We visited: Kontrast Miniature Painting Festival

This year, our member Ivan Knezović and his brothers, Petar and Filip, (popularly called the Knezović Clan) visited the Kontrast international miniature painting competition in Poland. And this is his report.

One of the largest miniature painting competitions in the world has been taking place in Warsaw since 2021. The Knezović clan visited Kontrast for the first time in 2023. The event was great and we enjoyed almost 1500 works, many of which were made by masters at the highest artistic level. We decided to visit Warsaw again in 2025, after completing enough works to justify the 12-hour drive one way.

We came to Kontrast as a kind of UMS Agram emissaries, and we handed out flyers for Black Queen 2026 and met a number of other enthusiasts, and we hope that some of them will visit Zagreb. We also brought home the Best of Show medal for the work that impressed us the most. We awarded the UMS Agram Best of Show to Dimosthenis Xylas, a miniaturist from At...

Dalibor's Trip Tip: Plzen and Prag

A quick report because I literally had 10-15 minutes to look at this model, take pictures of it and listen to some details about the city it represents. So, if your trip brings you to Plzeň in western Bohemia, I recommend you look for this beautiful model of the old city center in a scale of 1:200. The model is approximately 2x2 meters in size and is located on the ground floor of the city hall, which is located on the main square opposite the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew.

Regarding our hobby, and while you're here, I believe it's also worth visiting the General Patton Museum, the Puppet Museum, and the Colors of Warriors hobby shop. Unfortunately, due to work and previously scheduled obligations, I wasn't able to see them, and therefore didn't get to take any pictures. But at least, besides the excellent beer, I have an additional reason to visit this beautiful Czech city again. So here are some more photos of the model of Plzen.

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Miniature Painting Workshop - Kitbashing and Converting

March to Hren28 week 7

Our team is preparing to perform at the Turnip28 tournament called H.R.E.N.28 in Slovenia in July. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb and Antoni assemble their armies and paint, and we follow them on their way!

ANTONI: „As for my latest pair of Fodder models, one carries a flag and the other carries a nest on its shoulders. The flag is made from a thin piece of copper that is clamped around a brass rod, secured with superglue, and then bent to look like fabric in the wind.

The nest is made of a mixture of green stuff and milliput that I cut lines into. I put two chicken eggs from the Tamiya farm animal set inside and secured them with a drop of superglue. The other models have all sorts of new heads, from simple medieval helmets to gas cylinder caps. To make it easier to see what they are doing, most of them have candles on their caps. “

MARIO: „As an unexpected addition to my army, I found an old pipe in the apartment and decided to turn it into a cannon. ...

Scratchbuilding Star Wars Crates

In this article I’ll explain how I scratchbuild crates for the Star Wars Universe, to use on bases or in dioramas. It’s pretty simple and fun, and the required tools and barrier to entry is really low. These are the tools and materials I have at my disposal when I start the build.

My materials are two polystyrene sheets of different thicknesses. I choose the 1mm and the 0.25mm for this build, as well as square tubes of polystyrene 7.9mm X 7.9mm and a ruler. These are produced by Evergreen, and are widely available in hobby stores around the world. The tools I use are plastic cement (preferably with a brush), a hobby knife and a nail file.

I cut off a tip of the square tube, trying to make the length as equal to the width as possible, so 7.9mm. Now I have a cube.

Then I cut out smaller details for panels and parts (called greeblies in Star Wars lingo) from both the thinner and the thicker polystyrene sheets. Here I cut out as many as possibl...

March to Hren28 week 6

Our team is preparing to perform at the Turnip28 tournament called H.R.E.N.28 in Slovenia in July. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb and Antoni assemble their armies and paint, and we follow them on their way!

ANTONI: „My cult, Feast of Charybdis, is based on one or two of these Scuttlers (my plan is to make only one) that jump out of the mud, i.e. deployment is anywhere on the board and they have to make a charge. Also, their melee must end so that they or the target end up out of action, so the fight repeats until someone dies. The cult now allows all units to bury and jump out from turn to turn. I want it to end up looking like a walking island that rose out of the mud, so the top next to the tower will have some vegetation, and everything else will be muddy.

The second unit I worked on is the blackpowder Fodder. They are the most numerous unit in Turnip (12) and rely on having as many of them as possible at all times. My idea is for them to look unmistakably like...