sho3box

“Please… kill… me”.

In Malifaux each crew is led by a Master.  Nearly all Masters have a Totem that is theirs alone: some form of manifestation of an aspect of a Masters psyche made flesh due to the magic forces that Malifaux is saturated in.  The figure above is the Scales of Justice, the Totem of Lady Justice.

I dont know what is supposed to be going on in Lady J’s head, but seeing as this unhappy looking guy represents those thoughts given form, I am probably better off.

The concept of the figure doesnt really do anything for me.  The blind justice thing is already amply displayed by the Lady J figure and it was unnecessary to ladle it on here I think.

Maybe its just me, but the strong visual links to crucifiction looks to me  like the original figure concept sprung from the mind of someone heavily weighed down by Catholic guilt.  As someone who is not weighed down by same but who happens to live in a country with a large percentage of fruit loops who are, the figure design is a bit of a turn off.  I bought the Totem simply because it is an easy fit into the game, but I think that perhaps I should have come up with a proxy miniature more to my liking instead.

The sculpting on the figure is good and it was easy enough to paint.  The casting was acceptable, but like many Wyrd products it could be better.

Wyrds casting quality is extra disappointing considering that it comes from a company that started as a manufacturer of collectors figures for display.  I hear rumours that their production will switch entirely to “sprueless plastic” soon, which might help.  I hope that it does.

AWK-WARD!

A note on basing: since I started the Malifaux project I have begun adding more and more bits and pieces to the large, flat 30mm slot bases that I have been using.  The Malifaux rules tend to be generous regarding base size, so the simple (and most importantly fast) basing technique that I have been using for a couple of years just looked too plain.  As the Malifaux project has progressed I have begun adding more and more bits to the bases, although years ago I promised myself that I was done with that sort of thing.  It turns out that I was wrong.

The cactus visible above is a symbol of this malady.  Like the grass tufts that I started adding after I painted Santiago Ortega I liked the look so much that I went back and added cacti of various shapes and sizes to every Malifaux figure that I have finished so far.  I imagine that tiny cacti will feature on every vaguely cowboy looking figure that I paint in future.  They are cute though.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2012, Guild, Malifaux, Sci-fi, Steampunk | 3 Comments »

This large gent is part of my Malifaux Guild faction.  I painted this figure plus one other in preparation for my first Malifaux tournament just over a week ago.  I got the figure finished on time, but I had to go back to it subsequently to tidy up a couple of areas that I wasnt happy with.  A couple of other parts of the paint job could maybe do with some more work, but at this stage I will likely leave the figure as is.

The blacks came out funny in the photo: the highlights on the black are not as harsh as that.  Something funny happened with the contrast

The design of the figure is a bit mad, somewhere between a hangman, executioner and some sort of S&M cyborg.  Rather than simply paint the figure in black all over (a rubberised or high gloss PVC look could be fun) I decided to try painting leopardskin trousers on the figure.  I thought that it might be funny and that it would play on the S&M look a bit.

I consulted the notes that I made while painting Dr.Leghorn and attempted to replicate that.  Largely it worked, although there are a couple of spots in particular that I am not happy with.  A learning experience.

L to R: Copplestone, Malifaux, Foundry (including metal base stuck to the slotted base), Hasslefree.

Also of note is that the figure is quite large (thats a 40mm diameter base).  Unfortunately due to my poor choice of miniatures for comparison purposes, the Executioner doesnt look that big in the photo above at all.  Oh well.

This guy has turned out to be quite a fun figure to field in Malifaux games.  He also serves a couple of purposes in my current Lady Justice crew line up whch has led to a more satisfying experience when playing games featuring Lady J: he has helped to make smaller games fall into place.  I havent got this much fun out of a 250lb semi-naked, masked man in leopardskin trousers for months.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2012, Guild, Malifaux, Sci-fi, Steampunk | 7 Comments »