SMC'17 experiences and... LOOT!

Hello fellow painters, builders, and other hobbyists,

In this article, I wanted to share my experiences at the Scale Model Challenge 2017. I could only attend one day so I didn't enter into the competition. I arrived around 10AM when the convention just opened its doors, but it was already very crowded with people! There were 138 exhibitors divided over 122 stands and 575 people from 40 different countries participating in the contest with 1987 entries!

I quickly entered the contest area to get a peek of what people had entered but there were already so many people there that I only managed to get a couple of photos. (you can see them in my experimental slideshow, frames 2 and 29 are my favorite!)

It was a lot of fun to meet some of my old friends and to create new ones. I also met up with some people that I know from facebook but who I have never had the pleasure to meet in person.

At the stand of Mr. Lee's mini's, where I spent a lot of my time, I found my friends Dennis, Kyle, and Kris. I also met Fancagne, Drew, and Norm. I recently won a model from Kaha miniatures, Fancagne's model company that I could pick up at their stand. This is where I picked up my first piece of SMC loot... the Megaprimatipus Kong!

Kong! Based on the recent movie.

My friend Dennis from Savageforged Mini's also had a 75mm model that I wanted! C-48 Roy is a post-apoc styled android or cyborg. I love cyberpunk almost as much as I love orcs, so this was a must-have for me!

Also at this stand, there was a demo area where renowned painters like Roman Lappat, Roman Gruba and Drew Palies demonstrated their painting techniques and skills. I attended to Roman's demonstration on how to paint eyes and skin on a 1/10 ogre bust. For me, it was very interesting to see his method of painting. I will be using what I've seen on future projects for sure!

Me watching Roman explain how to paint eyes

My friend Kris from Broken Toad also had a lot of goodness for sale. Next to his awesome brushes he also brought his busts to the scale model challenge. I've had his "Rage" bust on my radar for a while, but only now learned that it represents a character from the world of Guildball.

"Rage" by Broken Toad, a Guildball character

Finally, I brought some of my busts to find them a good plinth. I've heard many people speaking very positively about Dino Pivato's plinths. Now I must say that I do find them a little pricey at between €15 and €20 per plinth, but they do look very nice and Dino does try his best to find the perfect match for your project.

That pretty much sums up my day with all my experiences at the Scale Model Challenge. I hope you enjoyed reading this little article.

QUESTION:
What do you think about the slideshows? Do you like them? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve them? Please leave your answers in the comments!

Thank you for reading and I will see you next time!

Showcase: Primaris Space Marine

Hello fellow painters and paintresses, 😜

In this showcase, I would like to share a recently finished project, as promised. Before I got the Gabriel Angelos model I showed last week, I went to my local Warhammer store and got a Primaris Marine on sprue to paint.

I didn't choose a specific chapter but I went with a color scheme that would look nice and eye-catching. The base was made on a 35mm round plinth and was made to look like a muddy wasteland.

The puddle of water on the base was made using Secret Weapon Miniatures Realistic Water with a little bit of green paint. This was actually the first time I used this product and while it does shrink a lot, it doesn't smell bad.

Below you will find some more WIP (work in progress) pictures of this project.

The model on sprue

I mixed the brightest orange I could create

Some subtle shades of warm grey to create depth
The eyes were created with glazes of Vallejo Fluo blue

Highlights airbrushed on using a light skin tone

Some handpainted battle damage

Building up the basic shape for the base with cork and tubing

Filling gaps with Milliput

Sanded the Milliput to create a smoot surface

I added Vallejo Fresh Mud texture paste

Some barbed wire from ArmyPainter,
rolled around a pencil

I hope you enjoyed this little showcase article. If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments and I will answer them as best as I can.

If you want to see some of my WIP pictures, feel free to follow me on Instagram!

That's it for today! I hope I will see you guys and girls in a next article!

Showcase: Gabriel Angelos

Hello fellow painters and modelers, 

In light on my recent article on finishing projects for the sake of finishing them and learning from them, I hereby present my first finished project since that post.

This is Gabriel Angelos, chapter master of the Blood Ravens Space Marine chapter, known from the Dawn of War Warhammer 40K video games.

The model was supplied by "W" Miniatures Artel. The model is painted with airbrush and brushes and the base is scratch-built with plastic card and tubes on a wooden plinth by Sockelmacher.

Below you will find pictures of the finished project as well as some WIP pictures. If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments.

I really enjoyed painting this model. Dawn of War, especially DoW2 is one of my favorite games and while you can't play as Gabriel Angelos, he is still a great character in the game.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I will see you next time!