Through the Breach RPG - Introducing my 'Scrapper'...

It's been a while since I've done anything RPG related but with the recent arrival of my (and several friends) Through the Breach Kickstarter pledges it seemed like a good time to start again...

Fortunately my fellow blogger and local hobbyist Citizen Williams (Tom in the real world) has decided to run a campaign of his own and this gave me a chance to come up with a character who despite starting off as a fairly original concept basically ended up as James Caan's 'Mississippi' character from the old John Wayne western 'Eldorado'...

...only my guy isn't as good at throwing knives though makes up for it by being better at punching things.

Unfortunately there's no sawn-off shotgun on the 'Male Minis' sprue for Through the Breach though that's not a massive issue as there's no option for one in the equipment section of the book either (not that I could find at least) so he got an ordinary gun instead. Though there are plenty of body parts with knives on them there are only a couple of hands holding them and they both happen to be left ones. I instead used the one piece of chain available to represent his Knuckledusters for his right hand and the one knife wielding hand for his left.

For some reason there's no separate holstered guns on the 'Male' sprue (there's plenty of legs with empty holsters and hands holding guns and rifles to choose from though) so I took one from the female sprue which has lots.

Anyway...here he is,,,he's not going to be called Mississippi though, lol.

At least one of the people involved will no doubt wish to chronicle the campaign in some sort of way...if there's no volunteers then I'll do it myself...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Star Trek Attack Wing - Illuminating the Borg...

...well, the cube at least...

Star Trek fan* Mike Leach of the Star Trek Attack Wing Community group has come up with about the simplest way of illuminating a Borg Cube in the history of modelling...

* I'm using the word 'fan' as 'fanatically obsessive' seems a bit harsh...and he is my friend. We have all learned that before you ask a question about Star Trek in his presence it's vitally important that you really want to know the answer...

To undertake this project you'll need...

1) Star Trek : Attack Wing - Borg Cube Expansion Pack.

2) An illuminated 'tea-light' of some description...such as one of these...

3) Opposable thumbs...or a friend or acquaintance...with opposable thumbs...

All requirements accounted for?

Off we go then.....

Here it is in it's initial unilluminated state...

This is the bit you'll need the opposable thumbs for...I'm assured by every-one who's attempted this so far that the model comes apart very easily indeed...

As you can see there's plenty of space inside so should you have a more sophisticated electronics project in mind then there's room to manoeuvre... 

For demonstration purposes this one has just been placed in but you can fix it in place if you so desire...

It's really that simple...

Mike Leach resides for the most part in the Facebook group Star Trek Attack Wing Community where he can be found offering sage advice. Here's the rest of his Borg fleet...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Upcoming Guild Project...Maybe...

Like most hobbyists I have far more ideas than I do time or money and I'd be the first to admit that a great many of my ideas never get past the 'that would be cool...' phase.

Even the projects that reach the 'I've bought all the parts' stage sometimes never go beyond that which is most likely one of the reasons why my hobby room looks like a miniatures warehouse that's had a fragmentation grenade fired into it...

And your sure this is how you tidy a room?!?!?

Therefore there's a very good chance that this idea will remain just an idea or maybe it's one of the ones that will make it through the tidal wave of distractions and actually become a reality...at this point your guess is as good as mine, lol.

Onto the idea then...

It occurred to me that despite the number of Malifaux Guild faction leaders that are female there are very few Guild 'rank and file' models that are actually female. Amongst the Guild Guard models we have a Captain (he's named in M2E but not in 1.5), Drill Sergeant, three different Guild Guards, three Guild Riflemen, two Austringers and a Lawyer amongst others and of those I've listed only one is a female model...this one in fact...

There are however some issue with 'Counts-as' forces especially in a game with a fairly unique style such as Malifaux has. Amongst those is that using an existing female model from the game of Malifaux itself and using it to 'count-as' something else is inevitably going to cause some confusion. Though I could easily buy a box of Ronin and paint their clothes in a Guild colour scheme and call them 'Guild Guards' this is going to create some confusion for my opponents, create issues in any tournament environment that I may find myself in as well as being slightly unsatisfying in terms of the theme I'm going for. Though the confusion could be lessened by simply painting an existing female biased crew (like the Viktorias for example) in a Guild colour scheme and using that crews own rules they wouldn't really be Guild Guards in the way that I wish. If I remove the tournament issue from the equation (I rarely play in them anyway these days) then proxy models become an option and as I intend on converting them to match the theme anyway we can drag them from 'proxy' to 'counts-as' status fairly simply.

Of course cost is an issue as well. Though I could probably mash something together by using parts from half a dozen different Malifaux sets I don't really want to spend a hundred pounds plus just to get five converted female models I like the look of...

I actually have a few models that may be useful for this project...actually they were bought for another project...you know...one of those 'I've bought all the parts' ones that I mentioned earlier...

...Though somewhat strangely I'm thinking that the more futuristic versions might fit the theme better as actual models though certain of the weapons would need changing...typically for my forward planning skills those weren't the ones I actually bought. They look like this...

So this bright idea is probably going to cost me whatever those three models cost (around £35 with postage...more for the resin versions) or whatever the cost of other proxies is that I might discover works out as. I am of course open to any other suggestions that any-one might have as long as they don't involve me needing to learn high level sculpting techniques or win the lottery, lol.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Guest Article - Cenobite Conversions.

Some time ago I started a project to make a Hellraiser crew for Malifaux and I've periodically revisited it now and again since then. Apparently I'm not the only person who had that idea as at about that time I got an e-mail from a gentlemen who goes by the name 'Obcenobyte' who had some ideas of his own on the idea.

As I've decided to get back into this I've decided to post Obcenobytes own ideas as he has an interesting prospective on certain of the methods I used.

The models of mine he refers to can be found below.

He also refers to my own series several times so a link to it can be found here.

-----

Hello. I found your blog while searching for some pics of wrack conversions.  Nice job on converting the wracks into cenobites.  I wanted to give a little constructive criticism to help you out.  I think as a first attempt they're good, but would like to suggest a couple things that may improve them.  If you're happy with them as they are, feel free to disregard this. 

PINHEAD: The best looking of the group.  I'm emulating what you did with the head to make my own (see photo).  Still need to trim down the wires I added.  No suggestions for improvement on your pinhead model at all.  Here's my version:

TWINS: Great use of possessed twin head.  Honestly doesn't need much to improve it.  A little shading and highlighting on the face would make him stand out more.  Get a little bit of darker paint into the folds of his face to bring them out more.  I'm still holding onto that same head in hopes of acquiring a particular body to put it on.

MALE BOUND: I ran into the exact same problem you did when I wanted to use that possessed head to make a cenobite.  It's a beautifully grotesque sculpt, but it's huge -  cartoonishly big for the wrack body.  First I looked all over for a body that I thought was big enough (I chose one from Rackham minis), but the neckline of that head was still too big.  I wound up using a needle file to lightly file down the thickness of the plastic neckline in front and back and also I gently filed at the jawline to make it a bit less chiselled and superhero-like.  Here's a pic of the model I added mine to: 

If you aren't above trying again, consider trimming down part of the jawline and neck on that head and then sculpt the throat on using some greenstuff or selecting a slightly bigger upper body to accommodate that head.  Reaper minis and Rackham minis make larger scale models than warhammer that may be good fits.

FEMALE BOUND: Rather than adding a strip over the existing head as the belt, use a needle file or the cutting disk on a dremel tool to lightly sand away a little ravine around the eyeline.  Then, add a strip of greenstuff and sculpt it in to make it look like the belt is so tight that if is painfully pushing inward on that line.  The skin around the belt on top and bottom comes out further in depth than the belt itself.  The highlighting around it on the mask makes the skin above and below the belt look heavily irritated and partially bruised from how tight the belt is.   I used a similar technique when I sculpted onto this one for a 6" NECA style Male Bound figure I customized.  It's not 100% true to the film and certainly not perfect, but I'm happy enough with how it came out:

CHAINS: Consider going to a used goods store (goodwill, salvation army, etc) that carries cheap jewelry.  Find the tiniest chain necklace you can find.  It probably won't cost you more than about $3.  They make some really minuscule chains for earring charms.  Also, get some picture hanging wire from a dollar store and couple pairs of needle nose pliers.  You an create some tiny meat hooks with a little practice then add them onto the ends of those chains that your characters hold.

DISPLAY BASES: Consider using some body parts (a severed arm, leg or hand or maybe a torso with the arms trailing off the display base. 

PAINTING: Try not to use so much black paint. A lot of the Hellraiser figures by NECA don't have a ton of rich black paint on their costumes.  The black is more faded and diffused to allow the highlights to show off the textures of the costumes.  Black is the darkest colour you can get, so save that for filling in little nooks and crannies to bring out the depth of the miniature (folds of fabric, spaces around the knives or armor/padding on their costumes, etc). The NECA Hellraiser figures are highlighted with the darkest shade of a colour (Chatterer had blue highlighting on his costume to bring out the textures. The female had purple highlights. Barbie had the darkest shade of brown for his costume colours).  Black is usually used as a medium for shading, so you may do better to use a dark shade of a colour as opposed to black as the main colour).

Feel free to disregard the advice.  I just figured I could help you out a little. Lots of people say "this is great" in forum and blog replies, but I think it can be even better when people help each other to improve their methods and craft. I'm far from an expert but felt that the advice was sound.  I look forward to seeing more of your cenobite conversions. 

-Obcenobyte-

Steampunk Joker and Harley Quinn?!?!?

I should probably create a new label called 'things I'd like to do but probably will never get around to...' or 'I need as bloody break from this crew a week thing...'

So lets get this out of the way right at the beginning so as to save any-one feeling the need to point it out...what I wish to do has been done already...several times...by people who are probably better painters than me as well...but I'm going to do it anyway...

Seamus, the Mad Hatter is either The Joker or Jack the Ripper or something in the middle and has been painted as these concepts by many people with The Joker being the one that is most popular. Now the reasons are understandable though depending on the writer Seamus is either a comic relief, barely competent Adam West era Joker or in the better (imo) stories we get to see him more as the violent yet bored sociopath that Alan Moore wrote for us in the Killing Joke graphic novel and personified in the disturbingly brilliant portrayal by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

Somewhat of an issue with doing a Joker themed crew using Seamus is the fact that the only female he spends any time around is Harley Quinn...and there's just the one of her...and she should really be the Henchmen in the crew. Though I could probably paint Madame Sybelle in Harley Quinn colours the theme would immediately break down as they don't look even vaguely similar and several million fanboys would probably attempt to murder me for doing so, lol.

A while ago I thought about using this piece of artwork...

...as inspiration. This kind of stretches the concept of a Joker crew but keeps to a tolerable theme that I could perhaps live with. The other idea I had was to simply paint all the Belles in the crew in Harley colours but I'm not sure how that would look and it doesn't really solve the Sybelle/Henchman issue...

The more I think about it, the more it seems that there's no ideal way of doing this using a traditional Malifaux crew and I'd have to basically make a hybrid one out of members of others in order to get a Joker, Harley, Jokeresque Henchmen look. Even more irritatingly the latest bit of Molly background in Wyrd Chronicles has dashed any hopes that I had of her still being usable with Seamus which was my last real hope for a Harley-like Henchman for him.....

....I'm also hoping that the new Molly looks something like this ;-)

I'm open to any bright ideas you might have...and if those ideas give me an excuse to buy a new M2E Malifaux crew to convert then that'll just be a bonus now won't it, lol. Worse case scenario will be Seamus as Joker, several Harley's and a somewhat out of condition Catwoman styled Sybelle...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

You Opened It...And We Came...

A pale, bloodstained hand sorted through the various bits of flayed skin and dismembered body parts until they found the map that had until very recently been clutched in their victims hand.

"We are leaving now?" said a female voice, though it was more a statement than a question.

"Not this time" stated the tall figure with the nails embedded in his skull. "We hunt desire...not hands, and this one..." he gestured at the pile of remains scattered around the room "...was simply the tool of another...the one who created this map...it is he who truly summoned us and it is he who we need to find"

As their leader turned towards the doorway to the chamber in which the box had been hidden, the rest of his followers weaved their way through the chains hanging from the ceiling and turned to follow.

"Let us see what pleasures this place has to offer us..."

The Master
Lead Cenobite/Pinhead

The Inner Circle
Chatterer and Female Cenobite

The Minions
Male and Female Bound

Spike

The Muscle
Twins Cenobite

The Pets
Chatterer Beasts

So that's the core crew completed and based. I have some markers in progress and a few ideas for additional Cenobites that I'll gradually add over time but for now I have an (imo) nicely painted crew that I can use to get some games in with and can move onto the next major project.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.