Desperate Mercenary (female)

Here is the OOP Wyrd Malifaux Desperate Mercenary (female).

I primed it white and washed it with GW Badab Black. Then I painted the jeans Cygnar Base Blue and drybrushed with a 50/50 Menoth White Highlight and Cygnar Base Blue. The shirt is in Beaten Purple with a drybrush of another lighter purple. Skin was painted with Midlund Flesh and drybrushed with Ryn Flesh.

The gloves were done with Coal Black and then drybrushed with 50/50 Menoth White Highlight and Coal Black. The hair was painted with Umbral Umber and drybrushed Bloodtracker Brown. The metal bits were done in Pig Iron and drybrushed with Quick Silver.

The leather parts were drybrushed further with Bootsrap Leather and Drybrushed with Hammerfall Khaki. The model was then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. The bricks were made with greenstuff and dental tools, painted black, and drybrushed with two different shades of red. The base was painted with Mouldy Ochre.

Vanessa, Treasure Hunter

Its been a while since I've finished painting anything. My recent trip to Portugal and mad assembling and priming of models before the cold and constant rain hits have eaten a lot of my time. Here is the first result, Vanessa Treasure Hunter.

 Started off primed white with a GW Badab Black wash. Then it was Cryx Bane Base and DB Cryx Bane Highlight for the trenchcoat. The underskirt and kneepads were painted with Trollblood Highlight. Hair and boots painted Umbral Umber and DB Bloodtracker Brown. Skin painted with Khardic Flesh, then DB Midlund Flesh and finally a light DB of Ryn Flesh. The pants were painted with Thrall Flesh. Staff painted Molten Bronze and Quicksilver. flamy thing painted Cygnar Blue Highlight, DB Meridius Blue and a light DB of 50/50 Arcane Blue and Menoth White. The model was washed on the pants with Gryphone Sepia, the blue fire with Asuruman Blue and rest with Agrax Nightshade. The Bricks were painted with Skorne Red then DB with Khorne Red then the same blues as the staff. The ring was painted Moldy Ochre.

The base itself was done with a Basius2 Victoriana block, as seen here.

I did this model first as I am playing a Shifting Loyalties campaign and chose the Viktoria of Blood as my leader. Go sisters!

Malifaux Terrain

When setting up terrain for Malifaux, it is important to cover the four types: Obscuring, hindering, obstructing and hazardous. The rulebook gives a guideline of between 25% and 50% of the table should be covered and recommended a third of the table. See here for my previous post about this. I have noticed in the new two player they now recommend half of the table be covered in terrain but I still prefer a third.

 

See below for some of the last table terrain setups used in games at my place. Take particular note of the different types: blocking, hindering, soft and hazerdous. Note that the white shapes are smoke for soft cover and hindering.

As you can see I can still do better with the mix of terrain.

The hazardous terrain is made with foam from the local dollarstores and is quite cheap. I have fire, acid and pits. How I made them are here, here and here.

Woods are simple green foam cut into interesting patterns.

The smoke is the same. It can also be used as snow mounds and the other side drawn on with lines for ice (difficult terrain with a def check or slow).

Blocking and hindering terrain should be as varied as you can afford. I have the luxury of having accumulated a lot of terrain over a decade. It can aslo be done on the cheap. Never pass a yard sale as even childrens toys and buildings can be appropriated for terrain with a few twists and modifications.

Brown foam around a terrain peice means difficult terrain so you can combine elements to make unique terrain that can be changed up in the next game.

Always remember to go through unobvious terrain so everyone is aware at what it is and what it does.

Cathedral Rubble

Another purchase picked up a while ago, the Armorcast Cathedral Rubble 1 terrain can look great for multiple settings: Medieval, Malifaux, WW1, WW2, Warmachine...etc.

The slightly blurry photo above depicts two of the terrain pieces that were painted with dollarstore paints, flocked with GW grass and topped with Army Painter Meadow Flowers.

They make for good height terrain to block small dudes from LOS and give cover to those who are larger.

Malifaux Shifting Loyalties and Campaign Deck

At Worldcon 2015, I ordered from Wyrd during thier GENCON sale a few items. I'll review them as I build them but first is the book and campaign deck for Shifting Loyalties.

The book is the same size as the large format rulebook and Crossroads expansion and contains many interconnected short storys in the ongoing sage taking place in Malifaux.

The campaign system is uber-cool! It reminds me of the best things about other campaign systems. You start off with a crew led by a henchmen (can start with a master if everyone agrees). Through games played and weekly scenario changes, injuries, new skills, new recruits, buying a master and eventually getting them to avatar status you can play a great story based campaign. They recommend playing for a couple of months and then stopping and making a new one. Even though there are inventive ways to enable players who have lost a lot and lag behind to catch up and be equal on the battlefield, you want to start fresh once in a while.

The avatar section makes interesting boosts to your masters. Basically they make hat they do better.

There is also new model stats for the figures that will be coming out in the next year. There are not as many as the crossroads expansion but each faction will get an emissary of fate, one of the Crossroads 7 musicians and a few other models. The Guild and Neverborn get three extra with the two player new box set models.

The campaign deck is another extra that makes playing a campaign easier. There is a lot of cards in it so be careful when keeping track.

Overall an excellent addition to the Malifaux 2E lineup. Now to read all those stories!

Star Fleet Battles

There was a Star Fleet Battles tournament that was advertised in the Worldcon 2015 booklet and I thought that i'd take a look.

I played back in the early 80's but lost interest. I picked up the newer edition in the early 90's but lost interest after I moved. It is a rules intensive game but very detailed. Above is the Federation Space map which is used for the strategic game.

Unfortunatly the fellow organizing it did not have enough players so I chatted with him for a bit and admired his ships. Brought back memories.

Merlyn's Game Store in Spokane

Merlyn's is a great gamestore in the downtown area of Spokane. It has a massive tabletop area in the back, has lots of comics as well as board, miniature and card games. During my time in Spokane for Worldcon 2015, they also offered a 20% discount cupon so I picked up some Ten Thunders models, because heck knows I need more miniatures to plan my painting for the next ten years.

It also has a connecting food area beside it with a brewery, bakey, greek food and coffee place.

Ruined Hamlet by Warlord Games

The Ruined Hamlet from Warlord Games has been sitting in my primed pile for over two years now. I really like how you can make whatever configuration you want.

I chose three larger buildings and multiple ruins to make it more adaptable.

The scale is closer to 1:72 but still works. I used dollar store paints as well as GW flock and some lychen.

GW Fences and Walls

The GW Walls and Fences set is a nice basic wall terrain set. Painted using dollarstore paints.

 They are just the right scale and have two lengths.

Basius 2

When I saw the original Basius system on Kickstarter, I thought it was a good idea but limited. Then they came out with Basius 2 (kickstarter here).

Wow! What a great idea and follow through and now they are in my hands.

This is the size of one of thier blocks.

Here is the detail close up with a 30mm base for scale.

The flip side of the same base. Because they are so large, you can use various parts of it to make distinctive based for your entire range with a very small chance the same base gets repeated.

You need a healthy amount of green stuff on the base. I waited till the greenstuff was losing its tackiness. I then used water to wet the basius base and the 30mm base and pressed the two together.

Voila! Instant base!

The basius molds are also maked on the side for easy identifiaction in a bookshelf.

Another one I got was the hex mold and used a flat top Infinity base.

Looks good so far.

I'm looking forward to using these for basing new models and trading them for others friends got when we joined in on the kickstarter.

Epicast Electic Van Den Graaf Generator

From a now defunct company, Epicast, comes the electrical generator.

I painted it up with dollarstore paints and a GW Asuruman Blue wash for the blue effects. I also used a Prismacolor black pen for the lightning effects.

This terrain piece should be good for many different games.