I may have got the easiest light box set up with Ikea products!

I have been having trouble with the macro shots of miniature all the time, especially when I haven't finished and I don't want to pull out my Cannon just yet.  So what I did is that I used a which foldable drawer organiser from Ikea (I'd write the proper name later) and push the Ikea deak lamp right at the angle where half the light shine through the top of the box, and half the light shine straight at the miniature.

Another way to look at this like you have a open box made with whitw cloth, put it side way opening facing you, then put the lamp at the top edge of the open so that the side on the top helped defused the light and thw front opening let direct light hit the mini.

The result is a lot better then just shining the ligt straight at the miniature, and I haven't spent any money on it....

... but my painting is pretty average this time, I know...

100,000+ hits and counting! New topic for the blog: Fountain Pen!

過去一直都對鋼筆有興趣, 近來買了一支百樂牌及四季彩墨水...
今晚終於突破三位數字入手寫樂 1911透明筆!
下面係一啲好靚仔嘅白金筆咀嘅近照

Hi everyone,

Thanks to popularity of macro photography my site reached 100k hit! Thanks everyone!

I had always been interested in fountain pens and recently I had started investing in better ones.  I started with Pilot Pera with a set of Iroshizuku ink, then moved on to TWSBI ECO and just tonight, I broke the 3 digit price tag (Hong Kong dollars, that's about USD20 max)  and got a 1k+ (again HKD, about USD150) Sailor 1911 Profit Standard Demonstrator Transparent Body.

Here are some close up shot of the beautiful nib, more entries for the other pens to follow.

Close up shot of the 1911 engraved on the platinum nib 
Sailor 1911 Profit 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.004 (1/250) Aperture 3 f/2.8

Close up shot of the 21k platinum engraving on the nib,
also showing the 375, H MF marking
Sailor 1911 Profit 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.004 (1/250) Aperture 3 f/2.8

Sailor 1911 Profit, nib close-up 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.001 (1/100) Aperture 3 f/2.8

Close up shot of the tip of the nib 
Sailor 1911 Profit 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.001 (1/100) Aperture 3 f/2.8

Close up shot of the back of the tip of the nib 
Sailor 1911 Profit 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.001 (1/100) Aperture 3 f/2.8

Another close up shot of the tip of the back of the nib
Sailor 1911 Profit 
Canon EOS 40D
Lens: 100mm f/2.8-32
0.001 (1/100) Aperture 3 f/2.8

筆店:
豐原行 Feng Yuan Pens Co/Pen Gallery
Feng Yuan Co

G 21, Houston Centre,Tsimshatsui East, Hong Kong
尖沙咀東麼地道63號
好時中心 G21 店
Tel : 2366 1703
Fax : 2724 3906

Finally got a chance to paint again and I suspect the paint is a bit off.

Haven’t painted again for a very long time now, most of the paint on my desk settled and different layers of liquid started to appear…

So last night when I started on the lower part of the body I had to paint larger and almost flat surfaces.  This kind of surface had always pose problem for me, getting it even and smooth isn’t easy with brushes, and using air brush isn’t that easy for me (yet).  I’d post photos later than the track if it persist: as the paint dries little pigments started to appear forming rings on the surface… so I had to paint over it again and again…

Very keen to get something motorized to deal with these paint when I am busy, but for now I don’t have the money for it.  Speaking of that, there are two options: one is to vibrate it, the other is to get a mechanism to shake it up and down like what I do with my arms.  We’d see.
One thing I was rather pleased is how I handled the lining on the hat, I think I got the detail just right.

#Avatarsofwar #AoW

#ArenaDeathmatch 

#Amazonwarriorprincess

#28mm #Fantasy #Tabletop 

#Wargaming #Magabotato

I am getting some Zombicide Blackplague Promo Exclusive heroes and will paint and sell them.

They should be going to DHL at Germany now, not planning to make a killing with these but just want some incentive to motivate myself to continue with painting miniature.

Paul
Falstaff
Morgan
Piper
Hitch
James
Gregoire
Lady Faye
Lucas

I made a challenge to myself and see how fast I can paint a 30mm miniature, took me 3 hours from box to this...

Haven't done something like this before, and haven't done a mini from start to finish in a shorter period of time in a long while as well.  The last two that I had done took over a year, and the diorama that I started 2 years ago is still only 70% finished.

Anyway I ran into a lot of issues, especially when some of my supplies are still not in my current workshop:

- I had to make the base as well, which I got a whole bunch of secret weapon base tucked away in storage and not with me, so I need to make due with the plastic square base that comes with the mini.

- I haven't got enough time to let the glue dry, didn't have time to let the green stuff dry, so I just pray that these won't give me trouble down the track.

- the box art is not a painted version of the mini so I need to quickly think of a color scheme, which Is am still trying to make up my mind.

- air-brushing took me a while as I need to clean the air brush before and after using, and I spent some time clean it after use so it'd be easier for me next time.

- photography is still a problem as the lighting is still a little harsh, which again took me a while.

- order of painting was wrong, I could have do the small parts first, then mid tone to make corrections, then .... should I do the shading first or highlight first... damn it.

Anyway, as I woke up this morning and took the mini under the sun to have another look, it wasn't too bad, and it had been fun.

Swordmaster of Lusia - Avatars of War

Here are some progress shots, notice the Ikea clock behind the mini.  Nice clock from Ikea, affordable, simple, does the job.

What I started with straight out of the box, a 3 parts mini from Avatars of War,
I bought it from a hobby shop in Spain

cleaning is important, don't want the releasing agent on the mini to mess up with priming

cleaning the flash lines from the mini,
very good casting, not a lot of lines to clean

added some green stuff to fill in the gap on the arm,
took some sands for basing, it looks like ground now.
that took be longer than I though as I put several layer of fine sand on it

Mounted and primed, ready for painting, 1.5 hours

#Avatarsofwar #AoW

#ArenaDeathmatch 

#Amazonwarriorprincess

#28mm #Fantasy #Tabletop 

#Wargaming #Magabotato

I finished my first bottle of black in weeks, my second bottle lasted for years

I was sitting next to the painting station helping with some work on my PC, as I was just waiting around I looked across to my pots of paints i decided to add some water to them and gave them a good shake.

These are the first bunch of paints I got for this hobby, all except the black. I was told that the easiest way to prime a mini was to paint it black. I did that as it made sense with my Chaos armored units. Later on I learned that black is actually the hardest color to paint and paint over I stayed away from this pot for a long time. Not until recently I had enough skill and courage to use black paint, but still I haven't gone through my second pot.

First batch of BONES selected for painting

trying to start my painting service business, selected the first batch of Reaper BONES (1st kickstarter, vampire level) for painting.  Some of them are of very good quality and have a lot of details, some of them are so-so, one or two of them got a very... simple face but I'd do something about it.  All in all I expect to sell them for USD10 to USD20 each, not trying to make a profit but just to help with my cash flow.  The list of selected BONES below (the link is for the original metal cast, I'd post the BONE version on hand later)

Actually there are two more of these but they had already been primed so they didn't get to make the group shot.

50178: Andre Durand, Time Chase 
http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/50178/latest/50178

50033 > Horace "Action" Jackson

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/50033/latest/50033

60048 > Feiya, Iconic Witch & Fox Familiar

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/60048/latest/60048

60095 > Merisiel, Iconic Elf Rogue (Version 2)

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/60095/latest/60095

03337 > Terezinya, Bone Pander Wizard

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/03337/latest/03337

03098 > Astrid, Female Chronicler

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/03098/latest/03098

P02584B: Townsfolk: strumpet [10029 E]

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/02584/latest/02584

03255 > Callie, Female Rogue with Bow

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/03255/latest/03255