Direct call from Anima Mundi selection:

1,256 DVDs are already circulating on Anima Mundi "Babel Tower". Only 200 are missing to the end of receipts! Very very soon we'll have the list of selected films of this year!

And already a record was broken: 17 feature films submitted this year!

star kisses

just a personal doodle :)  it's been a while!

Salute 2011 #2

Click for Part 1

I took the chance this year to explore more figures ranges and while I was tempted to dabble in some historical figures (I really had my eye on Napoleonic s), my wallet was constantly opened for the many Sci-fi and fantasy products on offer (and normally overshadowed) at this years.

First on my list was Taban Miniatures a French company who produce the wonderful post apocalyptic Eden skirmish game, there were some very unusual and unique cyber punk styled gangs such as the Bakama and Jokers. But what really pulled grabbed my attention were the ISC who are basically wandering Samurai robots, almost immediately images of Samurai Jack popped into my head. I already had a Grey Daimyo and so I eagerly took the chance to bulk out my collection.

To make matter worse however (for my wallet) Smart Max miniatures were right next door to Taban, these guys are responsible for the Victorian steam punk Fantasy that is Smog and Mauser Earth. They specialise in highly intricate 54mm resin figures that ooze character and detail and are part of a game system, but unfortunately the rule set had not been translated for Salute. I really wanted to jump in and buy a whole load, but common sense (and the missus) prevailed so I ended up buying one of their pre-releases: Lady Usher.

Finally, not a purchase but a rare sighting, the Heresy mega dragon does actually exist! And what a massive bulk of resin it is. I can see now why it has taken so long, the details are immense and those who have put advance orders in for this beast will not be disappointed.

I also paid a visit to the Freebooter stand (Werner Klocke) and picked up a few pieces, but sadly I forgot to take pictures of the crew who were fully decked out in Pirate regalia. Really friendly bunch, with some awesome figures, admittedly I am a little biased as I am a fan of Werner Klocke's sculpts and the free chocolate gold coins kept drawing me back again and again. I ended up buying some of his fairy sculpts and a succubus to add to my miscellaneous collection. Last but not least, I discovered the joy of JoeK Miniatures, I picked up their Limited Edition Elf Lord which is a stunning piece and a couple of resin display bases to play around with.

In a way it was a good thing that the 'major' brands had nothing to offer as it allowed me to indulge in figures I would not normally look at. It is always nice to go to event and grab something fresh, whether it is a game or miniature set, sometimes the best buys are the ones that are not required for your army list.

In my 3rd and final instalment of my Salute Report, I will unveil the my favourite purchase of the event and also share with readers details of what and where I got with Salute 2011's Painting Competition.

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

The 14th Legion

junior thesis part 3- Master Elodin and the Draccus

These are the final two characters for my Name of the Wind project.  The first is Master Elodin, the slightly off master at the "magic" school that the main character goes to while he is a teenager.  The second is the Draccus.  It is a creature in the book that isn't actually a dragon, but simply a lizard that happens to breathe blue fire.  The sacks on the side of its face contain the flammable liquid that it ignites.  The Draccus was my first attempt at a lizard creature.  It was fun :)

Wip: Kingdom Death: Saviour #1

After my disappointing Preacher Pin Up paint job, I decided to push myself today by starting another figure. Today I started the Kingdom Death Saviour miniature, another small female miniature loaded with detail.

I completely de-constructed the way I look miniature painting and more importantly painting flesh, having decided on reverting to a much older technique I used some 10 years ago and using Tamiya Fine Primer again. From the initial photos, I think the extra thought and changes to technique has paid off.

It sometimes feels like a giant circle of trial and error, trying to figure out what works and what does not, and also removing from my mindset the concept of army painting. This is also the first figure to be worked on with my new Vallejo Model Colour paint set, which I ordered this week, the old Vallejo Game Colour case has been donated to my partner for her painting projects.

To get to this stage was very time consuming requiring lots of mixes, and there was a whole load of mistakes and rectifications on the way. However I think the skin blending is pretty good this time round looking a lot more smooth unlike the Preacher miniature. 

It's looking pretty good so far and I am hoping to get her finished in record time (by tomorrow) before I go away for the week (work).

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

The 14th Legion

Paints used in this project were bought from:  Wayland Games - Discount Wargames

my first walk cycle

So I gave a silly walk cycle a try :) the top one is faster and the bottom one is slower and features a creepy rabbit.

  

Gallery: Preacher Pin-Up

Sometimes, persistence to see something through is the only answer. Right from the onset I struggled with this miniature with problems ranging from grainy paint right through to poor photography and lack of editing skills, but with all those issues behind me now I am happy to say: this figure is finished.

I nearly gave up on this figure on so many occasions but even if it is not my best work, it's another fully painted figure to chalk up for the year which gave me a steep learning curve. The head is magnetised and at some point I intend to paint the alternative head for completion's sake.

DiStudios

Wip: Preacher Pin-up Complete

Huzzah my Kingdom Death Preacher Pin-up figure is done! Despite all the hassle I have had painting this figure, I think it has been a good one to practice and develop my technique on, I re-learnt a lot of basic things about cleaning figures properly and paint thinning. But the most important thing is; it's  another fully painted figure to add to the collection for the year.

I aim to take proper photos tomorrow morning and should have this figure added to the gallery section as well. Time to hit the sack!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

The 14th Legion

Salute 2011 #1

Due to the amount of fun and pictures from Salute 2011, I have had to break down this report into three parts, I am aiming to get all three reports finished and up by the end of this week. 

This year's Salute looked like a busy affair right from the start and it seemed that a lot more people had opted for Advance tickets this year. I think a lot of this was down to the very generous Salute goody bag which not only had a American Civil War miniature sculpted by the Perry's but also KR Multicase's very generous give away (for the first 5000); the K-Lite. I have to admit the bag itself became very useful during the day for carrying my loot and saved on plastic carrier bags. The Imperial Legion was also well represented with around half a dozen Storm Troopers being led by Darth Vader patrolling the queues, I have to say that the presence of these guys made the queue waiting time a lot more fun.

While some companies did have limited and advance releases on the day, it seem a lot more subdued than the previous year, it was a shame to see that Privateer Press (represented by Cerebus) did not have any of the end of month releases or Khador War-engine with them despite the release date being a mere one week away, I suspect there is more to the story than I realise but compared to the Salutes of past (2003 I picked up a pair of Kodiak's before release) Privateer seemed to be holding back, the other major surprise was the lack of a Games Workshop stand. Forge World and Black Library were present but it seemed that GW pulled out of the event this year based on the number of discount sellers present. With two of the industry's big dogs having nothing to offer this year, this presented a fantastic opportunity for me to look at what the independent companies could bring to the table. 

The first port of call was McVey Studios, who were situated right by the painting competition area (more of that later). Ok truth be told, I am a big Mike McVey fan; having religiously followed his 'Eavy Metal guides and attempted to emulate his paint style as a child; and although I have had conversations with him before at previous Salutes and the many early Gamesdays, I realised that I had never had a photo with the painting master himself. 

Luckily for me, Mike is a really nice guy who loves to talk about mini's and didn't mind having a photo with some goofy looking guy with glasses aka me, now on to the miniatures. It seems that Mike's sci-fi brand "Sedition Wars" will grow into a skirmish war game (in the similar vein as Necromunda I hope) and he told me that beta rules would be available from the Sedition Wars site in the future, however despite the heavy focus on Sedition Wars I do not think this will result in the alienation of his limited resin range as the Blight Witch release proves. I ended up grabbing some Firebrand metal figures and of added two more resin figures to the collection.

Check out Studio McVey and Sedition Wars HERE

Last year I had a really bad time at the Forge World stand, I found myself in the position of being ignored by all three staff members, despite being at the front of the group and it was some 15 minutes  before a fellow gamer asked them if they were alienating me on purpose. Deciding not to risk that happening again this year I got a friend to grab me some the Forge World event figures. Later in the day however I popped over to the cabinets to get a good look at the Chaos Dwarfs, and I have to admit they are pretty nice up close.

The warriors look very similar to the old Chaos Dwarfs, literally Dwarfs in chaos armour and frankly I don't mind this, even if the rumours are true and these are in fact 'slave warriors' the mix of both the plate and big hat styles will make for a very nice and long awaited return of the evil stunties.

I am really looking forward to buying a Chaos Dwarf army in the future, I just hope the quality of casting is at least workable and consistent when casting up regiments of figures as opposed to individual miniatures.

A surprising lack of top company presence, but a successful show for the independent companies, Hasslefree, Heresy Miniatures and Crocodile games were also at the events, however I did not see Raging Heroes who make very nice Fantasy miniatures including their rendition of the Lamassu. 

Well that's it for part 1, In part 2 of my Salute report, I will cover the other stand out companies of the day and show the plethora of awesome figures that were brought to the show.

Click For Part 2

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

The 14th Legion

Site News: And were back!!

Salute 2011 has been and gone, year and what fun it was! I am in the process of re-settling into the office after a fun weekend away full of painted toy soldiers and games. This year was also the first time I entered the painting competition and I have to say I had a lot of fun.

There was (see photo above) some shopping on my behalf, but in my opinion a lot less major releases or advance releases across the board, however this did give me a great opportunity to explore miniature ranges outside the of the major brands (which I will go through in my proper Salute report).

I am hoping to post up the first of a two part special on Salute 2011 in the next couple of days before the Easter weekend hits, until then please be content with the photo above of some Storm Trooper abuse.

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

The 14th Legion

Funny Monkey Cartoon Pics, Monkey Funny Cartoon Pictures

Funny-Monkey-Face-Cartoon-pics

Cartoon Monkey Pictures

Cute Monkey Cartoons Cartoon monkey Pics


Funny Monkey Cartoon Picture

Funny Cartoon Monkey Pics

Cartoon Monkey Funny Pics

Cartoon Animals Picture Monkey

Cartoon Monkey

Funny Monkey Pictures, Baby Funny Monkey Images

Funny Baby Monkey Picture

Monkey Tribal Funny Monkey Picture

Funny Baby Monkey Image

Funny Monkey Images

Monkey Helmet Funny Picture

Monkey Tribal Funny Monkey Picture

Funny Monkey

Funny monkey pictures

Orinoco main character designs

These are my two main characters for my world i'm building in Advanced Concept Art!  The first is the village leader.  As penance for some great sin, he shackled himself with all encompassing bird manacles- that is why he isn't going to go save the world himself.  They are heavy and he cannot do anything with his hands.  The keys hang from the bottom, but he cannot unlock them because, well, his hands are useless. His bird friend takes care of small things for him.  The second is the heroine.  She is not a trained fighter, and at first is not a good fit for her role, but eventually she grows into the part.  This is a new way of finishing things, which was fun :)  

and those are the thumbnails I did before the finishes :)

Anima TV on air!

This Sunday (April 17), Trunk Train and Duck-ticks and Catapults, both carried out by AnimaTV program, will debut on TV Cultura and TV Brasil. This will be the first time ever that national television channels will air an animated series entirely created and produced in Brazil.

Anima Mundi closely followed the progress of this important project for the deployment of Brazilian animated series on national open television. Those who have attended the panel "Anima TV - an assessment" in Anima Forum 2010 may have heard producer Marta Machado, president of ABCA (Brazilian Association of Animated Cinema), recalling that AnimaTV project started to be planned in the 2008 Anima Forum. The director of Trunk Train, Zé Brandão, said the seed of the series was born when he was attending a masterclass of Anima Mundi.

Among the positive points raised by the participants of the discussion in Anima Forum, the stimulus to formation is one of the most important. Cristiana Oliveira, executive coordinator of AnimaTV, highlighted the great opportunity offered through workshops on the methodology of producing an animated series.

But today we really want to congratulate the producers of the debutting series, Copa Studio and Zoom Elefante. We wish success and continuity for this season and for the next ones!

Visit the blogs of Trunk Train (http://www.trombatrem.blogspot.com) and Duck-ticks and Catapults (http://www.tvbrasil.org.br/animatv/carrapatos-catapultas/index.php).

AnimaTV, First Program for Production and TV Broadcast of Brazilian Series, is a realization of the Audiovisual Secretary - SAV and the Department of Cultural Policy - SPC, the Ministry of Culture - MINC, Brazil Communications Company – TV Brasil, Padre Anchieta Founding - TV Cultura, the Brazilian Association of Educational and Cultural Public Broadcasters - ABEPEC, with the support of the Brazilian Association of Animation Film - ABCA.