Well to say that it has been an interesting week in the United States would be an understatement. I went to bed Tuesday night reluctantly and with a lot of concern and have been feeling better and better about election news as time has gone on. Hopefully the chaos, bad behavior, and poor leadership in this country will be gone for a long time after this.
But that’s enough about politics, it has been an exciting week in terms of painting as well. As the title suggests, I got the Master just about done this week so here is a look at him.
First off, let me state the obvious, this is a really intricate sculpt with a lot of fine details. It took quite a while to paint it as a result and I was really making it up as I went along too. I used a lot of purple which I’m not very familiar and comfortable painting truth be told. Luckily, I have a good friend I can rely on for painting questions and feedback and his guidance ensured that the purple parts came out well. I tried to make him look as much like the movie design as I could with a few notable changes here and there because parts of his costume don’t work well on a painted miniature.
The one thing I wanted to do but couldn’t pull off was the freehand designs that are both in the movie and some madman at GW painted on their version. It is almost like a paisley pattern since I can’t find pictures of it to show you. The irregular folds in the cloth on the back were just going to be too hard and annoying to paint a tricky pattern on so I ended up skipping it but I like the highlights I came up with instead. They really look sharp in hand. The one issue I had with the back that I talked about last week is the final results even with Vallejo Matte varnish are too shiny. I believe it is Lahmia Medium that is causing the shine and I have ordered some AK Interactive Ultramatte varnish which hopefully arrives this upcoming week so that I can apply that and get the Master fully done. Its only noticeable at the bottom of his coat in that picture but believe me, it is quite noticeable in hand.
Unfortunately, that means the diorama is not completed this week like I had hoped. It is so close you can almost taste it in fact. I glued down all of the other pieces except for the Master because I’m afraid to glue him and then try to paint on the varnish. I did however go ahead and test him out on the base and took a quick picture of that so you get a taste of the diorama at long last. It is not a great picture and I am going to have to be careful to get the lighting right because my camera does not do well with dark colors and it shows in the pictures I took. But regardless, here is the diorama with almost everything done.
This diorama is entitled, “The Master’s Favorite Holiday – Tax Day” and hopefully has a bit of a comedic feel. I’m very pleased with how it looks and I can’t wait to take more and better pictures to share with you next week, provided the varnish I order gets here quickly. I have a couple of other MESBG dioramas sketched out in my mind but I will have to order miniatures and supplies for both so I will probably wait a little bit on those. I feel that I should focus on Fallout stuff for a while since I have a backlog of 20 miniatures and I would like to get more terrain done to make the boards more interesting as I have mentioned as well.
Kuribo's Painting 
Genius work as usual mate. Good call on the fabric I think. As for the politics, I am with you. Stay safe!
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Thank you for your support as always, mate 🙂 Things are safe here in Chicago at the moment as well. Celebratory but safe!
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Brilliant, figures individually and the diorama as a whole! 🙂 I do like the subtle purple cloak! I think I’d have left the freehand designs as well!
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Thank you, John! I’m glad to hear the purples look good to you and I will be excited to take better pictures of the diorama and really show it off in the future 🙂
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Worth the wait! Wouldn’t worry about the back of the Master’s cloak, think you made the right choice and the way you have the diorama laid out would have been a nice hidden detail but not worth the agony.
My blood pressure and doom scrolling dropped today 🙂
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Thank you for the kind words, Bret and I agree on the freehand. It would have been nice to have but ultimately wasn’t worth it. I wanted to say thank you again for sending me this mini. It really helped me keep up the forward momentum and see this project through to the end!
I couldn’t agree more with the second sentiment. I hope we can put the recent past behind us and enjoy life more in the future 🙂
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Thanks for keeping me straight on the One Ring, kept one figure but one is still available.
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It was mostly a hunch but glad it helped! I’ll give that mini some thought and follow-up with you. I certainly don’t need it but its hard to say no to new toys 🙂 On a related note, I will probably have some more stuff to gather up and send you one of these days though I’ll wait until I have a clearer picture of what I have to get rid of. I’ll send you a message on OR when I’m close to clearing out some more hobby supplies that I don’t need!
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Excellent work.
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Thank you! 🙂
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It has been something of an emotional week here hasn’t it? 😀. Though I am still worried what the shenanigans-in-chief will do in his last days of office…
But Anyway…that is a fine sculpt and you did a great job in painting it. SO MANY DETAILS! But the colors and stripes and fringe all look fantastic! 😀
I use Vallejo varnish as well, and I’m now looking at some figures that I just finished and they do have a slight sheen. I do think it gets more matte as it dries but I can see how if you’re going for high quality pics it could be a pain.
Only ONE pic of the diorama? You tease! But it looks incredible so far. How do you get the miniatures to stand up without a base?
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I completely agree. Biden winning does not guarantee that all things will be smooth again and things will probably stay rocky until January but at least there is something positive to look forward to finally 🙂
Thank you for the kind words on the painting as always 😀 That is good to hear that you’re experiencing similar results with their matte varnish (at least in terms of that I know I’m not crazy!). It is almost like a satin varnish in that it will leave some shine on a mini (especially if the mini was already shiny to begin with which is what I’ve been running into).
I hadn’t glued the Master onto his base so I actually just balanced him for the picture if you can believe it 😀 Surprisingly, a very small amount of super glue on the feet of these minis is all that I needed too. I expected it to be harder than that to get them glued but it thankfully came together very easily 🙂 I will be looking forward to getting that varnish and getting the diorama finished so I can take proper pictures of it!
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Interesting comments on the varnish from you and Stewart. I’ve occasionally used Vallejo matt varnish and found it always dried with a slight sheen to it, more akin to a satin finish!
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Well that confirms it if the three of us have similar results! I don’t mind some things being a little satin but it does seem a bit misleading to say it is matte varnish when it clearly isn’t as matte as it could be…
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It looks incredible, outstanding work! Very beautiful. I think your signature painting style was made for this! Love the theme / title as well, very appropriate and comedic. The purple cloak looks excellent, I wouldn’t worry about the freehand. Amazing job!
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Thank you for the kind words, Gero! I’m so glad the diorama has turned out well and is being well-received. I was proud of the title too and I think I’ll try and get a plaque for the diorama in the near future as I think that will add a little something to it.
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A backlog of only 20 miniatures? Pah! Amateur! 😉 Lovely work on the Master there, this piece is already looking excellent.
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And the scary part is that I’m uncomfortable that the backlog is that large 😀 Thanks for the kind words and support as always!
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Nicely done, a fine piece indeed. Can’t say I have seen the figures before but both make for very nice characters and the whole thing has gone together very well indeed. I’m sure you learnt a great deal from the process and glad you are up for doing some more dioramas in the future. Hope you sort the varnish issue out and good luck with the new president. He can’t be worse than the out going one can he?
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I really appreciate it, TIM! I did learn a lot and I might talk a bit about that when I show off the final images if I think it will be of interest to others. I just feel fortunate that this all came together as well as it did. The new president will certainly be better and much more stable. Many in the US are exhausted from Trump who constantly stirred up drama and made horrible decisions but I’m sure you could have guessed some of that 🙂
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Super impressive mate. Purple is probably my least favourite colour to work with but you’ve nailed it.
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Thanks, I appreciate it! 🙂
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I really like the nonmetallic coins, I’m too intimidated by that kind of stuff to try it. I recently decided to start middle Earth sbg, so your blog has been lots of help. I’m still waiting for the models from GW though, the shipping isn’t going very smoothly.
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Thanks for stopping by Physalis and I’m glad to hear the blog has been inspirational as well! I have only ordered from GW once during the pandemic and it was a lot slower than I expected here in the US. I hope that you’re able to get what you ordered soon. It really is horrible waiting to get stuff that you really want to paint!
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