Ototo, alongside Shang

As part two of my Ten Thunders Leaders, I've got pics of Ototo! Misaki's brother is a beast. Sure he's all hunched up, but if you measure out his height if he were standing, he's a good head and shoulders over the next tallest Malifaux model it looks like.

I love the idea of this model, but I have to say the pose is a bit strange. I converted him to be more over his own base, but the default has him pretty well not at all actually situated on his base. Also, I can not say this enough: If you want to do a good job painting him, leave him at least partly disassembled. I should have left his helmet off entirely, and perhaps even left his arms disconnected from his torso! I kind of did what I could for his front, but it is nowhere near the level of detail I could achieve if I wasn't having to bend space-time just to get to his mask!

I did a simple pattern on his clothes, in a rich blue meant to contrast the armour, and to look like traditional robes of a warrior. His hair is a simple grey, as is most of the ground. I did little jags of lightning, because of course, and like Yamaziko, he's got lots of red on him.

His helm is painted in a way I'm trying to perfect, which is a NMM style (non-metallic metals) but with metallic paints. This way you still get the significant shine in person, but have controlled to make the 'colour' really rich and deep.

Also, according to Google Translate and a few other sites I used to verify, the symbol on his helmet means "Thunder" (or "Lightning") in Japanese, because again, Ten Thunders...

Originally I was going to make his club solid metal, but I changed it at the last minute to be wood. I have to say, the club lacks a lot of detail, so be very careful when spraying it or trying to paint it.

If I ended up with another Ototo, I would go whole hog on making him standing. This pose doesn't seem to fit his persona fluff-wise. Other than that, neat model.

Because that was just one set of photos, I shall also include Shang, Misaki's sidekick/familiar:

I know I'm not the only one to say this, but there is absolutely no reason for him to be on a small base. If they're concerned about corpse tokens (which I don't think he drops) they could give him the "willowy" rule they gave Yamaziko.

So, on to talking about how to paint fire. There's two ways with models. The first is to paint the darker reds towards the base/core of the flame, highlighting to white as you move towards the tips of the fire. Problematically, that isn't how fire works in the real world. The other option is to imitate real fire: White at the hottest/brightest, moving through yellow to orange. I've tried that on this guy, base-coating him in white, and then highlighting him up through the yellow and orange stage. The last orange step was so necessary, because before that he looked like a popcorn demon, not a fire demon.

And just for fun, another over-lit image showing how he would appear as fire:

Shang and Ototo are certainly the weaker two models in the Ten Thunders box, I think. Misaki's nice and dramatic, the Torakage are so distinctive and evocative, but these two have enough flaws that I wish I could edit...

Next time, Misaki herself! Then I have to get back to painting a bunch for my next run of stuff.

Painting Log; Guilt Edition

As I work on adjusting and tweaking the Malifaux deck, I'm also trying to get a crew or two finished for Malifaux. In theory I should've had these folks done a long time ago, but I've been dragging my feet over certain details and cleaning things up...

Rather than a finished work post, I figured I'd do a "here's what I've got" post.

First up the Viktorias: I like the default paint scheme enough to imitate it. I've tried a non-metallic metal style on the blades, using metallic paints (which I prefer) and have kept them a rich blonde. I prefer the older Vik models to the new ones for the Viktorias themselves, but I do like the new ones as additional Ronin (and will be using them for that.)

One of the reasons I intend to use the old Vik models above, is they match almost perfectly the Viktoria avatars. I had to convert the forearm gauntlet things back on Avatar Vik of Blood, and I'll do a more detailed post about these two when they're further along. It's been a difficult challenge to paint them so far, because anything I paint on one pair has to be mimicked on the other pair. It means highlighting two shirts, two sets of armour, two sets of boots, each time...

Panning across my desk, the Desperate Mercenary is getting his final touches, the Treasure Hunter is being painted up (Thank goodness she can be used with a Student of Conflict now) and the original look Ronin are being worked on. I've tried to make the Ronin a mix of mundane peasant clothing and a couple of pieces of fanciful clothes.

And finally the true guilt section. I have a converted Taelor desperate merc, and the remains of my Ten Thunders crew. The new Taelor looks a lot more fitting for the character, and frees up the older as great for a Desperate Mercenary. To my mind, the female Desperate Merc model is awkwardly posed, oddly garbed, and just doesn't look as good as old-Taelor for a desperate mercenary who, in this case, quite literally had to sell the shirt off her back! (Or is following the inspiration of the Ronin and Viktorias and is dressing down!)

Though you can't really tell from this angle, I'm doing a minor source-light effect on Yamaziko, and keeping her robes very plain. A woman of her age and wisdom, I think, sees less reason to be really flashy any more. By contrast, Misaki is getting bright and strong coloured robes well decorated as befits her personality. I'll do more detail on them (and Ototo on the far right) when I get them finished.

Word of warning for now: Paint Ototo in pieces! Him fully assembled just truly sucks to try and reach angles. If I was able to go back in time, I would have warned myself to do body separate from torso, and helmet separate again. Ah well, paint and learn!

I've had an idea to make the Malifaux deck back incorporate each master (or as many as I can fit) as a symbol or icon, and am working on making those now. No guarantees if I'll like it, but when my computer allows me, I've been trying to get that to work. Now that I've shown models, though, I in theory have incentive to finish them off!

Malifaux Thunder

I have become enraptured by the idea of Malifaux. The world is fascinating, and then when I saw The Thunder faction, I was absolutely sold. The models are beautifully sculpted, and fascinating.

The bases are all slottabases, but the models don't have slots. This makes it basically necessary to do fanciness, and so of course I wanted to do them up properly.

The more 'refined' a model, the more refined the base. The Desperate Mercenary (sadly out of focus) is on a mix of rough stone and old planking. The first of the Oiran is delicately stepping off a wooden level on to a piece of stone in the midst of either random dirt, small stones, or an ungroomed zen garden.

The other two Oiran, essentially Geisha, are on a set of Tatami mats (right) and the other central on a thin wooden bridge (as a kind of: "to pass, you must defeat me" notion)

The three Torakage (peasant-looking ninja) are on, respectively, stonework with Japanese kanji inscribed, and two others on a typical road or sewer style base. There's a distinct line of thin sidewalk, and some 'road'.

Finally, the two characters from the starter box. First is Ototo, a big Oni-like character. I disliked how far off the base he sits, so I I modified the plough shape, pushed his mace off the base a bit, and added some tiles pushed up and out by the force. Misaki herself is on a base that's distinctly a zen garden, made from my thumbprint. To help with the whorl caps, I put small pieces of gravel as stones, and the single foot touching the ground rests upon one of these, as though she too is delicately attempting to avoid touching 'base ground'.

I'm now researching colours and proper patterns, so I can paint them up as beautifully as I can. I intend to use proper colour patterns, and markings. I am frustrated in this search by so much misinformation about ninja, and such insane detail and variety in Kimono pattern. I'm going to make Yamaziko and Misaki Orange (royal colours in Japan), the Torakage faded blues and greys (typical peasant garb), and something for the Oiran that looks appropriately Geisha. Ototo himself... I'm not certain. Yellow for divine? Red for blood and aggression? I'll figure it out perhaps when I see the rest.