Painting my Crews

[the imp]

I'm shamelessly looking for feedback, so please comment often. Even if it's only to tell me what a terribly average or boring log this is. I haven't been painting regularly for more than a year and I hope this project will get me motivated to work on other stuff.

I ordered two starters and a handful of blisters for Malifaux at my FLGS last week, the Bayou Gremlins, which are hilarious, and the Cult of December, which I thought looked nifty. My vague goal is to paint up the CoD like Rainbow Bright characters, mostly for grins but also in an effort to sucker my girlfriend into the hobby, and the Gremlins to look similar to a common bayou fish call the crappie.

I'm electing to start with the Cult of December. No real reason, though the bases for the Gremlins will probably be a lot more work. I have to saw matchsticks in half lengthwise for what I have in mind...

While I love the overall design of Wyrd's figures, the casting leaves a lot to be desired. Several of the sculpts, particularly the Gamins and the December Acolyte, had really lousy mold lines, flashing, and other flaws. I spent a lot of time cleaning them up.

After tidying the sculpt and removing the tabs, I want to do all scenic bases for these figures, I cast up a sheet of Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty to craft my bases out of. I can't recommend this product enough for basing applications. It's inexpensive, highly durable, and easy to work with. It's very similar to plaster of Paris, but sets up harder.

Using one of the smaller bases, I scribed circles into the hardened putty then broke it into irregular pieces. This gave me the perfect amount of material to fill the larger bases. I repeated the procedure with a nickle to make the smaller bases. I'll pretty obviously be painting these up to look like cracked and broken ice, but I've done similar to make stone outcroppings.

I really liked everything about Rasputina, except her silly top-hat. So I clipped it off and made a new, rounded, crown for the hat out of household putty. It makes her look even more like Sorscha from Warmachine, but I prefer it. This figure was almost perfect otherwise. I had to scrape down one very minor mold line. I highly recommend her to folks interested in showing off free-hand painting. She has the perfect combination of a dramatic pose, detail, and large areas of flat surface.

The Hoarcat Pride kind of surprised me. They cast these little cats in two parts, divided behind the shoulders. They fit together well though. I'm glad I got good casts here. They're so small that any flaw in the molding process will result in the figures being indistinguishable blobs.

The Wendigo is tiny. Not much larger than one of the hoar cats really. I was initially disappointed by this, but then it dawned on me that he's the perfect size for Twink the sprite!

The December Acolyte was a real mess. There were mold-lines everywhere. I strongly recommend examining the figure closely before purchasing it, if you can. I'm sure it'll paint up nicely, but the prep work on this figure took longer than any other in the set.

The Ice Gamins are fun little monsters. Getting them off the tabs was a pain though because their limbs are so spindly. I cannot say how important it is to own a good pair of wire-cutters and a razor saw. It's somewhat advantageous in that the pieces can be easily reposed, if you want to add more than one set to your crew. I haven't read their stats, but based on the poses I think they throw some kind of ice attack. I may see about sculpting a cinematic effect ala Armorcast. If you couldn't tell, I like to do things myself and I'm disinclined to buy them if I don't absolutely have to.

Here's a spectacularly bad picture of my Ice Golem. I think I like the Dark Age one better. He's a goodly size though, about twice the height of the human-sized figures. The arms on the figure are not well designed. They socket in at the shoulder with a very narrow tab. It's a recipe for disaster in my opinion. If you don't pin them they're guaranteed to come off and if you do pin them they may still. If the figure is remastered at any point, I hope they make the shoulders part of the arm and join it at the chest; like the WHFB Ogres and Minotaurs. It would be much more secure.

If everything goes according to plan, I'll putty a couple joints tonight and start priming the figures. I'll be hand-priming using white gesso for this because I haven't got any white spray. It's a technique I've used before with good results.

[Twizz666]

I am excited to see how these turn out. I like her crew, although, i tried playing them once and i epically failed. Since then i've decided to stick to the crews i know and allow someone else to make my life a little harder. When you get into the rules, i'm sure you'll find she is a lethal crew. I can dig those bases by the way. The guy i used to play against just covered the bases in snow and called it a day. Kinda giving up in my opinion.

I'm looking forward to some in progress pictures soon. =]

p.s. i liked her hat... lol

[Shadowopal]

Nice start. I appreciate the step by step as I haven't bought this set yet and hearing the flaws helps me get ready for them. So, thanks for tat. I'll look forward to watching this thread.

[amazonwarlord]

Very nice Imp. I always appreciate the 'blog' approach to these things. I don't like writing them myself but still ....

[the imp]

Thanks for the comments, I know I haven't done much that's comment worthy yet. I have a quick question, I haven't got a rule book yet; does Rare 2 mean that the December Acolyte takes up two rare slots, or does it mean you may have up to two acolytes in your crew?

[dgraz]

You may have up to 2 Acolytes per Master in your crew.

[the imp]

Excellent. I'll start a conversion.

[the imp]

Oh hey! An update!

Thanks to dgraz's confirmation, I started my December Acolyte conversion. I probably would have done one anyway because the figure doesn't match up with the stats that well, but the incentive of having a second guy that's able to attack at range and devour his enemies to recover wounds sealed the deal. Looking at the previous pictures of the actual December Acolyte figure, you'll notice he's armed with some kind of forearm mounted crossbow. According to the stats that's supposed to be a "harpoon gun". I don't think so. This is a harpoon gun!

I happen to have a box of Empire Handgunners laying around waiting to be converted into Imperial Guard, which may never actually happen. The five-barrel repeater was perfect for this in my opinion. It's big and menacing and didn't take much work. The hardest part was gluing the modified plastic skeleton arrows to the ends of the barrels. The reel is repurposed sprue and the cable is a piece of brass wire that I swiped from my aunt a couple years ago. She makes earrings with them. I also added a small loop of wire near the muzzle to act as a guide for the cable. I like subtle details like that.

The gunner himself is very rough right now. I'm modifying a standard hand-gunner body to have a long coat with a hood. I decided on the eldar guardian head just because I like the wind-blown hair. I think he's going to end up with goggles and maybe a scarf.

I started base-coating the rest of the crew last night. I usually use black primer, so it's a little different experience for me. I'm hoping that the white will allow me to use lighter colors.

[dgraz]

That is indeed a harpoon gun. Very cool. good luck on that conversion. I'll be watching this.

I usually use a grey primer. It's dark enough to most of the benefits of black, but light enough to paint brighter colors over.

[the imp]

I am not really a slow painter, I just don't paint every night!

I started the ice golem in earnest about three weeks ago, building up the head and torso from dark blue in an effort to create an ice effect. As you can see, I'm transitioning to green at the extremities. So far I'm liking the overall effect. I think it'll be at least another week until I finish him off.

I also spent some time on the other figures, and almost finished the Wendigo last night.

[dgraz]

I like the effect on the Ice Golem with the two shades. Its like he was built from two different water sources.

[Spaced2020]

Very nice WiP, I like where you are going with these.

[the imp]

Thanks for the comments.

The golem is such a large piece that I wanted to break it up a bit. I've added another blue glaze to the upper arms to try and smooth out the transition, and I think I'm happy with it for now. The highlighting is very time consuming though and I'll probably have another hour or two of work to put in before the figure is really finished.

I'm still plugging away at these, but I just moved my desk and I'm having some problems with lighting. I probably won't get any work done until I buy another lamp, tomorrow or Wednesday.

[the imp]

Sorry about the camera phone pic. Here are two of my six ice pillars that I'm building. Alexander Salkind can eat his heart out. And yes, they're no. 2 pencils!

I still haven't got a rule book, so I'm not sure how tall they're really supposed to be. These are about four and a half inches, measured from the base not the table.

[thaehl]

They are height for if memory serves, in not a razzie player so if im correct they should do just fine.

[notmikehill]

The Ice Pillars are height 3 hardness 3. I do love the way you made them look. I'm pretty jealous.

[daemonkin]

Nice idea there, using pencils to get a hexagonal effect on the ice pillars. Consider the idea stolen!

Great work on the rest of your crew and I'm loving the detail on the December Acolyte.

D.

[Svenn]

Love the idea for the ice pillars. Very cool!

And I love the blue/green of the golem.

[the imp]

Two updates in a week? Unbelievable!

I got in some painting at the FLGS last night. I think I'm going to call the Ice Golem done. I've still got a little work to do on the base but I'm pretty happy with the figure. I added a gloss varnish after taking the pictures. Please excuse the lighting, and the craptastic macro setting on my camera.

I started cleaning my Bayou Gremlins last night as well. I am not very happy with the casting so far. The warpig and rider doesn't fit together well and there was a substantial chunk of metal that I had to cut away from where the mold had been damaged. I'm kind of rushing to get them together because my rule book and puppet deck will be arriving at the shop today and I have at least one person interested in trying the game out.

Thanks again for your comments!

[KirigakurenoHaku]

Your golem looks absolutely amazing! I am enjoying him very much!

[the imp]

I'm glad you like it. Hey look, I'm over a thousand views!

[the imp]

Update time!

I bought a desk lamp on Saturday and slammed out my gamins. I was shooting for a crystalline effect and I'm only partially happy with my results. The purple one in particular was a disappointment, though I did it last and I was pretty tired.

Sunday and last night I spent some time on the December Acolyte and Rasputina as well. Remember that I'm shooting for something inspired by Rainbow Bright, but a bit twisted. I will admit that the florescent colors are a bit too jarring, though they're not actually as bright in person. I'll see about toning them down. I'm really unhappy that I can't get a decent picture of Rasputina's face; I'm particularly proud of it.

I've still got a fair amount of work to do on both of them and I've barely touched the hoar cats, but if I maintain my pace these may be done as early as next week. I'm already starting on bases for the gremlins.

Thank you for your comments.

[HoarcatsPride]

I like the variety of colors your putting on these. Great job!

Edited September 8, 2010 by HoarcatsPride

[the imp]

Disco Rasputina (disco-ball not included)

I think I'm going to call her done. I also think I may need a new brush. Getting a good point to do the fine details was really hard.

[Svenn]

Rasputina's Avatar form is Rainbow Brite?! :hmmmm: