ROUND 10 Tarzan and the Dubious Death Worm vs In the Clutches of the Beastmen

[Captain Blood]

OK! Plynkes has a bigger worm, but size isn't everything and I've had no complaints so far

If it's any consolation, nowadays I seem to spend my life getting my arse kicked by Tom Weiss in on-line painting competitions.

Yes I saw 
I was so rooting for your swashbucklers too...
No consolation I know, but he mangled me with his vikings last time out in the SDF quarters, or was it the semis...
Hey ho. What can you do. The man paints stripes like a good'un and takes a mean snap 
And now, back to the topic...

[Pil]

Both great entries and I'd love to see more of the beastmen, but in the end I'll have to echo Mancha's comments and I went for clear photography.

Plynkes> I like the gloomy look but maybe it would have been better to have the detail shots better lit. That said, my girlfriend wanted you to know that she  your worm (she loves Tremors and all movie versions of Dune)  (she made me do the smilies too).

[Grimm]

That was realy hard to me guys!


BTW Plynkes
where are the fantastic beastmen comming from ,wich company !


Grimm

[Plynkes]

RAFM, from their Space 1889 range. I don't know when RAFM started making them, or if they always did, but they were originally from the GDW game of the same name. The explorers are from the same range (and they match the characters from the "Temple of the Beastmen" boardgame perfectly).

[Hammers]

Again with the "so dark?" My eyes or monitor must be wonky. Don't seem all that dark to me, just the amount of dark I wanted. Oh well.   


Well, Bugsda will almost certainly win this one, and deservedly so, but I bet my worm would beat your worm in a fight! 

I get the 'to dark' to. Not that it mattered, I voted for originality this time.

[Vonkluge]

I love the figures, I have them too in various stages of paint.... and indeed Plynkes your entry is well laid out! I realy like the lighting you achieved in the back round and indeed many of our monitors are probably darker then yours. That aside I being a person who actualy makes his "Bread & Cheese" by lighting Movies and TV shows out in hollywood (I know why arent my entries better! no time...) some small pools of better light on the "players" would I think help accentuate and bring out the figures that are blending into the effect to much while still preserving the effect. This can be done as simply as tapeing a flashlight to a second tripod or chair. A cut out cup can be used as a "hood" on the flashlight to make it more "directional" any "WHITE" thin clothe or paper/plastic can also be used as a diffusion to help the harsh shadows.... Hope I'm not rubbing "salt" in the wound? I voted for you anyway...! NICE JOB! both OF YOU! 

[Raz]

Again two great entries guys! My compliments.

The background and the extra storytelling in the second entry gave it the edge.

[Plynkes]

Thanks for the tips, Vonkluge. But I've kind of got into my own style and don't really want to change it at the moment. All my LPL entries this time have been done using just ambient lighting, as a kind of experiment (the back lighting on this entry is the only artificial lighting used, it is from a light that happens to be mounted in that location. I only switched it on because of the cool ' creepy underground cavern' effect it created. The pics taken without it on actually are all much lighter, paradoxically, but also much less interesting visually). I don't own any fancy photographer's lights, and neither do I really have anything lying around the place I could use. Plus there just wasn't time to get into all that kind of thing. These were taken on Saturday night with the last of the light, the paint still drying on the figures and no time for varnish, it was pretty much all or nothing!

If you look at my "Ill met by Moonlight" entry that one was taken in an entirely dark room, but with a very long exposure (as the summer sunlight was doing strange things to the picture). For my money it turned out really well. My Abyssinian entry was taken with sunlight beaming directly on to the figures, and that one was a hit too. It really conveyed the heat of Africa well. This last entry I think is the only one which used any artificial light, all the others just used sunlight (which, after much experimenting I find yields me better shots than when I try to use artificial lighting). So you can see sometimes my approach hits, and sometimes it misses. But I'm enjoying using this technique for now, so I'm not going to move on to anything more complicated for the time being.

And to be brutally honest, Bugsda is a better painter than me, so even if I followed the advice of those who can't stop obsessing with the matter of my light levels I probably would have lost anyway. Only it would have been with an entry that I was less satisfied with. So it really doesn't make any difference. But again, thanks for the tips. It's always good to learn new things. This photography lark is quite fascinating when you get into it. I'm only just beginning really, and have learned so much already just in the last ten weeks experimenting with trying to get good shots. I have the LPL to thank for that, too.

[Vonkluge]

Sorry Plynkes,

I don't buy the

to be brutally honest, Bugsda is a better painter than me

plea! There are a lot of Great painters here and you are one of them, frankly everyone in this contest is pretty darn good! They just have different "styles" and "methods" that appeal to different people. Look at the dozen or so “great” painters (in the world), I like some of them but not others as much, not that their better or worse just a different style, sort of like I like Brunettes, you like Blonds, both pretty but different, and I still would have liked to have seen your entry with some “pools” of light ala the background area on the foreground minis! Sort of like shafts of light penetrating the depths! 

[Malebolgia]

Two great pink worms against each other! This should be every woman's dream . Cool presentation in both pictures. I love the grand melee and chaos in the first one. Bugsda's soft painting style works wonders on the miniatures. The Copplestones look great together.
Plynkes has used some strange and interesting miniatures together. It produces a very nice and original story which makes me want more. The Otherworld worm looks perfect in red. I hope our officer reaches the damsel in time!

[Bugsda]

Where is the dubious death worm from? I love it!

It's a Grenadier model Sinewgrab, I found out today.
 
It's actually a Puple Death Worm apparently.