Playing Malifaux

Got to get in a game of Malifaux on Tuesday last week against David at LVL UP FLGS.  His second game, and I've not played that much, so it was a bit of a learning experience.  35SS, and mostly based around the starter boxes.

It was a fun game, played on my Malifaux table, currently on loan to the store, and painted by the long suffering girl.  I was supposed to take photos, but completely forgot after the first turn.

I won, but it was close, and I think that if David had had a few more of he models that made his Somer crew work (Slop haulers were mourned for their lack repeatedly) and played a little more for the objectives it would have been very different. Still, we both learned some more of the system.

I fielded
Victoria - Of Blood and Of Ashes
Vanessa
3 Ronin

All of this has led to me having the Malifaux painting bug again.  I'm currently working on my Lilith crew to go with the Tuco I painted, (pictures to follow), and some Punk Zombies to go with my Yan-Lo crew.  the next plan is a Kaeris crew, based around Oxfordian mages and possibly some rail crew.

More Shaltari and the Fear!

Not that much to report on the hobby front since my last post.  I have finished painting the next batch of my Shaltari, and I have assembled my Stormwall for Warmachine.  I have also had some ideas for finishing off the Cherub from Malifaux.

Before we go any further, I should say that Hawk Wargames customer service is at least as good as Privateer Press's (And we all know that I love their customer service)  Emailed I was missing the turret for a Yari.  Got a replacement part within days.  Granted it was the wrong part, but it arrived.  Quick email back.   Hours later, got a reply.  Correct part is on the way.  That's what I call service.

These Shaltari are, again, a case of the simplest effective paint scheme I can come up with.  2 Coats of base, followed by wash and drybrush, and then the purple (base and wash) and finally the black.  They are only 10mm scale, and so, while they are not works of art, they work at the sort of viewing distances I am expecting.  I only have two small flyers to paint to finish this batch, and 4 bases of infantry to detail.  Overall, its been nice to have a project that has a definite end, that I can dig my teeth into, paint, and finish.  I think that part of my problems with making hobby progress is the crate of stuff for each system sat on the shelf.  It makes it daunting to start, and when I get bored, I can just swap projects.  With this, I had an acceptable amount, a definite end, and it worked really well.

The Stormwall is one of those projects that has been sitting part started on my shelf for absolutely ages.  Its a fear project.  I am sure that everyone has one, one of those projects that, for whatever reason, we are afraid to proceed with.  Be it the Stormwall and Storm Strider (Now done) where I am scared because they are expensive models that I don't want to mess up, or the Iron Kingdom Starks, where I am afraid because they deserve a better paintjob than I think I will achieve, and they were bought for me by someone I love very much (Thanks Lisa), or even the ones where you fear the boring that will come with them (Painting big units of trolls, or Storm Knights, or, well any unit of more than about 3 models really at the moment) they are there, and they loom.  They can even make me feel guilty, because every other project I do is NOT DOING THEM!  Still, assembly done, undercoating pencilled in for tomorrow.  I know that once I get to the getting started phase, I'm usually pretty good at the finishing them.

LZ is Hot!

Well, I've had 2 weeks off work, and decided that I needed a painting project for that time, to go with the relaxing and spending time with the other half.  Since my FLGS is starting a Dropzone Commander evening, and I had a force for this mostly in boxes unpainted, I decided that this was the way to go.  I looked through the book for inspirational paint schemes, and decided that while the Lombards scheme would let me have the purple, it might be a little too purple, and so I turned to the "Zulu" scheme from the rulebook.

So, without further ado, I present my Dropzone Force so far.

Spot the pre this painting session one on the left with a different painting style.

All of these are painted using a very simple method.  Undercoat Steel Legion Drab, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then drybrush Tallarn Sand.  After that, the Purple is Genestealer Purple with a Druchi Violet wash.  The Gems are Warpstone Glow highlighted with Moot Green.  The black lens' are flames of War Black Grey with Army Painter War Paint Matt Black.  I should note, that of all the blacks I have ever used, the Army Painter one is by a long margin the best black paint I have ever used.

Comments and Ideas are more than welcome.

Some painting

I've been in a bit of painting rut recently, with not very much getting done at all.  Elder Scrolls V, Witcher I, and work have all resulting in me not being very productive.  1 Hour at Night has been a complete lie.
Still, I have got some painting done.  A while ago, I completed the Troll Axer I had been working on, and I realised that I never got any pictures of it up.  So

Yes, I know there is a huge mold line down his face.  And his axe.

I also worked on Tuco, for my Neverborn faction.  

As to what comes next, well, its a surprise, its already painted, and its colours are White and Pale Green, with a Wolf emblem.... any guesses?

Not playing Magic

Well, a few months ago now, I gave up and did something that I swore I would never do again.  I played Magic the Gathering.  I was at the store, they had a spare seat at a modern tournament, someone lent me a deck, and the rest is history.  I've now started playing again, and in the few drafts I've played in mid table mediocracy has been my fate.  I've also started collecting a few cards, and have a standard red rush deck that has not been terrible in casual games, although I've not managed to test in competitively.  One thing that I do know, however, is that it is not even close to being ready for modern, even with a few cards swapped out.

Modern is a format that I should have been at home in.  Older cards, some of which I knew.  And yet, it seems to me that it is even more open to abuse than the old Type I used to be back when I played competitively (around Unlimited-6th).  3-4 turn kills were common, and while I accept that my deck was vastly underpowered against these, there should have been something I could have done.  I'm not sure that this is a format that I would have enjoyed, even if I did have the card pool.

So, my deck so far consists of

16 Mountain
4 Wind-Scarred Crag
4 Bloodfire Expert
4 Bolt of Keranos
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Foundry Street Denizen
2 Gore Swine
3 Lightning Berserker
4 Lightning Strike
4 Mardu Scout
1 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Spark Jolt
1 Trumpet Blast
4 War-Name Aspirant
3 Wild Slash
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
Sideboard:
2 Arrow Storm
4 Barrage of Boulders
1 Demolish
2 Pyrotechnics
3 Roast
3 Shatter

I'm sure that it has hundreds of holes.  I know that it is weak against lots of deck types.

What I do wonder is, in the absence of the opportunity to spend hours playtesting face to face, what engines online people use to test decks?

Would that I wood

Ok, this is a project that occupied much more of my time than I had planned.  My forest base.  Wire made trees, with clump foilage and pan scourer greenery.

The trunks were made with twisted wire (tutorials online), and then I added the foilage.  As I had trouble with this before, this time I added cut up pan scourer, and then clump foilage over that.  I have to say, I like the bushier effect that this gives.

As for the trunk textures, I tried green stuff, liquid greenstuff, and wrapping with glue soaked paper towel.  I think that in future, I will stick with the glue soaked paper towel.  Most fiddly, but I like the effect the best.

Thorakitai

Ok, so I FINALLY finished the thorakitai from the Steel Phalanx set for my Aleph.  They were, a slog.  I was never very inspired by the models, and they had sat, mostly unpainted for months.  Finally kicked myself into finishing them, since I have been using two of them in my lists for a long time, and am trying (Hard) to play with painted models.  So they are done.
I am not desperately happy with their paint job, and I know that these are terrible pictures, but really, they don't inspire much more from me at the moment.

Any comments are as usual welcome.