Raiden Senbutai Conversion

After playing around with the ArmyBuilder for Japanese Sectorial Armies (JSA), I found out that it is pretty tough to use up enough special weapon cost (SWC) points with the current range of Yu Jing JSA models. Sure, one could throw a couple Aragotos with spitfire down, but there's only one model, and in my opinion fielding duplicate models is a big fax-pas in games of Infinity.

So with a donated Pan Oceania spitfire (sweet looking weapon) from Lost Cateran, I set about trying to affix the damn thing to a JSA model. The only viable candidate was the Domaru Butai with chain rifle. I'm not a fan of these close-range specialists anyway and the model fit the part - he's a heavily armored samurai.

I went to work with my knife, saw and clippers. In the process of removing the chain rifle, both the bloke's left hand and his right shoulder-pad were badly mauled. Luckily, a small supply of Magic-Sculpt had recently arrived in the mail. The reconstruction began.

Boy, sculpting is hard! First lesson I learned is that saliva is your friend. Second lesson, let things cure a bit before trying any detail work. Thirdly, don't be afraid to start over. I sculpted a shoulder pad, was unhappy with it, and then completely ripped off the putty and re-did it with better results.

Well, enough chatter. Here he is!

Next step, file down the edges so they are sharp and affix some katanas.

More to come...

Techno-crates

I finally finished the batch of techno-crates that I started many months ago.  They actually turned out better than I expected.  They're almost too pretty to run on the game board.  Anyway- after distributing a few to the other RP dudes and keeping a few for myself, I decided to cast as many more as I could before running out of resin and/or burning out the mold.  I've got a few left and I'm offering them for sale via Remote Presence.  Shipping/Handling between $3 and $7, depending on quantity and delivery location.

The photo pretty much sums it up.  If you are interested, you can email me at kkovarcik@gmail.com.

Weekly Infinity Update

What've I been up to?

After Adepticon, I got bitten by the building bug big time.  Also got bit by another sort of bug that caused persistent and uncomfortable respiratory issues (but we won't go there).  As a result, I didn't really make any progress on any figures.  Right now my workbench is covered with two magnetized IG Hellhounds, an IG Demolisher, an IG Valdor, 5 Future Cars, and 10 Technocrates.  So- in regards to the Infinity stuffs...

 The Future Cars from Antenocitis Workshop (see earlier post) were coated with Mr. Surfacer 500.  This served to even out any imperfections and also provide more tooth for the subsequent coats of acrylic paint.  Resin loves to chip off weak paints (read- without solvents!).  After the Mr. Surfacer I went ahead and used a brown gradient for all the windows.  It took about an hour, start to finish, with my airbrush and Tamiya acrylics.  Each car was then sealed with Testors Glosscoat.  The windows were then masked with painter's tape and the Spinners painted with Taimya spray blue and the Future Car painted with Tamiya Mica Red.  The Spinners then got two lighter highlight coats of blue.  As expected, once the tape came off, so did some of the paint beneath.  Fortunately it wasn't too bad and I was able to touch it up.  I've only pulled 5 of the cars out of the 10, and right now I'm adding black washes to the panel lines and black paint as a base coat for the tires and undercarriage.

The technocrates are proceeding pretty well.  I'm something of a perfectionist (read- anal retentive) so I really want this to come out nicely.  As with the Future Cars, I scrubbed the crates prior to priming.  Since they're less delicate, I literally scrubbed them, using a toothbrush and Simple Green.  Then I washed them in soap and water.  Then I hit them with Mr. Surfacer.  Then I used Armory Black paint.  Overkill?  No.  After airbrushing the basic grey color and some blue/gray highlights on the top panels, I masked off areas around the horizontal panels with low-tack painter's tape, airbrushed the colors I wanted, then CAREFULLY removed the tape.  Result?  Still lost a few chips of paint even after all the prep work.  Honestly, just a few tiny specs, so I can say I'm "OK" with it.  I'll probably have to airbrush the short ends the same way as the long panels, but that's for another day.  I'm thinking- decals for logos and insignia, but here's what I have thus far.

The photo shows my resin crates under the papercraft templates.  I've got about 20 resin copies that I'll be offering for sale in the near future.  My hope is to have the cars, the crates, and all the other bits and pieces of terrain ready for action at the NOVA Open.

Yu Jing Works In Progress

 I've been working on a couple Infinity figures from an earlier generation - with some scale differences. Apparently these were some of the early models to come out for the Infinity Yu Jing range. They weren't the first though - there is one god-awful Shaolin Monk model that was included in the first Yu Jing starter pack. This one is a later sculpt. Seems that Corvus Belli was working on a heroic scale in those days and has since scaled down to more lifelike sculpts. This monk stands a whole head taller than current models in power armor. I'm not bothered though, he's a great model. 

Even though he could be passable as a finished model, I'm not satisfied with a couple things, like his flowing orange robes and his chain rifle, so I'm going to be working on those before declaring him finished. His companion below is an odd model. She's doing a flip, which seems like a good idea but as a model, it's a bit strange. See most models have a focal point - the head. This is where a lot of the character sits and provides the viewer with a centered point. This monk model has no focal point so your eyes sort of wander and get lost. You're not sure where to center yourself. And the painter has nothing to really embellish with detail. 

The Gui'Lang Skirmisher on the other hand is a great dramatic sculpt. I've painted him in muted tones with Khaki and Chocolate brown. He's almost done though. In games he's been doing ok, but he isn't the hero I thought he would be. Armor 1, even with Camo Level 2, does not provide much protection when the bullets start flying. Though I expect him to be a regular sight in all my lists. 

Holoboards and Power Fields

or "She blinded me...with SCIENCE!"

After working on the modular wall project a few months ago, I thought it might be nice to get a bit fancy and add holoboards and power field walls. Since both endeavors were "in progress", I never posted anything here. I thought I had... but apparently not. Anyway, I went online to see if I could find transparent fluorescent acrylic sheets that could be used in the aforementioned capacity. I was lucky, and found Inventables online. They have some really nifty stuff that would work wonders on any futuristic terrain display.

First up was the simplest project- power fields. Using fluorescent orange acrylic sheet, I cut out small sections and carved in a criss-cross pattern using the back-edge of an eXacto knife*. These power fields will be integral parts of the wall sections, so I had to create appropriately sized brackets from sheet styrene and rod. All the walls and brackets are current out for painting, but here's a shot showing the concept and a finished field.

The second project was a bit trickier, and to be honest- I cheated. I used fluorescent green acrylic sheet for these, and cut out blocks of similar size to the power fields. However, knowing that I wanted more than just lines going back and forth, I left this project alone until I was able to find somebody who was willing to do some laser etching for me.


I got lucky. That being said, I still expect at some point to do hand carving, but in the mean time... well, damn, but these just look good. They'll need their own support structures, and I'm thinking that something that fits on top of wall sections or can stand on it's own is what I need. Soon...

*eXacto knives are very sharp. Use them carefully. Have bandages nearby just in case. Just sayin...

Product Review: Future Cars

"Where are my Flying Cars?"

I got your flying cars... right here. Since using oversized Matchbox toys wasn't really quite my style, I spent a fair amount of time looking online for alternatives. The first option to show up in my search eventually wound up being the one I went with. So without further ado, I give you a very quick product review of two vehicles from Antenocitis Workshop.

"Future Car"

The Future Car kit is composed of only 4 parts... three of which are not particularly essential. The car body is cast in one solid hunk of resin and could be put to work exactly as is without adding any of the other parts. However, if you want to put rear-view mirrors or a spoiler on your future car- the parts are included.


Detail is very good for a one-piece casting. The panel lines are a tad heavy for the scale, but for wargaming use it is not unusual. The resin is firm but not brittle. It carves easily, though there isn't much call for trimming. There are only two or three voids in the casting that will be easy to fill. Quality is consistently good. I can say that because I went out on a limb, splurged, and ordered about ten cars (total, both types) and found them all to be well done- an indicator of good quality control.


Prior to painting, the car will need some light sanding to even out the surfaces. I haven't decided if these cars will get glossy finishes or not, but either way they will benefit from the application of Mr. Surfacer primer to help even things out prior to painting.

"Flying Car with Decals"

A Spinner, by any other name... Six major components, a bunch of smaller greeblies for vents and (optional) police lights, and a decal sheet. The resin and casting quality is similar to the Future Car (above), so I won't repeat myself. The resin and casting quality is similar to the Future Car (above), so I... uh...


The decal sheet is sweet. Nicely printed with fine detail. I haven't had a chance to build this car yet, so I can't say how well the decals react to water or setting solutions. I'm not worried- if I can make decals on my printer at home, I'm sure these will be fine. Also, since the sheet has white ink, it means that more likely than not Antenocitis used an Alps printer which is rock solid.

Unlike the Future Car, the Spinner does require some assembly. The lower fuselage is cast separately from the upper cabin. The mating surfaces will have to be sanded flush. Not a major undertaking, but something to be aware of. It looks like the forward wheels were cast in the "flying position". If you want to show them in the "ground" position, you'll have to do a lot of work. This is not a ding against the product- you wouldn't really know the difference between the two modes unless you spent a lot of time looking at Blade Runner concept art or just watching the movie.


The only real criticism I have of this kit is that there are no directions for assembly. Granted, the basic assembly is fairly obvious, even if you only look at the photo included on the (very nice) packaging, but the police lights may prove to be problematic. The Antenocitis website only has one photo of the police version of this vehicle. As a result, assembly and proper placement of the smaller greeblies will require a bit of research and/or guesswork.

Conclusion:

Worth it? Yes.

At £8.5 ($13) for the Future Car and £11.5 ($18) for the Spinner, these kits are reasonably priced. However, as a customer not living in the UK, I was not charged the VAT, so that brought the cost per kit down to about £9.5 ($15) and £7 ($11). Even though I ordered quite a few of these cars, it only takes an order of 2 or 3 kits to qualify for free shipping (UK or International).

Once I get around to these guys, they'll look good on the board and provide some nice LOS blocking terrain.

Tim's Painting Studio

So I think you can see from these photos that I am not the most organized artist out there. My workbench is pretty cluttered and filled with little paint pots. It's got soul though and I still get lots of work done in this little cave. 

Here you can see my wet pallet, my airbrush cleaning pot, my horde of little paints and my current project. Yep...14 long fangs have been commissioned from a gent in Florida. It's quite a project and I am stunned that I've been able to maintain a high level of painting on these guys.

Behind them in this shot you can see my next commission...6 Alpha Legion Dreads. Good god, I will never get to my own figs again!

My trusty airbrush, Iwata Eclipse. What a beaut!

I find heads are much easier to paint off the model than on them. These ones here are prepped for priming and then base coating with the airbrush. It'll be a great experience to paint all 14 in one go.

Although banner are pretty ridiculous for modern warfare, I do love how they look. 

This is a piece of work my wife did for my birthday. My favorite image in my whole "studio."

Builder vs. Collector

You ever reach a point where you realize that you've managed to accrue more models or miniatures than you'll ever be able to build? That's the point you shift, officially, from a Builder to a Collector. I hit that point years ago with my scale model collection, but now I'm approaching it with my wargaming collect...uh... backlog. Since starting Infinity about a year ago, my 40k stuff has been put on hold. What stuff? A whole Death Korps army, a bunch of Space Marines, and a few Tau XV9 suits. And 2 titans, but we won't discuss them.


Here's a current photo of my workbench. You can see at the top of the picture there are two XV9 suits ready to be painted. Next to them is a great bag of human skulls from Secret Weapon Miniatures. Further to the right is a Gang from Necromunda (displaced from their foam by the forces of the Jade Empire...). To the left is a stack of 4 new Yu Jing blisters (plus Sforza...). The work area is occupied by my "second round" of Infinity minis- Celestial Guard special weapons, some Ninjas, a HMG Hsien, some Yaozao, a Sophotect, a Su-Jian, and a Garuda. These guys (and gals) are about 90% complete, but I know sooner rather than later I'll wind up with another stack in the background...

Vallejo paints are scattered on the bench- I've started transitioning from GW to Vallejo because there is more variation and also the paint containers are far more practical. Anyway, just another post to remind everybody that we're still alive and kicking. Maybe I should shoot to complete the 3rd batch by the time we hit 100 followers. LOL

Terrain Project: Techno-crates 2

So this project was a bit larger than my usual attempts at scratch-building. Not only did I start from the ground up, but I went ahead with the intention of making copies. The first step after completing the master template was to create a mold.

The first attempt, though serviceable, was over-engineered. The Monster was huge, robust, but it didn't capture as much detail as I wanted. Eventually I couldn't resist the temptation to create a second mold. The Bride was was smaller, economical, and captured all the detail I wanted.

Sticking with my intent to reduce the amount of work necessary to cast the copies, I made this a "hollow" mold. The bottom of the cast is empty due to the large plug that creates the internal space. This reduced weight and the amount of resin needed per unit. It did cause a few problems, most notably air bubbles and resin voids along the bottom. The Monster had bigger voids, so I added more vents to the Bride. This seemed to alleviate most problems.

Detail capture is excellent on all sides, even picking up some smaller scribed panel lines and rivet holes. There were a few bubbles in the mold in the upper corners of the window frames that still catch a tiny bit of resin, but they pop out with the help of a chisel xacto.

Again, a bit of clean up will be required around the bottom edges, but these were never intended to be used "in the round". Sure, they can be, if we want to add a simple sheet of styrene fitted to shape. Should be easy enough, but it would be flat and won't have the same detail present on the rest of the piece. Frankly, I'm not concerned about it at all.

Very pleased with the capture of the holes in the roof grating plates. VERY pleased. As of now, I'm able to cast fairly quickly, since the Bride was more well engineered than the Monster, and she should last a while longer. The Monster might be pressed back into service for use with Dental Stone at some point, but for now it's all resin. The RM investors will be getting their copies next gaming night. I do expect to be able to make a few extras for sale via this site sometime in the near future. Probably looking at about $18 per unit. These are resin beasts. When I'm at that point, I'll make a proper post with more detailed photos, dimensions, etc..

Terrain Project: Techno-crates

or: "I'll try to contain myself"

I think it's safe to say everybody who is in to Infinity got in to it to a large degree because of the awesome visual designs. I love how it recalls the style of Japanese anime. While Corvus Belli has some great miniatures, they don't have any terrain. Other game systems do, but the Infinity players have to find what they can from other sources. Micro Art Studio has purpose-built pieces, for example, but there are plenty of manufacturers out there. One generic source of terrain is papercraft. Recently we started using papercraft to bulk out our tables, and one of my favorites is this sci-fi looking shipping container.


Using this container as a template, I went ahead and built up a 3d version using styrene sheets and tubes. The whole process took about two weeks worth of modeling during the evenings. More than I expected, but worth it (so far). This is my first full scratch-build, so it has been a learning experience. For example, I've learned that drilling 1,144 holes in a 2"x4" sheet of plastic is a sure way to court madness.



The rest of the RM guys have opted to assist with the financial aspect of the next phase of the project: Makin' copies. This weekend I ordered casting supplies, and I hope to be able to get to work on that aspect shortly.