Wyrd Stuff: Rogue Necromancy

The Malifaux painting spree continues and I got the Rogue Necromancy finished. He isn't the greatest model ever produced but I do like him still. Painting him was easy enough and surprisingly I enjoyed it. I can often find painting models a bit of a chore and it takes some determination to actually sit and complete them. Why this is I can't really say. I used to absolutely love painting but now it doesn't hold quite the same charms. Alot of it depends I think on the quality of the miniatures and there is nothing worse than having to paint something that is poorly sculpted or cast. I am continuing with my Stormcasts over the next few weeks. Hopefully I can churn out a few more of them.

Wyrd Stuff: Dead Doxy 2

The painting continues apace. As these were half completed an aeon ago it hasn't been too hard to get them finished off. I went with purple for this lady. It is another colour I hate. I guess though that the only way to improve it to continually expand our repertoire. The camera issue hasn't been resolved so the picture is a little poor once more. I have a Rogue Necromancy to complete still so you can expect him over the coming days. Beyond that there is a Punk Zombie to do still and a Death Marshal. I have been avoiding the Punk Zombie as I really hate that sculpt. Let's see if I am brave enough to actually paint him.

Wyrd Stuff: Dead Doxy

My camera work is getting worse and simply because I changed the room I am taking the photographs in. I will try to figure out a better way to take them in the future. I have had a few of Wyrd Miniatures products lying around only half done for a year now and with the holidays I thought it would e a good time to get them finished. I don't really know if I have ever used Dead Doxies in a game before but the models are nice so I picked them up on a whim. They are definitely fun to paint and I kept them colourful like the Rotten Belles I finished a long time ago. I wasn't able to keep the traffic light theme but blue is a good enough colour and I have been using it a lot recently. It is a colour I dislike painting as I can never get the blends to work the way I want. I am slowly improving that however.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month Two

It is better late than never. I wasn't able to get to the internet until yesterday and so I couldn't update the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. I have a few minutes this morning to get my stuff updated between various errands. So first of all I still haven't managed to pick up my starting box. Seemingly the weather in America has caused a delay to the European delivery and so nobody should have the new boxes yet. I am off this morning to an interview beside the gamestore and so I think I shoul be able to finally get McMourning. It does mean a lot of painting this month.

This month I won't be buying too much either as I have plans for months three and four maybe. The one thing that is essential in a McMourning crew is Flesh Constructs, you are either bringing them along anyway or summoning them with great rapidity. Therefore I really need to have a second and thankfully an alternative model comes out this month. I will be picking one of those up for sure. I am seriously tempted by a few more Canine Remains but as they haven't been released yet in plastic I am not too eager. I do want to wait until they are available. Sadly I haven't seen any rumours or confirmed releases so I shall simply continue to wait for those. That is quite annoying about Wyrd's releases. I have all the rules I need to play but I don't have the models. To make it worse I have to wait for the models. I am sure this will cost them a good few players in the long run.

Month Two

Alt. Flesh Construct $15

Monthly Total: $15

Remaining Total: $20

I am only spending fifteen dollars this month and with the ten dollars remaining already from last month, actually I have to check what the budget was, I will have a good warchest next month. I want to start focusing on alternative minions and enforcers so that I can explore McMourning a little more as I go through this project. His poison tricks are excellent but I think there are some other synergies to be exploited there. I will also have to gind a second opponent as I am very fearful of some of the abilities and tricks out there that I am not at all prepared for. I have never played Neverborn for instance and from what I hear they are quite good. Hopefully I can get what I am after soon and get to the painting.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Mid-Month

I have only managed to play two games during the course of the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. At least both of them have been with the assigned crew. My crew box hasn't arrived at the local store yet so there is going to be a lot of pressure to get it finished by the start of the next month. I would say there is a slim chance if the box is finally there on Thursday. At least I did get a start made with Rafkin. I am impressed as the white came out a lot better in this photograph than many others I have taken. Seemingly I am getting slightly better at the whole photography thing. The painting was farily straightforward. The model is simple and doesn't have too many details, my favourite type of miniature. He is still very characterful however. I kept the clothes in standard enough colour. I had intended to add some blood splatter but I can't be bothered now. The white came out well and I don't want to ruin it with improperly done blood effects.

I was wondering about using Rafkin in the crew. He seems to repeat a lot of abilities that the other members have and doesn't offer anything new. However a deeper look at the card shows some interesting possibilities. Firstly he is another poison vector. While that seems to simply repeat the theme but that is important. Your opponent has to fear anything that can cause poison as with the various abilities stacking it can result in six points of damage a turn. Secondly I have been using Rafkin to attack fairly powerful enemy pieces, Izamu mainly. With a point of poison placed on them with a 0 action you can charge for a single activation which allows a non-direct charge. That is great as it is hard to account for it when positioning a model. Once the opponent is poisoned Rafkin can dish out a lot of damage. His melee is decent and he has enough wounds to withstand some attention from the enemy. Thirdly even if Rafkin isn't in combat with a model he lasses on an extra point of damage within 6" which can really be the tipping point in a conflict. It is a different effect from Sebastian and McMourning and so it stacks nicely with them.

I haven't heard much disscussion on Rafkin and I find that strange. He seems to have been overlooked somewhat. I guess it is based on the fact that his abilities are very similar to others in the McMourning crew. I would suggest to evryone to try him out. I almost couldn't consider a crew without him.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month One

So it begins.

There are a few supply issues it would seem in getting models not only to Europe but to Germany and so I am a little worried I won't be getting my first month models anytime soon. The game store has been informed at least and so I hope that once they are in I will get a message to tell me to come and pick them up. I am starting with the crew box of course. I choose McMourning simply because he is one of the original three Ressurectionist masters and I have the other two already. I think that is as good a reason as any. I also don't fancy the Ten Thunders dual faction Masters and Tara isn't available either. The choice was probably made for me. I was quite tempted by Tara but I am struggling to see with what I can build the original box contents. At the moment there are very few things that thematically fit with her, that I can see at least.

Month One

McMourning Crew box: $45 Rafkin: $10

Monthly total: $55

The crew box represents the biggest expenditure of the month. I had to go with what was available and suitable for the remainder of my budget. Rafkin was and I snapped him up. I haven't heard any chatter about him at all and that makes me wonder if he has been relegated to mediocrity. I guess in a crew that is already dealing a lot of poison why do you need more models that do the same. I suspect he is good in support of a less focused crew. He can then amplfy their poison abilities a little more. Still he fits in theme and so I am happy to have picked him up. I very much think I will be sick of painting white by the end of these six months. Especially if I pick up some regular Frenchies for my Muskets and Tomahawks army.

I have $10 left to bring forward to next month. That should hopefully allow me to pick up a few models extra and doesn't pack too much into this month. I am aiming to have everything painted within the time frames set for purchase so it shall be interesting to see if I can manage that. My first game with McMourning is on this Wednesday. I will play on Vassal as usual and I am looking forward to it.

Seamus - the Mad Hatter, the Joker and Jack the Ripper

I am still struggling with my camera. I guess I can't expect any better at this point. The photo is fairly poor but at least is conveys the colours for Seamus and his lady. As the model is essentially composed of two people I wanted to contrast them fairly strongly. I went with a rich skin tone for Seamus as he is at least alive. For his undead hooker I went with a really washed out pallid tone. I began her skin with Elf Flesh (GW) and highlighted with white. I started the skin on Seamus with Dwarf Flesh (GW) and highlighted with Bleached Bone (VJ). That kept his skin in a nice warm range. I highlighted everything on the hooker with white. The pink didn't come up to a light tone as quickly as I hoped it would and it is still fairly rosy. Her hair was bleached bone to start off with and I just highlighted with white. To contrast I kept the roots of the hair black, its a cheap dye job after all. I think this worked out fairly well but next time I would go for a dark brown I think. I want to start working a little more with the tone of the colours I am using and models like this are a great place to start. I do have the McMourning crew to paint soon and they feature a lot of whites being essentially morgue assistants or undead constructs. These will be annoying as hell to photograph but should be fun to paint at least.

Another Kid

The two Crooligans for Malifaux have been fun to paint. I still have one left but I donÄt like the model and it has languished on my desk being steadily pushed back behind other models. It may get done eventually. I have some Dead Doxies, Seamus and potentially the new McMourning box to do and I am far more eager to paint them than the last Crooligan. For this model like the last I kept the scheme very dark with a few light areas to break up the model. I think this photo catches the subtle colour differences in the darker shades I was using. These definitely aren't something that you will notice from across the board but they were fun to do. Skirmish games allow you to paint models in a style like this whereas the larger battle games don't. A Warhammer Fantasy regiment painted like this would like like a black blob on the tabletop.

Poor Molly

I am jumping around a bit in what I have been painting recently. I managed to get Molly done despite having loads of other close to finished models. I had been expecting a game and so I wanted to get her finished however the game was cancelled. Eventually I will get a Malifaux game played locally. I painted her fairly closely to the picture on the box. I wanted a stronf scheme so I went with two contrasting colours in blue and orange. The skirt seemed to take forever to paint. I don't know what I was doing but hours later I still wasn't finished. I really don't think the effect was worth the time but well it is done now so I won't complain. I used the old Macharius Solar Orange (GW) as I had that sitting around and it was the only orange left that wasn't completely dried up. I don't use the colour often.

I went really pale with the skin almost to white. I also just left the orbs of the eyes white. It is quite an effective effect and one I will defnitely do again in the future. I generally always use something similar to Bleached Bone (GW) as my highlight colour but using white has given me some interesting results on the malifaux stuff. I shall definitely consider using it more often. I do still have the base to finish here. I had started to sculpt a teddy bear for it and maybe I will get it finished soon enough. I also had some playing cards painted to scatter on there but I seem to have thrown out the piece of paper I had them painted on during a recent clean up so I have to redo those. It is definitely a message to remind me not to clean my desk: embrace the mess.

An Endless Horde of Mindless Zombies

I finally managed to paint the last of the Mindless Zombies. I have thankfully been managing to keep up the painting and I have a few models just about ready. I painted this guy quickly as I was uninspired to do anything special. It is a zombie in a suit I really didn't think there was much more to do than what I did. The suit is dark and I kept the skin and waistcoat light for some contrast. It was quick and easy unlike a few other models in the range. I have only been playing online via Vassal. The game isn't really popular here in Germany and I attribute that to the fact that the rules are only available in English. Warmachine has German rules and as such it is gaining in popularity for the last two years. People don't want to have to struggle with the rules so when they are in a different language they don't see the point in bothering. I can understand that 100%.

Lost Lonely Undead Children

I have been slowly painting the Horrors starter box for Malifaux. I have been distracted by Torchlight coming out for free on steam. Yesterday I resisted the temptation to play and got one of the Crooligans finished.I went with a really dark scheme similar to what is shown on the box. It isn't executed with quite as much skill but I think it came out really well. By keeping certain elements of the miniature really bright and light there is a lot of contrast and the model doesn't look too dull and dark. The miniature is really detailed especially for its size. These represent lost undead children from the little I know of the background of the game. The miniatures are true enough to scale and so these are a good bit more delicate in detail than what I am used to painting. I have a second one just about done too and I will have some pictures soon.

Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work.

I still haven't recovered from the holidays that is for sure. There was far too many nice homebrewed and craft beers to enjoy never mind the food. I have been relaxing over the last few days and managed to get the finishing touches done on Mortimer for my ressurectionist crew. Again the camera washed the whites out. Eventually I shall upgrade, eventually. I have a game next week and I want to get my Molly crew together. I doubt I will manage that but who knows. I really like Mollys playstyle. She tends to be strong in scenario play or at least the way I play scenarios. Other than painting her I am not sure what else I will do. Maybe some more Dwarves, maybe more Vikings. There is enough of a backlog I have a plethora of choices.

Arise my thralls...

I finally got a Master finished. I had Nicodem put together and half done for a while. I sat down last night and fnished him off. He isn't the recipient of the most awesome paint job ever but he came out fine and I am glad to be able to put him into the cabinet alongside the other Malifaux miniatures. The sculpt is actually different from th one show on the package I bought. That shows a stiched together coat while this one was plain. Maybe the artist managed a convincing paintjob on the stiches. I kept it plain and experimented with a few brown colours. As my favourite Scorched Brown is down to a single pot in my collection and it can't be replaced I need to keep that for one or two future projects to maintain some consistency. I drybrushed the vulture as when it came to painting him I really wasn't up for the careful highlighting of the feathers. Carefully applied drybrushing can be just as good as painstaking blending, especially when viewed from across the table.

I wanted to add something to the base for ach of the Master models I will have. It took a while to come up exactly with what though. I think I shall add some tiny playing cards just like these in the picture. They are an absolute pain to paint and I guess nobody but I will ever notice them. Still for me, it differentiates the masters from the already characterful other miniatures. I will do it for the others I paint. I have picked up Seamus and Molly so I have a decent amount to get through. I seem to always do the same. Once I get enthusiastic about a project I dig into the backlog and make a decent amount of progress. Just as I am clearing them out I always end up ordering a few bits more. As soon as they arrive I end up moving onto something else...

I will be painting some more Dark Ages stuff over the Christmas break. There seems to be another few players for Saga and I want to get the last band I have here together. I have enough still from the Gripping Beast WAB deal I bought nearly ten years ago to make one more Viking Band and to bulk out the Saxons and Anglo Danes. The only thing I am a little short on is archer levy. I will have to pick up a pack or two of them. I have so much stuff painted that I am considering trying out a few games of WAB in the new year. I should have sufficent models painted to field a 2000 point army.

Another Mindless Zombie

Despite being incredibly busy I have managed to get another model finished. Work, mainly self created, has been hectic for the last few months and as a result my painting has suffered. I have plans to get back into it a bit more in the New Year but I won't be as prolific as before. There are only so many hours in the day and I definitely have too many projects running at once. At least I will soon have enough finished at least to play with a fully painted crew. These mindless zombies are fun to paint. The models are quite characterful despite the fact they are zombies and I am eager to see what the future ones might be like. I stuck with an autumnal scheme for this lady and it came out fine. The camera washes everything out but you can get some appreciation of what I was going for I hope. I have been painting the whole crew in a deliberately mixed colours. The models just feel too unique to really give them anything more than a token uniformity. The bases do decently well enough in my opinion.

Necrotic Machine

I picked up the Necrotic Machine from e-bay a few days ago and I was eager to get it painted. I had seen a really awesome example of sponged metal and I knew instantly I had to try it. I don't really get to paint many all metal models or at least predominantly metal models so I had to settle for experimenting with this guy. Basically the technique layers the metal and weathering coats alternatively on top of each other with a sponge giving a very strongly mottled effect. It was fairly simple to do though I think it would look better on a larger model with flatter surfaces. I think it could be great for me on something like metal rooves I do for some of my Warmachine, and possible upcoming Malifaux, terrain. It gives a really different effect when compared with the pigment based weathering.

I used Mithril Silver (GW) and Chainmail (GW). For the rust I used a Vajello paint whose name has worn off the bottle. I guess it is something akin to Vermin Fur. These were just repeatedly sponged randomly over each other with some torn blister package sponge. After that I washed them down a little to darken the effect. This is the result. I kept the skin really pale to contrast the dark metals. It really stands out now. Also I painted the syringe vials a yellow colour. I hate painting these sort of things. I can never get it to look right. These came out fine.

I have been using Molly Squidpidge recently on Vassal and I really like her. I am still a complete beginner with regard to Malifaux but I think I picked the right faction. The summoning mechanics are well balanced allowing me now to feel like I can achieve some summoning. Before I always felt like it was a bit of a hit and miss as you basically had to have the right card in your hand. It is a lot more difficult to summon the bigger models now but that feels right for the game. I am hoping to get another game in on Tuesday. I am looking forward to it.

Mindless Zombie

I have been playing a lot of Malifaux recently and I decided it was about time to get my paintbrushes out and get some models painted again. Here is a quickly painted mindless zombie. I picked these up as they were 20% at the local game store and as I use Nicodem these are probably useful. I am hopeful that when the plastic versions come out they will be different and so I will have six variations on the model. I painted the skin up with some washes, mainly grey, green and red. I may have used purple also but I forget. The base colour was Elf Flesh (GW). On the hands I wanted to try the blood wash that Old Fogey has used on his ghouls recently. However his comes out a lot better than mine. I also tried to make a blood trail behind the model and on the bottom of the boots. That came out okay at least. I have never really gotten that realistic blood correct. Eventually I will. I am considering upgrading my camera. The quality of shots are fairly poor and even a half decent smart phone seems to take better photographs nowadays.

Zombie Invasion

Thanfully I have a good backlog of things to show as my painting has been uncharacteristically slow of late. I have been mainly painting Orks but I am trying to mix it up a little so that I can make progress on a few small projects at once. Here is one of the models from a side project, my Malifaux Punk Zombie.The model was annoying to put together as the connection points are tiny. I think I still pinned him but as to how effectual this may prove I have no idea. I haven't had to transport him as yet and so there haven't been many chances of accidents. I wenr for the same pale skin as I did with the Rotten Belles but as I said when I painted them it is still probably too warm a tone. I tried to add a little green and purple to the shadows on the skin but it is very subtle and I don't think the camera can pick it up.

At least the cobblestones came out as I expected them. Each time I have done them I can changed the technique. It is difficult to get the right texture. In my mind cobbles are usually roughly shaped but smoothly textured. When I tried to do that it looked weird. Now I just go for a brick style and that seems to work best, at least to my eyes.

A Questionable Lady

I more or less got this Rotten Belle finished over the weekend and I did a few touch ups yesterday to finish her off. Again I am happy enough with how she came out but once again there are a few problems I see. I also tried a new thing which has me confused. Yellow is a colour I don't use often as it has terrible coverage. I undercoated the whole model in yellow so this for once wasn't a problem. I went very pale with the colour and again I should have had a better eye for the contrast. The skin again came out fine especially the face. I added a few rotting patches on the skin this time. Basically I added some thin patches of red and green glazes in two or three places on the skin. I think the knee is just about visible in this piture.

The new technique I tried was some transparent clothing. I have seen it painted a few times last year in competition standard models, especially one by Marike Reimer. I tried this on the forward leg here in the picture. I don't think I did it correctly though. I painted the entire stocking in a mix of the base flesh tone and white. I then shaded the area with the basic flesh tone. I then highlighted with more white until I achieved a colour that is just beyond a usual colour for flesh. With the skin tone being pale to begin with and using white as the clothing colour I think I was fighting an uphill battle. It is a technique I will have to play with a little more so I can understand the mechanics of it. I think planning it out a little better will help as I can pick colours and tones that work better.

Rotten Belle

I managed to get a decent amount of painting in over the weekend and made a lot of progress on various projects. I find I can get really overwhelmed if I have too much stuff on my desk at once but so far no problems. I painted this rotten belle deliberately in a colour I don't often use, green. I wanted the dress to be really pale and as she is a zombie I went pale for the skin too. In the end it is an interesting scheme as it is far brighter than I thought it would be. The skin came out quite well especially the face. The model is quite expressive and that makes it really easy to pick out the areas for shading and highlights. When I get a really plain face, like the recent gripping beast stuff I painted, I can't do much with them. Models like this and the marauders though are really easy to paint the faces well on. I still have the base to do but I need greenstuff to sculpt the brickwork effect I want to have so for now these ladies have to wait to get their bases done.

I guess I need to consider having a lot more contrast in these models. It is a little late as I am almost finished the yellow belle too but for the red or pink on I think I can get that in there and really make the pale colours pop a little more. Contrast is something I always struggle with. I tend to chose a base colour and work from there. I rarely consider mixing in different colours to achieve interesting and striking shading contrasts. I think with the green here I could have used a purple or brwn to get the shadows to really stand out. I am still happy enough with how she came out.

Traffic Light Ladies

Despite the fact that I have four Khador Warjacks,Chaos Marauders and Chaos Warriors on my painting desk assembled and base coated I decided to start something else. I have played some Malifaux over the last few weeks and yesterday I picked up the Rotten Belles. Rather than continue with some cavalry I though I would get these done first as a break. I painted them without realising it in a wonderful traffic light scheme. I undercoated them in these colours as it saves time trying to cover over black. Foundations paint helps but it can still take a good few coats for red and yellow to come out nice and even. I am going to try to get some of these finished while I also progress with the Marauders. Thankfully I managed to get some Tallarn Flesh at the start of the week. Old Fogey at Hobbyhorse sent me some. So now I can make some real progress with my Chaos army without fearing that I will have to change the colour scheme halfway through!