Has this...

...ever happened to you?

Or maybe the question should be: 'How often does it happen to you?'

My first game of Malifaux

I finally had my first Malifaux game and I have to admit I love the mechanics. The card-flipping instead of dice rolling is a great thing and the possibility of affecting the result with control cards add a lot to the dynamism. What I also liked was that each turn can bring an entirely new situation and you have to think on your feet at all times.

The game was a 25 SS scrap with my LJ crew (with an addition of one Austringer) against caen's Viktorias that had the help of Freikop's Trapper, Librarian and Misaki. My strategy was Slaughter along with Hold Out and Bodyguard schemes.

My main problem was my very superficial knowledge of the rules, which was one of the reason the game lasted for more than three hours. I haven't got a chance to check out how the Judge does in practice as he was taken down by Viki early on in the game. What I've learnt though is that the Marshals are pretty good and don't die easily. LJ is a machine when she has enemies in her melee range but definitely needs some backup bofore she gets there.


Not surprisingly, I lost (6:2) but there were moments when the outcome could have been completely different. It was when the Jokers started appearing that the game became more dramatic with the Trapper killing Justice in melee, which surprised both me and my opponent. Still, it was a good, competitive game and it gave me a taste of what Malifaux is. Now I just need to learn the rules and the skills of my crew better. Below you can see some pictures from the game:

I plan to expend my Guild force. Right now I have LJ crew (starter, Scales, Executioner, 2 Austringers). I'm considering buying either Perdita or Freikops set along with a Guardian to give me more possibilities. Any recommendations?

School's Out

Being a teacher, I can honestly admit that the best period in the year has begun for me. Two months off regular work and plenty of free time. Can't really complain. I plan on painting some more LotR minis as well as a few from Malifaux. Also, I definitely want to try actually playing the game. But first I need some time off, away from work, computer, maybe even paints.

Slow progress

We adopted another cat a couple of weeks ago. They've been getting along pretty well. They fight a lot but draw no blood so I guess that's OK. They definitely keep each other entertained for the most part. And they sleep. A lot. I read once that cats sleep between 16 to 18 hours. I guess that's a pretty accurate estimate.

Fortunately for me, they're very careful around my workspace. Overall, I can totally recommend getting a second pet if you have only one at home :)

I'm still working on a large batch of Gondor minis. It's a tedious work as I'm working on several miniatures simultaneously. It's easy to get carried away and start cutting corners so I have to constantly remind myself to slow down. So far I've painted the black/grey areas, the armors and basecoated the brown parts. There's still plenty of work left but as I said, haste makes waste.

The Jolly Boys

Not much to say here, these guys are simply amazing, check them out:

Pumping Iron

So I'm finally back into serious painting after being occupied mainly by playing Diablo 3. I'm currently working on a larger batch of Minas Tirith Warriors and Knights - all plastic.
I started with putting together the mounts. I was worried that I might have a hard time working with that but the nice thing is that they're actually numbered on the inside so you can't really make a mistake here. The sculpts are pretty nice but horses from the LotR range look good in general. After putting together the halves it was just a matter of working over them with some LGS and they were ready for priming. I'm not going to glue the Knights to the backs of the mounts as painting them separately will be much easier. Also, it'll be much easier to transport them.
I used Platemail Metal primer from Army Painter on the Warriors. I used the same basecoat for the previous heavily armored minis from Minas Tirith army and it worked well. Following the basecoating, I prepared the bases and was ready to work on the armors. The first step was to tone the armor plated down and fill the recesses with black color. I used good old Badab Black on previous occasion. This time I wanted to play around with other black washes that I have. Here are the results after one coat of Black wash:

The washes I used were (from the left): GW Badab Black, Army Painter Dark Tone, Vallejo Black Shade and P3 Armor Wash. Badab Black and Dark Tone had a pretty similar effect, while Vallejo Black Shade was more opaque, I don't really know how to describe it but it had a sort of smoky look to it. Quite predictably, P3 armor wash looked different as it had a more glossy, darker look.

In the pic below you can see the same minis after a second wash.

Sorry I messed up the order here but you can see the effects I described more clearly here as they became more pronounced. The Vallejo wash is a tad grayish. At this point I think I'll wither go with Badab Black/Dark Tone or P3 Armor Wash as it is darker and highlights the details better. The glossy effect will disappear after applying matt varnish anyway. I'll make up my mind after working with metallic paints over these. And for that I'll definitely stick to Army Painter paints.

The Judge reveals his true identity

Here's my next ITIC entry. As I planned, I'm sticking to Wyrd minis that fit the theme (even when it's a bit far fetched ;) This round's theme is "IT"S ALIVE!"

I like this one even more than the original mini (which I painted a while ago), very dynamic pose with wonderful details. I had a blast painting him. If the pic is too small, click here to see a larger version.