CannibalBob

Would it ever be in the cards for the stories from the 1st edition books to be compiled into just a big fiction book? I bought all of the books, but I would buy a book that simply compiled all of the various stories into one or two books.

I generally get around this issue by using some of the scenic resin bases made by 3rd party manufacturers. It also saves me the time of converting a detailed base in many cases - and in others it does half the work already and I don't have to modify much.

To elaborate a bit more, the main companies that I have bought round-lipped bases from (for both Warmachine/Hordes and Malifaux) are: Dragonforge Design MicroArt Studio (normal resin and also the base-insert sets they produced with Cool Mini Or Not) Secret Weapon Miniatures Dark Age - their insert range The round-lipped bases from each of these ranges are similar enough that once painted you cannot really tell the difference. DragonForge and Secret weapon in my experience are the easiest overall to work with. There are very rarely any bubbles, flash, casting artifacts, or defects from either of these companies. In addition, these two companies tend to keep the bases fairly flat - which really makes it a lot easier to position models onto. The only real clean-up I do to these bases is to smooth the round edge out a bit with some fine-grit sandpaper and to wash them with soap to get mold-release agent off of them. Sometimes I will add extra adornment to the bases if I want something fancier. MicrArt bases tend in many cases to be fancier and more detailed, but they also in my experience need more clean up. It is not rare to find bubbles or flashing on those bases. In addition, MicroArt also tends to use more vertical elements on their bases - which can at times make some of them difficult to position models onto well. I tend to modify a number of MicroArt bases in many cases to allow the model to fit better. But, they look great when you do that. Currently, I am using a mix of MicroArt and Secret Weapon bases for my Malifaux crews. For Gremlins I like the Wood Theme from Micro Art - which just has random planking slapped together into some sort of shanty look. And I also use Secret Weapon Blasted Wetlands for swamp dwellers and beasts - like Pigs, Gators, etc. For the rest of the factions I am using combinations of the MicroArt Cobblestone, Triad (cobblestones with building debris), Old Factory, and Secret Weapon Town Square and Sewer ranges.

I have bought resin bases from a variety of manufacturers over the years and the inner diameter of round-lipped bases seems to be pretty much exactly the same from most manufacturers. If there is a difference then it is minor enough that you are unlikely to notice.

I'm gonna have to pick up some of that China town from Knights Of Dice!

I would also look into getting the upgrades for Von Schill from the most recent book. Either through the app, buy the book, photo-copy the pages from someone else book, or buy the upgrade card pack that accompanies the book. I have not played Friekorps in a while, and I have not personally used those upgrades, but I have played the Friekorp a whole lot in both mk1 and early mk2. They are also one of my go-to crews for teaching the faction as in small games they have neat abilities but nothing complex. They are fairly straight-forward good generalists with a bit of an emphasis on durability and mobility - which is great for new players to either use or play against. But the new upgrades look pretty potent to me - especially for the combat capability of Von Schill himself. Also in the past, I found that it is still pretty effective and thematic to take some of the regular mercs. Ronin and Taelor always fit well and are all-round useful. The meta may have made them more or less useful now, I dunno. But I expect that for friendly games those models will still be effective.

That Chinatown line is pretty cool. I might snag some of those for a 10-thunders little kingdom town board.

It looks fantastic though! For me, I just love the fiction from Malifaux so much that I don't want characters to not be who they are in the background.

I found a good set of alternate metal heads with a close approximation hat a while back. It would probably work as-is, but worst case would make for a good base to add a bit of greenstuff on. I would rather augment or convert a part than sculpt a whole new one if I can. At the time I was torn on whether to cut the hat off of the head and put it on McCabe or replace the whole head. I was debating about whether I wanted a full Indy, like you did, or McCabe dressed more like Indy. In the end I decided that I wanted the mini to still be McCabe, but dressed more like Indy. Then I lost some of the parts - so the whole thing was shelved. But now I have the parts again, and the new McCabe artwork in the most recent book has him dressed up like Indy but still keeping his own look - so I think I am going to go for that.

I was working on an Indy conversion for McCabe also a while back, but then he was the first plastic model that I managed to lose some major parts for. First I lost the bolo tie for the dismounted McCabe, then during a move I managed to misplace both of his heads. Your conversion is more extensive than the one I was planning. I just wanted to bring in the Fedora mostly, since I wanted it to still look like McCabe, but dressed more like Indy. Yours came out excellent. Very well done. I managed to get hold of a spare plastic McCabe, so I can go back to finishing up my version now. Looking at yours really makes me want to finish mine up!

I convert a lot of models, and I have a history in multiple games with little (and big) green men. I love me some goblins of all types (gremlins count). I agree with your point about identifying the key parts of the model. I would say that the key parts to a recognizable McTavish are these: his pet gator, the leash on the gator, his gun, and his hat. Those would be the items I would copy to make a gremlin version of McTavish. The WIP shown above has a gremlin riding a gator. The Gator already has a collar, so I would add a chain to it for the leash. The rider does not need to be holding it. You can have it modeled as trailing in the wind as the gator runs and bucks - but I would put it on the model to identify that this is a pet Gator or possibly McTavish's stolen gator. Giving the gremlin a gatling gun is probably fine, but I would personally cobble together a rifle or blunderbuss like the metal or plastic McTavish carries. You could add it in a holster that is tied to the Gator and have the gremlin wielding a Gatling Gun if you wanted - but I would put the rifle someone on the model. And finally, I would add McTavish's hat (or construct one that looks similar) onto the Gremlin and have him wearing it. Take a look at the original metal Ophelia box set compared to the metal Perdita box set. All of the models in that box are a 1:1 version of a Latigo family member. They copy the important distinguishing ideas from those models and then put them onto a Gremlin in such a way that it was clear who they were pretending to be. That is the idea that you should shoot for here. The only one that did not have as many visual links was Pere -> Papa Loco, but even he was still fairly obvious. So don't forget that hat!

If you need to have a human on the model, then take some of the left over parts of McTavish and have the Gator eating him. You could set this up as some plucky Gremlin and aspiring Gator-wrangler finally got the best of the old savvy swamp man. Just put a few parts of McTavish sticking out of the gators open mouth. Essentially you would have a little diorama. I would think that this would end up rather amusing, very appropriate for Gremlins, and also easy for opponents to recognize. I heavily convert and scratch-build models and have for many years. While I have not done so for Malifaux yet, I find that organizers for most other games are fairly lenient as long as the model fits the required parts rules and the intent about what the model represents is fairly clear. I think your conversion would fit into that fairly well. But rule of thumb for conversions and big events is to keep a back-up of the actual model if you are worried about proxy issues/disqualification.

Hey, I never said the ROI on them is bad - just that they are really expensive. It does not help that I have some still in diapers (hooray for diaper costs and daycare...) and another in high school that I just had to purchase a vehicle for... ROI for most of them is good. Although there are times where I wonder about a couple of them...

Interesting. Is that an example of one track piece?

Also, if you are looking for ideas for more buildings then I recommend that you make: Yan Lo's Barber Shop And make it an advanced kit with a stupid amount of small details. I would buy that in a instant.