Heldrak

Pardon my glove if this question has been asked before, but can you tell us about the houses depicted in this battle report? Are they scratch-built or a commercial product?

(Great report, by the way...!)

While I like the suggestions for a Circus crew and for civilian models, I suppose that new stuff we get will be relevant to the future book(s).

An Asian-influenced Ten Thunders crew sounds like a nice idea to me (or even several of them in a whole new faction). Also, I'd like to see some alternative sculpts for models you tend to need a lot of (Rotten Belles and other summoned undead, etc.). More/different base inserts, markers and terrain pieces would be very welcome as well.

The pictures are helpful. I can't really see the warp in the top photo, but it's clear in the bottom photo.

What you want to do in this case is make some micro-bends, starting at the first point where the blade deviates from true (this will take the entire blade off center) then make another micro-bend right above the first in the opposite direction to bring the blade straight (you may need to perform this operation twice, at both the top & bottom of the bulge in the blade). When you finished the blade should look mostly straight, and you can finish off by gently pulling the blade at the tip to finish the straightening. You are fortunate in this case, as the blade does not appear to have twisted at all (untwisting can be a lot tougher than simple straightening).

See how that works for you- Good luck!

Sword bending can be tricky. Often, the rigors of the casting, packing & shipping processes can result in a blade that is "wavy gravy". Some people avoid this problem by removing the sword blade entirely and pinning a new piece of flattened wire that was been cut and filed to the correct shape beforehand, but I find that you can use the factory original blade(s) if you're careful. Often, it is a case of not only bending, but also twisting and pulling the blade so that it finally assumes the correct position.

What you have to do is start at the very base of the blade (near the hilt) and carefully straighten it all the way up its length. Sometimes, if you have minor imperfections in the final result, you can correct these by carefully filing the blade along its planes until it looks straight.

If you want to post of photo of the particular figure you're having the problem with, it might be easier to advise on a fix. Sword-bending is a nerve-wracking problem at the best of times, one that gives even experienced modelers fits.

Thanks for the head's-up! I knew that it was coming back, but I wasn't sure exactly when...

Nice vivid color scheme, and the "Baron Samedi" makeup choice for Marcus is inspired!

It's a bit of a haul down our way, but you can certainly get on board with the Pandy league.

Don't overlook RIW in Livonia on Tuesday nights if you can ever make it down for that, too! We'd love to have you.

Thanks, that's an easier make for me than Pandy as I'm out in Livonia on other business once a week anyway. What time on Tuesdays?

Where you located in Michigan, Heldrak?

I'm in Royal Oak. I was contemplating joining the Faction War league at Pandemonium, but I didn't finish painting my Ortegas in time...!

I like the glowing eye effect as well. You might want to consider running a dark separation line between her legs, as her legs and socks are rather running together into single blobs of color.

The ice-chip bases are a nice touch- How did you do them? It would be nice to see some closer shots against a neutral background so we could see more details.

It does sounds like you have too much paint loaded on your brush. A wash should "stain" the paint underneath, but only in the area you apply it.

I wouldn't run out and buy Matte Medium just yet. If you are starting out, try and keep it simple. Have a look at this excellent tutorial on the Reaper site, its called How to Blend, but olliekickflip is really talking about washing/juicing technique.

http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32050&st=0

While the article you attach is full of excellent helpful information, I would hardly describe the techniques it describes as "simple" in comparison with the expedient of acquiring a bottle of matte medium and adding a drop to your wash...!

I agree about the pink cloak, I think that a darker red would be more effective. You might also want to drill out the barrel of his pistol, or at least put a dab of black paint at the tip.

As regards the handle of the hammer, since it's supposed to be a relic, how about a cracked stone effect?

One hesitates to give advice to such an expert, but since you did ask...

1. I think that a still would be an excellent, characterful piece of terrain for this board (So'merteeth has to get his 'shine from somewhere...).

2. Other pieces of stereotypical "Hilbilly-themed" terrain might also be fun- Roadside fruit & vegetable stand, rusted-out car(s), outhouse, smokehouse, etc.

One solution that you may find is to add a drop of matte medium to your wash. The wash then retains the transparency of a wash, but the matte medium thickens the wash to a consistency that is more like paint (giving you more control). Vallejo and Reaper both sell matte medium in dropper bottles as part of their respective paint lines, or you may also be able to get some from an art supply store.

Wow! Beautiful water effects...!

why 3-D when models can occupy the space on top of the counters, flat/2-D ones as punch out tokens or a page in the back of the next rulebook (that we can photocopy) would be better.

I disagree. When you have exquisitely-modeled figures and terrain, why have flat boring tokens? 3-D counters make the game board look better and help provide a more immersive gaming experience.

In a sticky in the battle report thread it mentions limited edition Wyrd miniatures as a prize for narrative battle reports. Is there a gallery somewhere of previous limited edition Wyrd miniatures?

I like the idea of sleeves for cards, but the most needful thing would seem to be a set of 3-dimensional tokens for scrap and corpse counters. Perhaps they could be cast in a cheaper resin (since one might well need quite a lot of them). They could be done as base inserts and then they could pull double-duty as scenic bases as well.

Apparently the Jonah Hex movie had a very troubled production history (directors fired, release delayed several times for re-shoots, re-editing, etc.) so I wouldn't hold out high hopes for this one. Advance rumors say it's a fiasco.

Hello, everybody.

Michael "Heldrak" Garza here. Some of you may know me from various other forums (I was the bronze medalist in this year's LPL painting contest over on the Lead Adventure Forum).

It's nice to be here. I just picked up a box of Ortegas and my Malifaux rulebook is on the way...!

These fellows were done using GW Rotting Flesh, plus increasing proportions of Foundry White. They also had a wash made of equal portions of older GW brown and purple washes (note that these were the older thinner GW washes, not the current gooey ones):

Here's an individual picture so you can get a better look at the effect:

These fellows were done using GW Rotting Flesh, plus increasing proportions of Foundry White. They also had a wash made of equal portions of older GW brown and purple washes (note that these were the older, thinner washes, not the current gooey ones):