Things Get Painted - The Crossroads Seven

Well, this was fun!

As gruelling as it was to remain focussed on one project for so long and keep it consistent, this was fun. And I'm really pleased with the end result. What follows below are photos taken during the process, some notes on each model, and the final group photos.

Admittedly, few Malifaux models are composed of few pieces. There were several sessions of constructing the models, as well as gap filling, and that is most likely the most boring part of the experience. I had already developed and idea on how to do the bases early on, and knocked a few elements out of the mix as I went (Paper posters advertising the band,  multiple different kinds of rocks apart from the two that ended up being used), but kept a few others. Planks of discarded wood from the collapsed Crossroads Hotel was something in the original mix, which is why a few are singed, however they ended up being used to support a few miniatures as well, which was a happy occurrence. The base texture was a mix of sandy paste, pumice paste, and red earth Vallejo texture pastes, with slate chips and putty rocks, and plasticard used as wooden planks to be painted with wood texture later. 

Sloth was fun. A solid model the build, with lots of small details, but not a stupid amount which would cause me to go nuts. Painting undead green flesh was a challenge, as I had never done something like that before, and I think in some ways I started with a more difficult model than some of the others. One of the things I realised was that where I will usually finish off regular skinned people with glazes to the skin to make some subtle changes these can be done in a much more obvious way to make the skin look damaged and diseased. That was actually a fun part of the process, to mess around with the skin, and then go on to adding texture to the vest and arm wraps. I also found the back of the vest to be a great place to do a large freehand area. 

Song running through my head when painting: The Final Fantasy bass line from Scott Pilgrim

As a Guild player, I was looking forward to painting Greed. She was an immense amount of fun to paint, even the tricky bits. It's a great pose, and that combined with her expression meant I was looking forward to painting her every time I got back to the painting desk.I was trying to work each factions colour into the clothes somewhere, and I think the red and black dress really worked well with her. I did run into an issue when painting the black: I went back to a similar method I had used with Infinity models with Vallejo paints, and they ended ip being a bit shiny until I got my hands on the matte varnish. 

Song running through my head when painting: Malguena Salerosa from Once Upon a Time In Mexico.

Envy was pretty involved, and also intimidating. Envy himself was the product of maybe 5 hours work, and I ended up using similar colours that I would use on a Lord of the Rings model, with a lot of grey getting mixed in, and lightly used as a base over the white undercoat as well. The tank itself was the worrying part, and I spent far too much time on it. While I'm happy with how it came out, I should have painted the large areas in the reverse order to what I did. I also decided that the book he is reading would be the Malifaux rules manual, specifically page 33. 

Song running through my head when painting: The Phantom of the Opera. That pipe organ...

Lust was fun, quick, and another great character. Even though I went with a simple colour scheme with no freehand, I found her to be a good reset halfway through the project. I will admit that with the orange clothes and large hair, it could be easy to paint the model up to look like Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon. The dress itself is actually very fun to paint. A lot of folds are able to be focused on easily to build up the light and dark tones, and gives some interesting texture to the model. I'm sure that when I go to paint this crew again (Yeah, I already have another one of these boxes), I am going to have a lot of fun with here (She'll likely end up in my Jacob Lynch crew).

Song running through my head when painting: Roundtable Rival by Lindsey Stirling. 

Wrath was something I approached with a bit of nervousness. Wrath himself seemed pretty straight forward. He himself is a reasonably straight forward human with very few elements. The spirits also seemed simple in terms of very few colours, but was large and had a lot of texture. The main concern was pushing the two models together at the end of the process though, which luckily went well. I did get a chance to do a small bit of freehand hidden on the side of the boots (The Neverborn mask faction) which was fun and quick. The spirits were done to match my Pandora Sorrows, but I can see them being done in a variety of colours, and being used as a good way to match a crews colours. 

Song running through my head when painting: The opening line from the Metalocalypse theme song. Just that one line. On repeat...

Gluttony was reasonably quick when I sat down to paint him, and I mentioned in the post about him, I had some difficulty getting him to sync up with what I wanted until I painted the snake. I did notice that he seems to be an odd size of model, where he would look large on a 30mm base, but a 40mm gives him a bit too much room. I painted the little voodoo dolls up as gremlins (possibly shrunken), and in the process managed to find a few good colour combos which I'm sure I'll end up using when I paint my Ulix crew. I was also a bit stumped at first on how to attach him securely to the base, as the contact points of the model are quite small, and using plastic cement would probably let it be knocked free with a decent tap at the right angle. I managed to drill and pin him to the base from the bottom of the drum, and while it did damage the back of the drum's base, I was able to disguise it when it came time to put the base texture on. 

Song running through my head when painting: Taiko drums. Lots and lots of Taiko drums. 

Pride was the final member to be painted, and the quickest. He ended up probably being similar natural tones to Envy and Greed, and was another chance to try some different skintones. If you hadn't noticed yet, all the band have different skintones on them - none are repeated. I like the pose of Pride, and I really like the flowing hair. He does have a bit of attitude about him. Admittedly, while he is the quickest to paint, he was also probably the one I skipped the most steps on as well, but I was happy with how he came out. 

Song running through my head when painting: Malguena Salerosa from Once Upon a Time In Mexico. Again.

In the end though, the band came together for a song and a group photo:

Song running through my head when painting: Sleep... And the quiet little voice that reminds me I have another one of these boxes to paint...

Project Name	The Crossroads Seven
'Scale'	32mm
Base Size	30mm, 40mm, and 50mm rounds
Paints Used	Reaper, P3, Tamiya, GW, Vallejo, Secret Weapon washes
Tools Used	Iwata Eclipse airbrush, Broken Toad Size 2