piete

I'm in the UK, and I've had a lot of success with something called "Gunk Green Engine Degreaser". It's easy to get a hold of in Halfords, comes in reasonably large containers and is biodegradable. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_700554_langId_-1_categoryId_165713 Shove all your models in a big pot and leave to marinade over night or longer, depending on how much paint and how old it is. You'll get immediate results with newer paint, I suspect. Just be aware that although it's "green", it *is* a pretty powerful degreaser, so will strip EVERYTHING, including oil from natural wood furniture. Cover everything before you go at your miniatures with a toothbrush, or you'll get little spots degreased all over your living room. Better yet, do it outside! Yeah, that may be first hand experience ... :whistle: - Piete.

Awesome thread, and fantastic idea! I had no idea you could get custom-printed cards and the mocks I've seen are sublime; my virtual hat off to you sir! You asked originally if anyone plays with a normal deck. I do! I play a cheap pack of playing cards that I've taken a permanent marker to. So I've marked the front of the cards with the numeric Malifaux-values (J, K, Q, Jokers) and found a little scribbled short hand for the symbol. Crows :crows - a simple cross Masks :masks - a kind of squat, deformed H shape Tomes :tomes - simple open book (offset square with a line down the middle) Rams :rams - a curly squiggle I've only played a few games, but the biggest draw of the "real" decks for me is the fact the symbols and numbers are the main focus of the cards, and therefore one less translation for my newbie mind to have to make. <del>If</del> When I <del>blatently rip off</del> borrow your idea and build my own deck, I'd definitely want the symbols to be made the primary focus so I wasn't having to go through the mental leaps of "does this symbol match that one, so can I activate that trigger?". Especially important when the miniature cards have tiny symbols on them and I've forgotten my glasses ... Just off the top of my head, putting one really large icon as a watermark on the background of a standard, mostly transparent playing card (so the symbols shines through as much as it can without being obscured or obscuring the existing numbering and suite symbols), would fix the major failing of the playing-cards-with-marker-pen approach I use now. I suppose another approach would be to drop the existing mali-suit over the top of the card suit, so you've got a duality of symbol in there (rather than remaking the mali-suit into a card, as you've done. Did I mention it was awesome? Because it is.) Of course, once you're familiar with your deck, your crew and the game, it doesn't actually matter what cards you're laying down so long as there's a consistency about them. I'm just speaking as a beginner here - Piete.

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro-painter, so YMMV! In general terms, everyone else has brought some great advice to the table, so pay attention to that. In specific terms, for Nino, I highly recommend glueing/sticking/cleaning up before painting. The gun/hand is (in paint terms) a long way away from the rest of the model, so painting after assembly isn't such a problem as it might look when you first come accross this issue. Why do it this way, when painting before would be 'easier' ? Because as mentioned, getting the model stuck together can be difficult (parts not flush, flash causing issues, pinning maybe needed etc), and nothing worse than ruining a nice paint job with way too much glue or a heavy hand with a pin drill. I use a spray undercoat, which had no problems coating the area between the hand and his face, and anything underneath the arm will be in shadow anyway, so a nice wash cleans up all that. Here's my Nino: http://pics.pesartain.com/gaming/malifaux/ortega/img_1943.jpg (and the gallery that goes with it: http://pesartain.com/games/malifaux/ortega_gallery) I'd be happy to get you more pictures from different angles if you want to see what's been painted and what's been skipped and hidden with 'paint shadows' - Piete.

There have been a few conversations of that guy generally, and I converted him into a Hooded Rider: http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15981 As Mathieu in that thread suggests, if you're going to use him as a base, might be worth lengthening the back legs of the horse and either finding a new head, or greenstuffing some new eyes on! One of the most awesome conversions (not for Malifaux) was this: http://old.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=187476 But there have been other 'Rider conversions and scratch builds, too: http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9043 http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11977 http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15400 I love the conversion process, and seeing the unique pieces, so I really look forward to seeing what you come up with! Happy hacking, - Piete.

dgraz: thank you mathieu: I felt the horse was off, but couldn't put my finger on the problem, so was busy thinking it was just me. I should probably hate the fact you pointed the problems out, but I'm so grateful you added some solutions to the issue as well! As you can kinda see, I've reposed it a bit (bending the hind legs took a lot of effort!), but adding some leg extensions looks like a plan, and on the eye front ... maybe I can green stuff a solution to those ... Thanks again guys, definitely going to take a look at those solutions.

I realise the mysterious Rider has now been unveiled, but here's something I did pre-unveiling, still to be painted. I think there's some opportunity for further detailing on the sword and probably the horse. I've heard references to a few people using the same base model - Darragh Wrath off of Warmachine - but not seen to many conversions. Anyway, enjoy! Gallery available here for more shots: http://pesartain.com/games/malifaux/hooded_rider_gallery Thanks for looking! - Piete.

Well played that man! I've been scavenging around looking for better waifs too. I'd found the Deathwalker, who I liked, but couldn't decide if Hasslefree were too small for the scale. It's great seeing them side-by-side like that, definitely solidified my plans to grab some of those. Cheers, - Piete.

Rock on. FWIW, I've been using the humbrol spray undercoat (a medium grey) and then their matte black over the top if I need to base them black. I've been really impressed. Even when I've been a bit gung-ho with the can, I've not managed to obscure any of the details. Regardless, keep us updated with your progress!

I echo the general sentiment here, it's lovely to see so much gorgeous work in one place (so nicely arranged, too!). It's important to have aspirations to be even half a good, one day. Not to derail the thread too much I hope, but do you know how the West Wind sculpts stand up in size against the Wyrd range? I'm desperately looking for to add some alternates in, but finding it hard to really judge the scale. I bought some Copplestone casts for another project, and they are so small I fear they'd vanish if you put them on a 30mm base (they come with 25mm bases)! Anyway, back on topic ... shameless pimp away, especially when you have new Malifaux to show!

Thank you for the kind words! Good call on the SPA flesh: after some more thought I settled on a method for sorting the remaining 3 abominations, so painted them up. In retrospect I should have started with the Desolation Engine and back-ported the method and colour scheme, since that's been one of the hardest models I've ever had to paint. The detail on the DE sculpt are tiny and really hard to pick out adequately in using the palette I'd chosen for the SPAs, even after some adjustments. My photography hides many of the details my eyes complain about, but they look pretty good on the table. I can see lots of parts on the SPAs that could combine to make a DE, which was really what I wanted to try and capture. More pictures available in the gallery, including some close ups of the bases. Still not completely happy with the bases, but not entirely sure how to proceed either. I probably need to take more care with my picture-taking, really. More to come in a few weeks though, I'm sure! I found the perfect conversion starting point for a Hooded Rider, too ...

I've been lurking a little while, and I'm really impressed with the community here. You all seem so supportive! So far I've played about 1/100th of a game (we did a quick mini-vs-mini to see how the rules worked), so I really don't know anything except that I really enjoy the painting. Last couple of weeks back I finished off the Ortegas: Full gallery: http://pesartain.com/games/malifaux/ortega_gallery And I'm currently working on a Leveticus crew with SPAs + Desolation Engine. At the time, there were no SPAs, so I improvised: Full gallery: http://pesartain.com/games/malifaux/leveticus_gallery I've had no luck with the photography on the SPAs (hence the undercoat picture, rather than one of the ropey colour ones in the gallery), so my apologies for the poor quality. All of the Malifaux miniatures represent a lot of firsts for me: * first putty (milliput) use (bases and sculpting) * first custom bases beyond superglue + sand * first major conversion (SPAs are Mechanithralls + ghouls) * first time I've had little to no uniformity between models, just lots of singles to paint * first try on non-metallic metals (total fail ... ) * first try with rust (not a fail, but hardly a success!) * first pinning (using the no-pin technique for bases - success!) And so on ... ! I know the Ortega's look unusual on cobblestone, but I wanted to base them nicely something, and have had quite enough of sand for now! Hopefully the Leveticus bases will come out okay in the end. I had a hell of a time getting the colours right on the SPAs, too. Apparently I don't know how to paint flesh when it's not flesh coloured ... I was aiming for a scheme similar to the Desolation Engine as depicted on the packaging, but ended up with a kind of neon pinky purple that had to get washed down. A lot. All feedback is welcome, but since I've had mixed successes with a lot of the new stuff, advice in that direction is especially welcome! *deep breath* Okay, I'm ready ... hit me with the critique ... - Piete.

A lot of people using the "gaming" paints here! I started painting with Citadel and later GW (I still have some wet Citadel paints 10+ years old, but the GW replacements are pretty much all dried up now), and haven't played with any of the other gaming varieties (although I love the bottles with the droppers on!), but recently discovered that I can use artists acrylic paints instead. This is especially handy since it saves buying a lot of paint that dries up within a year (ahem, GW) and gives better value - letting me spend more on miniatures! Coverage is good, although it can take a bit more time to get the flow right on some colours (water + flow improver helps), and I can get them in really really big pots. Paint tubes like this are about £2 / 75ml. Contrast this with the Vallejo 17ml bottles at £1.30, or the GW 12ml (!) bottles at £2. Even the W&N artist acrylics are only £2.40 / 60ml! I do spend a lot of time mixing up colours for just-the-right-brown and dagnamnit-i-wish-i-had-more-flesh-tone-variety, but with most of the Malifaux miniatures being uniques, I'm not worried about trying to create a massively consistent army, so having each one truly one off it nice. Washes are colour + water + flow improver (usually + black, too), and some careful application. Probably the oldschool way to do things, I haven't kept up with the kids on basing and washing ... Anyone else found other non-gaming paints to work with? Sorry for the ramble, first post here - got excited - Piete.