I received a "Liebster"-Award!

Woho great thing for me, I really did receive a "Liebster"-Award. Thanks to Mr. Lee from Mr. Lee's Painting Emporium for passing me this little golden man with his big golden trophy :)

Liebster Award

But what is this all about you may think now?
As far as my quick research revealed, it is a little "reward" given to favoured blogs with fewer than 200 followers. "Liebster" is a german pet name for boyfriend and could also mean beloved , darling and in the blogosphere I think it should be translated dearest or precious or "valuable to read".
This thing is going viral like hell and I really thought of mentioning or even passing it.

Inspirational Stuff (again)

Hey there, as so often in the last time I just have some inspirational stuff to post. My health and my working life (or the balance I still or again have to find between them) just keep me away from painting or the hobby itseld. But as I browsed through the web, I found some great stuff I think you should know about :)

Ever heard of Julio Cabos? Me not until I found an old PDF and a video on Youtube which were a real mind opener to some stuff I was thinking about.

The PDF is called "Painting with Julio Cabos" but it seems it is taken down by Andrea Miniatures (or my browser just refuses to open the link Google spits out). Archive.org is a nice helper there, so perhaps you can try your luck there!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


So long,
Paradox0n

Color Scheme Designer

Hello dear readers,

since I don't have as much time for the hobby as suspected (again), I will try to deliver some useful tips and tricks or tools I have found (again again).

Color Scheme Designer 3

This time I will talk about the Color Scheme Designer, a small online tool which allows you to pick colors by tone, hue, opposites, tetrads, triads and so on and so on. It can even give you a hint how colorblind or people with a vision impairment would see the colors (which is not important for miniature painting I think). I came across this wonderful tool in my working life but it is damn useful in our hobby too. Especially if you follow the tips of some of the profi painters with color triads and warm / cold color contrasts.

I will not do a full review of this tool because it is really straight forward, easy to use and free(!) so everyone can make his/her own decision about the tool. I used it (as stated) in my working life and think it is one of the best free tools you can get your fingers on.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines - Portal Magazine Issue #27

Hello everyone,

some time ago, I wrote an article about free hobby magazines and online portals. Since then I thought about posting when one of these publish a new issue. And I came to the conclusion that I will give it a try and do a short sum up if I detect a new issue being published.

I will start with the new issue #27 of Portal Magazine:

• In The Box checks out the new Warhammer board game Chaos in the old world.
• View from the Hill has the second part to the Brett Reavis interview.
• Reviews from Studio 38, Mierce Miniatures, Reaper Miniatures, MDP & Dark Sword Miniatures.
• Our terrain building series kicks off in earnest.
• Event reports from Euro Militaire and GW's Games Day.
• Massive gallery included all the entries from the Hasslefree painting contest.
• Lots of new releases plus all the news from around the hobby and much more...

Whole bunch of stuff this time. As always many pictures of painted miniatures (mostly in a standard I can only dream of doing it myself) and some miniature reviews and common articles, e.g. about the GW Games Day. I won't go too much into detail but two articles stood out for me:

• The "In The Box" article gives a good overview of the mentioned board game
• The terrain buildng article is pretty good and gives some nice tips and tricks for making small dioramas

Feel free and give it a try!

Cheers,
Paradox0n

P.S.: Let's see if automatic publication works...

Wheathering tutorials from Mike Chambers

Some time ago I stumpled upon some really great tutorials on how to stain/wheather wood. Just have a look at Rusty Stumps Scale Models, especially the ones from Mike Chambers are really good.

He uses multiple inks to stain real wood and use it for terrain and buildings. Especially the small series about this technique is really good. If you want to risk a look, here are the direct links to the PDFs from the page:

• Part 1 - Staining Stripwood
• Part 2 - Wheatering Stripwood
• Part 3 - Inking Stripwood

If you like them, just take a look at the other articles on they page, they have some really nice tips there.


So long,
Paradox0n


P.S.: A small comment if I should be continue with stuff like this would be appreciated. Don't want to bore you to death with stuff you all already know :)

Heavy WIP - Bullcentaurs?!

Hidiho, with the new Bullcentaur Renders from Forgeworld and my Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds from Mantic Games, I'm in the situation where the models aren't really fitting together now. The Halfbreeds of Mantic are way too small for the bigger bases needed for the new Bullcentaurs. Therefore I tried to fit them together on a base to represent the "multiple wound model" and perhaps give them the appearance of something bigger.

Count as Bullrender

It is really heavy WIP. The models are held together by bluetack and the base will made into a scenic base. But what do you think, could they represent the bigger Bullcentaur Renders in this setup?


So long,
Paradox0n

Package from Mantic Games - Abyssal Dwarves

As I told you at my review of the Kings of War Rulebook, the package from Mantic Games contained not only the rulebook but also a whole bunch of sprues and sachets with the Abyssal Dwarves. This is only the first delivery, the bonus sprues and the new Immortal Guard still wait for production and the other new bonus miniatures will be shipped next spring I hope. Can't wait to get them :)

My first "backer" package from Mantic Games

Rather chaotic and many many things I have to build in the future. And my Dark Elves and Skaven aren't even completly build together. Damn hobby addiction. If I want to paint them all, I'll have to quit my job and lock me up in my painting room for a year or two :)
So yes, I have many things to do and hopefully I won't fill my "Desk of Shame" even more. But motivation returned, I hope I can finish my tower soon and convince Labschi to do some more hobby sessions in the near future (the coming winter* will help to do so I think).


So long,
Paradox0n

*"Winter is coming!" was the first thing I wanted to write. Damn I'm also too addicted to good fantasy novels/movies/series :)