Stresa - World Model Expo 2014 (What an event!!!)

Hello Everyone! Long time no see!
I am finally back from some days of relaxing holidays in the amazing Lago Maggiore in Italy.

I spent there an incredible weekend (11th, 12th, 13th of July) attending the World Model Expo, and stayed there for three days more to enjoy some well deserved relaxing holidays.

Probably all of you already know but it is fair to mention that the World Expo is an event held once every three years in different cities around the world, where the best, finest,  renowned brushes around worldwide fight for the Best of Show in an environment full of friendship, partnership and good mood (and food).

The contest itself is based on an open format competition, meaning that you present a display of models based on a specific style (Fantasy, Historical, Boats, Dioramas, Aircrafts, etc...) and such display is judged as a whole. This kind of format is much different than the one in other competitions (like the Golden Demon) because there is not one gold, one silver and one bronze per category, but several depending on some scoring established by the judges.
And this huge amount of medals makes the prizing ceremony to last an eternity (2,5 hours!).

Apart from the contest there has been also a commercial area where the most important manufacturers and distributors could sell their models, magazines, bases and any other hobby related stuff (in some cases with very interesting discounts).

The event itself was great (not perfect but great).
The location was perfect (yes, that was perfect): Stresa. An amazing town in the shore of the Lago Maggiore full of great people, great food and not so great weather :-)

I arrived on Saturday morning and had no issue at all in delivering my models (although I was told that some hours before some people had to wait for almost one hour to present). I was bringing two displays: Fantasy Master Open and Fantasy Master Painting. And for both of them the organization had reserved a space with my inscription number (well, for me and for every participant).

In case you would like to know what I presented here you have the P&P links:

Brother Bellanus (2005)

The Hunt (2006)

“Un Lungo Viaggio” (2006)

Ulrik (2007)

TYRANIDS! (2007)

“Wot’z your Pozition?!!!” (2009)

The Hunting (2013)

Logan Grimnar V.2.0 (2013)

Orc Head (2014)

The Aftermath (2014) - (Some pictures soon)

After I presented it was time to spend some money, to take a look at the figures in the contest (around 5.000 from 1.000 artists) and catch up with the friends.
And all of a sudden it was Saturday night... Time to watch the World Cup Final... And Germany won...

On Sunday you could feel the tension in the air, and you could hear all the bets and rumors about the medals and the Best of Show. But of course all of them were just rumors and the judges were instructed to keep their mouth shut. And they did!

4pm arrived fast and the trophies ceremony started in the auditorium of the venue. It was full of people, sitting and standing. And that, combined to the huge amount of categories and medals (both too many in my opinion, up to the point to run out of medals...) made the temperature to start increasing more and more, minute after minute...

Most of my friends in the event won medals and I would like to congratulate all of them: Felicidades chicos!!!
I am not going to say the names because for sure I will miss someone and will be mad at me forever :-)

And what about the BOS?
The BOS was for Kostas Kariotellis with a piece called "From Atlantis": a semi-mechanical winged centaur that quite probably has a story and background behind (as every piece from this Greek artist) but I did not get it yet...I will have ton investigate. I was not able to take a close look at it during during the event and unfortunately the pictures of the organization are not very good. For this reason I don't think I can build my opinion yet about such piece.
Whoever what I can say is that I am very proud of what the Fantasy has done in these last 10 years, from the moment it became one part of these kind of painting competitions until now when a Fantasy model has achieved the Best of Show in a World Expo.

And what about me?
I won two silvers medals with my two displays and I could not be happier (well, actually I could but I am very happy anyway :-) ).

In summary, a great weekend with friends enjoying a very well prepared event in a marvelous town where I would like to retire someday :-)

I hope in three years we can repeat this experience again. Where? To be defined yet...

"La Historia del Spanish Team"
Un fantástico programa desarrollado por nuestros grandísimos amigos de Laserburn donde 9 de los 14 componentes damos una visión de la historia del ST:
Los inicios, los viajes, el foro, las experiencias, los grandes momentos y un largo etcétera...

Realmente imperdible y altamente recomendable.
Un pedazo de historia de la pintura de fantasía de nuestro país y del mundo.

http://laserburn.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/una-ayuda-para-escuchar-la-historia-del.html

(Sorry guys, the podcast is in Spanish.
It is a special program about the history of the Spanish Team told by 9 of the 14 members.
Missing the good old times!)

Orc Head finished

Hello amigos,
I have had this orc head in my drawer for almost 10 years and finally I found some time to use my brushes with it.
It is a 3up model that someone gave me many years ago back when I was working for GW (basically it is 3 times bigger than a normal 32mm GW orc head).



75% of the work has been done with airbrush and I have to say I really enjoyed painting every single part of it.
It is a pity that GW does not sell this kind of stuff with this scale... right?

I hope you like it!
And if you want, you can follow the whole step by step painting process in my FB Page or in the WIP Album.

Orc Face SbS Process

Hello everyone!
Yesterday I uploaded in my Facebook Page the following Step by Step and I have to say that it had a huge acceptance and success (in fact I received 150 likes in the next 12 hours!). I am really surprised and I can only say THANK YOU!

So I have decided to prepare a small article about such process.

The figure itself is a 3up model of an old GW orc head.
When sculpting miniatures that will be released in plastic, the GW sculptors model them in a scale three times bigger than normal (in order to ensure that there will not be any deep and curved areas, avoiding the steel mould to break the plastic mini in the creation process). This pieces are not released or put for sale.

Several years ago (when I worked for GW) someone gave me this piece as a present as it was a bit faulty (a huge air bubble in the helmet -surprise!-). And last month I discovered it in my bit box and I decided that I wanted to paint it.
It was a perfect opportunity to use the airbrush in something different than clothes.

I wanted to create a realistic orc face full of contrast so I decided to prime the model with the complementary of the green yellowy color of the orcs: magenta.

Below you can find all the steps used:
Step 1: First I airbrushed the model with Warlock Purple (Citadel). Yes, Warlock Purple... 
Step 2: On top of the purple primer I airbrushed a thin layer of Burnt Cadmium Red (Vallejo) + Catachan Green (C) + Dark Blue Sea (V). To mark the shades.
Step 3: To define the base color I airbrushed again with Catachan Green (C).
Step 4 (The most complex Step):

• 4a: To define the highlights I applied (with the airbrush) a thin layer of Zamesi Desert (C) + Catachan Green (C), and afterwards I added a bit of Light Flesh (V) to the mix.
• 4b: Still with the airbrush I applied two kind of midtones: one with Snakebite Leather (C) to bring color and life to the face, and another one with Red Gore (C) in the lips, nose and around the eyes to define such areas. In both cases the paint was extremely diluted to deliver a glazing effect.

Step 5: Here I started with the brush strokes (finally) defining some areas with the same colors mentioned above, and accentuating the contrast between shades and highlights
Step 6: Final touches adding some gloss and satin varnish and painting the teeth. 

I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed painting it.
Very soon I will start painting the helmet and I'll prepare another tutorial.

Many thanks!

Curso de Pintura (22 y 23 de Febrero / Madrid) / Painting course (22nd & 23th of February / Madrid)

Después de 6 años sin tocar el mundo de la formación, he decidido lanzarme a la aventura y (con la ayuda de la gente de Fantastic Courses) preparar un curso de pintura que se llevará a cabo el fin de semana del 22 y 23 de Febrero de 2014 en Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).

El curso se publicitó ayer por la mañana y me enorgullece decir que en menos de 24 horas las 10 plazas se han llenado (y ya hay lista de espera para un segundo).
Espero estar a la altura de las expectativas :-)

De todos modos ya sabéis que si estáis interesados y esta vez no habéis podido llegar a tiempo a apuntaros, siempre habrá más oportunidades en un futuro no muy lejano (prometo no esperar otros 6 años) :-)
Muchas gracias!

After more than 6 year without delivering an education session, I have decided to embrace the adventure (with the support of the Fantastic Courses Team) of preparing a painting course in Madrid the 22nd and 23rd of February 2014 in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).

The course got published yesterday morning and in less that 24 hours the 10 vacancies were booked (and there is already a waiting list for a possible second one).
I expect to cover the expectations :-)

Anyway, in case you are interested and this time you did not have the chance to sign up, there will be more opportunities in a not very far future (I promise not to wait another 6 years):-)

Many thanks!