Lessons on Malifaux

Killjoy meets Chuck Norris

A few Saturdays ago I got to play Malifaux all day with the guys from the Pearland area at Montag's, a great little store with some of the best player support I've experienced. As with every game I've played I learned from my huge mistakes and am going in a direction I want to go in to improve my abilities.

First up, I played against Marcus with my Viktoria crew. I don't remember what he brought other than Hans, Killjoy, a suped up Marcus, Myranda, and a Raptor. I brought the usual crew I've been playing with a small change:

• Viktoria of Ashes
• Sisters in Spirit
• Sisters in Fury
• Synchronized Slaying
• Student of Conflict
• Viktoria of Blood
• Mark of Shez'uul (of course)
• Scramble
• Killjoy
• Oathkeeper
• Convict Gunslinger
• Oathkeeper
• 2x Ronin

I don't remember all of the schemes, but the Strategy was the new one in Gaining Grounds that is like Turf War that moves. Assassinate, Spring the Trap and something or another were up.

Like a textbook noob I just can't seem to get over the fact that I can slingshot Blood so damn far, and have done it first turn every game. I mean Assassinate was on the table as well as Frame for Murder, so why not? Essentially what I have done is use the Student to make Blood fast for the turn, then Ashes walks 5, sisters in spirit to teleport blood about 7 inches closer and then use sisters in fury as the last AP. This activates a chain for Blood, who walks 6 inches and charges 9 with a 2" reach. This effectively gives her an almost 24" threat range, which in standard deployment means charging into their deployment zone! With 3AP for melees, as well as a trigger to attach anyone in range, a minimum 5 damage that ignores pretty much everything short of Von Schill's version of HtK, on paper it looks like a sweet deal. But as I've learned throughout all my games it's a trick that works once, and only on people who haven't seen it before.

The group I'm currently playing with are seasoned veterans of Malifaux, having walked its blood soaked streets since M1E. They constantly play each other and see this coming a mile away. He deploys Marcus 3" away from the edge of his corner to start the Power Ritual and effectively ensuring I don't throw Blood at him and if I do it will fail.

I know all of this, yet I can't get past the want to use it. Blood is like a hammer in my hands, everything looks like a nail. So I try to slingshot my way to Hans, seeing as how his shooting has already popped off Blood's Mark of Shez'uul, but I'm about 1" short of being able to hit and thus kill him, so I slingshot to the Raptor thingy right next to him. I kill it and bring Killjoy on the table, who I only manage to hit once and do 5 damage to it. During Killjoy's activation Blood dies, however I choose to hold my own Killjoy back. Because of this his Killjoy is directly next to Hans with no other model in sight. With Hans' speed he will be the only target in Killjoy's sights for a while to come. Unfortunately he flips a black joker to wound Hans and continues on his merry way.

The game goes on and I end up losing 3-10 or something like that.

The lesson I learned? Just because I can doesn't mean I should.

The second game I played was against a nasty Pandora crew. From what I remember he had Pandora, Candy, a doppleganger, two Insidious Madness(es), and primordial Magic. I took the same exact list as before being that I don't have very many options as of now. Essentially what he did was paralyze up to 5 of my models a turn, the remaining models he dictated who activated first and last, and the one who activates last takes 3-6 damage. It was a frustrating game to say the least, with Turf War as the strategy I was forced to sit in the middle to do nothing. The schemes were Power Ritual, Assassinate, and others I can't remember. I almost killed Pandora with Ashes' pistol but came up 3 short. Blood drooled the whole game, although she killed a few of those tree thingies he brought and hit Pandora once for 5 damage. The convict gunslinger turned out to be a pretty solid choice, although he took several turns to kill Candy. Killjoy didn't do anything but die.

I also realized that Ronin aren't as good as I thought they would be. I've always noticed that they don't do very much even though on paper they look good. The only times I see them succeed is when they attack armored models. However due to their average speed they can't really be used for running objectives such as power ritual or breakthrough, and their defensive abilities actually hinder this effectively further by soaking up AP. I guess they could protect territory well, but there are other models who do so much better in their fields. Take the convict gunslinger for example; for one point more you get a shooting 6 attack that triggers additional attacks or slow, both always useful. Ronin shoot at 4, and their melee - their strength - is only an average 5 stat. Both have flurry, but ronin do not have movement abilities to position themselves for the flurry in CC. Also, they only have a 1" engagement zone. Sure their trigger for +flips on damage is great, but it isn't a built in trigger. Their built in trigger gives a 4" push, which I guess is great combined with their disguised ability. But if it were me I'd be shooting them anyway! The convicts also have a 2" engagement with their same shooting ability. With flurry they could be getting up to 6 attacks (although unlikely). Plus their shots get innate +flips! For one more point! For two they get oathkeeper - essentially fast for a turn to position for flurry! For one point less you can get the Friekorpsman, who is all around better. They are just situationally good, and you need to get models who are good for creating their situations in which they excel (if that makes sense).

I'm getting off topic, but lessons learned? Well, I'm starting to learn how to discern the statistics in their real world applications rather than in a vacuum when not compared to other models in their points range. That is a huge lesson learned because from what I can tell from the other games I do well in that's the turning point for more successful games. The other lesson? Um, what Pandora can do is overwhelming, but I believe with proper crew preparation it can definitely be countered.

My last game was against Von Schill with Reconnoiter. Again, the same list was brought against him. He had some Friekorpsmen, Malifaux Child, 2 Convict Gunslingers, a desperate merc and Johan from what I remember. This was a classic lesson on how Malifaux works differently than other games and I was noob slayed gently. The first thing he did was put the Desperate Merc right in the middle of the table in front of Ashes, Blood and the Student. I resisted the urge to use the Blood Missile, which I take as a victory in itself and proof that I'm learning. However I shot the Merc with Ashes and killed him, giving him an easy 3 points for Frame for Murder on Turn 1. I asked him how to avoid things like that, especially since I had a feeling that he was completing that scheme, but it was going to disrupt my hard hitters and was an easy kill. He said there really wasn't much to do against it, it was going to have to die or keep holding the Viks down, but I've come to a realization since then.

This game is all about points denial as much as points accrual. If we just only focus on our objectives almost all games would be 10-10. To take the win you have to deny their points while calculating how you get yours. In this case it would have been extremely difficult to avoid killing his "sucker." My crew only knows killing. However, I didn't have to make Ashes be the one who kills him. I could have shot him with Ronin, or the Convict, and that would have denied him 1 point. If I could have figured out a way to tie him up I could deny all the points, but the problem with Frame for Murder is you don't know who the sucker is, so you could be wasting resources not killing the model when he could be bluffing and have another model as the sucker or took a different scheme altogether. Which is also why I love this frickin' game!

I also took Assassinate and Frame for murder, choosing Blood as the sucker. However, he decided to just not ever fight me and kept hopping Schill around the board disengaging from Blood and Killjoy. Blood finally caught up to him on turn 5 and killed him, but he denied me 1 point from being able to achieve Assassinate by turn 4 and 3 points by choosing not to kill Blood! Genius, I'm just so used to everyone trying to kill her I thought it would be default for it to happen.

Lessons learned? Points denial, choose your schemes wiser. I ended up tabling his whole army short of one model, but he won 6-4 without breaking a sweat.

I hate feeling like a noob, but I know it's going to take a while to stand up to these guys, and they are really really good. Of all the games I've ever played, these guys seem to be the most analytic players I've ever come across, and this says a lot if you know our hobby. I'm not blowing smoke or getting hobby star struck with only the players around me, but I do think they are some of the best Malifaux has to offer. Hopefully something sticks and I get better!

Anyway, this was sort of a rambling about the games I played a week and a half ago. My current project?

Shenlong!

I've always been curious about using Shenlong. His tech on the table seems so unique and cool! I mean, he feels like a fighting game character, able to change styles mid strike to go with the flow of the game. He also seems like an easier character to use as an all around Master to fit all the different schemes and strategies, although his abilities seem harder to master. Still, I need something different than the Masters I currently use, which are all just killing machines designed only for killing. Shenlong can probably play a whole game not attacking and win.

Unfortunately his model hasn't come out yet, and seeing how he's not on the schedule to release at minimum for the next 3 months, I decided to make a proxy for him and his crew.

Perfect!

I ordered a few models from the Bushido Miniatures line for proxies. I took this model and cut the hair off and filed him bald. The water feature is separate and I left it off. Although it looks cool, it seems to not fit to me and looks old fashioned (if that makes sense). Although Shenlong can manipulate elements I like to imagine that his control of the elements isn't as overt like a bender in Avatar. I like to think that his control is more spiritual and theoretical rather than literal, like when Bruce Lee describes becoming water and how it affects his movements rather than literally becoming water. Don't get me wrong, I also love to picture Shenlong throwing fireballs at fools and dousing them afterward so they can live with the pain! I just like to show that he doesn't have to show and tell, he can be more subtle - and maybe he only pops out the big guns when he feels he needs to, which isn't too often (fluffwise, lol).

So although I won't use the rising water, it doesn't take away from this superb miniature. He feels very powerful, the pose reminds me of Neo before he taunts Agent Smith. Don't fret! I still will showcase his mastery of the elements, just in a different manner.

I've taken a 30mm base and cut out the middle portion up to the rim. Once cut out I sanded it smooth and glued it on a blister pack. Cutting a circle around the base I trimmed it and sanded it smooth and created a hollow base. Basecoat black and add a few rocks. I've painted the rocks up and should be done sealing it soon. Why all this work? I plan on mixing some resin tonight and pouring it in the base. When I'm done with it hopefully it will look like a deep river roaring with Shenlong walking on water. I hope it doesn't look cheesy, worst case I replace it when Shenlong comes out and it will be a good exercise with resin. I'm also going to experiment with something new...

Pics to come!

Viktoria of Ashes

(A bit blurry, sorry)

Here is my finished Viktoria of Ashes for my Outcast crew. I'm pretty proud of her, mostly because it is the best face I've ever painted. The camera kind of washes it out, but it's a very subtle blend and the first time I've ever attempted painting the stubble of a shaved head. I've also never painted an eyebrow before :)

Originally I had painted the painted with a traditional brush and metallic colors. I hated how it was coming along so I just painted over it. I'm much more satisfied with this iteration of her, what I started with was bush league lol.

Due to it being plastic the sword actually has 4 edges like a square rather than two like a blade. I decided not to edge highlight it due to the odd shape and let the airbrush effect create the illusion of a two sided blade, hopefully it did the trick. I also painted on the grips on the pistols.

It was important to use airbrush on the coat rather than paint on the blending since the shape of it is so subtle. Most of the time cloaks and other similar fabrics are sculpted in a way that creates very dynamic folds, possibly due to the limitations of molds for older models. This creates an easy blocking of color for painting with a brush and it forced deep shadows and bright highlights. With 3D renders now becoming the standard, specifically with Malifaux models, much more subtle shapes can be achieved. This creates quite a challenge in painting, as any less than the best of blends make the model look cartoon-like. Also you can't go too deep in difference between shade and highlight since their values are only slightly different on the model (i.e. where the butt of the jacket is isn't much deeper in from the waist). Although definitely possible with a standard brush, airbrush makes it much easier to create these subtle blends.

Again, I utilized blacklining to create definition and contrast, mostly with thin lines of the basecoat olive on the jacket creases. When I initially came across the technique I thought its use was only in the strictest of circumstances such as armor plating and created a cartoon look. As my style progressed I've recently realized after painting Infinity figures that it has its place in other areas. Although the style is very animated and not at all realistic, I've found that my evolution of painting has gravitated toward making very vibrant and cartoony models. It's not the best, but it certainly pops off the table.

Let me know what you think!

Killjoy!

Here's my latest work, a beast of a model named Killjoy for Malifaux.

He was a challenge to paint. However, I did manage to get him done in essentially one sitting, which is unheard of in my experience. I managed to forget to green stuff the incredibly obvious seam across the entire model and didn't realize it until I started painting him, and I'm too lazy (or defeated) to fix it. Oh well, can't be perfect all the time. He still looks good for a game, and that's fine by me. I'm sure I'll get comments on the gap when he's on the table, but screw it.

I tried a new style for him since he's so different from any model I've ever painted. A lot of his texture is extremely subtle, especially on his legs and back. If i did the normal technique of layering it would have been excruciating to do it by brush and mixing, not to mention I would never get it smooth enough. So I airbrushed the skin and did a harsh dark line (almost unheard of for texture not armor like), and it created a quick and unique look. Cel-shaded video games such as Borderlands and The Walking Dead came to mind when I started dark-lining him. At first I hated it and thought I wasted so much time and effort just to ruin it with one brush stroke, but with some encouraging words from the wife I stuck with it and ended up liking it. It's not my best, but it's certainly not my worst.

Now I'm working on painting my Viktoria crew, using a similar technique to tie them all together. It should go much smoother, since they have familiar textures like armor plating (which creates easy values) and swords which are fun to show off airbrush techniques on.

In other news I've begun to dive in with my friend Reuben on making YouTube videos for tabletop gaming. It's extremely exciting, considering I haven't been able to utilize my video skills since college. It is, after all, what I got a degree in. I've figured some low cost ways to do the best videos and will attempt to make cinematic approaches on conventional battle reports and videos.

Oniwaban WIP

Here's a WIP I have going for Infinity, the Oniwaban:

I kept it mostly monochromatic with the only deviating color of green on the sword and eyes. The armor on the arms, legs and hands were all a mix of Vallejo dark and light grays airbrushed on, then lined with black ink and edged with light grey and mixed in white gradually. I'm not too fond of how the pants turned out, black cloth has always been my bane. When I try to airbrush the color on it always turns out too gray. When I try to brush it on it doesn't look right. I ended up brushing it on, then the mix seemed way out of whack, so I knocked it back with a heavy black wash and said screw the rest, it's passable.

The green is an interesting story. Since I don't have many primary colors for airbrush and didn't feel like trying to thin out my GW for airbrush I just found my blue and yellow VMA paints. Yellow mixed with blue is green, right? Well, it is an extremely dark green, even with a bright yellow. I ended up wasting a lot of paint trying to get the mix right. It took a hell of a lot of yellow to make a regular green like snot green, then I lightened it for the highlights by adding white. The last highlight was almost all white with a small bit of the original mix.

I've still got the base to paint, along with his accessories like the grenades and pistol/case and glowing forearm thingy. But I've liked the results so far so much I wanted to post my progress.

I'll keep you posted on further painting updates!

Steamroller 1/3 and further thoughts/WIP

So, post of the new year and it's already late...

Well I will begin with my first hobby related incident of 2015. I participated in a 50 point Steamroller at the wonderful Empire store with my Highborn Covenant on 1/3/15.

I... did... terribly...

It's humbling to go from a win to all losses. I attribute my performance solely to my Ashlynn list. I know that in terms of list building it's weak and lacks cohesion, but mostly in all honestly I'm not nearly as comfortable with her as I am with Gorten and have hardly any real practice with her.

So far I'm used to either super tanky casters such as Gorten or Madrak or super fragile ones like Doomshaper or Kaelyssa. Both extremes warrant easily dictated use, such as jumping into the fray or staying away from the fight. But Ashlynn requires a deft hand and delicate use, and to not throw her in can be a waste at times.

Firstly, let me post some pics of the disaster:

So the first game I was going against Legion. He had two lists that I could hard counter with mine, but it was essential that I choose right. Well, I didn't. I had taken my Ashlynn list thinking he wouldn't take the AOE spam list of his which he did. I was going against eLylyth for the first time and got assassinated at the top of turn 2 which took a total of 3 minutes of game time. I was stunned, but it happens to everyone once. Game two was a bye for me.

Game three was against Cryx using pDenny. I discovered on Feat turn that his feat essentially negates Ashlynn's feat and essentially my list. Some better choices could have been made, but it was disheartening to find that the list I specifically designed to counter Cryx (being a strong meta army) was ineffective.

My last game I went with Gorten, being that it was against Butcher3 and had a kill box. I had it all in control at first. I was throwing things with the Mules (including the butcher and his THREE dogs), I was sniping models with the ATGM, I had funneled Doom Reavers through difficult terrain, I D-Bolted the caster and had Thor and his Basher holding the weak side well. I still don't know what happened.

Well, let me try to figure it out. I guess it all started on my feat turn. I got over confident and thought of dragging his army back into the kill box, thus negating any real chance I had of killing models but going for Control Point victory. I had to do a lot of trickery to get Gorten in the most efficient placement and slid everyone back. The problem was that now my Caster was alone in the woods with no way of gaining Pathfinder and no way of assassinating Butcher. Well, the wizards on horsies took out my main killing unit - the Hammers - and I thought CP was the only way to go. I didn't remember that he has energize and the next turn moved out of the kill box. It was all downhill from there.

Well, hard lessons learned. It wasn't very much of a fun day for me (game wise). Bright side: I got a lot of useful tips from the friendly players about how to utilize Ashlynn better. They gave me great ideas and with only a few tweaks to my list I can have a more powerful Ashlynn. I only need one more model to make it complete and hopefully have more success with a much more invincible Ashlynn.

In other news...

... I've been more consistent on the hobby front. This week I've been working on two projects. One is my recently obtained 4x4 Zuzzy Mat:

I cannot recommend this product enough. Although I got it secondhand the retail price is more than affordable. It takes very little space when rolled up and does not weigh a ton. The textures are amazing considering the small width of the rubber. It's great for keeping models safe from chipping and doesn't slide around.

Here are a few things I discovered while painting it so far: airbrush is not the way to go, at least for the base coat. I tried to airbrush and it proved time consuming and inconsistent. I ended up getting cheap acrylic paint at Michael's and used the stippling/scumbling technique for coverage and it ended up being much more effective. As always, build your color up in layers of thin paint (although I actually ended up using thicker paint by the end of it, it may bite me later).

The rock patches are going to end up grey. I should have basecoats done this week and then I will drybrush. I originally planned on doing a wash first, but I think it may be more work than it's worth. Maybe I'll try it out on the sample patch, but I am a lazy person.

Overall it looks great and I can't way to play on it. I may do a picture battle report like I started on for Malifaux way back (before my laptop got stolen) in a comic panel style.

The other project I'm working on are my Gremlins for Malifaux:

I'm having a blast painting these guys. I decided not to get bogged down with making every model I own up to my highest possible standard. Sometimes it's just nice to have a complete model that I didn't put 120% of my effort into. Holding myself to these standards is the reason why I don't have a lot of completed armies or even crews. So I did a paint scheme consisting of almost 100% wash finishes to do the shading and it turned out a much faster paint job. In the end the paint job wasn't bad at all and although it's not my best it definitely looks good. Once they're all painted I will be using Envirotex Lite to create a murky swamp at their feet.

This kind of leads me to new year's thoughts. In 2013 I resolved to have a fully painted Troll list, which I successfully accomplished. Last year I tackled a monstrosity of a list for goals, and I pretty much set myself up for failure. I thought I could handle having a fully painted crew, but I kept juggling around as to what my goal really was and kept adding more and more. Toward the end I felt like I had failed at the hobby and keeping to my internal promises.

But then I realized, what the hell kind of fun is that if my hobby pisses me off?

So in December I scrapped any ounce of care I had into fulfilling my resolution of 2014 and decided this: I am just going to do what I think is fun whenever I want.

Once I fully held to this Mantra rather than a schedule I actually saw I was getting more work done. It's quite liberating to approach my hobby this way. Adhering to a schedule made my fun seem like work and I ended up not doing anything due to the stress it was adding to my life.

So now if I feel like painting Infinity, I'll do it. Then I'll stop if I want to do something else. Eventually it will get done. Who cares when? If I feel like painting my stuff before an event or meet up, then I'll do it. But I don't need to hold myself to these arbitrary goals so rigidly. I just need to have fun.

So my hobby resolution this year? Have fun, and celebrate if and when I finish a project.

Steamroller Victory!

Hiya Internet!

On 12/6 I participated in a small Steamroller tournament and WON! Granted, it ended a round early due to me being the only undefeated player by round three due to the small amount of players, but a win's a win.

I've been working tirelessly (on and off) on painting my Highborn Covenant army and have made some decent progress, even getting close to a fully painted 35 point list!

I made an almost identical Gorten/Ashlynn list, but only had to use Gorten (whose feat is tremendous in tournament play, especially Kill Box!)

I learned a lot, but more importantly I learned from my previous mistakes and kept the scenario in mind at all times. This got me valuable control points in both my games. I also learned that pEiryss by herself can contest an entire zone if she's behind Gorten's wall and under the protection of his Solid Ground spell. Def 21 against ranged/Def 19 against melee/immune to blasts anyone?

I used the prize money to get a starter box for X-Wing, since a lot of people are into that game and it seems pretty interesting. A simple dogfighting game is vastly different from the current games I play, plus it requires minimum additional peripherals (i.e. terrain, large armies, model count, etc.). It looks promising and I taught my wife how to play it in about 5 minutes!

Here are some pics from the tournament. Notice the new blue jack and painted Horgenhold Forge Guard? They're not 100% complete, but are definitely acceptable for tabletop standard. I also painted about 50% of the Basher and finished Gorten (finally). Once I have the ATGM unit and Eiryss up to tabletop standard I can field a fully painted 35 point list!

Sorry about not having very many good pics, I was concentrating more on time rather than getting satisfying photos.

In other hobbies, I've put aside painting Malifaux models for a bit. I've been getting frustrated at painting them as they are not coming out the way I want them to. I realized that they are two completely different styles and I'll need to adjust how I paint them, but sometimes you've just got to step away and paint something else. Instead of approaching my normal "paint for completion" mentality, which means painting only the same army/models that will go toward completing a fully painted army, I've been bouncing from project to project, only painting what I desire to paint at the time. Treating it like a job isn't getting me anywhere and is causing burnout much faster, so i'll just paint whatever I am in the mood for. It's working wonders, which is why my Mercs are turning out so well. Next I plan on tackling more terrain, since I'm really in the mood to get my table done soon.

More pics and blog entries will be coming, hopefully more consistently. I may put up a batrep or two on some games like X-Wing.

Updates

So, my last entry was in mid August and now it is mid October. In between those times work had hit pretty hard, so a lot of side projects were put on hold, including upkeeping the challenge of a hobby item a week. I had, however, accomplished a few things here and there and even attended a local steamroller tournament.

This particular steamroller actually had prize support for best painted model and army, so I decided that instead of trying to win with my Mercs I'll try to take best painted with my Trolls - who do terribly in SRs due to their design being based solely on attrition with my brick and have no way of winning by scenario short of a single zone scenario. My beast list is the opposite focusing solely on killy killy stuff, but is very prone to assassination with such a squishy caster and I tend to overextend myself with it. I did end up winning both painting awards, but my games weren't so successful.

Well, I ended up playing a guy I faced before doing the exact same lists we played against each other and the exact same scenario. Instead of getting pulverized like I did before I actually came very close to winning, but I timed myself out. I've learned quite a bit between our last bout and even survived an assassination attempt by Molik Karn, which is quite a feat. Lesson of the game: don't waste time, and avoid assassination attempts with too many moving parts. Things I learned and applied from last time: don't overestimate units, both mine and his; it's okay to hold onto your feat until turn 4 sometimes - better to use it late when it's more useful than early and less useful, even if you have less units to benefit from it. He actually forgot I still had it by then, which came to my benefit. But really it was useless to use it the turn he popped his feat since they had a minimum defense of 16s around the board and tough.

Due to the loss the second game was much easier. I played against a beginner Khador using a Conquest and two units of Man-o-Wars. I decided to use my Doom/Mulg list as to not lock my last list in, plus Mulg can easily dispatch the Conquest on his own. The plan worked and Mulg killed it in one turn (although it used all his resources) and the Long Riders tied up the Manowars easily.

The last game was against a Cryx player. My trolls have an extremely hard time going against any Cryx players. When I first started playing in Mk I my meta was only my friends, which meant I never played against Cryx or even in tournaments. I never had to deal with Incorporeal or debuffs that much. So I only bought models that worked for the brick. Once into Mk II I lost interest in the Trolls and hadn't wanted to fill these weaknesses out since I already had a painted force. Thus Cryx, even mediocre lists, dominate my trolls. I'm not proud, but hey at least they look pretty when they die.

Because of my limitations to using my painted force I didn't do so well my third game in. Again my time became an issue, so it's definitely something I need to work on. Because I couldn't manage my time I didn't utilize a trample when I needed to and costed me the game. I could have trampled over and assassinated the caster, least of all been out of range of the unit causing me not to be able to heal or be healed. Mulg could have gotten the win, but I played a bit too conservative with him. Lesson learned: go for the win if it's a clear shot, learn to utilize the clock.

Here are some pics:

I actually started painting Mulg for the steamroller and utilized the challenge to motivate me. He ended up being mostly painted - I'd say about 75% - in time for the steamroller. Even though he wasn't finished he was the model I put up for best painted and won. I hadn't touched him since, being that he's such an overwhelming task with all the details. At least he's tabletop standard.

In the meantime I also got a coworker into Malifaux and played a demo game with him. He ended up buying the Pandora box and a Teddy - which made me jealous as I've always wanted to play as them. I have waaaay too many models as it is however and am completely fine with not having that crew. I already have several crews and have only played a handful of games so far.

I can't wait until that Dreamer box comes out, although I just want to paint Lord Chompy Bits. I've already got so many damn models I need to stop. I bought the Som'er Teeth Jones box and the University of Transmortis box and I still haven't even painted one crew yet.

And once I started accruing all this stuff I got the Hobby ADD again - I've decided to work on Infinity!

So I began by putting together some terrain about a week or two ago. I did all of it so far from foamboard. I have limited experience with it only through my papercraft terrain which was never completed (it is extremely time consuming to do properly). However, I've foraged through numerous tutorials and resources and felt comfortable diving right in. Let me tell you - building terrain is awesome, and foamboard is the bee's knees.

Here's a WIP:

It's not much to look at right now (it is a WIP after all) but you can see the general idea. I used miter cuts to hide a lot of the joins and also cut the perimeter at the base board to make it stable as well as hide joins. The result is spectacular and have since added more details. Once I finish the basic part I will take more WIP pictures to show you everything up until painting, and that's when this thing is really going to shine.

I haven't had this much fun with the hobby in a long time! I always said the one part I hate most is the modelling portion. I love the playing, and I love the painting even more, but I hate the gluing, the filing, the pinning, all the modeling parts. It's the reason why I almost never convert, or make elaborate bases, and why a lot of my models never get put together or painted. It's the opposite for terrain. It gets me motivated and utilizes my creativity much more and just gets me imagining like a kid again. With what I've started I've realized just what's possible, and pinterest definitely fuels the fire.

You'll see exactly what I'm talking about once I get finished with this piece.

I also decided to put all the models I have purchased over time for Infinity. I put together every box and blister I own for Infinity short of the O-Yoroi pilot from the bootleg series, since that's really just a vanity model. I've decided to get going on them and paint them to a tabletop standard, rather than the weeks-long session I did on the first model I painted. We'll see if that happens...

Anyway, that's what I have. Hopefully I'll have more pics of the terrain and what I'm going for next!