AnythingBut's Arcanists Corner

[AnythingBut]

Hey everyone. After watching a couple of the guys at my local gaming club play a game of Malifaux a few weeks ago ive become well and truly hooked! 

 

After reading through the rulebook and looking at each faction I settled on the Arcanists due to the seemingly huge amount of variance in crew play style. To date Ive only played a handful of games (all as Rasputina, my chosen 'main' crew for now) and am having a blast and learning every single time. I already own all Three Arcanists master plastic crew boxes and a load of older metals just because I dont like the idea of Proxying untill the plastics are released. 

 

So I created this blog to try and motivate me to get through the rather large amount of unpainted figures I have already amassed. Although I must admit so far Im having a ton of fun and the motivation isnt strictly needed Im new to skirmish games and the fact each model feels like a unique character makes a nice change to huge hordes of mono pose models in one unit.  

 

To start here are my Ice Gamin. The first Malifaux models ive ever painted. I was having a hard time deciding on what bases to do them on and after seeing some great results from Agrellan Earth as a cracked desert theme I decided to have a go using the effect to create an Icy wasteland.

 

 

Next a picture of all three amigos! 

 

 

 

And a quick look at how I created the bases. First of all I Painted the base a turquise blue/green, as when the earth paint drys and cracks you will see the base through the gaps.

 

Then I put a thick player of Agrellan earth (from the GW technical range) deep enough to fill the base up to the lip. After allowing this to dry overnight I painted it with a Deep blue.

 

The finishing touches were then a simple srybrush with a light Icy blue color before a final light drybrush of white. 

 

 

Id be interested to hear what you guys think, about both the models (as a first attempt with Malifaux minitures) and the base idea I came up with.

 

More posts will be coming as the fully painted models are completed. 

[dmeep]

A simple but effective basing scheme.

 

Keep it up

[Viruk]

The Gremlins look great and the bases are just awesome. I'm going to work on a Raspy crew next so I'll probably steal your idea. Thanks for sharing!

[MasterDisaster]

Nice bases! They look really effective. I'd heard quite a few nay sayers bad mouth the Agrellan Earth tech paint but after seeing your success with it I'm half tempted to pick some up and have a crack with it myself! The Bases really make your Gamin stand out! 

[Jonasty]

Question on the Agrellan Earth, how do you keep it from flaking and chipping?  Does varnishing the base seal it in and prevent problems?  I've tried to use that paint but it flakes away on me and I'd love to attempt these bases if possible.

[AnythingBut]

Thanks for the positive responses about the bases, much appreciated.

In reply to Jonasty I honestly just think it's about playing to get the right thickness of agrellan. I don't prime or varnish I simply put a layer of turquoise paint on the base first and that wasn't to help the technical paint it was purely for aesthetics.

I put it on trick enough to get the big cracks but I've never had flaking problems and I give the agrellan two thourough dry brushes afterwards and they stay in place no problem.

I found the right thickness to apply was simply to cover the base until the agrellan was thick enough to reach the 'lip' that runs all away around the base. I wish I could give more sound advice but I've honestly never had any issues with it!

[AnythingBut]

Did some work to finish off the blue layering on the Golem which I was pleased with (unfortunately the only camera I posses is on the iPhone so its not a great shot for that but I did want to ask people thoughts/advice about the white highlighting. 

 

 

 

Is it a bit harsh on the eye to just go from my blue layers to a white straight up? do they need softning or layered up themselves? or does it look ok as it is? Contemplating a very light white drybrush on some of the larger blue areas to break it all up but would like the ideas of maybe some more experienced painters before I changed anything. 

 

 

And the back shot. Again advice welcome.

 

 

You'll notice the base was done in the same way as my gamin. I was thinking if I did this base style for all my crew, Rapy/ wendigo/ december acolyte it might be a bit over the top on the ice front. It makes sense that the ice creatures might be emanating an aura and freezing the ground they walked on but not sure it would tie in with the living models of the crew. 

 

Would people suggest doing them on snow covered mountainous bases or carry on with the cracked ice theme?

[dmeep]

The highlights look quite stark at this distance but the important question is: how does it look on the table? you generally watch your models from more then armslenght away and what looks good close up subtle shifts might not register at that distance. And things that make them look great on the table can make them eysores when you photograph them up close. Some of the impressionist masters springs to mind.

 

When it comes to the basing its all acording to taste. I generally keep models i percive as belonging together with the same base style more or less but most of them have cobblestone bases as i was planning to build a cityboard so that would make a lot of sense. A lot of ressers have graveyard bases and mcMourning and his cronies have mortuary bases, yan lo and his models are on skull bases since he is walking the path of bone (or atleast did in 1.5, i havent kept up) and some of the neverborn have orphanage bases and zoraida and lilith are on svamp base inserts.

 

So if you want cracked thundra looking or further up the mountain isnt the end of the world tbh. keeping them in a snow theme will tie them all together anyway. just play it by ear is my advice.

[AnythingBut]

Yeah it's a good point about table top look and I think it looks decent at an arms length away but I still think I might give the think white lines on its front a bit of a dry brush to help blend it into the blue.

That's how I achieve the look on it's back and the more I look at the model the more I like the look of the spikes in its back.

Oh yeah, no doubt I'll keep all the frozen heart models for raspys crew in a winter theme. It's just a matter of cracked icy plains or mountainous rocks covered in fresh snow. I'm thinking of the latter to be honest. It will all tie in thematically and I think it will suit the living models better overall.

Thanks again for the time to give your opinion it's much appreciated.

[AnythingBut]

With most of my club taking more to twitter over the last 6 months I had kinda neglected this thread and just been posting painting pictures on there.

 

I figured Id just update the thread all at once and show my painting over that time. Its not as much as I would have liked granted but as im currently balancing three different gaming systems I sap ans change between what im currently painting! 

 

So firstly I found that the three gamin looked a bit too uniform all just standing on their icy bases and so I put the rock throwing gamin ontop of a ledge simply made layering some thin cork into a tall tower. 

 

 

Next up was my wendigo. One of my club mates stared the game at the same time as me and plays guild and so I figured I wanted to paint the wendigo victim as one of his crew members using the same bold red colour scheme. 

 

 

And when deciding upon the colour scheme for the wendigo himself I wanted something earthy in contrast to this bright red and then I saw a picture the forum member Viruk blog which I thought looked great and based my colour scheme upon it.

 

 

and a back shot 

 

 

 

More to follow!

[AnythingBut]

My search to expand my Rasputina crew coincidently coincided with the release of the December acolytes plastic box, so I snapped one up a few months ago and began painting!

 

Putting them all onto various cork made bases to fit with their image of skulking along cliff ridges in the shadows. 

 

 

Next a Frozen heart crew shot, worth noting I managed to get hold of an old metal Rasputina as im not a great fan of the plastic pose. It came painted as I got it from a friend and although I plan on stripping it eventually and painting it up myself I have a huge backlog of malifaux still to paint and so as the existing pain job was great ill just be leaving it for now and coming back to it after I have my Marcus crew fully painted (maybe after Ramos too, we'll see!) 

 

 

Next my updates from the Marcus crew I recently begun

[AnythingBut]

So when moving onto my Marcus crew I needed to think of a new basing idea and as I had self made the rasputina bases I decided to look into scenic resin bases for the first time. 

 

I grabbed a bunch of these in 30 40 and 50mm trying to represent a collapsed and abandoned temple deep a forgoteen jungle like environment and im fairly happy with how they turned out. 

 

 

SO next to paint some models to put on them. First up was Marcus. My whole Rasoy crew is done in blue so wanted a nice contrast that would also look good against the green foliage on the bases and so went with red. 

 

I tried for some OSL with the blue cursed skull on his staff and it was my first time painting dark skin so a trial for a few techniques that  came out decently enough.

 

 

Next onto the painting table were my Waldgeists. Mainly because as my second faction im going to be collecting some Neverborn along side my Arcanists and these will be usefull in both factions (along with my Silurids that will come later.)

 

First I did a standard brown looking tree then for some variation decided to try a silver/grey and black type colour scheme. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's Marcus with all three youll norice I went for another standard brown scheme for No3 as I like to think of the silver guy as more rare and the brown guys your run of the mill tree men  

 

 

My last update for this post is Myranda. Went for her next as I like to use her with both marcus and raspy as her utility to turn into a beast for any scheme is often vital. I had to add a couple of small extra stone fromt he garden and paint them up to be able to balance her pose. 

 

 

And from behind

 

 

Im currently half way through my Silurids so hopefully get those posted in the next week. 

 

[Jewomie]

wow, i really like this! Very clean and good details. =] Love the source lighting on Marcus' staff, and the waldgeist look fantastic!

 

I'm just getting ready to start replacing my hoard of Marcus stuff with plastics and i have to say i think yours might be one of the best on here! keep it up, i can't wait to see those Silurids!

[AnythingBut]

Thanks a lot for the kind words, speaking of the Silurids the pictures will be up momentarily, fresh from being my MVP's at a tournament the weekend just gone!

[AnythingBut]

So here are the Silurids 

 

I again planned to have them all on the same scenic bases as the rest of the crew but had problems getting the leaping Silurid into a good position on one and so in the end decided to just use the rock he comes with and just paint it up the same style as the others and add the same floral accessories and grass. 

 

Here are the results 

 

 

Silurid number 2

 

 

And lastly (not the greatest picture but wanted to get an angle of the belly

 

 

And a group shot first head on then of the sides to try and show the skin patterns as well as the fins. 

 

 

 

Next onto the painitng table will more than likely be the Bkessed of December who can fit into both of my currently painted crews (plus having another leap with the suit built in cant hurt right? ) and probbaly the Rogue Necromancy as the new plastic model is amazing!