Painting Mage Knight Miniatures

EDIT: For some reason all the formatting in Blogger has gone haywire for this post. Sorry for the odd formatting...don't forget to rest your eyes after reading!

First released in 2011, Mage Knight includes painted miniatures. Although unusual for a tabletop game (which even now don't tend to come with painted minis) this made full use of one of the unique selling points of WizKids HeroClix as the character components, pre-painted stuff.

HeroClix itself launched in 2000. A collectible miniatures game focused on painted characters, each model has a 'Combat dial' base that moves to indicate damage or special abilities. While Mage Knight doesn't use combat dials for the four hero characters in the base game (instead reserving them for the city models) they do come painted and 'ready to go' on clear plastic bases. Let's take a look at them 'out of the box' first.

Four against...the unknown

The game gives you four heroes and four cities represented in game by one of the models below.

Repainting the set

I bought the game because there are painted models so I could play immediately, so why repaint them?

Improve the paint job to match the game quality.

As you can see above, each model comes essentially with 'base colours' only. In some cases these paints are applied sloppily and with a very limited range of colours, so I wanted to tidy them up. What you can't see here is that the game map tiles are lovely (scroll up to the top image). The models should be up to that standard.

Add detail.

The models look flat because they don't have any shading. This particularly applies to the cities, which are 95% white plastic with a dab of identifying colour on the roof of each city. I felt that I could capitalize on the base painting by simply adding a wash (to bring out the shadows) and a highlight to make things pop a bit.

Improved components for little investment.

This would take much less time that painting from bare plastic.

So what did I do?

• Washes. Agrax Earthshade/ Nuln Oil/ Reikland Fleshshade etc. This is an easy way to add shadows and depth to the models, looks great, and is dead simple.
• Highlights. Use lighter shades of the 'from the factory' colours to add more depth.
• Edge highlights.
• Drybrushed highlights (to quickly bring out detail on materials like chainmail).
• Details where necessary:
• Strategic spot varnish (crystal ball on Arythea's staff).
• Gems (Tovak's sword).

Results

And here we are! I've included 'before and after' photos with a couple of notes below. (Note that lighting conditions were different, but I hope the point will be made!)

Tovak

Featured on the box art, Tovak is your basic 'sword and board' mini. I like his weird dynamic 'crouching' pose - he looks hunkered down but ready for action. He comes mainly painted black, which makes it difficult to see any detail on him. Look closely though and there are places you can easily spruce up.

• Nuln Oil wash on the shield, sword, chainmail etc.
• Coloured the eyes with a green, light glow.
• 'Gemmed' the sword (blue gem).
• Details (sword hilt and pommel).
• Drybrushed the armour (steel) so that the raised areas have colour.

Enhanced: Gem, eyes, painted details (hilt, crossguard),
drybrushed edges like gauntlets, gold etc.

Original: No washes, no drybrushing etc.

Enhanced: Drybrushed armour.

Before: Shield - flat colours

Enhanced: Nuln Oil wash, silver metallic highlight,
gold drybrush

Goldyx

The draconoid Mage Knight is probably my favourite sculpt. I like the pose and the simplicity of the model overall, and that he is carrying a book (at least he has something to ready while I spent 15 minutes trying to work out how to win the next combat). The large sweeping areas of skin are perfect for washes to add some depth, and there are opportunities for little details (jewelry, book etc.)

• Agrax Earthshade wash (all over) to add depth.
• Highlights on the base colours, and/ or drybrushes - especially skin.
• Details such as book edges, rings, bracelet, pouch etc. (Jewelry in particular - which comes painted yellow.)

Before: notice yellow bracelets, flat colours

Enhanced: Washes, green highlights, drybrushing. 
Details: gold ring, bracelets, claws etc.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade washes, highlights and layers (robes),
drybrush wings, and some detail (scabbard fittings), claws/ nails.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade wash (see shadows in the wings)
 drybrush, details

Arythea

I found this character both the hardest and the easiest to enhance. At first glance you can't see any detail because of the black used, but a simple drybrush brings them out - easy and quick! BUT, what is going on with the face and 'mask'(?) No matter how I look at the face I just can't get what the sculpt is supposed to be. Are there eyes?

• Biggest difference here was drybrushing red the 'web' texture of the cape.
• Drybrush hair (grey).
• Magical staff 'orb': highlights, and then spot gloss varnish.
• Washes: Reikland Fleshshade.

Before

Enhanced: Green magic orb, washes on skin
drybrushed web/ cape

Before: flat black cape, hair.

Enhanced: Red drybrush on cape, green orb,
drybrushed grey on hair.

Norowas

The elf Mage Knight has some great textures to work with. Chainmail, cloth with lots of folds, some platemail, nicely defined facial features (compared to Arythea above...)

• Nuln Oil wash over metal armour. Lots of armour here so this makes a big difference!
• Reikland Fleshshade wash on skin, then Tallarn Flesh/ Elf flesh highlights.
• Drybrush the cloth (trousers).
• Details - blond layers on hair, bronze armour fittings.

Before

Enhanced: Nuln Oil washes on armour/ chainmail with
Runefang Steel drybrush. Skin with layers. 
Agrax Earthshade on cloth, with blue highlights. 
Gold details.

Before

Enhanced: Lighter brown layers on boots.
Sword guard in bronze

Before

Enhanced: Nuln Oil washes on armour, gold details
and highlights, different yellow for hair,
Tallarn Flesh highlights on arm. 

Cities

Strangely enough, these are the components that came out the best after a bit of work! I like the look now more than any of the other pieces. The 'enhanced' versions just look better and impactful for little work and they leap off the table (in my eyes).

• Agrax Earthshade wash to bring out shadows/ texture.
• Drybrush white to add more depth/ contrast.
• Repainted coloured roofs and highlighted.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade wash, white drybrush

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade, white drybrush,
rock base has an Agrax Earthshade wash, grey drybrushing
and light grey edge highlights

Cities!

There we go!

Although I bought Mage Knight in part because I didn't want to spend a lot of time painting before playing (why am I so obsessive about that?) it was a pleasure to 'add' to these. They look good on the table and have moved from 'playable' to 'enhancing the game' - even if only because I know I put some time into them!


Now, when will I get to enhancing the Lost Legion characters...

General Volkare...

...and Wolfhawk

Thanks for reading. Take care and happy gaming everyone.

Cheap Organizer Solution for Mage Knight

 'All hail the dollar store'

After getting a new 'big box' tabletop game one challenge that faces gamers (for most boxes) is finding a way to organize the components after they have been assembled. Very rarely do games come with well integrated organizers that protect, organize and facilitate play. Frankly in this day and age that is a debacle. This is so bad that when a game does do this well (e.g. Dwellings of Eldervale) everyone comments on it. 

I don't know about you, but I'd pay more for a game if it came with an integrated, bio-degradable organizer system that cleverly kept everything together and ready to play quickly.

Now, there are plenty of good commercial options for most major games, but they can be expensive (sometimes as much as the game itself - or more). That is why I experimented with foamboard for my copies of Descent 2nd edition, and Mansions of Madness 2e. I like making stuff, so experimenting with foamboard and glue to organize these was fun and challenging, but it does take a lot of time (and cutting!). After the excitement of unboxing Mage Knight I was getting out a pencil and paper to plan my foamboard solution and I thought 'Why am I doing this? Isn't there a faster way?'

As it turns out there was a faster way. It cost a little bit more and isn't completely customized, but I think it 'gets the job done'. All it took was a trip to my local 100 yen shop (Daiso - praise be thy name!) and some measuring.

Let's take a look...

1. Open up the box and you'll meet the rulebooks on top of the reputation track.

2. Take those off and we get to the day and night cycle card. It lies on a black piece of plasticard.

3. As well as supporting the day/ night card the plasticard also serves as the lid for a stack of two boxes underneath. Remove the day/ night card and you reveal a long box underneath. This has a variety of bags and cards. You can see this in the image below...

4. Lift up that box, you'll find another one underneath. This identical box has more cards (wound cards etc.) as well as the enemy tokens.

5. Remove that second box (see below) and you get to the bottom of the game box. You can see here that I've put a black piece of craft paper underneath. This isn't only thematic, but it looks coordinated with the other pieces and hides the white base of the box. You can also see three small storage boxes at right. (Note how the city models sit nestled between them.)

6. Now let's look at the two small boxes that hold the Mage Knights themselves and small bits and bobs like mana crystals. 

7. Now we come to a third small box. This is identical to the two above, but I use it to keep all the decks for the Mage Knights themselves. You can see it in the lower right corner of the image below...

...and here is a close up of that small box and the cards in it. You can also see clearly how I use the space between those boxes for the city models and where they sit.

8. The biggest piece is actually two separate, identical boxes that I have arranged to lay on top of each other. These are actually letter stands/ pen stands for a desk. Pull them apart...

...and this is where the map tiles are stored.

They are actually divided into two levels on which sit the sets (brown and green). When you play the game, these can stay horizontally like this and tiles can be drawn as needed, but they could also stand vertically (as below). 

You could use the empty twin box to store anything else that you want, but I like to store card decks in there to save table space. Below you can see that spell, artefact, advanced action, and wound cards can all be stored. It is tight, but it will serve!

Cost?

About 6-8 USD.

• x3 small PU leather boxes (3 USD)
• x2 large PU desk boxes (2 USD)
• x2 long PU leather trays (2 USD)
• x1 piece of black plasticard, cut to size (1 USD)
• x1 piece of black paper (0 USD...I already had it.)

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

1. Fast to put together.
2. Cheap.
3. Convenient - no cutting or gluing.
4. 'PU leather' looks more professional than foamboard/ foamcore.

Cons:

1. More expensive than foamboard (by about 3 dollars!)
2. Not 'custom' so doesn't fit exactly (there are gaps)
3. Not custom, so there aren't separate slots for everything (tokens etc.)
4. Not custom, so lid extends 2 cm higher than normal.

Perhaps one day (if I win the lottery) I'll get a nice insert from one of the many companies that make them, but until then this does the job!

Happy gaming!