I was recently commissioned to create a Malifaux mini to look like a popular children’s book character.
This sculpt will be replacing The Dreamer (a small child who is lord of the monsters of Malifaux). Once again, I have to give credit where credit is due, and this outstanding idea originated with my client.
I tried to take the very cartoonish style of a children’s picture book and convert it into the detailed and over the top style of a Malifaux miniature.
Here are the results:
Just a little while ago, I got a commission to turn the Ultramarines chapter master into a Dark Angel mini. I was a little surprised just how much iconography has to be replaced, it is just crazy how many Us go onto a mini like that.
In the end, I defeated the beast, and made him work as a Dark Angel. So, here is Marneus Calgar, Master of the Dark Angels.
After doing a few customized wedding cake toppers, we’ve received a lot of interest from the community. Honestly, I think that converting cake toppers into zombie hunters or apocalypse survivors is just great.
So if you were wondering how you could get your own cake toppers made, head on over to our Geek Wedding Cake Toppers page and have a look.
This is simply a smaller version of their core rulebook- something you could easily have on hand while playing, and also a more convenient version of their core rules set (this version has been updated with their errata too).
And it will be only $15, making Malifaux the uncontested lowest buy- in for such a nice miniatures game. And they’ll have it available in PDF, so there’s simply no reason not to try out this awesome game.
Altogether, I have to say that this looks like a wonderful idea. I hope this is the sort of thing that catches on (I’d love to see a shorter version of the Hordes or Warmachine Rulebooks, for example).
By the way, if you haven’t tried out Malifaux yet, the game system is great. So far, the only really large complaint with the system is that the rulebook has had some major organization issues- a problem that Wyrd’s team were aware of.
At Gencon, they told us that they would have a solution for us. And it looks like this is it.
Tabletop Gaming News has just started accepting nominations for their Annual Reader’s Choice Awards.
Just in miniatures systems, this year has been a wild ride. Games Workshop updated Warhammer Fantasy Battle to its eighth incarnation, Privateer Press released a second edition for Hordes and Warmachine (along with a book every month of the year). Malifaux and Infinity have both had significant expansions, and that’s not even counting newcomers like Dust Tactics or Freebooter’s Fate.
And the minis we’ve seen this year have been splendid. I always love to look at TGN’s reader’s choice and have a look at anything I missed in the past year. And there are a lot of winners. They have a category for every prominent genre of mini, and a lot of great contestants this year.
So go over there now and nominate your favorite games and minis.
I painted up another gift store dragon. This time, it was a gift to my sister who collects dragons like this.
Overall, the methods were pretty much the same as for the rattle snake dragon. The face of the sculpt was less detailed than the last one, so I’m afraid it didn’t turn out quite as well.
For this dragon I used a King Snake pattern for the scales. I really like these animal patterns on dragons, I’m definitely going to try more. Maybe next I’ll start looking a gila monsters or I’ll to really far and try out something that isn’t a reptile.
Anyway, here is how he turned out.
And this time I remembered to get some before photographs- so here is what he looked like when I bought him:
One of the things I like most about GenCon last summer was a cool little table that Reaper Miniatures set up right outside the exhibition hall.
At the table were seated Bobby Jackson, Patrick Keith, Gene Van Horne, Drew Williams and other professional sculptors. The reason that I liked this booth so much is that all of these guys were extremely nice folks who didn’t mind at all that I was picking their brains for sculpting advice.
One of the things I noticed was that not one of them used the sculpting tools that you get from Games Workshop or Gale Force Nine. Almost all of them had a set of tools that they had made themselves.
- The exception was Patrick Keith, who uses a Wax 5 primarily. When I asked him why, he told me that he did it so that he could recommend a tool that people can just buy.
One of the jewels that I got in all of that brain picking was that making sculpting tools is actually fairly cheap and simple- so long as you already have a Dremel Tool. I did, so that wasn’t an issue. I did have to buy a blow torch and jewelery anvil, but neither of those were expensive at all.
Bobby Jackson pointed me in the direction of the Clubhouse forum and this tutorial- and it is quite the gem. The sizes are all in metric, so if you’re living state-side you’ll have to convert them a little. But it is a very helpful tutorial, and with it, I made these:
Most of these tools are similar to the ones you can buy, but they’re all smaller and finer. In fact, the one I use the most is essentially a smaller version of a Wax 5. Overall, the details that were hard to sculpt before have become much easier, and I feel like my overall skill level has gone up.
I’m sure I’m getting a +2 circumstance bonus.
