Ongoing projects

Hello readers and fellow dads!

This place clearly needs to liven up, so here are some stuff I have been working on or is ongoing right now. This is not all of it, but it was what I had in my "decent photos" folder. Hope you like it.

This is the Dead Rider from Malifaux. A model I actually bought mostly to complete my Ressurrectionists diorama, in the slot where Izamu used to be. That model is a bit out of theme with the rest of the crew. It  was a total nightmare to assemble, and even though it looks cool enough, it really was a horrible kit  to work with. I recommend waiting for the new plastic kit if you fancy this model.

Here's a fun little piece I speedpainted just because one of my friends (and fellow Painter Dad) had brought it to the table so many times unpainted that I just couldn't resist. This is just brass/copper, the new oxide paint, drybrushing and then a simple stone base in greys. Love it though, and now Mattias won't have to keep pushing this down his prio queue. ;)

Speaking of Mattias, here is a present I got for keeping an eye on his pet. Chronus, the Ultramarines tank-boosting sergeant! Fun model to paint and it actually got me hungering for some more techmarine goodness. Maybe a Thunderfire Cannon is in my future. That seems to be a very broken kit unfortunately.

Also, my Infinity Aridna crew is shaping up! This was an early WIP and these are actually done now, painted to a very basic tabletop standard but still playable. I really can't say enough good things about the quality Corvus Belli are putting out. Fantastic. But I will wait a while until I paint this gang to a higher standard. More pics and models to come though, this was an old pic!

LinCon 2014

So all the regular Painter Dads had signed up for the Malifaux tournament at LinCon 2014. None of us had ever played anything more advanced than friendly games, so I was very excited to get to see some new crews, new players and fancy tricks. I really did not expect to finish anything better than last place, and 8th place out of 10 was the result. Very fair though, all the top players were quite experienced and we all learned a lot (and bought a lot of stuff in the convention stores, especially Narren, who are just awesome). I will make sure to play this tournament and maybe one more each year!

But I did win something, and not just any little thing, but Best painted crew. Very proud of my little guys, shown here on the display board I created for the convention. The sign I had ordered did not show up until the first weekday after the con though, so annoying. But still, I was the only one with a display board and that and my high saturation strong highlights style is probably what won the title.

So the pressure is on to create a new crew and new board for next year! Not making any promises, but Nicodem seems like a lot of fun... :)

Cheers,
Andreas

Dr. McMourning

Wow, this model was a treat to paint. I got it from a friend for my birthday which is almost a year ago now, but I haven't had the right inspiration until recently. I tried avoiding metallic paints - not that I'm going to call it NMM yet but it's a start. Have to get Sebastian and the rest of his crew now... not loving the new plastic minis though. We shall see!

Gremlins are fun!

Not only on the board but also to paint. I got to try out painting one of my brother's gremlins. Speedpainting from the start with some detailing at the end. Maybe 2-2,5 hours' work total. Loved it.

Tidy base rims

If you are like me then your base rims look quite messy after painting the base. Drybrushing, spilling etc leaves a lot of paint marks. I had problems getting the right shine when painting the rim black - it didn't look like a factory fresh plastic base. Then I found an old paint pot I had discarded because of its strange shine: Undercoat Black. And it works perfectly!

The Redchapel gang, extended

So I promised one of our readers to do a post with my entire Malifaux crew as soon as I was done with the last one. That took a whole lot more time than expected, but that is life when there is a new baby in the house. Here they are, in no particular order, bathing in the evening sunlight!

Seamus, avatar of dread

Seamus the mad hatter

Madame Sybelle

Rotten belle #1

Copycat killer

The hanged #1

Rotten belle #2

The hanged #2

Rotten belle #3

Grave spirit

The whole gang assembled!

The Dreamer and Friends

Hi

I'm a new contributor to this blog, and it feels really nice to be able to post my finished The Dreamer crew as a first entry.

I hope you like it!

The Dreamer and his nightmares

The crew, assembled

Let me introduce you to Seamus the Mad Hatter and his gang of undead ladies of the night. I finally finished the Grave Spirit totem (in front), completing a kind of sucky but playable crew. I promised myself not to buy any new models until I finished these ones, so now I am off to the shops! ;-)

Anyways, hope you like them. Criticism and suggestions is as always welcome in the comments.

State of painting

So what's up, you say? Well I'll tell you!

The Malifaux project is churning along nicely and I now have three models painted from my crew of seven. More on that further down. In the hobby gear department I purchased a paint rack from the good polish people at HobbyZone. Great quality and construction, at a reasonable price. I could almost fit all my paints in it... so here is my current painting setup:

The big thing about this setup is that I can take it out, paint, and then stow the whole thing away. I am blessed with a very understanding and patient wife, but still, the place has to look nice.

Below is my Copycat Killer totem, a fun little fellow who is quite high up in my want-to-paint queue at the moment.

And next to him you can see another new purchase - grey primer in a bottle. This stuff can either be airbrushed on or painted on with a brush. I did the latter on the Copycat Killer, and I think the results are stunning. The paint goes in everywhere and does not leave any streaks that I could see. So if I'm just going to prime one little model, I will not waste spray can primer on it anymore. Love it!

The next pic is my current WIP gang, excluding the Copycat Killer. The Big Mek is also something I really look forward to painting, but I promised myself to finish the boyz before painting another ork unit. So he will have to wait. I took a break from the orks and now I am actually starting to feel quite inspired to paint them. That's a good thing!

Madame Sybelle was in the WIP shot above, but by the time I started writing text to these pictures I had actually finished her. So here is a group shot of the painted half of the Redchapel gang. I have stopped using spray varnish to protect minis since it usually leaves a nasty frosting. These are instead varnished with vallejo matte varnish on dropper bottle, a product I can't believe I could work without. It dries totally clear and matte, without disturbing the colours at all.

Seamus is in the house!

So I finished my first Malifaux model. Here he is! Now I'm moving on to the rest of his crew.

The Mad Hatter

Getting sidetracked is to me not a negative thing, at least when it comes to my free time. It is me, it's what I do and it's how I stay creative and learn new things.

I recently had my first test game of Malifaux with a friend and I must say I am intrigued. Its high accessibility combined with depth of strategy and relatively quick playtime is very appealing to me.

Here is my crew, the Redchapel gang. Feels like a good start to get an understanding and at the same time with pleasing aesthetics which will make painting them a joy.

Assembling them on the other hand was not very joyful. These little metal guys require some quite intricate pinning. My hands were sore and full of glue a couple of hours afterwards, but that was an ok price to pay!

So far I have purchased the following:

• Redchapel starter box
• Zuzzy game mat 3'x3'
• Two totems for Seamus
• The fancy bases the gang is mounted on
• Two fate decks
• The 1.5 core rulebook
• A couple of terrain pieces from Sarissa

All of which will be very easy to sell, should I not like this endeavour into the Breach. However, I already have a positive vibe. Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes.