Secret Diaries of a Zombie Call Girl.

Hello mid week gamers. I thought I'd do an early post this week as I'm off to Arnhem to see the streets for myself. I am very excited and expect to see many a photo and inspiration for another Flames Army. Anyhoo to the real reason I'm posting. My Malifaux crew of 25 points is complete. This has been a wonderful project and I have really enjoyed thinking about how I could make the links to Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Firstly, I would like to thank my girlfriend for the choice of colours that these ladies of the night are adorned with. I recommend that if you ever find yourself thinking about the colour of uniforms or clothing go ask your partners. Women's innate ability to choose the correct shoes to match their outfit seems to work in the miniature world too! Never before did I think that I world hear the words "I wouldn't be seen dead in that!" (pun intended) Followed by an argument about how a pink dress should be accessorised. Taking fashion advice for your models is worth doing as I am sure you will agree. So again, thanks Joolz!

I am very pleased with how Madame Sybelle has turned out. Based on the Queen of Hearts I spent a lot of time free hand painting extra hearts on the bodice and the fan. The flesh of these zombie ladies used a mixture of tallarn flesh and rotting flesh in varying amounts. This is blended with purple wash to give a translucent appearance to the skin. The skin was then given a liberal brushing of a mixture of the old GW paints chestnut and red inks. Their glossy finish gives the blood splatter a suitably wet finish.

Finally, I painted Alice using the Bete Noir model from the range. This gave me a chance to practise painting white in a different way to my usual method. Using the same technique of base, shade, base, highlight I managed to achieve the desired result. This model is very simple as there are not to many accessories on it. To give the model that extra something I added some extra blood splatter across the dress (you can't have enough blood!)

Well I'm off to explore the Dutch countryside hopefully 30 corp will make it to reinforce my position and bring me back in time for tea... Or maybe it'll be a Bridge too Far!

Its All in the Cards

Well all in all a busy week for gaming. My Malifaux Crew arrived and I got to learn the rules (a bit) at my local club run by the Heroes and Legends guys. What an interesting game! Its nothing like I've played before as it uses cards not dice. The idea being that you get the same amount of good luck to bad. You just have to know when to use it. Each player takes it in turn to activate a model, which makes the games very tactical. I was using Seamus and his Rotten Belles whilst Animatronica was using his guild force (Criid's Witch Hunters). Malifaux is not the easiest of games and I've learnt that I'm gonna have to play many more games to understand more of the possible combinations and effective tactics. However, both games that I played were incredibly enjoyable and I can't wait to play other Crews.

Seamus, himself is finished and was a joy to paint. As I mentioned in a previous post I wanted to him resemble the Batman Mad Hatter and I feel I have achieved this. I added a bow tie and a 6/10 card using green stuff and then used pictures from the game as reference. The base is from the Wyrds Graveyard base pack. A word of warning these models are a nightmare to put together and are very fiddly. When painting the skin I used the Eavy Metal Painting guides. If you can still get them they are brilliant and it amazes me why they stopped doing them in White Dwarf. Now for those of you who are squeamish stop reading now..........

OK.
Still there?

Well Seamus is known in the game for being very overly "friendly" with his zombie friends. I wanted to give a very subtle hint of this in the model. Using the old chestnut and red inks from workshop I painted a bloody hand print onto his chest. I felt that the model needed this as his stomach is very bare. Originally the plan was going to go to be a tattoo but reading Seamus' background I thought it needed to be a little more grim...

Now I'm going to finish the rest of the Crew and raise hell in the streets of Malifaux. Madame Sybelle is staring at me from my painting table (I've never been more creeped out by a model). She is going to be based of the Queen of Hearts so I will be free hand painting lots of little heart shapes...wooo. I'm also going to look for some dolls tea sets that I can add to the bases further reinforcing the theme of Alice in Wonderland. Well off I go for another week into the warp to do battle against countless enemies (or as some people may call it work).
Seeya.

Alice, Alice? Who the Hell is Alice...

Alternative Seamus

Often than not I find myself as far as possible from my painting than I'd like to be. This can be a problem when it comes to finishing painting deadlines for tournaments (and blogs). However it does give me a chance to reflect and plan new projects. After being inspired by the gorgeous Malifaux models painted by friend and fellow gamer Animatronica, I have ordered my own fiendish crew to roam the twisted streets. Having been torn between the Neverborn and Ressurectionists, I settled on Seamus The Mad Hatter. This disturbed individual raises his crew from the remains of Belles to act upon his darkest commands.

Batman's Mad Hatter

The models are brilliant using twisted humour to shock and disgust. Now, whilst going on one of my thinking walks around the Cambridgeshire countryside (I say countryside, I mean a small park). I came up with an idea. I want to exaggerate the idea of Seamus being "The Mad Hatter" and have been toying with the idea of basing the crew around the book "Alice in Wonderland". Recently, I have just completed Arkhem City the Batman game and loved the encounter between him and the Dark Knight. With this in mind I have the beginnings of my paint scheme.

The Plan:

I want to base the crew using The Mad Hatter's Tea Party as theme. I love the idea that Seamus is constantly searching for "Alice". In the future I may incorporate this into the crew possibly with one of the Rotten Belles. I'll try to add features such as the 10/6 card and the bow tie using green stuff. The current scheme for Seamus is too bright in my opinion so I'll be toning it down so that it matches the Batman version.

Madame Sybelle

The crew will also include Sybelle. Keeping in line with the Alice in Wonderland theme I feel that this model screams out to be painted like the Queen of Hearts. I will be ditching the black bodice for a red. Multiple references of cards may also feature heavily. The rest of the Belles will be painted in a variety of colours probably like the ones on the box. This should make my crew stand out but still keep a dark edge.

Overall I am really looking forward to this project and I should be able to start making the models this week. On top of that Animatronica and I will be playing a couple of games to get the hang of the rules, this week. This is going to be a game I'll have to learn from scratch as there are no dice involved. Who knows it might even catch on. Anyway I'm itching to get started I just wish the postman would hurry up and bring me those models. I don't want to be late for the Tea Party...