Showing posts with label Malifaux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malifaux. Show all posts

13 May 2015

Building the Backlog…



As part of the new baby-centric regime in our house, Tuesday is now 'model night'. It gives me a couple of hours in the week (almost guaranteed) to spend time building and painting my way through the backlog of metal and plastic.

As you can see from the image above, last night saw a random selection of miniatures from different gaming systems, and it was great to finally get things put together.



First on the list was Guildball. I had started these during last week's model night, but ran out of glue! I have to say I was rather disappointed with these models, for a number of reasons – primarily, they were hard work. Don't get me wrong the models are beautiful, however there are some very delicate parts and all 3 have staff/spear weapons that nearly snapped on several occasions and bend very, very easily. Secondly, my batch were covered in flash and exaggerated mould lines – took a long time to get them looking reasonable.


In addition a couple of the arms didn't fit well in their respective sockets so, whilst I expected some pinning, I will have to go back in and do some filling, which hasn't been the case in a long time. Finally on my list of gripes, the tabs. On all three models, the tab that slots into the base sits higher than the top of the base, so will need cutting away. Maybe I've just got used to clipping off tabs and pinning to resin bases. This time I thought I would be quick and simply stick them into their slotta bases – turned out to be more hard work!

As a consequence I'm not feeling terribly enthusiastic about Guildball right now, but hopefully a Tuesday evening painting these models will cure all that!


After that I decided to pamper myself with some plastic. I still had two Malifaux crew boxes sitting on the shelf, so jumped in head first. I started with the Sonnia Criid crew and three of the easiest models ever – one-piece Witchlings! The detail is great on these and not having arms/legs/weapons to stick on was a bonus.


The new Malifaux plastic resculpts are a lot thinner than the metals were and it was only when I started on Sonnia that I realised how thin – thank god this wasn't metal! The plastic glue made things very easy, despite the fiddly bits and the whole crew took no time at all. I didn't like Sonnia's separate face!


Desperate to build something a little more chunky I started on the Kirai crew – Seishin. These guys are much bigger than the old metal Seishin but similar in looks. Went together very easily.



Not satisfied with that I moved onto the new-look Ikiryo – one of the chunkiest plastic models I've seen. Much bigger than the metal version – in fact, more like the avatar – but great looking model which will be fun to paint.

Let's see what happens next Tuesday on model night!


26 March 2015

Malifaux Blog Posts…


A list of the various Malifaux posts to be found on this blog…




BUILDING & PAINTING







GAMING







TERRAIN







DISCUSSION











19 January 2015

Impulse Buys…



I threatened in my last post that this year was anything goes and so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. My first (random) shiny purchases were made last week and arrived at the weekend.

I've never gone back to Malifaux since the 2nd Edition came out – the changes made the game seem very different and I lost interest. I did pick up the small rulebook and replacement Guild cards out of curiosity but that was that.

Well, I randomly ordered a couple of the new plastic starter sets – replacements for my favourite crews from first edition…


The thing I've noticed from my experiences thus far of Wyrd plastic minis is that they are very delicate and can have some very thin parts – the ice gamin legs for example are very vulnerable – and this kit seems to follow suit.

image by GMorts

One thing I was very happy to see was that the Witchling Stalkers are one-piece models – awesome!!



The second kit was Kirai, possibly my favourite Malifaux crew in terms of gameplay.


image by GMorts

One of the interesting thing about this kit was the resized Ikiryo model – now much bigger and more like her Avatar mini.

As you can probably tell, I'm yet to get glue anywhere near these models, but it's great to just be around models again, keeping the interest going even if it all ends up on ebay in a few months' time.

The purchases don't stop there – more to come this week…!






12 September 2013

Malifaux: New Rasputina Plastic Starter


No more developments on the Gaming Board as we're in Ireland this week.

However, I thought I'd do an "inside the box" blog post – this time it's the Children of December starter set for Malifaux 2nd Edition.

I have to admit that my keen interest in Malifaux stalled around the time they switched from metal to plastic models, coinciding with book 4. I noticed that the new plastics felt very delicate compared to the metal models and wasn't convinced. My online GenCon purchases last year sealed it and I've never looked back.


When Malifaux 2nd Edition was announced my interest stirred and when I saw the imagery for the new crew box sets I was keen to see more. Shinybloodyitis struck at GenCon time last month and I ordered some bits, including the Rasputina "Children of December" plastic set.


The bits on the sprues seem very much as I remembered them a year ago – fragile – except the re-imagined Golem of course who really is a monster. The Gamin are very thin and delicate, not sure how much abuse they will take as their arms and legs are little bigger than the metal pins I use on larger models.


Rasputina came in six pieces and went together very easily. I'd be interested to see this model side by side with the original Raspy and I'm sure she's tiny compared to the metal version.

Next I decided to tackle the Golem. He was made up of 10+ pieces spread over a couple of sprues. Whilst he's a reasonably straightforward model to build it wasn't always obvious which piece went where – the picture doesn't help much and I was left with a piece over that seemed to have no home. Eventually I got him finished and he truly is a beast.


The Gamin were easy builds though just as spindly as predicted. The Wendigo, hmmm – I don't like the fact that he's got another model on his base that he's beating on (don't like the idea of a totem model being taller than its master) so I may clip him free from his victim and model him on some rocks instead.


The plastic is of good quality and there were minimal mold lines on the pieces. Very nice kit, just have to learn how to play the new Malifaux!



04 September 2013

This Time Last Year… Joey Berry!


This time last year I was in the middle of my Tale of 3 Painters project.

The big event, prior to auctioning everything off for charity, was a trip down to Plymouth to visit You Tube starlet Joey Berry.


However, the day before our planned meet I set off on my trip and decided to take in the sights of Westham and Swindon 'on the way' to meet my fellow painters Michael Awdry and Andy Walker… got them to sign a Malifaux rulebook to boot. Great day, great guys, silly journey

The following day I got to meet Joey and we did a video interview about the models, the project and the auction. We were also meant to have a game of Malifaux at her local club, using the charity painted miniatures, but the club owners decided (the night before) that they couldn't open up as they'd promised so we missed out.


Instead Joey and myself found a nice quayside pub to sit outside and had a chat for a couple of hours. Before long it was time to start out on the trek back home.

Joey has now become an international superstar, doing You Tube reports from all over the world, as well as working at Creative Assembly. She now lives in Kent, not 40 minutes away (why didn't I wait a year!).


The auction itself did ok. We had some amazing contributors including Fenris Games, Firestorm Games, SnM Stuff, Element Games, KR Multicase and, of course, Wyrd Miniatures. I still can't quite get over the generosity. There were other companies that snubbed our requests… you know who you are! lol

I think choosing Malifaux as the game to paint models for limited the potential bidder audience but made for a great painting experience. The whole auction package went for over £500 in the end which was a nice finish to a long and testing project.

Still not getting the urge to do another one anytime soon, but never say never.

More gaming table posts next time…




+++++++++ Quick note for Jules81 +++++++++

Jules asked earlier this week about the 'potato printing' technique I used to create cobbles on my Malifaux board. Here goes…

pavement stamp

I took a piece of foamboard and cut into it to create a pavement/sidewalk 'stamp' (above).

cobble road stamp

I then lathered it in emulsion paint and pressed it onto the board surface to create a pavement/sidewalk print.

finished road

By repeating this process with different shaped stamps I created a crossroads with pavement/sidewalk for my board. By experimenting with the amount of paint you put on the foamboard stamp you get a more or less distressed pattern with your print.

Why potato printing? As a kid in school we used to do the same thing with half a potato – cut a shape into it and use paint to create repeating patterns or shapes.

That's it – so easy!



14 March 2013

One Year Ago…


I saw this topic posted on Tamsin's Wargaming Girl blog and thought I'd have a quick look to see what I was doing this time last year.

The result was rather spooky.

On 14th March last year I posted about a game of Malifaux against my regular opponent Fugs.


Kirai Meets The Twins…

It was the next chapter in my battle to beat Fugs' Neverborn crew with my fledgling spirits, which hadn't been going too well up to that point. In fact I was finding it rather demoralising and was verging on something of a sulk rather than embracing the challenge.

It turned out to be our last game, for various reasons, and I haven't really played Malifaux since.

I didn't hear from Fugs for a very long time until just recently he got in touch again. He now has his own place in town and was very much up for some gaming again. Had the snow not ground the local area to a standstill we should have had a game of something this week, but it has been rescheduled for next Tuesday. Spooky that it will be almost a year to the day between games against Fugs.


As we approached Salute last year my interest and blog topics drifted towards Warmachine and Hordes and Malifaux has rarely been seen since. The release of the latest book 4 did nothing to reignite my interest – in fact I don't even own it. The new plastic models didn't inspire me either and I sold all the GenCon bits I'd bought. I do still like the game and would look forward to playing again, alas the leviathan that is 40k has taken centre stage again and looks set to dominate for a while yet.

But you know me, I'll always be distracted by shiny things – which reminds me, I never did paint those Batman figures at Christmas!


21 January 2013

Malifaux Ebay Goodness



Not much progression again this weekend. We've had family staying with us and this doesn't leave a lot of opportunity to do hobby stuff. However, I finally managed to get my (no longer required) GenCon purchases up on Ebay…

















12 November 2012

Malifaux Intro Evening

Friday last week was the arranged "Intro to Malifaux" evening with Chris. As expected he'd done his homework and read the Rules Manual cover to cover and felt pretty confident he understood the basics. Of course physically walking through the basics in a game adds a whole other dimension to understanding the rules, and so it was the case here.


In our opening game we had our two masters – Lady J and Seamus – stalking each other through the empty streets. Chris was understandably cautious in his approach; I too was less than bold given the stats of Seamus' hand cannon. An extended game of cat and mouse ensued.

Seamus finally got his shot lined up through a window frame (above). Alas Lady J had built up a good control hand and the resulting shot only managed a few wounds. Despite moving out of sight behind the wall next to the window, Seamus was hit by a Lady J charge (who doesn't need line of sight because she's blind) and got whittled into a heap in two rounds of combat.


For our second game of the evening we added a couple of minions to our respective crews – Death Marshalls for Lady J and Rotten Belles for the Irish man. Chris managed the moment of the game with the very first move of the game, 'Lure'-ing a Death Marshall off a first floor landing who fell to his death. In the end it came down to the two masters – this time Lady J was unable to finish off her nemesis before the end of the turn. A draw.

Chris went away quite buoyed by his first foray into wargaming. His theoretical knowledge of the rules prior to playing now had context and he was confident he knew what he was doing. We do have another evening pencilled in – the night before my big 40k battle with Bull's Dark Angels – and this time I think we'll introduce Strategies and Schemes… and a few more models!

07 November 2012

Malifaux: Speedpainting Seamus


So I gave myself a bit of a challenge – not on purpose mind you. I have an 'Intro To Malifaux' evening with my friend Chris, who is interested in having a go at miniature gaming, on Friday evening. I had bought the Seamus box set for him to use while learning the rules but needed to paint up a miniature or two in time. This meant I had to 'speedpaint Seamus'.

Let me quantify this and say… this is me. Speedpainting in my world is not taking three weeks to paint up a single figure. As much as I needed to finish the Resser master in time I didn't want him to look like crap next to the rest of my models. I didn't want Chris to think I'd just rollered some Dulux on it for effect.


I am proud to say the model you see here was painted in something between two and three hours. This was me at full speed, painting highlights while basecoat was still wet and using three palettes and no washes so that I didn't have to wait for paint to dry.

I didn't want to go too Leprechaun-like but by the same token wanted to give a nod to his assumed heritage.

I'm pretty pleased so far. There are details (eyes!!) and final highlights to add and I stuffed up the blade on his pistol, but not bad. I did wash some Devlan Mud over the whole model at the end of the evening to add a little depth. I used Vallejo paint almost exclusively, except for the wash and some P3 on the base.

Why can't I paint all my models this quickly?!!


02 November 2012

A Quick Visit To Malifaux



With October truly being the month of Nurgle on this blog it was about time for something less diseased.

Prior to my game of 40k versus Bull at the end of November, I have a gaming evening with my friend Chris in a week's time. Whilst a complete newbie when it comes to the world of miniature gaming, Chris is a sci-fi & fantasy veteran with many books, tv/films and video games read, watched and completed. He is quite a font of knowledge and will often throw facts and observations into a given conversation. He is the ideal candidate for recruitment! At the time we discussed playing an introductory game I was heavily into Malifaux so it made sense (for that and many other reasons) to start there.


However, my Malifaux collection consists of lots of Guild models and Kirai, so I felt a new master was needed that would be easier to learn the game with. I decided to get Seamus and use him and Lady J for our intro games – the classic match up!


Rather than go the route that myself and Bull went when learning the rules (use all your models and fight a 4-hour game) we're going to have a handful of smaller games, adding models and rules as we go. This also means I don't have the paint up the whole Seamus crew just yet which, given the current painting schedule, is a blessing.

If I'm really honest, the time pumped into completing the Charity Project turned me off from painting Malifaux figures for a while and diseased Nurgle Plague Marines have been the perfect antidote (ironically) to my painting malady. I won't be spending anywhere near the same amount of time on Seamus so this will be a test – can I speed-paint Malifaux figures?

Photos coming soon…!

14 September 2012

Malifaux Charity Auction Ends Tomorrow…



With less than 36 hours to go before the Tale of 3 Painters Malifaux charity auction ends I thought I would do one last shout out.

It's been quite a journey and it would be great to see a final winning bid that reflected all the time and effort of the people involved – it is all for charity after all!

My thanks go out to my fellow painters Andy Walker and Michael Awdry, as well as Joey Berry and the Malifools podcast crew. I'd also like to thank anyone out there in the community who blogged, tweeted, podcasted or emailed about the project – your help is appreciated.

I'd also like to thank our supporters who have been very generous with their donations. I'll do a quick recap of the final contents of the auction –



Of course you have the 30ss Hoffman crew comprising of C. Hoffman, Mechanical Attendant, Ryle, The Guardian, The Hunter and The Watcher, all painted to a great standard – believe me, the photos do not do them justice!


You have the character cards in Toploader Ultra Pro card protectors and some plastic 'soulstones'.


Firestorm Games kindly donated a Malifaux Fate Deck and a Rules Manual which the painters all signed, as did Joey Berry.



There are TWO full sets of resin bases – 'Rubble City' (pictured) and Cobblestone – in 30, 40 and 50mm sizes kindly donated by Fenris Games.


SnM Stuff have kindly donated a set of Vallejo Foundation Paints and 5 Kolinsky Sable brushes.


Element Games kindly donated an Army Painter Model Tools Set.


KR Multicase kindly sent us TWO carry cases – the Half Width Aluminium (pictured) and the Aquilla 4 – and also an Accessories Case with Tape Measure and Dice.


And finally, Wyrd Games have promised us (to arrive at a later date) some of their new plastic miniatures – The Rail Crew box set (pictured), The Rail Golem and the limited edition Miss Terious.

To see more photos have a look at the original contents post.



Normal service will finally resume next week, with the exception of a post-auction summary with behind-the-scenes video.

Then I'm away to San Francisco for a couple of weeks, but fear not – there are scheduled posts already waiting to entertain you!