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I know once I got actual good brushes (ie not 6 brushes for 4 bucks) AND started mixing my paint with enough water I found painting all the tiny details much easier. When I did that Ramos I use 1 brush for everything from basecoat to the tiny details on his eyes (Windsor & Newton Series 7 size 1). Having a brush that actually holds a usable amount of paint AND that will keep a good point got rid of a lot of the frustrations I had when I first started.

One of my favorite generic skin recipes is take the mid flesh tone from your favorite paint brand (I use P3 Ryn Flesh but all of them will work) and use that for the base coat. Next use the Ogren Flesh wash once or twice (I almost always do it twice). Now take your original color and apply this on everything EXCEPT the areas you want shadows. The trick is you need to make sure your brush can maintain a good point AND that you mix your paints right AND that you don't load to much paint into your brush. This is going to take some trial and error but the only way to learn how to do it is to do it, screw it up, and do it again. After you have your first highlight you will want to do a targeted 2nd highlight. To do this make a 50/50 mix of your brands bright flesh color and your base color(I use P3 Menoth Highlight). Put this on sparingly to tip of the nose, the front of the brow, and the chin. This will naturally draw people to the face. You can see what it looks like HERE on my Ramos.

See the Arcanists are blue so.... I post a lot on these forums giving advise on painting your dudes. The problem is all my examples are all GW minis that for the most part been painted very quickly. So to kick things off I decided to my Alt. Ramos that is on a Dragon Forge base. Total time from prime to clear coat was about 5 hours. These pictures where taken with my cellphone. I will take some better ones when my wife gets back from a convention tomorrow.

Most of my thoughts have been said but I will add a vote to them: - Better/3d terrain bits - Better, easier to read, more durable effect tokens - A larger board + rules + masters + sidekicks for a 5-6 player game - Themed booster boxes. Being able to buy 1 box that has a master I want + 2 henchmen + pawns that work well for the box could help get people into the game for cheaper. Could also help with the constant complaining about no singles.

For me it was a combo of aesthetic, fluff, and game play. The method I always have used for armies is 1) The army must have cool/interesting minis. As I have gotten better at painting this is now my number one. When I first looked at Malifaux I looked at every starter box knowing only the very basics of the fluff and waited for one of them to jump out at me. Ramos and Collette where the ones that did. 2) Does the army have an interesting group/clan/faction that I enjoy enough to build that style of army. For 40k it was the Goffs and building a horde army or Ultramarines because Cato Sicarius was a bad@ass as examples. 3) Does the army actually have a chance in the game. I refuse to play any army that puts me at a severe disadvantage from the start. I do not have the time or patience to grind out the 100's of games to be able to play a bottom tier army at a competitive level. Granted not a huge issue in Malifaux, but still take into consideration.

The nice thing that Wyrd does is when Gen Con is running you can buy everything online from their webstore. You get all the bonus goodies with your purchase as well.

Good color selection but everything from your Showgirls box look a little flat. Might want to give them a wash of some sort and hit them with another highlight. Kaeris looks fantastic btw.

The problem with using an accelerant on metal mini is the bond becomes much more brittle. If you are going to use it make sure you are pinning the mini and put the glue on one part and the accelerant on the other. This has given the best overall results.

I don't know what you are talking about but my sable brushes that have painted 30 Space Marines, 120+ Ork Boyz, 15 Ork Nobz, 90+ Skaven Clanrats, a Doomwheel, and a bunch of one offs are just as good as the day I bought them. Vs the good nylon ones I have used being curled and unable to keep a point after 1 or 2 squads of marines. I use the W&N 7's and have found them to be fantastic. The big thing is you have to take care of them and not treat them like garbage. I only use a size 0, a size 1 for normal colors, a size 1 for metallics, and a size 2. If you are buying them make sure you buy the normal ones and NOT the miniature ones. the size 1 miniature is the size of the 2/0 in the normal. Good things to do: - Rinse your brush often. I personally swirl mine in a cup of water after painting a specific section. When base coating it's after doing 1 arm or the pants. As you work to the more detail oriented things that take more time the area I paint before rinsing the brush out gets smaller. - After rinsing out the brush you want to get the excess water out of it before loading up the brush again. You can use a paper towel, but I find putting the brush in my mouth, and using my tongue to reform the point while GENTLY sucking the water out of it much faster. - Make sure you are painting out of a pallet of some sort. Even if it's a 10 cent disposable one like you used as a kid. Makes it easier to load your paint into only the bristles and not submerge the whole thing. - To go with the last point make sure you are diluting your correctly. It will take some trial and error to get the right amount for each color. I normally am around 3 drops of paint with 2 drops of water on most colors. Colors that cover like cr@p (Yellows, Reds, Whites) I use a little less water. - After loading the brush briefly touch the brush to a paper towel to remove some of the excess paint. This is how you can use a size 1 or 0 brush and do super detail work. There will be just enough paint that you can actually lay down color, but there isn't a bunch extra that is going to get every where. - After you are done I HIGHLY recommend using Masters Brush Soap to clean out your brushes. All you do is add a drop of water to the puck, swirl your brush to gather up some lather, then gently rub the brush into your palm. Do that until you stop getting color coming out of the brush. Once you are done find a clean spot on the puck, gather up some lather, and use your fingers to reform the point, DO NOT rinse out the soap. Once all your brushes are clean put them bristles up in a cup and let them dry. - Depending on how much you paint you will want to condition your brushes, I do this about once a year. All you do is take normal hair conditioner, rub a tiny amount into the brush, reform the point, let it sit for 2 or 3 min, then rinse the heck out of it.

See I use all 3 major brands for various colors. Vallejo is the bulk of my colors, GW is my metalics, foundation paints, washes, and reds, P3 are select colors that no one else does (Coal Black, Menoth White base/highlight, etc). As for being able to buy more paint for less money, painting a single figure only requires 3 or 4 drops per color so there is no real gain for "buying in bulk". Hell the only bottle of paint I have ever run out of is Vallejo Sick Green. I used that to base coat and highlight 160+ Ork Boyz. The washes on the other hand I bought the materials to make my own because I was going through them so fast.

Custom built

It has been said by every important Wyrd person that it is not going to happen.

If you think they smell bad, prey you don't taste them. When I paint I rinse out my brush after finishing the color on each boy and then use my tongue to reform the point and suck out the excess moisture. After doing that for 5 colors on 60 Boyz I was basically on auto pilot. So when it came time to wash the Boyz I grabbed my trusty wash brush, washed the first boy, gave a quick rinse and stuck my brush in my mouth. For the next 2-3 hours my mouth tasted like Devlin Mud smells. For the rest of the week the smell of it would make me queezy.

One thing you can do if you are unsure of what size foam and bag you need from KR is email their customer support. Just tell them what minis you have if you want extra space for expanding your collection. They will get back to you with what you will need. I have the Aquilla 4 with 1x J2H (pluck foam for the big guys), 1x M4H (holds almost all 30mm), and 1x F4H (holds the 40mm and odd shaped 30mm). In that bag currently have my full Ramos crew, my full Collette crew, Lady J box, Perdita box, Lilith box, Young Nephlim blister, and the Executioner. Also holds my small rule book, games aids, character cards, fate decks and measuring tape. The big thing is because the foam is softer and more flexible you can get some of your oddly shaped guys into spaces that would be impossible in a Battlefoam bag (I use a PACK 432 to carry all of my 40k Ork Boyz). This lets you pack the bag without wasting space leaving empty spaces between minis.

As a speed painter out of necessity I say the OP hit the nail on the head. When I was playing 40k Orks and Fantasy Skaven I worked in batches of 20-30 at a time. By the end I had my Ork Boyz down to an avg of ~12 min per boy and Skaven Clanrats down to ~16 min per rat. A couple of tricks to help speed you up - Washes of any sort are your friend, use the heck out of them. - Get good at drybrushing. When used in combination with washing you can give 3 or 4 layers of color in a couple of brush strokes - Pick a color, paint it on EVERY MINI that needs it, then paint the next color. This lets things dry while you work so you are not stuck waiting. - Paint inside out. That is start with the inner most part of the figure, normally this is the skin, and work your way out. This lets you be a little more sloppy with your first layer (ie faster) because you will be covering up your mistakes with your next color. Also the natural difference in depth between the skin and the clothing means ***your paint will stay off your skin. *** This requires good brush control, properly watered down paint, having just enough paint on your brush, etc. - Get in the mindset that minis painted this way are not going to look as nice as the stock artwork or win a painting competition when examined closely. That is ok, you painted that min in an hour vs the days and weeks that where spent on those mins - To go with the previous point, the goal is a fully painted army in a good amount of time. Playing with bare metal or night camo minis just isn't as fun. Besides it is a scientific fact fully painted minis preform better then their un-painted counter parts - Take some extra time to make your commander/big pieces look a little better. Add another highlight, paint a few more details,etc. By spending the extra time on those "key" minis they help tie everything together. Those are also the first minis many people will want to look at. - After you are done you can always go back after the fact and clean up your minis, add another highlight, fix the small spots where you put some extra paint on, etc. The hardest part is you have to put in the time actually painting minis so you can get your brush strokes fast but neat, as well as getting used to color combos that work well and what not. I link this often but I built, painted and sealed this Doomwheel in about 8 hours (4 hours of clipping, cleaning mold lines and what not, 4 hours painting) And here is one block of the Clanrats

New Lady J is smaller.

If you want a case check out KR Multicast. They make several bags that can hold 100+ puppets for ~$40.

^^^^^^^ Great minds and all that jazz Things that you will want with him: -2 Swarms, 6 Spiders (you can use magnets and get away with only needing 2 blisters -1 or 2 Large Steampunk Arachnids. Avatar Ramos can make these -Mechanical Rider. Gives your crew some speed. -Soul Stone Miner -Electrical Creation

BF trying to nickle and dime customers, well I never....

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stick to hobby acrylics. That means buy your paints from a hobby store (online or physical). They will have better colors, give better coverage, and will be easier then the "cheaper" ones you can get else where. The Apple Barrel acrylics you buy at Hobby Lobby/Walmart/etc are ok for terrain because of the amounts of paint you will need, but absolute garbage for standard minis.

Spider swarms are 40mm bases. I was told at Gen Con they where 50mm so I bought a bunch of 50mm bases...now they are basically gathering dust until I get more big guys.

I know one of the easiest tricks for helping shaking hands (for me at least) was to make sure the edge of my palms are touching or close to each other. It take a little getting used to, but I found it helped prevent wrist pain and helped with trying to do fine detail work.

Those look great man. The only thing I would do is maybe try to brighten them up just a little bit more. They are showgirls after all. What colors did you use to get the yellow details?

So everything got here today. Bases are soaking in water with some dish soap and will get a good scrubbing when I get home in a few hours. The question I am having is what is going to be the best way to magnetize the Croyphee? I have seen a lot of tricks if they are on a wooden stage where you mount them to a small piece of the stage and swap them around. The problem is I have them on cobblestone, any ideas of things I can make that I can mount them to that will look right?

My order shipped today Showgirls Box + Mechanical Doves + Croyphee. Now all I need is for the bases I ordered during Black Friday (All my Arcanists are going on THESE ) and I can put everyone together and finally start painting.