Taking a little break from the monster hunting posts, I wanted to catch up on my painting progress since it is one of my goals for the year. In addition to the 15mm Joan of Arc minis getting painted for the monster hunting game, I’ve also been working through more of my Infinity models. This time, I’m catching up on a bunch of Imperial Service minis that have been hanging around for a while now.
I’m not sure if it because I’m getting older or have so many minis that I can’t justify dedicating a lot of time to one model or something else entirely but I’ve been finding myself trying to cheat more and more. Sometimes it works out and the short cut is fine but others, the mini is a bit low by my standards. “Slapchopping” has gained a lot of popularity and while I’m not fully doing that in these models, I’m definitely short-cutting a lot by leaning heavily on my airbrush.
Case in point, these ALEPH rentals for Imperial Service: the Garuda tactical bot (first) and Dakini Sniper. These are just zenithal primed, washed in Nuln Oil, then edge highlighting the armor. The gun, jumppack, and eyes are the only thing actually painted and that is even using more washes or drybrushing. I like how these turned out and they were very quick to get through.
These Wu Ming soldiers join their helmet-less friend I painted up in the same fashion last year. Same principle as the ALEPH bots above, but airbrush highlighting my armor color scheme. These took a little extra work as I need to cleanly paint in all the under-armor piping and then highlight that too. I like them a lot up close but when they are on the table, they tend to be very “one-note.” I need to accent them but for now, I’ll call them done. Unfortunately, the unit profiles are not great in Infinity so there is some hesitation to keep working on something that will likely stay in the game bag for most of my games.
Getting back to more traditional painting, I have a pair of Zhanying troopers. These are a mainstay for the Imperial Service and should see a good deal of table time. They also complete a trio with the first Zhanying painted late last year as well. This is a bunch of block painting for the main colors and then washing and highlighting later.
Back to short-cutting, I have Taowu, the mastermind and schemer. Here again was airbrush hightlighting going heavy on the white. I’m not getting a good even blend with my airbrush as you can clearly see so I’ll need to start testing more. Some friends have given me advice on some changes I can make and we’ll see if it works. If I figure out the secret, I’ll post it. The rest of the mini except the gold and the eyes are all GW washes. He also came together and on the table, the blending is fine and I like his look. Too bad he schemes on the table too so you usually deploy him secretly as another model and can spend the whole game not even using his mini.
I went a little ambitious on this one. This is the infamous Sophotect, another ALEPH rental for Imperial Service. She is infamous because she is the faction’s only access to the doctor and engineer skills and she is in one unit. While the combo might be great in some situations, because she also costs almost twice as much as a single doctor or engineer, it can be hard to get her in lists.
The model is a little weird because it has this “mother forge” thing she comes with. It sits flush on your base and always seemed weird and awkward. The unit also moves as fast as some of the fastest non-biker units in the game so this odd permanent forge she’s hauling around didn’t make sense. Ultimately, I ditched the forge idea and decided to turn the whole thing into some hover device she scoots around on.
I put the forge on a standard base (that had no facing markings) and then greenstuffed some little engine exhausts, decking, and a simple turbine bottom that didn’t look great but also didn’t matter since it was underneath everything. I sculpted a little stand and mounted it all on an official base with facing markings.
All this required a lot of painting in stages as it would be hard to reach the bottom base, the underside of the hover forge, and all of the actual Sophotect model. I also wanted to experiment with some object source lighting (OSL) as the hover forge display would shine up on her from below. I cheated here and airbrushed white at that angle from underneath and then painted around it until I could add in the green wash (again from GW).
While the scheme is pretty simple and I’m not really satisfied with it, but I do like the overall concept and like the way she looks on the table.
And with that, another eight Infinity models get off my backlog and into the roster, ready for action. I’ve still got about 19 more Imperial Service to go so this batch got me a third of the way there. And then there are the other factions beyond to still contend with. Looking at my list is the biggest motivator to keep my “no more minis” embargo going strong.