Miniature Painting Workshop - Dragon Busts

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We visited: CK 2023

The second Saturday in September means a new edition of the Zagreb Modeling Cup CK 2023, organized by HUVM.

As in all competitions, the morning begins with submissions of works, placing them by category and greeting friends, both domestic and foreign. And if you're lucky, a drop of something nice will come your way.

Marko: "The social aspect of the competition is the best in my opinion! See (live) your hobby friends with whom you communicate most often through messages or the occasional call. In places like this, you can not only see their works live, but also comment, exchange experiences, advice. Fantastic!"

After the obligatory club coffee, it was time to see the exhibits and "check the competition".

Kruno: "This year's Black Queen was my first competition. It was exciting to compare my skills an...

Stegaddon Conversion

In this article I will describe how I converted my first stegadon from a pug/eng. bulldog into something that looks a little more normal. First disclaimer, I really like this figure, I think this kit is the best that Lizardmen (Seraphon) have to offer at the moment and it has a lot of possibilities for a hobby enthusiast like me. One of them is to turn into one of my favorite lore characters - Mazdamundi.
This article is the first of a couple of them in which I describe that process, and I intend to write them as they arise; so let's start…

Step one: since I really like dinosaurs, I also follow their biology. Triceratops, the model from which our mentioned stegadon was created, is much slimmer and looks like a real animal, because it was. The Stegadon, which came from the minds of very creative people, is a fun model, a little goofy, very chunky, but not the "terrible beast" described in the Warhammer Fantasy books. At least not in 2023.

I came across a post online wher...

Star Wars Container

Half a year ago I tested how I could quickly and easily make some interesting details for Star Wars dioramas or terrains. One of the common elements in all SW world locations (settlements, ships, wrecks) are cube transport containers. I made the first prototype from thicker paper and tried to "harden" it with Plasticator. More about it at the link.

Now I decided to use the same technique, but on a different material. I used Plasticard 1 mm thick and drew a cube container grid on it. I carefully cut the net with the help of a ruler and a scalpel. Since the mesh has "cutting lines" and "folding lines", I was very careful which ones I cut. For plastic card of that thickness, it is enough to cut two or three times with a scalpel with light pressure, carefully so that the blade does not "dance" on the surface of the material.

Then with just one stroke of the scalpel, being careful not to cut through the entire material, I scored the "fold lines". I carefully folded all ...

Comic Style Mechas

In today's article, I will show my way of coloring cartoon or comic style, whichever suits you. I implement it on mech figures, specifically from the game Heavy Gear Blitz. As soon as I saw them, they inspired me to try to imitate the retro animation from the anime studios of the 80s and 90s, of which I am a huge fan. I say imitations because it's not easy to transfer the feeling of an animated character to the world of miniatures, it's a question of the amount of detail and lighting - two factors that I'm still trying to perfect.

The idea is not to create NMM (Non-Metallic Metal), although it can look like that, but this is a Cel-shading approach to colors and lighting that segments surfaces into clearly separated tones. The comparison with NMM is in how it handles light on the miniature, where the parallel is drawn because you determine the source and amount of light that is shown in the shading yourself.

My examples in this article are reminiscent of NMM because...

Making moulds with Siligum

To make permanent moulds that I know will be used over a longer period of time and for many projects, I use Siligum. It is a two component mix made by Pebeo that once combined sets in 10 minutes and forms a rubbery supstance great for making moulds. It comes in 100 g and 300 g packages. It is similar to green stuff in how it's kneaded to make the end product.

1. take the item you want to copy and glue it lightly to a plastic surface.

2. Knead the two components together until you get a uniform colour of the mixture.

3. Press it over your original piece

4. After ten minutes remove the finished mould.

5. Pour in the resin or plaster

6. Remove the resin cast from the moulds.