Massive Voodoo Private Practice - Morgaine

Hey everybody!

Back from Germany after a great weekend at the Duke of Bavaria (you will find a review about this truely special event soon here on our blog) I'm full of impressions and nearly bursting with motivation :) It fits perfectly that some of our Pumpkin-Crew arranged a private practice session with Roman and Raffa from Massive Voodoo directly after the Duke :) It was really a great experience and I'd like to thank you guys for these wonderful days!

Our private session started on Tuesday morning with our arrival at Roman's and Raffa's studio. Each of us took various projects with us and at this time we were still undecided which one would be our choice for the session. Finally I chose "Luz, New York" by Nocturna Models.

A quick shot of the primed mini:

I got it as a Christmas present from my parents and I was quite nervous about painting this figure because I really love the promotion paintjob. It has a strong athmosphere and fits the sculpt perfectly. I hoped that with Roman and Raffa backing me during most of the painting process I would manage to reach my personal high goals for this mini.

First, some quick words about the choice of color: I thought of a moonlight scene, so my colors are mainly cold and blue. As a contrast some parts will be painted in red, but also quite cold. At least that's the plan :)

Before we started painting each of us set our personal goals for the following days. Mine were to paint more precise, to learn how to organize the painting process and my special focus were on painting light and painting metal (this really is one of my weak spots).

The goal for the first day was to decide which color to use where and to apply the basic layer to the mini. We startet right of with our airbrushes and it was an important lesson for me where and when to use this painting instrument.

As you can see there where the first lights and shadows. Also the overall lightning of the miniature was created.

After long hours of painting and lots of explanations of our two coaches, at the end of day 1 the miniature looked like this:

I really have to admit, that the colors I used are a great deal darker and especially more desaturated than the ones I usually use and like. Especially the color of the face made me unhappy because at this stage it looked like a dead zombie to me. And this was not what I had in mind! But I stayed with the color scheme because I wanted to try and see where Roman's and Raffa's tips would lead me to. And I didn't regret it :) As promised the face (and of course the rest!) changed a lot and in the end I was really happy with it!

After day 1 at 2 in the morning

At the end of the session

On the second day we all needed time to wake up as the first evening was quite long and exhausting. After a coffee or two (or three, or...) the real fun began as we startet to bring more light and shadows, more variety and more highlighting to our minis. During the next hours I learned a lot about finding the right spot for the light and the corresponding shadow. I can't say I do it perfectly now but I think I understand the basic idea behind it.

Another important point for me was what we learned about the so called "last 10%" which make the difference between a good miniature and a stunning miniature. It's all about details and patience :) We only did a few small areas because of the time, but we could see where a bit more effort and a bit more time could possibly take us.

Current state after two days

So what's next? I want to finish all the remaining parts of the miniature and try to apply the "finishing tips" without the help of Roman and Raffa to the rest of the miniature. Also we worked out a great idea for the base (because the moonlight-idea needs a base to become apparent) and I'd like to finish the project with it.


And of course I'd like to test my newly acquired knowledge to other miniatures! I'm especially curious how it will work out on gaming miniatures and maybe a brighter color scheme :)


Last but not least I really want to thank Raffa and Roman for the great session! They really tried to help us as best as they could to reach our goals and to improve our painting skills. Thank you also for the warm and welcoming athmosphere during the whole session. I really took a lot of motivation for my next projects with me!

So stay tuned for the progress of this project :)
Morgaine