Painted Cherub

Here is Lilith’s totem for the Malifaux Neverborn faction, the Cherub. I love this little chap and would happily take it with other masters if only I could. It is highly mobile thanks to flight and has some small utility to help other miniatures with interact actions if they are nearby. Occasionally this ability can be critical, though it often leaves the Cherub in a vulnerable position. Even better than that, it has a reasonably effective ranged attack with does fairly trivial damage but also causes Slow and pushes things around. Against melee crews in particular this can be really amazing, allowing you to push their fighters away and stop them charging back in again.

The paint scheme is really simple, matching the other Nephilim I did already or have in the works. I had originally planned to go with white wings but they made the Cherub look a bit too monotone with the white skin too, so I made them a creamier colour instead.  My nice new lightbox shows off the many flaws in my painting to a depressing extent.

Next on the painting table: Kade.

Painted Terror Tots

These little chaps are Terror Tots for my Malifaux Neverborn crews. They have the Nephilim keyword and synergise with some other Nephilim to be able to grow into larger and scarier forms, specifically the Young Nephilim which are still in my painting queue. In this form, they are fast scheme runners with a fairly dire attack; the main defense for a Tot (apart from its stats, which are not terrible for the cost) is that they will damage nearby models with Black Blood when wounded so in desperate times I have used them as small bombs to finish off wounded enemies.

I picked white skin mainly because I’d used it previously for the Enslaved Nephilim, and because I think it looks quite reasonable at tabletop distance. The clothes are purple mainly for contrast, though it is also the case that purple is the ‘official’ colour for Neverborn. I’m not sure if I’ll use it across all models in the faction.

Next on the painting table: Cherub

Painted Stitched Together

It’s been a long time since I picked up a paintbrush. But here we are again with some Stitched Together from the Neverborn faction of Malifaux. Many of their abilities have a penalty for failure, and presumably due to this risk element, are therefore rather strong when they actually work. I’ve mainly tested them with the master Collodi, with whom they share the Puppet keyword and they seem to work pretty well with it. In particular, they combine with the Threads of Fate upgrade on Collodi (allowing them to go Fast at the cost of two wounds) and Fear Not The Sword from the Brutal Effigy shared via the Fated upgrade (also on Collodi). Due to the high risk nature of their attack I’m much more likely to cheat to win the duel so it is more often that they will be able to heal. And 3 AP on a Stitched Together can be rather nasty. Stitched Together can also generate an aura of soft cover which can be very useful in certain match-ups.

Stitched Together are pretty obviously meant to be Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which makes me happy. I painted them in dull sack-cloth browns as it seemed fitting for their inspiration. I was also looking for something very simple to paint so that I could get back into the feel of it, and it doesn’t get much simpler than almost entirely brown miniatures.

Next on the painting table: Terror Tots.

Painted Rooster Riders

These are the first Malifaux Gremlin miniatures I got round to painting. I used Rooster Riders a lot during my brief time playing Gremlins, but I won’t write much about them here because the rules have changes since I last did so. Gremlins as a faction just didn’t really excite me after a dozen games or so and since then I’ve moved on to a different faction for my gaming pleasure.

Rooster Riders are an absolutely lovely concept and I really enjoyed the idea of crazed Gremlins frantically clinging onto the back of the giant chickens and just hoping for the best while steering them in roughly the correct direction. I’ve seen a lot of vividly coloured Roosters but I preferred to keep a rather darker tone for the mount in order to make the green of the Gremlin skin stand out more.

Next on the painting table: Viktoria of Blood.

Painted Jack Daw

Here’s another painted master for my Malifaux Outcasts; this time it is the tormented spirit Jack Daw. Jack is mainly a control master, handing out the Tormented condition by various methods and using it to push friendlies and enemies alike around as seen fit. Enemies who get the Tormented condition by means of Jack’s not-really-an-upgrade cards also have penalties when they try to take certain actions. His main defense is that all attack actions against him are at negative flips; for this reason Jack Daw really hates anyone with a built-in positive flip, or any player who remembers to use the Focus action. In particular there are a lot of these in Ten Thunders and I find him a really risky pick against that faction. I love to play Jack Daw in Headhunter where his ability to push friendly models around is great for picking up heads. He is also pretty nice in any scenario where pieces need to be in particular spots around the centre (for example in Extraction) as it this allows him to keep his own crew within his control auras while disrupting the other crew.

Jack Daw was a bit fiddly to paint as I had to work around the rope coiled about him. But overall I found the miniature to be rather satisfying to paint and not only characterful but a good representation of his appearance in the stories.  There isn’t a lot of scope for complex paint schemes with these large blocks of unbroken texture (i.e. skin, shirt, hood and trousers) which would probably have been highly frustrating for a skilled painter; luckily I do not have that problem.  Many have pointed out that he looks like he’s playing air guitar, and you can see a (much better painted) version by the highly skilled Maria taken to the next level here.

Next on the painting table: Rooster Riders.

Painted Taelor

This is Taelor, the iconic Outcast henchman (henchwoman?) from Malifaux. She wields a massive hammer with great effect, and can activate an ability that lets her charge any summoned models in range. Not only that, be she is also extremely difficult to get rid of, having both hard to wound and hard to kill abilities. Taelor’s main weakness is that she is extremely slow; and spending so many points on a model that will probably spend her first few turns walking is occasionally quite frustrating. Still, Taelor brings a lot to the table, as long as all you really want is for things (especially constructs) to be hammered into the ground like tent-pegs.

The miniature is very nice and dynamic, posed partway into smashing her hammer down. I’ve seen one particularly nice conversion where she is astride Lazarus applying the hammer to his head. The observant might note that her pony tail is on upside-down as I knocked it off while gaming and reasoned that this way round was less likely to catch on things. I like the contrast of the light shirt and dark skin. Her hair is pink partly because I’ve put some pink on all of my Outcasts and partly because I like the way it ties her in with Rusty Alyce with whom she’s often competing for space.

Next on the painting table: Jack Daw.

Painted Montresor

Here is Montresor, the thematic Henchman for the Outcast master Jack Daw in Malifaux. On the table, I’ve really struggled to get much use out of the big chap since his abilities all revolve around bringing pieces in close to him and keeping them there, but do nothing to stop them from simply killing him once they arrive. He can occasionally get a cheeky Paralyse off on non-Soulstone users but overall the opportunity cost for using Montresor is really high. For a single additional soulstone I could use Taelor, Rusty Alyce or Bishop, all of which I rate much higher than Montresor even with the cost difference. That said, Montresor does have a new free upgrade (i.e. functionally an errata fix) to improve him. I haven’t used it so I can’t comment on how effective it has been.

In contrast to how lacklustre Montresor is on the gaming table, the miniature is really nice. I think he’s meant to be part of the Hammer Horror style canon of creepy hangmen, but to me I can’t help but think of Lurch from the Addams Family. Despite his ragged appearance I deliberately kept the painting tidy as I think he looks a lot better that way. As usual for my Outcasts Montresor sports some pink attire; his tie in this case.

Next on the painting table: Taelor.

Painted Von Schill

This is Von Schill, another Outcast master for Malifaux; he is thematically the leader of the Freikorps sub-faction. Funnily enough, despite being one the first masters I bought for Outcasts I have almost never played him. I don’t think he’s bad or anything (Joe has regularly demonstrated his power against me), but somehow I’ve just never really been excited to put Von Schill on the table.

I do really like the plastic version of Von Schill as it has a bit of the dynamism suggested by his rules; the old metal one was very static in comparison. I’d already laid out my colour scheme with the rest of the Freikorps earlier in the year, so this was a simple case of sticking with the plan of grey and pink. I like the way the old chap looks.

Next on the painting table: Montresor

Painted Ronin

Here are the iconic Malifaux mercenaries, the Ronin from the Outcasts faction. They’re a cheap toolbox of handy skills whose biggest weakness is a pitiful resilience to incoming attacks. Otherwise, they’re mobile, ignore armour and can Flurry if the opportunity arises. They also have the convenient ability to Seppuku if needed, killing themselves for either cards or Soulstones. This is sometimes handy to get resources, but can also be a good way to deny someone points for Distract or similar schemes. They have a place in any Outcast crew, and can probably offer something useful to any crew in the game.

The original metal versions of the Ronin were based on the characters from Kill Bill, so I’m not really sure why they’re now dressed like they are on their way to cosplay at an anime conventions. Still, if giant teddy bears doesn’t break my suspension of disbelief in the world of Malifaux then I suppose I shouldn’t complain about fighters wearing high heels. Considering their slightly ridiculous clothing, I took the opportunity to apply some brighter colours here; each Ronin has a different one assigned. Of course, they all have pink ribbons to match the rest of my Outcasts.

I borrowed a lightbox for these photos, so the lighting is slightly better than normal from me. The photography is just as awful as usual though.

Next on the painting table: Von Schill.

Painted Leveticus

Here is Leveticus, another of the Outcast faction masters for Malifaux. He has a lot of strange rules in the game that make him play very differently to most options. Leveticus uses his wounds as a resource to fuel his attacks (though somewhat less so after a rebalancing errata from Wyrd) and is very hard to permanently kill. Upon death he is instead buried and can unbury from a Hollow Waif at the end of the turn. This leads him to a very interesting forward planning game style where you need to think in advance where you’ll want Leveticus to appear in the following turn and place your pieces accordingly. The high mobility and survivability this affords is really useful for some schemes, especially Undercover Entourage. In addition, Leveticus has a fairly easy trigger to turn enemy models into Abominations upon death, which makes him really strong for the Interference strategy. I’ve yet to dabble in Leveticus’s wide hiring pool from the Pariah of Iron / Bone upgrades, partly because I don’t really own the miniatures that would make it useful, partly because everyone else seems to consider that to be the optimum play for him, and mostly because I really like the Outcast options.

Considering that Leveticus is, at heart, a part of the ‘mad scientist’ style of miniature, I felt that a white lab coat was the way to go for him. Unfortunately, this meant that my camera simply would not focus properly on him against the white background so my photos are, if possible, even less good that usual.  I really like the way the pink details contracts with the white coat.

Next on the painting table: Ronin.