guynamedFleck

This kind of metal is the base for most of my Warhammer 40k ork army. The process is fairly straight forward, it just takes a few extra steps. Start with a black base coat (primer). First drybrush with Dwarf Bronze followed by a drybrush of Boltmetal Gun. Then give it a wash with a mixture of Thraka Green and Asurmen Blue (I mix up the washes about 50/50 and then water this down about 4 to 1). By drybrushing, you really get a nice and worn out metal effect. Then the wash will really pull out the verdigris effect, watered down it really hits the recesses and tends to pull in the large flat surfaces. If you feel it needs more "brass" you can always reverse the drybrush order or do a second drybrush of brass over the top of the wash. I tried to find a good shot of the finished product for you, but it seems I haven't taken any, haha. This tank uses a similar process, but is perhaps less "brass" than what you are shooting for. It should still give you the general idea though. Hope this helps.

Another bit of work done on the boards. I spent an evening finishing off the wood floors of the platform. I still need to do the same for the clock tower on the second board and do the wood floors in the upper levels of the buildings. I also put in a good four hours "sanding" the ground around the tracks and getting started on the cobblestones. Here's the current progress. Next Sunday was the unofficial finish date for the board. If I really push on, I may still be able to make it. We will see, there is a lot of cobble stone on these boards and I still have the train to build! Suppose I should figure out a way to make the breech too... Oh well, until next time!

This is a really great concept for a malifaux board. Of coarse it could only be improved by a few custom crews to match into the setting (you've got my cogs spinning on a great demo setup!). I kind of see it going one of two ways... Either falling in style with the opening battle scene of "Gangs of New York," everything is really earthy in browns and grays, save for the bright blue sashes. Or like "Pleasantville," with a truly black/white city, peppered with oddly, full color elements. This could be really cool with the crews standing out fully painted, as well as the random terrain element in full color (thinking creepy structure?). Just a couple of thoughts. Great concept, I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Apologies for the extended absence, I got caught up in all my other hobby for a bit. On the plus side, I've finished off another 6 models for my guild crew, got a start on my Seamus crew as well as knocked out a few mini's for Pulp City! Anyway, finally got another bit of work done on the last two boards. I've knocked out the rough construction for the platform buildings. I just need to go back and lay the wood floors and piece in the rest of the platform boards around the structures. The plan was to have two more buildings at street level on the board with the breech, but it seems I have run out of mordheim buildings, so I will have to come up with an alternative. In the meantime, here is what I got knocked together. A close up on the train station. And once again, a shot of the two train layout options. I think I'm leaning toward the second option. Like most have said, it offers a bit of LOS blocking (and looks cooler). The piece of white card would be a flat carriage exiting the breech so that you could move uninterrupted from one side of the platform to the other. The coal car is flat enough and low enough to make it viable to climb over. Hope you all enjoy the update!

Thanks for the comments! @Da Big Baws - My Guild are all based using Dues Ex Machina inserts from IronHalo.net, a company based in New Zealand. (great bases, but a bit of a pain every time I need more, since I have to ship them from NZ). This shot is a bit old, but it show off a few more of the base inserts.

Let me preface this by saying it is purely a question that came up in conversation, NOT in game play (we may be crazy, but not that crazy!). Many have probably realized the slightly odd interaction between Rasputina's Ice Pillars and Sonnia's Flame Wall (3 Dg fire will not destroy/melt the Hardness 3 ice), but I do have a question about another interaction. As stated above, if the Ice Pillar is cast first it will create a Ht 3 pillar. If Flame Wall is cast over this, it could create a Ht 5 pillar in the same area. First question: How does the interaction represent in the 3rd dimension? Does the Flame Wall sit on top of the Ice Pillar, thus creating Ht 3 impassable terrain + Ht 5 cover (with 3 Dg) = Ht 8 overall? Or do the two interact, giving a Ht 5 cover with the first 3 Ht proving impassable (3 Dg for contact)? According to the Ice Pillar wording it is terrain, so I would draw the conclusion that the Fire Wall would sit on top (creating a Ht 8 pillar). Now that all seems pretty logical. The real brain twister is, what happens when the order of events is reversed? What if the Flame Wall is cast first? If logic follows from the above argument, the Flame Wall would leave a Ht 5 pillar of cover and the Ice Pillar would then stack on top leaving a Ht 3 impassable terrain, for a grand total of Ht 8 with various effects. Now taking the question one step further. What happens in the End Close Phase (when the Flame Wall disappears)? Does the Ice Pillar come crashing to the ground, or does it stay floating in the air starting at Ht 5 and ending at Ht8? The only argument to this conclusion would be that the Flame Wall is a marker (and thus not 'terrain', pg18 mini rulebook), so the Ice Wall would occupy the same space creating the Ht 5 with Ht 3 impassable). So to Recap. 1)How does a Flame Wall marker act when placed on top of an Ice Pillar marker? 2) How does an Ice Pillar marker act when placed on to of a Flame Wall marker? 2a)If the Ice Pillar marker sits on top of the Flame Wall marker, does the ice "float" above the table (at Ht 5) once the flame marker is removed? Just a fun little thought, I don't expect it to be a game changing breakthrough, but still curious... Thoughts?

After trading away my gremlins and Zoraida crews to fill out my guild collection, I realized that I no longer had a viable second crew for the purpose of demos (guild on guild doesn't really paint the full picture of Malifaux). With a dead justice box sitting on the hobby table starting to collect dust, it only seemed right to put them to proper use in game. So I picked up the Seamus starter and some cobblestone bases (to match my victorian city table)! Looks like the poor girl didn't survive when the building collapsed after all, haha. Here is the first finished model for the crew, Seamus himself! He still needs to be sealed, so the cobblestone base will lose its shine. I'm looking forward to painting up dead justices' crew, though those models look like a daunting task! So much detail, I hope I can do them justice (no pun intended)!

Thanks for the comments! My original thought was to go way over the top and match the fluff by converting a hunter to stand upright and then attach Hoff at the hip. Sadly(or luckily!), I did not have a spare hunter on hand to attempt the conversion. The logistics of fitting the two on a 30mm base alone would have driven me insane, haha. I'm rather happy at how this alternative came out. I've been waiting nearly 3 weeks for my base inserts to arrive in the mail, but couldn't hold off painting this guys any longer. hopefully that means the mail gods will smile upon me and deliver he package tomorrow! Enough rambling, here he is in all his 'assisted' glory! And Hoffman along with his trusty Hunter (though sadly not attached at the hip!).

I've been slowly shifting my malifaux collection focus to center around the Guild faction. For some reason my collection had grown to include all the current Guild models except for Hoffman. I had convinced myself that I did not like Hoffman for some reason or another. Long story short, I realized that it was really just the static nature of the models that was deterring me from playing him (nothing against wyrd, I absolutely love 99% of the models, this was just "one of those models.") Well, I ended up picking up Hoffman after taking 2nd in a tourney this past weekend and set to conducting a minor conversion in an attempt to overcome my negative view on Hoffman's model. I came to the conclusion that it was the mechanical backpack extension bits that were causing my issues. It just seemed like the gear was an afterthought and not really a solution to the poor mans disability. A bit of cutting, bending, and the addition of plastic rods and paperclips later, you can see my new and improved Hoffman. Simple, but I think rather effective. A few 1/8" extensions really reiterate the fact that his upgrades are doing the "heavy lifting" for him. Now if only my base inserts would get here from NZ!

Thank you for all the great comments! I actually got to use the supply wagon for the first time at a local tournament today! It was a blast and apparently a good luck charm! I ended up with a tie for 2nd place!

Got another good session of work in on the boards. I managed to finish up the wood floors of the train platform for both boards and laid the tracks. Next step will probably be the buildings. I'm not sure if I have enough mordheim buildings left to finish the boards as planned, so I'll start with the train station and see how far I make it. I may have to redesign the rest of the second board depending on how far I can make my supplies stretch. Here is an overall shot of the two boards as they stand. The blank spots on the platform are where the two structures will sit (no use "planking" sections that will be covered later). A close up of the first board. The original plan had the train running straight to the breech. My turn was a little sharp for a legitimate track, so I opted to add in a split, 1) to help mask the turn and 2) because it made sense as well as added a bit more detail to the space. For the most part the tracks are scratch built, but I had a bit of track left from the train kit I used on my display board. No use spending time steaming and bending balsa when I had perfectly good curved rails laying around. A close up of the second board. I'm really happy with how the platform came out. I really look forward to seeing the train station sitting on top of it! The breech is still WIP, I added the top piece last night. I still plan to add more (steam......wyrd-ish) detail as it comes together. I figured a scale shot might be of interest to everyone, so as always, the ever vigilant Rasputina was more than happy to step in front of the camera! Just as the "Holiday Express" passed through the breech it would seem... So the question quickly becomes... How do we populate the train station? Option 1: Empty Breech. Just the swirly, silvery blue gate. Option 2: Engine emerging from the breech. Option 3: Whole train emerging from the breech. Obviously with options 2 and 3, the car passing through the breech will be "cut" and appearing from the silvery blue "event horizon". I look forward to everyone's thoughts and ideas!

Well, I caught up with my painting and have all of my current guild force (minus the enslaved nephlim) painted up. I also got suckered into the flgs current campaign. The campaign ends sometime around Thanksgiving, so I have set that as an unofficial cut off date for the last two boards. With that as incentive, I got another good nights work in on the train storage yard (definitely needs a catchier name) board. I opted to save some time and use some rough stone blocks that were already cast to build the platform. For a similar reason, I had capped the retaining wall in the same stone, so I think it ties in the transition rather nicely. The platform is finished, complete with the wooden floor and I also started laying the tracks. Here is the board as it stands. The first of the railroad ties/sleepers. After a few test games with the other platform (and breaking the movable stairs when I forget they were not attached while cleaning up), I opted to attach the stairs to this platform. Due to the location, there weren't many options for a movable set anyway. One last shot down the tracks. That's all for now, back to the grindstone!

Thanks for the comments! She is an old Confrontation, Griffin Misericord model. All I had to do was file off the shoulder spike and she was ready for paint. Only thing I wish the model had was boots, but hey, beggers can't be choosers!

Hey all, thanks for the comments. I realize I must be slacking if the thread dropped to the second page! My apologies. With the fall tourney scene creeping up I have been quickly painting up models to increase my options for crews (check out my witchling handler conversion in the showcase section!) Anyway, wanted to do a quick update, however small it may be! All the painting has made me less than eager to cast the needed hirst arts blocks for the last platform. I did manage to scrap together enough random blocks to complete the retaining wall along side the railway track and spent a good day detailing that. I've also laid out the plan for the tracks. Here are a few shots to give you an idea of the slow progress... Thats all for now. I hope to get some more work done on it this week, but there is of coarse another tourney this weekend, so we shall see what wins out in the end...

Call me crazy, but part of my enjoyment in any game is playing with a fully painted army (also I believe in using the models you have rather than proxying). That being said, I really wanted to use a Witchling Handler! The rules and the fluff were just too good to wait for an official model release. With a tourney at the flgs this past weekend, I set to finding a suitable model and getting it painted up! Here was my the result of my attempt at the witchling handler... What do you think? Sadly I failed to find a suitable aviator capped head, but I'm pretty sure this girl could order around a few witchlings, no problem!

I was hastily putting the finishing touch on my warmachine gunmage unit the morning of a tourney. Not wanting to waste precious time taking them outside to mat seal them, I slide open the window, grabbed my sealer and gave the unit a quick blast. Not realizing the humidity level was through the roof that day, I quickly turned my beautifully painted unit into a cloudy, fogged mess. All that work for a painting score and it was ruined in one spray of the sealer... my heart felt sympathy goes out to you!

Quick update. I finished up the foundations for the last two boards and thought I'd post a few photos so you can get an idea for their layout. Here are the two boards together with a start of the block work. Also the train for scaling and the framework for the lesser breach administering to the town! And a few close up shots of the train platform framing along with the breach gate. There is still a good bit of block work to be done and there will be a considerable amount of shaping done to the gate. I just loved the idea of a train station being built around a lesser breach, eventually leading to an entire town thriving on its commerce. Not sure if my Guild crews would be to happy about the event though, haha.

Sure thing, any stuff like "crates and barrels" are always welcome to populate the city. Frank is working on painting up some resin water troths and sacks of food. I've had thoughts about a small market setup for the platform near the harbor. Or a circus setup! Any bits and bobs are welcome to give the table more set up options. ---- Well the demo went really well on Thursday, everyone really gave it a great reception! The boards have taken their official place hanging on the walls ready for use. Frank and I set up a proper 50pt brawl to give it a test. Lady J and Sonnia faced off against McMourning and Nicodem. The board played really well and offered a lot of fun options during the game. Unfortunately, we only managed to get through 3 turns before having to clean up the game. Friday night I set up the board for another 50pt brawl with another shop regular. This time Lady J and Sonnia took on Ramos and Colette. Not only my first time playing against Colette, it was also my second game against an avatar form! We actually opted to rotate the table 90 degrees and let the Guild defend the city while the arcanists arrived "via bo-at". Much to my delight, the board is also very playable in this direction, as well! Enough typing, on to the pictures! A close up of the various boards. A few shots from the first demo with Frank. Slightly blurry, but on of my favorite moments during turn 1. Sonnia and crew strolling up Main Street! Justice and friends arrive via bo-at. McMourning in stand off at the other end of Main Street. A few turns in. Saturday's game against the Arcanists. Colette and Ramos revue the battlefield from their bo-at. Most epic moment to date in my Malifaux career, I just had to share a picture! The games random feature, foggy, kicked in for the first time on turn 4 (or was it 5?). Sonnia made an aggressive push towards the bo-at in order to take out a few remaining mannequins assisting Colette. Ramos, activating next, met his requirements to turn into his avatar form, uses leap to jump the harbor and attack Sonnia. Luckily, between the fog and luck, Sonnia comes through uninjured. Activating next, the Executioner charges through the fog and manages to decapitate the unsuspecting eRamos in one swing! Talk about a fluffy ending! Haha! And that is the end of our epic journey from 2'x2' demo board to a full scale 4'x4' Victorian City... or is it? Well, perhaps its me going crazy, or perhaps just sticking to the original plan. After seeing the finished 4'x4' board and how much fun it was to play on. I decided to forge ahead with the last 2 sections of the city, the train station! I started assembling the foundations, here you can see the progress. The raised area of the closer board will eventually extend the full width, but I ran out of foam and didn't have the extra piece when I took this shot. The plan laid out... A lucky find at the dollar store (becoming my 2nd malifaux train courtesy of the dollar store!). Here in place to test the height of the platform. That's all for now. Thanks for the encouragement during the first build, hopefully the next two will be just as entertaining!

That train set looks great, it should work out perfectly! The style looks very similar to one I picked up at a dollar store around christmas and used on my display board. If I remember tonight I will check your measurements against mine (It's on display at the flgs).

The shingles are actually really easy to make. You can find craft scissors with quiet a few different patterned blades in the scrapbooking section of your local hobby store (michael's in my case). I happened to use a pair that cuts in a zig-zag pattern. I then just cut strips out of an old cereal box (the strips are about 1/4" - 1/2" wide). Use a hobby knife to cut the space between the shingles ( don't completely separate them, you want them the stay in a single easy to handle strip). And then work your way from bottom to top overlapping the strips. For the caravan, I did it the easy way and had a piece of wood at the peak of the roof. you can also cut individual tiles and run them in an overlapping line down the roof peak as a shingle cap. hope this helps in your venture. I really need to get book 3, I had no idea there was a caravan unit added to the game! Maybe this new circus kick will be a reason to dig out zorida and make that doll force I had always thought about?

Nice work! I had heard the origin story for superglue but never new anyone that had actually used it in the field! --- Frank finished up the Bo-At and sent it home with me Friday night. Saturday morning I was up and straight into the workshop for the install! Easy task, ridiculously eventful (read: drawn out) process. All that needed to be done was to finish painting the water, drybrush the stone work, glue down the boat and pour the water. A simple concept, but of course I needed to "wash" the water with wood stain and let it dry before the water effect could go down. Of course, the "drying" concept had slipped my mind entirely when I set out to get the board finished on Saturday. So here you can see my attempt to speed up the process... Please note the fan on full blast! I managed to dry the wash in a few hours and was also able to attach and seal the frame for the water effect while I waited. I mixed up the clear resin and began to pour the water when I came to the realization that the 1 1/2 boxes I had were not going to be nearly enough! I checked the store hours to make sure michael's was open; I was in luck! Printed off a 40% off coupon and ran to the car! Back in business, I quickly mixed up another box of resin and poured it into the harbor. Lets just say, it is best to do your math ahead of time. There was a lot more surface area then I had anticipated. I ended up dropping 2 1/2 boxes of clear resin into this thing and only got about 1/4" depth. The original board (with its ~2"x10" water section) was poured at 1/2" depth. I wasn't about to buy 5 boxes of resin to match them up. Had I planned ahead, I would have found an alternative resin source, or planned less water area. This obviously wouldn't do for the table, so I had to get creative. A sanding block, dremel polishing wheel and a good bit of elbow grease got things sorted out. I don't have a photo right now, but I managed to put a pretty good angle on the original board's resin. Now it just looks like a bit of a wave rolling into the wall (or like less of a mismatched resin pour). Anyway, The first 4 boards are complete! I will save the formal unveil for sometime after this Thursday. Malifaux night at the flgs (Art of War; Cincinnati) is Thursday, so Frank and I are planning a Brawl to officially show off the new board. Guild vs Resurrectionists! Fully painted! I'll take some really nice photo's and post afterwards. Until then, here is a shot including my little side project, the supply wagon!

Nice work! I had heard the origin story for superglue but never new anyone that had actually used it in the field! --- Frank finished up the Bo-At and sent it home with me Friday night. Saturday morning I was up and straight into the workshop for the install! Easy task, ridiculously eventful (read: drawn out) process. All that needed to be done was to finish painting the water, drybrush the stone work, glue down the boat and pour the water. A simple concept, but of course I needed to "wash" the water with wood stain and let it dry before the water effect could go down. Of course, the "drying" concept had slipped my mind entirely when I set out to get the board finished on Saturday. So here you can see my attempt to speed up the process... Please note the fan on full blast! I managed to dry the wash in a few hours and was also able to attach and seal the frame for the water effect while I waited. I mixed up the clear resin and began to pour the water when I came to the realization that the 1 1/2 boxes I had were not going to be nearly enough! I checked the store hours to make sure michael's was open; I was in luck! Printed off a 40% off coupon and ran to the car! Back in business, I quickly mixed up another box of resin and poured it into the harbor. Lets just say, it is best to do your math ahead of time. There was a lot more surface area then I had anticipated. I ended up dropping 2 1/2 boxes of clear resin into this thing and only got about 1/4" depth. The original board (with its ~2"x10" water section) was poured at 1/2" depth. I wasn't about to buy 5 boxes of resin to match them up. Had I planned ahead, I would have found an alternative resin source, or planned less water area. This obviously wouldn't do for the table, so I had to get creative. A sanding block, dremel polishing wheel and a good bit of elbow grease got things sorted out. I don't have a photo right now, but I managed to put a pretty good angle on the original board's resin. Now it just looks like a bit of a wave rolling into the wall (or like less of a mismatched resin pour). Anyway, The first 4 boards are complete! I will save the formal unveil for sometime after this Thursday. Malifaux night at the flgs (Art of War; Cincinnati) is Thursday, so Frank and I are planning a Brawl to officially show off the new board. Guild vs Resurrectionists! Fully painted! I'll take some really nice photo's and post afterwards. Until then, here is a shot including my little side project, the supply wagon!

I decided to sit down and throw some paint on the wagon today. I knew if I didn't strike while the iron was hot, that it would be a while before I got around to it. I knew that, due to the base I used, I wanted to match the paint job in with my Guild crews. I took to the magical google machine for some inspiration! I stumbled across a short film in the process that not only inspired my color palette, but also (alongside a good plot) gave some great ideas for future terrain projects. Here is the poster for the film! ...and the resulting paint job on the model. All in all, I really enjoy the way it came out. I am however kicking myself for one small oversight! In all my excitement to get to work, I grabbed the primer can without pre-treating the exposed foam! Luckily the current stuff I use only eats away the foam when it has a chance to pool up, so is safe if you do a few light coats. Sadly I had already hit the top section of the front with a full blast when I remembered this, so this section is a bit rough for my liking. In hind sight, I really should have 'skinned' all of the foam in card before adding the details, but that's the way it goes when you are making it up on the fly! Can't wait to randomly draw the supply wagon strategy! No more Bad Juju wagon for this guy!

I like to have netflix running a random sci-fi series while I work on my miniatures and terrain. It just so happens my latest kick has been the last season of Heroes (insert long term exposure to a carnival of 'gifted' individuals). I was working on an idea for a creepy structure marker for my Victorian City board and in the process stumbled upon a great idea for a supply wagon. The issue and main question about the supply wagon has always been, "how do you fit it all onto a 50mm base?" Answer? Insert a little carnie magic! Only the footprint needs to fit on the base. Below is the result of an evening of work. (well that, a block of foam, a cereal box, some balsa and various warhammer fantasy bits!) My original intention was to green stuff a cobblestone base for the wagon so that it would match the new table, but my greenstuff is MIA. Since I am impatient and I tend to play my guild crews most often, I opted to throw it onto a clockwork base so I could take photos. So even though Raspy did a fine job modeling the cart, it now officially belongs to Lady J and Sonnia (who happen to be at the flgs, so couldn't model it themselves). No worries, the proxy has it on the books now, haha. Hope you like.

Yes, I suppose so, but the true, true mark is when your first instinct is to reach for your bottle of superglue rather than a band-aid! haha. I then caught myself and thought it better to go for the band-aid... Frank has it right on the mark. They came from an 8 pack of 3/4" wooden drawer pulls from Michael's. If I remember correctly, they were only $1.50 for the pack (but that doesn't mean I didn't take the 40% off coupon along with me, haha). They also carry wooden barrels and miniature thread spools (here's looking at you puppet wars!)