Math Mathonwy

Here's a Belle. Not sure what's up with the weird white specks on her bodice - they don't show in real life. The hair looks extremely lifeless in the pics - in real life I was actually happy with the lifelessness but here it looks just weirdly flat. Really should fix the shading in the back near the center decoration line thingy. Anyways, comments are super welcome.

Just a quick aside - thank you for switching back to writing in black! Now I can read your posts again.

Thank you so much for the comments all! Much appreciated! He really looks that way, doesn't he Here's my three Necropunks. They got the worst of the undercoat mishap and look therefore somewhat rough in places. They were a lot of fun to paint, though I must say that I'm not all that super happy with how they turned out except for that tall fellow (first one). What was I thinking with that weird pinkish colour for the clothes - no idea and I can't even remember what paints I used... :laugh:

Thank you for the encouraging comments! Much appreciated It's really simple - 1) GW Foundation paint Khemri Brown basecoat 2) wash of diluted Leviathan Purple 3) wash of Devlan Mud 4) then highlight of Khemri Brown 5-X) a couple of highlights with Khemri Brown adding progressively more Rotting Flesh and finally with pure Rotting Flesh.

And then the dapper gentleman himself. Decided to go with a white coat using Andrea White paintset. I do like painting the shadows but could've probably been a bit bolder both with the highlighting as well as the shading. I feel like I maybe should darkline the pink bits a bit more as at least from this angle the transition a bit weirdly from the white. What do you say?

Thank you for the kind words, everyone! Here's my second Samurai Punk Zombie. I was really unsure about what to do with the trousers... Ended up taking the easy way out.

Should a basic 35SS Ophelia crew contain one or two Slophaulers?

To be honest, that "everything is broken so none is"-model would work a lot better if everything indeed was broken. I mean, WM/Hordes players seem to honestly believe that while at the same time there's lots of units that never see play as they are considered severely sub optimal. As for Malifaux, I'm rather certain that most people agree that, say, Perdita is more broken than Ramos (to pick a random example). Not saying that using Perdita is cheesy, mind you. OTOH, the way I define cheesy is not "invincible" as most detractors seem to. As that's simply a stupid definition. I define it as being something that, when it works, gives the other player no chance to do "their thing" and leads to unsatisfying games. Then again, I enjoy a close-fought fight more than a massacre, no matter who wins (meaning that a close loss is preferable to a massacre win for me). Another funny thing with the people who think that nothing is broken is that cuddles happen. Now, if nothing is too powerful, then the developers are obviously wrong Cuddling things.

Those and Mechanical Doves would be awesome! Three of each, pretty please!

The mishap was probably due to strange humidity conditions or not vigorous enough shaking of the can or something like that. That said, I don't wash minis (except resin ones). Probably should, though - not denying that.

Then my Sybelle. I had an undercoat mishap that left the surface rough on some of my crew (Belles, Seamus and Necropunks). Doesn't matter on the tabletop (especially as zombies are welcome to be a bit rough) but shows a bit on the pics. A quick, fun paint job, not aiming for anything special. Haven't yet sealed it, so I can still fix some things. Like the handle of the riding crop (needs more definition - and what's that orange spot on the back of the handle?) and perhaps a bit of cleaning up on the arm and hand. The bootless leg and food could also use a bit more attention. So maybe fifteen minutes more work and then I'll call it ready. Pretty happy with the skin (it has purples in the shadows and greens in the highlights) and the white on the bodice is pretty much what I wanted it to be (soiled). What do you say?

I'm not spending huge amounts of time on these. All in all I find Malifaux minis very relaxing to paint - they have this certain roughness to them that I find kinda soothing. All of this is further accentuated by the fact that I'm painting undead, who are, by their very nature, very forgiving and don't need super smooth finishes. So yeah, here's a Samurai Punk Zombie. The other sword is bent but I couldn't get it straight. Luckily the mini is a zombie so it's not such a big deal. I do hate thin metal bits, though. Wanted to make him kinda bright but in a non-cheerful way. I like the face and swords, the skirt is less good (especially from the back, but it was kinda dark when I painted it) and the belt/loincloth-thingy should've probably been some colour further from the skin. Still, happy with the end results - works on the table top.

First of all, this is the first time that I've seen a good use of backdrop when photographing minis for something other than commercial publications. Very evocative! I also like that your photos are big enough to really appreciate the paint jobs. Then the minis. I like them. The extremely bold highlighting makes for a wonderfully painterly look that fits these models really well. I mean, that lamp post on the third Belle's base is absolutely brilliant! As for Bete, from the waist up she looks absolutely stunning. The skirt is a tad odd, though, with the black recesses being so uniformly black on wide areas. Her skin is amazing, though.

Aye, it's sorta funny in a sad way that the disadvantage of going with everyone is that in reality they go with no one (except von Schill).

Whoah! I always played it so that it ended at the next closing phase and it was already powerful (keeping Bishop off my back, for example). Being permanent makes it insanely powerful! Seamus can use Soul Stones so can almost guarantee success with the spell - making every enemy close combatant permanently useless seems crazy huge. Am I overlooking something?

Oh, wow! Thank you! Was driving me nuts.

As the title says - :malicrows looks just like a weird X and not like a bird. What is it supposed to be? I feel a bit like looking at those "magical" point pictures that look like an incomprehensible mass of dots but when looked at in a certain way turn out to be an actual image of something.

You can find some clues to future rules and models in the rulebook (hint: see for example page 20)

Is this only about Masters? If not, Bete Noire is pretty tough to take down as well...

Ooh, I like this one a lot! I'd rate this as one of your best works here - very nice. The skin tones work well and the hair look good. And the base nicely complements the posture of the mini.

I love love love the stump! It oozes character - the teeth, the expression... Brilliant! Also like your bases very much - they have a great deal of old school charm to them. You also have a very nice hand to writing - such precise letters! Very cool.

Out of all your Death Marshals I like this one the best. The blue ghostly stuff looks great!

I dislike doubling up on minis - especially so in skirmish games. Our gaming group has played Hell Dorado, Infinity, Alkemy and Confrontation basically without doubling up even though in some cases it can lead to a pretty huge advantage. Is it required in Malifaux? At least some of the Resurrectionists seem to kinda need it (Seamus summoning up new Belles for example). Gremlins also look like they would benefit rather greatly from having more of the little blighters. So, if doubling (or tripling) up is kinda necessary, are there plans on making alternative sculpts of the most crucial fodder? Conversions are naturally one approach, but not every mini lends itself easily to conversion with my poor skills. How do other people feel about using multiple copies of the same mini?

The drone doom band Earth made a very cool all-instrumental-with-clean-guitars album called Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method, which sounds like a very desolate and lonely Western soundtrack without being soundtracky. Highly recommended.

Interesting discussion (and remarkably civil - kudos to everyone!). I'm more of a gamer than a painter but I do like the painting aspect as well. It's just that I need deadlines to really get something done and getting my force painted because there is a tourney coming is as powerful an incentive as a painting competition deadline. I would never win a painting comp, but I do win tourneys. I also hold tournaments. We would like to be able to impose an obligation to having a painted force, but unfortunately I don't organize tournaments for big games like 40k or WM or such, but rather Confrontation 3rd and Hell Dorado and well, beggars can't be choosers. We would lack players if we imposed painting. Instead we have imposed undercoating, which already makes the minis look much better than metal (especially white undercoat). And even then, we never turn anyone away - especially new players. Now, small local tourneys aside, a big tournament is like a carnival and I think that it should embrace all the sides of the hobby. I don't think that it is crazy to necessitate painted forces in the way that BugKing(?) said earlier of undercoat and two colour polka dots being enough for the three colours. I mean, you can paint a big force in a matter of minutes by first spraying them fully with gray and then, from a bit farther away, with white. This gives a good basis for painting, as well. Then just paint their eyes red or something and you have a nice force of ghosts that look really quite nice on the gaming table. And you can paint them better at your leisure if that is your style or leave them be - as you like. So yeah, I kinda agree with the OP that painting a crew of 5-15 models shouldn't be an insurmountable task. Still, that said, I would love a way to make this a carrot instead of a stick situation and I fully realize "the opposition's" view point as well. Giving a painting prize is of course all well and dandy, but while I'm an OK painter (after 17 years of practice) I'm not that good. I would never win a best painted prize in a tournament. So that carrot doesn't work all that well. Our local big tournaments have experimented with differing ways of doling out points for painting and my personal favourite is a clearly tiered system where you get, say, one point if your bases are done, three points if you have a fully painted force and three points on top of that if you have shaded and highlighted your force. The quality of the painting/shading/highlighting/basing isn't an issue. If you've done it, you get the points. I forgot whether I had more stuff to say, but I think I've said kinda plenty already. Thank you for the interesting and civilized discussion of the topic, everyone. Been a pleasure reading all of it