Malifaux; Never Borne Battle Group

Well, those few followers I have may have noticed that I have not kept up on my weekly updates.  I was hoping by doing weekly updates it would generate more discussion, but that has not changed, and putting together weekly updates take considerable time.  I will continue to update things regularly as I finish projects and write up a few articles, but until more discussion happens on a regular basis, the weekly stuff will be put on hold for a while.  In addition to this change, I have also added a feedback page and changed some things up for my commission pricing to more accurately reflect the interaction and effort I have and put into my clients projects....nuff of the technical stuff, lets get to some pictures.

So a several weeks ago, a friend from the gaming store I use to hang out at before I moved asked me if I would be interested in painting up some Malifaux, we talked about some ideas and through some numbers around and eventually I ended up with the commission.  What really interested me about this commission is the rich character of the figures that Wyrd produces.  Each model is unique and has some really life to them, in addition Josh, the client, wanted the basing of the figures to represent a "child's nightmare" this presented some interesting challenges from a painting and basing standpoint.

One of the things that I really tried to do on this commission is to work with and use color to provide the shadow and highlight to all the models, in addition I wanted to keep my pallet very limited so that the battle group would have a cohesive look to them, lastly I knew I needed to keep things dark, and shadowy, yet retain the vividness that we have all had from time to time with our dreams and nightmares, so that meant things needed to be painted with high contrast.

So to start things off here is the first of the figures to show.  His name is "Lord Chompy Bits".  When I first pulled this mini out of the box, and I saw the post of the arms, I immediately knew that I needed blood, but I didn't just want painted blood, I wanted it too look wet, and fresh, something that could be very scary to a little child.  I started researching blood effects and found an interesting technique that uses UHU Glue, and Tamyia Clear Red.  I really love the effect and I am very happy with the results!

The other figures were all painted in similar colors and fashions, some received an additional degree of semi-gloss after the dull coat, and others did not,it was all dependent on the effect I was going for.  These guys were a ton of fun to paint, and I am looking forward to doing more Malifaux again in the future!

Here is a sample of a few of the pieces;

Blog Update #4 , Sorry missed a week

Well, it looks like I missed a week in my updates. Though I have good excuse, last week I was nursing an infected tooth, and the week ended up with me having a root canal and a new crown. As one who hates the dentist, let me say that one should never underestimate the power of laughing gas It takes the edge off and really makes the experience more enjoyable.

Well onto some updates!

First up are some Bretonians. This is a rather large commission and I will probably have weekly updates with it. The customer, a friend from the local hobby shop where I used to live, wanted this band of knights to all have a cohesive element to them. So all the barding is painted blue, while the shields on the barding and their personal shields will bear unique heraldry. The client provided me with some older Bretonnian decals for this purpose. The horse on the left has the decal placed, a little touch up with a brush, and some highlights and I think it will look great.

Another interesting thing about this commission is the gold on the helmets. As many in this hobby will witness too painting gold is a major PITA! So I thought with this project I would try something new, and see how it went. Basically I did what has been done before. I painted the area in GW Mithril Silver, then once dry I added about 4 to 6 coats of Gryphonne Sepia. This really brought the gold color out. Then once I achieved the look I was after with the sepia I went back in and added some black, this really made the gold pop!

Next up is going to be an ebay project. As part of a trade a while back I received a Forgeworld Dreadnought, a World Eater one. I was playing around with what to do with it for a while and I settled on this pose. The "tortured" victim on the wrack is a converted Privateer Press mini that I had in my bits box. The wrack was built out of aluminum and copper tubing, with some Chaos bits.

Lastly, I have made some more progress on my Imperial Fist army. Many of the "Bad Ass Space Marines" that I posted pictures of in an earlier
post are going to be for this army. I am really digging the yellow, the Cadmium Yellow is such a bright and vivid color. These guys have been painted with oil paints, the bases are a mixture of bases from Secretweapon and Base Contacts, they have been weathered with pigments from Secretweapon.

Blog Update....

It is Friday, and thank goodness....for me that means many things, and among them now is the weekly updates I will be doing for my blog. Theses updates will be where I will talk about tutorials, showcase some work, and share thoughts in general.

Before I get into showing some stuff off I want to talk a little bit about what I call the 30min rule. Here is the situation;

A friend of mine approached me the other day and we were having a conversation about painting, he is currently working on Grey Knights and is feeling a bit bogged down by all the painting. So I shared with Bobby my 30min rule....Basically when I am painting my army I don't spend more than 30min painting a single figure, unless it is a centerpiece or vehicle. This is alows me to keep things moving and progress through units rather quickly. One thing I feel that new players get hung up on is trying to make each piece be a stand out piece....This will drive a player insane and lead to discouragement, resulting in many times as burnout. A great thing about limiting yourself to 30min a figure is you really begin to polish your painting skills, and after some practice you can sit back and see just how far your skills have progressed. I would like to share a few tips that I use when using my 30min rule to help speed up my process....

1. KISS--Keep It Simple Stupid....not sure where I picked this acronym up at, but it is a mantra I try to live be, life is as complicated as YOU want it to be, and miniature painting is not much different. Dont try to get all creative on every figure. As I will talk about later you can change some colors around here and there, and change poses of your models up a bit, but the bottom line is, at 3 to 6ft away, a CLEANLY painted mini can look just as cool as a showcase piece.
2. Color Pallet and Planning--This is a very important step, keep your color pallet simple, say between 3 to 5 colors tops, and I would say that includes highlights too. Plan out what colors will be where, decide where your light source is coming from and above all if you mix colors, write down the ratios! Color is also a good way to give a little variety to your guys. Perhaps some grenades are painted green, and some red, and others yellow. Unify units of space marines or other troops by painting a certain part of each guy the same color. This is where you have a lot of room, but keep it simple, remember, you only have 30min a figure
3. Keep it between the lines--Brush control, this perhaps is the biggest skill to focus on as a painter, putting the paint where you want it. As I mentioned earlier, a cleanly painted unit can look quite impressive. If you keep your lines clean and crisp, as soon as you put that unit on the table I guarantee it will get compliments, because there is a "cool factor" that takes over when a unit gel's together because of a clean paint job, dont get "clean" and "nice" confused, they are very different terms.

So there you have it, 3 simple things to keep in mind when you paint to help you move through those figures, just keep it simple!

Lets move onto some updates!!


First up is one of my all time favorite mini's Sigurd, from Reaper's Dark Haven line. I dont know what it is about this guy, but I love to figure. This was a personal project, call it a practice if you will. Recently I attended a painting class where using a wet pallet and some other painting techniques were discussed, so I took some time to practice on this guy, I dont think he turned out to bad considering it is really my first time using this blending technique. I have some other figures that I will be doing as will over the next few months to help reinforce these skills and make me a better painter. He is about 95% done at this point, I ordered some UHU Glue from the UK today to add some nice blood and gore effects to the axe, that too will be a bit of a practice, as currently I have some Neverborne on my workbench that are going to get a nice gory treatment....





Lastly...here is a Imperial Fist tac troop that I finished up. The unique thing about this guy is he was painted with oil paints, and it took about 30min. I will be posting a tutorial on oil painting soon, but
the more I work with it the more I like it. It does have a steep learning curve, so be prepared to get a little frustrated from time to time. As far as the model goes, it is a set of FW Mk V shoulders, and legs. The knee caps will drilled and a steel bearing was inserted to match the artwork in the SM Codex. The base is from Secretweapon Miniatures and has been weathered with pigments.


Well that is it for this week, check back next Friday for some more updates!!

Ashton