THE ART OF... Volumes 1-3

An early introduction to the world of toy soldiers (and a new Stretch Goal revealed)
almost 3 years ago – Sat, May 08, 2021 at 10:04:17 PM

I first met Aaron Lovejoy in the mid-2000's, at a Games Day event in LA. He was participating in his first Golden Demon competitions, while I was running them. I've had the opportunity to cross paths with Aaron a lot since then, and am very happy to be working with him on this project. Here's an "origin story" from Aaron:

My name is Aaron Lovejoy. I am from San Diego, California, but currently living in Augusta,Georgia with my beautiful girlfriend Liz Hunt. I have two awesome children, Taylor and Jordan, and a sweet GoldenChi, Marley. I got into this wonderful miniatures hobby about 22 years ago. I’m not sure where all the years went but I guess that’s what happens when you're having fun!

Before diving into this hobby, I was playing with toy soldiers and building model kits with my dad. While my passions shifted to skateboarding in my teenage years, my love for little toy soldiers came back quickly in 1999 when I discovered Warhammer 40k and developed an unhealthy obsession with Space Marines. San Diego had a great gaming community that loved to hobby as well, so I had a lot of inspiration in those early years. I remember fondly looking at Bob Felix’s armies on display at Game Empire. There were a couple of really influential GW Outriders - John Macomber and Chris Cailor - who held monthly gaming tournaments and painting competitions. Those guys made the hobby fun and kept me interested. I was never really good at playing the games, but I did find that I had a bit of a talent when it came to painting and converting models. Tutorials weren’t available as widely as they are today, so I learned by trial and error mostly. I practiced day in and day out and finally in 2007, I won my first Golden Demon award and taught my first class at ReaperCon. In 2009, I got my first Best in Show award with a ForgeWorld Best in Show and also started commission painting full time. In 2011, I got the opportunity of a lifetime to paint for George R.R. Martin. George loves painted miniatures and has a huge collection from painters from around the world which now includes many pieces painted by me.

It was never my intention to become a teacher, but I think one of the most gratifying things over the years has been sharing my love and passion for our hobby. Over the years I have had the privilege to teach thousands of students at Adepticon, ReaperCon, GenCon, Las Vegas Open, KingdomCon, and many other conventions. In 2017, I started Miniature Monthly with the help of my awesome business partners Elizabeth Beckley and Jonathan Phillips-Bradford, with the fantastic Matt DiPietro joining us shortly after. We make painting tutorials on pretty much every subject you can think of. In 2020, I helped develop one of the best airbrushes (in my humble opinion) on the market, the Reaper Vex, as well as developing and teaching several highly successful online painting courses with my sweetie, Liz Hunt.

It’s been a crazy 22 years and I wouldn’t change a thing. I have met so many awesome people and seen so many awesome miniatures. Here is to another 22 years (at least)!

We have also reached the Stretch Goal where we unlock a set of art cards from Ana Polanscak as an Add-On for $7. Each photo the Ana takes of her miniatures is a piece of art in its own right, so these will be welcome in the collection of any miniatures art enthusiast!

New Stretch Goal

Not only is Elizabeth Beckley an accomplished miniatures artist and teacher, she also runs Panda Cult Games with her husband, Jonathan. Our latest Stretch Goal reveal will be a PDF tutorial from Elizabeth on how she paints Object Source Lighting (OSL), using the Plague Knight from Panda Cult Games' Shovel Knight board game. 

Please continue to share this campaign with your friends and local gaming groups. We're very excited to see how far we can go! Thank you all for your support!

Cheers

Dave

Family and Friends
almost 3 years ago – Fri, May 07, 2021 at 12:03:17 AM

Tonight we're going to get to read an "origin story" from Miniature Monthly team member Elizabeth Beckley.  Elizabeth has always had an interest in passion for crafting and tiny things so it is fun to hear where it all started.

Family and Friends 

I’ve always loved miniaturized versions of everyday objects and it’s no surprise that growing up as a kid in the Nineties, that was never in short supply. From MicroMachines to Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shop, my inspiration was essentially in the name of the toys I was playing with. That, blended with a family that was more than happy to take a small child to art museums and encourage her creation of art and developing imagination, would pave the way for my love of miniature painting.

I have very fond memories of a couple of my family members in particular who had an influence on my professional miniatures painting career today. 

My grandmother is the first who comes to mind. She was the artist in the family, and a working one at that. She had an art degree and was a partner at a successful media and graphics firm. My grandmother set the example for me to pursue an art education in college. She also showed me the beauty in being surrounded by what you love. Our house had framed drawings and paintings that have become cherished family heirlooms for me as an adult.

The second family member (my uncle) introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons or, more importantly, the miniatures sitting on his gaming book shelves that just happened to be within reach of a small child. Picture the quiet, dusty lip of a shelf holding several small pewter monsters – a unicorn, a jinn, and a little sarcophagus with a lid that came off to reveal a mummy wrapped in all its moldy glory. For a child, it was like finding buried treasure, a dragon's hoard one could gaze upon with awe and wonder. I always held the miniatures with such reverence, being careful not to drop or break them. 

Little did I know as a child that the mythical creatures I held in my hand would launch my career.

Many of us can remember clearly, or trace things back to, the moment we were hooked by painted miniatures, and I never tire of hearing the variety of ways and the depth of passion people have. 

Stretch Goals!

I'm also pleased to announce we have passed our NINTH Stretch Goal! We have now added Aaron Lovejoy's tutorial on diorama building to the list of FREE tutorials we're able to give to our supporters. I'm excited to see what else we can add to these PDFs as the campaign progresses. 

Our new Stretch Goal that I can now announce is another Quality Upgrade. When we reach that level, we'll be able to upgrade all the books to feature silver foil lettering on the covers. I love the idea of adding some extra flair to the covers and this will be a fun way to do that. The image above is, of course, a Photoshop mockup, but the one below give you a better idea of of how it could look once printed. 

Once again, we thank you all for your support, and we look forward to where you'll take us next :) 

Cheers

Dave

Integral ribbon bookmarks for ALL!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 05, 2021 at 08:28:26 AM

What a great thing to wake up to! 

You wonderful people have unlocked another Stretch Goal, and now all three hardback books will include an integral ribbon bookmark to help you keep track of your place in the books, or locate a particular piece of inspiration! 

Next Stretch Goals

And now we continue our march, with our next two goals in sight. When we reach $55,000 we'll unlock a new PDF tutorial from Aaron Lovejoy that will cover how he built the diorama backdrop to his piece "No Hope" – see the planning, materials, and tools that went into this dynamic piece. This PDF will be FREE to everyone pledging $20 or above. Beyond that we can also see the set of 6 art cards from Ana Polanšćak, half a dozen images that will capture the essence of her dark world-building style. These cards will be unlocked as Add-Ons for $7.

Thank you to everyone who continues to share the campaign with their friends and local hobby and gaming groups. There's just no way we can reach everyone who might be interested in these books without your help. 

Cheers

Dave

Introducing... Christof Keil (plus a new Stretch Goal)
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 03, 2021 at 07:31:24 PM

This week we begin our introduction of the five wonderful artists joining us on this journey. I have asked them all to write up a bit of an "origin story" that we can present to you, the intrigued public. The first of these is from kitbasher extraordinaire Christof Keil (pronounced like Kyle) of Germany. 

"I came into contact with the hobby around 1998.

A new guy at school had brought a few White Dwarf magazines and explained how one would roll dice and play a strategy game with miniatures. We were already into scale models and 1:72 plastic soldiers so dived right in. The 3rd Edition Warhammer 40.000 Starter box was my first boxed game and I can still  remember the smell of the sprues and the Rulebook (I still have that rulebook around somewhere).

Dark Angels were always my favourite Space Marine chapter. This might have to do with the fact that some old Epic 40k Boxart was on the first book I read from Black Library. It was called “Space Marine” and was about the indoctrination of three Necromundan teens into the Imperial fists. The German translation was terrible, talking about bolthrowers and the Emperor in his golden wheelchair.

Luckily “The Inquisition War” cemented my interest in the grimdark 41st Millenium and should be a source of inspiration again and again. My collection of Dark Angels grew over the years and we played through a few editions of the game until other things became more interesting, friends were leaving and I thought I would need my money for other things. I sold almost my whole collection on eBay, when it was still new and no one was buying Warhammer on this platform. Needless to say that I did not get much for 5,000 points of plastic miniatures and I hope that one lucky guy still holds them dear, OR has given them away for cheap too!

However, a few years later I started collecting Space Marines again when I began earning my own money. While customizing my miniatures was always a thing, it took a few years until I dived deeper into kitbashing and conversions.

It was not until I discovered the inq28 community on facebook that “the real” kitbashing started.

I had converted a few flagellants into gun servitors before, yes, but that was it. A few Imperial guardsmen, yes. Reposing of Catachans mostly and of course Ork-Guns as they were big and easy to convert.

I had a short-timed look into the Inquisitor 54mm game when it was released but had almost forgotten about that. The inq28 movement brought all of that back. It would turn out that this game, or specifically the Rulebook, has left quite the mark on me.

I made my debut with the ‘Skitarii Chieftain” in the Inquisitorium Facebook group, where all sorts of people were kitbashing miniatures for the grimdark setting of Warhammer 40K. All was about the “rule of cool” and “story is king”. No one looked at the codexes too hard and people built amazing miniatures, combining kits and pieces that were never intended to be combined.

I spent many hours there taking and giving inspiration in full measures.

I built a few warbands and presented them there but never played a game. I did not look at the rules too much but had enough experience with regular Warhammer games that I had a red line to follow, mostly inspired by Imperial Army and Codex entries like “Steiner's Last Chancers” (the German translation of Schaefer's Last Chancers). To have so many like-minded and talented people in one place certainly helped with evolving and boosting my skills. At some point I switched to Instagram, while maintaining a regular appearance at the Inquisitorium. Over time these appearances were less regular and nowadays I just use Instagram to show my creations to the world.

While I fondly think back to these times, I do not really miss anything. Social media can be time consuming on any platform but if you approach it correctly, it can be quite rewarding. I have built a considerable base of those who follow my work and have made many a friend around the world with whom I regularly talk about our hobby and real-world problems."

The best place to check out Christof's work is on his Instagram feed:

https://www.instagram.com/k03rnl/

Stretch Goals

We've just passed our latest Stretch Goal, and now the poster version of Christof's homage to that 3rd Edition Warhammer 40,000 cover art from Games Workshop is available in the Add-Ons. 

To add these items to your pledge, simply increase the total of your pledge amount by the cost of the Add-Ons you want, and we'll make sure to gather all the right information after the campaign in the pledge manager. 

Now we are on to the ribbon bookmarks, and following them will be another Freebie - A PDF tutorial from Aaron Lovejoy that will take us through the planning and techniques used to create the backdrop for his colorful and dynamic Infinity diorama "No Hope"!

Keep sharing the campaign and letting your friends know about it. We are very grateful.

Cheers

Dave

In the thick of things!
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 02, 2021 at 09:18:22 PM

Another fantastic day for the campaign! Since our last update you have pushed us past the paper quality upgrade – which gives us 150gsm coated paper for the interior – AND we've unlocked the PDF tutorial from Matt DiPietro which will be FREE to everyone backing for $20 or higher during the campaign. 

Thank you all!

New Stretch Goal

We've added a new Stretch Goal, which is another Quality Upgrade. This time, when we reach this Goal, we'll add a ribbon bookmark to each of the physical books. These bookmarks are incredibly handy when reading through the books, or for bookmarking your favorite piece of miniatures art in each one. 

We're very excited to keep this campaign growing, and over the coming week we'll feature a couple of our artists in these updates, giving you a bit of an "origin story" and showing off one or two of the works that will feature in the books.

Keep up the excellent work of sharing the campaign with your friends and gaming/painting groups. It all helps up out so much. Let's keep marching forward!

Cheers

Dave