Stormlord's Full Color Malifaux Menagerie and Painting Guide

[StormLordXIII]

Hi all,

First off, Happy New Year! I've been playing Malifaux for the past four or so years and I often lurk on the forums even though I rarely post. I usually play Guild and Thunders, but am transitioning a bit to Neverborn. My favorite part about Malifaux, perhaps even more than the great gameplay, is the setting, characters, and artwork, and I've really enjoyed reading the fluff and seeing how others bring it to life with their painting.

Although I'm not a competition-level painter, I really enjoy the community aspect of the hobby and thought it high time to start sharing some of my own stuff after being inspired by the other forum members. My hope with this tread is to provide fully-painted photos and (brief) painting guides that others might find useful as they brainstorm selecting their (color) schemes (sorry, pun intended), and, more importantly, if somebody notices something that seems a bit off or they have a better way to tackle a mini, they can post their fixes so that everyone can benefit. Finally, I've also only been painting-semi regularly and would like to get in the habit more, so I hope that this thread will keep me motivated to finish slapping some color on my grey plastic !

Anyway, here goes! Up first is my Brutal Effigy.

 

Color Scheme:

Cloak:

• Basecoat PP Coal Black
• Blend thinned layer of PP Coal Black, PP Battleflield Brown, and PP Exile Blue into recesses
• Blend thinned layer of PP Thamar Black into darkest parts
• Highlight with PP Coal Black
• Highlight with PP Coal Black and Trollblood highlight.

I've used this mix on Guild trenchcoats and find it to be easy to correct if I make mistakes since the colors are so dark! Has anyone found a mix that they like and want to share?

Leather:

• Basecoat PP Battlefield Brown
• Wash watered-down GW Agrax Earthshade
• Blend thinned layer of PP Thamar Black into darkest parts
• Highlight with PP Battlefield Brown
• Growing highlights with PP Battlefield Brown mixed with increasing amounts of PP Gun Corps Brown until adding just a drop of PP Jack Bone for final highlights

Lamp:

• Basecoat PP Morrow White, watered down into two thin coats so it creeps into recesses against the metal sides of the lamp.
• Watered down GW Golden Yellow
• Paint outer edges with GW Golden Yellow mixed with increasing amounts of GW Blazing Orange, heavily thinned. 
• For glow effect, mix increasing amounts of GW Blazing Orange into the cloak basecoat (PP Coal Black) and paint over areas that need light shade. Add increasing amounts of yellow to this mix until you reach pure yellow with a little bit of PP Menoth White Highlight mixed in (but not too much or the color looks too much like sulfur!).

Metal:

• GW Leadbelcher basecoat
• GW Agrax Earthshade Wash
• GW Leadbelcher and GW Chainmail highlight

Maybe it's because I'm lazy, but I like this mix as it's simple and effect. The silver will remain a bit muted, but it works for now as I don't like it too bright. Thoughts? 

Coffin:

• Used three different basecoats for different planks before washing the whole coffin with GW Agrax Earthside for a unifying effect.
• Basecoat 1: PP Battlefield Brown
• Basecoat 2: PP Battlefield Brown and PP Thornwood Green
• Basecoat 3: PP Battlefield Brown and PP Bloodtracker Brown
• Highlight with original base mixes and increasing amounts of PP Gun Corps Brown.

Hope this paintlog is off to a good start! Feel free to post your own mixes below so other readers can use them if you like! 

[StormLordXIII]

Up next is the Guild Pathfinder!

Claws and Teeth

* PP Jack Bone basecoat

* GW Agrax Earthshade wash, concentrated away from the tips so that they remain slightly brighter from the part closest to the knuckles.

Skin

* Basecoat 50/50 mix GW Bugman's Glow and GW Cadian Flesh Tone

* Wash GW Reikland Flesh Shade

* Highlight Cadian Flesh Tone with increasing amounts of GW Kislev Flesh

Fur

* Basecoat PP Ironhull Grey

* Wash GW Agrax Earthshade

* Highlights on ears, snout, and sculpted tufts of fur with PP Ironhull Grey and increasing amounts of PP Morrow White (applied very sparingly)

* Blended glaze of thinned GW Screamer Pink into deepest recesses of the fur. Blends surprisingly well with grey to add a warmer hew. 

* Bear eyes: GW Evil Sunz Scarlet for irises and GW Golden Yellow Pupils

Extras

* Red feathers and moccasin strings: GW Khorne Red basecoat with increasing amounts of GW Evil Sunz Scarlett added in for successive highlights. 

* Denim rifle strap and front / side pouches: Basecoat 1:1:1 mix PP Ironhull Grey, PP Trollblood Base, and PP Thamar Black (to darken tone). Glaze sparingly with watered down GW Agrax Earthshade, PP Thornwood Green, and GW Screamer Pink in recesses. 

[StormLordXIII]

Stand for judgement! Lady Justice's #2 is on deck! Here's The Judge.

The Judge was painted using the same brown (leather) and dark blue (Guild coat) and red (moccasin leather) recipes described in the two entries above. To make the sword glow, I glazed the blade with PP Arcane Blue, heavily watered down and applied only at the edge of the sword. To make the right hand glow as though casting a spell, I added increasing amounts of PP Arcane Blue (with drops of PP Morrow White to make it even brighter after a few layers) to the brown mixture. The effect looks a little sloppier on the back, but I'm happy with it overall. 

[Vinncent]

Nice paint work, looks really great and the bases good corresond with the minis, 

[StormLordXIII]

Glad you like the bases! Here's the recipe in case anyone is interested:

• Basecoat PP Battlefield Brown
• Dry brush PP Gun Corps Brown
• Dry brush PP Jack Bone
• Dry brush GW Rakarth Flesh
• Dry brush PP Menoth White Highlight

Also, here are some newcomers, Tara and Karina!

[StormLordXIII]

Hi guys! Thought I'd add a new crew to the mix. Here's Jack Daw and his cronies, guilty as charged!

I was inspired to paint these guys after the color scheme I saw in the case at the Wyrd booth last Gencon. I found a good recipe for painting white over black primer - I hope it will be helpful to others. 

• Basecoat 3:1 PP Morrow White to GW Rakarth Flesh. It takes took smooth coats but it works without leaving streaks. 
• Shade in recesses through blending with thinned PP Bastion Grey. 
• Paint stripes with thinned PP Coal Black. I found diagonal chevrons to be more visually appealing than concentric rings. 
• Darken stripes with 1:1 PP Coal Black and PP Thamar Black.
• Highlight cloth with PP Morrow White

 

Hope you guys like them!

[Die Cervum Studio]

Absolutely stunning work mate. I love the bases, especially Monty's!

[Uruk]

I love the attention you paid into details, good job!

[Astrella]

I think your Tara is suffering a bit from being too muted. I would use some brighter colours/highlights to draw some more attention to one or two key areas, e.g. face/eyes, the sword, her claw arm, etc...

[StormLordXIII]

1 hour ago, Astrella said:

I think your Tara is suffering a bit from being too muted. I would use some brighter colours/highlights to draw some more attention to one or two key areas, e.g. face/eyes, the sword, her claw arm, etc...

Thanks for the feedback! I'll see what I can do here. I've always had trouble with successive highlights because I worry that when things get too bright, it offsets the color on the rest of the mini since I can't blend "up" to brighter colors without making mistakes as well as I can blend "down" to darken my base coats. Definitely something to work on, so I'm glad you mentioned it! 

[Omenbringer]

Man those are wonderful looking models, however I don't think I have ever seen anyone post a toot for each model presented. Good job and perhaps you will start a trend, since a lot of times these types of threads leave me wondering how the OP achieved the look or what they used.

[StormLordXIII]

2 hours ago, Omenbringer said:

Man those are wonderful looking models, however I don't think I have ever seen anyone post a toot for each model presented. Good job and perhaps you will start a trend, since a lot of times these types of threads leave me wondering how the OP achieved the look or what they used.

Thanks for the encouragement! So long as people find them useful, I'll keep posting the paint mixes! 

[StormLordXIII]

Time for something gribbly I think! Here are some depleted. Unfortunately I didn't do a good job of filling on the arm gaps on one of them, but overall I'm happy with the glow effect. Painting these was pretty straightforward:

• Basecoat skin with several coats of thinned PP Midlund Flesh
• Wash skin with GW Reikland Fleshshade (thinned)
• Re-highlight with GW Cadian Fleshtone and increasing amounts of GW Pallid Wych Flesh
• To make the inside seem like it's burning, I glazed the gauntest parts of the model (in between the ribs) with thinned GW Screamer Pink
• Blend 1:1:1 mix of GW Rakarth Flesh, PP Arcane Blue, and GW Leviathan Purple onto corrupted skin
• Darken the tone by adding increasing amounts of Leviathan Purple to the mix
• If the shade is too bright, repeat successive glazes of thinned GW Drakenhoff Nightshade
• Highlight tentacle tips with PP Arcane blue

Hope you like 'em!

[Shadowfane]

*Depleted*

Still very good though, despite their being confused as to what they are

[StormLordXIII]

1 minute ago, Shadowfane said:

*Depleted*

Still very good though, despite their being confused as to what they are

Lol I think if I were full of brilliance, I would be confused too  

Fixed that - thanks for pointing this out, much appreciated. Anyway, hope these are good on the table. Haven't had the chance to run them yet haha! 

[Shadowfane]

Oh, they're brilliant - they do jack all for damage, but they're THE most irritatin 4 point model  to get rid of in the entire game.

8 wounds, HTW and HTK? They make people spit

And then when they die they give people Brilliance so your actual Illuminated can charge in and wreck everything.

First 8 points spent in any Lynch crew I make, for the most part

[Omenbringer]

Was the "Squidly" one rushed? The gaps are fairly noticeable on him.

[StormLordXIII]

Not rushed haha, but as I noted in the caption, I had a bit of trouble filling them in without cover the detail in the ribs... Since my sculpting skills are still a work in progress, I always make an internal gamble before I start to fill gaps. If the answer to the question of "Will me trying to fill this thing with greenstuff or liquid greenstuff make the gaps even more noticeable and awkward" is "Yes" then I try not to fiddle too much. It's kind of a hit and miss sometimes though - I've had great results filling in horrendous gaps that I never thought I could fill, and terrible results with simple ones! 

[Postmortem]

Very nice. The painting guides are nice as well. Thanks for them.

[tmod]

12 hours ago, StormLordXIII said:

Not rushed haha, but as I noted in the caption, I had a bit of trouble filling them in without cover the detail in the ribs... Since my sculpting skills are still a work in progress, I always make an internal gamble before I start to fill gaps. If the answer to the question of "Will me trying to fill this thing with greenstuff or liquid greenstuff make the gaps even more noticeable and awkward" is "Yes" then I try not to fiddle too much. It's kind of a hit and miss sometimes though - I've had great results filling in horrendous gaps that I never thought I could fill, and terrible results with simple ones! 

Try out Mr. Hobby Mr. Dissolved Putty. Despite the silly name it's Da Shit for gap filling plastic miniatures! It's a bitch to deal with, as you need to stirr it often (I always try to shake it a lot before opening the jar, and have all the gaps lined up in advance), but it can be thinned with thin poly cement (like Tamiya) Mr. Hobby solvent and it's hands down the best there is. It's based on a mix between a plastic based putty and the solvent in plastic cement (Toluene unless I'm mistaken). This means that the putty will bond with the plastic, and very little goes a long way in hiding the gap. Thus lesd risk of obscuring details. I like to use coctail sticks for applications. Also, you should get a set of diamond micro files if you don't already have them (cheap off eBay), and som purpose made sanding sticks for plastic modelling (Tamiya is not too expensive and perfect for the job. Flex-I-File is the brand I'm currently using. One package should last you years...). These are fine enough and thin enough that if you should fill, say the ribs, with putty, you can file away the putty while leaving the plastic in place!

These days I only use thinned down liquid green stuff for truly hairline cracks (and for metal minis), and always applied with a cheap paintbrush. Dissolved putty for everything else, apart from resculpts/conversions or truly humongous gaps, which get filled with Magic Sculpt, sometimes mixed with Green Stuff for more flexibility...

[StormLordXIII]

18 hours ago, tmod said:

Try out Mr. Hobby Mr. Dissolved Putty. Despite the silly name it's Da Shit for gap filling plastic miniatures! It's a bitch to deal with, as you need to stirr it often (I always try to shake it a lot before opening the jar, and have all the gaps lined up in advance), but it can be thinned with thin poly cement (like Tamiya) Mr. Hobby solvent and it's hands down the best there is. It's based on a mix between a plastic based putty and the solvent in plastic cement (Toluene unless I'm mistaken). This means that the putty will bond with the plastic, and very little goes a long way in hiding the gap. Thus lesd risk of obscuring details. I like to use coctail sticks for applications. Also, you should get a set of diamond micro files if you don't already have them (cheap off eBay), and som purpose made sanding sticks for plastic modelling (Tamiya is not too expensive and perfect for the job. Flex-I-File is the brand I'm currently using. One package should last you years...). These are fine enough and thin enough that if you should fill, say the ribs, with putty, you can file away the putty while leaving the plastic in place!

These days I only use thinned down liquid green stuff for truly hairline cracks (and for metal minis), and always applied with a cheap paintbrush. Dissolved putty for everything else, apart from resculpts/conversions or truly humongous gaps, which get filled with Magic Sculpt, sometimes mixed with Green Stuff for more flexibility...

Thanks for this awesome overview! Will definitely give Mr. Hobby Dissolved Putty a try and I'll try to get a hold of those files and sanding sticks. Really appreciate you taking the time to let me know!

[StormLordXIII]

Hey guys! New updates here, this time some Monks of Low River. These guys were tricky to paint because of the intense detail, so I thought if I added some OSL it might draw eyes away from any mistakes I might have made in highlighting! I'm happy with how they came out in the end though! Hope you like 'em!

Cloaks:

• Basecoat PP Cygnar Blue Base
• Wash GW Agrax Earthshade
• Re-highlight Cygnar Blue Base with increasing amounts of PP Cygnar Blue Highlight. Add one drop more each time, for about four coats of highlights.
• To curb excessive brightness, feather PP Battlefield Brown into the cloak recesses.
• Add Cygnar Blue Highlight + PP Frostbite for brightest highlights

Glowing Orange

*For cloak and goggles:

• Basecoat several layers of thinned GW Fiery Orange, increasing the pigmentation towards the brightest points but leaving a thinned coat over the rest
• Highlight with successive additions of GW Golden Yellow to the base mix.
• Brightest highlights made with 1:1 mix of GW Golden Yellow and PP Menoth White highlight, although don't add too much or the color looks sulfuric!

*For weapons this process was the same, but I painted the recesses of the staff runes with thinned PP Morrow White first, and applied all the colors listed above as light, thinned glazes feathered in with a second brush. 

 

[StormLordXIII]

And here's Fuhatsu! While I was less happy with how the monks turned out, I was glad that this piece turned out a bit better. I wish I could paint freehand hearts on the boxer shots like in the original artwork, but I had to settle for stripes. 

[thewartoad]

Very Nicely done StormLordXIII!

[Uruk]

Good work on TMM, but I don't like the OSL effect since it's hard to understand what it is. I'd have paid more attention on cloaks tho