Malifaux - Asami Tanaka

Time to expand my summoning options again for Asami Tanaka. This time we are adding some cheap minions in the form of the tengu, bird like demons with some nice movement options and a real handy heal effect built into their rules.

Assembly went fine. Fiddly as all-hell, but that’s Malifaux.

I brush painted on some Vallejo Ghost Grey primer as I didn’t want to faff about with an airbrush for 3 models.

Cool though they are, I didn’t want to copy the Wyrd studio paint job as I don’t think they look ‘demony’ enough. I got my google-foo going and started trawling for information about the mythology and imagery behind the tengu in Japanese mythology.

It seems Tengu is actually a named demon individual who commonly wears a mask and has a long nose. He has various minor demonic servants (koppa tengu) that seem to be more like the imagery Wyrd used to create the models.

Classically a lot of oni demons in Japanese mythology have red skin so I decided to go with this vibe by using Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Vermillion for beaks, hands and legs.

Although the three models in the box are different sculpts and poses, I wanted to use a common colour palette across their robes. I saw a great image with a tengu in a yellow tunic so decided to use that as another of my common colours, settling on VMC Gold Brown, a lovely warm yellow.

Taking a look at a colour wheel there was an interesting split complement triad using these two colours and a teal blue (VMC Blue Green), so I decided to use that as my second colour on cloaks and fabric details.

As the models are so different I’ll list colours used with images of the relevant model below. As usual all paints are Vallejo Model Color unless otherwise stated.

Feathers – London grey

Bandolier – German Camo Black Brown

Skulls – Tan Yellow

Beak, hands and feet – Vermillion

Skirt – Gold Brown

Weights? On skirt – Black then Oily Steel

Talons on feet, eyes – Black

Inside beak, tongue – Pink

Feathers – London grey

Mace handle – German Camo Black Brown

Mace handle wrap – Tan Yellow

Beak, hands and feet – Vermillion

Tunic – Gold Brown

Cloak, stomach plate border – Blue Green

Mace head, scales on stomach plate – Black then Oily Steel

Talons on feet, eyes – Black

Inside beak, tongue – Pink

Feathers – London grey

Ankle wraps – German Camo Black Brown

Horns – Tan Yellow

Beak, hands and feet – Vermillion

Jacket – Gold Brown

Jacket border – Blue Green

Talons on feet, eyes – Black

Inside beak, tongue – Pink

Regular viewers of my projects know that base coats and a wash is normally where I stop as my models are gaming pieces first and foremost. However after a heavy wash in Citadel Colour Agrax Earthshade, the fabrics looked awful with pooling and tidemarks all over, particularly on the teal coloured cloak. So I went back in with the Gold and Blue Green colours and repainted everything in a highlight pass covering 60-80% of the original colour and leaving shade where needed.

Basing was Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Mediterranean Soil over a base coat of US Field Drab so we don’t get spots of light grey primer showing through.