Review: The Art of Brom

This evening, after a long break, I will review the book "The Art of Brom" by Brome ed. Flesk Publications.
The book comes from a successfully founded project on Kickstarter, ending on October 2012.
Unfortunately, I have come to know of the existence of this project long after the termination of the campaign, so I started hitting Amazon and Bookdepository to see a release date for the normal customers.
Well, the book finally arrived and I started pouring in quite a few hours in admiring the pieces and cursing to how much Brom is good (seriously, He made some pact with some Entity...eh eh).

This is the cover of the book. It's hardcover and 208 pages long. The quality is absurd for its price. Flesk Publications really did an outstanding job: the paper (glossy and medium grammature) and the colors are incredible. I can assure you that it's giclee (the real expensive ones) quality!

The book is divided in various chapter of different lenghts.
There is a nice introduction by Arnie Fenner and then a lenghty biography of Mr Brom himself with nice pictures of his first masterpieces ;)

Then the real treat starts: hundreds of paintings from the most famous to the less known (well many of them I didn't know existed, so sue me!). There are various sections with a different number of pages.

And then there are the sections about his illustrated novels (Brom also writes and he illustrates his own books).

At the end of the book there is the entire list of the Kickstarter backers (around 2000).

Obviously you should thank this guy for his many years of incredible creativity and uncountable nightmares (I was 13 when I first saw Dark Sun and its creatures).

And to remind you what you are missing (go buy the book!) here's one of my favourite piece EVER!!!

All rights of the original images belongs to Brom and Flesk Publications.

Andrea "Kraan" Buratta

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Review: Gurka Le Rouge by Leben Models Miniatures

Hello Guys.

Today a little packet of Leben Model Miniature is leaning on my desk.
It comes in an elegant rigid box, in gray and black colour.

We're going to open it.
Here there are just two good cards, with the printings of two pieces produced by the company, masterfully painted by Benoit Menard.

On the back of the Troll des Caverns cardboard, we find a small sentence of thanks handwritten (simple but always apreciated), while on one of the pirate we find the batch number of the cast in limited edition of 200 pcs.

So, as you'll see the model is the pirate orc Gurka le Rouge, sculpted by Allan Carrasco, and that reminds us a bit his previous work Einstein, sold by Figone.
The boxart is one of the most interesting works of 2013, remembering also that it won the Best of Show in Painting Crusade X 2013.

Just to give some information, which you can find at the site
The bust is made in resin, it's divided in 5 pieces, and once mounted it's 105cm high( hat included).
SO HUGE!!!!

Inside the box, there are 3 bags in polybag,
one with the hat
one with the face, with the brooch and pendant
and the last with the bust.

The hat, a tricorne hat, got in the front the recognizable symbol of the skull orc, and a cute crab at the right side.
It has some fine mold lines, near the upper edge, but easily removed with a cutter.
Big area of this kind allows us to be not precise with the cleaning, since they are intended to give a very worn effect.
The lower part of the hat, is perfectly modeled on the basis of the head, so as to joint each other without any problem.

Turning to face of Gurka,
The orc remind us the work of Paul Bonner, as a bit of all ogres and orcs by Carrasco, simian face, with very pronounced lower lip, large ears and big teeth sticking out.
The eyebrow tension gives him a frown catchy and so aggressive.
Other details, which are not noticed right away, but that characterize the orc are broad scar on the chin and the fishing hook on the lip like a piercing.
The head also has the interlocking already shaped on the neck, to facilitate even more the work of the modeller.

We find some mold lines, not very evident, but really important to clean, if not we could have a problem during painting operations.

And taking the bust..
When I saw the bust, I said to myself, "OH..COOOOL!!!The orc version of Captain Hook of Peter Pan!"
Also here, Details and Composition, starting from the neck scarf, belts and buckles, that give us the opportunity to paint the model with a myriad of solutions and colors.
In addition, the size of the folds of the scarf also allow us to dare with some freehand..painting a floral theme or a cute pirate theme. The choice is yours.

I did not find mold lines or problems due to casting on the bust.
The only job will be to clean the joint place for the head and mount the bracket or the pin for the plinth.

The last two small details are the brooch Maia or Aztec style tthat will be placed on the right lapel of the jacket and the pendant that will be placed under the ring on the left lapel.

And so I arm myself with BlueTac for dry mounting operation of the model.
As you can see it's really fast and simple.

I highly recommend this model and those who have already painted the Einstein bust by Figone, will understand immediately why.
Large surfaces on which to play with colors, shades, special effects and Free Hands.
Congratulations to the duo Leben / Carrasco for this work.

And I take this opportunity just to let you know that in the Leben shop a few weeks ago it's arrived the new work of Benoit, "Knightmare", another piece really interesting, and something is cooking on the table by Allan Carrasco, but I refer you to the blog for more information.

Stay Tuned

Cesare "Trevis_11" Trevisiol

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Tour Demoniaque

Hi Guys

Here is one of my last commissions.

The legendary Tour Demoniaque of Mid-nor of the now disappeared Rackham.

This time my inspiration for the scene was taken from one of the 2D works of Bjorn Hurri

and below the work that made me opt for the idea of a field of grass in my scene.

I wanted to make, as much as possible, the effect of the changing, by green and pure grass and to slimy and died of Mid Nor,

If you are interested, I bought the grass from the stand by Marco Gravina, Maloma Games.

The more fine and thin I have ever found in the market, and that is perfectly suited to 28mm scale.

And now, on with the pics!

And here a bit of close up pics

And just a few pictures during the wip,

And here you can also see the procedure I used to put the grass

Be careful to proceed a little bit at a time, so as to cover with grass as well the desired part, to avoid to leave hole that will be difficult to cover without leaving the classic stain plasticky due to the glue

To be sure, try it first on an other surface, to understand well the drying time..

Let's start marking the outline of our figure on the base, just to have a reference.

Although the cool thing of the grass is that, even if a bit of grass goes on the designated place of the model, once attack our model at the base of the grass will be bended giving a dynamic and realistic trampled grass effect.

We put a bit of vynil glue, directly from the bottle at the point where we want to put the grass.

As I wrote before do little part a time

Now with an old brush dipped in water, stretch and diluite the glue a bit (this part allows us to clean and fix minor niggles also.)

Let's take a tuft of grass, taking care to smooth fine hair in one direction and to homogenize the side that will glue to the base.

Support the tuft ,about 45degrees tilt on the ground, so that the glue will absorb a little tuft of grass to.

We wait for the glue take a bit of grip on the grass (not dry..I recommend!)

It just need a few minutes

It was almost 5 in the morning, but it doesn't matter

And now with your finger make a slight pressure on the tuft and bring to 90 degrees tilt on the ground.

A few touches and pushes here and there to play on the grass tuft dynamism and voilà your little corner is ready..

Let dry and move on to the next part to be filled.

Just to wrap up, although I have no photos ..

Let everything dry at least a day, and then use the hair dryer directly on the grass, in order to pull off the stems are stuck badly.

Attention then, to paint the whole grass, DON'T GIVE the primer, and if you can use the airbrush.

With primer you will risk to paste the stems of grass between them, ruining all the work done.

And after the short guide, here are the links to Cmon for those who want support me by voting and commenting.

Thank you very much in advance!

General Pics and Close-Up Pics

Cheers

Cesare "Trevis_11" Trevisiol

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