Preparation. How to make a monk happy!! materials used in this step-by-step. We start by preparing our miniature.

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2 Preparation materials used in this step-by-step How to make a monk happy!! We start by preparing our miniature. First of all we need to clean the model from all its moldlines then glue the main elements together and fill any gaps with some putty. The surface of the metal was a little rough in some parts such as the left shoulder. I filled these areas with Milliput, followed by a thin layer of Liquid Greenstuff. Once dry, I repeated that with a thin glaze of a Milliput Juice, a very thin mix of Miliput and water.. Miliput behaves like clay and is water soluble. This is why you are able to create a very liquid cream often called Milliput-Juice. Its very handy when it comes to refining and smoothing rough surfaces, in particular with white metal miniatures. Make sure to use an old brush for applying the juice! Once all is cured the model is ready for priming.

3 Priming Black Basecoat I have decided to first prime our happy monk in black followed by a white coat sprayed directly from above. White Overcoat This black-and-white basecoat offers a very nice indication about where light and shadows should be. It helps to take a picture with your phone or print out a picture like this for reference during painting later.

4 Basetone 1st Basetone A brief introduction to Wet-in-Wet Blending Wet-in-Wet blending is a technique that is very hard to explain in a step-by-step or in a book. I explain this technique in detail on our Season 1 - Target Identified DVD set available at Nevertheless I hope the following explanation can provide you with some insight on how I usually paint. The first layer i apply is is a very thin layer of a light midtone (somewhere between 50%- and 70% maximum color brightness). This color will be our basetone. Its important to let this layer dry completely. If you are impatient, you might end up with nasty color stains on your miniature..

5 Highlights First Highlight The Highlights Once the first layer is dry, I cover the surface with another thin glaze of the same basetone as used before. While this layer is still wet i add some lighter color (brightness about %) and blend those two together. If the transition is not as smooth as you want it to be, e.g., you have a distinctly visible edge instead of a smooth blending, you can fix these areas by repeat the blending with a thinner mix (again, put down wet basecolor first) or just use a so-called glaze - a rather thinned down mix of either color (highlight or base, depending on what you want to fix).

6 Highlights Highlight Backview In the above picture you can see how the model looks with just the main highlights. In the shadow areas you can still see the basecoat shining through. Right top: Over the dried basecolor I put a wet layer of the same color in order to prepare our wet-in-wet technique. Right bottom: While the basecolor is still wet, I blend the highlights with our brush.

7 Shadows Shadow Frontview The Shadows For the Shadows I used a rich Red Brown. Due to the red pigments the brown would become a little pinkish if we would blend it with our highlight- or basecolor directly. Therefore, I feather the colors out on a thinly applied layer of clear water. Start by making the surface wet with clean water but only so much that the surface is covered with a thin film of water. Load the brush with some water and grap some of the dark color just on the tip of the brush. This way you can put down the shadow color and feather it out with one stroke. You can refine the transition with thin glazes until you are happy with the result.

8 Shadows Shadow Backview At this stage you can see the main lights and shadows are placed, even though some of the transitions are still pretty rough. 古池 蛙飛び込む 水の音

9 Midtones Unified Model Unifying with midtones The final step on the robe will help us too smoothen out the transitions and control the level of the overall contrast of the miniature. I use glazes with the midtone (basetone) the same way as I did with the shadows. This time, however, the mix is allot thinner so we don t loose our good blending result. I slowly build it up, layer by layer. ALWAYS make sure that the layers are dry before you continue with the next one! If you are not happy with the overall color, just glaze in different tones to change the saturation and the mood, feel free to vary the colors to make them more interesting. Purple and red glazes helped me to intensify the contrast and to make the orange basetone overall a little warmer.

10 The Face For the skin and the face I have used a desaturated fleshtone. It is important to choose a color that is not to close to the original color of the robe. 1 1.Step: On this picture you can see the very thin basetone. 2.Step: Highlight and Hairshadow As the face of the Monk is very gentle and smooth, We won t go for too much shadow and contrast. The highlight color is a mix of Ivory and the basetone, and is applied in in the very same manner as I have painted the robe. 2 The eyebrows and the shaved head are painted in a mix of a warm grey and the base-skin-tones. 3.Step: Shadows I carefully placed the shadows under the eyelids, the nose and cheeks. I have used the same tones as in the shadow of the robe. In order to add a little more life to the skin, I have worked with red tones in the upper part of the cheeks. For the Highlight on the cheeks I have even added some very light pink. 3 4.Step: Final Details As the face naturally attracs alot of attention, its always good to spend a little more time to add little details. 4 Here I painted some small speckles to simulate the appearance of a shaved head, plus some very fine wrinkles on the forhead.

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12 Base... first steps The Base We decided to go for a small, but very detailed scenic base, a small Riverbed or Pond. We have beded our little Scene in a asian looking pocket-watch-like amulet. I have prepared diffrent sizes of stones and gravel from Milliput. When these were almost cured, I added some texture with a stiff brush. I also added some tiny holes to mimic the structure often seen in real riverstones. Once the stones were cured, I simply glued them in place with superglue. The small gaps are filled with sand.

13 Base... paintwork I prepared a few Lotus flowers and cut out some leaves from thick paper. The flower itself is from the Monk s twig. I just used the tips of the petals so it looks a little more Lotus-like. Also, this way the flower looks different from the ones on the twig. Painting the stones was a really fast process as I mainly applied washes of different tones of browns, grey-blue and red. reference image In the end, I added some light veins on some of the stones to get a little more variation and a extra details. For some reason, the stones turned out more natural than the real thing =] painted Stones

14 Base... finished Finishing touches In the final stage I cover the riverbed with some clear resin water. We usually use the 2K resin from German manufacturer Noch. Simply mix it using a one-to-one ratio. I added some blue/turquoise to the resin to create a little deeper look. After pouring the resin in the riverbed I used a blowdryer to heat it up. This way any airbubbles can escape more easily. Let it cure for about minutes before adding the additional details like the lotus flowers and some small grass or reed. The reed was made from some old red brush bristles. Let the resin cure for at least a day.

15 Socket The very last detail was the socket itself. We decided to go for a hard wood floor look. The body of our base is the lid of an old Chessex dicebox. I glued small pieces of coffee stirrer (which we totally did NOT get from McDonalds =]) with superglue, and glazed them with Inks and and thin paint washes. Once dried, we put all of the parts together. The Monk was fixed to the base with a pin and superglue, the amulet was secured with a super-strong two-component glue. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. If you did, we would be happy to invite you to visit our blog at - where we learn to be a better painter. Also look out for our new website at coming soon tm. And last but not least, have a look at our incredible first 6-DVD set with myself and Rafael Volomir García Marín. Cheers, Ben Komets

16 The Happy Monk

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18 2013 Manabu - Michael Bartels Visit us at and The Happy Monk sculpted by Ernst Veingart

19 THE ULTIMATIVE TUTORIAL DVD BOX SET COMING SOON TM! Visit us at and