jen_tr

Wow, thanks for the compliments everyone! I'm really glad you picked up the albino effect, seems that it worked as I had hoped. @Arli - I'm guessing you mean the red eyes? First I basecoat the skin with Bugman's Glow, then paint the eyes entirely white. Then a red dot/stripe in the centre, and a smaller white dot inside that. After I've finished highlighting the skin, I then go back and carefully line around the eyes with the basecoat again. @Pixelante - Well, I have twelve Thunders models, and there are twelve zodiac animals... and some of them turned out better than others. The dragon and the rooster I like best, but some (dog and horse in particular, and, I guess, mouse) just didn't come out so well.

The black is actually just regular black, no metallics involved! Abaddon Black, then a few edge highlights mixing in a little Pallid Wych Flesh, then the fine trim is pure Paliid Wych Flesh. I did indeed drill a hole in Ama No Zako to get the paperclip on. There is a corresponding hole in her base, so I should be able to stick the paperclip through, and bend it round a little, to get a good solid connection - I wanted her to be floating a little over the base, and it also gives me something to hold on to while painting her.

Its been a little while... between being away, and painting a few other things (deadzone, for example), I haven't done much Malifaux recently. Here are the latest, my take on the Lilith crew. Unfortunately Ama No Zako is still unfinished. I will get to her in the end, but she's just so big and imposing... I've also got the nephilim to work on, and highlighting all that flesh on the mature one is going to take a little while!

Using reddish-brown does sound like a promising idea, although I think I'll follow your advice and play around on paper first... I often find adding bone to brown can leave it a little... pink... And ooops! I totally didn't realise she was a she... Its rare to get a female model that isn't overtly so! Thanks for the heads-up. Unfortunately, I haven't made any further progress with Ama No Zako yet - my metal gamin arrived, and I wanted to get going with them first. Until these guys I hadn't done any converting on Malifaux models (they are just so gorgeous to begin with), but I knew from the start that I wanted to change the little gamin with a cog for a head. He now has big buggy eyes, and floppy ears (I know that doesn't quite work, but that's what I fancied doing at the time!). I also knew I wanted to do them like little animals where possible - so the tailed gamin is some kind of lizard, with rusty scales, and the more hench gamin is striped like a tiger. After nearly finishing them, I realised there weren't really enough colours on them, so I got out the green stuff again, and gave them little neckerchiefs and other scraps of cloth. What do you think? I feel a bit bad for having defiled them with my green stuff, but I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out!

After some very useful hints for the Mei Feng crew (and thanks for the compliments on the improvement), I'm now looking for your thoughts on Ama No Zako. I've done the main colours - red and yellow - and I'd like all the trim on the fabric to be black. Then I'm going to do freehand cherry blossoms etc to make the red fabric look like a Chinese-style brocade. The lantern is probably going to end up being an orange-red, and I'll try to do subtle object source lighting - something I haven't tried before. I imagine the yellow will end up needing some freehand work as well, but I'm ot sure yet. The issue I have is with the black. Highlighting it with greys will probably be too stark against the rest of the model. I thought about going for reds, but I think his skin will end up being a dark red, and I don't think it would look right if they were both that colour. I think maybe my best bet would be to use something like a bone colour to highlight with - not too stark, but not too subtle. Still, I'm worried that would be a bit cold. Any other suggestions? I've also been working on his base. I want it to tie in with my regular Thunders, so there are green-stuffed flowers. They will probably end up purple - like the ones on my Thunders - but quite dark so they don't clash with the model.

My first model (about nine years ago now) was a high elf spearman. He normally lives on a bookshelf, quietly reminding me of the beginning.

Okay, I've done eyebrows and a little more highlight on the cheeks (thanks Sybarite), and darkened around the eyes (thanks Monkeyboy). I've also added a little reddish colour to the lips. I think they look a lot better now. What do you think?

Thanks for the advice monkeyboy! I did at one point try painting eyes like that, but I always felt that the black was too severe, and made my models look like they were wearing make-up... (as an aside, I've only ever agreed to wear make-up when absolutely necessary - e.g. in a show or dance competition where you want to make your eyes visible from a distance) So, I decided that it didn't really work for me on most models. Having said that, I do agree that the eyes on these models don't really "pop", so maybe I could try a similar thing with a dark brown instead - try to have the same overall effect, but without the starkness of the black? I suspect when I get to paint Collette and her crew, however, they will definitely be getting the full make-up treatment!

Hmmm... being kidnapped sounds like a pretty good excuse for painting instead of working... go for it!

My boyfriend teases me for being a "colour coward" and being too careful with my colours... I will try to follow your advice Ikvar and Wings, and push the colours a bit further! Thanks. With glazes, I always seem to have trouble getting them the right consistency and applying the right amount. I often end up either with water-marks where the edge of the glazed bit is, or really deep shadows where I wanted a softer effect. Ah well, practice makes perfect, I guess!

Hmmm I think that while I might have got the lighting right this time, I'm not quite there with the focus of the camera... Will keep working on that!

Alongside Lucius, I've been painting up Mei Feng's crew. They seem to have gone pretty well, but for some reason they don't quite feel... finished... Any suggestions? Mei Feng: Kang: Emberling: Rail Workers: And some detail of one of the tatoos:

@Quiche - He's going to be Lucius in the end - saves us having to decide between buying the old metal model and waiting ages for the new plastic! @Monkeyboy - Thank you! You're totally right, adding too many layers would make him look bulky - on the other hand, there is a balance between trying to sculpt lots of little bits that need to look like they are deeper layers (e.g. the sash around his waist, that will eventually be partly covered by coat), while still getting the folds/creases right... I'm hoping I'll turn out to have walked on the right side of that thin line... I hadn't heard of "dollies" before - I just sort of assumed "real" sculptors made them from scratch... and I never get the proportions right when I try! I will definitely be looking into getting some if I do much more sculpting, I think.

Thanks! The dragon is definitely my favourite. I suspect I'm a long way from being good enough (or fast enough) to be a sculptor! For now, I think I'd just like to get better at large-scale conversions - I've done plenty of smaller things like boots, belts, bits of fur, but never a full model.

So, I've been meaning to put the effort into improving my sculpting for some time now. Knowing this, Connor (my boyfriend) bought me a few models for my birthday, because I always struggle getting the proportions right. My first project is trying to sculpt him a model to use as Lucius. We're pretty new to Malifaux, don't have many of the old models, and since he isn't keen of some of the models in Lucius's box set, and its going to be a while before new models are released, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was doing okay, but now I seem to have stalled a bit... sculpting of the shoulders and sleeves of his coat feels like a big job, so I thought I should just post up what I've done so far, and wait for more inspiration to strike!

Hi Monkeyboy30672, thanks for your advice about the camera - I will try to follow it for my next set of photos, and hopefully produce a better result. Hi Malidave, I'm glad you like it! I use a Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush, size 2, miniature. The paints are Games Workshop's current range, quite watered down. I tend to work from a photo or paper sketch, so I know exactly what I'm planning to paint. I normally sketch out the design in one colour first - in this case dark purple - and then highlight from there. The most important thing is probably to keep the paints nice and thin, so that you get clean lines and keep the overall surface smooth. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the positive comments everyone! I've had a go at improving the lighting for some close-ups of the free-hand, but I haven't managed to sort out the camera to reduce the blurring yet... I think the free-hand comes out okay though. Each member of the crew has a different Chinese zodiac animal, but some of them came out better than others... the dragon is definitely my favourite!

Hi all, I recently finished my first Malifaux crew, and have umm-ed and ahh-ed for a couple of weeks before finally deciding to go for it and post them up here. Any comments and constructive criticism will be appreciated. Misaki and Shang: Ototo and Yamaziko: Torakage: Archers: Oiran: