Feb 9, 2014

My chocolate glaze

Surely everyone has their own fake chocolate glaze recipe they stick to. I have my version, too. The glossy acrylic paint or a final coat of varnish just aren't right. So I mix dark brown acrylic paint with some droplets of Still Water (a brand of modelling water, Vallejo product, technicallwater-based polyurethane dispersion). The Still Water helps the mixture to expand smoothly over the cakes and the glaze has just the amount of shine a glaze should have after drying. Of course you can use this trick for every kind of glaze not only for chocolate.
Here are some miniatures I used this glaze for.




And this is the Still Water.


Feb 3, 2014

New book on the market

László Adóba is one of the best diorama builder I know and I'm a big fan. I recommended his previous books here, in my blog before, now there is a new one. Of course I already have it (actually it's a dedicated gift from the author) and it's just wonderful. The descrition of the book and the sample pages are from László Adóba's website (http://adobadiorama.hu/), where you can buy all of his books.

In the second volume of Building Dioramas, I’m going to present the process of creating everyday objects, some of them being absolutely common, others being less conventional. Recognizing tiny manifestations of things met regularly in real life makes much deeper impression in the viewer than objects seen rarely or never at all during our lives. Dioramas built using familiar accessories will seem much more life-like as the viewer gets involved easily at the very first sight.

The book presents the detailed description of making more than 50 diorama accessories. Pieces of furniture, bathroom equipment, kinds of food and some metal objects take shape in front of the reader in 5 chapters on 78 pages. There are several simple pieces made of common materials, as well as more complex ones that need some special equipment and ingredients. This way beginners may find the book just as helpful as advanced modellers. The text is illustrated with more than 400 colour photos to make building much easier.