Hard times

Once again, life's been filled with ups and downs. Shortly after being released from hospital, my 3-moth old daughter needed another major surgery. Seems like the problem with her thin intestine and colon is fixed for good now, which gives me more hope. I'm mostly at home with my older kid (3 years old) while my wife is with the little one at the hospital. It's a tough experience but we're pulling through. It's hard but seeing other kids and families with much more serious problems and facing them bravely is a humbling experience.

And yet again, painting has been a way to calm down and briefly escape other problems during late night hours. I've painted two models recently, both for my own collection.

Serena Bownam is a model that was added to Malifaux as a result of Divergent Patch campaign. I don't really know much about her background fluff-wise but she's definitely been through a lot. Her body is covered with scars and it looks like her skin was partly flayed and then randomly stitched back.

In game, she is Discuised and has Thick Skin, which protects her from blast damage. And as far as protection is concerned, she doesn't really need much of it as she is resummoned in your deployment zone if she dies in game. She can give Black Blood to friendly Nightmare models and then attack through them (looks like much more limited version of Reva). And then there's some extra utility she brings in. An ability to heal and remove conditions is huge, though suit-dependent. Another big one is her special upgrade, which allows friendly minions and enforcers to be deployed as with "From the Shadows" option. I've used her only once in a friendly game but I want to try her a few more times with the Dreamer.

I used box art as reference for painting, keeping the colors toned down. It made the pale skin pop more in contrast. The model was very easy to assemble and I needed no GS to fill in the gaps as all the parts fit together very well.

Lazarus a special model that can be "purchased' for 10 Guilders. It's made of a slightly different material - the plastic has a more "rubbery" feel to it and as such, removing mold lines requires slightly different approach. Rather than scraping them off, you

need to cut them away with a sharp hobby knife. It's definitely more time consuming and requires more precision. The model makes me think of illustrations from Stanisław Lem's novels. It has a slightly comical, exaggerated feel to it but overall it is well proportioned and nicely detailed. Lazarus comes from the Outcast faction, so I wanted to make sure he looks different than my Neverborn models. That's why (similarly to Hannah). I used primarily yellow on his armor, keeping the base in theme with the rest of my faction of choice.

Lazarus excels at shooting. His grenade launcher can fire three times per turn so any movement tricks (obeys/pushes/lures) to get him in right position can prove very effective. Neverborn have access to numerous ways of moving their models so this might prove useful.

When you want to play the game...

...but there's no proper terrain o hand, you can end up with something like this:

#4/2018 The Grownup

A short, but powerful story that combines elements of mystery and, to some degree, horror. Flynn is really good at presenting complex and credible female characters and in this story she does so in the span of approximately 60 pages. There are quite a few layers of deception in the story and navigating through this web of lies and pretenses is definitely an enjoyable experience.

More Guild

I've managed to paint three more Guild models in recent weeks. I like the dynamic sculpts, seems like each one can tell a story on its own right. Painting the magical effect was the main challenge on the Quellers. I decided to use bright blue as it's something that would nicely contrast with red, which is commonly used in Guild.

Thallarian Quellers are very good minions. They cost only 6 soulstones but they bring a lot of utility. They can place markers that cause enemy models to lose printed suits when they're within 3' of the marker. They can also buff friendly models, making their damage irreducible. They are not easy to take down as they can keep up their Arcane shield after their activation and they can dram a card when a friendly model uses a soulstone. Quellers can debuff from distance and pack a punch in melee as well. I'd say that's quite a lot for a 6 ss minion.

At 8 ss, the Jury is another solid Guild henchwoman. She can give a mask to friendly units and enemy models within 6' cannot use Focus or Defensive stance. Her Ml attack has a standard value of 6 with a minimum damage of 3. When it comes to Rg damage, she can... throw a book. And it's not a light one so there is decent damage involved along with a chance to build up the Fees condition. 

There is also her (0) action with range 12', resisted by Wp. It can either heal and remove a condition from a friendly model, or debuff an opponent. Her stat line is mainly a solid 6, but she doesn't seem too resilient, which is not a very big issue as Guild has access to cheap and useful upgrades that can help with that.

Malifaux Polish Nationals

Last weekend I took part in the first ever Polish Malifaux nationals. There were 46 players, mostly from Poland, but we had guests from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, and the UK. The organization was top-notch as there were no delays, things run smoothly and the TO was doing a great job keeping everything in order. Sadly, I didn't get to play any of the foreign players but I did manage to have a nice chat with the Dutch guys after day one.

46 people playing Malifaux simultaneously in one place - best turnout in Poland so far

As far as my performance is concerned, I did poorly. I placed 38th with two wins and 4 loses. I scored a total of 32 VP and had a diff of -14. I didn't really expect much as the two weeks prior to the tourney were really hard for me as I was at home with ill daughter. Not sleeping well for a prolonged period of time does funny things to your brain.. Also, I didn't get a wink of sleep the night before the event. Anyway, these are just poor excuses and  I mostly played badly, being too aggressive in the early stage of my games and making many bad decisions. I did enjoy playing six games in two days though. I used Zoraida and Titania as my masters, winning a game with each.

My loot from the tourney

Each participant got a swag bag with lots of goodies inside. There was a nice MDF wagon on a 50mm base (perfect for everyone's favorite new strategy), elegant 6 inch ruler, cards with strategies, and... a custom made fate deck. This one was a really nice touch as it combines Malifaux symbols with a bit of local flavor. Each participant also took part in a raffle and I got Vintage Sonnia.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd places and... best painted (pic. by David Brown)

As I've written, my performance was poor but I did manage to win best painted army trophy with my Titania crew. I was really happy with it as I did burn the midnight oil on more than one night while working on the models and display base. The competition was strong too. Apart from a very nice glass cup I won translucent Nightmare Colette crew.

The crew that won me best painted trophy

#3/2018 Dark Places

Dark Places is a very well constructed mystery novel. A young woman confronts her childhood trauma as memories of the murder of her family she witness return to her after years. Her older brother was found guilty and got sentenced to a lifetime in prison. Years later she inadvertently becomes involved with a group that tries to solve crimes independently. As the action progresses, the author flashes back to memories of the protagonist, and members of her family to gradually reveal details of the heinous crime.I liked the way each of the narrator provided only glimpses of the facts. These flashbacks are cleverly interwoven with events from the present, forming a dynamic that makes reading the novel a very dynamic experience.

Still here

It seems like every year there comes a time when I don't write anything on the blog for a prolonged period of time. Life happens, and there are things that take your attention away from hobby and force you to focus on more important aspects. Yet, despite all that I have not completely abandoned painting minis in recent weeks. So here's a quick update on what's happening.

First off, I painted a metal version of the infamous Pukeworm,  Primordial Magic. It's much better detailed than the new plastic one. Also, the stream of energy aka. "the puke" is a separate bit in this set so I didn't glue it in. I wanted to keep it in theme with my Titania so I used some wood bits on his base. I saw this idea on A Wyrd Place a while ago and decided to give it a go. I think it looks much better than the plastic one.

Other than that I assembled and basecoated some more Guild models. As you can clearly see, scale is still an issue Wyrd is struggling with. I realize the Jury is leaning forward but still her proportions are a bit off in comparison with the floating Queller. The female one is probably one of the most complex plastic miniatures Wyr's ever released. There are a lot of extra elements on her, more than on many henchmen or masters...

I also received the alternate Lazarus. It's a really cool mini, a huge improvement on the old version. The only ting I didn't like about him was the material he's made of. It's this sort of "rubbery" plastic and cleaning all the mold lines takes much more time as it's not possible to quickly file them. You need to take your time and gently cut it all away using a sharp hobby knife. I will be painting the grenade launcher separately, here it's just assembled for the photo.

And last but not least, Serena Bowman. Very nice model, though it feels a bit out of place in the Neverborn. Nevertheless, she brings some unique tricks to the faction and I plan to try her with Dreamer (and with Lilith in the future when I start using this master).

That's all for now. Polish Malifaux nationals are taking place this weekend. Two-day long even with 6 games to play. I hope I will make it - it all depends on the health of my kids (which has been rather poor lately).