This Isn't Even My Final Form!!!

Finally photographed, continuing from the last post, here's my finished version of Viktorias, Avatars of Slaughter!

Their faces are manic, which I attempted to accentuate as much as possible, and their skin has been made red-tinged. Otherwise the clothing colours were entirely picked to be identical with their non-avatar forms, which I painted alongside.

You can also see the final touches on the lantern: Cracked glass and a few shards on the ground itself.

The barrel, after all its washes and drybrushes ended up looking wonderfully weathered, and once the stones had a final black-line wash in the gaps, they felt right as well. You can see the blade is also done with a more red-gold than I would typically use, simulating the sword's desire to suck up blood. Otherwise, the models have little to no blood displayed, which I'm debating whether or not to change. On the one hand, adding it to the ground makes sense, because slaughter. On the other, I kind of like the way it looks right now and don't want to mess with it!

From the other side; the Viktorias blades have been painted using a NMM-style, but with metallic paints, which I prefer because you still get the light-glint, and have enforced the classy NMM look. I may yet have to touch up a few things, I suspect, as is always the case when someone starts looking at photographs of their models.

You can see the one thing I had to convert for these models; Viktoria of Blood's arms did not have the armour that her non-epic version has! It's so clear these models were made to imitate the former, and the detail level on the forearms is thin enough I suspect it was supposed to be there, and was just forgotten. I can't imagine she takes the time to remove armour while going all Avatar...

And for those who are curious, here's a focused shot on the giant sword. You can see how the light picks up the shine, and the gold's ruddier look. To get that, I first paint the gold parts silver, then wash over it with my gold paint thickly. Next it's a wash of red (currently I'm using GW's red wash) and then Agrax Earthshade (dark sepia brown, also GW) before re-touching with gold and silver to bring out the highlights again. For consistency, all the gold on these two was done that way.

And that's the Avatar! Soon I shall have the rest of the crew up as well, and comparison shots of avatar/non-avatar Viktorias. Enjoy!

Crafting A Base Worthy of Avatars

I knew I wanted to do something special when it came to the base for Viktorias, Avatar of Slaughter. It's a 50mm base, and they're not exactly very large, so there's lots of space to fill. I intentionally kept the bases of the Viktorias crew very straightforward and mundane, because they're meant to be a bit the dregs of the Malifaux world. Cobblestones, dirt, basic pavement, docksides, all preferred for those whose jobs are not taking them into the fancier halls and districts.

That said, these are avatars! So what I figured I'd do is combine the mundane roadside with something that would distinctly reference their character. Something appropriate to both. After debating it for a good long while, I had the idea of again using a lantern, but this time depicting it sliced in half, broken to the ground, and a keg split likewise. Both would be victims of the wild sword cuts these two women engage in during their avatar unleash.

First up, the road itself, and lamp post. It's the pike shaft whose hand decorates my metal Taelor model, topped with plasticard to form the core of the lantern. I knew I wanted to do clear plexi, since the lamp's been shattered. The road itself was kept as mundane looking as possible, since I still did want people's eye drawn to the model itself, not what they're standing on.

Next, as with all good rivet-counter-y projects, Math! Plasticard and pencil make a great erasable pair, and you don't have to go searching again for the scrap of paper you wrote it all down on. I, being a genius, accidentally figured out the area of my keg diameter, rather than the circumference, so I cut off twice as much plasticard as needed. (I'll find a use for the other barrel's worth of plasticard on some other model, to be sure.)

Next came careful scoring, the plugs for either end, and a length of plastic rod to act as a spacer in the middle. Eventually, knowing this keg would be sliced in half, it would need to be gone, but while I was gluing the curved pieces in, it was absolutely necessary.

Next, after cutting out each piece, they were filed so they tapered towards the ends. I was okay with them not meeting entirely flush - after all, this is going to be for a wrecked barrel anyway - but I did want them to line up somewhat properly. Here my awesome ruler holds them for the camera, and also to keep the drying pieces from accidentally adhering to my cutting surface. Each piece was pre-curved, dry fitted, sanded, and glued in.

Once I got near the halfway point, I carefully used a craft knife to extract the central peg, leaving the barrel empty looking but in one piece. I glued the rest of the slats in, and then scored the beams lengthwise to look like wood.

After that (and unphotographed) was taking a jeweler's saw and cutting at an acute angle across the barrel. I wanted it to look very anime: A slice so keen and swift the barrel was entirely bisected before it had the chance to move or react. (Before cartoonishly gushing forth 'blood' in the form of water, just like a samurai manga!)

Here's the barrel and lamp in place: The barrel was given some liquid greenstuff on the cap to texture like wood, and help adhere the planks. After this I wrapped a thin band of tinfoil around to simulate the metal bands that hold a keg together for real. Next it's painting time!

First, the stones get a drybrush of grey, followed by a drybrush of pale sand. The barrel too at that point got a heavy drybrush of pale sand to make it look like old dead wood. A mild brown wash and some more sand drybrush and it looked appropriately like a nice weathered old keg that would be left out on the street.

For the cobblestones, I mixed up a very thin wash of each of the following colours, and selectively picked out stones in: Leather brown, scab red, a pale green, violet, and darker grey. This helps break up the overall drab of the stone, and done subtly enough, imitates the natural colour variance of cobblestones without seeming too brilliant.

Here's a larger shot of the final stone effects and the keg in weathered form. Note the bands have yet to be painted in a darkened metal colour, nor the lamp post cleaned up to shiny black paint with chips taken off.

The final step is adding self-leveling gloss gel to the bucket (in thin coats) and road itself to simulate the water draining out of the barrel and into the drain. Before painting the ground water, I washed the area it would go with gloss black, to make the stone look wet.

And that's the base! As soon as I can photograph and edit the pictures, I'll have my finished Viktorias crew up and online, with the finished Avatars and their base!

Hired Swords Bases

As I work at finishing up the painting for my old-version Viktoria crew, I figured I'd show some progress I've been up to in regards to the new "Hired Swords" box. So far I've been assembling, basing, and debating converting.

I don't think I'll end up using the new crew as a Viktoria crew specifically, unless I need to travel with my force, because I don't especially like the new pair as Viktorias. They're not twin enough!

 In the meantime, here's the rest. Taelor is on a fairly standard paving stone looking base, but with a couple nice pavement cracks right where her hammer has come down. I like the look of the new Taelor much better. The pose is interesting, and the hairpiece as far as I am concerned needs to be inverted, but otherwise, her outfit makes more sense, the hammer looks more archaic rune-axe, and the mechanical arm looks more mechanical, and less like she just forgot to put on the rest of a suit of mail.

The Student of Conflict is incredibly similar to the previous version. I've modeled her on standard paving stones; I figure the Viktoria crew is mostly fighting around and in the cities and alleyways, and have tried to reflect this on their bases. I know some folks were having problem with the ponytails breaking, and I likewise had an issue, but nowhere near like the issue I had with Vik of Blood's arms...

The three Ronin likewise reflect the road-feel of the crew: One straddling a gutter of some kind, the other two on relatively standard stone bases. I know some folks have had issues with the look of the new ones, but I have a theory to explain it I'll go into when I get them all painted up.  The centre Ronin's base was the most complex of these to do. After putting down the putty flat, I used a length of plastic cylinder to press into the center, giving both the ditch, and a surrounding bump that helped define it. After that it was a simple matter of using a tool to etch lines, and I've just done basic stippling on the bottom. When they're painted I'll add some self-leveling gloss gel to make it look like a puddle.

Finally the Viktorias themselves. Viktoria of Ashes will have a lamp stand, and I will be hopefully doing a source-light paint scheme for her, and probably for Viktoria of Blood as well. Since I already have a playable pair of Viktorias, I'll go to town making these two look all diorama-cool. With that in mind I made the paving stones line up properly, and that's fairly close to final arrangement, again if I do a full diorama setup.

Viktoria of Ashes is even standing beside the curb with a drain! The light post has since been detailed more and actually looks like a Victorian style (Viktorian?) lamp post. It should be fun to paint them, but they're benched behind a few other things, so it'll take me a bit to get them done.

Koi Pond on a Base

The Oiran are now finished! I'll do a post for them as soon as I get their photos edited. In the meantime, here's a thing I did for the base of my Oiran "leader".

I decided I wanted to put her on a narrow bridge. Her pose looks like she's about to bow (martially) to an opponent. I figured putting her in a place where the enemy would have to push past her would reinforce this motif. I'd tried doing similar things before, and know that I am inspired by the incredible work done by [url=http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/riusuke-fukahori-paints-three-dimensional-goldfish-embedded-in-layers-of-resin/]Riusuke Fukahori[/url] though I have less room to do it, and am trying at a much smaller scale.

 These are my primary tools. The clear leveling gel makes decent water effects on flat surfaces, along with green and orange paint for the lilypads and koi respectively.

First, I painted where I wanted the fish to be, and put in some pads that hadn't surfaced. The orange at this point was slightly darkened with brown, to reinforce the 'depth'.

Next, a thin layer of the gel, adding a bit of height for the next few layers. The more successive thin layers you make, the more realistic the effect. For the scale, I ended up doing three, since the height difference wasn't enough to take more. If I ever re-make the base, I might cut through the base, giving me a couple more millimeters to work with. After this layer of gel, I put down a glaze of murky green-brown, to look like the pond's water wasn't crystal clear.

Next, a second layer of orange on the koi, attempting to look like scales was added. Further, some of the lily sections gained new pads, or had over-painted pads to look like the cluster building up.

After a thicker layer of gel, I did one final highlight and seal layer. If you want some of the lilypads to look surfaced, paint them after the final level of gel; they'll reflect the light differently and not appear to be wet with water.

Here, then, the final product. I'm mostly pleased with the result, though if I end up going back, I'll probably end up detailing the surface lilypads more. It does have a nice 3d quality, and it might be fun to do a second base without having her on it, just to see how it looks if that's the only part of the 'model' I'm worried about.

The rest of the Oiran will be in the next post, hopefully soon!