Hannah Complete!

Here's my completed Hannah of the Freikorps!

I finally took the time to finish her this weekend, I hadn't touched her since my last update. I finished her skin, hair, and vest as well as the book she's holding. I decided to add some variation in the back so I painted the cables red with caution striping where it plugs into the suit - I thought it was pretty nifty looking afterward. I also painted the canister in the back to look gold/brassy to break up the grey but in the back it seems a bit flat so I'll have to touch up on that later on. Overall though she was fun to paint and now is one of my favorites on the crew!

Now onto my thoughts of her in game:

She is a complete workhorse for me now, and a must have for my Viktoria crew. Essentially she has armor 1 with a counterspell and nether flux aura - this strips models of their built in suits when targeting her or if the attack originates from within 4". This is huge as models with lure essentially are rendered useless unless they can use soul stones, and for masters who need triggers they'll have to be spending precious resources to accommodate this if they can't flip the suit they need. This is huge as with my Vik crew I try to soak up as many resources as possible in the turn they strike so that the rest of the crew has an easy job of dismantling them.

The other main reason I use her for with the Viks is her size. I mean, she's a huge model in terms of physical area. But in the game she's also a height 3 50mm base. This means she can do a great job at blocing LOS to parts of the crew, namely the Viktorias themselves. Lately what I've done is on turn one she walks twice up 10" toward the center of the board. Then the student of conflict and Viktorias walk directly behind her and get blocked LOS for the most part from shooting. Anyone trying to do blasts on Hannah will lose suits so hopefully won't get triggers, but in the end any damage that gets through to the sisters will get healed up once Blood goes on her rampage. On turn two essentially anything important will be in range of the Viks' swords and Blood goes nuts. That one turn of denial is crucial, as well as the fact that she's no slouch in combat and can camp on an objective like Turf War or Squatter's Rights.

I've also utilized her to hug onto models with her 3" reach. In one game I had her set up next to an objective with the Student about 3" behind her and Vik of Ashes next to her. Hannah had a hard target engaged with her. Ashes would just charge in with her 3AP and put some hurt on a model or kill it, then the Student would teleport her back to safety. Hannah remained there to make sure that anyone trying to go after the Master would have to go through her first, all while in the Aura of her denial game. If Vik of Ashes needed to go do something elsewhere, the Student was there to hand out Fast.

Her other attributes aren't as useful in the Viktoria crew, but definitely handy for certain situations. With my current build of the list her (0) ability isn't used as often as there aren't any (1)AP CA actions that she can use from her own crew. It all depends on what the opponent brings to the table for her to utilize them, although it's usually something handy that they don't want to be used against them. At one game I used Jack Daw's own attack and flipped the Red Joker for 6 damage! All with a (0) ability!

Her Ghost Censor attack also isn't used as well as it could in my Vik crew. I tend to bring about 5 SS to a game, and lately I've lowered it to 4. 5 Tends to be the sweet spot, but when I have 4 I gain an extra model to the crew, so it's situational but 4 SS seems really light in the game. It's crucial when I bring 4 that I get the alpha strike to diminish my handicap as much as possible. But with a smaller SS pool I have to depend on my control hand for any cards I want to use, and I tend to use most of my resources for the Vik of Blood Whirlwind on turn 2, so using a SS for a tome doesn't go very high in priority, and any high tome will get used on Vik of Blood for severe damage or Defense Duels. I have realized however that I can have the same number of models in my crew (8) with 5 SS in the pool if I switch out the Ronin for the Freikorpsmann, then Hannah can use his "Reference the Field Guide" ability for Tomes if I have a low Tome card. He's a solid model for both Melee and Shooting, I just like the Ronin's model as well as her ability to hit and run models with Armor, not to mention having more wounds and Hard to Kill. Really though the resources used for Ghost Censor to get the trigger aren't worth it most of the time just to make a model or two take Horror Duels. If I flip the tome then it's good, as it may absorb the opponent's control hand by one or two cards at most, but usually in the turn she's going after the Viks and doesn't need to soak those resources by then as much, and the SS or card used doesn't come out with a net gain if they flip what they need.

I also no longer buy her Ancient Tomes upgrade when she's with the Viks, as it also requires a resource for the spell to take place. While burying a potential threat does come in handy, I've found that spending the resource for the ability tends to get wasted as that is something the opponent will definitely use their control hand to prevent for, so I'd have to luck out and drain all their resources and hope for a bad flip if I need for it to work out. This tends to not be worth the 2 SS for the upgrade, as I'd have to do it almost every turn for it to work out and I'd rather just kill the model with my AP rather than risk the chance of it not doing anything.

She does however come into her own even more when fielded with other casters, notably with Von Schill. Normally she can't use her "Make a New Entry" (0) ability with friendly Masters unless they have the Freikorps characteristic. When used with Von Schill she can not only use his (1) CA abilities she can also use his (0) abilities, making her utility much more useful. With his upgrade allowing models in his aura to use two different (0) abilities she becomes a tool box for a lot of situations and can even heal up all her damage at the same time (when the Librarian or Steam Trunk are in play). This is why I've recently purchased the Freikorps box as another Outcast crew I can use. They seem to be a simple box to play, and can fill a gap for when my Vik crew isn't suited for the Strats/Schemes flipped - for example, if I need a crew with high WP or resilience over damage output.

All in all she's been a welcome addition to the crew. I've had a lot more success since I've substituted her over Killjoy. She's cheaper and does more for the crew than he did, along with adding an activation for me since Killjoy starts out buried. Due to her flexibility she tends to go well with any master and is one of the few models I'd pay the Mercenary tax for with other masters.

Plus she has a frickin' steampunk robot suit, who wouldn't want to field that?!

WIP Hannah for Malifaux

Hey guys!

I thought I'd share my work-in-progress. This is Hannah, a sweet model for Malifaux. She's ginormous.

Ever since this model came out I've been dying to get my hands on her. She's super dynamic, the model is a really cool concept, and it gives me a lot of opportunities to use techniques I'm now getting good at. Plus in game she's great at denial and can take a beating!

So let me go over a few caveats on her model. She's definitely a challenging model to put together. Figuring out which finger belongs where was certainly a hassle but not impossible. Then there was a difficult "translation" part for the arms compared to the instructions but not indecipherable. The toughest part was doing the order of assembly, topped with putting the suit's legs with the body and making sure the feet lined up to be level with the ground. Well, they didn't for me. In fact, I've seen a lot of other people's pictures of her online and it doesn't seem to match well for others either.

Her standard pose with both feet on the ground lends her to have some weight shifted as if she's winding up for a punch. This looked pretty cool but definitely has a "lower" feel to it.

An example from the excellent blog of GMort

No doubt, still an awesome pose. Note how the toes point in different vertical directions, this makes it difficult to have a completely flat footing and placed flat on the base, even with a marginal difference. 

With mine, though, it was a huge difference and didn't line up at all. I decided to alter the base so that her right leg was level and the left foot was slightly coming off the ground, with only the toe making contact. This in turn also made the pose look more heroic rather than dynamic, with a slight angle adjustment she looks more like she's anticipating her next move. Or maybe she looks the exact same, what do I know?

I took cork and placed it in half the base, with additional cork ripped for another level of rubble in front of her. I then used super glue and varying grades of sand to add texture to the "ground" floor and hide the seams of the cork levels. 

I base coated her black and using the airbrush I sprayed on black/stone grey, blocked in highlights with stone grey and light highlights with white.

I probably redid her left shoulder pad 12 times to get it right....

It's important when doing Non-Metallic Metal to get the highlights right. The colors are not what makes NMM work - you can make NMM with any color really. The colors I used for Hannah are the exact same colors I use when painting stones or buildings. The difference that really makes NMM work is where you place those highlights, and where you emphasize your light sources. You need to change how light reacts on your surface, since metal reflects light differently than say cloth or leather, or even painted metal. On a curves surface you'll place the highlight right where the curve occurs, where light would be reflected the most. The same principle can be applied to hair as well, as it behaves much like NMM.

The next step I took was really emphasizing the contrast by black-lining between each plate and join with a 50/50 mix of black/midnight blue. Once that was done I added stone grey and white highlights on each edge. These take it to the next level and really makes the contrast pop.

Now we're cooking with gas!

I also began working on the base colors. I really didn't want to make it grey, as the model itself is predominantly grey and makes the model get lost. But I wanted it to fit in with the other models of the crew, so sacrifices were made. I added some blues and browns to differentiate but overall it looks very grey. I'm not hung up on it though, and it looks good on its own. Hopefully when I paint the ring of the base green it will look different.

She's getting there...

And this is where I stand with her now. I added a tuft of grass to break up the grey on the base, and some flock in the back. I painted some red leather and olive cloth and blocked in the skin and wrappings. I feel like she's coming out a bit flat when compared to the suit, so I may go back and add more contrast to the leathers and clothing. But really all my other Malifaux models are muted in tone so she'd fit in with them, it's just that when she's sitting with a suit with colors that pop it's hard not to feel underwhelmed by her current colors. I won't revisit those colors though until I finish up the rest and see where she stands.

Anyway, that's my current work in progress. I'll post up more pics once she's complete!