Miniature of the month: May 2012

Like every month, this time we also bring you some 23 cool looking and very well painted miniatures. It is not much when you compare it to other months, but I still hope you will find 3 cool looking miniatures and leave your votes for the Miniature of the month May here.

Have fun, enjoy watching the miniatures and remember that you can always give feedback to the authors at the forum!

Authors say

Here’s what a few painters of this month’s entries said about their works:

Well, I managed to get painted 6 mechthralls each one took me about 1.5 hours each, not bad for tabletop but decent quality. Another 6 more of these guys to go and I still have a huge amount of Cryx to paint.
— Arctica

So this time something special, Grim from Pulp City – a yet unreleased mini made for special exchange thanks to generosity of Morf. It is about 19~20 mm tall.
— Maru

I think the proportions of the base somehow turned out weird and not fitting. Guess I should have tested putting Brahyn on the plinth before glueing, priming and painting everything. 😀 … A lesson well learned but I still hope it looks ok!
— P1per

Miniatures of the month May

Rules and voting

Everybody can vote for 3 miniatures of their choice. There will be one Miniature of the Month (the winner) and up to two honorable mentions. The number of honorable mentions will be reduced if two miniatures tie for the title of the Miniature of the Month, so the maximum number of awarded entries is 3.

OK, so now you should be ready to vote:

VOTING CLOSED

The poll is open until the end of June. The results will be posted after the poll is closed and the winner will receive a honorary badge to display in his profile on our miniature painting forum. In case of a tie, the badge will be awarded to the winners. Up to two models will also receive honorary mentions.

We encourage you to comment on this month’s entries, explain your votes or even discuss votes of other users – we’ll be happy to read what you have to say. So don’t be shy and share your opinion with us. Thanks a lot!

Results

UPDATE: This time the winner is Flameon, whose entry beat its opponents by a large margin. Well done, Flameon! Honorable mentions go to JerzyK and CTan. Thanks for your interest and congratulations!

Miniature of the month: April 2012

Hello! This time our Miniature of the Month April article will have to do with a shorter introduction.

A wide selection of diferent miniature ranges can be found in this month’s selection of miniatures. A few of them took part in different competitions like Salute, Wamp contest or Duke of Bavaria. Check the authors’ threads at the forum to see how those entries were done and did they do in competitions.

Have fun, enjoy watching the miniatures and remember that you can always give feedback to the authors at the forum!

Authors say

Here’s what some painters said about their works:

And here’s my entry for the Studio McVey competition on the WAMP forum. I thought I’d try some colors I haven’t used very much. I was surprised that I finished this one in about a week, as it usually takes me much longer to finish something.
— pae

My brother sent me a lot of Scibor’s gobos. I love the character of these minis. I had lots of problems with the pics and these are the best of about 20 pics.
— jason

I decided to consider the piece done and gave up earlier plans what can yet be added etc – model took me already too much time so my glass case will have to deal with it somehow. There’s actually a big hole behind the back wheel – which was supposed to be for snotlings or grots or whatever these little bastards are called in Kromlech 😀 The fence was a tough opponent – it’s really hard to shape properly… I added some fences on the game table and after the fence was bent with pliers I cannot re-make it straight again.
— demi_morgana

Miniatures of the month April

Rules and voting

Everybody can vote for 3 miniatures of their choice. There will be one Miniature of the Month (the winner) and up to two honorable mentions. The number of honorable mentions will be reduced if two miniatures tie for the title of the Miniature of the Month, so the maximum number of awarded entries is 3.

OK, so now you should be ready to vote:

Voting has ended

The poll is open until the end of May. The results will be posted after the poll is closed and the winner will receive a honorary badge to display in his profile on our miniature painting forum. In case of a tie, the badge will be awarded to the winners. Up to two models will also receive honorary mentions.

We encourage you to comment on this month’s entries, explain you votes or even discuss votes of other users – we’ll be happy to read what you have to say. So don’t be shy and share your opinion with us. Thanks a lot!

Results

UPDATE: This month we had some technical problems with voting, but we decided to award the title anyway. Moreover, we shouldn’t grant more than 2 honorable mentions, but because of the technical difficulties, we decided to grant it to 3 users, who collected equal numbers of votes. So the winner of this month’s poll is Le6n, with honorable mentions going to CTan, Atacam and Pae. Congratulations!

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report

Nothing gives me a kick to paint like looking at some nicely painted miniatures. Last weekend I had a chance to go to the Duke of Bavaria 2012 (or Herzog von Bayern 2012) contest in Germany. It was the 12th edition and my second I were at.

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (1)

The contest takes place in Ingolstadt, a beautiful old city which is known for it’s Audi factory. The whole event is in old castle called Neues Schloss where the Bavarian Army Museum is.

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (2)

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (3)

Another benefit is that at the same time in the castle’s courtyard during the weekend is a local fest. So after many hours of looking at miniatures it is nice to sit on the bench, have a cold beer in 1 liter glass, called “Maß”, eat a Wieswurst with local music played live.

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (11)

The Duke of Bavaria 2012 contest started on Friday and lasted for 3 days. Usually most of the people come on Saturday, that is when the deadline for entering miniatures is. The results are given on the next day, so on Sunday you can pick up your entires. So in general it is a two days contest. Each painter entering in the contest has to pay €10 fee.

You really can’t feel bored there because just to watch the entries takes 1 or 2 hours. They are all gathered in one big room. There are no display cabinets so the entries are just on the shelves. So you can carefully take them and watch from really, really close from each side. Great thing about the Duke of Bavaria is that you can talk to people how did they paint something and then they just show you on the model! You can learn so much from just looking and talking to those masters of brush.

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (5)

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (6)

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (7)

There were also some classes (including  miniature painting classes), each devoted to different topics…

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (4)

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (8)

… and display cabinets where judges show their own great works:

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (12)

Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (13)

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Herzog von Bayern 2012 report (15)

Also there were many shops, where you could spend some money. Plenty to choose from – little companies or big names like Pegaso.

The Duke of Bavaria 2012 contest

The form of the contest is very open and categories give that feeling:

  1. Junior Cup
  2. Beginner
  3. Standard-Class
    • Standard Painting
    • Standard Open
    • Standard Flats 30 mm
    • Standard Flats over 30 mm
    • Fantasy Standard Painting
    • Fantasy Standard Open
  4. Master-Class
    • Master Painting
    • Master Open
    • Master Flats 30 mm
    • Master Flats over 30 mm
    • Fantasy Master Painting
    • Fantasy Master Open
  5. Dioramas / Vignettes
  6. Out of competition

For every category there are two classes: Master- and Standard-Class. You can enter only one for each category, i.e. Standard class Fantasy Painting and Master class Painting.

In each category you get a display place where you can put your entires that fall into this one category (the design of the display (Cloth, stairs, socket) is a freely selectable form, the standard size of the displays is approx. 30 x 30 cm). So if you have 3 single 32mm fantasy miniatures + 2 single 32mm sci-fi minis – they all go together as one entry into Master/Standard ‘Fantasy Painting’ category

Judging at Duke of Bavaria is also a bit different from what you know from other contests.

Judging System:

The judges give 0 – 4 points.

4 points mean GOLD

3 points mean SILVER

2 points mean BRONZE

1 point means RECOMMENDED

0 points mean NO AWARD

In every category there are 3 jurors, which means:

10 – 12 points GOLD

7 – 9 points SILVER

6 – 8 points BRONZE

3 – 5 points RECOMMENDED

0 – 2 points NO AWARD

So the rules are very unique and this is what makes Duke of Bavaria special. It means that there can be more than one bronze, silver or gold. The organizers motivate their decision about such formula that they don’t want painters to compete with each other – just with themselves.

There are also many special awards given from different clubs, i.e.:

  • best painted Bavarian soldier (award given from the museum director)
  • best native American miniature (from one of the judges)
  • best creative entry (award from Massive VooDoo monkeys)

and many, many different awards from painting clubs around Europe (Belgium, France, Italy, Czech and Germany). What orginisers could do better, would be to write about those awards before the contest, or maybe it is supposed to be that way?

Ceremony

I have never been on a ceremony that lasts almost 1,5 hour. But it is in a wonderful chamber and all the winners’ entries are shown (so you know what they get medals for).

Entries

The key part of every contest, have fun watching them!

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report (16)

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report (17)

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report (18)

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report (19)

Duke of Bavaria 2012 report (20)

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If you would like to know more about the contest, here is the oficial web page, and to see how was it last year and what great miniatures were there, just click here.

— Sea.man

Miniature of the month: March 2012

Hello again! March was very productive at the Chest of Colors forum. This month you can see some great entries in the Miniature of the Month March 2012 gallery. The pictures I collected come from various sections of the forum.

Two of those places are the members’ own threads in Polish and English sections of the forum. The third source of photos is the Tale of Gamers thread.

Have fun, enjoy watching the miniatures and remember that you can always give feedback to the authors at the forum!

Authors say

Here are some comments from the authors of this month’s entries:

I finished this paintjob a few weeks ago. It’s meant to take part in the Lowlands competition at Games Workshop. And therefore, I tried painting it Eavy Metal style. All metallics are painted NMM. The gems are painted with a gloss varnish after I took the pictures.
If you have any feedback and suggestions for my next mini, please share them

— MaGie

Time for a new mini. I have been working on this for a while. halfway through this mini i suddenly got my layering/gradient to work so this mini is painted with a mix of technics but I am happy about the final result. it is also my first attempt with OSL. This is a great mini to paint had a lot of fun but in my opinion the eye are Honorable to paint as they are sculpted as two small “spots”. I am looking forward to your comments.

— Little Jimbo

Hi – for some years I’ve been collecting some models to make an army of dark elves. I don’t like the games workshop flashy clean , fair skined – pissed off – overspiky dark elves so I gathered verious models from past date confrontation, Hordes and my own convertions of Games workshop and confrontation models. Here are some things I’ve already done and I hope to post new stuff as it goes but still I don’t have a proper skill or camaera to make better photos. I will try to push some discipline as there are some other big projects comming an the current games workshop rulespack does not motivate me to play so I’m making an army with 7th edition in mind and hoping for better future.

— Rzymek

Miniatures of the month March

Rules and voting

Everybody can vote for 3 miniatures of their choice. There will be one Miniature of the Month (the winner) and up to two honorable mentions. The number of honorable mentions will be reduced if two miniatures tie for the title of the Miniature of the Month, so the maximum number of awarded entries is 3.

OK, so now you should be ready to vote:

Voting has ended

The poll is open until the end of April. The results will be posted after the poll is closed and the winner will receive a honorary badge to display in his profile on our miniature painting forum. In case of a tie, the badge will be awarded to the winners. Up to two models will also receive honorary mentions.

Feel free to comment on this month’s entries, explain why you voted the way you did, or even discuss votes of other users – we’ll be happy to read what you have to say. So don’t be shy and share your opinion with us. Thank you!

Results

UPDATE: The winner of this month’s poll is C’Tan, with honorable mentions going to Irkuck and Le6n. Congratulations!

Miniature of the month: February 2012

February is short and that is why there are a bit less entries than in January. But did the miniature painting quality drop? I don’t think so. Just see how many different entries we’ve got. It keeps me wondering how some painters manage to paint so beautiful minis, that they could be winning each month! It has to be just pure talent. That is also why you are now allowed to give 3 votes for different miniatures. It shouldn’t be a problem now to vote, or what do you think?

What about my entry? Well… shame on me that I didn’t finish anything during whole month. Next month I will try to do better.

Authors say

What people had to say about their works:

“Here is my new miniature. Im not really content of this mini, sculpt was bad and had a lot of air bubbles and other things which made painting this miserable. Only dress was nice in work. So I’m happy I can make other miniatures now.”
— Flameon

“Thanks to Nameless’ opinion I added more contrast on it – light is sharper now. The minis were chosen by the customer and Mahon, I added a little conversion: The ogre has resculpted waist and neck. On the back I took off the standards, and added them to the base and cannon. On the back I put a weapon (probably from Rackcham). I found and added two Forsaken or Chaos Spawns (the choice is yours). These two minis are from Heresy.”
— Ana

“I painted this model for Bytom 2012 show, I thought it would be weird to go there without any historical model. It’s Roman Cavalry Officer from Latorre Models, 54mm scale. based on a character from Gladiator film, so I call him Spanyard instead. New company for my showcase, historical genre, bigger scale – I still follow my plans (new manufacturers, variety) for 2012!”
— Nameless

Now on to the gallery:

Miniatures of the month February

Rules have changed!

You are surely familiar with the rules of Miniature of the month now, aren’t you? But to make the event more enjoyable for you. So what’s the change?

Now everybody can vote for 3 miniatures of their choice. Cool, isn’t it? We found it will add an additional layer to the whole fun. This also means there will be one Miniature of the Month (the winner) and up to two honorable mentions. The number of honorable mentions will be reduced if two miniatures tie for the title of the Miniature of the Month.

OK, so now you should be ready to vote:

Voting has ended

The poll is open until the end of March. The results will be pu

blished after the poll is closed and the winner will receive a honorary badge to display in his profile on our miniature painting forum. In case of a tie, the badge will be awarded to the winners. Up to two models will also receive honorary mentions.

And if you want to comment on this month’s entries, explain why you voted the way you did, or maybe discuss votes of other users – we’ll be happy to read what you have to say. So don’t be shy and share your opinion with us. Thank you!

Results

UPDATE: The winner of this month’s poll is Reynevan, with honorable mentions going to Ańa and P1per. Congratulations!