Let’s start.

For those who go on the Internet, it’s impossible to not know Massive Voodoo. MV is the reunion of germans painters, looking for creating a maximum of émulation. They do this with a wonderful blog, on which they post tutorials, miniatures pictures, WIP, and somes funny and happy stuff. The whole thing is in English, and pretty easy to read. In short it’s a gold mine for the world community. So i have contact Roman Lappat, to speak about what is really Massive Voodoo.

Hello Roman, first can you present yourself ? Like the way you discover the hobby.

I am Roman Lappat from Augsburg, Germany, going up to 30 and i would say mostly a regular guy that loves painting miniatures. The « hobby » has heavy weight in my life as it became my everyday work. I am working as a freelance miniature painter since 4 years now, painting miniatures and organising painting classes where i try to tell what i’ve learned so far to those intrested. I just want to give something back somehow as the « hobby » is build up from exchange between all these excited miniature painters. It is all about sharing, learning and the joy of painting. The most beautiful part of the hobby for me is meeting other painters and miniature freaks and enjoying  some wonderful chats and moments – i really love to feel like in a big family whereever i go and this is something that makes the « hobby » great in a way other hobbies can’t for me. Sure there are those moments, where the sky rains his tears and it is still warm outside – a quiet moment of painting with fine music that also makes the « hobby » very enjoyable for me.

You are the « father » of Massive Voodoo. Can you tell us a little bit more about it. What are Massive Voodoo motivation ? Is it a sort of friendly experiment ?

The jungle is somehow meant to be a living room where some close friends meet, can sit on a couch and chat about « the » hobby. All the Massive Voodoo Apes are connected somehow and mostly know eachother from real life. It is a pretty happy place where non of some rare strange echos of the Miniature Painting world, like envy or angry painting, exists. The motivation behind it is mainly a spirit of Happy Painting that we try to share. Another important point is my own education so far as it is planned to be a teacher someday. I never lost the teacher in me, so it makes me happy to share my thoughts and helping others. For sure sometimes MV is also work as i am freelancing. It is a mix of everything mentioned but mostly the friendships and the joy of miniature painting.

How do you come to the idea of creating MV, and what steps was necessary to create it ?

Massive Voodoo started back in September 2009 with the idea of creating my own webpage. I felt a little exhausted from doing some motivated explanations and articles around many different german forums and searched for a place where i could focus my energies up to.  Raffa, one of my closest friends told me that it might be better to start a blog as it would be much more efficient and easier to be updated. I had no idea about blogging so far and so i’ve just started as just one single ape. I felt lonely in the jungle and decided to bring in some friends of mine who also love the joy of painting. That is how the story went.

How many people are following the website ? And how many are you in the « team » ?

At the moment we got around 1100 official blogger subscribers. There around 2000 unique visits to the site a day, but it also depends on how loud the apes are shouting and it can be more or less – not very important i guess at all as MV won’t ever be focused on statistics. We are 11 persons at the moment behind Massive Voodoo. There is Peter from Augsburg/Germany, Raffa from Augsburg/Germany, Robert from Graz/Austria, Ben from Berlin/Germany, Andrea from Turino/Italy, Matt from Berlin/Germany, Oli from Stuttgart/Germany, Mati from Berlin/Germany, Max from Hamburg/Germany and Palak from Delhi/India. As mentioned the jungle grew without a plan and those people behind Massive Voodoo are all friends of mine who i am enjoying the « hobby » with, enjoying life philospophy and share friendship. Everyone can do whatever he wants to do, post as often as he likes, no rules at all. So everyone brings in content to MV like he can do with his time and fun.

Have you any idea about the number of tutorials, or post had been writed on MV ? Are you happy, or surprise by the incredible success of your website ?

I try to find out for you . There are about 1410 postings done since MV started, mostly related to the « hobby »  and some about life as MV became a workbench log somehow in the end where also feelings and thoughts come in. The number of Tutorials at the moment is 142, still growing. Yes, indeed i am surprised that MV has such a sucess and i am happy for sure, but in the end it all happens with a reason like i always say when basing. There is no need for a big plan, just do the things you do from the heart and in the end it will just happen. The MV Crew is very thankful for all their supporters and followers who make the jungle bounce everyday.

What is the future of MV ?

As i told already – there is no plan, so i just can’t tell you a good answer to that question. It might grow, it might be optimized someday, it might bring some more intresting hobby stuff, it might change its theme, it might so many things – but that is all maybe and what will happen in the end only time will tell. We are for sure having our fun with the « hobby » and share it like always in the future and then just let it happen. Ok, there are some secret plans for the future but i can’t tell you without revealing the secret, but a little teaser : At the moment Peter and I try to organise Painting Classes in Europe and for sure someday we plan to reach World Domination with about seven Star Wars Death Stars who are able to spit colors.

Can you describe the Massive Voodoo way of thinking, and way of life (if something like that exist :D) ?

I would say – being true to yourself, doing things from the heart, help others, enjoy every single day on earth and having tons of fun with friends. I don’t know if there is such a way of life, i guess this question comes up because of the unusual non-hobby chat on the blog which just shows the character behind the author of a posting. Sometimes we also feel like a gang of rebelling monkeys. Rebelling against hardcore rules while painting and rebelling against growing older.

And to finish, on what are you working on at the moment ?

Really on way too many projects, having around 20 projects at the moment, some will be finished soon, others won’t and it just comes as it comes – letting it happen, but really at the moment i have a little bit too many :D

Conclusion

I can only suggest you to look on MV. Actually, they are those who make the miniature hobby evolving in Europe, with their tutorials or just by their happyness. We can easily feel it on the blog, but more when we see them in real. So have somes good reading !

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/