vinnyt16

Alrighty folks! I’m back at home and just finished the Dark Reflections box. This completes the DUA/Umbra keyword and my second explorer society master. I already painted Corvis and the gals but forgot to snap some pics so will need to do that soon, but until then, here are some spooky shadow monsters!

Sorry folks, I've been busy getting married but I'll be back to painting in a little while! Gonna work on the Dark Reflections box next, and then the Effigy/Emissary!

And in a flurry of activity, I've finished off the English Ivan core box! Already posted this in a few other places so sorry if it's old news. Basic idea was to do a strong white zenithal highlight and then gradually darken things with contrast paint before adding some directional lighting also with contrast. To keep things fresh, all the living crew have lamps on their bases while all the shadows are entirely in darkness. Thought it would be kind of fun to do a thing where it's Ivan and friends in the shadow realm where they have to stay in the light to prevent being attacked by the shadows. Of course this falls apart if my opponent's models also have lamps on their bases but there's only so much I can do. Just waiting now for another Wyrdscape lamp set to arrive (Wyrd please make more things like this- I'd love to see malifaux basing kits with like random boxes/chests/other bits to add to bases).

Finished up my skaven army and now it’s time to get back to some REAL painting instead of batching 40 dudes at a time. First up, some spooky shadow friends? of Ivan! Went with a more monochromatic scheme since they’re literally shadows but I also wanted to go with bases that represent a dark cobblestone path through a park around halloween. The theme will be way more apparent on some of the actually important models, I promise!

Oh man so it’s been a crazy few weeks and unfortunately I haven’t gotten much Malifaux painting done (too busy trying to crank out my last few skaven models). But what I did do was paint up a ton of bases and then have a buddy paint some malifaux models for me. And here are the results! He’s a brilliant painter and now I can add Lynch to my list of crews as well as cross off a bunch of ten thunders versatiles. I’m very much looking forward to painting up English Ivan annnnnd I just recently got my hands on a HUGE haul of old M2E models that I’ll start working my way through after I finish my skaven army.

Ok maybe I lied. Was cleaning up my gaming area while house-sitting and figured I’d take some pics of a few models I recently finished!

Sorry folks, no updates this week 😕. Work has been crazy busy and this week is also a bit of a mess. Thankfully my life gets much more relaxed just in time for the DUA/Umbra release!

I’ve been using Artemis to hunt higher end scheme runners like Desper. She’s definitely not like a 1v1 beater but 19” threat range ignoring severe terrain stat 6 2/3/5 with the crit strike trigger is pretty devastating against things like torakage, gokudo, bultungin, or other low to mid tier schemers.

Ok folks, I did the unspeakable. I hired the Alpinist to see just how bad it is. And honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. It's dies almost immediately, but it actually has some real utility in how I've been running Cooper's crew as a highly reactive mobile troop instead of a gunline. The goat is shockingly speedy with its movement 5 and rush meaning it can yeet itself 12" up the board. Plus the rope is actually a quick action so you can pretty easily end up going 16" in a single activation. It also makes it shockingly hard to hide from cooper behind terrain or other models, especially when comboed with the bellhop porter. It's super niche but like I'm picturing a goat sprinting up the field and lassoing Yan Lo out of his Komainu bubble while Cooper sits on the Porter's shoulder and blows him away. Plus, for 5SS the goat can actually last a few minutes in combat with an equivalently cheap and crappy scheme runner. Idk, I just like the goat and I think he's funny. I also think apex is probably the only crew where he'd have even the slightest chance of being taken. Model 9 and Artemis are super killy and I find myself not wanting to waste actions dropping scheme markers with them.

I've only played one game with that loadout and the Rex is definitely better than the Porter considering all the tech that's default built into Apex lists. The cheating face down thing is shockingly helpful, especially because you can cheat down and force your opponent to drop a power card for free (and make his model take a damage). Apex can't cycle cards very well so I often end up with a couple 1-3s in my hand. Now I cheat in a 2 facedown on a duel that's like 9 vs 10 with me losing and my opponent has to either burn a good card to beat me (and take a chip) or risk me sneaking through a huge flip. It came up a few times in the game and ended up causing a big headache for my opponent. Is it worth 2 stones? That honestly depends on how much you value mind games and how lucky you are off the draw. Cooper is clearly the lynchpin of this crew (although Model 9 is incredible) so anything that increases his ability to do damage is highly valuable imo. I'd love for someone who is Vassal-savvy to give it a try in some more games and see if other people also find it helpful.

Alrighty, I made the difficult decision to try the Bellhop Porter instead of the Rex and also give Cooper Hidden Agenda since sneaking in hits with him is HUGE and causing chip damage for even trying to resist is kinda fun. I kinda like the Porter. He gives Cooper slightly more survivability, can throw some pit traps around, and can pull your squishy guys out of combat. Extended reach plus giving shielded is pretty sweet. I feel like Cooper's crew is less of the static gunline everyone hates and a little more like a water-style army where you're very hard to pin down and then light up the model that had the nerve to engage you. Downside is that you can't actually fight in combat and everything is designed so that you don't have to. It might be a problem against Izamu-level beaters or anyone that can one-shot Cooper, but with the runaways getting in the way, the constant threat of getting obliterated by Cooper's shots, and Model 9 sniping out support pieces, you don't have to kill stuff in combat. You just delay, redeploy, and blast away. The Rex is still almost certainly better and I'll obviously use it once I get the model, but the Bellhop is sort of a niche pick that can add some additional reactivity to the crew.

Hey folks, gonna try to put some battle reports on here since I'm lucky enough to get some IRL games in against my dad (we're both vaccinated). Let me know if this is an approachable format or if you have any changes you'd like me to make! I've also posted this to the Facebook group so apologies if you've already seen it there! I took my slippery Cooper Crew (Cooper w/hidden agenda, runaways, artemis, ullr, Bellhop, Vatagi w/flush with cash, Crypsis, and Model 9) Against: gunline McCabe (McCabe, Luna, Sidhir, Fuhatsu, Desper, Yasunori, Dawn Serpent) Turn 1: Everyone moves up and not too much happens. A runaway gets killed by Fuhatsu and McCabe gets the Blade. Turn 2: Things get crazy when Model 9 does his usual insane nonesense (charges, throws his knife, hits a mask on the duel and then red jokers the damage flip against McCabe, gets a free move into base contact and a bonus attack off the mask trigger. Then hits the execute trigger on his second attack doing 4 more damage to McCabe and costing him a card.) Model 9 then eats pretty much everyone's attacks and barely survives due to friendly fire issues/line of sight concerns with Sidhir and Fuhatsu. On the right flank, Yasunori drops off a bomb marker and Artemis gets into Desper which delays him from crossing the centerline. Vatagi throws around some pit traps and crypsis does nothing. We each score one strategy, I get an additional point for assassinate. Turn 3: Things come to a quick end. McCabe takes a potshot at Model 9 (fails) and then runs to score Outflank and drops a scheme marker for Ley Lines. Model 9 then kills horsey McCabe and runs away from the murderbox of Sidhir and Fuhatsu. Dawn Serpent gives chase and I burn my last soulstone for a lucky severe to keep him alive. Then the BELLHOP PORTER yeets Model 9 into safety with "I've got your back" and Fuhatsu puts 6 damage on Cooper. Cooper takes that personally and kills Yasunori with the help of a double crit strike shot from the Crypsis Corps. Artemis and the Vatagi team up to murder Desper and at that point my opponent concedes. He had no way to score outflank or Ley Lines with his entire right flank dead, I had more bombs on the field plus his leftover bombs from Desper and was about to score assassinate for full points. The game would have ended for him (best case scenario) 5:2 with me scoring all 4 strat points and assassinate while not getting outflank and him getting one strat point and probably one ley line. Big Takeaways: Model 9 is mandatory. He's so unbelievably versatile and tanky. Every single game he is an absolute monster, causing so much trouble. Cooper marks a model with adversary and model 9 runs in there to just mess. them. up. Cooper needs a bodyguard at all times and I like the Bellhop Porter's ability to not only give shielded but also pull people out of combat. This lets me use Ullr more flexibly by jumping him around the board for the low low cost of one card. He's surprisingly sneaky and leaping him over to Artemis or Model 9 lets you project power anywhere on the table. The Crypsis Corps is still kinda iffy for me- the built in trigger is fantastic but stat 5 is just hard to get over for me. Cooper's crew seems to be less of a static gunline and more of a reactive stiletto. That being said, Crypsis is a great backfield protector with a 24" shot that can help stop scheme runners too weak to waste Cooper activations Vatagi continues to do Vatagi things like draw cards and chuck pit traps around. Also a great minion for Flush With Cash because when cooper shoots a runaway within 6" you get TWO soulstones and that's insane. Plus the hand control is absolutely mandatory. I underestimated Artemis. The nimble walk and 2/3/5 damage track with some solid triggers means she can ruin other scheme runners and if you're in trouble, just call over Ullr and now you've got the upper hand. Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=MiniaturesByCarl&set=a.503934981000055

It's been a busy busy month which hasn't left me a whole lot of time to paint, but since today is my day off, I figured I'd paint up a few Malifaux models before my weekly game against my father haha. This'll be our first time with 50ss completely painted crews and I'll be sure to get some pictures to post here! Hopefully soon we'll all be able to get some IRL games going. Goal for the remainder of the month: finish all my 10 Thunders models before DUA/Umbra comes out!

Since I started playing malifaux post-Covid and haven't really gotten to play any games in my local meta, I can't really speak to the gameplay aspect but here's why I love these guys. Apex: Most dangerous game dino-taming cyborg that gets to hunt opponents' models and also his own with a big boomstick and his Terminator buddy (and dogs)! Alan Quatermain had a child with Robocop and his name is Cooper. DUA/Umbra: Shadow summoning spooky spy running out of time before his spectres eat? his soul. Slowly running out of time but his buddies include magic steampunk collars to make ghosts real and Agent 47 grew some hair. Plus there's a dominatrix for some reason. Cadmus: Oh I'm sorry, sentient Neverborn parasites summoning infested citizens and also your models as they slowly become The Last of Us 2 zombie husks that run towards you when you damage them? Sure, I'll take two. EVS: Jules Verne and HG Wells (don't worry, they're a versatile choice in this faction) drank too much absinthe and thought of this crew. You've got super smart earth scientists in a new spooky world with a bioshock Big Daddy and Maori murder-dancer helping them outsmart and murder their enemies. Seeker: Undying Baba Yaga roams around the world with her giant skeletal ox and the 16th generation of her living bodyguard. She's got all sorts of whacky friends ranging from sentient goo to a random zombie wendigo thing. Her buddies can't die but your crew sure can! Syndicate: 17 year old native american meets Cornelius Vanderbilt and they decide to just fuse into a badass industrial tycoon that also smacks you with a tomahawk and the giant metal bird from Bioshock infinite. Don't worry, business and pleasure mix here too with your carefully laid schemes becoming investments worse than $GME as Anya and her crew take a small hit to beat you down. Also Agent 47 and his hair make another guest appearance since he's shadier than a Brocken Spectre. Versatile: Verne and Wells make their triumphant debut as a dynamic duo in a mousewheel that zips around dropping literal truth bombs while a robot butler hurls luggage (and pit traps) at your opponents. Little Shop of Horrors becomes a reality as plants get bigger and faster the more you feed them. And oh, I'm sorry, forbidden cosmic horror truthy mapmaker man can break that 4th wall and literally change the rules of the game because why not. Meanwhile a tiny metal goat screams at you as it poops rope for your models to use as they climb up all the terrain you get to mess with. I mean every single crew just drips character and the models are absolutely gorgeous. I love painting (check out my post in the showcase!!!) and this faction lets me try all sorts of fantastic color schemes. I can go from jungle hunter (cooper) to shady city streets (Ivan) to deep sea spelunkers (EVS) without skipping a beat. There's no "style" to force me into and it seems like I have more creative options than factions like Ten thunders and Neverborn (although I love them too!) It's just such a great release for me as a hobbyist and I can't wait to get some IRL games in

I absolutely love Lord Cooper and it’d be awesome to see someone with more game experience play him and upload some battle reports so I can get a better idea of how to use him correctly! I’ve got about 5 games in with him and am 3-2 against another pretty new player. That being said, he doesn’t really stand out as overwhelmingly good to me since he allows for a lot of counter play. For reference, the list I usually run is Cooper, runaways, Artemis, Ullr, model 9, malisaurus with flush, vatagi, crysis, 4 stones. Coop is a beast at range but can pretty easily have LoS blocked since his mobility isn’t huge. Out of activation he gets a bump from Ullr and a bump from the Rex but nothing outrageous. 11 wounds and armor 1 means he gets fried very easily if you overextend him even a little. He’s also a huge AP drain- requiring other models to dedicate actions to him to make him optimal. And even then you can still very easily miss with his shots or only hit for 3 reducible damage. Model 9 is probably the second best model in the keyword and is a fantastic scheme/annoyance piece. But he’s very reliant on stones and armor to stay alive and only really kills through chip damage. The whole keyword kind of lacks defensive tech outside of ullrs bubble and the only healing means that Cooper isn’t getting the 2 shots he really needs to be worth it. the keyword also struggles for card draw a LOT. Vatagi can draw one but that’s about it for automatic draw. I generally try and save tomes for Cooper’s trigger but that’s not hyper reliable. Again, I’m still super inexperienced but it seems like Cooper is a very offense oriented crew that doesn’t have the healing or card draw for sustainability so if you can survive coopers activation and focus down model 9 or the Rex, the crew kind of falls apart.

Hey folks, time for another fun semi-weekly update! Unfortunately this time I don't have any fancy pictures of crews/models since all I painted this week was the Oni keyword and honestly I didn't feel like they really deserved the fancy picture treatment yet. Maybe I'll change my mind later. But! Here are some pictures of my home Malifaux set-up on a repurposed pool table. It's just enough room for a board, some terrain, and almost all my crews! Next up... Zoraida Core box and Jesse Halliday/friends. I also made the plunge and preordered all the English Ivan models.

Yeah 😕 I ended up going a bit over the top with the green on Toshiro but it was tough to make him appropriately light since the foliage on the base is a pretty bright green so I wasn’t a huge fan of the light green when I had it on him. On to new models! So unfortunately a lot of the Asami crew was bought pre-assembled and let’s just say that the assembly on certain models was not how I would have done it. This means a lot of the Asami models are only gonna be a basic table top job instead of the fancier painting I like to do for Malifaux. Ama no Zako is not one of those models and here she is all painted up! The secret to the red tinge over the purple is a very very very thin glaze of army painter crusted sore at the very end.

I had a warhammer 40k army stolen from me via mail fraud in like September 2020 so decided to branch out into different miniature games and take a break from GW. I heard that Malifaux had the highest quality models of any miniature game so figured I’d take a look. I decided to start with Titania because, well, she’s the fae queen and also a relatively simple master to start learning the game. Things quickly spiraled. Halloween Pandora came out and I love fun little things like that so bought a whole Pandora crew. And then someone was selling an entire dreamer keyword for like $100 and that was a no brainer. Then I watched the entire pirates of the Caribbean franchise on a bet and was like “man I think that voodoo aesthetic is awesome but I want to stay neverborn for now”. And that added Zoraida to the mix. Then my dad wanted to start playing so I got and painted up a McCabe crew for him. Then those punks at wyrd had the absolute nerve to release explorers society and start with a crew that’s literally the most dangerous game with a frickin’ dinosaur I can use with Titania so yeah ok fine I’ll pick up Lord Cooper and the apex keyword no problem. But things don’t end there, no sir/ma’am. Another online sale resulted in me picking up yan Lo, asami, misaki, and lynch crews. So far I’ve finished painting Yan Lo and am about halfway through Asami. So, what was supposed to be just a quick dip into Malifaux vis neverborn has now resulted in me having painted 162 models and having completed Titania, Pandora, Zoraida (minus her new core box), dreamer, McCabe, lord Cooper, Yan Lo, and partially Asami crews plus a good smattering of versatiles. oh, I also have a Christmas rasputina crew from somewhere that I’ll be paining up next holiday season and a complete cat Hamelin crew I’ve sent to be commission painted by an expert because I love cats and want them to look like my cats while also looking as good as possible.

I'll have to try them again! Didn't notice the 24" patient strike possibility. At 14" it was pretty underwhelming. I guess my other problem (besides being super new) is that I was playing a 30 stone game against an extremely fast McCabe crew who just rushed me immediately. Plus I love their models so that alone means they deserve another shot.

Here's the whole Keyword! Definitely a bolder color scheme than the apex, but I think they turned out well! Next up... Asami!

A sneak peek of the wraithwalker himself! And perhaps the rest of his crew behind him... fancy pictures of the entire keyword coming soon!

Played another 30SS game with Cooper vs McCabe with me switching out Artemis for a Crysis Corps. This one ended up a 3-2 win for Cooper that came down to the wire. My crew: Cooper, 3 runaways, Ullr, Model 9, Vatagi, Crysis Corps His crew: McCabe, Luna, Sidhir, Dawn Serpent, Yasunori Takeaways from the game: Cooper is a beast at range. He killed Sidhir in 3 shots and took a huge bite out of the Dawn Serpent. However, a juiced up McCabe with the sword will almost immediately annihilate him and it's extremely hard to hide from him in a smaller game. Really nothing I could have done to stop his death which was mildly annoying but without the dino, apex really struggles to compete in melee. Cooper is pretty fragile with only armor 1 and 11 wounds. Also WP of 5 means that terrifying is gonna be a huge issue for this crew. Model 9 is absolutely fantastic. He charges everywhere throwing knives like crazy. I tended to use the predatory instinct for the first shot to fish for the avalanche of blades trigger which resulted in this insane sequence of events. Charge 5" and throw at McCabe with predatory instinct, hits avalanche of blades trigger and does 1 damage. Avalanche resolves and causes severe damage (4!), placing me in contact with him, I then hit McCabe with the blades for moderate (4!) damage which killed him. I did get fairly lucky with the flips, but considering that this crew hands out adversary like candy, I don't find it that unlikely at all. Just super impressed with the mobility and utility of the gunslinger comboed with mobile warrior and blade rush. Runaways remain pretty ok, but I find they tend to just give out adversary rather than their other (better) effects. Still trying to figure out when to activate them. Ullr is a good boy who tries his best but really doesn't provide any melee utility which leads to the awkward situation where he's there to protect cooper from melee but really can't damage anything and gets beaten down quickly by any melee beater. Vatagi remains fragile but necessary for card draw. Pit traps are still cool but pretty unreliable. Another model that doesn't want to be in melee and has no way to mitigate damage. Finally, the Crysis corps. I really wanted to like this guy but I don't. 14" gun is cool except it's stat 5 and about as long range as the vatagi. Min 2 damage with a possible crit strike is ok but stat 5 is just such a huge downside. More importantly, it's a very stationary model in a crew that already tends to be a bit too much of a gunline. Absolutely no melee whatsoever and paper thin defense of 4 means he gets immediately smashed by most things. His triggers are also kind of useless besides crit strike. Staggered is ok but situational and adversary is not really a problem for this crew to get on people. Patient strike is weird but maybe ok in the right situation, except that stat of 5 with a min 2 damage means that there's no real reason to respect it and it's very easily avoided. Beneath the leaves is interesting but if anyone is close enough to him for it to matter, he's in huge trouble. Honestly I don't see a good place for him in this crew. I'd rather have another vatagi for card draw and some board control (traps). Even his scheme removal is underwhelming in a crew where model 9 and artemis exist. Going forward I'm hoping to try a 50SS game in the next week or so with the Rex (proxied ). Artemis is definitely coming back too since he's one of the only melee models in the crew. This is definitely one of the weaker Explorer keywords. Cooper is your main damage engine but is very stationary and folds very quickly to any sort of pressure. If he's not shooting twice then you are in some serious trouble, which greatly limits his flexibility. The crew also struggles greatly with hand mechanics. A bad control hand kind of dooms you But I still love Apex and will keep trying to find ways to make them work!

Since I’m on call this weekend and therefore functionally living at the hospital, I won’t be able to get much painting done But I’m off to a pretty good start on Yan Lo’s crew! This is a fairly potato pic but I try not to get out the good camera until the whole keyword is finished! Currently working on Genbu the Armor (because big turtles >> reanimated boring armor*) and then it’ll be time for Yin and Manos! *plus I feel like Izamu is gonna be an excellent competition piece if Wyrd decides to run another one in the near future. He’ll get a special base and everything!

Just played my first actual game of Malifaux against my dad at 30 soul stones. McCabe (him) vs lord Cooper (me). We are both enormous noobs so probably messed up a bunch but it was a great time nonetheless! I took Cooper, runaways, Artemis, Ullr, model 9, and a vatagi. He took McCabe, Luna, desper, sidhir, and the Dawn serpent. We played standard deployment with corrupted idols. I took outflank and hold up their forces, he took take prisoner and claim jumps Game ended in a 3-3 tie! Big moments were Cooper being on a positive damage flip against McCabe and flipping a black joker 😡 and the dawn serpent just burninating half my crew constantly. That thing is crazy and Cooper actually seems to bubble more than I thought (ullr negative flip and vatagi draw a card ability all require 2” range”. Takeaways: Cooper is a stone cold baller with the predatory instincts and amount of adversary the crew hands out. Min 3 per shot is spooky with positive flips everywhere. His tomes trigger (draw 2 discard 1) is absolutely amazing since there’s not a lot of draw options for the crew. The runaways are super fun and annoying for your opponent. One almost killed Luna which was hilarious. Model 9 doesn’t seem worth the 9 stones but he was slow and staggered most of the games. His knife throw is cool though- stat 7 is fantastic. Seems like him or Artemis are necessary but probably not both. Ullr is absolutely fantastic to bodyguard Cooper and give him focus/prevent him getting gooned out. Artemis is very quick which is nice but is basically a less good, cheaper model 9. I like the vatagi. They give you card draw, the gun isn’t horrible, and making traps is fun. Predatory instinct to help make the trap off a revolver shot which then lets Cooper blast someone is just delightful. The bubble nature of them is rough though and they die pretty quick. Very excited to try out the crysis corps and probably swap out Artemis for one of them to see how that goes. McCabe is brutal though. Damn quick and just cuts a swath through everything. Especially when you black joker your Cooper shot...

oh hey that's me! Thanks so much! I actually just started a project blog here: where I'll be posting more of my crews as well as some more pictures of the ones I already have. Happy to take closer pics of any of the Apex models or answer any questions about how I painted em. I'm especially proud of the Maasai beads on the Crysis Corps- those were pretty fun to do and a neat way to add some character.