Malifaux Title Masters

Ophelia was a fun model to paint. I started by doing her skin with my typical gremlin formula, its basically just GWs formula for Orks. Shes got a pin in her arms which I painted with a muted pink, and then it was just a matter of painting her clothes and all her belts.

The finishing touch was to paint the tips of all the bullets with a metallic paint. I think it adds a lot. Shes a lady who likes guns, and she needs plenty of ammo to fight off the red cage abominations.

The last step was to add a bunch of random vegetation to make it look like she’s in the swamp.

Sly six shots himself is kind of an understated model, so he got a pretty basic paintjob. Next to his is his case of goodies that he peddles, and I think it is the part of the model that will get the most attention.

I started by base coating the wooden parts, and then going over all of the gun barrels and handles. Then I hit the whole thing with a dark brown wash. I probably could have stopped there, but I decided to go back over it all with a bit of a highlight to make some parts stand out.

The I added foliage, the same swamp stuff to some side, and some dry deserty stuff to the other. Overall I was pretty happy with the transition between the two biomes.

Perdita is one of my favorite characters in Malifaux. She’s basically Dominic Toretto if he was Latina and even cooler than he is. This new model is a bit understated compared to most that have come out with Malifaux Burns, but I think that is because it is showing her character growth. She started out as a teenager who was a bit more reckless, and who was kind of sexualized. Now she ought to be in her 30s, and I kind of like the new dignified look, as shes taking on her role as the Matriarch of her family.

It was a pretty simple paint job. One fun bit was the few areas of fur on her outfit. I did those by undercoating in a medium gray, and then doing a pretty heavy drybrush, probably closer to an overbrush, with a lighter gray with a bit of a tan color mixed in to give it a bit of warmth.

I added a few tufts to her base and shes all done.

And the gangs all here. This was a fun box to paint up. I have never been a huge fan of the Gremlins, but Ophelia has really grown on me. I might have to put her on the table some day soon.

As always, if you wanna learn more about either of these characters, check out the lore videos I did on them below, and stay tuned for the next box!

Next up we are tackling Basse and Parker, along with Parkers sister Pearl who has infiltrated Basses posse.

My Basse crew is done up with grassy and overgrown bases. The models int he crew focus on being able to move through difficult terrain, so it made some sense to base him this way.

Parker is on a reddish desert based with rocks. The big story Parker is featured in sees the crew moving through the badlands and the dirt is described as reddish, so I thought it would make an interesting basing scheme.

For the Basse base (lol) I used some of these extra bits from a sylvaneth army to make some little shrubs and bushes. I just cut little pieces off and glued them to the base, before applying dirt.

The red desert I made with some Vallejo texture paste. I base coated them with a dark red and then drybrushed a pale red over top. The rocks are made of cork, and I painted them up with a medium gray, drybrushed up to a light gray.

For the mixed keyword base for Pearl, I just did the texture paste, but at the end I will toss some bushes on top to make it a mixture of both schemes.

Parker is wearing a ton of leather, so I started off by basecoating him in an orangey brown. I then drybrushed it heavily to give it a worn look. I went in and added some color in the few places that arent leather, and painted his gun. The last step was to drybrush and stipple some dark gray and black on the ends of his clothes, since hes a firey boy.

Last I just added some fire effect into the cuts in his arm and chest. Undercoated it with a light gray, then added yellow and orange.

Pearl was a pretty simple paint job. I base coated everything as needed, and then drybrushed to give her clothing a worn effect, similar to Parker. Her chaps are red so I went in an manually highlighted them up to get them to stand out a big more.

Ive always had a hard time painting capes, so when I got to Basse I spend a bit of extra time on it. I just did a ton of layers, adding in highlights where my painting light seemed to indicate. I then added a few shadows, being careful not to make them too big, which is something that often happens.

After I picked out all of the other colors, I went in and added the gold trim that goes around his clothing. I think this added a really nice touch to the model, and makes it stand out quite a bit.

These were some of the most fun models ive painted in a while. Im not really sure why, they don’t look like they stand out very much. I think it was the combination of painting techniques, and some really well sculpted and characterful models. Im always impressed how Wyrd can manage to make normal-ish looking people look so unique and different, even though there are hundreds of models in their range.

I totally forgot to include the lore videos for the last 2 masters. I’m bad at youtube.

Toni Ironsides is my favorite character in Malifaux. Queen T can do no wrong, and if you say anything bad about her, I will fight you.

All that said, he crew is on these kind of plain cobblestone bases, cuz I put her together a long time ago. Anya, the other master in her box, is so new that I haven’t based up her crew yet. Id like to put her on railroad bases since shes a rich rail magnate. The three drudges that they share will, as always, go on 2 tone bases.

For the rail bases, I used some coffee stirrers and cut them into shape so they would fit in the lipped bases. I have these styrene I beams that Im going to use for the rails, since railroad rails are closer to capital I shaped than just a flat rail. I positioned some of them so that the model would be standing in the middle of the tracks, and some where the tracks are off center.

For the cobbles, I stuck some greenstuff on the bases, and then used a sculpting took to make some irregular shapes. I then rounded out the meeting points so that all of the “cobbles” dont seem too perfectly shaped, and ran a rock over the top to give a bit of texture.

For the hybrid bases I one did part cobblestones, and the other side I added railroad ties.

I primed everything black. For the cobbles, I based them in a dark gray, and then drybrushed up to a light gray. Its probably better to add more interesting colors to cobbles, but I need them to match the plain old ones, for now.

I did the rails in metallic, and the ties in a wood color, and hit them with a dark brown and a drybrush.

In my head, the rocks inside the rail tracks should be black. I did some research to figure out if this is a real thing, and I couldn’t find an explanation. I couldn’t even find many pictures where the rocks were black unless all of the rocks in the area were black. But thats how they look in my head, so thats how im gonna paint them. Sometimes, you have to paint to be representative, not realistic.

The paint scheme was pretty straightforward. The drudges have work clothes on, so I did some pretty heavy washes and light drybrushing to get a dark and worn look.
Im still bad at painting black skin in spite of the fact that ive gotten a lot of practice at this point. Its hard to capture the shininess of skin without making dark skin look pale. I try adding red into the mix to make it look more natural, but I still haven’t gotten it down.

Anya is looking all fancy and professional. Watch out, she will cut you.

I had to get these models done quick because I was getting ready for a tournament. Fun fact, I ended up only playing Toni’s original version, so I never touched any of these models.

Also fun fact, Anya has never really showed up in the Malifaux story, so I have not made a video on her yet. Hopefully one day soon. But Toni’s story is one of the best, so check it out.

Next I thought I’d take a crack at Captain Dashel and Hamelin. Dashel is all about commanding the Guild Guard and patrolling the streets, so I have his crew based up on sidewalks, with rubble and bricks mixed in. Hamelin is a dirty sewer boy, so I have his crew done up on slimy putrid water bases, and some have piping and rubble mixed in. It shouldn’t be hard to make up a hybrid base for the 2 schemes.

Malifaux bases have a lip, so I started by cutting out discs to stick inside and bring the base up flush. I glued in one, and added a groove to look like a separate part of the sidewalk. For the hybrid base, I only used a half disc so that it looks like where the sidewalk meets the dirt. I then added some sand to the edge, and a pile of sand to the sewer base. I put it down with superglue so that it would build up a bit thicker.

After a prime, I painted the dirt brown, and drybrushed tan. Then I painted the sidewalks with a dark gray, and used a bit of sponge to stipple on a darker gray and a lighter gray to give it a sidewalk look.

The last step was to paint the submerged area in a few shades of green, and then pour on some water effects. I wasn’t super happy with how it came out, I still find water effects to be a bit hard to make look good. Needs more experimenting.

the disease containment unit is mostly a leather outfit with a red cloak. The leather was done with an orangey brown and a wash. I then finished all of the metal details and her hair, before doing the red cloak.

Dashel is also mostly red clothes, leather straps and some metal. I did the leather with brown and a wash, and then spent some time highlighting the cape manually. The axe heads were a bit tough. They look like a very dull metal in the art. I tried doing some NMM to give it a scratchy texture. I think it came out okay, but im still not super happy with my NMM. I can do it pretty decent on small surfaces, but these guys are big.

Hamelin was a fun one. He is all dirty looking green and khaki. The green  bit coming out of the flute looks like someting between smoke and fire, so I painted it similar to how I paint fire.

After putting them on their bases, I felt a bit better about the paint jobs. I think they fit in well with their crews, even though I painted them years ago. I have to say these new sculpts for Malifaux in the last few years have been excellent, really dynamic and high detail. They are a ton of fun to paint.

Oh and don’t forget the videos I did on both of these masters if you wanna learn all about their lore!

So next up I’m gonna tackle Nellie and Jack Daw. They are 2 of the crazier characters in Malifaux, but their models are relatively understated for this new line of titles.

For my existing crews, Jack Daw is on a gray wasteland type base with tufts. Nallie and co are on brick paths with green grass on the sides, and for some I have added newspapers since they are all about being journalists. This should actually be a pretty easy pair to combine the bases on.

I have these little plaster bricks that I picked up a while back, and I started off by glueing them down on 2 of the bases in a pattern. I made it a bit more chaotic for the base for the shared model. I then did the rest of all 3 bases with sand and primed black.

The normal ground got painted brown, while the wasteland got painted a medium gray. The bricks got painted gray, and all of it got dry brushed- Khaki for the brown, light gray for the gray. Pretty simple really.

I started off by painting all of the models skin, since they are all a similar tone. After that I hit all of the leather and browns. Leather works pretty well with just a simple dry brush. Even Nellies skirt was pretty quick and easy, and the result was pretty good I think.

Jack Daw’s clothes are pretty simple, just dark gray and light gray. The other 2 have a little more going on, with colorful clothing and papers and cameras. I always find it difficult to paint classes. Nellies look bad up close, but from a distance I think they are passable.

I added a little green glow to Jack, and some grass to the bases, and im calling them done. Quick and easy. 1 more box down.

If you’re curious about the characters, check out the videos I did!

I helped Wyrd Announce this set of Miniatures in the summer of 2021. It was technically released in Q1 of 2023, but because my FLGS does not carry Wyrd stuff, and the websites I order from are… bad. I didn’t get my hands on them until almost 2 years after the announcement. Naturally, Marcus is the master that I play the most, so I’ve been proxying him (hence the weird base thing)

Anyways… Marcus, Lord cooper and the Empyrean Eagles.

The fun part is, both of these Masters have pretty similar base styles. Marcus and his crew are on jungle style bases. For cooper, I tried to make his bases feel like a path that has been carved out of the forest, because they are all hunters. Turns out, the bases are pretty small and you cant really see the trail much, but oh well. I already had the bases made for Cooper and the Eagles because I did his crew fairly recently, but I’m sure you can guess how I did them. Copy paste for Marcus’ base.

I started Marcus by doing an orangey brown for his fur, followed by a careful drybrush. Its a really cool looking model, but there isn’t actually very much to it. So after that I just painted up his clothing and added some highlights.

Cooper has a little more going on in terms of colors, he has a few metallic limbs and a fun new bow. His clothes have a few splashes of color, and he also has some branches on his back. Im not sure how effective that will be as camo, but who cares… hes a bad guy.

The eagles were a lot of fun to paint. They have these kind of brownish blueish feathers with a suble fade across the wings. I started by base coating them brown, and drybrushing several layers up to the aqua blue. They have a few little details on them, including a little anklet and some creepy eyes.

Marcus is my most played master, and I got a few games in with him right after finishing these guys up. I also snapped a few pics of my collection of Marcuses. I’m only missing one of his sculpts, I’m sure ill round out the collection soon.

Don’t forget to check out the lore videos, and stay tuned for more Faux!

Next we are tackling Zipp and Maxine. I based both of them on ship decks: Airship for Zipp and boat ship for Maxine.

For Maxine, I have been using these premade bases. They are industrial style, with piping and valves and such, and I think they make for a good ship deck. The Zipp bases are custom made. I actually did a video about how to make these bases a long time ago. It was a fun project to do, and there are a lot of different directions you can go with a Malifaux airship because we dont have much in terms of offical art for them.

I already had a base painted up for Maxine. For the shared model, I decided to simply cut off some of the bits from another premade base, and then add some diamond plate to give it more of a look like the custom bases.

For Zipp, I also started with Diamond plate since its a common feature on the airship bases. I then took 2 bits from some space marines, and glued them next to eachother to look like a steampunk machine or an exhaust port.

This is another one where I forgot to take WIP pictures. Maxine was the most interesting model to paint. She has a bunch of tentacles because of her being influenced by the burning man.

I tried to paint them in a pinkish skin color by blending the color along the main tentacle. I kind of feel like I should go back and add some different colors to the suckers and spikes, but there isn’t much to go on in the art.

Zipp was a pretty simple paint job. He looks a lot like his old version, but pirated up. I like the sculpt for this model, I haven’t seen many models swinging on a rope like this.

Beau is a cute little gremmie. He is a lot like other gremlins, but hes holding a fun map. I tend to always paint paper the same, base it in an off white, and then wash it with sepia. It adds a dirty look and almost gives the impression of writing, with almost no effort.