mike rockhouse

Challenge challenge challenge Of course a diorama for a challenge and again one of Romans. The keywords were “colossal” and “critters”. Find ideas It took time to find ideas, mainly around different scales but I forgott most of them. I bought some random H10 model train figures which have quite some potential and one idea is left on the list of possible future projects.

 From Exercise to ... Redo Back in 2024 I was at Roman Lappats studio for a workshop about skintones. I bought this beauty from his flea market and shortly after the workshop I planned to paint her as a further skin tone exercise. Cabaret dancer from Scale75 Historix range.

A Squid and free shipping Gribor was a - save shopping cost - piece when I first bought something at Big child creative - link - As I love everything related to water, the sea, fishes… it was an obvious choice. Now the project started in 2022 and was finished 3 years later. You’ll notice the varying quality and colour temperatures of the photos. I used automatic white balance that time and so the images are sometimes cooler or warmer on the early sessions.

Buy and paint - as easy as that Connor was bought at the bembel miniature cup 2026 from Hbs print to play. The mini is from Ivan Mata and I love his super hard badass army guy look. Fortunately Stephan had one at the both cause I approached while he was already packing his stuff. Buy unpack paint Most of my bought minis have to age like fine wine, but not Connor. There was a challenge on Roman Lappats Patreon to paint something with light from below, and even another general painting challenge on a new discovered community The baselair . Since that buddy had such a character face I assumed a light from below could work to emphasize that. But first, well I have the diorama builder heart inside me, I had the feeling to create a light source on the plinth. Green light was my colour of choice and that can't be a natural source - maybe a kind of an alien crater: Let's see, the bust isn't glued and it can be decided after painting if that is a cool idea or nons...

A few colors and a lot of mood Without further ado: the primed version Backdrop painting I painted the backdrop first. It fills a lot of space with color and creates a certain mood. Since I’m not a canvas artist, I can't really foresee what the outcome will be - or even implement a plan. So I have to live with the unexpected. The whole backdrop was a fast session of an hour, at most one and a half. I took some online references of painted forests and stippled colors on the plastic card with a big brush. “Stippled” in the sense that the colors appear as leaves. The colours are a wild mixture of yellow, green, blue and red. I could have slipped the green and mix it with the others, but I needed a lot of green and in such cases I try to save time. Beside the stippling I made some brown stripes for the trees and branches. I think the most important part is the color transition. The dark blue on the ground and center and the brigh...

Motivation and it’s trigger This project dragged me out of a motivation low. I can't really tell why, but I hadn’t really had a drive for miniature painting in spring 2026. Video games, music or doom scrolling were all more important in the evening hours. Going through my posts you might have noticed that challenges are my thing. A task with some limitation and clear timeframe. And that's exactly what you get at Roman Lappats Patreon He posts regular art improvement challenges with a very specific topic. This time: A still life with a statue. I immediately had a fountain in my mind, because on a trip through the German city Koblenz - where I earn my living - I saw beautiful fountains. A thing where the city is somehow proud of. Find the right mini Now what miniature would match a fountain? Often these fountains present arbitrary people or at most 18th century military. No barbarians, aliens or scifi soldiers which m...