Viktorias

[Killjoke]

Hello, reader.

These past two days I've recieved my first Malifaux figures. I've been reading about the game for months and some people at the game club have started playing the game already but only now have I been able to start myself. I've been wargaming for about five years, starting with WH40k but never actually progressing past building and converting figures and vehicles (Orks, what else!). I never really enjoyed the game nor painting for the scale, but quickly moved on to Flames of War, a 15mm WWII game where I've painted a handful of armies (and am enjoying the game a whole lot).

Tomorrow will be my first game of Malifaux so I've been rushing to get my figures cleaned up and mounted. Being that I can hardly never build anything straight out of the box without adding, reshaping or kitbashing stuff I brought out the green stuff to fix some things I didn't like about these sculpts as well as adding a poncho flapping in the wind for the Convict Gunslinger.

I chose the Alternative Viktorias sculpts, partly because they are great looking but also because the starter box was not very appealing to me. You will notice I added some greenstuff because I didn't care much for some of the fan service. The separated boobs on Bounty Hunter Viktoria looked silly to me so I bridged them together. Swordmistress Viktoria rubbed me the wrong way even more with the very low pants that looked like they would fall off if she started running and whirlwinding, and the vest appearing open without a bra seemed to defy physics so much that I bridged it together as well. I think these sculpts are awesome otherwise, and now I'm very very pleased with them.

The Ronin with the revolver had a rather bad looking sword which I understand is a common issue with this sculpt. I managed to trim and shape it into a decent looking japanese sword and I'm liking this figure a lot.

The Ronin who is about to draw her blade had a way too big cleavage for me. I added some more clothes to cover it up and make her look more ready to actually fight without her boobs falling out of her loose fitting clothes.

The Convict Gunslinger was my biggest undertaking. I've never sculpted anything this substantial before and I don't know how it is going to work out in the end. I wanted to sculpt the poncho much like Clint Eastwood's character in the Dollars trilogy, slung over the shoulder. After four failed attempts I decided to just have him wear it plain and boring. By accident I bent the lower front half of the poncho and it looked like it was dancing in the wind. I quickly adjusted the back, shoulder and neck parts of the poncho to get that windy look. I'm probably going to paint it up with yellows, oranges and dirty whites to get that bandito thing going.

I'm already imagining the Gunslinger having a thing for the Ronin with the dreads. She will of course never acknowledge his verbal advances. A man can dream..

In the future I really can see the male Desperate Mercenary going on a job with these wild warrior women going "You women are maniacs. I'm outahere!" by turn three. We will see later in this thread how an inevitable expansion of my collection of mercenaries will plan out. Looking forward to painting these figures up and will be posting more as that happens!

[Soseito]

Good job on the poncho.

[DavicusPrime]

You will notice I added some greenstuff because I didn't care much for some of the fan service.

I'm going to have to remember this phrase:"Fan Service". It amuses me and I would like to use it in conversation. There are more than a few mini's in the Malifaux range that seem a little too eager to show off the mammaries. Greenstuff would be my goto "modesty enhancement" as well. Good job making it blend into the model so seamlessly. A little paint and it'll be as if it had always been part of the sculpt.

-DavicusPrime

[EntrepeNinja]

Dude, I waited for Miss Demeanor for a convict sculpt I liked... if only I had the talent and the creativity to hide it with poncho! Well done.

[Sybarite]

Nice green stuff work!

[Killjoke]

Thanks all for checking out my thread. I'm super pumped to start painting these figures.

I played my first game today, 28ss vs 28ss against a Leveticus crew based on the starter box (Leveticus, Alyce, a waif and some abominations). He rolled "Supply Wagon" and announced "Breakthrough" and "Steal Relic". I rolled "Distract" and announced "First Blood", while keeping "Thwart" a secret scheme. We set up a board that looked like overgrown ruins with rubble, hills and woods scattered about. I suppose the Viks were hired by someone to stall and sabotage Leveticus smuggling run, waiting in ambush out in the wilderness.

It was glorious. The Viks leapfrogged into action and whirlwinded two abominations, scoring "First Blood". The Swordmistress ate a bunch of soulstones and almost emptied my control hand in one turn dodging Alyce's gun, and in the next turn she promptly set the kid straight with a souped up dual blade attack. Up the center the Gunslinger along with one Ronin pushed through Leveticus spells and quickly trashed the wagon. The other two Ronin pushed through some woods while taking some hard hits from Leveticus spells. They fought a guerilla war attacking out of the woods and pushing back to relative safety. I got real lucky after killing one abomination: Leveticus had killed himself earlier in the turn, and the one waif was within 6" of my currently activated Ronin, who thanks to Melee Expert had one more attack to deliver. "Next Target". She pushed into melee range with the Waif and sliced her in two. The one remaining Abomination at this point managed to kill the Ronin and turn her into a new abomination, though the other Ronin chopped them both up real good.

In the end, I wiped his crew off the board before the end of turn 4. I got First Blood and I had fully thwarted all his schemes for a full 8-0 victory. "Beginner's luck", he said. Could very well be. We didn't know eachother's crews but obviously my portable nukes/swords are far easier to use than anything he brought to the table. I had an amazing time either way, it was great to see my plans actually working thanks to some judicious card cheating. My kind of game!

By the way, what are the odds of both players drawing red jokers in the same combat/defense flip? Yeah, that actually happened and it was the only time we flipped those.

[NIGHTHATER]

Killjoke,

I really like your conversions alot. I think I respect them more because like you I did some minor conversions to my Justice crew I posted not to long ago. The conversions help to give your figures a unique feel, and fix things that look rediculious. The poncho is awesome, and I'm excited to see how well it paints up.

Nighthater

[Omenbringer]

Parroting what others have said the Poncho is an amazing idea and really makes him look better (not that the original was all that bad, I love my bubbles after all).

[pixelante]

Personally I think the weird hair needs more fixing than the clothes, but then I don't care if my models are flashing their boobies or not. Make no mistake I like boobies but I don't see the need to accentuate or hide them.

[Omenbringer]

Personally I think the weird hair needs more fixing than the clothes, but then I don't care if my models are flashing their boobies or not. Make no mistake I like boobies but I don't see the need to accentuate or hide them.

Have you seen Zoraida's?

[pixelante]

Don't you know grannies are sexy too? Try googling it, with a bin nearby:Smug_Puppet2:

[Chris Tomlin]

Boo for covering up boobies!!

Still, the greenstuff work looks good.

[MudgeBlack]

The poncho is a great idea and beautifully executed.

[LordDarcy]

I like the green stuff mods that you did with these mini's. Although I must admit that I really enjoy the "Fan Service" aspect of this game as few of the miniatures are a bit too much.

Just like in Anime "Fan Service" done well, makes for some great art. Not well done is just cheese. although this is strictly my own opinion.

[Omenbringer]

Don't you know grannies are sexy too? Try googling it, with a bin nearby:Smug_Puppet2:

I seem to recall reading a post a few years ago by the sculptor that said Zoraida was one of the most challenging things to sculpt realistically.

[Killjoke]

Seems I'm on a probationary period where I can't post hyperlinks without moderator approval. I've been attempting to update this thread with pictures for almost two days straight now without my messages being approved. Makes sense, though I never found this information in any of the stickied threads so I've been scratching my head more than I probably should have.

Anyways, I'm working on the poncho and if you click one of the posted pictures and browse that gallery you will see some new shots. This post will have to do until a moderator approves one of my posts with hyperlinked photos.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. It's fun to see this conversation about the sculpts coming about as well. I'm not anti-boobage, I just wanted my girls to look more serious and physically able to move about without stuff falling out. That, and to defuse some jealousy from Mrs. Killjoke.

EDIT: Trying out linking the pictures

I'm only blocking out the basic colours right now to see how they work together. I'm going to detail the poncho with smaller darker patterns to make it really look like less of a lame t-shirt. Of course, making it dusty and dirty will make it a lot more bad ass looking. You might notice the left shoulder has been trimmed down a little to show more skin and muscles, and the lower front and back edges of the poncho are more ragged and torn since the pre-paint photos.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Killjoke
adding photos

[Argentbadger]

Very cool modifications. I am somewhat with you on the impracticality of the Viks' clothing. It just doesn't really seem to fit wth the idea of providing any sort of protection. I can live with the high heels on Sonnia (for example) as she's an office worker of sorts who only hits people with enormous magical swords as a bit of a sideline. But the fighting characters with ridiculous armoured thongs feel a bit too odd. On the other hand, I'm not a terrifying mercenary in a magical alternate world, so perhaps it works for them?

[Vin]

Nice green stuff work.

I dig the poncho and can't wait to see it all painted up and dirty looking.

Great work.

[Killjoke]

The poncho is giving me a whole lot of headache. I'm still struggling with the pattern and I did some further modifications to make it look less like a t-shirt. I'd rather it look like a dirty rug, so I made ALL edges ragged and painted them white.

The photos didn't turn out too flattering, the paintjob looks awful messy this close up without shading and contrasts. It did help me spot some problems with proportions, especially the larger chevron pattern over the lower chest. By repainting the pattern and adding another small pattern on the upper chest area I think I can finally start working on making the colours and lines come together and start doing detail work on the rest of the model.

[Omenbringer]

For what its worth I think your being a bit hard on yourself. It actually looks a lot like a real poncho.

[Killjoke]

The gunslinger is just about finished! I will probably touch up on some details in the future and I will add more details to the base once the whole crew is coming together.

Malifaux as directed by Sam Raimi.

These are some selected pictures. There are a few extras if you click one of them to open the album (with the ability to view them at full size). I'm particularly fond of the face and the dark revolvers with pearl grips. The pictures turned out quite dirty as the light source is unusually warm (yellow) for a flourescent light, but it is close enough.

[Nickienogger]

this idea is amazing. such a great wild west feel to it. Well done!

[Linus Mcmold]

Great idea and a nice looking poncho!

Now I wish I wasn't proxying mine. This miniature has potential and due to your beautiful poncho I have had my eyes opened... I've also seen somene on this forum make a gunslinger look like Bane from Batman by adding a gasmask (I think it was for Von Schill crew, so it fits).

I'm more of a western fan myself...

I converted a miniature from Confrontation into a twin blunderbuss wielding Davy Crockett kind of poacher to use as a proxy convict gunslinger. He's still awaiting to be painted and I have to finish two crews before I start working on my Wild West Viktorias. I also think I should start posting my works in progress (currently some gremlin bandits).

I have three ponchos in store for the formentioned Ophelias crew of green menaces and there are three ponchos there (Francois originally has a poncho and I converted two raincoats from the young'uns into ponchos). I already have ideas for two, but the one with horizontal stripes seems a bit boring after I've seen this one, so I might do something in stead of a full stripe poncho and do partial stripes and put some sort of a design i between those stripes.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Linus Mcmold
fixing a choppy sentence construction

[Omenbringer]

He came out looking very good. Really like the poncho and his gritty look.

[Killjoke]

Thanks for the reassuring comments, guys. I'm so skeptical while painting and taking pictures as I know what shortcuts I've taken and where I found myself lost, but every time I see these comments it helps me see the bigger picture and appreciate the feel of the whole model.

How the poncho came to be is a bit random which is why it's fun to see that some of you found it inspiring. While checking the product pictures on the Wyrd store I thought the gunslinger would look hilarious in a huge sombrero and was actually considering sculpting one. With the model in hand however I figured he would be better off protecting his bare chest and pot belly from direct sunlight and went with the poncho instead. I read up on the various ponchos used in different regions and in the end I fell back on my love for Red Dead Redemption. That is where I got the style and initial colour choices from, though in the end I didn't steal the idea wholesale but rather went with something I can actually paint with my worn out brushes.

I'm not sure what to paint next though I am considering one of the Viktorias as they, together with the gunslinger, tend to stay on the table the longest. I haven't decided what their primary colours should be. Red (like in the V1 book story), purple (like the later alt/avatar sculpt artwork) or some other colour like outcast gold/yellow or blues. The V2 art as seen in the stat cards is also a tempting idea, though I prefer to avoid going all browns and greys as I'm trying to embrace vibrancy and romanticism over "grimdark" as I'm maturing into adulthood and fatherhood.