Coconut!

Been a while since last time I made a post in my blog, and frankly there ain't much to show in this post either... I did recieve the strangest of strange items one can get through regular mail yesterday, however, and I thought I'd share it with you.

In a couple of my previous posts, I've been promoting a painting competition under the name "Show Some Balls", run by Massive Voodoo, and the 18 entries can be seen here - for anyone interested. As earlier announced, I made an entry, sort of a rushed thingy one of the last days before the competition closed. At first I really didn't know what to make, but as Massive Voodoo got this jungle-theme, and all the artists got an ape-alias, I figured I'd paint some apes.
Not very original, but served as some nice freehand-practice. Either way, some of the contestants put a lot more into it than I did, and as such I'm happy that my entry didn't place among the winners. But by chance, my entry-number was randomly chosen for a small "surprise gift", which was to contain "... a Coconut, fresh from the Jungle and some PK-Pro Bases."

Now, as the site got this jungle-theme, and everything there is counted in bananas and the like, I didn't believe they were actually going to send me a coconut, but they did!
It really made my day to open the package and find a real coconut in there - along with some nice bases from PK-Pro and some German candy - it's like the slogan says: "Haribo macht Kinder froh - und Erwachsene ebenso!"
Now, all I have to do, is to decide on how to consume the 'nut; just take it as it is, or maybe something more fancy... Any suggestions?

Well, enough of balls, competitions and coconuts - what's the status of my current projects? And what happened to that green stuff tutorial I promised to write? Has there been any progress on those cloaks I was going to make out of plastic card?

Sadly, in short I have done very little: I made some attempts at the cloaks, but quickly gave up, and demotivated I have put the Chaos Warriors on ice for the time being. I've lacked the time or energy to do much hobby-related, barely touched a paintbrush since I finished my entry for the Show Some Balls-competition. Now that the Easter-holiday's arrived, I might get something done, but it really depends on my mood and if I got the inspiration to do anything. And a green stuff-article will simply have to wait 'til next time I start working on a project involving sculpting.

Speaking of sculpting, though... For anyone interested in sculpting and working with green stuff, I'd like to direct you over to a blog serving as a resource-archive, or theme-hub if you like, on the matter, simply called Green Stuff Sculpting. It looks like it's filling up nicely with links to various articles on how to sculpt or examples of great conversions or full sculpts made with green stuff, as well as tutorials - so check it out if you're interested in that kind of stuff!

Progress?

Not much to tell, not started painting nothing yet, still busy working on my Warriors - four of them are currently in progress, including the one I showed a picture of in my last post. At the moment I'm having some issues with how I'm to sculpt the cloaks - as I've changed their feet and general posture, the original cloaks had to go - not a big loss, considering their worn and torn appearance... Any true follower of Slaanesh, would think twice before donning anything but the finest clothing!

Anyways, I'm finding that greenstuff easily gets too bulky and thick for the cloaks, as I want them flowing out behind the Warriors as they charge forward, so I went through many of Copenhagen's hobby stores, in search of an alternative. In the end, I was lucky enough to find me some sheathes of plastic card - on sale no less - a mere two danish Kroner pr A4-sized sheath (that's roughly €0,25 or $0,35)!

Now, why would I want plastic card? Well, I did recall seeing a tutorial some time ago of how one could heat plasticcard to make rather convincing banners, and so I thought to myself, that cloaks and banners should be about the same thing. The author of the tutorial is doing something which I'm not a fan of, namely warming plastic over an open flame - that's got to produce some nasty fumes! So instead, I've opted to use boiling water, which seems to do the trick - although I havn't had the time to find any good technique yet, but if (hopefully when) I get the hang of it, I'll make sure it gets posted here in detail! I'll do some testing the coming days, and we'll simply have to see.

In addition to the plastic card, I got myself some yellow-grey milliput - and frankly I understand why it's so much cheaper than GWs greenstuff. It might just be me who's using it wrong, but to me it is a lot more sticky, acts differently in contact with water, and doesn't seem suitable for detailwork. It's too grainy and seems to rupture if treated too hard. That being said, I think it can serve its purpose at larger and more rougher things, eventually at bases. I do not recommend it for small detail-work, however - at least, greenstuff is much more to my liking. I've placed an order for some brownstuff and some procreate, and when they arrive we'll see how they fare in my eyes!

Owh, but look here! I have found some use for the milliput:
A slightly irregularily shaped ball!
This (when painted) will be my entry in Massive Voodoo's competition: "Show Some Balls!", with a final deadline on the 10th of march - so hurry and sculpt your own ball or eventually make a pair, there's still time to join! I have yet to decide on what I'll paint onto it, but I do have some ideas...