Miners Guild

"The other guilds wouldn't last long without us, where would the blacksmiths be without coal, or the Engineers without our Iron? We ripped every blade, cleaver and fishhook from the bare rock since before the wars but where is the respect for our work? We've all heard the old joke about the Farmers and the Miners, 'The only thing lower than digging dirt is digging under it'. Well the Farmers didn't wait to earn that respect, they went out there and took it with hard work and discipline. And that's just what we're going to do, if they won't give us respect, we'll sink shaft and and dig the damn thing out of them.."

Vein, Miners and Colliers guild Captain.

So these started out when a good friend gave me a set of kick off Masons, I'd already painted an engineers team up straight out of the box but I tend not to paint many things straight, I enjoy putting my own stamp and theme on them. I'd been down an old mine a few weeks before so already had a lot of ideas about them, and the theme fitted the models pretty well so I did a few small conversions (okay Gob is pretty big, but Marbles is in there somewhere!) that kept them recognisable whilst giving them character.

I also experimented with the paint scheme, I'd done a little OSL here and there, but never so extreme as this, and is such a paintily/informal style. Some of it worked well, some of it didn't but it was definitely an interesting learning experience.

I've got lucky coming tomorrow, but for now it's time to make a pitch and pimp out some TT combat mine workings for terrain:)

Come with me, And you'll be, in a world of pure imagination....

Well, I finished my first Ten Thunders Crew during the break, and I chose Lynch and his box set. Now I actually really dislike the fluff for the ten thunders, they come across as vicious bullies pretending to help the people, which for some reason annoys me more than say, absolute evil gits like Dreamer or the Guild in General. So I decided to convert all of them into not the TT. most of them will be Mongol themed, but Lynch, well I already knew ho he would be handing out brilliance. Meet Sweet William, the finest confectioner in Malifaux..  

I tried to get Sweet William as close to Gene Wilder's look as possible, I added a TTB head and cane hand, and green stuffed a floppy bow tie. As I was researching his look I noticed he has a pattern of small purple and white flowers over his waistcoat: 

I was painstakingly attempting to reproduce them when my wife walked past and pointed out that they looked like sweet williams, a type of dianthus flower:-

Which means William Wonka, maker of many Sweets, was wearing a waistcoat covered in sweet william. Mind Blown. Costumer, whoever you are, I salute you. 

Then Huggy had his turn. Hungering Darkness- he needed to be a bit scarier than the weird worm I had. so some more green stuff and two old epic tentacles and:-

Now that is much better, glowing with the brilliance he just consumed from his latest victim, I took his eyes and added limbs, spikes and plates to make him look like a true monster.

and the Depleted he just had for lunch. The illuminated I was working on are now based to fit the crew, and I can call my TomB complete. only several months late....

Finished at last!

Here's a selection of Photographs of the finished table at it's new home in Firestorm games, shortly before I found out that I really do suck at Malifaux! (more on that later;)

The clock above the warehouse is made from the innards of the pocketwatch I use as a soulstone marker, it does tell the time.. ish... the varnish and the hour hand have occasional issues..

the East side entrance, the smallest of the doors it does face the long quay, and so deserves it's own sign. 

The interior of the factory, complete with treadmill and chemical vats, as well as some crates and other bits and bobs of scatter terrain.

The doors onto the main street, you can just see the skeletal form of an airship through the window, the name Halifax came from the word my friend and I always got when we typed Malifaux into our phones, we had arranged a game of Halifax so often I decided to do something about it.

As well as the usual wanted posters for Malifaux's denizens, the posters contain adverts for the Guild Guard, the Star Theatre and various mercenaries services, the board inside also has shift patterns for factory workers. (many of the wanted posters feature members of my gaming group)

The view across the bridge, you can see the Toll prices from here, as well as small map of the quarantine zones and some weaponry restrictions whilst on the bridge.

a few general pictures of the boats and crane- as you can see an extra platform has been added to the base of the crane since the original photos were taken, this adds a lot more playability to the watery section and the ladders add an extra detail. the extra walkways and jetty can be moved around to change the playing surface, and there is a lot of scatter terrain around to give even more cover. 

The inspiration came from one of Toulouse Lautrec's Moulin Rouge posters for the advertisement for the star theatre, with the dancer swapped for a Coryphee, extra stars and of course a change to the wording. I use freehand rather than printing as I find it easier to blend the colours in with the rest of the board. 

Some better views of the front, the doors looked less wonky in person, ah well, can't have everything:) these doors are massive, they really are, the smaller door fits a 35mm tall model through no issues, and even my Rail Golem could skip through without bumping it's head!

I am happy to say that the feedback from the players has been pretty positive overall, even those players who initially thought it would be unplayable found it made for a good game with interesting movement possibilities, (although Dom did manage to get a grem in an almost unassailable position which I had to put measures in to prevent happening again) no crew found itself particularly favoured or hampered by the table, so all in all a good project that I really enjoyed putting together that looks great in it's new home!

some painting and an Ice witch

I've been painting the barges and crane since my last post, colourful in some ways but weatherbeaten mostly, here's a couple f shots of the crane progressing, I'm going to wait until I have everything together for finished photos as I think it will have more impact, if anyone wants a breakdown of colours and techniques used just ask and I'll write it up, for now it's just head down and paint!

I often refer to myself as a lazy modeller, and I should probably quantify that, I'm not lazy in that i don't do anything,m I'm lazy in that if I can find a faster, cheaper way of doing something in the long run, I will, for example- I want stone cladding on all the surfaces of the docks table, which could take a while to carve by hand, solution? I went out and bought some 'O' gauge red brick and stone texture plasticard from a railway range,, as you can see below, it's nice and detailed. 

I then built some formers around a couple of sections of this plasticard joined together, which I used to make plaster moulds, form these I'll cast thin latex skins that I can use to cover foamcard/wood where I want the stone texture of brick pattern, sure it's more work today, but in the long run it's a lot easier, and I'll have the moulds to keep for future projects:)

The last thing Ive finished recently is my Silent one for Malifaux, made from  Snow model I was given, sadly without storm, I added a green stuff cape and dreadlocks, and magnetised the base so I can hunt down a storm proxy to use in the future:)

My terrain making enthusiasm would almost certainly have stopped me finishing her off were it not for the Wyrd place november challenge, which has had some stunning entries and really got me motivated to get her done!