Ich bin großer Fan der Valhallaner bei 40k. Grund genug, mich mit Filip Haking in Verbindung zu setzen und ihm ein Interview zu seinem Silver Demon Diorama und Miniaturenmalen allgemein aus den Rippen zu leiern.
Viel Spass beim lesen =) Zaku: First things first, let´s beginn with the basics: Your Name, Age and where you´re from, whats your profession at the moment (your job).
Filip: My name is Filip Haking and I'm 23 years old. I'm from Nyköping, Sweden but currently live in Eskilstuna where I'm studying to become a technical illustrator. I've never worked for GW but was an outrider between 2008-2010.
Zaku: Just tell our readers, for how long do you paint miniatures ?
Filip: 15 years. I got my first warhammer box for Christmas in 1996.Zaku: Whats your favorite Mini ? Tell us what´s so special about it.
Filip: Though I've got a lot of favourites it always comes down to the 40k missionary with chainsword . Though time has taken its toll on some details and the hero scale hands it's still a fantastic model. I guess I love how he's such an individual model that tells a story with all the stuff on his back and his determined face. The model really has the gothic feel to it that I love about 40k and the sculpting style is one I've had as an example to my own. However, though I've converted one and own an unopened blister of this model I've never actually painted one.
Zaku: Which Mini was your first one ?
Filip: The first box I got was the Citadel Colour Paint Set with ten paints, two models and one brush. The models included were a plastic chaos warrior and a plastic marine. I tried painting the marine on the Christmas eve but couldn't stand my family hanging over my shoulder staring so the box lay untouched in my room for three months until I unpacked it and finished the marine in one night. I still remember my excitement as I ran up and down the stairs to show my mom the progress of each colour. Since then painting has been my favourite part of the hobby.
Zaku: What Brand of Colors do you use the most, do you use Oil Colors or some special additives like Future ?
Filip: My paints mostly consists of citadel colours. I have tried paints from Vallejo that I really liked but has never had the money to buy a big enough set to play around with at home so I only own a few bottles. One I use very often though is the Vallejo Glaze Medium. A friend of mine recommended it to me about 5-7 years ago and it's been invaluable to my painting techniques when it comes to glazes and washes. I guess I've always known there are other mediums and techniques out there but never had the energy to look for them. The foundation of my painting skills comes from White Dwarf and it's only recently I've turned to the internet to really improve my painting skills.
My Valhallan diorama was the first model I used pigment powders on and I'm hoping to get an airbrush for Christmas (if not I'll order one the day after). The pigment powder I used was one I made myself after reading an article about it on Massive Voodoo (http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-how-to-create-real-rust.html) together with two pigments I got from a Warseer user following my diorama project log. I've only just gotten my hands on the Forge World pigments after reading several good reviews about them. Oil paint is something that's really caught my attention. I haven't tried to use it on models yet but hope to try it once I start painting my current project.
Zaku: What brushes are your favorite and why?
Filip: Like the rest of my painting equipment, brushes is something I've never been very picky about. I used to simply buy the GW ones but when I received my Outrider training in Fantasia in Umeå (Elite store) we had a long talk about the Eavy Metal brush set available at that time and the store owner convinced me to buy a Vallejo brush (Red Sable Kolinsky size 2) and I've worked myself through two of these so far. For small details like eyes and freehand I have a 2/0 brush of the same kind.
Zaku: Wet Palette or simple Palette ?
Filip: As usual, even though I've heard and read so much about the wet palette, I've never taken me the time to try it out. When mixing paints I've used the lids of the old screw-lid pots since I was 14. The high edges and the addition of Glaze Medium has been enough to keep the paint wet for days when screwing on the empty pot. But like new painting techniques I'll probably try out the wet palette on my next diorama as it's intended to be a training project for any new techniques I can find.
Zaku: Do you own a working place especially for your hobby ? Tell us about your „workbench.“
Filip: Two months ago I moved in with my girlfriend in a bigger apartment. Fortunately the place had enough rooms for me to get my own room for my hobby. Here I've got my "nerdy" posters and cabinet for my models. I've got a shelf for my paints that I've built myself and the desk full of models and hobby materials. On some Sundays some friends come over to paint by the table or play Space Hulk or Bugman's Game.
Zaku: How long did you practice sculpting, till you achieved this standard ?
The first model I tried to sculpt was supposed to be Sigmar. It was at the same time I got my first green stuff and I'm not even sure I had a proper sculpting tool back then. Not soon after there was an article about the progress of the Dark Emissary sculpt from the Dark Shadows campaign on the GW website. It gave me a lot of tips like sculpting on a sturdy base and to sculpt in layers. However, though I was very satisfied with the model it never got any arms or a head. After that I did a lot of minor detail sculpting but never a whole model. My third attempt at a full sculpt was gunfighter for my Necromunda gang. I kept a project log on Warseer during the process but it died with the last post ironically being "Whatever you do, do not abandon this project. This I command!". I think the biggest lesson I got during this learning progress was to always have a clear picture of your end result. This probably helped the success of the Dark Emissary as I had good reference pictures for each step. For my Valhallans I had my brother pose in an old coat for me. With the photos of him I had great guides for how his clothes folded and how the pose looked. I had about ten other models I used for proportion references all along as well as sculpting solutions to the shapes in the photos of my brother. Zaku: Your favorite putty and why.
Filip: Another good sculpting lesson is to know your putty. The countless filled gaps on models has really helped me with this. Green stuff is actually the only putty I've ever tried, any other stuff you have to buy over the internet in Sweden so once again I've never taken me the time to try any other out. Green stuff has some "memory" in it. By that I mean it recedes a bit in shape when you work it with your tools. This is something I use during my sculpting by sculpting my basic shape before adding details; sculpting the arm before adding folds for example. This way the arm will stay in shape even though it's worked pretty rough during the final detail sculpting progress. From what I've read some putties don't have this memory and because I've learned to use this trait of GS in my sculpting techniques I'm not sure a new putty would go well with me. However I'm pretty interested in trying brown stuff though since GS doesn't work well with sharp edges, for this I've so far used plastic card but it would be nice to try something new. Zaku: What tools do you use for sculpting?
Filip: My main tool for sculpting is the GW sculpting tool. I know many people aren't very fond of this tool one but I've learned they're very individual since they're all sharpened by hand and the edge of the scalpel doesn't always end up in the middle of the blade (I once gave up trying to use my friend's GW tool). However the GW tool is short on round parts for smooth sculpting of folds and other organic shapes. After learning the basics in sculpting I got myself a 12-part sculpting tool kit through eBay. The ones I bought were also handmade and in various quality but I've got a few favourites among these. The last ones I got were from my dentist. Simply ask the next time you go and they'll have a box of used ones you can just take from. These are a bit smaller and perfect for narrow details and invaluable once you've tried them. Zaku: What do you use to wet your sculpting tools ? Anything special like wax?
Filip: I use water to wet my tools. A friend of mine used oil but if this gets under you GS it'll fall of the model and you'll have to start all over again. I also like water because you only have to blow hard at your model to get it off if you need to add more GS. For something like oil you'll have to wait till the GS has hardened. I've stayed away from licking my tools as GS contains epoxy elements and want to be safe just in case. Zaku: Do you play any wargames / tabletop games, which systems ?
Filip: I've tried Warmachine once and they play a lot of infinity at the local club. I played a lot of RPGs as a teenager but when it comes to tabletop games I've never really fallen for anything else than the GW games (not counting the Lord of the Rings games). I've played pretty much everything except Epic and my one favorite to this day is still Necromunda. I've never been any good at the large scale battle games like Warhammer and 40k but found the story telling of Necromunda wonderful. Just the right mix of RPG and wargame for my taste! This taste is probably what has made me so fond of dioramas. Zaku: How many times did you attend Games Day till you won your Demon ?
Filip: I was only 15 the first time I went to games day in 2003. Just one year too old to enter youngbloods. I did however make the first cut in the 40k monster category with an ork warboss. I went back the following year and entered the duel category and made the first cut once again. Then I didn't return until 2009 as an outrider. The outriders were invited to work at Games Day (perhaps you saw the Outrider Space Marine Chapter on display?) and since we weren't real employees we were allowed to enter Golden Demon. My ork boy only made the first cut but a friend that collected models at the competition had seen my model among the last five to have top three picked out of. This year (2011) was the fourth time I went to Games Day and it was the first time I really went all in when painting my Demon entry with three months of hard work that, as you know, paid off!(All models can be seen in myCMONgallery)
Zaku: What forums do you visit, to chat or show off your work ?
Filip: I've been a on and off user of several forums like the Golden Throne, the Underempire, CoolMiniOrNot and the Bolter and Chainsword, but Warseer has always been my home when it comes to forums as it was the first one I joined (though it was called Portent back then). I've never been interested in having my own blog as I probably get more readers by posting in a public forum like Warseer. I do however have a gallery at CMON to show off my finished models. If I ever get my own website it would be to share painting tips and tutorials.
Zaku: Whats your favorite part about painting and the miniatures hobby ?
Filip: Though I've got an Ultramarine and a Skaven army from the early days of my hobby career I've really gotten tired of painting something half good. And as I've given up on getting an entire army finished to the quality I want I've turned to dioramas instead. Though I've been tempted to try it for a long time it's only recently I've found this is my favourite part about painting.Another part I love about the hobby as a whole is spreading it. I remember how I felt when I started the hobby and would have loved to have someone to look up to. Unfortunately most hobbyists I meet don't want little kids running around at their clubs; an approach that often kills the clubs as its members grow up and move out of town. As an outrider I got to travel to different stores and introduce the hobby to a lot of kids, which I loved! But a dream of mine has always been to have my own store where I could get to know my customers and really teach the hobby to new kids.
Zaku: What inspired you to your winning diorama with the valhallan at rest ?
Filip: It all started when a friend of mine told me about an idea he had about a tyranid sneaking up on two guardsmen in a trench. I couldn't stop playing around with the idea and on a bus trip later that day I had to text him and ask if it was OK for me to do my own twist on it. What I told him was pretty much the finished diorama. The one thing I thought could be something never seen before was making "dark snow" as I wanted the scene to be set at night or dusk. Valhallans was of course a perfect choice for this, which I thought could bring out some nostalgia in the judges. I got rid of the tyranid as I wanted the focus of the diorama be on the interaction between the guards and the atmosphere in the trench. I don't want to know how many people later told me to add a lictor in the diorama but I'm certain it would have ruined the entire piece. This was sometime in the summer 2010. I made a sketch, ordered a Valhallan blister for reference and looked at snow in the dark during the winter but didn't start the diorama until a friend told me he was going to Games Day three months before the event. I had figured out earlier the diorama would have to be fully sculpted. Even if there would had been models available I wanted to get rid of the extreme hero scale proportions on the GW Valhallans. Because of this I wasn't sure I'd make it in time but I was actually finished one week before Games Day.
Zaku: Tell us about your actual projects? Or is it Top Secret ? ^^
Filip: What I really loved about the Valhallan diorama was creating an atmosphere people could relate to. Imperial guards are perfect for this as they're human like us and still normal (at least as close you get to normal in 40k) persons unlike the other imperial armies. I really want to take this a step further for my next project but still do something completely different from my Valhallans.
For a more detailed description you'll have to read my project log on Warseer but the general idea is to make a diorama full of speed and movement but still keep the human nature in it. It's going to be a defense line being overrun by a swarm of tyranids and the focus will be on the panic and despair in the eyes and reactions of the guardsmen. To add hope there's a space marine in the middle of the fray charging into the tyranids though he's probably more aware of all of their oncoming doom than any of the guards; much like humanity's situation in the 40k universe.
I hope to be able to tell little stories all over the diorama without making it to messy. I like to give people the opportunity to have their own interpretations of a diorama instead of me handing it to them. It's the main reason I never named my last diorama.
Zaku: If you could give our readers one good advice, what will it be ? (Hobbythemed please ^^)Filip: Patience! People often ask me for a "magic shortcut" to nice blending and other technique and they rarely like the answer. Washes will get you a bit on the way but for a real masterpiece you'll have to really take your time. What I also mean by patience is to really take the time to master the basics. I've seen too many painters rushing into complicated layering and freehand before even mastering a brush properly and thereby destroying a neatly painted model. Learn to get a smooth thin layer of paint exactly where it's supposed to be and you'll have a sturdy skill base to work on.
Zaku: Thank you very much for your time !
Far
