Back to bases

Another week gone by and more hobby goings on to report.  I'm currently planning for my next Malifaux tournament  so if you can make that you'd be more than welcome.

I've been working on basing (or re-basing in some cases) my miniatures in better ways since taking up small scale skirmish games.  For Malifaux in particular I am picking up minis from the various factions and its an opportunity to use different themes.

This lady is a gunslinger from the Iron Kingdoms range that Privateer Press supports alongside its RPG.  A couple of months ago I took part in a short campaign and this was my character.  Long term she's going to appear as a Gunsmith in Malifaux which means she's an Arcanist.  I had an idea in my head that I wanted really steampunk bases for any Arcanist figures I get, so I was looking for something special.

Fortunately I found Foundations of War on ebay and they had a range of resin bases that matched what I had in mind.  Using pieces of clockwork watches they've made some great looking bases.  Hopefully you can see from these varied shots how great the detail has come through.

 In case anyone is counting, that's 4 guns shes got :)

This next chappy is the Arcane Effigy from Malifaux.  I've used him in my Zoraida crew (as is her want) to boost the amount of cards and spells the hag gets - especially useful if you are planning to 'Avatar up' during a game.

This little chap is attached to his based by a pole of metal and it looked a bit naff frankly.  This clockwork base was perfect to re-base him onto with the raised central shaft from the cog.  I still have 3 more bases from the set, one is already painted and I have a figure in mind to mount on it, so in time that will appear on here.

These tiny chaps (sorry they are a bit blurry - its because they are so small!) are Malifaux piglets but I am using them collectively as the Lost Love(s) for my Kirai crew.  As I have used a Spirited Away theme for that crew, following the film's story her parents have been enchanted and turned into pigs.  So while not physically lost, they are spiritually.  I've swirled up a bit of wood filler on this base and painted it as mud - seems to fit them nicely.

Finally a bit of a WIP on my Gatormen posse.  I painted the minis a while ago, but my Minion army for Warma-Hordes still isn't based properly.  I picked up some woodland path bases from Fenris Games of various sizes and am working my way through the army.  This one has a nice little stream sculpted into it which I've added water effect too.

ABC, it's as easy as....

This week I found myself tidying up all sorts of bits and bobs hanging around on my hobby table.  They aren't all 100% finished (I've been a bit under the weather this week) but I wanted to get these guys up on my blog.

The now infamous bro fist image

I've been thinking about 40k allies a lot this week with the information leaking in from the 6th edition rules and then confirmation yesterday.  I've been toying with a Grey Knights army for a while now, but I was focusing on Inquisitors and henchmen, not space marines, in my plans.  These ally rules mean that I can get them on to the table sooner than I previously thought as I can bolster then with my Dark Angels or vice versa.

Here's the twist.  My army will mostly be made of non-GW figures.  Its going to be made of pop culture, geek culture and just generally cool figures.  Now this means I'll never set foot in GW with this force, but hey, I don't go in there to game generally anyway.  I'll hopefully revisit this army over and again in coming months as I add new figures to it, but lets start with what I did this week.

Spread the word

I've been a long time fan of 2000AD and really its no surprise that I was a big fan of the original Rogue Trader version of 40k, the settings, art work and indeed even the artists were all fairly interchangeable in the mid 80s.

The ABC warriors in particular got me started on this alternative Grey Knights force.  Foundry miniatures do a fair old range of 2000 AD figures so I've managed to collect all of the ABC warriors they've created (more on this below...).  The models I think are largely based on the characters as imagined by Kev Walker (seen above) - who also did the art for the original Dredd movie (in which Hammerstein cameos) and plenty of GW and Magic the Gathering art too.  I'm trying to paint my warriors in the same scheme he used.

Removing the metal base he was standing on was a pain

I've had Mek-Quake sitting on my desk for months barely base coated.  He's a fairly big 'bot and one of my favourite characters.  The miniature here has him in a fairly unusual shape (actually based on art in the Nemesis comic), he's more often in his 'kill dozer' body (he can swap his head onto other bodies you see).  Now a kill dozer version is a potential future project for me, especially seeing other people have done excellent versions.  Critically, the kill dozer body has the big screen on his chest where I can paint his catch phrase "Big Jobs" in an 80s digital font.

So here he is, in the blue-grey colour seen in Kev's art work.  I'm quite pleased with the result, just need to do the skull and shell cases and generally tidy the base.

I think it was worth it, the 40k round base is a nice finish

Now to keep Mek-Quake company on this post, I fetched my Hammerstein down.  He's been painted for at least 3 years, but recently re-based.  Painting this chap entirely in bronzes was not much fun, I think I would approach the project differently now but he doesn't look too bad, certainly resembles the art work and the film incarnation nicely.

Now he did he get his name then?

This figure really closely follows the art work in terms of the detail - the helmet damage is a fairly typical state to find him in for some reason, he's always getting it knocked off.

Just waiting for an opponent to start using chaos marines so I can paint this helmet

Now in terms of using these guys in game I'm leaning towards using them as dreadnoughts.  The scale shot below shows how big they are next to scale marine (poor guy).  Not quite a bulky as the walking coffin dreads, but certainly tall enough.  I quite like this idea because the ABC warriors spend a lot of time on Mars, which in 40k is the home of the Adeptus Mechanicus so they could be advanced dreads/bots perhaps?  Maybe they got a retro fit after some adepts found them in storage after 25,000 years or something.

They're right behind me aren't they?

Now the big burning hole in the Foundry range is my absolute favourite ABC warrior Mongrol.  A Frankenstein mix of different robot parts, the monstrous ape with the heart of gold is a great character and sadly missing an official figure.

The story seems to be that one was sculpted but the green was crushed during the mould making!  I've yet to find a version of this figure anyone's produced that does him justice.  It doesn't help that he's rarely drawn completely, certainly not till the recent Volgon wars series where, as awesome as he is, he both looks and acts quite differently to the classic character.

Mongrol SMUSH!

So I have decided to try and make my own version.  Now there's a more than one image showing Mongrol at a fairly epic size.  The key reference here for me was that he was able to subdue and hold Hammerstein using just his hands - that makes him huge!

Big hands, tiny legs

Now this version I have here is just a mock up to see the sort of scale I am working to and how his arms and legs could actually work.  The character in the comic often knuckles his way around a battle and the rare shots of his legs do seem to show them being really small compared to the rest of his giant physique.

Run!  He's hungry!

So can he subdue Hammerstein?   I hope from this shot you can see he most certainly can.  In terms of 40k Mongrol will be used as a Dreadknight.  This allows him to be both hard to kill and hit really hard as he's a monstrous creature rather than a vehicle, suitable representation I think.

I'm supposed to be inspired by this fallen statue?  Worked for Frodo you say?

I also quickly finished off a space marine ruined statue I had collecting dust on a shelf.  In 40k 6th edition various bits of scenery can have special rules, much like in WFB 8th.  An Imperial Statue is one of these special pieces so this was reason enough to give it a quick dry brush.  Needs some Martian grass and then its done.


Finally an update on the Spirited Away display piece I was working on for my Wife's birthday.  I've finished sculpting, painting and positioning all the characters now.  As well as No-Face, I've created some soot sprites (including one carrying a piece of coal) and also Boh (the baby) when he's been turned into mouse.  They are all mounted on a nice chunk of wood.  The wife is very pleased with the final piece.

3 little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log... no wait!

Kirai crew - part 1

Following on from last week, I'm going to walk through my Malifaux crew in a bit more detail.

I was introduced to Malifaux through a few sources.  My brother had an interest some time ago although we didn't get chance to play a game.  Then I saw a few posts about it on Frontline Gamer and was interested again after reading these.

I was finally convinced when a local hobby store ran a Malifaux introductory day.  A watched a few games play though and bought myself a small rulebook.

After getting a feel for what this was all about, I had to decide on how to start the game.  Malifaux is roughly split into 5 factions, each of these having at least some themes running across all the crews within so narrowing down to one of these was one option.  There was the pretty candy approach, pick the miniatures that appealed the most - this nearly did it for me.  Then there was the voice of reason, discussion with veterans of the game and some forum reading.  I was sorely tempted by 'The Dreamer' both the background and the models looked really good to me.  I was warned off as a starter crew they might be a bit much.





Instead, encouraged by my wife's choice and a recent viewing of 'Spirited Away' I chose Kirai and the Spirits of Vengeance.


The Japanese style of these figures plus the undead faction they belonged to gave me several things I could work with.  I didn't know a lot of the Malifaux background when I bought this box, so instead I started thinking of my own.

My crew would be lead by Kirai, who was acting a bit like Dorothy in Return to Oz in my vision of Malifaux.  Taking the role of Chihiro from Spirited Away, Kirai has returned to a spirit world she visited as a child.  This time where there were only occasional dark elements to the world, now the world of Spirited Away is very much a part of Malifaux.  Returning as an adult has seen Kirai again abandon her real name and is known as 'Sin' (rather than 'Sen' from the film) which also ties into Kirai's Malifaux background nicely it turns out.

Kirai and friend

Kirai has become a Master in the world of Malifaux, with the unique ability to bind spirits to her will.  More, she is driven to discover what has become of her protector from her first visit to the spirit world, Haku.  She has been unable to summon him fully to her side, instead only an animalistic, spirit, version of himself has answered her call.  Followed as ever by faithful soot sprites, Kirai dominates the will of other spirits in her quest to find Haku and woe betide any who get in her way!

My Kirai crew then are, where I can find a link, inspired by characters from the Spirited Away film.  In terms of the Kirai figure, I've more or less use the colour scheme from the official boxset, Chihiro wore a red dress in the film so this is fine.  She's standing on wooden boards, as will all the crew.  This represents the bath house that most of the film is set in.  Finally I replaced the decapitated head between her feet with a soot sprite.  While Kirai is certainly not shy when it comes to battle, I felt this was more in character!

Ikiryo, the dark(er) side of Kirai

Spooky head tilt in full operation

Kirai is a 'two part' master in Malifaux.  Able to summon her own dark spirit forth to enact her vengeance from afar, the Ikiryo is a nasty minion that can be unleashed time and again.  This miniature was a tricky one for me to both place in the background and paint.  In the end I decided it was a new character to the story and used a combination of the official colour scheme and one I have used on my warhammer banshees.  I'm reasonably happy with the end result.  There's no real tie to Spirited Away on this character, aside from the mandatory wooden boards.

The robes on these are really nice to paint

The Onryo are a couple of the bath house girls who in the world of Malifaux became drained spirits.  Kirai quickly bound these women to her will.

Again the official colour scheme was used here.  There's plenty of echos from the film in the red and white kimonos, and the jade is a nice third colour to add to the mix.  I do have a couple of soot sprites to add to the bases here, I didn't get chance before the tourney last week.  They are at least mounted on the wooden boards however.

Rar!

Probably the most popular character from Spirited Away is 'No Face'.  This harmless spirit is corrupted by the greed of others in the bath house and becomes a gluttonous monster of titanic proportions in a key moment of the film.

Lots of robes to paint in this crew

This is perfect for the 'Gaki' spirits that can form a wall of slavering monsters in a Kirai crew.  The more of these spirits you have, the hungrier they get - the rules a perfect match for No Face.  I've got a pair of these beasties currently but really I want 3 or more.  I am trying to sculpt one of my own to closely resemble No Face, my first attempt is a bit large for the in game rules however so I am still thinking that one over.

For now I have painted these in dark blues to sharply contrast the colours of the female spirits.  Their skin isn't black as No Face's is, but a dirty grey/brown.  If I do make No Face he will be in his true colours, but these are his lesser cousins.  Once again soot sprites and wooden boards link the crew to their bath house origins.

Finally, for this post, is my Haku figure.  Now in game terms, one of the best characters available to Kirai is the Shikome spirit.  This is actually a sort of Japanese version of a harpy/witch, but I have to admit I really, really dislike the official figure.  This problem was one of the key pieces in the background puzzle I created for myself.  The Shikome's role is that of a relentless hunter.  Fast, flying and very dangerous in melee I quickly thought of oriental dragons, which in terms of Spirited Away is the character Haku when not in human form.

A game winner and clear favourite figure for me

 I hunted the internet for oriental dragon figures and was really surprised and disappointed by what was available - very little.  I finally had some luck with Bushido releasing their Mizuchi figure, which I reviewed here.  I spent a lot of time painting this chap and I am quite pleased with it.   As it represents an older incarnation of Haku, some of his colours are deeper, he's hairier and has longer horns.  His base is decorated with a small paper figure, one of the minions that pursues him during the film.

There's more figures in the crew, but they are not quite complete.  I also have plans to slowly expand Kirai's minions to cover the options that seem to fit the theme, so future posts will cover these.

Carried Away

So I've had a busy couple of weeks and am in that 'in the middle of too many projects without finishing any' phase which has meant I've not posted any new pictures on here.  I have managed to play a game of warhammer with my vampires against the local GW manager (a very sociable gent called Anthony) and enjoyed a victory against his nicely developing Orc and Goblin army.  I also had a second game of Malifaux, The Ortegas vs. Kirai, again far more of a learning experience than competitive, but very interesting as I get to grips with the rules and different characters.

On the hobby table at the moment is a Garden of Morr scenery set, a Contemptor dread (with 5 different arms), my entire Kirai crew, an ABC warrior and a few tactical marines.  I really must finish one of these...

My idea to make the Kirai crew a bit more individual to me is to include some references to the excellent Spirited Away.  Hopefully as I work through this I'll share the ideas.  In the meantime, the reason I know this film so well is that my wife is a huge Studio Ghibli fan so for her birthday I am working on a small diorama with hand made characters from the film.  Last weekend I started with the centre piece, 'No Face':

'Uh'

The little fellow is made of Fimo, (not the most fun I've had to tell the truth) and then painted with the usual GW acrylics.  He's holding a soot sprite, I intend to have more of these on the piece. 

Here he is from the side - he's got a Chibi (not Ghibli!) style to him so he's a bit pudgy but still clearly the character from the film.