Finished Misaki from Malifaux

A pic with flash to highlight the details a bit more

Misaki here was my entry into this year's GenCon painting competition, specifically for the Wyrd manufacturer category. I was rather happy with the way she came out and was optimistic of my chances to defend my crown from last year, but unfortunately there didn't end up being a Wyrd category. Due to some unfortunate miscommunication between Wyrd and the competition coordinators, a Wyrd sponsorship was never secured and I was left slugging it out in the general competition, where I was forced to go up against professional painters. Others have discussed the appropriateness of amateurs and professionals having to compete in the same category, so I want go into that here, but I can't help but wonder if the tendency for the same professionals to dominate the competition year after year didn't in some way contribute to this being the smallest field of entries I've seen in my 20 years of GenCon attendance.

Getting back to the figure, she was an experiment and a bit of a trial for me in many ways. First, knowing that the model's original weapon shaft was likely to bend constantly, I hacked that portion of the model apart, replacing the pewter with a brass rod. Unfortunately I didn't measure the length of the original piece and ended up with a bisento that stuck below the base. So I had to build the original rocky ledge up into something a bit higher, forcing me to try sculpting this kind of rocky terrain for the first time. Fortunately my set of color shapes had a perfectly shaped tool and this ended up being a rather easy task.

This model also served as my first attempt at painting a very pale pink like this. I wasn't sure how well this was going to work for much of the painting process as the dark pink I was using for a shade/basecoat just didn't have any coverage at all. Fortunately, as I started to add white to the mix the color built up some opacity and I was able to get some rather nice coverage with it. I had originally intended to add some cherry blossoms to the dress, but fear of screwing up a basic color scheme that I was really happy with stayed my hand. I may go back and try adding some later, but the reality is that I'll probably save that experimentation for another model and consider Misaki here done.

Given that Misaki is now a master of the 10 Thunders faction introduced in Storm of Shadows, it's unlikely that this incarnation is going to see much play across Malifaux battlefields, especially as the new figure looks like it's going to be a very nice sculpt. But Mercenary Misaki here will still be a nice addition to my Viktoria's and will serve as a nice alternative sculpt for me should I decide to pursue a 10 Thunders crew myself.