Year of the Rat - January Part 3

Part Two can be found here

One of my goals with this project was to improve my basing technique and the time I spent on bases in general. Before now, the time spent would be as little as possible, and the bases to be as generic as possible which was no bad thing in Malifaux as you play the faction in the game, so bases matching meant you had a less odd looking force when you deployed your crew of Showgirls, Ice Golem's, and a mechanical spider building mastermind (who am I kidding; no one ever deployed an Ice Golem!)

I wanted to complete the basing before moving onto painting.. I felt that a flat surface (on which people would be walking along the sewer tunnels) should not be devoid of features. So out came some sand to create the following effect:

The weird empty looking base belongs to Nix, or Schrodinger's Cat who will have a cool looking cardboard box to go with an otherwise featureless base. This doesn't look like much, but let me tell you - putting sand on the base was a revelation to me! I've been brought up on Goblin Green and flock bases and the thought of other basing material never really crossed my mind.

The models have now been primed and are awaiting the next stage of the Wyrd Community painting challenge before I really start to work on them. I'm not slowing down my painting queue to wait on the painting challenge, but I'm not going to speed up either - I'm doing this to paint for enjoyment, not to have a crew finished ASAP.

I have started on my favourite model (outside of Hamelin), which may prove a motivation problem further down the line! But here is the Midnight Stalker with most of the paint applied.

Really happy with the cloak and the reds.The cloak is a simple mix of Ger.Cam. Orange Ochre model colour mixed around 60/40 with Deck tan model colour (both Vallejo). This is applied in a few layers to give a solid colour. Sepia ink wash was ruthlessly applied over the whole surface to give he depth of colour, and then my new favourite - Typhus Corrosion was added to the bottom of the cloak to give that dirty, dragged along the floor feel.

 I have been having a conversation with a friend about whether to add blood splatter to the cloak and knife (since I want this to be a dirty, grimy crew) but I think its very easy to over-do, and the blood effect might be too fresh. I was encountering a problem where I couldn't see what colours would go with the cloak that suited Colour Theory and would also provide the pop I want for the Neck Tie and Waistcoat. Big shout out to the PaintRack app! Thanks to the app I was able to take a picture of the model and have the app assess the colour of the cloak. It then offered a range of colours depending on what effect I wanted - Complimentary colours, triad etc.. and from that I was able to pick the colours I felt would work. I'm going for a purple waistcoat and teal blue neck tie, and I think this will draw the model together nicely!

More in Part 4