Through The Breach

Now that's a way to announce a new project. It's no secret that Wyrd Games has been working on developing an RGP set in the world of Malifaux. It's a very interesting setting as it offers a blend of steampunk, victorian era, horror and western themes to name just the most obvious ones. 

The project will be launched on Kickstarter but at this point no specific information has been given to specify when exactly will this happen. 

I'm not too much into RPGs but I'll probably take part in funding it anyway as I love the universe and there should be some nice rewards for stretch goals (miniatures, tokens, etc.).

Lotr revisited. Army of Harad

After lengthy absence I'd like to return to blog with a pictures of my Army of Harad. Well maybe army is a strong word, it's more like armed company by all standards. It's a force that took part in last 2009 Eastern Europe Grand Tournament. To be honest I've always had more to do with modelling side of our hobby rather than with gaming and my attandance of that event was mostly driven by my desire to win Best Painted Army Award second year straight (in 2008 I participated with Wood Elves army).

Size of this force is not breathtaking as it was composed to look good not to place high in the tournament. It consists mostly of Haradrim Warriors with small platoon of Watchers of Karna, couple of Hasharins and Witch-King along with one other Nazgul.

                                  

Now to painting side. I decided to do a custom colour scheme that will represent the character of Haradrims in it's best. We all know that they are people of South-East linked mostly with desert. That's why I chose earth-sand hues for them. I always thought GW's scheme with all that red and purple to be a little inaccurate. Frankly they looked more like a circus than people of the desert to me.

                   

I did a couple of variations and mixed schemes between all those Haradrims. As far as I remember I divided them in groups of 12-15 and tried to keep each unique yet consistent with the whole army composition.

                     
                           
                                                 
For Watchers of Karna I decided that original GW's scheme with all black robes made them look more like Ninjas...which can be awesome...if you are a Ninja. That being said I used another shade of yellow-brown (Bubonic Brown in that case) to be a base of that squad.

               

My favourite part of that force are the Hasharins. I always liked playing with those characters. They are fragile but deadly if used the right way. I painted one in traditional way with black robes and the other with scheme of an army that would allow him to blend in. You wouldn't believe how often my opponents focused on that black Hasharin being totally oblivious to existnce of the other one hidden usually between Watchers of Karna. When they realised their mistake it was usually to late as he already got his poisoned weaponry on their strongest heroes.

   

To compliment the points of the roster I used two Nazguls (including Witch-King). I painted them in experimental way. I tried to use some OSL to make them unique among all those other Nazguls you see on tournaments, cloathed all in black.

                                             
Anyway besides presenting that army I have also posted it for sale on eBay. I'm finally drifting away from gaming aspect and focusing more on my painting, plus hockey season is upon us and I have to make some additions to my equipment.

So if someone is interested in purchase of that force visit eBay auction.

That being said I hope you like the scheme I applied to my Haradrims, maybe it will inspire some of you to paint them in similar way or at least to implement some own schemes to your armies.

Cheers,

Goodnight

Finally a game of Malifaux... and A Game of Thrones

A scene from my yeaterday's game. LJ vs. the Dreamer 30 SS scrap. Two Austringers sit comfortably in a tower until a Coppelius is summoned right between them. Fortunately for me, LJ is not far behind and manages to get to the spot next turn. She successfully casts Sword Style, Charges and triggers Onslaughtwith a high mask (without even cheating). With three potential attacks (charge, Onslaught and Melee expert), things are looking up, especially taking into account the fact that I announced Coppelius as a target in Kill Protegee scheme. And then...

I got three Black jokers in this game and in the end lost it. It was a close one but this was clearly the turning point. I like the unpredictability of the game and the fact that random situations like this can make a well planned action backfire but I just wish it happened to my opponents once in a while.

I also played Game of Thrones (the new edition of the board game). I've played it only once before. The game's very tactical and requires not only careful planning of your action but also a lot of interaction with other players (making alliances and stabbing allies in the back are two key strategies).

It's a long game (we got to turn 5 and it was already well past midnight so we called it a day ) but if you have the time and a small group of people who want to get involved in the game, it can be fun.

The WIP goes on

As you can see, both needed quite a lot of GS to fill in the gaps left after putting the models together. I still like the Dweller more as the details seem a bit sharper and he looks more demonic. 

I've made one change since then and added a flaming sword to Balrog's left hand. I needed to cut away parts of his fingers and reposition them but it turned out OK in the end. I've already started working on the flames on him. Fire is fun to paint, especially on larger miniatures that are mainly black.

The marauder is prepared for panting too.Lots of tiny holes there, both on the goblins and the warg.

Taking it in stride

At least that's how I hope the Guardian will act in game. He should be pretty useful for LJ crew as he offers her a better DF.
I didn't like the way he looked like after I put him together so I decided to do some bending. I really like the sculpt as it has the king of twist that is characteristic for Wyrd minis. The legs are very thin and his beetle-like torso with the head mounted in it have a slightly comical look. I tried to go a bit further and repositioned him so that he looks as if he was making a clumsy step over a broken column.

The painting on this one was very quick and took me about one hour. I started with black basecoat over which I applied a layer of Vallejo Old Gold. It's a great paint as it gives a very solid color after just one layer. I used gold from the Andrea set to make a few highlights and worked with glazes of light brown and very light green. The shield and the hilt were done in pretty much the same way, I just used red washes instead of light glazes.

The greenish residue around the screws on his shield and body was done with green wash. I know it's not a realistic effect but I wasn't planning on making the weathering look realistic. My goal was to keep the paint scheme simple and centered around the gold I used for the main body. Adding a blue glow in its chest was also quite fast and I finished it off by simply painting a thinned down light blue around it. The tombstone on the base matches him to the graveyard theme I use for my Guild. 

Now I have some non-Malifaux stuff on my workspace but I will definitely try to paint at least one more mini either for Guild or the Neverborn later this month but for now I'll leave you with this one from my favorite guitarist:

Late night WIPs

I've started working on a few new minis. They have been made in finecast exclusively so I'm not able to compare them with metal/plastic versions. At first glance they don't look bad. The details are sharp and well defined and the Dweller looks pretty demonic. The arms and one leg fit the torso nicely but there are a few issues with bits that aren't cast well.

The Marauder has a few weak spots too although the level of details is very high. 

I'll post more pics once I fill all those problematic areas with GS.

I've also put together the Balrog. It's an impressive beast. This one is made of plastic. The material is very solid and even the thinner parts like the tips of his whip or the edge of tail seem strong enough. The level of detail isn't great here and the model seems a bit flat in a few areas, particularly his legs and belly.