NMM tutorial

Hi everyone,

I just posted a new tutorial, covering a step by step on steel NMM, on my website.
If you are interested, please look here: Tutorial NMM steel by MaGie

I would also like to share my new facebook page: MaGie Miniature Painting
On this page I will post anything miniature related that interests me, as well as updates on my site and blog. If you'd like to follow me, please click 'like'.

Cheers!

WIP: Caradryan

Hi everyone,

I've been working on this miniature from Games Workshop for some time now. It's high elf captain Caradryan, and I am painting it for the new GW shop that opened in my city last month.

So here is what I have thusfar. Still some work to be done, and most parts that look unfinished probably are :)
I've been trying some new-for-me techniques. Some freehand patterns and also texture for the cloak. I need to tweak that a bit still though ;)

I'm also giving some lessons at that shop, and the first one was last Saturday. It's really fun to see some enthousiast gamer/hobbyists gather. The next lesson will be this Wednesday afternoon, so if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, please come and join :)

See you next time!

Undead Lady

Now that the results are in, I can show you my entry for the Rotten Harvest contest at Wyrd Miniatures. This mini was sculpted by Werner Klocke for his Freebooter range. I tried to create a big contrast in subject and paint style. So while the subject is creepy and dark, the mini is painted in bright and clean colours. The base is darker to complement the subject. I'm quite happy with how she turned out, it's the first time I tried a translucent effect on black lace. I think it's turned out OK.
Because I was running out of time for the contest, I had to rush the base a bit. This is quite obvious I would say, but considering the breakability of this mini (I still need to get myself a decent pinning devise), I am going to leave the base as it is...

I'm glad to tell you that this mini placed second in the Not Quite Dead Yet category of the contest. There are also still some general prices left, but considering some superb entries I'm not keeping my hopes up too much...

Comments are very welcome!

I would like to conclude this message with mentioning something I'm really looking forward to. In a few weeks, I will take a holiday, of 4 weeks,  that I will fill mostly with painting many minis :)

Little Princess WIP

Hi everyone,

Here is my latest WIP. I'm painting this mini from Runic Miniatures for paint it pink. For those who don't know, it's a online contest to raise breast cancer awareness. It's a great idea, I think, so I wanted to put some effort myself. If you want to enter, and please do, here is the link: Paint It Pink

Anyway here is the Little Princess. So far, I finished the face I think, maybe some extra glazes, but I won't know about that until I colour in more areas. The rest is totally unfinished.

Soon I will show the pictures from my Rotten Harvest (contest at Wyrd Miniatures) entry. I'm not really sure if I'm allowed to show them yet...

Back in action

Hi everyone,

After realising that it has been quite a while since I posted on this blog, it is time to wake it from a long slumber.
Time in the past few months has been mostly consumed by my work, so I haven't been painting a lot.
I did manage to finish two pieces:

Alice in Boots was painted for the Hasslefree contest at WAMP. I am fairly satisfied with how she turned out, but it mostly was a piece to get me back in the painting game.

I painted Frodo for the monthly contest at WAMP themed 'from the movies'. It has been a very long time since I finished a mini in one day but I managed with Frodo. It's a small mini but that doesn't make it much easier :)

Lastly I would like to share the mini that's on my workbench at the moment. This is the Great Game Hunter pinup model from Kingdom Death, that I'm painting for the contest at WAMP. No illusion of winning anything, but for me participating is more important. It's in a larger scale than I'm used to, and will be quite a learning piece. So far, no single part has been finished, but it's progressing slowly.

The last few months of the year are generally packed with online miniature painting contests. Currently I have minis in the making/planning for the Red Box Games contest at WAMP, Rotten Harvest 2011 at Wyrd and a very special contest, Paint it Pink. This last contest is organised to help promote breast cancer awareness, which is absolutely a great initiative. Please visit the links above to take part in these competitions :)

A short message for a short break

Hi everyone,

This is just a quick message to let you all know that I won't be updating my blog for a few weeks. I'm in North America to do a field study for my research. Have fun everyone, and I hope to see you back sometime in July :)

Cheers!

Stylish Blogger Award

Hi everyone,

Last week I was pleasantly surprised that I was tagged for a stylish blogger award, by both In Chigh and Mario. Thanks a lot for this guys.

In Chigh's little world blog is a great site with many lovely painted miniatures. I especially like the historical minis he has painted :) Be sure to check it out!
Mario's Dutch blog, Miniaturen maken met Mario, shows a whole scala of miniatures from different companies. With very nice paintjobs by Mario and also interesting non-miniature related blog threads. Also very nice for non-Dutch speaking people, because of the pictures.

I must admit that I had never heard of this award before, but it's been traveling around on the blog side of the internet for a while. Apparently, there are some rules that I will need to follow.
So here they are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who sent the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award recently discovered bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

7 Things about myself, here we go:
1 - I'm 26, currently I'm doing a PhD student in evolutionary genetics. For this I work with parasitic wasps. Although I love working with these wasps, I'm quite scared of many other bugs!

2 - I live together with my boyfriend and we have two cats, Bobby and Bengel.

3 - I enjoy playing board games (Puerto Rico & Agricola are my favourites), watching movies and tv series (Damn why did they end LOST?)

4 - I also love reading books, especially while taking a bath. Unfortunately it relaxes me too much, so I fall asleep with the book in my hand. Thusfar I haven't soaked a book yet though.

5 - I started painting miniatures about 3 years ago, though I only started seriously about a year ago.

6 - I have read/listened to the Harry Potter series probably about ten times. Never gets boring, I could start again anyday now. Stephen Fry's voice is amazing.

7 - You can wake me up for tiramisu anytime :)

And here are the blogs I would like to award the Stylish Blogger award:
http://bestienmeister.blogspot.com/ Amazing miniatures painted by Chris. Also has great pictures from events and other miniature painters.
The Brush Brothers Wow, those are some beautiful miniatures. This blog is run by Adam, Krzysztof and Tom from Poland. They also run a painting competition!
SDR miniatures Shane Rozzell's blog with pictures of his latest work. I'm a big fan of Shane's painting style, and although he only started his blog a little while ago, I'm sure this will be an awesome place to be!
Studio Giraldez This is the place to be if you want to see some ultra smooth incredibly painted miniatures. Angel Giraldez is the studio painter for Infinity and also shares techniques and colour recipes.

So that's it! Thanks again for awarding me In Chigh and Mario. Hope to see you soon on the blog!

Tutorial: Display base step-by-step

Hi there!

Just thought I'd let you know that I have written a step by step on how I created and painted the base for Bör Dragonbane. You can find the tutorial HERE.

As I've been getting many questions on my paint recipes (especially on NMM), I will add a section to my website with the paint mixes I use. I will let you all know when it's online!
So if you have any question, don't be afraid to ask :) Also, comments & criticism is welcome as always.

Finished: Bör Dragonbane

Hi there!

As I'm currently with busy planning my trip to North America, and with finishing all the work I need to do before I leave, I haven't had much time to update this blog. So forgive me for not posting sooner.
In the mean time I've finished Bör Dragonbane from Avatars of War, for the contest at WAMP. There are many great entries, be sure to check them out here.

So here is my entry:

This has been a real learning piece when it comes to gold NMM. There's loads of it. And I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Soon I will post the colour recipes at my website, and for those interested there will also be a step on creating and painting the base.

Cheers!

WIP: AoW Bör Dragonbane

Hi everyone,

I realized that I forgot to post my latest work in progress here. I'm working on Bör Dragonbane, a dwarf berserker from Avatars of War. It will be my entry for the AoW contest at WAMP, and also for a ladder challenge on that site.

For this piece I want to put the focus mainly on the NMM, because there is not only a lot of it, there are many detailed metal and gold areas. So more options to practise, let's say...
Still loads of work to be done. The skin needs some more glazes, and the beard needs some work as well.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas they're always welcome :)

WIP update: Al-Vianna

This weekend has been all about Al-Vianna. The deadline for the Studio McVey contest at WAMP is next week, so I need to get finished.

I tried using the different mixes of the same colours for each part, hoping to create coherence in the colours. The only part I used completely different colours is the hair, which I want to stand out against all the blue and purple. I tried to paint the bottom of the dress to resemble the foam on waves, therefore the blending is not super smooth, but a bit blodgy.
Still figuring out the photography, some colours are just not right. The red is redder in real life, and the light blue has more contrast.

Wamped results & Al-Vianna WIP

Hi everyone,


For the last few months the WAMP forum community has been captivated by the Wamped competition. Many great painted have entered in the competition and everyone gave their best effort resulting in amazing entries all around. If you want to see those minis and the 'best in show' winning miniature painted by Shane Rozzell, then check out the gallery at WAMP.


I entered three miniatures in this contest. Captain Jack sparrow and the Griffin magistrate in the 'general category' and Eilwyn in the Guild of Harmony category. And I'm very happy to say that Eilwyn won in the category :) This was quite a surprise as I was really amazed by the wonderful entries.


And now it's also time to start another WIP thread. So this weekend I started painting Al-Vianna. I already wrote in a review how much I love this miniature, so it's quite a challenge for me to paint it to my liking because I get very picky with this.

So I started with all the flesh-work. I'm going for a cool colour, because she's supposed to be some sort of waternimf (in my view at least). Therefore I used some purple-blue in my basecoat, and adding more to the shades.
The basic shading and highlights are finished, but I still need to clean up some rough blendings and I will do some additional glazing to hopefully create a more interesting skin surface.

And for those of you interested in my paint mix:

Ratio is about 12: 2:1:1:2 (I'm guessing here because I just mixed until I was satisfied. It gives a more grey/blue version of Vallejo (V) basic skin.

The shades are created by adding Oxford blue and Chocolate Brown (V), in steps of course.
The highlights are created by adding Light flesh (V) up to pure Stencil (V).
I already tried some glazing with basecoat + dark flesh (GW) using Vallejo's glaze medium and that stuff really makes glazing a piece of cake :) Bit glossy though so I'll have to work on a better dilution mix.
That's it for now, might do some more work on her today :)

Queen Ileosa - Reaper Contest :)

I just received the wonderful news that my entry for the reaper contest, Queen Ileosa, has placed second in the contest :) I'm very happy with this. It was a great contest with very nice entries. Check out the Reaper forum to see the other entrants and the great paintjob that won, painted by Anne.

Here is the mini I entered. I will post some better pictures on my website soon.

WIP: Queen Ileosa

Hi there!

I just realized I forgot to post my latest WIP on my blog. So before I finish it, which will hopefully be tomorrow, here are some shots.

I am planning to enter this miniature into the Reaper Winter Contest, the deadline is after this weekend, so I'll have to hurry a bit ;)

Happy New Year!!! + WIPs

Happy New Year everybody :) Thank you all for checking up on my blog and I wish you all a prosper and healthy 2011!!

So let's continue 2011 where the previous year has ended, more painting!

I forgot to post these WIPs, that I worked on a few days ago. Just an update on the navy guy. And yes, he does have a head ;) (click to enlarge)

Since I plan to enter the diorama in the WAMPED contest, I cannot post finished pictures of Jack Sparrow yet, but he is more or less finished :)

Today I also worked on Eilwyn, the Guild of Harmony miniature. So here's a little update for that:

So there it is, everyone enjoy 2011!!!

WIP update: Jack Sparrow & navy dude

Today I've worked on the miniatures for the "through the looking glass" diorama.
I plan to have both miniatures in the same colours/recipes, but different composition. Here are some shots:

Hopefully I can get some more work done tomorrow. And I might even finish captain Jack :)

WIP update: Jack Sparrow, painting the leather

This weekend I wasn't really in the painting mood, so I didn't do as much as I had planned before. I wanted to finish Jack Sparrow so I could work on his counterpart in the "looking glass" diorama. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish him, but I'm getting there :)
I figured it's not a good idea to paint when I don't feel like it, because it ruins the idea of the hobby for me. It also descreases my patience a lot, and I don't want to rush the miniature.

In response to some reactions about the pants (which some persons thought looked to much like faded blue denim - and I quite agreed), I've changed them to look more like khaki. I also painted the other leathers parts (hat & boots).

Cheers!

WIP update: Jack Sparrow

Another day of painting Captain Jack. I worked on most parts of the clothing today. I still need to do some contrasting glazes though. I think this picture is much better than yesterday. I hope...

Because I'm really working hard to finish an experiment I don't have a lot of time to paint during the week, so probably the next update will be in the coming weekend. See ya!

WIP: Jack Sparrow

Hi everyone,
I'm taking a small break from Eilwyn - will continue working on her during the Christmas break :)
Now it's time for something completely different!
This is the "Pirate Captain" miniature from Tale of War, Fotogramas series. Obviously it's a sculpt of the ever-famous Caribbean pirate. So therefore I also want to paint it the way he looks in the movie. In this early WIP shot, you can see I've tried to mimic the sun-tanned dirty look of the skin.

I'm painting this miniature to be part of a diorama called 'Through the Looking Glass', for a ladder challenge an WAMP. But I also intend to enter it in the Wamped! competition.

Here a shot of the colours I used for the skin:

I also used GW dark flesh as a wash.

More to come soon! Let me know what you think so far.

WIP: Eilwyn

It's been a while, forgot to update my latest WIP. So here it is. It's a miniature from Guild of Harmony, which is a company owned by a great painter & modeller automaton. I am painting is miniature for entering the Wamped! contest at WAMP, but also because I absolutely love the sculpt :)

Still lots to be done, the face is almost finished - she just needs eyebrows. And the dress is also quite near finished. I think I might change the colours of the (now yellow) gems to blue or turquoise.
Let me know what you think!

Finished: Basti Priestess

Today I finished the Basti Priestess from Crocodile Games. Just in time, because the deadline for the challenge is today :)

Let me know what you think! Like always, more pictures can be found on my website, or CMON gallery!

Hyrekia - Wyrd Rotten Harvest Entry

Finally I can show the mini I entered for the Rotten Harvest contest at Wyrd. I entered in the category "witches & warlocks". Unfortunately I didn't win anything, but it was a great contest with some very nice entries. I guess next time I should focus on getting really decent pictures (the ones in this post are already much better compared to my entry pictures), and maybe put some more focus on the Halloween / autumn theme.

So here she is:

More & bigger pictures can be found on MaGie Miniature Painting and CMON (leave a vote if you can :) )

Any comments & criticism is very welcome!

WIP update: Basti Priestess, final WIP

Here's the last WIP picture of the Basti Priestess, as it is almost finished. Just a few more touch-ups to be done, but so far I'm really happy with the paintjob. Let me know what you think!
I also started sculpting the base today, will have some pictures up tomorrow probably.

Unfortunately the pictures of my Wyrd entry have turned out really bad, and it doesn't look as well as I hoped. The voting for this contest ends in a few days, so we'll see how it turns out. I've already made some better pics - and I have realized that working without a light box gives much better results for me - and will post them as soon as the voting ends :)

WIP update: Basti Priestess

It was a great weekend for painting: The weather sucked and I was really in the mood. So now I can present the latest WIP pictures of the Basti Priestess (Crocodile Games) that I am painting. Man I love this mini! The casting quality was awefull but I just really love the cat faces, and I like the feminine curves on this one :)

I made some bad spills that need fixing and of course the shawl has to be painted. But overall I'm really happy with the dress & gold. Let me know what you think :)

Finished: Wyrd rotten harvest entry (no pics)

Today I finished my entry for the Wyrd rotten harvest contest. It has been a great piece to work on and definitely proved to be a learning piece once again. Thanks to my optivisor I now can see little details I missed before, so it's really helpful.
I will show the final pictures of this mini when the contest is over.

And some other news: My little goblin mutant won the monthly contest at WAMP :) The competition was tough and the end results were really close to each other. But I'm really excited. it was great fun and also very nice to see the different interpretations of the theme.

my CMON gallery

Hi everyone,

My CMON account name now matches my name used here and elsewhere: MaGie, and can my gallery there now be found here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/MaGie

All the old images are still in the gallery. Many thanks to Chern Ann at CMON for helping me change my username :)

Finished: Rackham Goblin Mutant

This weekend I finished painting the goblin mutant from Rackham for the monthly competition at WAMP. I tried to create a little scene by only the minimal addition of the goblet with the blue liquid, as if the goblin drank something he shouldn't. "Greenskins and blue drinks don't mix".

I enjoyed painting this little critter. It was also my first try at copper and verdigris. I'm not too sure about that really.I painted this miniature with a little less dilution than I normally do, but I must say I like it much better. I'm not patient enough for the über-dilution and I think this is a good intermediate.
More pics can be found on my CMON page or on www.magie-miniatures.webs.com

And some other GREAT news.
Tre Manor has added my painted version of Yvander to his webshop catalogue: RED BOX GAMES.
He really liked the paintjob and I'm really honoured by this :) Be sure to check his miniatures! They are of great quality, lots of choices and just wonderful sculpts.

WIP: goblin mutant

Here's my latest WIP. The goblin mutant from Rackham I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Still a lot needs to be done, deadline for the contest is in 9 days so I might have to rush it a bit.

This is a great piece if you like painting eyes. When I picked the mini from my stack I didn't really like the idea of painting all the eyes. I couldn't paint eyes at all. It's so tiny, and seeing it clearly was nearly impossible for me. Plus my painting hand gets really shaky. But I've found my saviour:

With the optivisor (2.5x enlargement) I can finally see all the details. It really helped my paint the eyes on the goblin. I can even paint the pupil, I must admit that I'm pretty proud of that :)

Review: Painting secrets with Natalya

I've written a review on the HD download version of the DVD tutorial "Painting secrets with Natalya", a video tutorial by famous miniature painter (golden demon + slayer sword winner) Natalya Melnik aka Alexi Z. You can find it on my website HERE. Enjoy & let me know what you think!

WIP: Basti Priestess

For a paint challenge at WAMP (against TaleSpinner), themed 'She's got style', I'm working on this basti miniature from Crocodile Games. Here's a little WIP shot, very early though and lots still needs to be painted.

I'm also working on a Rackham goblin for the monthly contest 'Oops!' at WAMP. I will post some WIP shots of that soon!
And third on my workbench is a miniature for the Rotten Harvest contest at Wyrd, but due to the anonymous nature of the contest I cannot display any WIP pictures or completed pictures until the contest is over. Category & type of miniature I will keep to myself as well ;)