Malifaux Crews: My quest to paint

Every time I try to paint, it ends up terribly and quickly becomes discouraging with one exception: my tyranids look fine. They look fine because they were done entirely with washes which works nicely for organic creatures.

Now, I have all these Malifaux models to paint and after some failed experiments, I'm going to try something new. I'm going to prime them all white and try painting them entirely with washes: clothing, flesh, hair, fur, everything. If it begins to work out, I will track my progress on here, posting the crews as they develop.

Wish me luck!

Washing can work on all that, I've done it on all except skin I think, you really need to just blend on flesh I believe.

I've done skin that way, even gave a variety of fleshtones easily by using a variety of tints and combos.

Good Luck!

So, I just started and it's not very far along. All I've done so far is make the flesh of undead hookers grey with two coats of a dark grey wash and so far, it's looking really good? I hope to finish at least Belle one tonight and post some pictures.

Finished Sybelle and the 3 Rotten Belles. Now, I know I can be really critical of my self so I'll get that out of the way and then move onto more constructive things: they look like shit.

Moving on. As SRG said, there's no wasting time, only practice. These took me 2-3 hours as everything was new and experimenting and lots of touching up and waiting for things to dry. I learned that I have pretty poor paints, I should probably buy some actual washes instead of just making my own out of heavily watered down normal paint and that, apparently, I'm supposed to do a base coat and then just progressive washes. I skipped the base coat and just primed and washed so it's probably why some of them turned out poorly.


First up, Madame Sybelle. This is the one I'm most pleased with and probably the only one I won't end up stripping and re-doing. The grey flesh worked well for her undead look I think.






Next up is the Bell in Blue. I haven't attached her umbrella yet. I really like her hair but I feel like I need something else to it. Maybe another wash or some light dry-brushing? I dunno. Also, she's the one where washing the dress worked best, although it still didn't work all that well.








The Belle in red. Again, the hair and flesh turned out well. The stocking (on her right leg) and the boa not so much. For some reason, the brown wash just didn't want to stick on certain points.






<shudder> The Yellow Belle. Man, yellow is a bitch to work with, even over a white primer. Her "dirty blonde" hair turned out okay. In retrospect, I should have done all of the Belle's boots brown, instead of black. Although Sybelle's black outfit turned out so I don't know what I did differently.






So, that's my first run at models. Although the results are of dubious quality, the act of doing it was far more enjoyable than my standard "I HATE PAINTING!" extravaganza so I may try out some other things. I'm not sure how much difference there is in real washes and my homebrew ones. That may make a world of difference?

Just looked at pictures online and I've already got ideas on how to make them better (like the Yellow one? Yeah, make her dress and her corset different colors. Herp derp). Going to wait for a) feedback and b) opinions on home-made washes vs. real washes.

Oh, and any basing suggestions would be nice. I'm thinking of maybe using Chris' stir stick idea or possibly looking up how to make cobblestone.

You did the hair pretty darned good. Maybe a little bit sharper highlighting on the dresses. Make those stand out even more. Now I don't know for sure, but maybe try like almost an orange on the red dress. If you don't have the patience to do luh-git highlighting, just drybrush but with extra effort into puting in places that make sense. It's pretty much the next best thing I find.

Skin seems decent. If you are willing, maybe a more greener grey? The zombies I'm doing are like this pale green, but then I doused them in brown and even black wash. Oh, and I have gotten by with just using watered down paint as a wash, but it almost seems worth it to get GW washes. Everything else is good to cheap out on, but washes are pretty freaking amazing.

Well thats my 3 cents, can't wait to see pictures of your improvement. Thats the thing with painting, its easy to see increased skill. Almost every model I painted I can notice improvements. (maybe every unit to be more realistic)

Thanks for the feedback! You did, however, use the dreaded words "highlighting" and "dry-brushing". I am trying to learn to paint to "table quality" with only washes.

Instead of stripping, I may continue to experiment on the ladies. I'm thinking of adding a dark, dark red wash to the red one, a dark yellow the yellow one and painting the bottom of her dress green.

As for the skin, I think most undead are a matter of personal taste but I specifically avoided any green on them as I wanted a neutral color for their flesh to contrast with the vivid primary colors of their clothing.

ok, to help the hair/red/yellow colours try doing a thin (yes need real washes) wash in the cracks and under ledges.

Another aspect is your Colour Theory; use a sepia brown to shade the yellow. Use a slightly purple/blue maroon wash to shade red. Use brown or orange to shade the blond hair....


I like the grey skin myself. what about a touch of pink wash for lipstick?? might add that subtle touch.

I'm with Night Lord on this. It doesnt look like it was washes, but very thinned paint? You can use mine if you need as well, I have most of them.

So, I did some reading online and a lot of folks suggest adding a small amount of dish soap when making your own paints. Apparently, it breaks the surface tension, makes it flow better and prevents it from pooling. Additionally, I went and read about some more "wash only" armies and in every case, they based the army normally, then used progressive layers of washes for detail.

So, with those two pieces of knowledge, I'm going to try one more model with "home made" washes. I'll start by painting the model up in light versions of the final colors I want, mix some dark paint/water/dish soap and wash it and see how that turns out.

I've also heard of using Windex to break the tension. P3 paints use a Liquid Pigment which unlike other paints (which are made of finely ground solid pigments) thin out much more consistently. With cheaper paints the pigment is not ground as fine, and thinning it out alot to make a wash can result in patchy pigmentation, since the particles are much less densely distributed in the solution.

I love Science.

So, picked up four washes today (Gryphon Sepia, Asurmen Blue, Baal Red and Ogryn Flesh) and I've been playing around with it for a few hours now.

So far, they are definitely not what I expected. I was expecting bolder results and they don't change the paint you've chosen at all, they just seep into the cracks. Which I guess is the point? Anyway, I really feel like I need more colors to work with and I need to keep experimenting. Found two good tutorials on painting with just washes, no base coats or anything (other than being primed), so I'll play with both, post some pictures and see what happens.

So, here are some experiments and thoughts on them.


First Wash Experiment

The first gaunt was based blue and then I used a "homemade" wash of dark paint + water + dish soap.


The second gaunt was the same base blue plus Asurmen Blue wash. Substantial difference in the detail, especially in the face.


Blue to be used for ice gamin/golems

Primed white, 2 coats of Asurmen Blue wash (ignore the head)


Prime white, coat of Ogryn Flesh wash, coat of Asurmen Blue wash. I watched a tutorial where the guy used only washes and he started every model with a wash of Devlan Mud. I don't have any Devlan Mud so I tried it with the Ogryn Flesh. I actually don't mind it?


Prime white, painted with a light blue, coat of Asurmen Blue wash.


Other Stuff

Simple experiment with red. Prime white, red base, Baal Red wash.


Finally, I tried adding two coats of Ogryn Flesh wash to the bright red hair of my Rotten Belle. I am quite pleased with the results.



So, I can see potential here but I need more washes methinks and more experimentation. I was really expecting more of a result from the washes but, as they're supposed to, I guess it just runs into the cracks and that's that. Silly me.

Dare I suggest the Barest of drybrushes?? Prime Grey, and using a huge 2" brush, drybrush white before you do your pigment coats, it will really help.

If you refuse to thin your washes to the point of needing two coats to achieve the same result:

a. your models will be much more prone to blotchyness, since any that occur will be only half of the coat.

b. your washes will stain, or pigment more than they need to sometimes. to nicely shade red, try a really light (2/3 water) wash of purple, (or a dab of blue with red)


Seems like for all your Ice Constructs and Frozen Hearts, you could even just Prime light blue spray and drybrush white. with blue washes to get something like my shadows.


Despite your rant against the new line of paints (and I might be interetsted in a P3 order) it might be the case that the 'Washes' are tinted to shade and the 'Glazes' are tinted more towards Basecoat colours. (I find the washes to be dull colours, with no good bright primary colours)

I didn't have a rant against the new paints? I said I was indifferent.

I just finished priming all of my models white. I'm going to work with that for now.

Also, I won't be doing any form of dry-brushing. The tutorial video I saw for all washes had results that I really dug so I'm sticking to that plan until it works.

In my experiments, I am sure I will try the washes watered down, although right now, I'm finding them to pretty thin as is. Then again, I have, literally, only hours worth of experience as opposed to your many, many years

You can really see the difference though, the hair looks good.

Oh, absolutely, SRG. Of all the experiments and such, the hair is the only that I think may be good enough to leave? I mean, my Belles are still going to get stripped but that's how I'll be re-doing and I'll use it for Lady Justice as well.

So, I'm working with limited washes right now (which will hopefully be remedied this Saturday. Are there grey and black washes?) so I tried an Ice Gamin and my Ice Golem. Now, bearing in mind these aren't meant to be anywhere near as good your guy's, only good enough to sit on a table-top, I'm pretty pleased with them.

Ice Gamin


Ice Gamin Base: Not happy with the red but it's all I had to work with. And that's not a real green wash.


Ice Golem: Not showing his base because it's not done. Mr. Optonaut has some snow flock he's not using and is giving me so I'll do it then.


Ice Golem

If I could "like" these I would.
There are some brown/black and darker washes you could easily use on the bases instead of red, which seems out of place.

Tabletop quality? Easily achieved my friend! These are lookin' neato.

Those look great! I've never seen a grey or white wash, though i've used white wash to help an 'inner lit' look.

looks like Privateer press has at least a Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Brown and Turquoise?? inks..... so they might be a better base or bright colour.

Well Night Lord, as our resident 'Eavy Metal quality painter, what would you do to get a white look? I'm assuming it will involve drybrushing so I can bite the bullet on that. I'm thinking a brown wash and that dry brush white?

Until the new White Base from GW is available (this saturday) my best white has been fortress gray, followed by mixing white until your at fg+skull white in a 1/4 mix.