I painted this miniature a few years agoand swapped it for a plastic versionlater. With the new reduction in cost I decided to get another metal model and try to paint it using darker shades this time round. I also wanted to make sure the base fits better to my swamp-themed Zoraida list.
While I like the plastic version of Bad Juju better, in this case it pales in comparison with the metal one. It has a more dynamic pose but it does not have the same menacing look.
Having painted the plastic version before, I wanted to try something different with this guy, so I started with bright basecoat. I struggled with the previous one as I found it hard to make the green color of moss pop more with bright shades. Here I was darkening it down with glazes and washes of green, yellow, and brown. I think it worked pretty well as I got a nice overall look of varying shades all over its body. This version of Juju has a lot of small bits (twigs, skulls, stones, and even a bottle) protruding from its body, so I used some of the swampy-colored water effect in random patches to bring it all together.
Metal version is significantly smaller than the plastic one but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up in detail. The entire body is well textured and its face has much more expression too. I wanted to add some extra height so I built a small gangplank with balsa wood. Some extra skulls were then partly submerged in water to add more atmosphere. Plastic version is significantly larger and has really good details too.
A young reporter is sent to her hometown to investigate a series of brutal murders committed on children. The very beginning of the novel sets dark, gritty tone to the story. Rediscovering he place where she grew up is a difficult process for the protagonist as she is forced to tackle narrow minds of local people and her own childhood traumas. Her relations with family are also deeply distressing.
Flynn excels at presenting a rough and simple setting, keeping it cohesive and credible at the same time. I also have a feeling that each novel I read by her is more disturbing than the previous one...
Wyrd switched to plastic for their models back in 2012. Prior to that all their miniatures had been cast in metal (pewter, to be more precise). It was a major change for all the hobbyists. Wyrd metal minis had some issues with proportions and they usually required a lot of work prior to painting. Mold lines tended to be thick, some elements needed to be pinned. These problems no longer exist as plastic models have elements that fit together very well (although there may be an overwhelming number of them to a single model) and lines left after casting are very thin and easy to remove. However, it's hard to deny the fact that the details of metals were sharper and they did have more character to them.
These two minis have been lying around my workspace for several weeks and I finally decided to start working on them. My decision was partly motivated by the fact that they had their cost in game reduced and thus have become more useful. I do own the plastic versions but I want to paint the metal ones to see how they compare to them.
Hooded Rider was a lot of pain to assemble. Each of the snakes forming the mount's mane needed to be cleaned from the mold line and bent into shape separately. It was tricky as metal elements won't bend back and forth too many times and after a few twists they can easily snap.
As you can see in the picture, there were some major areas that needed to be filled with Green Stuff prior to painting. I started with regular GS and when it was dry, I used liquid GS to smooth the edges of the areas that had been filled in. After that I used Typhus Corrosion (a special technical paint) that added some extra grainy texture to otherwise flat areas.
And that's it for now, I will take side by side pictures of metal and plastic versions once they're ready (they should be before the end of the month).
Things are slowly returning to their normal state and I was able to paint these three Guild models. Not much really to say here as I've painted various versions of both Sonnia and Francisco a few times. I kept the color scheme warm with different shades of brown and white build from Tanned Leather (Reaper). Blue was chosen for the jeans to add some colder contrast. The only thing I changed were Sonnia's eyes as I wanted to puch the fiery look a bit further there. I had two models of this version as one is painted for a buddy and I won the other during the Nationals in March. Really nice take on the classic sculpt with better proportions and solid level of detail.
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.
