Hanzo Hasashi is dead. I am Scorpion. -Mortal Kombat Mythologies Welcome back to The Art of Caesura! This week I have a special miniature to share with you - a Christmas present from my brother - Scorpion from Mortal Kombat!! My love of Mortal Kombat has been well documented on the blog . So what an unexpected delight it was to find that my brother had managed to track down a 3D printed mini from the game off Shapeways . This is the first 3D-printed model I have ever seen up close! The clear plastic used was cool and remained translucent even after the undercoat (but the layers of paint rendered it opaque). The Shapways site states the model is 3cm tall, which I guess from feet to eye-level is maybe about 25mm scale (I don't have a tape measure to hand). Anyway, I think he is the smallest scale miniature that I've painted (check out the final picture for a comparison with a Stormcast and Space Marine), which presented a fun challenge.  ...

As I was going over the Cork and Kerry mountains... Whiskey in the Jar - Traditional. Hello one and all and welcome back to The Art of Caesura! Today we're going to leave Middle-Earth behind and enter a land...that really resembles Middle-Earth actually!  A couple of months ago, while my parents were over visiting, my dad and I went on an epic adventure through places with equally epic sounding names: the Black Valley and the Gap of Dunloe - The Irish do know how to name things...I mean, even one of the major political parties - Fianna Fáil (pronounced FEE-na FALL) translates to "Soldiers of Destiny" I'm not making this stuff up! So, to set the appropriate tone, get this song blasting in the background as you follow us on our adventure! Anyway, we set off from a lay-by on the famous Ring of Kerry, a few kilometres before you get to  Derrycunnihy Church on the River Galway .  We set off early enough and were greeted by a bright rainbow ...

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Hello one and all, and welcome to The Art of Caesura! Having spent the last couple weeks looking at the Balrog, lets turn our attention to the one who rid us of it: Gandalf! It was fun to go from such a large complex model to such a small straightforward one. And I think that, of the Lord of the Rings miniatures, this rendition of Gandalf really captures the actor, Sir Ian McKellen's face very well .  I started by bringing up some reference images of Gandalf online, and quickly noticed that while he wears the "Gandalf the Grey" moniker (at this point in his journey anyway), he's actually "Gandalf the Grey and Light Blue". Yes, in the films his hat is actually a different colour from his robes.  From a black undercoat, I started by mixing approximately 3:1 Abaddon Black to White Scar to make a nice ...