2019 Hobby Review and 2020 Goals

Well I haven't been able to update the blog in a few months due to being very busy, but I have been getting plenty of hobbying done. That is not to say I've actually finished much, as I seem to accrue new side projects at an alarming rate, despite my resolution last year to not start any new projects I've done a rather poor job of that. This year however I am determined to have a year of getting things done, especially given the number of regular opponents I have currently.

One thing I don't usually talk about in my Hobby Review (or on this blog in general) is battling as I don't do that much of it. This year however I've managed to get some games in which I've really enjoyed (for both LOTR and 40k). I have instituted a policy of not battling with an army unless its fully painted and I've found that that has really helped with both painting productivity and also with getting games in as that has become the intended goal of getting stuff painted. Its also just such a great feeling to have a game with a fully-painted army on the board, and while my win/loss ratio isn't too great I've still enjoyed my games a lot!

In particular I've been involved in a 40k campaign with a space marine army that became spun off from the Kill Team I did the other year. While these games have highlighted quite a few of the problems I have with the current 40k meta, I have enjoyed the narrative aspect of it and I've felt really motivated to get an army painted due to there being points available for submitted a newly painted army each week.

In other news, I've also managed to indoctrinate one of my new housemates into the hobby via AoS, gotten one of my regular Warhammer opponents into Malifaux, and I even managed to get my girlfriend into painting Harry Potter miniatures with me!


Finished Projects

- LOTR Projects - With the revamping of the Middle-Earth Strategy Game I have decided to do a mass re-painting of my LOTR armies while adding one or two miniatures I've always wanted. My first project of the year to be completed was my Mordor army, shortly followed by my Dark Spirits of Middle Earth which allowed me to field my Mordor army as an Angmar one.

- Malifaux - To finish off my Lady Justice crew I painted up some Domodore dos Cadaveres. I absolutely love the miniatures and look forward to trying them out, as well as getting some games in this year, which I didn't quite manage last year.

Novator Ludovico Invespucci
riding the mutant navigator Pigafetta 

- Navigators - as a brief foray into the world of Inq28 and Blachitsu, I made this Navigator war band which I'm really happy with as an experiment into a way of modelling and painting I haven't really tried much before. I don't know when I'll next have the chance to do a Inq28 war band but its something I'd love to do again.

- Custodes Wave 2 - You know how I said last year that I wouldn't start any new projects? Well I did... With the release of the Vetenari, and the fact I've gotten into battling and have wanted to play larger games, I decided to add to my Adeptus Custodes to take it up to 2000 points of pure gold.

- Imperial Knight - An unexpected addition to my Talons of the Emperor, but when one of my friends was selling his Knight I felt I couldn't pass up the opportunity, and what better colour to paint it than gold? I'll be posting pictures of my knight and my expanded Custodes army on the blog as soon as I manage to upload all my pictures properly.



WIP Projects

- Daughters of Khaine - Near the start of the year I sold off my Flesh-Eater Courts due to a lack of interest in them, and began swapping over some of my old Witch Elves onto round bases. I did a little bit of painting and converting for a Daughters of Khaine army, but my summer was mostly dominated by more Custodes and by the time I had got the time to work on my Witches, a new army had come to AoS which grabbed me instantly...

Dab

- Ossiarch Bonereapers - When these guys were announced I simply had to get them. Nagash himself has been gathering dust on my shelf for years now and this army, full of constructs and tanky skeletons, gives me the perfect excuse to finally field him. I've put my Daughters of Khaine into storage, bought two Feast of Bones boxes (which I've sold the Ogor halves of), and gotten to work raising an army of Ossiarchs to conquer the mortal realms with.

- Iron Brutes Primaris marines - Since September I have been involved in a 40k campaign at my local club. When it came to choosing a faction I was a little at a loss as the campaign began before new Sisters of Battle were released and it started after I had finished painting all my Custodes (the scoring mechanism for the campaign rewarded painting new stuff each week). I decided that as Primaris marines were finally good, easy to paint, and cheap on eBay that I would expand the Kill Team I painted up last year into a full army. By only buying from eBay I've been able to assemble a 2000 point army for only around 100 quid, and I've now painted the majority of it. The campaign doesn't wrap up until February so I haven't painted everything yet, but this is a side project which will complete itself by then.

- Imperial Fists - I acquired a large number of old metal space marines earlier this year which I ultimately plan on turning into an old-school Imperial Fists army for display purposes. I started painting them up but after the new Contrast paints were announced I decided to put them on the back burner until I have the chance to get some yellow contrast paint to do them with as I'm currently unhappy with my own attempts at yellow.


No Progress

- Lost projects - This year I managed to sell off the last of my Imperial Guard and Dark Angels, as well as my Flesh-Eater Courts which I lost all enthusiasm for after looking at how many miniatures I needed to paint to field a decent list and feeling uninspired by their new Endless Spells. I've also sold off a bunch of misc. Imperial and Undead miniatures I no longer have a need for.

- Witch Hunters - With new Sisters of Battle coming out, I had to make the decision whether to simply add them to my old army or start them as a new project. After seeing the scale of the new plastics I decided on the latter, and resolved to shelve my old Witch Hunters for now. I'll get around to finishing repainting them at some point but we'll see.

Goals for 2020

- Finish my Space Marines army for the campaign - My first and most important goal is getting my unexpected space marine army finished. I have about half the miniatures finished, and of the half that is left they are half painted so I expect to be done with them in the first few months of the year. After which I can move on to more exciting 40k projects...

- Sisters of Battle - My main 40k project this year (and probably for the next few years) is going to be my Sisters of Battle. I managed to get the limited edition army box which I've supplemented with a converted priest, and the Celestine and Greyfax miniatures I already owned - and given that amount of stuff I think I'll be still painting them for much of the year.

- Ossiarch Bonereapers - My main AoS project which I expect to come to the fore once my space marines are done. I have around 1000 points of Ossiarchs, plus a few other bits and bobs which I was gifted for Christmas, and I hope to get these painted and some games in soon before buying anything else for the army.

- Lucius crew for Malifaux- In my continued Malifaux adventures I've finally decided to get myself a second crew. I went with Lucius as I wanted to stay within the Guild, but have a more interesting experience than the reasonably simple to play Lady Justice. I also just adore the amount of character packed into each and every sculpt in the core box, and I look forward to leading a war band of lawyers into battle.

- Underworlds - I acquired the Beastgrave core box this past year as well as one or two other war bands which I've had immense fun playing. However it seems about time for me to actually paint up some of the bands I've been playing with which include: Kurnothi, Beastmen, Kharadron, and Flesh-Eaters. One a month would be a nice goal (especially as I've banned myself from buying any more until I've painted some) but we shall see given everything else I'm working on.

- LOTR - I'm slowly working on revamping my LOTR collection since the relaunch of the game and I hope to continue assembling my forces into this new year. I had a lot of fun doing my Mordor stuff last year and hope to work on Isengard this year, with a particular focus on Dunland considering they got some new miniatures recently.


I go into this year with an awful lot of projects and things I want to work on. GW did a great job last year of releasing things I really, really wanted and I can only hope that they slow down this year. However I am optimistic that I can get plenty done. I'm doing pretty well with my work/life balance at the moment and have a fair amount of spare time to get painting and battling done in. I've got a very busy year ahead of me this year so I don't know how my blogging will go, but we shall see. Maybe I'll try instagram this year...

Malifaux - Domadores de Cadaveres

When these miniatures were released I just thought they looked so cool I had to have them, that they fit with my Lady Justice crew was an added bonus! However, with the announcement of Third Edition these Spanish necromancers got shelved as I waited to see what the new version of the rules would be. Now that Third Edition is out and it looks good, I've been motivated to finish painting my Domadores de Cadaveres as a final addition to my Lady Justice crew.

As a bonus, I've managed to get one of my housemates into the idea of Malifaux so hopefully I'll get some games in of that later this year. Should that happen I think I'll pick myself up another crew to play around with and right now I'm considering Lucius as I'd like to play something that is very different to the combat-oriented Lady Justice. We shall see...

2018 Hobby Review and 2019 Goals

This seemed oddly relevant to these kinds of posts

Looking back at my hobby review of 2017 and goals for 2018, I think I haven't done too badly this past year! Though its true that I got side tracked and started/finished some projects I didn't mean to, I have gotten more painting done overall than I did in 2017 which I'm counting as a win. I've also posted more on the blog: 24 posts this past year as opposed to only 7 in 2017. In general, I've tried to rest and relax more this 2018, particularly as my health has been exceptionally poor. Painting and writing on this blog has proven to be a great source of relaxation and I hope that I can keep up a good pace of hobby and blogging this new year.

You may also notice that in the past I've posted my 'hobby review' in February as I routinely forget to do it in January, this year however I cheated and wrote this post as the year went along before editing it after Christmas. Coming back to this sporadically as the year went on helped to remind me what my goals were and what projects I was supposed to be working on, and I found it oddly motivating; resulting in me trying to get as many things done or worked on as possible. I can't say I've achieved everything I wanted to this past year, but I must say I'm happier with what I've done in the hobby more than in recent previous years.


Completed Projects

- The Guild's Judgement - My first project of the year to be completed was my first adventure into the world of Malifaux. I had such a blast painting Lady Justice and her crew, and I've enjoyed the games I've had using this system thus far. I hope that I can get some more crews together (I've certainly started making plans!) and games in future.

- Talons of the Emperor- So my plans for this year were kinda derailed a little by the new Custodes miniatures, and despite saying I'd only buy a box each time I finished another project I just went out and bought a load when I had the money. I can however say that this project won't be dragging on and, barring a few touches to bases I still keep considering, this project is done. It has been incredibly fun and very rewarding, and I think in future I would like to tend more towards smaller, more elite forces like this which can be finished relatively quickly and look really good. I do like the idea of continuing to add things to this force, but that may not happen for quite a while. I haven't had an opportunity to photograph them yet, but I'll be putting pictures on the blog at the next opportunity.

- Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages - As I've decided to fully quit Warmachine (and focus on Malifaux as my non-GW game), I decided to pick up one or two Menoth miniatures I liked to finish off my collection. I've always been a fan of this version of Reznik; it forms a lovely centrepiece to my collection, and it was a nice break to paint teal and silver instead of red and gold!

The Iron-Mongers

- Primaris Kill Team - Not an intended project for this year, but the first issue of Warhammer Conquest was just insane value for money considering you got 3 paints and a brush for only two pounds. The Primaris marines which were in there as well were purely incidental really and seeing as  I had them, I thought I might as well make a little kill team out of them. This was a fun side-project and fortunately didn't take up too much time.

- Storage - One of my side-projects this year has been to create some more elegant storage solutions for my miniatures as they had started to take up quite a bit of room! I have invested in some proper carry cases for my Dark Elf, and Warriors of Chaos/Chaos Dwarf armies, and I've started considering how to store my Dark Eldar and End Times Elves. I'm rather happy that I've been able to store my miniatures in a more efficient manner, and I will no doubt continue to find ways to properly store my completed projects this new year as/when the need arises.


WIP

- Age of Sigmar - This past year, spurred on by Malign Portents and the release of Second Edition, I have started doing some stuff for Age of Sigmar which I've been adding to the blog in a narrative project called: 'At the Court of the Silver King'. This continues to be a WIP project but its certainly more progress than last year where I did virtually no AoS stuff at all! You can find all my ongoing Age of Sigmar stuff on the page of that name.

Lots of LOTR WIP...

- WIP Middle-Earth - Because I can't help but make more work for myself; I started doing some converting, painting, and general faffing about with my LOTR miniatures. Partially inspired by GW reinvigorating this part of the hobby with the 'Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game' rebranding, and partially by a bit of a renewal of Tolkien in my own life this past year as my girlfriend has gotten into his works. Unfortunately most of my Middle-Earth stuff remains very WIP and I have quite a few projects currently in the pipeline. The only thing I have really finished is my 1985 Mouth of Sauron, but I am currently close to completing my Isengard army.

- Witch Hunters - I did a little work on my Witch Hunters last year after starting to repaint them all in 2017. I plan on picking them back up again when the new plastic Battle Sisters are released hopefully later this year. I've certainly got a lot of ideas for what I want to do with them, including what I think should be a really interesting and unique basing scheme as I think I'll have to do a lot of re-basing to 32mm bases.

- 40k warbands - At the end of 2017 I gathered together various spare miniatures I owned that weren't being used for anything and decided to paint them up as several small war bands to use in skirmish games set in 40k; whether that might be Kill Team, Shadow War: Armageddon, Inquisimunda, or whatever. Progress is slow and I'm increasingly considering selling some of them off.

Slowly getting my undead done!

- Lich Army - My experimental Lich army continues to provide me with weird and wonderful conversion/painting opportunities. Though not yet completed, I have enjoyed my work on this side-project immensely. I'm hoping to spend some time on this project over the summer and I'd like to get it done by the end of the year if I have the opportunity.

- Tomb Kings - I've had this army on the back burner for years, though I am slowly getting them done, ultimately for display purposes. I'm sure if I didn't keep finding other projects to do I would have finished repainting this stuff a long while ago.

- Navigators - Last up is a very small project I've just started, which I don't intend on taking up much time at all and should be the very first thing I finish this year. At my Uni's wargaming society there should hopefully be an Inq28 narrative campaign taking off soon, and I've decided to build a group of Navigators to take part. I don't plan on spending much money on getting this project together, and as it will only be about 5 miniatures it won't take long to get finished and on the tabletop.


No Progress (List of Shame)

Remarkably I've managed to get a little bit of everything existing worked upon this year, except for those projects which have disappeared indefinitely:

- Lost Projects - This year there have been some armies I have chosen to get rid of because I have no interest in adding to, playing with, or repainting. My Imperial Guard and my Dark Angels have either been sold or are in the process of being sold, with the intention that funds from them will be put towards pursuing new projects like the impending Sisters of Battle release.


Goals for 2019

- Sisters of Battle - GW have promised the long-awaited plastic Battle Sisters this year. I'd like to try and get as much WIP stuff finished as I possibly can by the time that they are released so that they can become my main and sole focus going into 2020. Of course this relies heavily on GW actually releasing them this year and I think that if they do it will be close to the end of the calendar year.

- Continue working on Age of Sigmar projects - Though I predicted last year that it would be the Daughters of Khaine who derailed my hobby plans,  I didn't actually end up buying any of the new miniatures; being distracted by the Adeptus Custodes instead. I did however set aside a few things when boxing up my Dark Elves which I plan to use as the beginnings of a Daughters of Khaine army. First however, I have the 'Court of the Silver King' project to finish which I am enjoying a lot even though progress is slow. The reveal of the Abhorrant Archregent also promises my FEC getting a bit of a boost this year which would be welcome.

- More Middle-Earth - I've really enjoyed getting back into the game this past year and I plan to continue painting and expanding my various Middle-Earth armies this year. I'm not setting myself a set schedule for what forces I'd like to get finished by the end of the year, but I'd like to make plenty of good progress and get a few games in where I can.

These miniatures just look so fun to paint!

- More Malifaux - With a new edition of the game launching and my interest in it continually growing, I intend on continuing to invest in new miniatures for Malifaux and to try getting some more games in with my brother.

- More games in general - I don't play as often as I'd like to, and last year circumstance stopped me from getting the games in I wanted. With the promise of a Inq28 campaign at my Uni's tabletop society, I may at least get some games in of that, but I'd also really like to take my Custodes out for a battle or two, and enjoy some Malifaux or Middle-Earth if I have the opportunity.

-Don't start new projects!!! - Last year I started a Talons of the Emperor army I didn't plan on doing, made a Primaris Kill Team, bought Reznik for Warmachine, promised to make a Navigator war band and decided to repaint all my LOTR stuff. My ultimate goal is to only have one hobby project on the go at a time (hahahahahahah....), so not starting new projects is going to be one of my main concerns in 2019 as I start clearing my backlog and continue to find more elegant storage solutions for the projects I have completed.

My first battle sister, hopefully the plastic sculpts will have improved as much as my painting has! 

I guess this year I will be returning to my hobby roots in many ways. My first foray into miniature wargaming was via Lord of the Rings which armies I am currently repainting, my first proper fantasy army was Dark Elves and this year I'd like to work on some Daughters of Khaine, and my first 40k army was Witch Hunters and I eagerly anticipate plastic Battle Sisters when they arrive. I do have other things to be working on, but these three projects in particular will be lovely little nostalgia trips.

We shall see how that all goes when I come to write the next one of these at the start of 2020, but overall I'd say I'm really happy with all the hobbying I did in 2018 and I'm quite optimistic for how much I'll get done this year!

Autumn Workbench 2018 - Experimental Undead, Malifaux Mumblings, and Hobby Review

Last year in late autumn I wrote a bit of a rambling post about current things I was working on as well as reflecting upon my progress over the year in relation to the goals I posted back in February. I've got a few odds and ends I'm working on at the moment, and I've started thinking about next year already, so I thought I'd write another rambling post as autumn comes upon us once again. 

Firstly, something oft referenced but rarely posted about on this blog is what I've been referring to as my 'Lich Warband', or as it now appears to be a 'Lich Army'. I've collected a few different undead armies in my time and I've been left with lots of spare parts. I decided to make a little army out of what spare parts I could, taking the time to experiment with narratives, weird conversions, and unusual paint jobs. Though my time working on this force has been quite sporadic, its been an awful lot of fun and I look forward to properly putting it on the blog when its finished. For now though here's a little look at what I've completed thus far:

Finished Malifaux Project!

For my first Malifaux crew I chose Lady Justice and her Death Marshals, mostly because they are simply the coolest, most eye-grabbing set in the game in my opinion. Nothing better embodies the horror, the magic, and the western feel of the setting than a blind ninja lady leading ghost-rider cowboys who are literally dancing on coffins. They were an absolute blast to paint (if a little fiddly at times) but I like to think I managed the gritty, desperate, and violent image I have of the city of Malifaux itself, and particularly the grim world of the Death Marshals.

I think this is all I'm going to do with my Lady Justice crew for now, as I have a few different options to try out here and I'd like my next Malifaux purchase to be a different crew and master. I will definitely return to Lady J though and perhaps add even more units like Death Marshal Recruiters which synergise with my existing collection. More thoughts and pictures below:

Thoughts from my desk - Titania, MiniCrate, and other Miscellany

I've had a lot of random thoughts about the hobby recently, and as I finish my first miniature of the year (its taken a while I know!), I thought I'd take some time to ramble and lay out some of the ideas and opinions I've had floating around in my head.

I was lucky enough to manage to pick up the alternate sculpt for Titania last Black Friday and I've had a lot of fun painting up the undead faerie queen. I tried as best I could to achieve a middle ground between her standard colour scheme and her appearance on the classic Red Joker artwork, and I think I've succeeded. Though I don't know if I'll ever build a crew for her, I can see her easily being the first of several Malifaux miniatures that I pick up solely for the pleasure of painting.



I have only recently been made aware of Privateer Press's 'MiniCrate', which is a miniatures version of the loot crate business model. For those of you who aren't aware of it and fancy a look heres a link: MiniCrate. I've got a lot of thoughts on this because on a basic level it really appeals to me as a collector and a painter, which I think is really the target audience for this. After all, the miniatures that are part of this product are simply alternate sculpts and seemingly chosen at random from across the various factions, so not much use to gamers. I quite like the idea of getting a new miniature every month to just paint up and have on display, especially as most of these alternative sculpts are quite cool-looking. The 'mystery' aspect is what I think is the greatest turn-off for most people, as there's a good chance of not getting a miniature for any of your factions or even one you actually like. Miniatures can be quite expensive and it would be disappointing to end up buying something you don't even like the look of. Indeed, the whole thing seems quite expensive for just a single miniature every month, especially for anyone like me who does not live in the United States. While a novel and interesting idea, the whole thing doesn't quite work for me. Privateer Press aren't particularly my favourite miniatures manufacturer as far as aesthetic goes and I'm not deeply into the lore of the game, but I did think this product worthy of a mention as I can see it, or something similar to it, being successful in the future and possibly attracting me.

Now onto a few bits of misc. thoughts I've had about my miniatures recently...

Horribly flat colours in desperate need of a highlight, ideally two

I'm thinking of doing something with my Lord of the Rings miniatures this year. They are painted in quite a basic fashion and would benefit simply from a few highlights, a bit of dry brushing, and maybe some better basing. I also ended up with a part-complete second-hand Mumakil about two years ago I really ought to do something with. Of course I have other, more pressing painting matters to attend to first, but I can easily see my Easterlings or Uruk-Hai getting a little attention in future.

Last year I was able to get hold of some second-hand Sisters of Silence which I've not really done anything with yet, but I have added a converted Astropath, an imprisoned psyker (to use as an objective marker), and some Tempestus Scions to represent the Black Sentinels of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. I think I am going to use these as an allied detachment for my Custodes and paint them in the same way. Hopefully in future we will see some manner of combined 40k Talons of the Emperor codex and I can have my Custodes and Silent Sisters fight side by side properly.

Such an incredible miniature, just the right balance of detail and simple elegance 

Though I still have lots of Death stuff to paint, I have been greedily eyeing the new Daughters of Khaine miniatures. I am very tempted to pull my Dark Elves out of storage and start putting some of my Witch Elves on round bases in preparation for getting Morathi and some of her new mutant aelves. The main thing stopping me is the financial burden of my upcoming Custodes project (as well as all my other unfinished projects!), though later on in the year I can see myself splurging on some Daughters of Khaine. First however I have a tonne of ghouls and skeletons to paint, and won't consider getting anything else for Age of Sigmar until they are done.

Coming up on the blog soon should be my Malifaux miniatures which I am close to finishing; after which should hopefully be a little bit of Eisenhorn, some progress on my Lich war band, and possibly a bit of Age of Sigmar if I can get the colours on this next war band right. Life has continued to be hectic recently but I am managing to get some bits of hobbling in when I can.

Autumn Workbench - Malifaux, Monsters, and More

I have been incredibly busy over the past few months but I have managed to get quite a few hobby things done in my spare time (i.e. procrastinating between more important things!). While I haven't managed to work on my Flesh-Eater Court or my Witch-Hunters, I have managed to do plenty of work on side projects. 

One of my main projects for this year, though smaller than my main army projects, is an experimental Lich Warband which I'm not putting together for any particular reason than wanting to try out some random painting/modelling ideas. The core of the war band are some small groups of skeletal warriors which are nearly done, just the basing and final details to do now.

One of my favourite miniatures GW has ever produced is Krell and I decided earlier this year to buy him on a whim, adding him to this project as leader of my skeletons. I even largely painted him like the GW scheme but with minor variations to fit the rest of the war band.

Perhaps my favourite conversion for this project thus far is this random Vampire Priest I cobbled together from spare parts. I wanted him to look like a non-combat orientated character, but more shamanistic than wizardly which I like to think I have achieved. 

With the Skeletal core of the army almost finished, I have started work on a Command Squad of wights as heavier hitters. This little unit is led by a character I'm currently just calling Lord Famine that I mounted upon a slightly-converted cow from the Giant kit, a piece that I've been wanting to use for ages now. This weird squad is probably most representative of the design philosophy of this project; that being pure creativity and experimentation. 

I've also managed to get a fair bit done on this Corsair war band for Age of Sigmar which I converted over the summer. It has been quite fun doing something a little different, even if it has admittedly distracted me from more important projects. I've used these miniatures as a test for using Tamiya Clear Red, as I'm currently considering a Horus Heresy project which I might use this colour for. 

I've also made a load of progress on the Malifaux stuff I ordered over the summer. I still have quite a way to go with these miniatures but I'm quite pleased with them thus far. I'm hoping that over the Christmas period I will be able to get my hands on The Jury for this crew as well as get in some of my first games of Malifaux.

Looking back at my hobby plans for the year, I realise that I have had mixed results thus far to say the least. I'm hoping that by the end of the year I will have managed to finish off the three projects mentioned above as well as get some other stuff done as well. After buying the Malifaux stuff in September I decided not to buy anymore miniatures until I had gotten more of my unpainted stuff done as I seem to have entered a never-ending cycle of starting new projects without finishing old ones while continuing to ignore my Tomb Kings. At the start of next year I shall do a 'year-in-review' post and we shall see how successful I have been! 

Starting Malifaux - The Guild's Judgement

With all of my Warmachine stuff painted I felt like I could justify starting a new, non-GW project and I finally managed to convince my brother to get into Malifaux with me. I've fancied getting some of Malifaux's miniatures for years as I think their plastics are simply gorgeous. Though they lack the customisability of GW I do think Wyrd's miniatures are of a similar quality as the level of detail and the crispness of the sculpts are top-notch. The style of sculpt is certainly different, incorporating much more flat space than GW and being more in line with true-scaling than heroic scaling, but I have encountered this kind of thing before with Kingdom Death miniatures and I look forward to the challenge.

For my first crew I have decided to go with 'The Guild's Justice' crew because they are ghost-rider-esque cowboys who are led by a blind ninja lady who is literally called Lady Justice. It doesn't really get much cooler than that in my opinion! As a fan of Westerns I think it is quite likely that as I expand into Malifaux further I will probably stick with the Guild as my main faction and I have already bought the Brutal Effigy to support any Guild crews I build.

As this is such a small model count game I plan on painting each miniature individually in order to try and paint them to the best of my ability. While I do like the colour scheme presented in the art, I would like to try and incorporate more of the Guild's signature colour of red into my miniatures though I'm not yet sure how I'm going to do this. I'd also like to give NMM a try but I've had mixed results with this in the past and may abandon it if I can't get the metallics quite right.

Once I have painted up this crew I think I will pick up a few more general Guild enforcers and minions that can run well with most masters before picking up Perdita Ortega or Sonnia Criid's crew box so I have another master to play with. I'd also love to get the Brutal Emissary as the miniature is simply badass and I'd love to see it stomp across the board terrifying my brother! He has started off with Seamus's crew but has no intention of staying within a given faction and is likely to pick up a range of different crews. As we are going to be away from home for the next few months at university we probably won't have chance for a game until near Christmas, but when we do I will make sure to post my thoughts on the blog.