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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Time Ta Round Up The Posse An' Do Us A Little Huntin'!

Hey everyone and welcome to a proxious edition of the Dispatch!

For this issue we are going to head to the Workbench to take a look at the Torments Reach Irregulars, members of the Guild that have been stationed at the frontier town to help any Guild officers that might be passing through. Then we are going to look at another piece of special Malifaux terrain that is definitely... unique. But enough chatter! Let's take a closer look at the law in these here parts.

The Workbench
The Torments Reach Irregulars

For the Irregulars I've gone with just a bunch of western style minis that I happened to have on hand. This gives them a more unique feel and it also means that I can expand my crew without duplicating the minis. Plus I already own them which is always a bonus in my book.

Jeremiah Smythe
Convict Gunslinger

Jeremiah appeared in Torments Reach a few months ago and quickly established a fearsome reputation for himself. No one knows anything about his background but the local Guild forces are always willing to accept his help without question. After all, it's better to have a man like Jeremiah standing next to you instead of across from you.

Jeremiah is the only mini of the three that I've done any conversion work on. I used a Warmachine pistol wraith mini that I owned, attempted to add a nose and some eyes to his head (had to make him look a little less skeletal...) and topped him off with a cowboy hat. Personally, I'm really happy with the hat though the face didn't turn out to well. Then again, he is wearing a hat so the brim goes a long way to covering his eyes.

Kyle Swift and Jacob Weaver
Guild guardsmen

Living on the frontier in the real world is dangerous enough. Doing it in Malifaux is like having a death wish. Even with all the dangers that they have to face, Jacob and Kyle wouldn't have it any other way. Fast friends for years, the two law men would march to the gates of Hell itself for a little adventure. Sure they'll slow down sometime but everyone has to die sometime, right?

Both of these miniatures are from the Black Scorpion Tombstone line of minis. These are some of the best looking historical western minis that I've seen so I'm glad I was able to work them into the Irregulars. As an added plus they are even the right scale, coming in at 32mm tall. The only thing that they are lacking is swords but this is a minor point in my book, especially since leaving them as is means no conversion work. Ya gotta love just being able to paint it and get it onto the board.

Since these miniatures are different from the regular Malifaux minis, I really wanted to do something to tie them visually in with the Witch Hunter crew. Kyle and Jacob are both wearing the familiar green jackets of the Guild. Seems like a minor thing but visually it's enough to make the connection. Then there is Jeremiah. Being a mercenary with a mysterious background I wanted to make him look the part so I knew it was time to break out the black paint! Once he was painted up as your stereotypical "man in black", I really didn't like how he looked. After thinking about it a little bit, I decided that it would be better to make the outside of his coat more of a traditional leather duster and I also picked out the collar, cuffs, and the little mini cape thingee with some Thornwood green. This looks a lot better and really gives him more of a connection the rest of the crew so it was a win-win all around in my book.

And there you have the Torments Reach Irregulars! This takes the crew up to a total of 30 soulstones, making it is a much more dynamic crew. This also means that its time to get them onto the table so expect a Malifaux battle report in the near future!

My, Isn't That Just... Mysterious
A Malifaux Terrain Project

That's right, more Malifaux terrain! For this project, we are going to look at some mysterious effigies to see what secrets they may hold. I was really at a loss for how to best portray these pieces. According to Websters, an effigy is described as a crude representation or image that is usually done as a sculpture, typically done to ridicule the subject. I must admit that I don't know how someone native to Malifaux would ridicule someone so I'm just going to focus on the crude sculpture aspect to keep things simple. And as luck would have it, I had the perfect pieces to use just sitting on a shelf!

These thingees were part of a blind pack that I bought from either a Target or a Wal-Mart. Why buy something that looks so completely godawful, you ask? I'm thinking that they must have had a couple pictures of some interesting looking ones on the bag though these were definitely not them. Up until now, I had just left them sitting on a shelf but this is a good chance to put them to use.

The first step is to stick them on bases, something that is easily done with some epoxy and a couple of spare 30mm bases. Then it's time to prime and paint and detail, oh my!

After a quick coat of dupli color sandable black primer (if you don't use this stuff, you should), it is time to start painting. Actually, strike that. First, I'm going to add a little bit of detailing. I know what you're thinking, why do this after I primed it? To be honest, I'm not sure how well it would stick to the slick plastic so I thought I'd try the primed surface instead. For this, I'm just adding some sand to a few spots on the figure. Once these are dry, then it's time to start painting!

I am just going to go for some kind of stone material, so grey it is. A quick base coat followed by some highlighting then then its time to go back over the sand. Odd as it might sound, this was not added to give it a stony texture. Instead, I am going to hit these with some shade of green to create the look of moss on the sculptures.

And there you have the mysterious effigies of Torments Reach! Quick and easy to make, cheap to buy and unique in their appearance. All good things in my book.

The Parting Shot

Well, that about does it for another issue of the Dispatch. As always, thanks for checking out the blog and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to either leave them right here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Until next time...

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