Radagast the Brown

My other entry for GDUK this year was the Radagast which I showed as a WIP a few months ago. I was really pleased with the way he was turning out so decided to really try to create an interesting way of displaying the miniature.

With the competition in mind, I knew I had to keep him on his 25mm round 'appropriate gaming base' so I decided to put a lot of time and effort into his plinth. In theory the plinth is not part of judging the painting, but (in my opinion) it will most definitely help catch the judges eye - then I just had to hope that my painting would hold up to more intense scrutiny.

Being Radagast THE BROWN, there was always going to be a lot of brown - the trick was how to make that interesting. I used lots of different brown triads by Reaper and added the same shade colour (Coal Black by P3) and the same final highlight (Vallejo Ivory) to try and harmonize the various colours. The big point of interest for me in a model is always the face so with the 'lack' of colour in the rest of the model I wanted to make the face alive with colour (without being unrealistic) so I used a lot of Coal Black (which is really a very dark turquoise) and P3 Sanguine Base (a dark, desaturated red) to give him a bit of life.

The other POI I decided to go for was some freehand on his outer coat. Looking at stills from the movie his coat is almost like a tapestry with lots of patterns all over it so I went for a series of swirls and leaves and spirals to give a similar feel to it.

I think that's enough of a description and its time to show some photos...

And now for some closer shots of the man himself...

So... whaddayathink?

For some better photos, check out Putty & Paint - http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/2946

(I think something may have changed on blogger and it seems to be butchering the quality of my photos)

I do have some other news about Radagast, and that is he helped me scoop my first Golden Demon!! I managed to win a gold in the Lord of the rings category!! Wooooooooooooohoooooooooo!!!!! Its been a long time and something I've wanted for absolutely ages... I am stoked!

Salamander complete!

I managed to finish the Salamander I've been working on in prime time for entering him into the Golden Demon competition at this years Games Day UK! (accidental?*)

I managed to get a finalist pin for him in what proved to be a really tricky category - it seemed like there were more entries in 40K single Figure as there are at many other painting competitions in total! I must admit, I was pleased with a finalist pin in this category as the quality was also very high.

I wanted to try and create a tiny 40mm vignette with this piece and hope that it tells a story to the viewer like a larger diorama might.

I have posted this guy up on CoolMiniOrNot and Putty & Paint if you are interested in voting :)
http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/2945 (oddly I think these might be better pictures, although I am not sure why... maybe blogger has compressed these ones?)
http://www.coolminiornot.com/342264

On to the pictures...

*Nope!

Golem Daemon Day

Last year Golem Painting Studio ran a workshop in the run-up to the UK Golden Demon event. The gist of which was that you took along your current project (potentially your Golden Demon entry) and worked under the watchful eye of a handful of tutors to really make sure your model was the best it could be.

After the success of the event last year, and also the painting masterclass they ran earlier this year, Golem Painting Studio decided to make the Daemon Day a yearly event. It is now that time of year again and there are some really great tutors in the line-up...

German Golden Demons

It was the German Golden in Cologne Germany last weekend, and those great and talented apes at Massive Voodoo did a wicked little video of it. I just wanted to share:

Amazing Duel

I love a good Duel entry at Golden Demons - its probably my favourite category. I love it even more when people think outside the box... and I don't mean cramming the largest rock possible on top of the 50mm base and slapping a huge monster on there. 

Here is an example of something which really floats my boat - a TINY duel by Morbäck:

Everything you need in a tight little diorama - action, movement, direct interaction and great composition all on a base the size of a Euro coin. The painting speaks for itself!