Canoness Veridyan

I have always been a big fan of the Sisters of Battle, and the John Blanche illustration that this model is based on in particular. So I simply knew I had to get hold of one. I talked about rules in my last post so this post is going to be all about the model.

Codex Imperial Agents: A Review

So, this isn't the sort of thing I usually post up but, given that Codex: Imperial Agents came out today with a new army list for the Sisters of Battle, among other things. I thought I would give some thoughts.

Blood Bowl!

As you are probably aware a new version of that most venerable of games, Blood Bowl, came out recently. So I thought I should show you my painted Blood Bowl figures. Starting with my halfling team. 

Emperor's Children: Kakophoni and friends

Squad

So I have decided for blogging my third legion, I'm going to be painting things in sort of logical battlefield squads. So, today I have 10 Kakophoni, a Rhino and an Apothecary. Usually of course the Kakophoni will only be nine strong so they can fit in the rhino with friend Apothecary.

Emperor's Children: Tactical Squad

20 Mighty Tactical Marines

So, having painted all the Malifaux I was all set to order some more Malifaux, when my wife 'suggested' I might want to paint some of the other models I own. So I've decided to try and get my 30k Emperor's children painted up; if possible by the HH Weekender in February.

Adepta Sororitas Kill Team

So I'm playing in a Kill Team Tournament at the 40k Open Day in Nottingham this weekend. I had not played 40k in a good long while because I have been sucked into the Malifaux, but I got the chance to try the six possible scenarios one time each with Helen. Mostly I lost, but then Sisters are quite comparatively under powered at the moment.

I thought I'd share some pictures and the list I am taking. I painted these girls a long long while ago, and it shows in places. However, I firmly be leave that repainting miniatures is where madness lies.

Group Shot

Malifaux: October Stuff

So the 'October' Malifaux releases arrived and I have managed to get them assembled and painted. So a bit of a thematic mixed bag today.

Mysterious Emissary

Malifaux: Von Shill

Finally got around to painting up my Freikorps stuff. In the same way as my Viktrorias I mainly have these because most of them are usable as mercenaries; however I painted up Von Schill and the steam trunk just in case I one day want to declare the outcast faction. I should say, with the exception of Hannah and the steam trunk I batch painted these guys like you would with a 40k squad and it was... tedious as all heck. I'm not sure how I am ever going to get around to painting my 40/30k again. But I'm sure I eventually will.

Von Schill

Malifaux: Guild Mercenaries

I realise I said in the last post that the next thing I was going to paint was the Von Shill crew. However, I have been quite busy over half-term marking coursework and writing an essay for my M.Ed, so I wanted to do something fun in the evenings and I just could not face batch painting all that black and gray.

So in my giant ebay job lot, I also got the models from the starter set, now I have had a starter set previously but I sold the Guild models too a friend. Now I have decided to collect all the potential mercenary hires I thought I would paint up the four guild mercs.

Dr Grimwell

Malifaux: Viktorias

Viktoria of Ash

Viktoria of Blood

 I don't quite collect a second faction now; but I did pick up a lot of second hand mercenaries from ebay. I've painted up the Viktorias stuff. Even though I don't intend to play Outcasts, I painted up the non mercenary models. I used to have an Escher gang for Necromunda, and painting up these ladies scratched a lot of the same itch. I think these plastic Viktorias are lovely sculpts. I find it interesting that the Vik of Blood, the copy, is far more naked then the human Vik of ash. It's an interesting idea that if it not the body you owned you'd be more comfortable weaponizing it as a distraction.

Besieged on both sides

Other symbols of righteous anger are available

Quite a personal blog post this in many respects; but I hope to illustrate a wider political point and not cross the road into self indulgent whinging.

Malifaux: Changelings

Very short blog post today. I painted the changelings which were the only thing to come out in September's Malifaux release which interest me.

Changelings

Malifaux: Collodi

I finally got around to painting up all the stuff for the final Neverborn master, Collodi. I've been painting these bits and pieces over a long while and there are quite a few of them. They are more cohesive then some of my other bits and bobs, I guess because they are supposed to be a dance troupe.

Collodi

Authenticity in politics

These days, the quality that people want more then anything else is authenticity. In film, in literature or in food. Imperfections are embraced and the mass produced, packaged and processed are dismissed.

Is the same thing happening in politics?

Sisyphus

Anyone who was wishing on a star for a non-miniatures post is about to regret that.

Malifaux: Crossroads Seven

So; I got the band painted. I don't normally do large group shots because they rarely turn out well, but I thought I would have a go.

Crossroads Seven

 I enjoyed painting most of these guys, they are very nice models. One of the nice things about Malifaux is that you are usually painting single miniatures, rather then trying to paint a squad. Which, I think is why I am able to paint them more often that I can manage to paint 40k. Also unlike 40k, almost every model in Malifaux feels significant. It's hard to really get into painting Tactical Marine with bolter #12.  

Malifaux: Titania

So I decided to finish off my early GenCon loot. Titania and box.

Titania

Malifaux: Loose Ends

I had to go back to work yesterday for the first of two non-pupil days at work, which obviously means I have come home and painted more 'faux. I'm something of a boulder, in that if I am made to start doing stuff I feel like doing more stuff. Whereas for most of the summer holidays I was content to sit and look out the window. It's funny because you come back after the Summer break and colleagues tell you about all the far flung places they have been, and all I can think is "my word that sounds exhausting". However, I assume you come here to look at painted miniatures, not to learn about my infinite capacity for doing nothing.

So, I had a little backlog of miniatures which don't really fit in any big group. First up is the spawn mother and gupps.

Spawn Mother & Gupps

Malifaux: Johanna

I got hold of one of these limited edition Johanna's. So I painted it. Quite a cool little model; much cooler then plastic Johan, who looks like a weird mutant man.

Brexit, for the last time.

If I don't screw it up, this post should be published some time after the polls close, but before the referendum result can be guessed at. That's because I don't want people to say I am trying to influence the vote, or am only saying this because of the likely outcome.

I want to talk about democracy.

Malifaux: Dreamer Avatar

I said I might have something coming from the electronic bay, and here it is. The Dreamers avatar form. Now I own all four of the Neverborn avatars. It would be good if avatar forms existed for Lucy, Collodi and Lynch. However, I suppose then no one would want to use the emissary model (when it finally deigns to come out). I'm not sure what you are supposed to do if you are playing Collodi, Lucy or Lynch in a campaign game. Wyrd did say that they were going to bring out some sort of 30mm to 50mm avatar converter, one per faction. No sign of that though,   

Front

Malifaux: Lucius

Lucius is a master I have wanted to get the models for for a long time. He's always been one of the best characters in Malifaux, and in M2E I can play him without breaking my one faction vow. Splendid.

Lucius

Malifaux: Jacob Lynch

Jacob Lynch, we meet again. This is actually my second Jacob Lynch crew, I picked up the crew when it first came out but never got around to painting it and eventually sold it. I was never particularly impressed with these models, some of the first plastics, along with the other 10 thunders duel faction crews. Quite flat, detail quite soft, and a fair number of gaps that need filling. However, a lot of the models are very useful. Indeed, Illuminated may well be the best minion in Malifaux. 

Jacob Lynch

Malifaux: McTavish.

I realise McTavish is not a master. However, he came out this month and was an immediate addition to my collection, chiefly for use with Zorida. 

Malifaux: The Dreamer

More Malifaux, but not that many pictures this time, since I already have a lot of the very general models in the Never-born Faction.

The Dreamer

The Dreamer, possibly the least inspiring model in Malifaux, although, it is one of the models which has been improve by being redone in plastic.

Malifaux: Pandora

Back once again with even more painted Malifaux, hopefully some slightly less rubbish photographs as I have actually passed these through Photoshop to do such amazing things as cropping, and some automatic colour correction. Kind of shocking that it didn't actually occur to me to do this before now as I actually teach a little bit of image editing stuff. If I find the time I might go back and fix the images I uploaded earlier. Edit: I have now done this to all the previous Malifaux images.

Avatar Pandora

Corruption

Corruption has been in the news lately due to some comments made by our prime minister. This got me thinking about the left vs right political arguments I have participated in or observed. Often in the cause of such arguments folks end up citing one historical example or another were things went horribly wrong. The retort given is often; ‘that’s not a real example of <political system> that came about due to corruption among the folks administering the system.'

Gaming Table

The wife and I have now managed to make a habit of playing a weekly game of Malifaux on Saturday nights (Sunday this weekend since bank holiday). This is far more regular gaming when we ever managed with 40k. I think probably due to the smaller numbers of models.

This has necessitated investing in some terrain. Malifaux needs a lot of terrain. And is not particularly suited to the vast gray multi level structures that 40k tables tend to contain.

Our table now looks like this:

Malifaux: Zorida stuff

Back with some more pictures of poorly painted miniatures.

Perhaps I will make a more general rambling post soon. I don't know.

I do sometimes wonder if I should keep ten blogs so each can be about it's own thing, but given how infrequently I manage to update this one that seems like a poor decision.

So, this time it's Zorida and some of her thematically related models that I have been painting.

Zorida

Getting back into Malifaux

So, I returned home to my native Merseyside during the Easter break, and some of my excellent chums convinced me to get back into Malifaux. I have not played Malifaux since the first edition of the game, so I was pleased to dust off my crew and have a go.

The game is great fun, and the introduction of premesuring makes it a lot more fun, in my humble opinion.

So, without further ado - here are some out of focus photographs of my poorly painted miniatures! Hurrah!

Original Metal Lilith

Alt Metal Lilith

On being told to be happy.

An external speaker came in recently to tell us how we could be better and more effective people by being happy. I'm a big believer in perspective and being genuinely happy as much as possible. I tend to think that nothing is ever as bad as you think it is when you are in the middle of it. Or, as I sometimes say ‘it’s hard to see the shape of a thing from inside the thing’. Trying to be genuinely happy as much of the time as possible is good for you, good for those around you and… just easier.

Brexit.

On Thursday the 23rd of June 2016 eligible, registered, voters will be asked the question: ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?’ If you aren't registered to vote, and you are eligible to do so, or think you may be eligible to do so I encourage you to go and register. https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

Apologies to Private Eye

Okay, civic due diligence out of the way, onto the partisan business of the day. There is a lot of stuff going around at the moment that seems designed to trick you into being afraid of Britain leaving the EU.

Technology is excellent.

Fairly recently I finally got around to watching an American TV show called 'Parks and Recreation'. Partly because two or three different people compared me to Ron Swanson. While it is true that we share a central dilemma of simultaneously advocating a small state, while at the same time being employed by that state, (and a love of single malt and breakfast foods), their is an important point of divergence.

Technology