Unknown Painter: Malifaux Lilith and Collodi Crews

I did not paint the figures in this post but thought readers might be interested. I don't play with unpainted figures and didn't want to rush my own, so bought some painted figures to play with in the meantime.

Malifaux Mother of Monsters Set (Lilith Crew)

Malifaux Master of Puppets Set (Collodi Crew)

I got the two sets in the same eBay lot and the as I set my bid just for the Lilith lot, the Collodi crew was a free bonus. The Collodi figures are the older, metal figures, which are fine and good, but it was the characteristics of the plastic 2E figures which got me on board with the game.

I all but expected breakage even had the seller been careful, but they were badly packed along with another heavy metal figure, and the damage was considerable. Didn't seem to value their own work. A number of hours went into repairing what should have been ready to play with. The cherub and young nephilim are now a lot more sturdy than before, with metal pins holding them together. The young nephilim in particular are so fragile I would have been more surprised if they had shown up in one piece, and it was the other figures I was unhappy about. Oh well, in the end a nice group of figures and I can loan them out for demos once I have my own painted up.

Malifaux Lilith, Mother of Monsters

Malifaux Barbaros

Malifaux Terror Tots and Cherub

Malifaux Mature Nephilim

Malifaux Young Nephilim

Malifaux WIP on the Workbench

Here are some Malifaux works in progress. More unfinished projects exposed to the light of day!

Malifaux Tooth and Claw Box Set (Marcus Crew)

Malifaux Vengeful Spirits Box Set (Kirai Crew)

Malifaux The Plague Cometh Box Set (Hamelin Crew)

Malifaux Molemen

Malifaux The Drowned

Malifaux Black Blood Shamans

Notes

• I said it before but I love these figures! Yes, the bits are fiddly and skill is required, but I love the experience of putting Malifaux figures together and the finished figures are so satisfying as you see zero-undercut parts transformed into a dynamic figure seeming to have as many undercuts the design requires.
• I prefer Proxie Models bases to those they come with. I glue the figures with plastic cement to bits of .01" plasticard because the base lip leaves a depression and because I fill the depression, I need the figure's feet to be at least as high as the top of the lip. It may also give a bit better purchase for figures with a small amount of feet surface area.(And the Shaman's don't have white plastic bits as they aren't glued yet.)
• It was hard to commit to putting the smaller figures on 30mm bases and these were held up because of it. I prefer figures on the smallest base they look comfortable on, but using a different base size is a sure way to test your opponents patience if you are playing with the rules the game was intended for. In my cases, I wanted them to be ready for my own games but also ready to play with the Malifaux community. You can see I still haven't based the rats and still may go with bases that fit within larger bases for these, though the spindly legs put them at risk of breakage the more you need to fiddle with them before a game.
• I'm going with an "empty lot" theme with the bases. Generally speaking I like my bases minimal and unobtrusive, and depicting one of the most common environments the figures would find themselves in. A quick look at the Malifaux map confirms empty dirt would likely cover the most area of various terrain types in places where encounters would take place. The empty lot theme also gives room to be less minimal when I choose, and you can see I've chosen that way for some figures above
• Bricks were an element I thought was important to sell the empty lot scene. I made a bunch out of Sculpey clay pushed through a clay extruder tool and chopped with a razor blade. I'm using these sparingly and it's actually hard to spot them in the pics above.

Malifaux: Sabertooth Cerebus

Given my old school bent it may surprise you learn I'm nuts about the plastic Malifaux figures. I like everything about them and they scratch an itch other figures don't. 

This is the first one I painted but there will be more. This is from the Claw and Fang box for the Arcanists faction, lead by a guy named Marcus.

Malifaux Sabertooth Cerebus

Malifaux Sabertooth Cerebus

Malifaux Sabertooth Cerebus

Malifaux Sabertooth Cerebus

My plan for these was to have a muted, controlled, horror-vibe pallet after the painter Beksinski and games like Bloodborne. Following the artwork on the box, they will also have blue-green in the shadows or under-lighting. I haven't adhered to the plan entirely and getting them right has also contributed to the project going on to long.

In the meantime, I bought a set painted by someone else on ebay to play with, as I wanted to try the game and life is too short to play with unpainted figures, and I've noticed that bright, vibrant colors are the norm. The dark, horror aspect of the line tends to be downplayed. I'll share those figures in a future post.

However the figures turn out, I plan to go full bore for the Bloodborne pallet in a cemetery terrain set I'm making that is large enough to cover a board, be it for Malifaux, Mordheim or another game.

I decided that game-wise I had to concentrate on one thing if I was going to succeed and I made it my D&D campaign for now, and not sure if/when I'll play the actual Malifaux game again. The community in San Diego is great but the game is played very chess-like, whereas I need immersion to be wholly satisfied with the experience. "Someday" may try some RPG-like short scenarios linked as a campaign with backstory on the interactions between the masters involved and plots afoot in the streets.

Any readers collect and paint the Malifaux figures?