Ninjas Caught On Camera!

The last of the three clusters for my Ten Thunders crew arrives!

After this it's just the leaders: Yamaziko, Misaki, and Ototo.

Torakage are quite clearly meant to be ninjas. Upon research, I have uncovered some neat information about true ninja garb. First, the myth; ninja did not wear all black, necessarily. That is a notion coming from kabuki theatre which, as you may have seen on the internet, uses people dressed in black, against a black backdrop, to render them 'invisible'. Of course, you can still see them, it is just customary to ignore their presence.

Imagine then, the horror and surprise of the audience when one of these black-clad, utterly ignored characters draws a blade, steps forward, and kills one of the characters! Perfectly they've managed to convey the idea of the ninja.

Why is this important to understand? Imagine if, in the future, we move beyond lead-firing guns, to energy weapons. People at the time still like to play-pretend soldiers from our era, and in doing so, imagine all guns to be the bullet hoses seen on so many movies (lookin' at you, Rambo) and spoofed on others (Evil Dead series, arguably.) That's about how true historical ninja would view our treatment of them these days.

"Well then, Reid" I hear you saying, "what DID they wear?" Much like many secret agents of today, they wore whatever would fit in the best. Fine kimonos at a party, dirty peasant garb in the streets, loincloth in a bathhouse, etc.

Circling back to Malifaux and our Torakage, now; their clothing is quite similar to what peasant garb could be, but with perhaps a couple of odd extras. The skirt-device, scarf, and of course face mask being the most notable. With their rule stating they can lose themselves in a crowd, it's clear their garb is meant to be mundane. For my part, this meant clothing that was both drab, and almost entirely undecorated. It's much harder to identify someone when you're only told "That guy with brown pants" as opposed to "the one with the lotus kimono in black and white with jade accents".

So first, the consistent things: all have red belts, and red kneepads: these are the things identifying them as part of the Ten Thunders faction. Originally, their headscarves were painted thus, but it was far too large an area, and made it too dominant on the model. I may yet detail their scarves as they earn noteworthy kills or achieve objectives. Furthermore, their bases are likewise the most mundane: Cobble roads, sidewalks, etc. These are not the Oiran in their gentle settings, nor the Archers in a full mix; these are folks who slink through alleys and dodge the light of Malifaux's lamps.

The masks of the Torakage are interesting. Despite the ninja feel of the rest, their masks are plain and flat, which is not a traditional Japanese style mask. The Japanese prefer carved masks that look like demons, or stylized forms of the warrior underneath. Luckily, the Chinese have a smooth mask tradition with beautiful painted details. I decided to attempt to emulate their patterns, and furthermore tried to keep black paint away from the eye slits, lest they be lost in the designs.

First up is the Torakage who gets the award for weapons most likely actually concealable. His outfit is a consistent blue, with green and brown on what I have to assume is their 'weapon smock'. For most of the colours on these, I started with colours inherently drab, and mixed up with a more grey tone than pure white, making them appear worn and dirty. He is also the only of the three to have decorated clothing, and even then it's a simple repeating three-dot scheme.

The Femme Fatale of the crew is channeling the schoolgirl from Kill Bill. Her mask was painted tiger-themed, and with my self-imposed rule of repeating colours throughout, shares the green border and blue on her smock of scythe above. Be warned when gluing her: I highly recommend getting a very thin pin drill, some modelling wire, and pinning her foot to the ground. It is a very thin join for a model this tall and thin!

The beefiest of the Torakage also has the least concealable (and perhaps least practical) weapons. This is, luckily, balanced by an absolutely awesome pose. As before, the brown and green on his smock is the same as the female Torakage, and the blue of his mask matches the blue of scythe's. Otherwise his outfit is very drab, and subtly painted.

Something else consistent across all three is the forearm covers. I figure their work up close with bladed or heavy weapons would probably end up with a couple hard-to-describe splatters on their forearms. The covers allows them to be quickly  shed to appear 'normal' if they get chased, and also, being white, can be  a mark of pride for the Torakage after a mission, and proof of their success. (It's also the only reason I can fathom this final Torakage has attached his blades to his arms: The weapon I think they're meant to imitate is one where flipping it around unconnected from the arm is how the weapon is used!)

With them finished, I must take a break from Malifaux for a bit to finish up a Panther force. I have been trying to make source-lighting work on Yamaziko's lantern, which may take a couple of passes before I'm entirely happy with it.

On Clothes and Malifaux

I've not posted in a bit because the last of my photos of Wolves are crap (may upload them anyway) and I've been stymied in my next project. I am painting a Malifaux crew of the Ten Thunders, and I have nearly every Ten Thunders model that isn't undead. The thing is, I am obsessing over making them look traditional Japanese/Chinese.

Wet Pallette: Saviour of detail painters. Also, rest of the crew in the background.

It is tough putting traditional Japanese/Chinese clothing patterns on 32mm models.

I've tried to make each cluster follow their theme. The Torakage are clearly ninjas, and despite what popular culture would have us believe, they didn't wear black. In all likelihood, they wore whatever clothes would best blend them in to their surroundings. As such, mine are all muted blues, browns, and greens, with only small elements of bright red as the 'crew colour'. (Misaki and her brother will feature lots of bright red, her mentor will likely have a darker shade of red, or black kimono highlighted with red; I haven't quite decided yet.)


The one thing they have, which I figure would be quickly removed once the job is done (or they're discovered) are their masks. While the Japanese did have hard masks, they were mostly carved into daemonic (or humanoid) shapes, and don't fit the flat, featureless masks of the Torakage. Luckily, since we know narrative-wise they're supposed to be a blend of Yakuza and Triads, I have borrowed Chinese style mask-making.

More detailed pics to come once I get them more finished off.

The Oiran, as would be appropriate for courtesans, are wearing very fanciful kimonos patterned and themed each one differently. I will have pics of them when they're more complete.

Finally, we have the archers. The style of archery they seem to be practicing (one sleeve off, full kimono) was traditionally meant more as meditation than killing, and every movement was carefully practiced. The practice continues to this day and you can find videos on youtube. While I still have absolutely no idea how I'm going to paint their helmets, most of the rest is at least roughed in. I figured I'd show folks a quick and simple way to do detailed patterns on a section of fabric though.

First, dots. For my guy, I started on the front, since it's where most people will see it. I did a vertical, spaced line of dots, then shifted over an amount that felt right, and put dots at about the midpoint of the first. Continuing around the model this way allowed me to tighten in where there was a significant fold, or, where the fabric swings at an angle, bend the line. Luckily the kimono is gapped at the front, so it won't matter too much if I haven't measured the distance too carefully.

When doing this, I wasn't concerned about making the dots heavy, solid, or of a certain size, knowing I'd be detailing them later. For now it was just spacing out the pattern. (At this point, the kimono itself is already highlighted.) - A note: Wash the brush frequently. The paint is going to dry out on the brush, and you'll want to ensure you don't ruin the brush, or have the tip widened from dry paint!

Wanting to do a generic lotus-type pattern, I did a single vertical line to get the pattern set, and work out distances. Again, fairly straightforward, just work around the body, careful to wash the brush often so it doesn't dry out.

Slightly blurry, but in this final pic for now I have done two side 'petals' to each. I will likely wash the cracks to ensure the petals don't jump out too much, but at this point I have settled where the pattern will sit, and roughly what it will look like. Now I just need to go back, fill in the petals, wash it down to look like the rest of the robe, and move on to the next pattern! (Yay thin tiny stripes...)

More soon, I hope. I am forcing myself to finish these up before I move on to any new models. I just had a lucky break with deciding how to do my Oiran today!

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.