#MFXTOP January Week 4 - Final Entries and Voting Opens!

Week 4 Entries

So the very first month of #MFXTOP is over and simply, I am overwhelmed how well this has worked out.

Before we get to the voting rules and how that will all work, we have a few entries to look over.
Oh, and when I say a few, I mean the most in one week we've ever had!:

A few hours after Week 3 was posted we got this
awesome King Kong style Cojo
from @ArchonMoonson.

It seems the new plastics are very popular as
@davidporter83 enters the new huge Mature Neph.

Next is an entry from an @TheMalibros favourite,
it's @Gorbad13 or Ole with this
beautiful December Acolyte.

@LeeBattrick, known to all as Henchman Lee
entered the Guild hating merc Lazarus.
Representing "the yellow team".

Sammael fires onto the scene,
@zacgoldenhall used this miniature as a test,
I think he passed.
Also big up to his podcast @Malibites!

This week I was reminded that I need to get over to
@ElementGames_ to buy myself the Dark Debts box.
Why?

Well this Illuminated by @Therril_83
is a pretty good reason why.
Looks like he's at the Honeypot Casino!

 Then if that wasn't enough, this Illuminated
painted by @NigelSBartlett
(luckily owned by @geekphotoguy)
with it's awesome shimmery demon proves it.

@shiprib enters this fantastically themed
Burt Jebsen, you have to love
Rob's "Big Trouble in Little China" stylings.

Next we have one of my personal favourite new models
painted fantastically by @SecondBreky
A very clean finish.

Here we have a replacement entry from
the infamous @UberSpoons
As I originally said, check out his crew and
awesome display board in his twitter timeline.

And the final entry, with 8 minutes left to go

we have The Judge by @Mike3838

It seems it was worth the wait!

We made it!

4 Weeks, 27 Entries, 1 Tyrant of Painting to be declared.

Seriously, thank you to everyone that has got involved with #MFXTOP whether it's an entry, retweets or just comments on the miniatures, you've spread the love and made this a success.

Everyone should be used to me being very candid, so you know I'm not lying when I am genuinely pleasantly surprised how this has gone.
I honestly expected eight to a dozen entries. I'm glad I was wrong!

Ok, well, enough thanks, down to business.

The Voting Opens

How do I vote?

Voting couldn't be too much simpler, but, let's make it super easy.

• First of all, look through all the #MFXTOP posts labeled January.

• After a lot of deliberation, pick your single favourite entry. (This cannot be your own, sorry.)

• Now get on to Twitter, log in, and do the following:
• Tweet @TheMalibros
• Include the handle of who you're voting for @psientologist for example (I didn't actually enter)
• Use the hashtag #MFXTOP1 the 1 is important and your vote needs it.

• Get this done before Midnight Thursday GMT

• Friday is when the winner will be announced on here and finally...

• Join in February's competition, which the theme will be announced along with the #MFXTOP1 Champion.

Lastly to make it even easier here is a list of the entries and their twitter handles all in one space (aren't I nice?).

Final List of Entries:

Executioner - @Joel__Henry

Ice Golem - @BigHairyWookie

Whiskey (Patriot) Golem - @dumb_luck89

Cojo - @mythicFOX83

Killjoy - @AaronBailey17

Rail Golem - @WrkBnchWarriors

Lenny - @lemonconstruct

Punk Zombie - @gorillawizard

Nightmare Teddy - @Tigerstyle40k

Sybelle - @gazmania

Montresor - @barnaberible

Strongarm Suit - @Laundry_King

(Ten Thunder) Bishop - @OldManMyke

Nothing Beast - @MarkJByrne

Punk Zombie - @thatdarnsatan

Joss - @oathius

(King Kong) Cojo - @ArchonMoonson

Mature Nephilim - @davidporter83

December Acolyte - @Gorbad13

Lazarus - @leebattrick

Sammael - @zacgoldenhall

Illuminated (claws) - @Therril_83

Illuminated (spirit) - @NigelSBartlett

Burt Jebsen - @shiprib
Howard Langston - @secondbreky
Toshiro - @Uberspoons
The Judge - @mike3838

Cheers again bros!

See you with a winner on Friday.
-Ben (@psientologist)

Painting with Jam

A Jam filled Painting journey

Last time I talked about what I was looking forward to in 2014, which included new gremlin models.
With new models there’s always one thing I really look forward too, almost as much as playing with them and that’s painting them.

For me painting has been a bit of a love-hate relationship. When I started painting miniatures around the age of 9 I didn’t take it very seriously and I thought that anything which distracted me from gaming was a waste of time, mainly because all I wanted to do was game, game, game.

Here is a example of my earliest work:

Not great I know, but the rules in my local gaming store was that miniatures had to have at least 2 colours, so like any child I just slapped some paint on, and started gaming.

Looking back at it makes me thankful, because of those rules I was forced to enter a completely different side of the hobby, one which would help add a new depth to my hobby.

As the years went by and the models stacked up I painted more and more, teaching myself skills like line highlighting and being taught other stuff like how much paint you need for that perfect dry brush.

It got to the point when before I knew it, I was painting models and they were looking like the stuff on the boxes and even more surprisingly was that I really enjoyed it!

Over the next 18 years (2/3rds of my life) I have painted a lot of miniatures from Dragons:

To Futuristic alien beasties:


And the more I painted, the more I learnt and hopefully the better I became.

My current feelings when it comes to painting are completely different from when I started.

Sometimes when I come home stressed from work I find nothing more relaxing and therapeutic then grabbing my paints and starting a new project or adding the last layer of paint to that model  I have been painting for half a week and feeling that satisfaction of knowing it has been completed to the best of my ability.

This is why I feel sad for people who pay for or play a crew with no paint on them at all.

Painting vs. Non Painting

Now I understand that people may not be very happy with their level of painting skill or may have more money than sense, but I believe that by doing so you miss out on one of the most satisfying and personal parts of the hobby.
I know for a fact that my painting isn't perfect and I still have a long way till I get to the level I find amazing but as a wise man once said “Success is a journey, not a destination”.

I understand that many different people get a lot of different things from our hobby, but I believe that if you give painting a chance it will grow on you and if I inspire just one person to do it, then it will make this whole blog worth while.

So to finish here’s a more current picture of what I'm painting, the beautiful Lenny himself:



The Black Sun: Warhammmer TO4G

Now while I was talking about painting I will use it as a sneaky segway into something new and exciting that I'll doing for February called the Tale of 4 Gamers, with my old friends from The Black Sun Podcast.

We’re doing the Tale of 4 gamers as a kind of mini painting competition/narrative campaign where each person has to collect and paint small part of their army each month and then play a few narrative games escalating to a point where you will have a fully painted army and have had a deep and rich playing experience.

I am looking forward to painting and playing with a new army as well as posting updates throughout.

Plus for all those Malifaux fans I'm sure you will approve on who I used as my leader.

Thanks again for reading.

Best regards

-Jan (@Clankers86)
(Attempted Edit by Ben @Psientologist)

#MFXTOP January Week 3

Week 3 Entries

Week 3 the week I feared most would be the slump.
However, as this competition seems to keep doing, it's had the community blow my pessimism out of the water!

So, what did we get this week?:

First off is a Montresor proxy from @barnaberible
the @malibros giveaway winner Scott Porter.
Love how this all came together.

Number 2 is by no means a reflection on quality as
@Laundry_King or Joe Taylor in non-twitter form has entered this fantastic
Strongarm suit, with all the straps painted :-)

@OldManMyke is up next.
You may have heard his lovely tones on @malifools or even the new @fools_daily
Though I guess you only listened to that one with
@psientologist on, seems fair.
Mike has entered this cracking Ten Thunder style Bishop proxy.

@MarkJByrne wins the competition with his great pun,
there's Nothing to see here.
Yes Joe, puns are amazing, just like this paint job!

I almost missed this in the feed and I am so glad I didn't,
John Sheffield or @thatdarnsatan on twitter has picked one of
 the best of a beautiful bunch of Ressers he has done recently.

With one minute to spare for this week @oathius
or Aus from @isleoffauxrecs has entered one of my Arcanist favourites.
The huge metal man, Joss.

So much for a slump

Six cracking entries for week 3 then.

#MFXTOP is still rocking and into it's final week until we announce the very first Tyrant Of Painting.

Please check back regularly, follow the appropriate Twitter accounts and check out others blogs for more painting and hobby from these guys.

17 (if I can count) entries so far, how high can we go?
Post predictions to me on @TheMalibros with the #MFXTOP hashtag if you fancy a guess.

Again, thank you all
-Ben (@psientologist)

My Digital Life

Why do I podcast?

I was invited to

Well, the first part of the answer is pretty simple, I do the Malibros because after Chris Tomlin decided to move on, concentrating on his first wargaming love; Warhammer and his fantastic and successful podcast The Black Sun (@the_black_sun), Joe and Gary were left wanting to carry on the show but wanted a third.

I was happy to be offered the spot by Gary and Joe, I believe I was really the only person they had in mind.
I had started to play Malifaux a lot more at this point, but the bigger factor really is that I’ve been friends with Joe, Gary and Chris a long time.

Chris has been one of my best friends for over a decade, meeting him through Games Workshop and even working with him.
We've gamed, done tale of gamers together, organised forums, a whole host of nerdery, I just never went to tournaments, mostly due to work.
Gary I met, also through wargaming and through Chris, I've also been friends with around ten years and us 3 have dabbled in a lot similar geek hobbies together at one point or another.

Joe is a newer friend as such, he’s younger for a start so imagining being friends with him 10 years ago would be a little weird at best.
Joe I also met through the big Gee Dub, he’s one of my best friends now, he’s also probably the main reason I got really into Malifaux.

So, enough of my life story, I (obvious I know) accepted the invite.
More on why later.

Also, a small factoid about me, I had actually done another podcast before this, “Protection from Noob” which was about Magic: The Gathering, once again jumping in part way after one of the original hosts left.

I may end up referring to Pro:Noob again later.

I like talking

This may sound like a comedic reason, or maybe even an annoying or arrogant one.
It’s not quite “I like the sound of my own voice”, it’s just a fact that I talk a lot, always have and probably always will.
Been told this since School and have received looks knowing that I still do these days.

Talking out loud though, especially on the podcast though, I find helps with organising thoughts.
Not to say you shouldn’t think about things before you say them, but the knowledge that you are having to say them can help organise what is (for me especially) usually a blur of information (and shit generally).

Talking with my friends is always fun, originally when I did Pro:Noob it was always in person and was actually the nicest chance to get to chat at length about Magic with my friends Lennox and Greg.
You might see people at gaming clubs every week, tweet, text, email, but sitting down and just chatting is something different altogether.

All the microphone does is really keep things a little more organised.

I like listening to others

This can be listening to Joe and whoever I’m casting with, but really in the general sense it is nice hear other peoples thoughts and opinions on a hobby that I love so much.

Hearing different perspectives, getting new ideas, it’s all good.
Discussion is fantastic, if it’s arguing whether or not Narcolepsy is a first-pickable card in Rise of Eldrazi draft (it is by the way) or if Painting points should effect a tournament finish, getting a mixture of perspectives can clear out to almost find a “right” answer and if not, makes understanding each other a lot easier.

Discussion may lean close to argument, but as long as it doesn’t spill into that, passion can show through.

This does also lead into rants!

However, I bloody love rants, hearing them, having them. It’s hard for rants to come out informative, but they can, for the most part it’s entertainment.

One of my favourite podcasts The Eh Team (@mtgEhTeam) has a member Jay Boosh, his rants are amongst my favourite things to listen too on a Monday, usually with point, always hilarious.

In the end, listening to podcasts is something I do, so being able to do one is sweet.

Helping others

Seems that I make bookend this blog with a bit of soppiness, but I one big thing for me about doing a podcast is to hopefully bring some light into someone else’s day.

Being able to spread the love of the hobby into the ears of people I may never meet is an amazing thing to be able to do either way, but the fact that I might be entertaining someone makes me feel a little better about life.

Information is something that podcasts put out there too, learning something new as discussed before. Some like Zac Evans on Malibites (@malibites) actually inspire me, make me feel happy knowing that it could, no will, help someone get into Malifaux.

I've also found that, in some bad situations, podcasts have oddly been able to help me through.
To some people this may sound ridiculous, but consider what a podcast can be on this level, entertainment, something to cheer you up, some friendly voices.

The chances are, people who listen to Malibros also have other similarities with me, they may like the things I like, get annoyed by the things that annoy me.
It’s unlikely they listen to a podcast, so niche just by chance.

Which leaves me the final reason.

The community

I don't just feel like I might help them, I know they help me, the Malifaux community is especially fantastic, friendly and welcoming.
So many of these people I enjoy chatting with, some I've even spoke personally too and 99% of them I haven't even met.

Thank You

-Ben (@psientologist)

#MFXTOP January Week 2

Week 2 Entries

Week 2 has come to an end, much like week 1 it had a Wednesday, a Friday, even one of those Saturdays.
Also, just like week 1, I have a load of awesome entries into January's "Tyrants of Painting: Heavy Hitter Edition" competition.

Here some photos, for your pleasure:

First off we have local henchman who is not Joe, @AaronBailey17 , 

well his entry, Kill Joy painted along side his #theboxopens competition (check it out)

Next is @WrkBnchWarriors awesome Rail Golem,
one of my favourite models, alongside my favourite crew (do I hear people crying fix?)

The infamous @UberSpoons with everyones favourite Dawn Serpent proxy,
from #BUSHIDO (#itsathing), check his twitter for more of this great crew and display board.

@lemonconstuct that Chris King of @ChasingBacon 

may be auto disqualified for entering something that isn't in a faction, maybe it's a proxy?

Forth on the list (in no particular order) is Mark Sheppard @gorillawizard,
has entered this Punk Zombie, with fantastic pale flesh (check his twitter for the recipe).

@Tigerstyle40k Chris Holloway, occasional host of Soulstone Train,
sent in this brilliant Nightmare Teddy, I love pandas, I also love the newspaper!

Last second entry for this week comes in from @gazmania
The beautiful Sybelle.
Also, congratulations getting this in as his wife is having their second baby tomorrow
(at time of writing), now that's dedication!

Phew

That's seven entries in the end for this week!
I wanted to surpass Week 1, but you guys almost doubled it.

#MFXTOP still rolls on, there is 2 weeks more for entries until voting happens.

Please check back regularly, follow the appropriate Twitter accounts and check out others blogs for more painting and hobby from these guys.

Cheers again Bros
-Ben (@psientologist)

A Jammy old 2014

Plans for 2014

Welcome to my first post here on the Malibros blog, I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas.
As we get closer to the end of the year I have been thinking about 2014 and what it'll mean for me in terms of Malifaux.

So here is a quick run-down of the top things I’m looking forward to in 2014;

Vassal League 2014

After enjoying the experience of my first Vassal league(s) in 2013 I was delighted to see that there was already a thread on the Wyrd forums for leagues in 2014.
With some great suggestions given by various posters, I am sure the leagues will come back even better than before.

Tournaments

This year, as I have been alluding on the podcast and spoke to about to most of my Vassal league opponents, I plan to go to around 3 or 4 tournaments hopefully including the Malifaux GT.
This is because, as a Warhammer player (Boo hiss, I know!) some of my best tabletop gaming experiences have been at tournaments.
I enjoy gaming against people I never would normally have a chance to play and also it'll be nice to finally put faces to peoples voices I only heard over Skype (as unlike Ben I'm not a photo stalker).

Malibros Podcast

Now this might sound like a shameless plug, (it is) but I do actually look forward to recording more stuff with the guys.
I have known Ben and Joe for many years, and to be able to contribute and work with them to bring out something that I believe the majority of Malifaux players would enjoy does genuinely give me a great sense of satisfaction and keeps me wanting to do more, just like this blog.

New Plastic Gremlins

For me this is the I am looking most forward to, as every faction has at the time of writing had access to at least 2 wave 1 master box sets with some having all 3.

I'm predicting we should get at least 2 box sets by March in which I hope they will be the Brewmaster and Ophelia box sets.

Brewmaster; because I really want to see how cool Brewmaster and the Whiskey Golem are going to look and how they will be to paint. Also we would finally have a model for every gremlin in Wave 1.

Ophelia because it was the first gremlin box set I ever had, plus if Ophelia looks half as cool as her artwork suggests, then we’re all in for an amazing box set.

Thank you for reading my ramblings and hopefully I’ll be posting something else again soon.

Regards,

Jan (@clankers86)
(attempted edit by Ben)

#MFXTOP January Week 1

Week 1 Entries

Week 1 is in the books, I have to say I am so happy to see the amount of entries we already have and even if I had to end it here, it still feels like a legitimate contest.

So, without further ado, time for some snappy snaps and twitter plugs!

First off we have @Joel__Henry of @malifools Executioner, 

who's currently rocking alongside a brilliant Sonnia Crew for #theboxopens

Next up is @BigHairyWookie with his very first painted Malifaux miniature.
The massive Ice Golem.

@dumb_luck89 or Dom Westerland of @BayouBroadcast 

entered his awesome Whiskey Golem, or Whiskey Patriot from his Avengers themed crew.

Last but not least for this week, Mr James Doxey @mythicFOX83

has entered Cojo, you should check out the rest of his Marcus crew WiPs

Thanks for the entries

All 4 are fantastic, I've already got a favourite so far, but with 3 weeks to go, it's all to play for.

Don't forget to use #MFXTOP when chatting about this or entering your own entry.

Cheers bros

-Ben (@psientologist)

Hashtag Em Eff Ex Tee Oh Pee.

#MFXTOP

So week 1 is almost up, so I thought that I would quickly type up the dates that things are happening, even if just for my own sake. Plus a few clarifications.

Times, Dates, Places

Tomorrow (at time of writing) or Monday the 6th of January, you have up to "midnight" to put your entry in for the first week...

Tuesday the 7th of January where I will make a post, with your twitter handle and nice shiny photo.

Firstly, I say midnight in quotations as really any entries made before I write the post will go into it.

Again to make your entry tweet @TheMalibros with your best photo and the #MFXTOP plus, for clarity, a message saying that it's your entry.

From then on the next 3 Tuesdays will have the same thing happen.

14/1 , 21/1, 28/1

On Tuesday the 28th of January, the post will not only include that weeks entries, but also will the date that I will announce that "Voting has opened" and will be all the way until Thursday the 30th of January at "midnight" to pick that months Tyrant of Painting, which'll have it's post on the Friday, and as previously mentioned where February's competition will start.

When the votes open, I will clarify how to do so, but simply, it will be twitter based.

Lastly, a few clarifications.

What the FAQ?

Wave 2 models  are allowed to be entered, for the sake of "what if the points go down when you said 7+ and it was 7?" first of all. Meh. Secondly, this is fine, the themes are themes, the rules aren't really meant to be hard and fast, it's all about fun.

Entering more than one model is not really "legal", it's arguable if there is an advantage to adding multiple anyway (I guess you may hit different fans), however if the case is you paint a miniature week 1 and enter, but then by week 4 you decide you have a better entry, do it, enter.

All I ask is, please mention this is what is happening in your tweet. I can then delete your old entry before voting happens. Something I will check anyway, and yes, I will "bother" as it's only 3 other blog posts to look at.

Cheers and good luck

If you do have anymore questions, check the previous post first, then, if still not answered tweet @TheMaliBros or even me directly @Psientologist use #MFXTOP or leave a comment on one of the blog posts.

Have fun with this everyone!

I am so pleased how well this has already kicked off you cannot understand.

If we can all get this to carry on the way it has already in the first week, Tyrants of Painting will get bigger, meaning more pretty miniatures for us to all look at and share, everyone learning, improving and basically becoming better hobbyists and making Malifaux even more of a game for people to take a second look at if they haven't already.

Lastly, please spread the love. Get your friends involved, let people know you're painting something for #MFXTOP and direct them to here @TheMalibros blog.

Thank you again

-Ben (@psientologist)

Announcing...

THE "TYRANTS OF PAINTING" COMPETITION

How this is going to work?

Each month a theme will be set for which type of miniature you can enter into the month’s competition.

This post will reveal the first month’s theme, while onwards the next theme will be announced at the end of the winners post, but I’ll get to that later.

Each week, you can make your entry by simply taking a photo of your work, logging into twitter (if you don’t have an account you are missing out) and tweeting @TheMalibros with the photo and the hashtag #MFXTOP

Every Tuesday, so after #miniaturemonday I will post the entries I have so far, along with who they are from.
People can comment on twitter or on the blog post itself.
This will happen on a 4 week period.
After the 4th week of entries has been posted a winner will be decided.

How will it be judged?

Once the 4th week of entries has happened, I will announce via @TheMalibros that voting has opened.

The way voting will work is that you will need to tweet @TheMaibros with the twitter account/ name of your choice and the #MFXTOP

Each vote will count as one point, with any ties decided by myself.

However, to answer a question I suspect some people are thinking.
Nope.
You cannot vote for yourself.

[Additional rules may come into play in the future, but anything like that will be announced]

Voting will close midday on Thursday of that week.
By the following Friday, the winner will be announced along with the next theme.

Also, according to the quantity of entries, the Friday post may include a podium or even announced best of factions if the quantity is even higher.

Why should you enter?

Simple really, it will be fun.

The idea of this competition is to be extra incentive for people to paint, try new techniques, raise their game, or even just show off.

Currently there will no prizes bar prestige, but the chance to see some fantastic work from lots of different members of the Malifaux community I’m sure you will all agree, will definitely be a nice thing.

This Monthly competition can also be used for a whole host of personal goals.
Try something new, get that miniature done you aren't currently painting, get a crew done in the year to your highest standard.

The rules and the first month’s theme.

Every painting competition has rules, this one will be no exception.
However they are simple
What you enter must be a miniature you have started to paint during the month of the competition, miniatures which were already assembled and even undercoated are fine, but no one needs this competition to be the same miniatures every month that we have all already seen.
I will say, 3 colours minimum, however this is mostly a pointless rule as, if your miniature is not finished, simply you should probably not enter it.
The miniature needs to be based, again probably pointless to even say, but the base is an important part of the miniature and if it is just blank, the miniature is not finished.
Oh and another pointlessly obvious rule, the miniature needs to be painted by yourself. It doesn’t even have to be for yourself, but it must be your work.

Last rule is that it will need to cover what the theme of the month is, which leads me to finally announce.

January 2014’s theme for #MFXTOP is

“Heavy Hitter”

To qualify this must be a miniature with a soulstone cost of at least 7SS or higher and have a melee attack (any non-master model).

There we go.
Good luck to everyone who enters.
- Ben (@psientologist)

Also if you want a bigger painting challenge, don’t forget to check out @aaronbailey17 ‘s #theboxopens painting competition over on the Wyrd Forums and twitter.