Joy of Painting. Encore.

I've recently taken part in an event organised by GW Poland (you can read about it here). It was a very positive experience so when I had a chance to do it again, I couldn't refuse. Last Saturday, I had a chance to participate in a similar event.
This time it was organised at the Warsaw University of Technology. Staying indoors meant that we had a chance to maintain better control of the whole thing.
Once again, the turnout was really good. It was particularly nice to see people who were at the previous event with their kids and came back wanting more. The atmosphere was great too. Once again, I was struck by how quickly kids learn the basics. A matter of a few minutes and most of them were able to paint a Space Marine, High Elf or a member of the Fellowship of the Ring as if it was part and parcel of their everyday school life.
Painting miniatures was only part of the larger event devoted to various types of Board Games. Everyone who took part had a chance to try out many games in the game room. Obviously, guys from WFB and WH 40K were there too with painted minis set up on a gameboard.
All in all, it was another great experience. Thumbs up for GW Poland for taking the initiative.
I was quite busy during the event so here are just a few pics that I took.

If you want to read more about the event and anything else connected with GW P{oland, check out their FB profile, some nice stuff going on there.

Blast from the Past

I decided to start another series of posts (actually, it the second one after "Pick of the Wee" which is published every...now and then). This time it's going to be called "Blast from the Past" and I will be showing new pictures of my older works.
The reason I'm doing this is simple - an extremely talented and professional photographer (and a graphic designer as well) agreed to have his pictures of my works posted on the blog. If you wish to contact him or see some of his works, you can check them out here.
I'd like to begin with a set of pictures that I find particularly impressive - the Nazgul. It's really difficult to take decent pictures of models painted mainly using dark colors. I've never been able to set everything (background, lighting) right and take pictures that show the all the highlights really accurately. Not to mention the post-editing (increasing/decreasing the brightness, saturation, contrast, etc.). Well, it turned out it's possible and the pictures below show it very well.




This one has already appeared on the blog but I can't think of a more suitable song so here it is again:

Floi Stonehand

One of the nicest dwarf models in the LotR range that I've painted so far. All the details - staff, face, book, cloak, everything is really nicely sculpted on this one. I followed the color scheme that GW proposed on their website and I think it suits this model really well. Rich colors stress his high rank as the Loremaster and makes him look nice next to other elites that use similar color scheme (King's Champion, Dain and Balin). OK, enough writing, here are the pictures:



I wasn't able to think of any piece of music that would fit this blog entry so I'll just add this one from the latest Ulver album - my personal favorite.

Little Men...

I painted these guys a while ago but haven't found time tio upload all of the pictures and write about them. Nothing to write home about. I aimed for a solid, coherent look throughout the whole unit. I wanted to make sure I don't have the "army of clones" effect so I used different type of bases and slightly different color schemes for the identical poses. I generally followed GW's color scheme with some minor changes. And that's pretty much it, here are the pictures:



More coming soon so stay tuned :)

King's Champion

The beginning of a school year is always a busy time, especially if you're a teacher. Still, I managed to find some time for painting and finished up a couple of dwarf lords/heroes. I will be showing all of them at the blog in the nearest future. I thought I'd start with my favorite so far - King's Champion.


Pretty much all of the metal miniatures of dwarves from the LotR range are great sculpts and this one's no exception. Each one from these three is nicely detailed, some of the elements are particularly well sculpted (the shields, helmets, armor). I also like them as they don't resemble any other previously released models too closely (which happens sometimes in LotR).



These guys are used separately in Lotr and function as a single unit in WotR. I decided to take advantage of it and create a kind of small diorama. I used a plastic statue from old ruins of Middle-Eerth set and some cork. I also added some GS to make sure that the spaces where bases go are round and even.



GW's snow flock and some scorched grass were used to finish it off. More dwarves coming soon so stay tuned :)

Joy of Painting

Yesterday I took part in an event organized by GW Poland (Haldir was there too). It was part of a larger festival of games (various types but mainly board games). It took place in the Royal Baths Park in Warsaw. The scenery was very nice as we were set up next to the Palace on the Water. Weather was also perfect - warm and sunny.

The atmosphere was very nice too with whole families taking part in the event. Small kids were the most frequent guests but their parents/grandparents were also eager to have a crack at painting miniatures.

Everyone who sat down to paint could take the model he/she worked on home. We had lots of plastic minis from GW started sets (High Elves from The Island of Blood, The Fellowship of the Ring from The Mines of Moria and dozens of Space Marines from Assault at the Black Reach).

It's amazing how little guidance kids need to start painting. A brush, some paints, a miniature and some creative energy, that's pretty much everything.

Other Guys from Mitril.pl (the biggest Polish website related to Lotr SBG/WotR) had their stands next to ours and spent the day teaching how to play War of the Ring and LotR SBG.

I really enjoyed taking part in this event. I think that this this the best way to promote the hobby, reaching out and showing it to everyone. Kudos to GW Poland for organizing everything and many thanks to everyone who took part in it.

You can see both of the Independent Painters in the pics below. I'm, the one wearing a checked shirt, Haldir's the one in blue sweater (second picture) and there's also my younger brother (black sweatshirt, first picture) who helped a lot during the event.

And here's probably the best song that summarizes the mood of the event: