (I have to substitute our Scrummaster on top my development work) the only thing you can do is to sort your time and ask yourself what to do with it.

Mr. Lees 100k views contest

Just a really short post while writing an article: Mr. Lee from Mr. Lee's Painting Emporium has a small competition running for his over 100k views now. If you missed this blog you really should jump over and have a look. Mr. Lee was one of those few who commented pretty early on my blog and helped to keep me motivated. Therefore I do this "advertising" which I haven't done earlier.

So long,
Paradox0n

MMM: Naughty Boy - Lalala

This weeks MMM is a bit late due to some proxy problems I had (I really like our GEMA who blocked this video although it was posted by the rights owner). This time I show you Naughty Boy - Lalala. First time I heard in the radio I was like: "Hm nice song, especially the singing kid". Next time I saw this video on Viva and went: "Yeah nice video, has something magical. Great text..." But today it struck me: This video is an adaption of a bolivian legend.

The legend goes roughly like that: A deaf boy who has the ability to sense the bad in the world is abused by his dad and one day runs away from home. His dad doesn't even bother to search for him and so he wanders around finding a homeless dog who accompanies him on his journey. One day, he finds an old man who is being abused by villagers while being taunted and ridiculed. By screaming, the boy conjures an earthquake and resolves the situation (in some versions the man dies and he revives him). Together they journey on and meet a disfigured man who was abused and made fun of because his malformed face. The man reveals that he is a shaman who was cursed by a demon (El Tio) because he didn't worship him. El Tio "The uncle" is considered as the lord of the underworld, to whom mortal people offer gifts to him in order to be protected by him or to ease his anger. The shaman said anybody who could hear the demon would fall under his control. Together they go to the place where the demon should reside and arrive at a mine where the demon is supposed to be. At the entry the whispering of unknown words in a unknown language is heard and all the companions of the boy cover of fear. Only the deaf boy could not be cursed by the demon, and enters the cave to face the demon alone. While his friends leave, they can hear him start screaming and therefore overvoice the daemon and stop him from cursing the world.

Pretty nice story, no?
Have a nice start into your week!

So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: Sad sidefact: The mines in bolivia where the last sequences of the video were shot still have kids labour until today.

Short Blogger Update

While I am thinking of how I will write my review of the Painting Buddha DVDs I am also thing about some blog changes. First I think of changing the layout a bit into one bigger column left and two columns right. That would also give me the opportunity to place the blogger networks on the most right column and would give me entry to the BoL network. Hopefully this could bring some more traffic on my blog.
Another thing I think of are future posts... I am still fiddling with my video setup with no satisfying results at the moment so nothing new on this front.
So yeah pretty much on the conceptial part.

While I am on it. I do some advertisement for the Painting Buddha DVDs. Although I haven't written my review yet, I can say that this is a pretty good set.

So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: No I am not sponsored by the president, I just like what he and the other guys are doing. :)

FFotW - The Innovation of Loneliness

The Innovation of Loneliness is a really nice presentation. I especially liked the design and flow which is realised here.

The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo.
What is the connection between Social Networks and Being Lonely?
Inspired and Based on the wonderful book by Sherry Turkle - Alone Together.
Also Based on Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers hebrew article -The Invention of Being Lonely.

Funny sidefact: My wife almost immediately said: "Ah yes I know the book and the article and I can't agree with some of the stuff in this presentation". So this brought a nice topic for evenly discussion :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Papercut - Shack

Just a short update on my papercut section. Perhaps you have seen this terrain piece already in my battle reports. But I just wanted to upload some close ups. This is the small shack which was included in the 5th edition starterbox for Warhammer Fantasy. So yes, pretty old this thing and pretty much documents my hobby career. This was the second starterbox our playing group bought and I think I have the box somehwere flying around :)
This is really nothing fancy, I just glued it onto a base and painted the edges in the appropriate color to mask the white cardboard. Back then we only worked with thick cardboard for bases but as you can see they warp over time. I won't re-base it because I fear that I will destroy the shack itself while doing it.

Enlightenment of the day: I need a bigger photobox, my photobucket is too small for bigger pieces. Otherwise I would have completed the post with the corresponding house. So that will be something for another post.


So long,
Paradox0n

WIP - Ramshackle Games Dunny

Some fast WIP shots from the Dunny. As said I am experimenting with the weathering a bit. So far the Dunny is primed, base colored with some dark metal paint, washed with Vallejo Smokey Ink, with some selfmade wash from Vallejo Halcon Turquoise and with a selfmade wash from different pigments.
I think I will try some more pigmenting perhaps in a mixture of glue, baking soda and pigments to get the rough rust feeling. And some painted on pigments without any solvent.

At the end I will drybrush the whole thing to get a more metallic look back. And weather it again a bit down, depending on the overall result. I know it doesn't look very clean but I want a rusted look as far as I can get it :)

[UPDATE]
Just realised that something weird happened while uploading the pictures. Therefore I adjusted the post a bit.

So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Ukulele potpourri

Finally our efforts on fighting our bug invasion show success. Without using some nuclear rockets or planet killers :) So it is time for some more blogging stuff and I can return to posting my Monday Morning Music post today which will consist of some Ukulele potpourri :)

Buuuuuuuuuugs

Today I somehow felt like a soldier from Starship Troopers. I don't know exactly where they all appeared but we have an invasion of bugs in our supply closet. So today was full of clearing the room, checking everything we stored (flour, herbs, different sorts of rice etc. pp.) cleaning all the shelves and trying to find the hatchery. At least we know know WHICH bug invades us. In english I think it is the wheat weevil. As far as I could find the information this thing nests in flour or other food (e.g. the dry food of our cats of which we will have caught them we think) and has a rather quick life cycle. If you do not fight them, they can easily multiply their population in a few weeks. So we spent over 3 hours with searching, examining, cleaning and throwing stuff away. Hopefully this will start to work.

At least we didn't find a brainbug :)

Therefore: No painting today, the Dunny only got a basecoat of dark metal. I wanted to start with some rust experiments but after this meee today I really wasn't in the mood. I rather repaired the bike of my wife and tinkered the clutch of our small trailer to my bike. Perfect for the necessary short shopping trip today :) Hope tomorrow I find some time to paint. Want to try out to achieve some rust effect with stippling browns and oranges onto the Dunny...

So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: And a new fellow on board my little flying vessel. Hello Miniature Man, take a seat and have good time :)