ttsgosadow's painting

[ttsgosadow]

I have started Malifaux with Sonnia. On my blog there are a couple of pictures of the crew painted. The pictures came out very dark.

So I slapped together a light box, as detailed by the WHFM blog.

That yielded the following pictures, which must better show the painting job on my miniatures

When the other miniatures I ordered arrive, I can start painting them and add to this thread.

This is my first real attempt at painting to a high(er) standard. So far what I have painted where quick jobs, as the armies had 100+ models in 'em.

Comment and criticism is more then welcome!

Edited October 2, 2012 by ttsgosadow

[Deadpool]

Lookin good, pic still seem dark but I'm liking the quite a bit.

[MDL1113]

nice work

[ttsgosadow]

The next model I painted is an Executioner. I liked painting him, and tried a couple of new techniques: glazing to ease the passing between layers and stripes on the pants. I am quite happy with how he turned out. Also I am making wooden plank bases for my Colette Crew, will post those later.

[ttsgosadow]

Tutorial: Wooden plank bases

As one of the masters that most appealed to me, I really wanted to start a showgirls crew. Colette is awesome! The bright coloured showgirls, and the neat tricks. One of the things I really like with Malifaux is the small number of models that make a crew, and the effort you can put into getting them ready for gaming. One big thing is the base, as it really stands out on the mini's. For Colette I wanted to make a wooden plank basing, as if she and the girls where on stage. So searching around on the internet I found a couple of good tips and tricks, and got to work making my own base inserts. I figured I might as well write out the way I made the bases - someone else might find it useful!

Equipment

- Plasticard in two different thickness: 0,50 mm and 0,75mm. I got a sheet of each (250x500mm). With the 0,50mm thick one costing € 1,15, and the 0,75 one costing € 1,55. It's called 'Polystyrol' here in Holland

- Ruler

- Stanley knife

- Metal saw

- Fine sanding paper

- Scissors

- Plastic glue

Making plank strips

We start off making small strips. I made 3mm wide strips from the 0,75mm thick plasticard. You need quite a lot of them. For a total of 12 bases I needed around 15 strips 250mm long. It doesn't matter if they come out slightly different, because that enforces the natural wood look of the planks.

I first drew the strips on the plasticard, then carefully cut them out, watching my finger and table. Don't want to damage anything When you have the strips you're ready for the next step.

Using the saw scratch it along the length of the strip. I did three passes over the strip. The more passes you make, the deeper the wood-texture will be.

Having 'sawed' the strip its easy to see the wood-pattern emerging. Nice!

After that its time to give the strip a light sanding, to get rid of all the small strings of plasticard that are left behing by the saw.

That gives you the basic planks you need for the bases.

Making the insert

Next up grab a base you're making the insert for, and cut squares approximately the same size from the thin (0,50mm) plasticard. This will form the basis for your insert.

Then grab your strips and cut them roughly the same length as the width of the base. This will be the basic planks. You can then start glueing the planks to the square you just cut out. I started with a full length plank in the middle, then randomly made cuts in the other planks to get some variety in the basing.

Using a coin that's roughtly the size of the inside of a base, I drew a circle on the planks.

Along the circle cut out the inlay from the square glued planks.

Use sanding paper to sand the sides to smooth them, and also to make them fit. Sometimes I had to sand quite some time because I was really carefull with cutting out the circle, not wanting to make the insert too small. After some sanding - and lots of white powder on the floor - you got your insert.

And it's a wooden plank base!

Glue the insert in the base. It should fit snuggly.

That basicly gets you a wooden plank base. This is how they looked after a quick paintjob. I used Tausept Ochre for a base colour, drybrushed with a bright yellow and gave the bases a light brown wash.

Tips 'n tricks

- Use good plasticard, it doesnt work as well from other plastics. I tried the plastic from a DVD case to make planks, but it didn't look as good. You can clearly see the three bases I did this way in the picture of the finished bases above. I ended up using those bases for my Mechanical Doves.

- Use plasticard to glue the strips to. I tried using paper, but the insert kept falling apart during the sanding of the insert.

[Kuro]

Hey, nice tutorial! I don't have a wooden plank appropriate crew to base, but it's a neat technique.

[Darios]

Cool basing tut! i like the idea with the saw! cool Executioner also.. the "hair" is brilliantly done..

[ttsgosadow]

The painting is coming along nicely. My Colette crew is completely based and painted. I only have a problem with the varnish. The first coat I have done is a shiny clear car varnish for a good protection. I noticed that the matt varnish I used didn't protect the miniatures very well. A friend of mine tipped shiny varnis ("gloss varnish has better protection"). I was wondering if more people share that opinion.

After a coat of that the models indeed where shiny. Very shiny. Did I mention they where shiny? Anyways I used a matt varnish spray to get the models matt again. But it didn't really work. I must admit its an old can of varnish, but even after three coats the models are still quite glossy. It's okay for the wooden plank bases, but the shiny Executioner really looks silly.

On another note, I am logging my gaming progress through a spreadsheet I found online (Dead Tau Project spreadsheet). These are my stats so far. Colette is doing very well

[Pagan Wolfe]

Love'n the wood bases! Well done and stolen

[ttsgosadow]

Another installment to my painting progress. I finished up my Colette Crew. On paper and on the table-top I really love the crew. Also the miniatures are awesome, but I found myself not enjoying painting them as much as I had expected. Think it's party because my painting skills can't do them justice - they are very hard to paint right. I struggled with the faces (especially the eyes), all the tiny details like the small knots on the dresses and the stockings.

I just did a couple of pictues of them. They turned out a bit grainy, and I feel that the pictures show them painted to a lower standard then when I hold them for RL. Waiting till the summer for better lights wasn't an option, so here goes

The first models of the crew I painted where the doves. I actually liked painting them. There where some new techniques to the models that where fun to do. I added some stuff to the bases of two of them to give them more presence on the table, as I felt that - especially the one with the book - was so easy to overlook otherwise. I found it impossible to paint actual cards in that small detail, and tried to at least paint the suit on it.

The bases for these models are the wooden plank bases I did from a DVD case.

Then Colette and Cassandra. The Golden Girls of the team. They are a blast to play! With Cassandra being the only real 'offensive' model (wel, bar the Coryphe) I thought a little snarling dog would do great on her base. Had fun doing Colette's base, as I found a little snail figure in one of my bitboxes.

Last game with Coryphe was madness. That model is so good! Too bad it got one-shot by a Ronin in a turn where I had to chose between saving Cassie or Cory. Chose to save Cassie, as she was targeted with a scheme. These models where very hard to paint. Don't think the knots come out good I magnetised the models, so I can transport them to the other base when they dance together. The standing Coryphe didnt have enough ground surface to put a magnet under her without it showing, so I figured she might be standing on a little hatch on the floor. I think it doesn't disturb the base too much.

Tried to do blood splatters on the model and the base. It's a little bit hard to see on the pictures. When I googled 'painting blood' I found some disturbing sites about people actually making real paintings with real blood... A couple of search results down there where a couple of good suggestions, which I used to do the blood. Needless to say half my painting area is covered in blood splatters now Well, that's kinda what Coryphe does to you!

Last but not least the mannequins. They come with performers. When I received the box one of the mannequin where missing her arms. I reported that to Wyrd. Couldn't wait to paint them (the arms actually showed up about 4 weeks after I got the other models, 3 weeks after I put in the complaint that I missed the arms), but I have grown to like the armless mannequin.

Mannequin are my favorite models, but again hard to paint. The head has some tiny details, which look like little rivets holding the mannequin together.

Anyways, that's my Colette crew table-ready. Didn't like painting them as much as I expected, which is a shame. Maybe it's because I couldn't paint them to proper standards. Maybe in a couple of years, when I have become a better painter (which I sincerely hope!) I might do another Colette and try to do them justice.

Feedback and comments are more then welcome!

[Evilbleachman]

Cool stuff!!!

Got a link to that program to keep statistics?

[jasonfly]

Nice looking crews! You use a similar basing style to mine, but apparently paint more frequently than me!

Interesting scheme for Collette, might have to take some elements of it for my crew.

[ttsgosadow]

Thanks for the kind words, Jasonfly!

Been a while, but I got my hands on some more miniatures. Finally I am still waiting for stuff to arrive to do bases for my Ramos crew, and in the meantime I played a game with Kaeris and fell in love with her. Really like the burning token mechanism. Too bad that at the end of the turn all tokens are removed, and they only do max 1 wd or slow for all of them. Had an opponent with 3 tokens, and kinda expected them to either tick off one per turn, or have him get more dmg/more slow because he had more tokens.

Anyways, I started painting the three fire gamin. Tried for a yellow/orange fire, with blue fire (butane fuelled?) for the bolts and some glowing coals at the bases. I am still no painting wonder, or good at fotography, but still proud of them, as I tried out different painting techniques.

[jasonfly]

Nice work on the gamin! How did you do the glowing coal effect on the bases? I'm planning to do something similar, although my gamin will probably be a bit darker (I guess you could say they'll be cooler, but that would be an awful joke).

I get the feeling your Kaeris crew will be done before mine.

[ttsgosadow]

Cool stuff!!!

Got a link to that program to keep statistics?

Sorry for the late reply, missed your comment earlier. Here is the basis for my sheet. It's not mine, but from tye dead tau project (now malifaux blog): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgETHSSrWLNYdEdSSE5URGdvTmlQNlI0d1BXNWZBLUE&usp=sharing

---------- Post added at 10:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 PM ----------

How did you do the glowing coal effect on the bases?

As for the coals I used the same techniques I used for the rest of the model, but with different colours. First I gave the coals a good cover of the base colour, a fiery red. Then I watered down a bright orange and washed the coals, so the recesses had an orange glow. Then I worked up layers of red progressivey mixed with more black untill the final layer was a black gray. Look at it like reverse highlighting; with the lighter colours in the recesses, and darker colours on top/at the edges.

I hope this makes sense

[ttsgosadow]

Had a productive weekend, and managed to paint the rest of the Kaeris crew.

Kaeris. What I am happy about is the colour scheme - it really pops! The base is cool as well, although I don't think it comes out as great on the pictures. I don't like the orange cloak. It was a hell to get it to look as it is, but I wanted it even smoother. For the rest I am quite pleased, it's a step in the right direction to get my painting skills up.

The gunsmiths turned out a bit dark. I like them, they make Kaeris stand out even more. I didn't want to give them orange cloaks as well, and couldn't think of something more original then grey cloaks They are very detailed models with some hard to paint details because they are so small.

Now to decide what will be the next up to paint. Really want to have a go at Ramos, but still waiting for the bits to make the bases.

Feedback and comments are more then welcome!

[Cheshire Cat]

I really like your Executioner! I am searching for a good basing idea, so I maybe take your tutorial and try some wood bases :-)

[NIGHTHATER]

Ttsgoshado,

Although I don't like your fire gamin, because I feel your fire skin is too plain, your Kaeris and the gunsmiths are breathtaking. Kaeris stop my heart for a second shes unreal.

Nighthater

[ttsgosadow]

With our Grow League having started, I am working on my Ramos crew. The first games where with unassembled miniatures, and now I got the basic crew together. Starting with 25ss games for the first two weeks, and 30ss games for the two weeks after that, this crew will be able to be the basis for the league, and the crew I want to play with on 30ss.

Unpainted as yet, but finished assembling the bases and models. Foto isn't too good, but I am proud on how the bases turned out.

Crew:

Magnetised spider swarms:

And this is how the spiders turn out when they are not swarmed:

Really looking forward to painting these! I want to go for metal and bronze, with blue and orange as spot colours to tie the crew together.

[Argentbadger]

I am somewhat behind the times, but that Kaeris is excellent. Great painting!

[Viruk]

Nice start, the bases look great!

[Gadrean]

Unpainted as yet, but finished assembling the bases and models. Foto isn't too good, but I am proud on how the bases turned out.

And so you should be!. Those look absolutely fantastic and are really fitting to the steampunk vibe that Ramos has going on. Unfortunately i dont think that those bases would fit my ressers too well otherwise i'd be "borrowing" a few ideas.

Im looking forward to seeing them all painted up, so get a shift on!

[ttsgosadow]

Been very busy at work the last weeks, but finally able to make some progress. I really loved making the bases. Painting them was fun as well! For the individual spiders I only figured out a good way to keep them in one place while painting them. Once the blue tack was in place, they where good fun as well

Love how they turned out, even though I rushed them a bit...

Spiders as individuals:

And once they turn into a nasty swarm:

[ttsgosadow]

We had our first Painting competition ever. Everybody entered a model from the grow league. We had a vote, and I ended up second after the Belle from Aeschere.

[Eagle]

I think the vote was riged. The hooker just had al her customers vote for her! Oh dmn that was me as wel.......