Painting Buddha Season 1.2 and Season 1.3 arrived

What a nice surprise today, when the DHL guy came this afternoon with a small white package for me. I already new what it was so I couldn't resist and tear it open immediately. And as expected it contained the Painting Buddha Season 1.2 Freehand and Season 1.3 Basing: Earth. The package was really packed with the bonus stuff for the early beard and it seems Michael stood up to his promise and adjusted the postage for the package. Included was a short letter, personally signed by all the three guys behind Painting Buddha, the putty, the miniature (early beard stuff) and some small buttons (no clue what they are for).

I am really curious how the DVDs are, especially in comparison to Season 1.1 the first one of the series. So I will have a nice weekend watching those and will definitely do a review for those. And don't they look nice together? All Season 1 DVDs so far:

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.

Painting Buddha - Season 1.1:Target Identified | The Miniatures

After unboxing the Season 1.1:Target Identified set and having all the stuff lying around I decided to split my review into different parts because it really would be too much text for only one post. Additionally the box contains of 6 DVDs with two different approaches to painting the miniatures (and the base) so I will cover them later after I watched them completely and have a better and more general opinion of all the stuff (my first impression is a very good one). The miniatures are delivered in a small metal box with the Painting Buddha logo which is sealed with a sweet, little sticker. As already said, these small details give me the feeling that there are people at work who love(d) what they are doing. At this point of writing I notice that I completely forgot to take a picture of the miniatures inside the opened box, but you can see it on the overview picture in my first glance post if you want.

Painting Buddha - Season 1.1:Target Identified | First glance

Wohoo a long awaited package finally arrived: The Painting Buddha - Season 1.1:Target Identified DVD set is finally in my hands.
This boxed set was a birthday present from my wife and although it was marked as sent from Monday on it only arrived yesterday...
But nonetheless I am really happy that this thingy now is mine. And I couldn't wait to unpack this box. As you see the postal package is tightly packed with no air to move for the box. Unluckily the stuff inside wasn't protected by airfoil or something like this but luckily the content wasn't hurt even if the package had some small damages.

So what is inside? Inside is a personalized letter (addressed to my wife since it was a present), a certify card with the dvd number and a "hoopy" "Thank you" from the 3 producers, a small brochure with "How to prepare the miniatures", a small brochure which introduces Painting Buddha and their goals and targets, a pretty cool, sealed metal box with the minis (and the optional base) inside and the DVD box.
I REALLY like all the fine details you can find here, e.g. the metal box is sealed with Buddha stickers, the brochures are of really high quality. On the first look this stuff really holds the promise of "we do this with love and passion".

I can't wait to remove the protecting foil of the DVDs an risk a first look. But first my wife had a Tupperware Party and we had to prepare some stuff and clean up everything :)
So stay tuned for a closer look into this box.

Cya,
Paradox0n

DVD Review - Miniature Painting Secrets with Jennifer Haley

Finally I had the time and the muse to write my next painting DVD review. As promised I will have a look at the "Miniature Painting Secrets with Jennifer Haley" from CMON. The set contains of 2 DVDs and says it contains about 6 hours of instructions in roughly 8 chapters.
By now you should already know who Jennifer Haley is, I did a tribute to her work a while ago.
The DVDs are in english and the painting footage is dubbed with music.
After seeing the trailer of this set I was really curious. If you missed it you can watch it directly here in all its beauty:

DVD Review - Painting Secrets with Natalya

Lucky me had the chance to get my hands on some painting DVDs for this weekend and spend some hours watching and enduring some of the stuff I saw there :)  I will start with the "Painting Secrets with Natalya" DVD set from CMON. The set was published 2011 contains of 4 DVDs and says about itself that it contains over 13-15 hours of instruction depending if you believe the printed cover or the product description. You can divide the set into roughly 5 chapters where Natalya tells you how she paints her miniatures. If you wonder who she is, maybe you know her from her artists name Alexi-Z or go visit her page now. Since Natalya speaks russian, the DVD is either in russian or in english (with voice over on the portrait parts). The painting footage is dubbed with music.

I like her work and after seeing the trailer of this set I was really curious how this set would turn out.

Review: Harder & Steenbeck Airbrush Workshop

So I got my new (and first) airbrush system and with the set also arrived a dvd called "Harder & Steenbeck Airbrush Workshop". I ordered this dvd because I thought some advice on how to work with an airbrush could not be bad. Therefore I thought of doing a small review on my first thoughts about this dvd from the view of an absolute beginner in airbrushing who only watched Youtube tutorials.

Harder & Steenbeck Airbrush Workshop