Miniatures Galore - Malifaux, and Warmachine!

The last couple weeks have been very busy, especially on the miniature painting end of things.  Since i was without my camera for this duration i haven't been able to update the blog, but now that i have my camera, i can show you what i've been working on!
I've been very excited to dig into these Malifaux minis by Wyrd Miniatures for awhile now.  Ever since i saw them sitting on the shelf of the FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) i've wanted to get a coat of paint on them and learn the rules to this enigmatic game.  It turns out the rules lend to a rather intuitive if not indepth skirmish game with a host of beautiful miniatures devided into five different factions.  I instantly took a liking to Kirai and her Crew.  I found the spirits to be entirely unique both in this game as well as other games, so i took the opportunity to paint something different for a change.

The initial box set came with six miniatures (the five right most, plus one that isn't displayed in this picture) to which i added two additional models that i ordered separately.  the models from left to right are as follows, Gaki 1, Gaki 2, Ikiryo, Kirai, Datsue-Ba, Onryo 1, Onryo2.

The first two minis of the set that i painted were the Gaki.  In general i found these models to be good sculpts although the joints were a little messy and required modifying and pinning to keep everything together, the head on the second model also didn't fit as well as i would have liked, but in the end they turned out pretty well.  I opted for a different paint scheme from the ones indicated on the box/cards as i found it to be bland consisting of mostly greys and browns.  These models reminded me of the pink horrors of Tzeentch models so i decided to go for a vibrant pink and green paint scheme (i also wanted to try out a few new P3 paints that i had purchased, carnal pink and necrotic green).  The shading and hilighting process on these models was somewhat more intensive than i'm used to doing.  The pink was achieved by painting a base colour of vellajo pink highlighted up with carnal pink, and washed with warlock purple, and a bit of liche purple.  The green was painted with a necrotic green base coat, washed with trollblood base and finally giving a shading of Asuman blue wash in the depest recesses, the green was that brought up with a highlight of necrotic green and finally highlighted by adding underbelly blue to the necrotic green.  For all the blues i used in the painting of their robes, they turned out really green.

The next two minitures i painted from this group were the Onryo.  These minis were incredibly interesting to paint, they have a great amount of detail for a single piece model.  The robes allowed for a lot of blending work.  I don't usually use a great deal of red on my models but i really liked the paint scheme on the box so i decided to go for something similar.  The red cloaks were painted starting with a mechrite red base coat, followed by blood red highlights, washed with ogryn flesh wash, highlighted again with some blazing orange mixed into the blood red and finally some trollblood highlight (like deneb stone) into the mix for a final highlight. The blue i painted very similarly to the robes found on my retribution of scyra models.  This consists of a trollblood base, washed with asurman blue, highlighted with a mix of trollblood base and underbelly blue.

Kirai was painted at 4 am over a coffee in a rest stop along the side of a highway.  I had a lot of fun painting this model.  I hadn't decided on a colour scheme when i first started painting this model, but it gradually evolved as i went.  The orange kimono was painted with a base coat of Iyanden Darksun (ochre) and highlighted up with bad moon yellow.  from there it recieved successive washes of increasingly darker mixes of blazing orange and blood red, every time highlighting up again intermitently with bad moon yellow (highlighter yellow).  The green was a more simple process of jade green highlighted up with adding underbelly blue to the mix.  Quite the awsome model, i love the finished result, the flower blossom motif turned out better than i thought it would.

Ikiryo and Datsue-Ba were my least favorite of the set to paint.  They are great minis, but they just didn't resonate with me.  I put minimal work into Ikiryo and it definitly shows, i may go back at a later time and touch up these models if the mood ever strikes me.

All in all i'm really looking forward to getting in some games of Malifaux, now on to Warmachine.

I added a heavy rifle team to my force this week to get some anti warjack fire in the force, these guys to alright, but i find Khador is still a particularly difficult opponent, even with added fire support.

Enter the Ghost Snipers, same point cost with 5 heath boxes, small base size and a defense 18! when in cover.  These work great with two of them in Ravyn's Veil of Mist.  They also deal an auto 3 damage if they hit (which isn't hard with RAT 8 when aiming).

If that doesn't work there's always the Mage Hunter Strikeforce contingency plan.  The jack hunter rule really makes them ideal for putting hurt on jacks with armour 18 or less, they still have a little trouble with armour 20 or higher.  This is also the new paint scheme for my Mage Hunter Strike Force, only one model completed so far.

...and lastly Garryth also got a new paint job.  So thats it for now, with plenty more on the way and maybe some games of Malifaux in the near future!

Cheers
-Mallius

Warmachine: Retribution Invictors

Just a quick update, I've painted a few minis since i've last posted, however most of them are work in progress.  If i find a decent amount of time i might work on a tutorial for painting retribution models... which would consist mostly of how to paint white armour and green cloth.  I've found all the colours i use are present in the Trollblood faction paintset, with a few additions here and there, the troll blue highlight works great as a base colour for painting white, however if you're looking for a white with less blue saturation i do believe there are better colours in the p3 line for this.

so as for pictures, i have two pictures of a couple Dawnguard Invictors that I painted up this past weekend.  After i finish the remaining two models in the unit and touch up the models i had painted previous to just recently i'll take a group shot and post it on here.  My Warmachine force is sitting at about 40% painted now, i'm looking forward to finally being able to take an army shot but i think i'm a little ways off from that at the moment.

The contours of these models are excellent for organic shading, along with the etching which is great for pigment washes.  (here i've used a mix of hawk turquoise and vellajo paint thinner with an ample amount of water added).  The weapons still need a bit of detail work, they look bland as a solid colour.  Also the first of the two invictors i've posted here looks a little warry, i'm not sure that was the expression Privateer was going for, but it's how it turned out.  The expression is all in how you paint the eyes!

As for future projects, I plan on priming tons of models this weekend including the remaining warmachine models i've yet to prime, and a set of Malifaux stuff that i picked up on the weekend.  I've played one game of Malifaux to try and learn the rules a bit better, and i'm really excited to get in a few more.  The game is really interesting from what i've experienced.  I definitly recommend it for anyone interested in trying something new!  I'll post more about it later.
Till then, cheers!
-Mallius

Warmachine: Retribution Rayvn

The second post in two days! this is a continuation on the last post, so i have some more retribution models to show today.  I use this warcaster quite a bit, Raven was the first model i purchased for warmachine, and probably the reason why i started playing retribution in the first place, i just liked the model, it wasn't till later that i learned her play style.  I find her tier list to be more suitable for the stealthed warcaster however, but i still like how she plays, she can be a beast.

Once again i apologize for the shadows.  These pictures were taken outside using the sun as a light source.

Warmachine: Retribution Arcanist and Narn

I'm taking a bit of a break from painting my 40k stuff and have decided to dig into the pile of unpainted warmachine miniatures I have sitting around.  This was the perfect opportunity to try out a new set of P3 paints that i had picked up earlier that day (the trollblood kit, which has a great selection of colours for retribution models coincidentally).  It was also an interesting experience having painted one of these two models i'm featuring here at a party a friend was holding.  There were plenty of questions abound, and inquisitive onlookers. Suprisingly most people were more interested and excited about the miniature painting than wierded out by it.

So here is the results of my first attempt using P3 paints, i'll let you be the judge of their usage... personally, i like them.

PS, i also used some citadel paints (washes and reds) and pink vellajo game colour on these models.  All the other colours are frome the Troll Bloods faction paintset.

The Phoenix Has Landed

In my attempt to put a dent in my painting schedule i've managed to get a Phoenix Mirmadon painted to the point where i can show you a few pictures.  This warjack was painted much like the Griffon using the same spray paint technique to achieve the white armour.  I'm happy with how it has turned out so far.

Amassing the Retribution

Yes it's time to owe up to the large amount of unpainted miniatures i have staring me in the face and give them a decent coat of paint.  The process always seems to be more consuming that it originally does at the offset, however i try not to let that deter me when putting the brush to plastic (or metal or resin whatever it may be).

I'm trying out a new painting technique on the Mirmidons in my Retribution of Scyrah force for Warmachine to try and speed along the painting process a little.  To start with i've given the model a prime of black at which point i coated the entire model's accessible points with Astropath Grey and set it aside to let it dry.  After the model had ample time to make sure all the paint was dry i sprayed the model sparingly with white spray paint from the angle of the light source.  After that the model had a good base colour with shading to work with, I then sealed the model with a spray of matte varnish and touched up some of the details where the white was too strong or not strong enough.

The rest of the model was painted much in the same way i would paint the Mirmidons normally, just this time with the white armour of the model completed in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

This method is not fool proof and the convenience of this method does show on the finished product.  Although the model is not 100% complete, i'll post some pics to see what you think of the zenith spray technique and its results.

And here's a pic of a very sad and mostly unpainted warmachine army looking back at me.

Thats 1 heavy Mirmidon, 2 light Mirmidons, 11 Mage hunters, 12 Invictors, an Assassin, 2 Snipers, A Soulless Unit Attachment, an Arcanist, 4 Archers, Rayvn, Garryth, and Narn

Retribution of Scyrah WIP - Dawnguard

Much of my painting time has been spent working on the Retribution of Scyrah models that i've picked up over the past several weeks.  Seeing as the majority of my plans this week have been canceled there is an abundance of time to get a few more of these minis painted up for my next game.

Warmachine seems to have exploded at the Black Knight, so there is always someone there who is up for a game, lucky me!  It usually seems that I do much more painting than gaming, however that isn't the case here.  I anticipate the overabundance of enthusiasm may calm down when people become "bored" of the game, but for now, i'll get as much gaming in as i can.

Today I have some pictures of some nearly finished Retribution Dawnguard Invictors models painted up using the scheme found on most of the studio models.

Here are the models in the unit i have worked on so far, six in total.  The armour was painted with a base coat of Astronomicon grey and then brought up to a pure white over several watered down layers.  I think i've managed to get it down to 5 layers to produce what you see, although further shading may be necessary due to the loss of gradation, quick sometimes comes at a cost.  The blades have been painted mithril silver and washed with hawk turquoise, details on the armour are washed by a hawk turquoise and white mix about 50:50 each.  The darker metal is a basecoat of boltgun metal washed with laviathan purple.  The bases were painted in Granite followed by Khemri Brown, and finally Dehneb stone.

This is a work in progress shot of the officer of the unit, notice i have yet to paint the gemstones, i'll get to this hopefully soon!

This is the second most recent model i've painted for this unit.  I really like the way the hair turned out.

I've started work on a mage hunters unit as well as hope to get back to the plague tower and imperial city ruins in the near future.  All will be done in time!

Retribution of Scyrah WIP - Painting Tests and Tribulations

For the past few days I've been playing around with slight alterations to the privateer press standard paintjob on the Retribution of Scyrah Models.  There were a few objectives i had when coming up with a scheme; first the paintjob had to have a range from light to dark colour, secondly it had to us a minimal palette, roughly 3 or 4 colours.  I also wanted to bring out a fusion of the organic with technology.  To do this i decided to use lots of greens browns and blues all found in nature, along with white painted with NMM technique to harness a truly sci-fi feel.

This archer model demonstrates the above principles although i am debating on repainting the bow to much closer resemble the rest of the models colour.  I'm thinking of repainting the armoured parts of the bow with the white paneling featured on the armour, and then repaint the stock to have a metallic blue colour. The base has been base coated with chardonite granite, and then brought up with khemri brown and dehneb stone, a combo that i'm becoming rather fond of for various applications.  Static grass and crushed bay leaves were then added to bring some nature to the model.

Once again following the above principles, here's a work in progress shot of a Chimera Mirmadon (Warjack).  The bottom half of the model and left arm still need to be painted, in what has become a rather lengthy painting process.  I'm looking forward to having this mini finished.