NOVA 2013 Prize Support

So, to my surprise, I actually won the Renaissance Man for both the ITS Tournament on Saturday and the Team Tournament (along with my brother) on Sunday. The Renaissance Man is the best combined score for painting and objectives over the tournament. I don't believe I actually got the best score, but the person with the best score already got 1st place, so I subsequently got Ren Man. My Ariadnan force that I played is displayed below.

 

 

The prize support that Corvus Belli gave was, in a word, tremendous. All players got a free mini (I got a Gui Feng Spec-Ops), and as winner, I got all the rest of the stuff pictured below.

 



I technically did not win the Cutter, but I got $25 off a Warstore purchase, with the restriction
that it must be used that night. They had a Cutter available and I've always liked the model.

The rulebook, while I already own a rulebook, was super neat, since it was signed by Corvus Belli staff, along with sketches and drawing. I especially like the doodle of our favorite Fusilier, Angus (at least I think it's Angus), at the bottom left.

Huge amount of respect for Corvus Belli for not only appreciating the tournament circuit, but actively enhancing it with prize support.

I'll hopefully be putting up a post in the next few days regarding constructing those Bandua Cubes.

Nomad Spektr Update

Sometimes Infinity models can be taxing. Sometimes high standards can be taxing. 

The level of detail and intricacy of Infinity models can be very demanding on a painter and I've decided to call this gent a done deal...for now. 

I need a break. 

Next up on my painting table is a nice change of pace - a 40k Dreadnought. It'll be a welcome change before I bring brush to Infinity figs. 

Airbrushing Infinity Miniatures Follow-up

Following up from my previous post about airbrushing miniatures, here is another picture of the Nomad Spetkr in progress. You can see the foundation of the airbrush work is still there, but I have accentuated the lights and darks and added a lot more color with a traditional brush. 

Because I have sprayed highlights from above, it helps reveal where the light hits the model and takes out some of the guess work of zenithal highlighting. 

Any questions?

More to come soon.

Next topic: First Impressions of Matte Medium!

Showcase Photo #2

OK, so apparently the goal of "weekly" was too ambitious.  I'm gonna use the twin excuses of "got sick" and "prep for Games & Stuff tournament".

This photo shows a Ninja Sniper on top of an apartment building.  Behind her is a police car, but there's no sign of the crew.  Clearly, they had the best vantage point but were a liability that had to be taken care of by the stealthy Ninja.

Showcase Photo

I finally got around to taking some decent photos of the miniatures and terrain we've been using for our games of Infinity.  Hopefully I can post one "showcase" photo per week.

Floor tiles are from Zombicide, car is from Antenocitis Workshop.  Other terrain is scratchbuilt (covered in previous posts).

Tim's Latest Yu Jing Models

This week, I've decided our post would be able  the recent Yu Jing models I've finished. For me, they feel like some of the best miniatures I've painted, but as I look at them in photos, I can see all those little imperfections that make that untrue. Must not get all flustered about photos though, in person they look very different and are still a source of pride. 

The first one is my Gui-Lang Skirmisher. This little guy was lots of fun to paint. I love painting flowing  robes, cloaks and capes and this guy's got a great pose to boot. Unfortunately there was a mold line going right across his face and even over his eye, so he lost a ton of facial detail in the cleaning process.

 

Next up is the Shaolin Monk. He was also a lot of fun to paint, but took a lot longer. The model has a lot of detail that I struggled with and the orange paint I chose was so sorely pigmented that I had a tough time getting the orange bits right. I'm very happy with the face though.

Finally, I recently finished this Husong remote. It's a total reaction bot that I really loved painting. It was a bit of an experiment. I started with an airbrush to get a layer of darker brown down, then top-coated it with yellow-brown you see there. I ended up with the nicely blended basecoat. Then I took out my traditional brush and went to work. This model really only took about 3 painting session because of the airbrush. It was finished with little effort and I am happy with the results. It's not display quality but it will work. 

Feel free to post any questions and comments. I love constructive criticism. It's what drives me to improve with each session. And no criticism is too harsh, if it's well-founded. 

As a side note, I'll have all my Infinity models out on display at the NOVA Open Infinity Tournament in Arlington, VA. I'll be on hand as a rules judge in the event, but I'd also be happy to share some of my painting secrets there. 

Lo pan's Su Jian Showcase

Lo Pan, fellow author, sent me this photo of his recently completed Su Jian, Immediate Action Unit. I simply love that orange! Plus the NMM is pretty slick too.

Showcase: Sun Tze

A bit of eye candy. Since our weekly game got snowed out last time, and I've got nothing worth sharing from the "in progress" catalogue, I thought I'd post a few photos of Sun Tze.


I entered him in an online competition via the Infinity forum back in December. He didn't make the final cut, but that's fine- he does fairly well on the game board with Stragegos L3 and some other nifty features.


The mini features some freehand details on the cloak and shoulder pad, and for fun I tried doing some OSL on his gauntlet.


The only thing I'm not happy with is how a relatively thick mold line runs right down one of his eyes. I just couldn't get rid of all of it.

Tim W's Yu Jing

My Yu Jing all got together for a Chinese New Year party. They all struck a pose for this shot. Yay. 

A Tribute to Simo Hayha

It was during the Winter War (1939–1940), between Finland and the Soviet Union, that he began his duty as a sniper and fought for the Finnish Army against the Red Army. In temperatures between −40 and −20 degrees Celsius, dressed completely in whitecamouflage, Häyhä was credited with 505 confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers.^[3][5] A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was conducted for the Finnish snipers. Besides his sniper kills, Häyhä was also credited with over 200 kills with a Suomi KP/-31submachine gun.^[5] Remarkably, all of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days at a time of year with very short hours of daylight.^[6][7][8] The unofficial Finnish front line figure from the battlefield of Kollaa places the number of Häyhä's total kills at over 800.^[9]

Häyhä used a Finnish militia variant, White Guard M/28 "Pystykorva" or "Spitz", of the Russian Mosin-Nagant rifle, because it suited his small frame (5 ft 3 in/1.60 m). He preferred to use iron sights rather than telescopic sights to present a smaller target (the sniper must raise his head higher when using a telescopic sight), for more reliable visibility (a telescopic sight's glass can fog up easily in cold weather), and aid concealment (sunlight glare in telescopic sight lenses can reveal a sniper's position). Another tactic used by Häyhä was to compact the snow in front of him so that the shot would not disturb the snow and reveal his position.^{[citation needed]} He also kept snow in his mouth, so that the vapor of his breath would not give him away.^{[citation needed]}

The Soviets tried several ploys to get rid of him, including counter-snipers and artillery strikes. On March 6, 1940, Häyhä was shot in the lower left jaw by a Russian soldier during combat. The bullet tumbled upon impact and exited his head. He was picked up by fellow soldiers who said "half his head was missing", but he was not dead: he regained consciousness on March 13, the day peace was declared. Shortly after the war Häyhä was promoted from alikersantti (corporal) to Second Lieutenant by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim; no one else has gained rank so quickly in Finland's military history.

Thank you, Wikipedia. 

Hac Tao Inspired by Brom

I finished this Hac Tao Heavy Infantry trooper a couple weeks ago but never got the chance to take good photos of it. Looking at him now through these photos, I already notice a few areas I need to touch up. But that's not going to hold me back from showing him off on Remote Presence. 

He's one of the models in my Yu Jing collection that I rarely go to battle without and so I wanted him to look really nice. The model actually isn't all that ground-breaking for a sculpt but there are some lovely shapes here and there across the model, places like the chest, and thighs, the head. Corvus Belli's stock model has him in a very dark color scheme that hides these shapes, so I wanted him much brighter to accentuate those great curved lines and shapes.

In game he is a beast, but like all things Infinity, fragile when exposed. I like setting him up in Hidden Deployment and sneaking around as a camo marking before popping up to make a kill. I call it the way of the croc...being all stealthy and barely visible on the surface before leaping up in a fury of teeth and claws, before disappearing again under the surface. 

Not sure if I got the OSL effect right on his eyes, they don't quite look they are glowing but I'm still satisfied. For now it'll do, besides you gotta learn to walk before you can run, right? Is it just me or does his head look like a Pokemon?

The blue on the "energy ports" (or whatever they are) was a quick off-the-cuff splash of paint that yielded a pleasing result. Most of the time I plan out my color schemes well before painting, but I always allow myself to do little things like this to bring the model to life. 

Speaking of the color scheme, would you believe it was inspired by this piece of artwork from Brom. 

Image used without permission, so sue me. 

Hard to explain how but I think you might be able to see the connection. Brom's work actually influences a lot of my miniature painting. His work is great place to start when searching out a good color scheme. Although it's pretty dark subject matter, he often uses vibrant colors in interesting combinations that you don't often see while looking at miniatures. 

What's your favorite source of inspiration?

Hope you've enjoyed getting a look at this guy. Next on the docket is my Su Jian Immediate Action Unit..,more to come

Showcase: Yu Jing

Click to see larger version

Here is my Yu Jing Battle Group for Infinity. It currently consists of the Starter Set and an additional pack of Zhanshi line troops. I've had a lot of fun painting these models. I've had the time and energy to paint each one to higher standard than normal, because the model count is low. I haven't gone with a universal color scheme for the whole group, instead I've tied in an orange into each model somewhere, hopefully this will be enough to tie them together.

Click to see larger version
With this Domaru Butai, I wanted to do something different than what Corvus Belli had done. I hadn't seen many Domarus painted on-line and the few I had seen, the painters had painted them the Japanese Sectorial Army's standard white-red combo. My red-orange combo seemed to work out rather well on her though and I painted her face mask white to draw your attention and create a focal point to the model.  

This Domaru Butai isn't exactly complete. I need to coat her in varnish and then spray a layer of dull coat. I've never done this to seal my figs, since I mostly painted plastic before, but metal models really demand it. Once I've sealed her, she'll get stands of grass like the rest of the troops. 

Click to see larger version

This Yu Jing Celestial Guard model has seen action both as a lieutenant and as a hacker. He's pretty decent in both roles, although less so as a lieutenant. Normally I'll just set him up behind a piece of terrain, but then his lieutenant order gets wasted. It keeps your lieutenant from dying thats for so sure, cowardly lieutenants live longer than Rambos.

Click to see larger version

Here are the ZHanshi painted a couple months ago. These soldiers form the bulk of the Yu Jing Infantry and are armed with decent BS, WIP and CC scores. They armed with combi-rifles that are nothing to laugh at. I generally go to battle with three Zhanshi, to provide orders for my heavy hitters, but lately I've seen them take down some tough guys. In light of that, I would say learning how to use light troops like these is a key skill in Infinity the Game.  

Click to see larger version

Here is my Shang-Ji Invincible. Numerous games have shown me that name is just a name, because he certianly is vincible. I've repainted his armor recently and touched up a few areas. He got chipped pretty badly in a recent game, underscoring the need to seal Infinity miniatures for game-play. I really like this model visually and in-game. He's fast with a move of 4-4, and a pretty decent shot with BS 13. He's got no special skills or abilities though, so he's pretty straightforward.

Click to see larger version

Lastly, I'm sharing my Hac Tao model with you all. He's still a work in progress but I wanted to share him anyway. I've decided to use an off-white color for his armor instead of black. I hope that the light color will visually increase his bulk slightly. In game he's always been an asset with his thermal optical camouflage and heavy armor.

I hope you've gotten some inspiration for today, feel free to ask any question about colors or techniques on any of these models.  

Pan Oceania Cutter Showcase

Here it is. The Pan Oceania Cutter for Infinity the Game. The TAG came out really well. I'm still trying to get a handle on photographing miniatures so parts of the model are out of focus. 

 For the color scheme I basically followed GW's Space Wolves scheme. It's always been one that I've admired and copying it on to a model from a different manufacture really renewed the look. I've made some tweaks but essentially I've stuck true to it.

You can see my attempt at Object Source Lighting, or OSL. I looked up a bunch of OSL tutorials on-line and found a very good one from Massive Voodoo. I haven't mastered it yet and looking at these pictures now I can see some areas that I need to re-touch. 

What a nice crotch! I actually wanted to share this part because it was in focus and because it displayed some of the Non-Metallic Metal or NMM I produced on this model. NMM is always something to improve upon as it is such a time consuming and difficult technique to master. The important thing is making sure you highlight all the way up to white without it looking choppy or showing any brushstrokes. 

OSL

More OSL. 

Here you can actually see an area that needs to re-worked. The light should be reflecting on his biceps and his upper forearm a little more. 

Constructive feedback and criticism is very much welcome. He's still a work in progress so I can make any amendments as needed.