Time's a wastin': A Walpurgis 2 Crew Update

Walpurgis creeps ever near. While I've made excellent progress, I still have plenty to do. Sense an all nighter prior to the event, I do. Let's go ahead and run through the items I've finished since the last update:

Be forwarned, you may notice some gloss to my finished work. While I'm in the minority, I simply prefer them that way. I use a satin finish to make it shine just a bit and give a full "finished" look.

Here is Seamus. I was very pleased with how he turned out. I highlighted Lice Purple up to Warlock Purple instead of white and I'm not sure if I prefer it. Each model after Seamus I've highlighted the old fashioned "add-white-for-each-layer" and those turned out very well, too. Either way, I like how Seamus still looks dark, despite wearing a cartoony purple suit.

Here is Madame Sybelle in her Sunday's best. She turned out much better than I expected. Once I started on the highlights, I was convinced she would look terrible as a finished product. Low and behold, I'm actually very pleased with it.

Ah, the belles. I wanted each of these girls to stand out, but still be tied to Seamus. I'm a huge fan of continuity. I decided to make each of their umbrellas the themed color(purple) and then have each girl dressed in an alternate color of Seamus'. I wanted to stay away from completely purple dresses, as I wanted it to be a color of honor(well, as much honor as a zombie hooker is going to have, anyway). Thus, I went with a white dress and purple highlights on the above Belle.

Here is my favorite of the Belles. Unfortunately, her arm and parasol were a total pain to get assembled, so she lost some points there. Luckily, she also ended up with my favorite paint job of the bunch. I accidentally fitted her with a drooped, lazy eye that fits beautifully with her zombie face.

She also fell victim to a clear coat mistake. I've finally discovered first hand exactly why you do not apply finish when it is very humid out, especially if it is raining. My first reaction to the massive cloud she was now covered in was immense frustration and a desire to just leave it. However, I calmed down and applied various inks in the cloudy recesses and the final product looks pretty damn good.

Finally, my least favorite of the Belles, both in sculpt and paint job. By the time I started on her I was growing rather tired of painting harem. Still, I pushed through and gave her a quite passable (even for me!) coat of paint, albeit lazily.

And there you have it! The entire Red Chapel Gang painted up. I've also since finished the Convict Gunslinger and have about 20 min. left on one of the Crooked Men. That leaves a second Crooked Man, Bette Noire, the Copycat Killer, and Jack Daw (who still isn't even based or primed...) left and 3 days to finish them. All of which are full work days. That is where the Friday night over-nighter comes in. What's a weekend event if you don't push your painting to the very last second?

Seamus in Progress: The Road to Walpurgis

14 days.

In 14 days, Walpurgis weekend will be here and hours of glorious Malifaux gaming will be upon me. Until then, I slave away painting. The bulk majority of the crew is now base coated, which is the good news. The bad news, is that I still have models to PURCHASE, prep, base, prime, coat, and highlight. Bette Noire and The Copycat Killer are each based, but unprimed.

No progress update would be complete without pictures, so here you go. To keep it simple, I only shot a couple varieties to get the idea across.

I think I'm going to scale back the "production line" style of painting and focus on each model for the highlighting process. I've found that if I focus on a single miniature, I can extend my motivation during each painting session longer. When I'm moving along a production line, I start to get a cabin fever feeling and walk away for the sake of walking away.

 For each of the next updates, I will presenting groups of finished miniatures. These categories will be Seamus himself, Madame Sybelle and her Belles, the Crooked Men, Convict Gunslinger, Bette Noire and the Copy Cat Killer, then whatever else I end up adding (probably a Hanged and Jack Daw).

On a side note, throw me suggestions on what I should add for Seamus.

Seamus and Me: A Malifaux Progress Log

I'd like to keep this post short, as it's 1:40AM, I've had several beers, and quite frankly there isn't much to say. Without further adieu, I bring you the beginnings of my Seamus Malifaux crew.

There are several thoughts and/or questions you can take away by looking at my crew.

"Hey! Those aren't painted!"

No folks, I haven't got much done in the way of painting. While I have gotten all of these figures primed up and ready to go, I have yet to put any really color on these guys. About 85% of that is my fault, a result of being distracted by Portal 2, Ken Burns' Baseball, Star Wars, and Bulletstorm. The other 15% comes from a lack of preparation. Each time I become motivated to paint, I either do not have the paint I wanted available, waste my time diving into the Sarlacc pit of YouTube, or simply finding other ways to satisfy my hobby craving. Rest assured, in the coming weeks I most certainly will be livening these guys up.

Specifically, I plan on crossing the fiction bridge and paying homage to The Joker of Batman fame. From his dress to his fanatical behavior, Seamus would be his equivalent in the Malifaux universe. Beside that fact, I'm both a fan of what the character of The Joker has become and using bright colors with sharp highlights. Coincidentally, I often describe my painting style as a more "cartoon" or "comic book" look as opposed to attempting realism (although you can also toss that onto the "excuse for lack of talent" pile).

References aside, the plan is to give him a deep purple suit (I'm undecided on pin stripes, both because of the general look of them and my ability to freehand them effectively), with an orange or green undershirt/trim. Both would be appropriate, but I'm not sure which I'd like to accent most. I'd also like him to have relatively pale skin, but I'm not going so far as to do facial paint. Nor will I be painting any green hair or facial scars. It will be an homage, not a recreation.

"Nice bases, ace."

This was my first attempt at two things: First, at basing figures beyond a simple gravel/sand and flock. Second, it was my first real attempt at using green stuff for, well, anything. Overall, I'm indifferent with how the bases came out. Some of them came out beautifully:

Where others came out not so well:

Mind you that is certainly not the worst of it. I'm fairly confident of two things. First, they will look much better once they are painted. Even looking at them primed I can see much improvement. Second, the once they are painted up I think they will at least be at a table standard, which is at least decent.

"There sure isn't much variety there."

It is true, the crew at the moment is little more than what the box set has to offer (although since the picture I have added in a Copycat Killer). The reasoning is, I've only played a single game with this crew, which is my first Resurrectionist crew. Until I can get a feel for how it plays, I don't want to invest in much more. I'm also a huge fan of the dynamic between the Belles and the Crooked Men, which is enough for me to field plenty of them, anyway.

Closing 

Like I prefaced this entry, I want this post to be long winded and over explanatory, but it has to end somewhere! If everything works out, getting all of these words and pictures published for the internet hyenas to snicker and snort at should at least fuel my motivation and keep me pushing on. Getting in games has been a blessing, but it's time to release the undead.

Old post plus!

Ah, the fickleness of my enthusiasm. In the last [long period of time], I've seen a complete shift from disappointment with the video games industry to being completely enthralled by it. So much, in fact, that it seems to have temporarily muscled my other nerdy passions to an after thought.

Since, I have finished Mass Effect 2, including the Shadow Broker DLC, and I was blown away at the ending of that game. It was executed fantastically, leaving no room let down. I felt that every decision I made was absolutely crucial. As I sent secondary squads off to accomplish their mission, I genuinely worried about them as I carried out my own. This is an experience I've never had with a game before it. In short: Mass Effect good.

Wrapping up Mass Effect let me jump into Enslaved, a game I've been itching to pop in for some time now. The characters were fantastically done. You care about them, and you want nothing more than to see them succeed. While you play the character of Monkey, you're just as invested in Trip and everything she does around you. The controls were stiff at times, but it was never overly frustrating, and you're so involved in the emotions of the characters that most of the time you don't even notice. It's the first game I've ever finished, and immediately sought out the DLC because I wanted to stay in that world. It's here I was further surprised, because Pigsy's Perfect 10 is the best valued DLC I've purchased. You're given an entirely new story, playing as Pigsy. After meeting this character in the main story, its very clear that completely new game mechanics are in store, and they play just as well as the original game. Its criminal this game wasn't enjoyed by more.


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Well, all of that was written in November, but I never posted it. I may as well throw it out there, because past me would certainly be disappointed that his writing went unread. Since then, I've played plenty of other games but I don't really want to write about them. Suffice to say, Batman: Arkham City was my favorite, Skyrim was great for the first 100 hours, but steeply declined after that, and Valve reaffirmed it's position as my favorite game company with Portal 2 (as well as my FIRST play through Half Life 2). Oh, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. That happened.

I will say, I'm finally starting to crawl out of my video game obsession and getting ready to dive back into miniatures. I seem to be absolutely terrible at keeping up both hobbies at the same time, which inevitably leads to neglect. Hopefully, this time I can keep both equally satisfied. I hope to start a project log here soon as I slowly, but surely, get my Seamus crew painted and looking pretty. Hopefully, my absence hasn't deteriorated my mediocre skills too much.

Rant, rant, rant, rabble, rabble, rabble. I'll end with what seems to be my catch phrase: "I hope to make these postings more regular, more entertaining, and more gooder."