Crystal Brush 2011 Awards - Jakob Rune Nielsen

Today's blog post is something a little bit different.


The Crystal Brush

Last year, CoolMiniOrNot.com announced that it would be organising a special painting competition, the Crystal Brush Awards, to take place at AdeptiCon 2011. With a $10,000 top prize and $2,000 and $1,000 respectively for 2nd and 3rd place, this is certainly the most valuable prize of any miniature painting competition I know of.

The competition is also a little special because of the way in which judging is handled. In addition to judging, which will take place at Adepticon in Chicago by a panel of experts including the legendary Mike McVey, the other 50% of the final scores will be determined by internet voting on the CoolMiniOrNot website.

Without getting in to discussion about the judging system (of which, personally, I am not a fan), it certainly makes things interesting in the run up. For a change, entrants are actively promoting their work in progress on entries in order to generate public interest which could pay dividends come the online voting.


Jakob Rune Nielsen

One entrant in particular, who's work I have long admired, is Jakob Rune Nielsen. I have been fortunate enough to be privy to the entire development process of Jakobs entry and I have to say, it is quite simply one of the most captivatingly unusual miniatures I have seen - embodying a great blend of John Blanche-esque "Gothic Sci-Fi", with Jakobs own creative abilities.

In the interest of helping a friend out therefore, I thought I would share with you a couple of pics of Jakob's progress and point you in the direction of his wonderful website (which, if you haven't already seen, you really should!):




Jakob has begun to share his WIP progress photo's on his website on a regular basis now, so if you want to follow the development progress, check it out. Having seen the final piece and painting begin, I can promise you, it is well worth following!

On The Workbench

Looking to get back into the swing of modelling and painting after Games Day and then a 2 week holiday to Singapore, I've been making a few hobby related purchases.


Dark Eldar

The new Dark Eldar from Games Workshop hit stores today and the postman delivered my pre-order today - Lelith Hesperax and a box of Wyches.


First up from the new arrivals, Lelith. A stunning figure and the best female GW have produced yet. A couple of annoying mould lines running through the hair make clean up a little bit of a chore but otherwise the components go together snuggly enough.


Little Princess - Runic Miniatures

I also recently received a stunning little sculpt by Jakob Rune Nielsen entitled "Little Princess" (middle of the pic). Would definitely recommend picking one up while you can, the smooth surfaces and lack of clutter make it a real painters joy and I'm looking forward to slinging some paint on it soon!


Captain Korvydae - Forgeworld

Finally, far left is the new Raven Guard character Captain Korvydae from Forgeworld which I picked up at Games Day UK. Again, a great figure with lots of movement and aggression in the pose and face.

I did think about converting him into a Blood Ravens character after playing Dawn of War 2 recently, that was however until I realised just how different the Blood Ravens chapter badge is from the Raven Guard which would have meant a lot more sculpting work than I had intended for this piece. Therefore, it looks like he will be staying a Raven Guard afterall.

Also, if anyone has a spare Forgeworld jump pack "vent pipe thing" going that they wouldn't mind parting with, let me know! Dropped mine and it snapped in a hard to pin or glue point...

Hopefully some new painting progress soon now that these projects are all reaching the painting stage!