Sorrow and Woe...

A few posts ago I promised to show comparison shots between the old metal and new plastic Malifaux Pandora sets.

Well, up until this point, I have only fully completed the painting of the Sorrows (because I have been painting Super Dungeon Explore - a future update), so here they are:

I tried to match each miniature with its closest equivalent in terms of pose.

I very much liked the old Sorrows, until these new plastic ones were released.
The main change is that they have inverted the 'weight' of the model to make the bottom the largest part of the miniature; I do think that this works better in the overall visual style. I also like that the new Sorrows look like the creature part is emerging from the vortex they move around on.

They have also achieved a more dynamic pose to the miniatures, not to mention a more overall slender appearence. Obviously, it is easier to do this in plastic and, for that reason, it was a good move for Wyrd to create more dynamic (and menacing) miniatures.

See you in the next update.

The clatter of chariots

I have painted up some tomb kings chariots - well, they are the original plastic undead chariots, just that they can only really fit into Tomb Kings in the current game.

  

 

As with the rest of my Tomb Kings, I went for a simple paint scheme (not much you can do with bone, to be fair). In my army, these were part of the 'desert raider' contingent (hence the head wraps). I also went with a bronze effect metallic instead of a bright gold. 

I tried to be dynamic with the positioning of the crew in the chariots and the old plastic skeletons lend themselves to that perfectly (they are superior to the newer ones, in every way). 

The first chariot has a swordsman crew member chopping his blade down.

The second chariot has an axeman.

 The third chariot has a curved swordsman.

Finally, the fourth chariot has a barbarian king riding in it; he has armour (as befitting his status) and a spear.

 These chariots are up for sale on eBay, as are more of my Tomb Kings (as I am not playing Warhammer much at the moment).

I posted pictures of the following models elsewhere on my Blog. However, I have decided to offer them up for private sale before putting them on eBay. I will be open to offers on these models and I can also offer to paint them if you would like (your choice of colour scheme and quality - you can see the quality of my models elsewhere, in many ways my Tomb Kings are on the lower end of my quality).

You can contact me through my eBay profile (probably how you found this blog) or you can contact me by eMail at: alakazam(at)ntlworld(dot)com

Anyway, the models themselves:

Skeleton Archer unit: 21 individual models (including a standard and a musician) plus a unit filler that take up 8 spaces, meaning a footprint of 29 archers (space for a character to make 30). The models have all been converted to have egyptian style kilts (made from green stuff). The unit filler is 3 skeletons clambering over a half buried egyptian-style statue head.

 3 Tomb Kings chariots (standard, musician and champion).

Separatly, a Tomb King/Prince in a stylish chariot as befitting his station. The Character model is the plastic one from the Warsphinx sprue and the chariot is an out of production High Elf chariot (which fits the style of the Tomb Kings well).

6 Necropolis Knights (including standard, musician and champion). All of these models have been converted to a greater or lesser degree, mostly to make them look better on scenic bases. The champion model has been heavily converted to wrap around a pillar.

I would be willing to split these models up and sell them in 3s if someone did not want the whole 6.

So, there you have it, the rest of my Tomb Kings for sale (excepting the characters, not sure what I am doing with them yet). If you are interested, I can post up more pictures of the models from different angles on request.

See you in the next update.

Out of the mist they come...

Many moons ago (well, a few moons ago) I promised to show off my SAGA Welsh warband. Today I will make good on (a portion) of that promise. I still have Cavalry and the Warlord to paint, truth be told, but other than that they are all done... erm....

Anyway, lets take a look at some figures. These figures are all Gripping Beast; as I tend to stay with one manufacturer and Gripping Beast published this amazing game I thought they deserved my money. The figures are nice too, which helps.

First up we have the Welsh levy with bows (Bonnedig).

The astute amongst you will be thinking that the bows they carry are not the ones that come with the miniatures. And you would be correct. I purchased the Gripping Beast wire spears (which are really great, by the way) and, noticing that the bows would I also be brittle I bent off cuts of wire and made my own. I like them.

Next, some Hearthguard (Teulu)

 They are painted with better cloth and shield patterns than the warriors, to represent their higher social status. They also have more red in their colour scheme for the same reason.
Talking about shields, most people seem to use the Little Big Man shield transfers; obviously, I do not. This is because I simply prefer to hand-paint all my own shields.
The original warlord has been re-appropriated to lead the Teulu (he is my Warlord's brother. The other Teulu figure is a battle-banner bearer; he needs painting).
You will also notice that my welsh carry a lot of javelins (usually tucked behind shields); I wanted to represent the javelins on my models so I used the original spears and cut them down.

Next up, some Warriors (Priodaur).

A lot of Christian symbolism on my shields (mostly, ChiRho). Also, each of my warrior units carry a small banner (cosmetic only, not a battle banner) with a Christian symbol. I just like little banners and pennants. The Hearthguard are meant to have one but I have not gotten around to it yet.

The second unit of Warriors (Priodaur)

I just want to mention the bases and how I did them. I used a polymer air drying clay to make rough ground (use artists air dry clay, not kids because it crumbles; I used fimoair from Hobbycraft in the UK). I then pushed broken bits of slate into the clay before it dried (use a little PVA to fix it in place).
It was painted brown and drybrushed lighter brown (mud) before adding patches of static grass and finally lichen. I think they look pretty good, personally.

See you in the next update.

Praise the Sun[titan]!

A quick update regarding my scratch-built Heirotitan - he is painted.

I did him mostly stone and goldleaf with some lapis lazuli (turquoise) stones inserted into the statue.

As for the building of the model itself: the top half is the Necrosphinx and he has a scratch built staff (made from brass rod and plastic card) and scratch built scales (made from a bow, some modelling chain and shoulder pads). And the legs? A Thor action figure. I am not joking. He has Thor's legs. Thor wears some sort of chainmail and I filled most of it in using liquid green stuff. However, I wish I had now used milliput (watered into a paste) as the liquid green stuff still left 'rippling' on the legs.

Anyway, some pictures:

 So, there he is; a scratch-built Heirotitan.

See you in the next update.

There is no shelter here...

Malifuax 2 is here!

I loved Malifaux. I like how it uses cards instead of dice and that it is a skirmish game with multiple objectives to achieve during the game. But most of all, I ADORE the miniatures. Wyrd produce miniatures with exceptional character; just by simply viewing a Wyrd miniature it tells a story.

My favorite faction was the Neverborn and, in particular, Pandora's crew. These guys are, essentially, demons that walk amongst people, disguised as innocents. In reality, they are twisted evil natures of innocence lost (typified by Pandora herself - Pandora's box, anyone?).

Actually, the Neverborn are misunderstood; almost 'noble savages' if you will. They do not like the fact that the humans are encroaching on their territory and they want to scare them away (or outright kill them...).

Anyway, enough fluff, lets see some models!

Wyrd have gone to plastics. I believe the plan is to make everything plastic.

They are actually computer rendered models, rather than hand sculpted. There are pros and cons to this, of course. Lets ignore the loss of things done wholly by human hand (this is happening through all walks of life) and instead focus on the models themselves (though, it still takes a lot of human skill to render a model...).

One of the problems of this method is that the detail is not as deep and, actually, they had some early problems with featureless detail. Fortunately, this has now been mostly sorted out and the detail is good (still not as deep as hand sculpted, but it is not an issue unless you paint with crayons..!).

However, the models look gorgeous! The scale is much easier to control using this method and you can get some superb poses and some much better definition to fingers and other thin parts. This is a double-edged sword though, because it makes the models very brittle in places.

Anyway, lets take a closer look at some models.

First up is Pandora herself. This model is so much slimmer than the previous model (and I like it a lot more). Her feet are a small surface area to attach to the base, which I anticipate as the problem area here. Overall, a massive improvement on the old pandora (which, to be honest, was a bit manish...).

Candy was a great miniature before, if a little flat. This new mini solves that as it is not flat at all (in fact, none of the new miniatures suffer from flat appearance that plagues some metal ranges).  She has lost a little of the evilness though (the original had a pair of scissors behind her back) but the miniature is still brilliant. As Pandora, her legs are thin (though totally in proportion) and the contact with the base is small.

Baby Kade is quite a bit different from the original, though no less sinister. The original was carry his teddy and had a knife behind his back and a truly evil look on his face; a great mini. This one is not as overtly sinister but is equally as disturbing.
This one is more baby-like with excellent proportions. He has pinned his teddy to the floor and looks like he is about to start performing an autopsy on it using a knife. This is a fairly robust figure with only the knife looking like it is able to be broken if not careful.

 The original Sorrows were great figures. These are better. The poses on these are brilliant and very dynamic. They are robust too, with the only possible problem being the fingures (look at those fingers, though!). The only thing I am a little dubious about is the 'swirls of power' around the bottoms of the figures - these were extra bits that glue on and they look a little out of place from certain angles. However, I am confident that once they are painted they will look fine.

This poltergeist is a HUGE improvement over the original, which was, frankly, awful. However, I acknowledge that this one just looks like a large Sorrow, but I am fine with that as it fits into the crew better that way (and, to be fair, it acts a little like a large Sorrow in the game).
I like this model, particularly the pose; really looks like its screaming at you and reminds me of the librarian from GhostBusters... GET HER!

"Coooey! Come on boys! I will take you to... HELL!" 

These are Beckoners; a sort of Demonic Hooker...
The models are really great, if a little dainty with some possible snapping issues (particularly on the cane).
But, again, overall great models.

To sum up, I am really happy with the new Malifaux plastics, despite some issues with brittleness. I cannot wait to see some of the other plastic redesigns and how they can continue to improve.
I especially need a plastic Teddy as the metal one is awesome (see: http://whogoesfirst.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/where-does-he-get-those-wonderful-toys.html)

See you in the next update.