Zombie Kitt

Hi, I'm looking for a Yan Lo box, Toshiro and some plastic Punk Zombies for a bit of a revisit of Malifaux. Preferably unbuilt, and certainly unpainted. Or...an unpainted McCabe box, maybe Tannen and Graves too. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but maybe you have some projects lying around that never took off and a significant other that really wishes you didn't, I know I have and she's gonna kill me !

I'd like to see Mindless Zombies be a part of Nicodems crew, and be a little more Seishin like in how they play / arrive on the table. I'm hoping a McMourning crew made of big wobbly monsters is more viable to start the game with. There's other things I'd like to see, points tweaks and some minor revision to stats and abilities which I'm sure will happen.

A glaze is an extremely thin wash that barely tints the paint underneath it. Think of it as coloured water rather than thin paint. If you're using a black undercoat I would... a) Basecoat. Try not to go straight from the pot, but thin your paints a bit. Go steady and concentrate on getting a nice, even, smooth and tidy coat. You might need two or three coats of paint to get a consistent coverage, but that's cool. Webmonkey mentioned blacklining, you can get that done at this stage, but rather than painting a thin black line where two different colours meet, leave a tiny line of undercoat there instead. All done? Grab a coffee and let your mini dry completely. Washing & Drybrushing. You can get different effects by doing this stage in different orders, so you can have an experiment as see what works for you. But essentially, applying a wash is going to give you more depth of colour and apply some shading to the model. You'll get loads of use out of the black and brown GW washes. On your Necropunk for example, I'd use a black wash (probably 75% wash, 25% water) on the green flesh. It's gonna run into all the crevices and it'll give you nice definition around the details. Then I'd get another coffee, and let that wash get totally dry. Then, I'm gonna take that nice dark green skin colour and get a little blob on my palette. To it, I'll add a spot of bonewhite (90% green, 10% bonewhite maybe) and give that a mix. Old nylon brush goes in that blob, I wipe off the paint and I know when the brush is loaded enough by testing it on my thumbnail. Little bit on the ridges and I'm good to go, solid line and it's too painty. First drybrush is going all over, flicking the brush quickly across all that green skin, mainly in an up-down direction, so I get some dark bits under his moobs and chin and armpits. Then another bit of bonewhite into the mix, drybrush again, but less than before as at this stage I want to build the highlight more so I'm gonna concentrate a bit more on those raised areas : tops of shoulders, top of belly. And the areas I want to stand out : face and feet. Then more bonewhite into the mix and go again, very gentle, little strokes this time only targeting area I want to have even more highlighting and interest. You can do as much or as little as you like here really. If it looks a bit chalky, you can glaze if you like. b2) Glaze. Thin your basegoat green down. Now do it again. Again. One more time. Now add some water. Bit thinner. Use a tiny amount of paint and a lot of water. You really want water with paint in it rather than the other way round. Once you've got something you're happy with, apply a coat to the green. You'll probably notice no real change and this is good. You might need to glaze a good number of times, but each coat will gradually unify those highlights and 3 to 10 coats down the line you'll see a difference. c) Details. Thin your paint again, but not too much. The last thing you want is for the paint to run off onto the skin you've just done, so maybe 2 parts paint to 1 part water, just whatever works for you. Now, take a deep breath, chill out and start working on the pipes, cables, sticky-out-bits, wounds and sores etc. Take your time, don't overload it with different colours and work to your limits. d) Know when to stop. When you are satisfied with what you've done, put it down and have a coffee. Repeat the process with the big metal limbs and you've got 90% of the little dude done. You can apply the same basic principle to anything really, though it'll work much better on darker paint jobs than light ones.

I quite enjoy bog-standard, non-avatar Ramos. I love Steampunk Arachnids, and they become very recycleable with Ramos and a toolkit. With all the spells you end up casting with :tomes :tomes, you'll be able to cycle your hand quite a bit, hopefully loading it with goodies for the rest of the crew. He's slow, but very steady which I like as well. He feels inexorable walking across the board zapping stuff as he goes, replacing broken spiders and keeping his larger machines rattling along. That said, I have no doubt at all that aRamos is well worth the 2ss, and is the better choice in most situations. But there's just something about the old fella I love in his non-avatar state.

For what it's worth, as I am far from a paint witch, I think there are two things you need to do to improve your painting by leaps and bounds. 1) Take your time. I paint fast naturally, but I get far better results if I make a concious decision to work at a steadier pace. Malifaux demands maybe a dozen models in a game, so spending a couple of hours on each one is no great hardship in the long run. Also, by winding your speed back you'll get a much better feel for your medium and your materials and gain an understanding of what you can do, which leads me on to... 2) Be realistic. We're painting zombie trollops and clockwork spiders, realism went out the window ages ago. But, if you're realistic about what you personally can achieve and work to that level, you'll push yourself in little increments and see improvements all the time. You can get perfectly decent results out of washing and drybrushing if that's where you're at skill-wise for example, and work towards blending etc over time. When I started painting my Malifaux stuff, I was on some pretty hefty medication. I liked the paint job at the time, and it looked ok on the table top. I painted my Ramos crew specifically for a tournament, and really took my time with it, again I was happy with the job I did but when I put it next to my Ressers, I could see a vast difference. So, the Ressers are stripped and getting re-done slowly and to a standard I'm happy with now. If you're not satisfied with how you're painting, do it different. Paint another figure slowly, carefully, using simple techniques and to the best of your ability and see how that compares. Keep it thin, keep it controlled and keep it simple.

Absolutely

Hi, It's no good, I can't do it anymore. I'm going to have to pare down the Factions and Crews I play. So, I've got a Dead Justice box, unbuilt and unpainted, Stat cards laminated. The box has been opened and everything is present and correct. I'm looking for M&SU stuff. Mainly Kaeris, large arachnids, miners, that kind of thing. I could also be tempted to part with my Kirai crew, which is the lady herself, lost love, 5 seishin, 4 gaki, Datsu Ba and a Shikome. It's all painted to a fair tabletop standard. Oh, and 2 Onryo and Ikyrio too. Other things that interest me are Khador / Cryx for Warmachine and Circle / Skorne for Hordes. And Bushido too. I'm open to discuss. I'd prefer to ship to the UK but again, I'm open to talk about anything, just shoot me a PM if you are interested. Ta

I think Toolkit vs Brass Arachnid (or even no totem at all) is entirely dependant on what you want to do. If you're chasing a quick manifest then the Toolkit is clearly the better option, constant surges is pretty tasty too if you're wanting to spend more time pre-manifest. The Arachnid is a handy enough Arcing Screen bunny, or an extra Electrical Fire with the chance to get a reactivate off. I suspect the Toolkit would give more value, but the Arachnid is far from useless and I can see where you're coming from with wanting to stay in a spidery theme. For what it's worth, I like the list you put up there.

I reckon I'll pick up a Steamborg at some point in the future. He looks close to being great, but just not quite there. I wonder about escorting either him or Joss around with a Guardian, it's a lot of stones though.

Ah now, I have a pair of Coryphee floating about the place. Some creative magnets and a trip to the dettol and that could work... The Steamborg fascinates me, as it is a lovely model, but as you point out I've never seen it really do much more than catch bullets.

Wotcha. Having taken a bit of a hiatus from Malifaux, I'm keen to get back to playing a bit and seeing about getting some local action going. I played Ressers pretty exclusively before, and want a bit of a new experience as running Kirai, whilst fun, did feel a bit like I was cheating. So I've had a wee dig in my cases and lo-and-behold, there's a pretty nicely painted Ramos crew staring up at me. The current tally stands thus : Ramos Avatar Ramos 6 magnetised Steampunk Arachnids Joss Mobile Toolkit Brass Arachnid Soulstone Miner. Not a bad leg up really, but I do feel that it lacks a certain oomph. I love Steampunk Arachnids and the Brass Arachnid is one of my favourite models ever, so I'd like to stay true to them. In my limited Ramos experience the Soulstone Miner seemed pretty useful in most situations, and more importantly I like his paintjob, so he's something else I'm keen to put on the table. I have issues with Joss, and like a beat-stick in a list. I am convinced he's good in theory (never put him on the table though) but he's a fair chunk of stones. I'd be interested to see if there are any Joss-die-hards out there who can show me how he's worth his cost as again, I love the miniature and like his paint job. Also, I can't abide Johan so there's limited synergy there, and I also dislike the Rail Golem which appears to be Joss' main competition. Is Kaeris viable in a spidery Ramos list ? She's a gorgeous sculpt and I quite fancy painting her, but I am aiming to be a bit more savvy in my buying this time around. Large Steampunk Arachnids seem to be a quality choice, so I'll pick up one or two of them for sure. A gunsmith for a little ranged poke looks like an avenue worth exploring. Particularly as my best results with Ramos are when I've not Manifested, and just ambled the old man up the board zapping things as I went. So that's where I am and my thoughts at the moment. I've not played since pre 10T, so I'd love to hear how Ramos is holding up in the current environment, if there are any combos or synergies that Ramos players are enjoying and particularly if anyone is doing OK playing Ramos without his Avatar. Cheers

I really could do with paring down the number of factions / masters I play. I've got... Ramos & Avatar Mobile toolkit & Brass Arachnid 2 Swarms ( All fully magnetised and with individual bases Joss Soulstone Miner Electrical creation It's all painted to a fairly nice standard, based and has a display / tournament board to go with it. I'm looking for Circle and to an extent Cryx. I also have 1500 points of Imperial Guard to get rid of too... About 40 Guards 1 Missile Launcher unit 1 Heavy weapon unit with multiple options 2 chimera 2 russes with various weapon options 3 sentinels 2 command squads Commisar Converted Marbo This little lot is in the process of being painted, in a blue & white scheme that while unfinished has had a lot of compliments. If anyone seriously wants to talk turkey, shoot me a message and I'll send some pics etc.

I started with Colette, and kinda wish I didn't. They are a beautiful crew no doubt. She is indeed a tricky master to get to grips with, but that's not really my issue with her. Rather I felt an awful lot of my interactions were with myself rather than my opponent, and it felt like we were each playing different games. I enjoy busting her out from time to time, and as a painting project she's second to none. But when she was my only master, i did get bored of her pretty quick.

I have absolutely no aversion to high Stone models. Dead Rider is too good. Bete and Killjoy do what they do very well indeed, and the new resser big guys look like they're going to do good things. I'm more wary of our mid-level choices. But our cheapies are great

Cracking. I love the Guild colour scheme, its clean and simple and it's very plausible looking, and you really get a sense of where they are owing to a simple but very effective base scheme. Big fan of that crew.

I always feel like I'm pretty hard on Mortimer, but to answer the question he'll do more for Nicodem in the majority of situations. I am slowly growing to see the benefit of Mortimer more and more. Rafkin will get your Mindless Zombie engine ticking over more quickly, but thereafter as Rancor said, he brings less to the crew.

I think you've pitched it just right to be honest. I like the vibrant green grass and the snow, looks like spring thaw rather than dead of winter which is a nice take on snow bases. The glob of gore sits well on it and draws the eye nicely. Spot on I reckon.

Sell 'em. If you don't use them, they're doing nothing for you. If they're winding up your wife then they're ammo for a future row. Sell 'em, get cash and brownie points now and dodge a bullet down the line.

Dropping Mort for a second merc and a necropunk isn't bad at all. To get the most mobility out of them they need masks, so having one is potentially less of a card drain. I think I'd generally aim for two personally, but you'd have a decent firebase with two mercs so I'd say it's fairly even. All that being said, I like Mort. He can be a really useful addition to Nicodem particularly if you either have the cards to pull off a cheeky exhume first turn, or don't get mesmerised by exhume as an ability and use him to hurry along the horde / as a handy defensive fighter. He's punchy at 7 stones particularly in a 30 stone game but certainly not without his merits. What about... Ressurectionists Crew - 30 - Scrap Nicodem, The Undertaker -- 5 Pool Grave Spirit [1ss] (Armour for the Rider as he has a lot of heavy lifting to do) Canine Remains [2ss] (Here's your summoning fodder) Canine Remains [2ss] (And another corpse for Nico) Convict Gunslinger [6ss] (Drag along on this fella gives you a fearsome ranged threat) Dead Rider [10ss] (He's your killer / objective doer and your taxi) Mortimer, The Gravedigger [7ss] (Drag him on to an objective you want to hold or just move him upfield after he's dug up another body for the boss) In fact, writing this has kind of made me think of Mortimer in a new light. I can see him, the rider and the grave spirit being really handy...

In a one list setting I'd go so far as to say the Dead Rider is a must. I'd be sticking with the Grave Spirit too. They'll give you speed which you'll need with a fair amount of resilience. I'd also tend to avoid Mortimer. I love him, but I'd be inclined to drop him and the merc and grab 3 Necropunks. Again, they'll give you speed and they are reasonably fighty on their own, becoming a very viable threat under Bolster Undead and they are superb little objective monkeys. I don't know that building with a summon plan is something I'd do personally. There is just too much stuff out there that will ruin your day. I tend to ignore the mechanic entirely when I play Nicodem, and only start thinking about it when the bodies hit the floor and I can get a feeling for how things are playing out. Don't forget either that other corpse users can summon from Mindless Zombies, so even creating a few of them near Nicodem can be dangerous depending on the enemy master. Nicodem is weird. He is probably my favourite master, but he just doesn't seem to work like the card suggests he should.

Just recently started with Ramos myself, and went with an almost identical list to Kutuzov, only I picked up a Soulstone Miner rather than Johan. The real issue I have is speed. Arachnids are very mobile, but not very swift, Joss is in theory very killy but again not too quick, and the miner can cover a decent distance but is limited in what it can do when it gets where it's going. I'm certainly going to pick up a Large Arachnid very soon. It's scrap shenanigans are nice, but also I think it's a pretty under-rated piece in it's own right. I generally find manifesting later in the game suits me more, so I am looking at getting some mileage out of it before recycling it. The thing I am really looking into to round out the crew and give me some real reliable speed is the Mechanical Rider. I have never seen it on the tables, so it's purely theory at the moment, but I am currently thinking that the Rider and the Brass Arachnid might combo well to allow Ramos to have a better shot at mobility stratagies, as I'd have a model quick enough to take care of business with a potential re-activate while Ramos takes his time building up his manifest requirements.

Loved painting Kirai. Gorgeous sculpt with loads of character. Loathed painting Datsu Ba. I have never been so uninspired by a miniature before.

Nope. Once something has activated, it needs to be re-activated to get another go. Obey type effects are different, as that is not an activation.

I actually really rather like the Avatar Nicodem, but the Kirai is pretty stunning.

Aye, looking good but it was the bitterness toward the dove that proper cheered me up.