Math Mathonwy

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.

The Viks make for a bad brawl list, basically no matter who they get paired up with.

Unfortunate, but true.

The disadvantage of going with everyone.

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).

Undead Psychosis, lasts for the rest of the game and force the model to move before any other action if undead within 3". Can neutralize a melee model.

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?

It's two crossed feathers!

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.

what are the new books going to be about.

1-are they gonna only introduce new models,

2-new models with only a few extra rules mostly concerning the models relaeased with the book (ala privateer press,

3- whole new rules (i<d kill for a great campaign setting like Dog of wars (confrontation))

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

Oh wow, really liking what I see here! Extremely nice! Love the fact that your ice golem and gamins are similar colours but painted differently so that the Gamin look organic while the Golem looks like it's made out of ice. All in all I adore that golem - very, very good, has a sort of SENMM vibe to it.

And Rasputina then. Very nice whites and blacks. The skin, the darklining, everything is spot on from painting style to colour choice.

Any close-ups in the future?

Great progress! I love the fact that they look like they belong in the same crew despite having very different colour schemes simply through you using a couple of the same colours (the red scarf on the Judge, for example) and keeping the overall tone of the colours the same. Very nice!

Mind you, the Death Marshalls were also my reason for picking up the Guild. Absolutely brilliant models! Really looking forward to seeing your take on them.

Nice colour scheme! I like the red and the hair complements the look very well.

One thing I might touch up would be the black-lining between the boobs and the corset to make it uniform with the one on the arm.

Keep up the good work - can't wait to see the rest of the crew!

Thank you all for the well-wishes!

We've been living under the same roof for three years now and we're very much in love - getting married was a very logical step for us.

I've been all quiet lately and unfortunately skimped my duties as a Malifaux playtester. The rules were awesome, though, so I will be picking up the rulebook for sure. The reason for my lack of time was a wedding.

My (now) wife likes cows. I like Confrontation minis. We got married:

Nothing all that special, really, painting-wise. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to make them as nice as I would've wanted. While the bride was out getting her hair and make-up done, I was furiously painting away

So yeah, lots of things that I'm not happy with, but OTOH for most of the wedding guests these were the first minis they had seen, so no biggie.

The three weeks of honeymoon in the Caribbean sun behind us now, so got to post these finally.

Liking this one a lot! Very nice. And the additional time taken with the metals paid off, it seems. Love the expression, btw. Makes the guy look downright dangerous. Like a brooding, dark hero from weird west or something! Wait...

So did you hear back from them, Malebolgia?

I emailed Joss about the English version of Genesis over a week ago and received no reply. Usually he has been super approachable, so I hope that all is well with them.

Really liking the minis they produce - they have a very unique style.

Beautiful! The roses are just spot on in all ways and I really like the atmosphere.

Hot damn!

That's one brilliant model! The colour choices are very bold and powerful and the limited palette makes for a very sinister look. And the eyes certainly draw the viewers attention - a great focal point. How did you have time to do this so quickly after the corpse cart?

P.S. what is that red thing on the side without the shield?

I did this for the competition over at WAMP forums.

I'm rather happy with the piece and feel that it's probably my strongest to date. I went with a very muted, light, limited palette only broken by the blindfold. In hindsight the blindfold could've been even more bright as the angle of the head casts it in a bit of a shadow.

The photo took some of the green shade away from the scabbard and the holsters - they are actually different in hue to the other leathery off-white parts. Of course I'm not sure whether that adds to or detracts from the piece :laugh:

Weak parts. Hair - I'm not good with hair. The somewhat cool highlight/shading in the back is accentuated by the natural shadows of the mini - in reality it isn't even that good. And the base is way simple.

But, other than those, like I said, I really like her and feel that the comp pushed me a bit further along, so thank you WAMP-people.

Oh yeah, the pic:

How do you like her?