On the painting table ... You want salsa with that?

/

Malifaux – I just started yet another Ortega crew for a commission. It's really not surprising as Perdita is one of the most forgiving masters out there for new players. Pretty much point and shoot, literally.

It turns out Tuesday nights, as my FLGS suggested, is probably the worst night for the players in the area that are interested in the game. So I'm trying to work out a better day that isn't so busy that we can't get any tables. I ran a demo for this client and his friend on Sunday which seems like it might be a good day for the player base (not so much for me ... but we'll see). 

Both players were very excited about the game and had a ton of questions on thing they might want to add and the strengths and weaknesses of the various factions. I think I might need to do another series detailing my thoughts on each faction as quite a bit has changed since the last time I did a faction breakdown.

After consulting with the client he wants a darker version of the crew. He really liked the scheme on my demo Lady Justice crew so I'm modifying it slightly to work with the family. He wanted Perdita in all black leather which is going to be a bit of a challenge to make the model not look flat in an essentially two color scheme but I think the grey with wash technique I've been using for black fabric will work to bring out the detail.

This time around I pinned Nino's coat to the protrusion on the base I mounted him to. I think this is going to increase his durability significantly. Most Guild players I've met have had to do multiple fixes to the leg of the model as the attachment point is very thin and prone to breakage when there is stress put on the model.

After seeing the WIP shots of this crew my client asked that I add in a Convict Gunslinger and Hans. One thing your can't fail with is more firepower. I'm looking forward to painting Hans as he hasn't come across my painting table as often as the Gunslingers have.

On the painting table ...

/

Malifaux – I started a new commission this week. This time around I'm working on a full Ortega family. This includes the box set and Abuela. 

My client had a very lose idea of what he wanted:

"I want the Ortega clan to look like an actual Hispanic family. So darker skin tones, black or very dark brown hair. For the clothing, please use colors and styles that are realistic for the time and Wild West motif. No wild colors or unrealistic color choices like neon pink for the men's clothing. Purple is my favorite color, but that doesn't really seem to be a realistic color choice for the Ortegas, other than Perdita. I also really like red and blue. I do NOT like yellow. So please use yellow very very sparingly or not at all." 

Following these parameters I began blocking in the basic colors. For the guys I decided to go with blue jeans and brown coats. This is a pretty standard look for the Ortegas and fits with the time period. Painting "hispanic" flesh is a bit trickier and will require some mixing to get the right flesh tone. To tie the models together I decided to use a purple. Perdita is going to be painted up to match the drawing on the box, the guys will have purple patches on their coats and Abuela will have purple tied into the overall pattern on her wrap.

To start I primed the models black and used GW foundation paint to block in the colors. Using the foundation flesh color covers the black in one thin coat and gives a solid base to create the darker flesh color. I washed this with a sepia to begin to develop the overall tone I want. After blocking in the other colors a quickly applied a wash to match the base color.

This time around to do the jeans I'm experimenting with a technique that is similar to watercolor. I started based the model with my highlight color and am applying washes the slowly build up the color. So far it seems to be working really well and is giving a nice look to the model.