painting - a tale of 3 sorrows and 2 ladies

So, finally got the time to 'complete' my sorrows.  I also did some work on Candy and Lady justice.

3 Sorrows and 2 Ladies

First off then the Sorrows.  Some work on 'rusting' the ironwork on the bases, believe it or not I also did their eyebrows and eyes.  Doubtless there's more work that could be done, in fact I've just noticed a few white spots on the bases to fill, however, this will do for now, or I'd be there forever.

Candy

Candy I had started last week, just worked on the base which still needs a little tidying up, however, this time it was time to start work on Candy herself.

Not the best photo, the light colours are so washed out by the flash.

Anyway, pretty simple stuff so far.
Her pale flesh is Valejo Ivory, her clothes a mix of Hermagaunt Purple and White with White lace trim.
Her hair was painted Sunburst Yellow and then washed with a watered down mix of Golden Yellow and Baal Red, though I notice I've missed a couple of bits with the wash which could prove tricky to replicate if necessary.

Reasonably happy with her so far, wondering how I'm going to make her hair look Blonde and not yellow from here. Also worried about doing her eyes, so difficult yet critical.

Lady Justice

Lasty, Lady Justice.  From scratch, wasn't sure how I was going to paint her so was just winging it.  I did once have a plan, but.. well.
She was part of my badly undercoated batch of figures so my first step was a black wash to reduce the effect of the rough finish.  Went with blue for the jeans.  It's a bright blue but one that I should be able to make look reasonable with washing and highlights.  Her flesh painted Bronzed Flesh and then began to highlight with Ivory.  However, I realised that highlighting and shading was probably unwise prior to painting her hair, blindfold, gloves and top.  Being not the most accurate of painters it's almost guaranteed that I'll be making some mistakes that will need correction.
Next up was her hair, I really didn't know where to go here, in the end it had to be red, but I'm aiming for a fairly 'natural' red.  So, I based her hair with Caltharn Brown and then washed it with Baal Red, however I notice I've not covered very well with the wash..  There's so much hair.  Just keep finding more bits of it to paint.. But it's key to this model, must make a good job of it.  her gloves, top and blindfold I've painted black.  I'm not sure I shouldn't have made the blindfold another colour, perhaps whatever colour I paint the scabbard.
The base was painted using foundation colours Khemri Brown and Knarloc Green.  The base will get in the way a bit, but nothing so bad that it can't be managed I don't think.  I've noticed through the photo that there are a few bits of undercoat showing through, especially around her trousers, however it should be easy enough to correct.
Taking photo's of your work is such a valuable painting technique.  It really shows up any imperfections.  Expect a dedicated post on the subject soon (ish).

(Previously published elsewhere November 2011)

painting sorrows pt 2

Last night I was able to spend a little time doing some further work on my Pandora crew, specifically the 3 sorrows I've been working on.


Bearing in mind that I'm only aiming for 'table top' or gaming quality.  I'm not expecting to win any competitions with this lot.

Nearly completed.

1st off, the sorrow I showed you last post, this week I've been working on the base, touching up a little and applying washes.  In the case of the iron work I've used Gryphone Sepia to give it a weathered, rusty look.  Around the pipe you'll see I've applied some Orange, I thought this might be a bit heavy handed but I'm actually quite pleased with the result, be appreciative of any views you might have on this, should I apply more of this to look like rust?
On the sludge flowing from the grill I applied Ogryn Flesh wash, I like the result.  I was going to do a highlight on the sludge but might leave it as is, after all, as I said, I'm only after gaming quality.  Lastly I applied a highlight of Adeptus battlegrey to the stone work on top of the Black wash I'd applied earlier.

Pointing Sorrow, nearly finished

This is the most progressed of my Sorrows but here's another one that's almost done, the base is less interesting but I've followed the same process as described above.  The camera flash has rather taken out the effect of the wash on the metal work.  Might have to apply some 'rust' to this too.








Finally here are all 3 sorrows.  One more session and I think they'll be done.
The one in the middle is very weak.  It bends with no provocation so needs to be treated carefully.  If you're building them.. you've been warned.

3 Sorrows

I've also painted the bases, these are GW foundation paint Hormagaunt Purple, but I'm wondering if I should bring them up to Liche Purple.. any thoughts?





(Previously published elsewhere October 2011)

game report: pandora vs victorias 35ss

Game last night.
35 ss
Pandora (that's me) vs Victorias.

My Pandora crew
Pandora 8ss
Baby Kade
Candy
Teddy
3 x Sorrow


Victorias crew

Victoria x 2 4ss?
Killjoy
Mizaki
Freikorp Tracker
Ronin
Desperate Mercenary

Basically I had my ass handed to me on a plate.
Within 3 turns all I had left was Pandora.  In return all I'd got rid of was Killjoy and done some wounds to Mizaki and the Tracker.
Turn one - the Viki's slingshot into Teddy and take him down to a couple of wounds.  I got Mizaiki to wound herself, failed on everything else with Pandora, having only a Red Joker to cheat with which I wanted to save (big mistake) for when I really needed it - doh.
Anyway, turn 2 I win initiative, good.  Except my opponent burns a ss in order to re-flip and flips an 11 so I burn one too and get a 5.  So Viki one kills Teddy (an end before I've done anything with him in his first outing) moves and slingshots Viki 2 across to start taking out Sorrows.  He sacrifices the Desperate Merc and brings on Killjoy, getting a healing flip (3 wounds) on Misaki at the same time. Killjoy is just out of range on Candy.  Candy triple casts Self Loathing at KillJoy, succeeding twice and doing 2 x weak damage for 8 points plus two failed WP within 12" of Pandora so he's 2 wounds left.  Pandora gets off three incites against KillJoy, Mizaki and Tracker then one self loathing against Mizaki (I think).  Kade, who's been round the back of a building comes out with a double move, dragging his Sorrow with him, the sorrow the Links to KillJoy ready to inflict his last wound if he activates.
Turn 3 and it's all over, he kills remaining sorrow with tracker who inflicts severe damage with blasts, which hit Candy taking her out as well.  I get rid if Killjoy, Kade gets taken out and that's it.
Pandoras left.  She can be useful on her own but I've scored no VP, he's scored 4 so far and will easily get his remaining four.. I can't win, we call it.
A few things would have helped immeasurably.  Firstly we made a mistake with Desperate Merc.  when sacrificed he shouldn't have been able to heal Mizaki, which meant I'd have killed her later (probably).
And one or two high Crows in my hand would have meant I could have had Mizaki (if not dead) and Trapper on the run after turn 2, which would have meant Kade and Candy and a sorrow still alive and much still to play for.  Never the less I was Hammered :-(

(previously published elsewhere Oct 2011)

painting sorrows pt 1

This is another post about an incomplete paint job, but these ones are on the way now.. I'm using a fairly quick technique involving the use of washes and consequently I've 3 nearly complete figures after about 4 hours of painting which is dead quick.  For me.

I base coated them white, then washed them with a coat of Badab Black.  Then after setting to dry I washed them again with Leviathan purple.

Next session I dry brushed over the purple wash with Skull White before another wash of Leviathan Purple.

Malifaux Sorrow, part painted.

After that I used foundation red on their tongues and skull white on the teeth.  I will shade the tongues and teeth a little though I'm not sure how yet.
The bases, which are sewers, were Adaptus battle grey base coat for the flag stones, Gretchin Green for the sewage and Bolt gun metal for the metal work.  I've washed the stones and metal work on one of the bases heavily with Badab black and started the sewage with a Ogrin flesh wash.

The white undercoat wash method seemed a good approach for these figures.  They are convoluted and I don't have the patience (or ability) to do all that by hand.  Using this approach gives you a nicely shaded figure with minimal input.. The only real issue for me is they don't have the 'pop' that I like on the table top.  But perhaps once they're finished a manually applied highlight may help.

The camera flash makes the figure look lighter than it does in real life.  As you can see haven't done the eyes yet and the base needs finishing.  need to highlight the stone work, weather and rust the pipes and complete the sewage.

I do like the way it looks like it's emerging from the grill.

They go into battle tonight.  ;-) Wish me luck.


(previously published elsewhere October 2011)

started pandoras crew

Managed, at last, to make a start on my Pandora crew. Not much of one admittedly but, it's a start none the less.

Having been given a sewer grill base by a friend who thought it would look cool to have a sorrow appearing from between the bars of the grill, I decided to put the entire crew on Sewer bases.  This had the added advantage that I had a set of sewer bases, and with the one given me I had enough for the entire crew box set.

So, in my 45 minutes I had to work I managed to trim up the 6 sewer bases I had and glue them into their plastic bases.

Once this was achieved I started work on one of the sorrows.  The idea of gluing to between bars of the grill was a nice but tricky one, in order to provide as strong a bond as possible I decided to leave part of the tab on the Sorrow.  This proved tricky to do given I was missing most of my modelling tools since my house move.  Still, with much sawing and filing I finally managed it and got the sorrow glued in - hurrah my first part of Pandoras crew together!

And, lucky boy that I am I still had time.  Not enough for another sorrow, but, my favourite model from this crew, Baby Kade.  A much easier option this one, the main problems being flash down the front left of his face and the underside of the figure needing a good filing in order to make him and his Teddy easily glue able to the base.

Pictures soon.

(originally published elsewhere August 2011)