Excitement At Adepticon

I have mixed feelings about Adepticon.  Overall I had a great time, and got to see friends from the Malifaux community located in many different areas.  My Thursday night warmup, the Cake tournament, didn't go so well.  My friends and I teamed up and enacted the Zen-Rock method of competing.  Simply put it is, "Be as stone, sink to bottom."



Our reward for such enlightenment is the above plaque and artful postcards.  I shall find a place of honor on my geek wall for this prestigious reward.  It was a great game, and we all had a lot of fun.  Even though we lost, we still had cake, and thus, we won!  Everyone wins when cake is involved.

One thing of note is the swag bag.  Those who register early qualify for what I like to call, "The Super Swag Bag."  Here's what I got in mine:



I got some quick start rules, the con mini, other bonus minis (it looks like this year I got a WWII tank!).  You might notice the Skorne battle box from Privateer Press.  I used to play War Machine long ago, but got out for various reasons.  They keep trying to real me in it seems, and they just might've succeeded this time around!  I have taken to calling my Skorne guys, "Angry Men With Pointy Sticks," because that's what they look like.

Friday was the team tournament.  I got to team up with my best friend, and we brought a really good game.  We ended up taking 9th place over all (about halfway), but it was much fun and we surprised some players.

That night on my way home my car was struck by another driver.  I don't know if he was drunk at the time, but I suspect he was.  I was very nearly killed, and thankfully a moment's hesitation kept me from being seriously injured.  Right now I seem to be ok with no broken bones or open wounds, and the ER didn't diagnose me with a concussion.  The unfortunate outcome of this is that I was unable to compete in the qualifiers for Malifaux.  This was a bit of a downer.  I feel elated that I'm alive and with little injury, but all that time I spent prepping, playing, and painting leaves me feeling a little upset.  For the time being I'm thinking I'll leave Malifaux aside, and focus my painting on other projects (like Angry Men With Pointy Sticks).

I spent Saturday and Sunday hanging out and talking to people, but I didn't spend a lot of time there due to my feeling wonky from the crash.  I did however pick up some swag:



I spent some time in front of a Reaper Master Series paints section.  My thought process at the time was, "Ooooooo, pretty colors!"  I grabbed about twenty paints that I need to break in.  I grabbed some promo minis (notice the Robotech one?  More on that later this week), some bases (I think I finally found one I can use for my Nightmare Edition Lord Chompy Bits), some funky dice, and some magnets.

Aside from the events of Friday night I had a good time meeting new people and seeing my friends again.

The Moment Before the Strike

Wow!  Adepticon is looming overhead, and tomorrow at this time I'll be on my way north to join the fray.  The past few weeks have become a bit of a blur between work, sleep, and Malifaux.  Last week I finished up the last of my miniatures that I would need for Adepticon, and now I can finally share them with you!

Let's begin with the Brutal Effigy.




Everything about this model came out perfect!  The shading, the colors, the Object Source Lighting.  I have too much fun just looking at this piece.  It's definitely one of those where everything just came together.  The OSL came out much better than I expected it to.  When I first put it down I had tried to lightly drybrush the layers down.  I went with orange, and then some shades of yellow.  The only problem had been that the drybrushing came out too heavy.  I had some wash mixed up for the coat and went with a few alternating layers of wash and drybrushing to help lower the effect, and the overall result looks fantastic!

Moving on, our next subject has taught me a valuable lesson:




I will not buy a base that has as much stuff going on as the Mechanical Rider's!  I love how the piece itself came out, and it looks great!  The cape came out looking really good.  It could use a little more definition, but overall it doesn't look entirely like a flat color.  The flames were a bit of a different style for me.  I had been getting tired of using the traditional color of fire, and while I wanted to go with a little more blue in the purple, I'm happy with the end result.

Last but not least is the man of danger, Willie:




This is one of Wyrd's newer plastic miniatures, and I was a little surprised.  When he was unpainted he looked like he'd be a little tricky, but as I started to actually put layers down it quickly became clear that he'd be a lot easier than anticipated.



If you take a glance you can see traces of a lit fuse.




For as simple as he was, I have to compliment the face of the sculpt.  It is very dynamic, and has a lot of character to it.  So much is said by how he's posed coupled with the look on his face.  Willie is a great example of what Wyrd can do with their plastics, and I hope their future models hold up to this caliber.

Over the weekend I'm going to be snapping photos of miniatures and tables.  I plan to share my finds with all of you next week.  If you're at Adepticon feel free to keep an eye out for me.

The Moment of Anticipation

Adepticon is fast approaching and my waking hours not spent at work are dedicated in some fashion to Malifaux, whether painting or playing.  As of last night I have managed to finish painting the remaining models I'll need for Adepticon, but I have not gotten them fully photographed.  Instead I figured I'd give you guys another peak at the WIP pics I've snapped as I go along.

First up, the Mechanical Rider:



The big lesson I've learned with the Mechanical Rider is to not buy overly detailed bases.  I'll talk about that more in my next post.

The other model I've finished is Willie:



Another fun model to paint.  Overall a simple job, but still a great model.

Skipping Steps

I try to keep things up to date on this blog, and as I finish pieces I like to get them photographed and uploaded.  My new job has added some new stress, and while I'm settling in there was a big switchover in the software we use that just occured yesterday.  What this means is that hopefully I can start to devote more time to getting things done.  I have three models to get done before Adepticon, which is the 18th.  This weekend will be my last weekend where I don't have anything to do or go to, and with luck I'll be done with two of the three.  Last night I got struck with a bit of mojo and got started on my Brutal Effigy.



That's about an hours worth of work, maybe less.  When the muse strikes the paint goes on very quickly.  It's exhilarating to have paint wash over a model and give it life when the mood is upon you.  Some models take a while to paint because you're just not feeling it, but the Brutal has sparked some inspiration and I plan to take advantage of it.  So far people are really noticing the color of the coat, which makes me happy since I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it until the mojo struck.

Now I mentioned above about getting pictures taken.  I'm happy to post my Work In Progress pictures from my phone, but it takes a little setup to get the finished product taken.  Well, in most cases.



This was actually a good shot that I took to show some friends.  The above are two of my three Witchling Stalker models.  The studio paint job has them with different shades above and below the waist, but when I was painting them I started thinking about the fluff.  In the fluff of Malifaux Witchling Stalkers are former magic-users who were hunted down by the Guild, and then put through a terrible trial/ritual that twisted and bent their sorcerers ways to serve the Guild.  As such I went ahead and painted them as though they were wearing robes.  I felt it was more appropriate, and I liked the way the color on them came out.  I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on their eyes which I've said in the past is one of those things that can just, "happen."  I love happy coincidences.