Coming with the Misaki Ten Thunders box, these dudes are basically the ninjas of Malifaux. The sculpts are great, making the washes do most of the shading for you; and the poses are classy, too. I continue trying out different base variants, extending my repertoire of basing techniques. Since you usually field just one or two of the ninjas you can pick the one with the base fitting best to the terrain.
While on the box art these guys are clad in yellow I wanted to paint at least one in black, the typical ninja outfit. All-black was to boring , however, so I painted parts in red to make him stand out more. Since his feet are too wide apart for his 30 mm base I used a piece of slate from the local quarry onto which the model fits perfectly! Again, the idea was that the base complements the model itself; and the easiest way to support a black model was a black rock.
Painting the model I started with the red fabric. The lower part of the knives stuck on the kilt are actually not the blades but pouches, a mistake I realized when painting the third model where I got it right. But the details are so subtle sometime that mistakes as these are bound to happen. I painted the rest of the model grey and then used a mix of black wash, medium, and regular black paint. I subsequently took some time – since there are not many details to paint – for the highlights, really trying to get some smooth color blends. In the end I made such a good progress that I went for nonmetal metal on the blades, which blended even better in the overall black-grey appearance. Looking back I am really happy with the result – don’t know what I could have done better (except painting the pouches properly).
My second favorite sculpt of the threesome. For the remaining two Torakage I went with the official box art color scheme, only replacing the bright yellow with an stronger ochre tone. For one thing the ochre (GW Vermin Brown/ Zamesi Desert) has a much better opacity than yellow, and it can also be more easily and convincingly shaded than yellow. For shading I used GW Agrax Earthshade. If I could have only one wash in my collection, this is the one I would choose, even above black wash. It’s so universally usable! After the wash I only did some very sparse highlights with an ochre-white mix. There is not much more necessary, really, as the wash does 90 per cent of the work for you.
The larger black rocks are actually pieces of plastic with edges chipped off, so I could glue plastic on plastic, though I managed to drill a whole through the foot and pin it to the rock for added stability. I spent some more time highlighting the chain since I really wanted add depth to the chain links.
This is probably the least classy model. The base is actually a sculpted base by Wyrd; never thought I would spend money on sculpted bases. (I think I got the blister so the order would be postage free.) Color-wise, as with all the Torakage, I really limited my color palette, refraining to use, for instance, different colors for the knee or arm protectors. It’s tempting every time (all these colors I have that want to be used!) but in most cases the model benefits from a limited palette, especially if it is well sculpted and there is so much going with respect to shades, highlights and composition/pose, as it is the case with the Torakage.