The title basically says it all, Rob and I (Björn) are both currently getting into Infinity and since we're loyal followers of each other's blogs and recently had a long chat via pm, we decided a mutual Infinity blog could be a good idea.
Our goal is to spur each other on to accelerate the painting progress and create a place to give each other advice, show our finished works and discuss them with the community.
This way we can also keep our Necromunda blogs clean from too much Infinity stuff, because we both agreed that it's highly annoying to drop by your subscribed blogs and only find unrelated stuff.
We independantly decided to start playing ALEPH and we'll naturally have differing concepts and approaches, which bears potential for an interesting blog that is rich in contrast.
So this blog will feature the modelling and painting process of two separate Aleph forces.
Tonight we'll both introduce the ideas and concepts for our forces and post some pics of what we've done so far. So stay tuned and feel free to compliment us on the excellent idea of creating this blog.
Cheers B!
Oh no Dakka, what have I done?! Not only have I started yet another side project but this time I'm also in a "friendly" against The Arnold Schwarzenegger of Detail himself! A man who's meticulous work will make my own childish modelling efforts look like the random patterns monkeys smear with their own feces!
The B man has a bit of a head-start over me ATM, however I have a few points in my favour here:
1. I'm only running 200pts which is a smaller force then what he's doing, I believe (so I can catch up a bit!)
2. I really love the Infinity models, so wont be converting much. Only adding the odd bit to them... And finally...
3. I'm a better painter, so yeah you know...( haha only joking!)
So lets kick off with My List: (for those interested in such things.)
Spoiler:
DEVA Lieutenant +DEVABOT
ASURA Hacker
PROXY Mk.2 MULTI Sniper Rifle
PROXY Mk.1 Doctor
ZAYIN Rebot HMG + E/M Light Grenade Launcher
LAMEDH Rebot
YUDBOT
2x NETRODS
7 Orders | 201 Points | SWC: 3
I'm pretty happy with this lot. I got nearly everything I wanted in there though I'm not exactly swimming in 'orders' and don't have much CC but I'm hoping they'll never get that close! I think both Baiyuan and myself are very excited to see how our Zayins perform in game, coz on paper they could be monsters!
I also can't wait to try out my Asura, she could be a really nasty little surprise for my opponent.
So onto My 'Theme': It may not quite fit the Aleph fluff but I wanted to make them much more sinsiter...
I was actually thinking along the lines of The Borg from Star Trek. This pic of a Borg Queen from the MMO game sums up the look I'm after quite nicely IMHO.
So black/grey armor, dark metalics, super white palid flesh, and spooky green OSl.
My only concern is people thinking "Phffft...Necrons" but what the hell, I like the Necrons too.
So I know what your thinking, "What have you actually done dude?!"
Well So Far: All minis on order next week.
Bases are ordered now.
And then there's this...
Custom green Aleph Hacker acetates! Sorry only crap photo, my kid was "helping" me at the time (I also printed out the normal purple ones and some Nomad ones too)...I love the idea of these HUD but whether they get used is another thing...we'll see.
That's it from me for now 'till next update...stay tuned for Baiyuan's stuff!
@Remi: Thx, I'm excited too. Your partnering up with Vit shows, those double features are interesting and help with the productivity, even more than solo blogs.
@Rob: Thanks for the compliment, I guess... I mean Arnold... anyway, stop belittling yourself! You've done some mighty impressive work on your blog and I'm not sure yet your painting won't put mine to shame. We'll see and it's not a competition anyway. If we end up having painted our stuff and had some fun along the way, I'm more than satisfied.
And I can't wait to see your borglike paintjobs. I told you before I like the idea and don't think it's out of place with Aleph.
Ok let's get to introducing my part of the project.
design: First of all some pics that show the artistic direction of my force:
Deus Ex:
Spoiler:
Ghost in the shell:
Spoiler:
Mass Effect:
Spoiler:
I-robot:
Spoiler:
I-robot and the Cerberus troops from ME both have that white/black, high contrast, high tech style which Angel Giraldez used on the Aleph studio models and which fits perfectly into the world of Infinity. But it's also a bit too obvious and not very interesting to paint.
That's why my first idea was trying to achieve something similar to DE:HR instead, i.e. high tech that comes in a quirky dark greenish setting.
Turns out that has been done before and the guy did an incredible job too:
Spoiler:
Even though this is not the exact way I imagined it (for me orange OSL and less plain green were the way to go), it showed me that, while it does look terrific, I'd like to retain a little bit more contrast and hope to achieve a design that looks less like ordinary futuristic military and more like the bunch of cybernetic operatives I imagine the aleph troops to be.
So I'll attempt a mixture of both styles. I.e. high contrast almost black&white with lots of dark blues greens. Not sure yet that I can pull it off, but my first tries are promising enough.
project size: Rob is right that my army will be a little bit bigger. First of all my aim is to get a 150p force ready for the game, but I've bought a little more than that:
Spoiler:
...and there's actually more on the way, but it will arrive with my Campaign Paradiso book, when it comes out. In the end I'll have the whole collection of Aleph miniatures and hopefully get them all painted up one day.
But like Confucius says: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." so 150p and then 300p and then one day the 900p I have accumulated so far.
progress: I'm currently painting my Naga hacker, but I decided not to show PIPs as he's close enough to completion anyway and I don't want to spoil the surprise.
Before painting the naga I tried the color scheme on one of my Rebots and there are PIPs of that one. I abandoned it for now, because I realized a remote wasn't the best choice to test the scheme.
Ready to be painted:
Almost finished base:
Color test for the armor shading (left foreleg):
Ok stay tuned for pictures of the finished Naga soon.
@ HF Izanagi - Aw shucks, thanks mate...I hope it lives up to expections.
@ Baiyuan - Thanks, yeah I know. I'm only messing about You can take most things I say with a pinch of salt, I'm rarely serious in my ramblings.
As for your work so far...Great start, I've already commented on these bits on original post, but they look cool, interesting theme and I'll have to look into magnets for my Rebots too. It makes sense not to waste those possible loadout options.
@ Monkeytroll - Thanks Hopefully it'll be quite interesting for fans of the game or the Aleph faction.
Like Baiyuan said in his original post...Aleph wasn't my first choice either...I was gonna be but a friend called them first. I didn't really like the look of any other faction so started researching them about same time B posted his stuff on here. Being a bit of a noob, none of their unit stats struck me as that overwhelming, and I worried I'd made a poor choice due to their high points cost. However the more I looked into the rules the more I found an angle on them that I could definately get excited about and they do have some of the nicest looking models IMHO of the series...I still really like the Aliens though (maybe will be force no.2 if I get that far...)
So yeah more actual progress from me starting next week, whilst I free up some funds for this from an Ebay purge
Ghostflame wrote: @ Baiyuan - Thanks, yeah I know. I'm only messing about You can take most things I say with a pinch of salt, I'm rarely serious in my ramblings.
I know, just couldn't leave it uncommented, but I did sense a hint of humour there...
Since you brought it up and it really rather belongs here, I'm gonna quote myself:
Baiyuan wrote: Like I mentioned before, one of the main things was the need for something that looks as different from my 40k stuff as possible.
In the beginning I didn't like the models the most, I actually preferred or .
in the end didn't make it because despite the gorgeous models, the style still was too close to my other stuff. (they might become my second army, should I ever get that far)
was out of the game immediately, since I know too much about the asian background to fully enjoy it.
has some awesome models too, but many simply aren't my cup of tea. Parachuting werewolves looks too much like "halo meets dragonball", even though they also have some eyecandy.
were already taken by one of my buddies and I wanted to start a varied group.
So the question was or ?
actually was my first choice mainly for the TAGs (the cutter and jotum are great and I could do some nice weathering on them). But another one of my buddies told me he preferred them too and since I only wanted the TAGs and actually didn't like the whole knight theme I decided to leave to him.
Straight from the beginning I found the aleph fluff was the most intriguing and appealed to me much more than any of the other factions. Seems like it's just easier for me to empathize with a dominant scheming AI that means well and only wants to unite mankind under its absolute control, than the boring most influential "good guys". simply knows what's best for you, even if you don't!
It took me a couple of days to warm to some of the miniatures, especially the rabbots (that's robots with rabbit ears, like the maruts and yudbot), but most others I found great anyway. Now I think resisting the lure of the jotum was the best decision and that Aleph ist the only proper faction for me.
A couple days after ordering the guys from CB teased the new Aleph stuff and that made me even more certain. A character by the name of Penthesilea, my favorite name from greek mythology? On a bike, which look freaking awesome in Inf? Hell yeah!
That reminds me, I really love mythology and the fact, that Aleph is divided into a greek, vedic and hebrew theme, is a great plus. I've already done research on all of the aleph background and will incorporate it into my paintjobs.
For example the myrmidons will be given a suitably ant-like scheme.
Yeah, meanwhile I've read through half of the Iliad btw. Like I said, I like to get into the background.
I'm just teasing, but I would love to see some of your older models painted up, the scavvies or the delaques for a start, those are all time classic models. I wish you both good luck with the Infinity although it doesn't really appeal to me (I think I can only really get 100% into something if there are chainsaws involved).
PS. If this joint project doesn't work out I would like to be the first to suggest a sitcom where you two share an apartment and squabble. I'd watch it.
@ Bruticus - Oh a wise guy eh? Haha yeah, yeah I know. Trust me, I would love to but there's aways something new to try out first...
Bruticus wrote: PS. If this joint project doesn't work out I would like to be the first to suggest a sitcom where you two share an apartment and squabble. I'd watch it.
Finish something! This goes for you too Baiyuan!
I'm just teasing, but I would love to see some of your older models painted up, the scavvies or the delaques for a start, those are all time classic models.
I'm with you there, teasing aside you're right to say so, but my creativity is a fickle bitch and I have to let her go where she wants to or she retreats to some dark and humid place, where she resides until the dust has settled.
No worries though I fully intend to continue my other projects. In fact painting some awefully detailed stock models (infinity) might help me grow the balls to paint some of my favorite conversions. Also since the Aleph range doesn't provide many chances for proper conversions, and that's where my heart lies, I've actually thought of doing some conversion work inbetween painting.
I wish you both good luck with the Infinity although it doesn't really appeal to me (I think I can only really get 100% into something if there are chainsaws involved).
I know what you mean, I've been puzzled by all the buzz new releases for Infinity created over the last few years and I never really liked the style, I could only admit that the sculpts are more than admirable, but that was it. What changed my mind was the game system, especially if you're playing a system like Necromunda, that is broken and unbalanced beyond comprehension, you'll have to admit the rules for Infinity are so fething good. Rulewise I'd say Infinity is the best system on the market (and there is an army of people who would agree).
Like I said, I warmed to the overall style eventually, but only after being softened by the love for the game mechanics. If you let it get to you it will convince you, but I can empathize with people who don't get the whole anime style, neither do I. But there is more to it than rulebook artwork, there is a great world of fluff behind it, that is not anime-like and being an old shadow run player doesn't exactly give you any resilience, quite the opposite.
PS. If this joint project doesn't work out I would like to be the first to suggest a sitcom where you two share an apartment and squabble. I'd watch it.
My bases arrived today...super impressed with the quality best resin I've had so far however slight mix up with one of the 40mms, I got the wrong design so thats gotta go back, but still I can forgive them...will give details on them when WIP pics are ready...minis on order end of the week, funds allowing
looks like your off to a god start guys.. i really like the infinity stuff ... such a classic sci fi vibe.. fits perfect with the precut mdf hab stuff..
Ghostflame wrote: My bases arrived today...super impressed with the quality best resin I've had so far however slight mix up with one of the 40mms, I got the wrong design so thats gotta go back, but still I can forgive them...will give details on them when WIP pics are ready...minis on order end of the week, funds allowing
What kind of bases did you order? The Microarts ones?
In other news:
I found another source of inspiration, that should have come to mind much earlier as I absolutely adore its style: Greg Broadmore's concept work for District 9
Spoiler:
It's very much in line with my other ideas/inspirations, but without the greenish aspect of Deus Ex, which is replaced by the dusty brown of south africa.
This pretty much throws me back, as I'm sure now that I want to emulate something similar, but it's incompatible with parts of what I've painted already.
Especially the Astronomican Grey, not to say greyish blue, of the armor I painted on my Naga and Rebot!
So what to do now? Paint it over? Strip and reprime? In case of the Naga I'm too far to strip it, I'll have to figure out a way to make it work.
Maybe some filters of black on the dark blue body glove and painting the armor white again will help turn it around.
God I hate that! That's why I usually don't start painting before I've brooded over my color scheme a couple of years! For once I'm trying to be a better (less neurotic) person and now this... I'll keep you posted...
The District 9 concept art really reminds me of Wipeout (also on that site I wonder if you have seen the Mirror's Edge gallery, beautiful game and very Infinity).
As for your dilemma, I am not sure it is incompatible. The greyish blue you have ought to go quite nicely with orange accents, then either white or black as a third colour. Just don't include any hint of green and I think you would have a striking colour scheme.
Oh no mate, I found something I like more...you'll see
Ah man that sucks but you know just tint it with a wash or yeah paint over...You never know the blue grey layer may give the new colour a nice unexpected hue? Don't stress it B
Bruticus wrote:The District 9 concept art really reminds me of Wipeout (also on that site I wonder if you have seen the Mirror's Edge gallery, beautiful game and very Infinity).
Interesting galleries, I know both games, but not these specific artworks. You're right, it's very infinityy, but not exactly what I want to see in the world of infinity. Too perfect, the world of infinity is ripe with corruption and the struggle for power, imo it has to show. There are perfect cities for sure, but my interpretation goes more towards the almost bladerunner-like distopia of an Yu-Jing city, not the perfection of Pan-O.
Spoiler:
As for your dilemma, I am not sure it is incompatible. The greyish blue you have ought to go quite nicely with orange accents, then either white or black as a third colour. Just don't include any hint of green and I think you would have a striking colour scheme.
I'll post a pic tomorrow to show you. You're right of course orange/blue could work, but it would be colder than intended. What I want is white/black/grey/orange and then adding filters to it to make it look more organic and interesting. No idea whether I'll make it work...
Ghostflame wrote:Oh no mate, I found something I like more...you'll see [/img]
God, I hate teasing... when it's being done to me...
[img]Ah man that sucks but you know just tint it with a wash or yeah paint over...You never know the blue grey layer may give the new colour a nice unexpected hue? Don't stress it B
Haha ok well I found some bases that could be made to look like war damaged city streets with sci-fi tech jutting out from underneath...I kinda liked the idea that maybe theres some kind of super processer under this area and thats why my lot are fighting back so hard to protect their AI mother board from attack? Do you know what I mean?
Perhaps then you could add to the blue and make it more like this:
Spoiler:
Orange and blue is a lovely combination, especially with white and black accents, and you wouldn't have to go that bright with the blue for it to still work. You could add the warm dust colours like in the District 9 artwork as well.
I expect you have seen this as well but just in case, here is a similar (maybe a bit shabbier) dystopian future city in Hawken:
Ghostflame wrote:Haha ok well I found some bases that could be made to look like war damaged city streets with sci-fi tech jutting out from underneath...I kinda liked the idea that maybe theres some kind of super processer under this area and thats why my lot are fighting back so hard to protect their AI mother board from attack? Do you know what I mean?
That sounds quite cool, I'm not convinced that I'll stick with the MA bases, but for now it's a quick solution. Eventually I'd prefer to have bases that go together with my gaming table so with a harbour/cargo bay/military compound style.
Bruticus wrote:Perhaps then you could add to the blue and make it more like this:
Spoiler:
Orange and blue is a lovely combination, especially with white and black accents, and you wouldn't have to go that bright with the blue for it to still work. You could add the warm dust colours like in the District 9 artwork as well.
Awesome suggestion, thanks. I've seen a tau army painted in that style and it looked great, but it's not quite what I want for my Aleph. It can easily look toy-like and it doesn't have the artificial/military vibe I'm going for.
Sorry, that it's so hard to make suggestions to me regarding color schemes. I tend to know a million things, that I don't want and exactly what I want, but it's still a long iteration process until the one in a million combination crystallizes.
I expect you have seen this as well but just in case, here is a similar (maybe a bit shabbier) dystopian future city in Hawken:
Spoiler:
No, I had in fact not seen that yet! Gorgeous! Yes, it's a bit shabbier, but that's right up my alley. Reminds me a little bit of Brink.
I've been to a relatively new tabletop shop (that's actually its name) here in Hamburg today and I'm positively surprised. The last half way proper shop closed a couple of months ago and I was bereft of direct access to new paints and other supplies. I really don't like buying paints online, I have to see the actual color before I can make an educated decision.
Anyway blabla, the new store is great!
Nice guys. Huge range of hobby products. Probably ALL of the current games, not just GW stuff and Warmachine. Lot's of bases and bits and the works. Microarts, Warmill, Kromlech, Scibor they got it all.
They've also got a great little table for Infinity and an active community of players, so once my assault section is ready for action, I'll head over there and have a match or two.
However, I bought another 5 shades of grey (I'm getting obsessed with the color grey), a nice bright greenish blue for OSL, Model Air White (I'm going to test it in a moment, I love the range of colors, I expect it to be the best white paint ever) and a blister with a Yudbot and Netrod. So that I'll have 3 of both once my campaign Paradiso book ships.
They'll get the Specops tomorrow and I'm considering popping by and grabbing a couple of them. Otherwise I'd have to wait for those to ship too.
Oh and I just found the right bases for my Aleph force. Micro Arts will release another type of bases for Inf and they happen to fit perfectly onto my soon to be gaming table (which will get the exact same type of flooring):
Spoiler:
Another Oh, since we're being called a couple already I've updated the title of the blog and created a designation for us as a joint entity. Since we're both mere functionaries of Aleph, it's actually quite fitting to consider us as being one and the same. So like Brangelina and Shamy we needed a new name. While Robjörn has a cool and robotic ring to it, I decided R'n'B was preferable.
Yeah, I kind of agree, if one is going for an actual urban environment they are quite cool. They do have their flaws though, while I don't mind the hexagonal tiles, I think the sheer amount of empty giant soda cans and discarded giant newspapers is a little bit ridiculous. And the urban "fight" bases are plain bad if you ask me, they don't look like a realistic urban scene of war. There is one bit from any of the different factions on almost every base and they ground looks like it has been ploughed, not fought upon.
That's the "definitive style" of the Infinity world that I am having a struggle understanding myself. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but GW has always controlled our perceptions of their grimdark world for us, gave us some guidelines to work within for their worlds. I think it is a formula that has worked. While there is something to be said about the more "open-sourced" worlds of Infinity, I struggle to find the "flavor" so to speak. I'm sure this will improve as the game evolves, but even reading "The Human Sphere" book, It goes into great detail of the socio-political environment, but IMHO, not enough is given about the architecture of the worlds themselves. I love the Studio Terrain that they have photographed their models in for the book(s), but it betrays the architecture styles shown in the graphic art methinks.
Yeah totally agree dude...I know exactly where I am with GW's universe like how I know exactly what a can of Coke will taste like but it took me quite a while to get an angle on Infinity and that wasn't just coz its a completely new game for me but more because I didn't really understand "the look and feel" of the game. I still think of it in terms of other things like "....its a bit like Mass Effect" etc.
Rule of thumb - if its got skulls all over it its probably GW haha
lol, yes GW would copyright the image of the human Skull if they could Yeah, if you google "Infinity terrain" you get a lot of MASS Effect pics for sure. I didn't like the hex tiles at first either, but after assembling a Micro Arts apartment, I am warming up to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: We should figure out how to embed this song into the thread, so whenever anyone reads, it plays
The thing that makes the world of 40k easier to grasp is the extremely limited scope of it. I mean "...there is only war" says it all, so everything serves the sole purpose of the all-encompassing war machinery that is the Imperium.
There are no architects and engineers that make paradigm-changing inventions, because that knowledge is lost and forbidden. Everything is SCT. I wouldn't exactly say it's dumbed down for a broad audience, but it's very narrowed down and you definitely don't end up asking yourself what an imperial noodle shop looks like.
As much as I love the 40k universe it's very limited and mainly consists of genebred superwarriors bumping their fists on their chests and shouting "For the Emprraaaah!"
The part of it that I like the most is the civil aspect or the social implications of a place like Necromunda or the job of an inquisitor.
No, I disagree. There is a lot more, including the equivalent to noodle shops, but they are in the novels, and RPG books, not the rulebook and codicies that most people have. Dan Abnett explores normal Imperial Society a lot more in his works, they only give you the idiot Space Marine brainwashed chest thumping in the main books, normal Imperial Citizens don't care, it's all legend and myth to them, all part of the machine they live in.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Every novel I've read about Space Marines, leaves me with the definitive feeling that they just aren't human anymore, they are simply weapons to be used and discarded, much liek the IG. On the other hand, if you read any of the Caiphas Cain novels, he is a PR hero, but personally, he is just trying to survive and take care of number one. The Eisenhorn Series is great, because Eisenhorn is the opposite of his flamboyant peers in the -=I=-, he works more or less undercover, among the common folk, you learn about foods they eat, and vehicles they drive. Imperial Planets and cities are also more diverse than you may be aware of. There most certainly are architects and engineers aplenty, it is only the Imperium's Armed Forces that were organized so stringently after the Horus Heresy. remember, Imperial Governors have full control over their domains, all they have to do is maintain their Imperial Tithe level, they still have their educated noble class, which is educated in disciplines such as architecture and such.
Automatically Appended Next Post: ..but I'm sorry, this is about Infinity, I didn't mean to derail into "irrelevant thread material" - It's just been a really long, boring friday at work, you're the only one posting anything thought-provoking today Big B
Yes and No. I'd say I read most of the novels about anything imperial and you're right of course some authors go for the "huge battles on huge battlefields with huge explosions" kind of storyline and most of those are not worth reading. But the good ones Abnett, Farrer, Bowden, they submerge in a more lifelike and social layer of 40k, those are the novels that are rightfully called as such.
So I know there is more to 40k and those additional layers are what keeps me collecting, building, converting and sometimes even painting 40k miniatures long after quitting the game, but I'd still say it's very narrowed down by the dogma.
If you ask me with so many worlds in the Imperium there will be one of everything, a star wars like world covered in water with underwater cities (there was one in Eisenhorn) and everything else you can imagine, BUT that is not exactly canon and definitely not the standard view of an imperial world.
Most people (apart from some of the better writers for BL) don't have the balls to say "This is how I imagine it to be. It's an imperial world with a working eco-system and high technological standard.". No, it's all grey administratum buildings, slow decay, STC verhicles, mass produced las-guns (makes me think of Eisenhorn's navy edition pistol, that was cool, or even better, Mathew Farrer's "two-tone" in Junction, fantastic novel, read it) and the insatiable IG.
You're right there is more, but it's not common, you would have a hard time selling it to the average 40k player.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, btw, for great SM novels, read the NL cycle from Demski-Bowden, those are the best (C)SM novels I've read so far. It's a lot about the menial's life on board a chaos vessel and also shows, that even CSM have everyday problems and can retain a hint of humanity.
Well, the novels are sold here at all the major chain bookstores here in the US, so they have a nice distribution model at least to make it available to new players exploring, hungry for more details like you and I
I had to Google 'Sweetmeats" because I'd never ever heard that word in my life before reading Eisenhorn
Automatically Appended Next Post: ..And I'd eat a "hot grox bun" too, I don't know what kind of animal a Grox is, but it sounds good
Quoting the Lexicanum here - "The Grox is a large, fast and aggressive reptilian animal originating from the Solomon system. When the system was absorbed into the Imperium, it was discovered the animal possessed many useful traits, such as the ability to survive in almost any environment and to thrive on even the most indigestible food. Grox meat itself is also extremely palatable and nutritious. Because of their value as livestock they have since been introduced to other worlds throughout the entire galaxy, so that the Grox is now the most common type of livestock animal throughout the Imperium.
The only drawback to the Grox is their aggressive and vicious temperament. They will usually charge any creature on sight, including other Grox. They are also large, fast and dangerous beasts, about five meters long and well-muscled. They are territorial and like their privacy, so attempting to herd Grox together would easily drive them into a rage. The solution used is to lobotomize most of the stock while keeping the breeding animals suppressed with electro-pulsers wired directly into their small brains. Even with these precautions accidents still happen, and Grox are usually kept on agri worlds and isolated from human settlements."
Well I've read Alligator tastes a bit like Chicken...so being reptilian maybe that one...but as its a completely fictonal creature it could taste like fking candyfloss for all I know Hehe
I would say that the 40k universe is like a sandbox, there is a central core of a story - the Heresy etc - and then after that basically anything goes. There are infinite planets and possibilities, and most other stories could even exist within it - for example you could say that Lord of the Rings exists on a planet somewhere in the 40k universe. (I would love to see those fething hobbits get eaten by Tyranids).
GW did an amazing job coming up with the central concept and over the past decades there have been some pretty good bits of writing fleshing it out. The basic concept of the Heresy and the Space Marine chapters is fantastic I would say, it's got every sci-fi trope thrown in, not to mention the Biblical good vs evil stuff. The subsequent universe in entropy - ruined grey buildings, endless armies of doomed guardsmen, etc - is a great backdrop for further stories but shouldn't be the only thing these stories are about.
The problem is that they don't have many writers doing anything original. This is clearly intentional, GW don't want to shake things up too much (just look at all the SM models they release), and I imagine most of the people that buy the books are quite happy reading about Space Marine battles etc. Dan Abnett is a good writer and certainly capable of doing more imaginative work than he does for BL (see Guardians of the Galaxy), but GW clearly know what they want from their writers. There should be better books though, but what are the odds GW ever commissions something that isn't a war novel involving a Space Marine or something similar? You just have to compare it to Iain M Bank's Culture universe (another all encompassing universe), there's no reason that GW couldn't have a few books like Look to Windward, say.
When I got into Dystopian Wars recently I found the fact that the universe is both highly restrictive and not very fleshed out to be a major turn-off. Probably all the vehicles should be painted one way, probably I am not allowed to fit chainsaws to my zeppelins. I think Infinity is likely less restrictive than Dystopian, but I am sure it is nothing like as free as 40k. I would rather be in the 40k universe where I can do whatever I want, more or less (although in the corner of 40k that is Necromunda there are some rules).
Sorry for the excessive OT but this is an area that interests me a lot.
No excuses for being off-topic! Your rambling is interrupting the massive flow of updates from R'n'B. Just kidding, 40k has a place in all our hearts/minds and I don't see why we wouldn't compare its fluff to other games like Infinity, not really off-topic if you think about it. I can agree with pretty much everything you wrote, Brut. It is a sandbox, but like I said only few people have the guts/imagination to make use of it, sadly. LotR transplanted into 40k? Far-fetched, but you made your point. Are there any reports of Horus ever saying things like "my precioussss..."? Restrictive background is the worst thing for me. If I can't let my imagination roam, why would I want to play it? Certainly not in order to purely reproduce/relive somebody elses fantasies. I don't know what I'd call it, but I've got a tendency to rather go my own way with hobby stuff and I'd never pick up a game that restricts paint schemes or design too much, or I'd do my thing anyway. My first batch of librarians (some of the first GW miniatures I ever painted) were painted scab red, because that's how they did it in my DA successor. If I wanted smurfs I'd play UM. I never liked the strange blueish grey of the SW so mine had a proper dark grey and I didn't mind people saying they didn't look like SW. But that's what you get from most people "that's not how SW look, they are painted with space wolves grey, not codex grey", never think out of the box.
Maybe I'm just (a little/terribly) pervicacious...which allows to draw a line from 40k back to Infinity. I don't like the Chandra specop and I'll make my own. Today my buddy and I payed our local store a visit and I had a close look at all the specops and decided that I'll stick with my plan to convert the Guifeng into my own version of a Chandra. Originally I thought the Vortex would be the best base model for my conversion, but the Guifeng is better in many ways. I'll go into detail once the conversion is underway.
I think Infinity can also be a little bit restrictive, not in its fluff, but with its models or conversions of those. There are few conversions apart from weapon swaps, which is partly because people don't dare or don't know how to properly convert metal minis, but also because most people feel obliged not to mess with the dogma.
I'll not convert the hell out of my Aleph like I do with my munda stuff, but there will be changes to everything I dislike. To name a few: Dasyu sniper has a stupid pose. Mk2 sniper chills on a low wall. Mk3 with spitfire is the most lovely model in the range apart from the cockroach elements of its armor and the sad fact, that rulewise it will not see much action. So I'm going to replace some of the strange design elements, like the antennae, the hair and the abdomen and and use it as my Asura with Spitfire. It even represents the rules better than the actual model, because it is more heavily armored and has a visor on it's helmet, that represents the MSV lvl2. So it's this: Instead of this:
I'm doing something very similar myself B...I'll be proxying 3 models with other ones I like better from the Aleph range...fk it, I mean it's your force you've gotta look at them everyday, so why not pick the models you actually like? I think as long as they 'make sense' to your opponant and have the right weapons etc displayed it shouldn't be a problem. I'll also be cutting those damn rabbit ears off the Yudbots haha
R
P.s. Tomorrow is the last day of my current Ebay purge, so I'll finally know how much cash I have to play with. I'm hoping to buy the lot in one go...but if not I'll still get some bits as I'm impatient now to get started!
Ghostflame wrote: I'm doing something very similar myself B...I'll be proxying 3 models with other ones I like better from the Aleph range...
Which ones?
I'll also be cutting those damn rabbit ears off the Yudbots haha
No cutting, the ears come seperately and I'm also not using those. Same with the maruts, it looks much better without some of its parts.
Tomorrow is the last day of my current Ebay purge, so I'll finally know how much cash I have to play with. I'm hoping to buy the lot in one go...but if not I'll still get some bits as I'm impatient now to get started!
Let's not talk about money, I've just spent 80€ on bases...
...And with a click of a button all my spare cash is gone haha...gotta love the internet...easy come, easy go. Anyways the good news is my force will be here soon so next update from Moi will be some eye candy.
For this project I'm gonna go down the 'build one, paint one' route as its a better way of working IMHO and will encourage me to paint/finish before moving on.
I'll start with the 'dull' ones first and move up so either a Netrod or Yudbot first with Deva Boss-Lady last!
I meant to do the same, but it didn't work out that well. So far I've built, primed and started painting a dakini, zayin and naga, but since all represent different parts of the troops this was necessary to test out the scheme.
Otherwise I've been a good boy and resisted the urge to build more of the cooler models or even start one of the conversions. Whenever I'm not in the mood to continue painting I do preparative work on one of the other models.
I'm curious what your comments will be once you begin assembling your force, because they take a CRAZY amount of prepatory work. With all the teeny tiny details, a mould line, even the slightest, running around the whole miniature provides a whole evening of fun with your 400grain file and sandpaper. After two sessions my Mk3 proxy is ready for assembly now and I'm only using 50% of the components.
Now back to the bat cave... er painting table. Nananananana...
Made the final adjustments to my Campaign Paradiso order and once it arrives my collection will miss only three miniatures from the Aleph range.
Also had a closer look at Achilles, Patroclus and the only myrmidon I have so far and I'll have to duplicate their arms and make some conversions once I get there. Seems like this project will contain more conversions than expected...Go figure!
I've also started to think about using custom decals on my Aleph, but I'm not sure yet.
Painting progress is a bit slow, since it's a busy week, but I've painted some of the OSL on the chest of my naga and it's looking decent already.
Bruticus wrote: Ghostflame, you know you are working too slowly when Baiyuan is making faster progress than you! Time to change things up a gear!
That's true, but I think he hasn't even got his miniatures yet. He'll catch up for sure, not just because I prefer a sedate pace when being creative, but also because I'm in the final stages of my studies and it's getting more and more stressful to handle it all at the same time.
In other news, I finished the OSL for the naga's chestpiece and eyes and I'm quite happy with it. Still a lot of shading and highlighting on the main surfaces to be done/improved, but I'm getting there.
Bruticus wrote: Ghostflame, you know you are working too slowly when Baiyuan is making faster progress than you! Time to change things up a gear!
Haha Oh what is this?! A hate campaign! Hey Brut how's the view from up there? When you're done, kindly get off my back yeah.
They're ordered mate, they'll be here soon and I will stop building stuff for a while after these are done and push my other projects through to an end, I'll have more free time soon...
I'd like to believe that all this stick you're currently giving me stems from being so inspired by my works that the fact that all of these projects are as yet unfinished is just too much to bear!
We've got a real multilateral bromance going on, huh?!
Dave, you could join the odd couple once you start working on your Infinity stuff.
With all the pressure I'm getting here, I'll try to have a short painting session before going to bed, but I'm legally wasted. And you should know, that if I commit suicide it's all your fault...
Just kidding. I am tired though...
I still have to finish that damn huge SeaView kit for review, I waited for the LEDs and resistors, now I have those, but do you think I can find any one of my 3 soldering irons? Hell no..I had to order a new soldering iron! You think you're uncomfortable and pressured to do hobby work, having deadlines like this really gets frustrating. The thing is, I get to pick from this huge list of free model kits each month to build and write reviews on, It's REALLY hard to say no to cool free plastic, but I have to, today I get this email saying "Dave,
The next list will have a Miniart diorama item as well as one of those really cool unmanned future fighting suits by Hasegawa!"
Grrrr! Too many ideas, never enough time. but no, you guys can have your bromance, thanks for the offer though
Do you mean the Maschinenkrieger line? I brought back three or four of those kits from a trip to china, they are obviously still sitting in the shelf though.
I'm utterly resistant to pressure. The hobby is not stressful to me and I like to keep it at that. That's what convinced me not to pick up an artistic job back when I "had to choose". I'd hate to be forced to channel my creativity in a direction where it doesn't flow at that time.
On the other hand deadlines help me to see things through and can put me in a little work frenzy.
I think that is what it is called..I'll have to pass, too much other free-paced stuff to do, only the IPMS-USA stuff pressures me a bit ..but it IS free Industry Swag
Automatically Appended Next Post: ....Can I play the crazy neighbor who is always in your apartment eating your food?
Sure if you pay for your own tickets to germany...
Showed my OSL on the naga to my fiancé and in her frank and supportive way she said "Did you paint that, or one of your pals? The face looks awful, looks like you overstepped a lot." "No no, that's intended, his eyes are glowing orange. Painting OSL is basicly intentional and controlled overstepping." "Looks like ordinary unintentional overstepping to me... and what's that green thing on his head?" "Er, glowing nightvision goggles." "Oh, I thought it's a green turban."
That's where I ended the conversation and decided I might have to reconsider marriage... Just kidding, she's only half that judgemental in real life, I think...
Back to more serious stuff, I had another look at some of my many Aleph models (no time for painting today) and decided on some more conversions.
In this context I can only recommend getting a wider range of miniatures to begin with, because there are some things that can be interchanged to great effect.
For example I think the Mk3 proxy hair is absolutely stupid (or ingenious if you dig that kind of manga aesthetics), same for the on the long braided plait on the dasyu hacker. But if you swap them, it looks soooooo much better.
This also applies to myrmidon arms etc.
I'll show pictures once I get to these models. (The proxy will be soon, I'm just waiting for MAS to finally send the fething bases )
I played a gig once, it may have been Hamburg actually, and a chap came up to me after the show and said to me "Hey you played just now..."
I replied "Yeah. Did you enjoy the show?"
He smiled and said "No...um the sound was very bad, good bye." Haha brilliant!
I'm so keen to get stuck into this. Damn the postal service! I was hoping they'd arrive today but no...Hopefully they'll be here by the weekend.
That's funny, Vik is also always Brutally Honest..I love it! ....at times...j/k
Your Swiss neighbors (whom I work for) however, seem to all avoid honesty, responsibility, technical ability, common sense, basic human reasoning skills, logic and reality at all costs. Those Alps keep you safe!!
Yeah, she's a real keeper. Also I like how you automaticly seem to take her side in this and assume she's just honest. Looking forward to your actual opinion on the finished miniature.
Like in every other country there are huge differences in mentality between the different areas. Up here in Hamburg you find a different breed of Germans (I'm not saying better, because it's obvious... ), than in Munich or even Berlin.
Germans can be brutally honest sometimes and I normally appreciate it, but you also get your "lying through their teeth every fething second" majority.
Hello fellow vault hunters... yeah right, Borderlands 2 got me in its addicting filthy little claws.
The good news is I'm so hyped by Infinity I'm not getting entirely drawn away from it. I'm still reading the books over and over. And I'm also giving the paint scheme another couple thousand thoughts.
Also I finally received word from MAS, who apparently had trouble with their homepage. My bases have been shipped on friday so there is a good chance they will arrive this week. That will probably the moment when I put B2 aside and get back to the hobby.
Tomorrow I'll make a call and split my Paradiso preorder to get the other stuff together with the bases.
Since I don't want to raise false hopes I'll mention it here, instead of my other blog: My dark vengeance stuff arrived (40 cultists and a set of csm) and they are lovely I'll definitely get around to make some easy additions to my Espantajos (miner gang) with these some time soon.
My order from MAS arrived today and to my utter frustration it turned out to be problematic again.
There was a mix up and I accidently received the order for another guy in Germany.
So now I have a pack of Infinity game markers and 10 wraithstone bases instead of more than 60 bases for my current projects.
gak happens, but the guys at MAS were suitably accomodating when they found out there was yet another problem and now I get to keep the stuff they sent me and get my actual order plus 10€ worth of merchandise to make up for all the problems.
The rest of my Aleph troops is on the way now, I can't wait for all the new toys...
The delay doesn't really matter in this situation, I'm playing Borderlands 2 anyway. If only I could have left my fingers off it, I knew it would be terrific(ly addictive)!
Hehe, keeping your excitement at bay is wise! Who knows when I'll get to it... On the other hand I already planned to paint a miner every once in a while, for a change inbetween the clean Infinity stuff.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Infinity-related but not about my Aleph:
I just read some more fluff from the rulebook, in this case about Haqqislam and I came across this awesome background story:
“New rifles are disgusting; they look like toys and are completely inappropriate to break someone’s teeth with a butt whack. They are too damn light… That’s why I always carried a shotgun when in the boarding groups…”
Tarik Mansuri instructing his men in assault techniques, Rustán Camp, two years after the Silk Revolts.
Mansuri is a legend. He was one of the first Khawarijs that submitted to Runihura, the Haqqislamite super-soldier project of genetic improvement. His exceptional metabolism and stout body perfectly fit the genetic therapy; it transformed him dramatically, consolidating each metabolic improvement and cancelling the noxious oxidation processes. From then on, his body hardly aged; he is never sick and is always in top condition. His reflexes are always fast, his hands precise. His head is always clear, his senses alway sharp and he is always ready to move swiftly, easily and deadly. The perfection reached with Mansuri represents the greatest success of the Runihura program, which has not reached as good a result with any other Khawarij.
As a soldier, Tarik Mansuri is a veteran of the Silk Revolts, Neocolonial Wars and Ariadnian Commercial Conflicts. For him, those were the good times. He hates peace and tranquillity: “Being active means to live taking it to the limit”. In combat, blood rushes through his veins like liquid mercury. Forty years of service as a conqueror and executor for Haqqislam have prompted his participation in several high-risk missions; he has flirted with death hundreds of times. Others would have been afraid, but not him, because fear has no place in the heart of a warrior. Moreover, Tarik Mansuri is above all a good soldier, with excellent discipline. On campaign he refuses to carry a tent if it allows him to carry more ammo. He sleeps out in the open even in the worst climates, with weapons close to his body to keep warm, his combat vest as a pillow. Even in combat with death hot on his heels, he smiles confidently, filled with a blood fury. Perfectly trained, he has escaped the claws of destiny several times and always has fought and won in spite of the enemy’s superiority. For Mansuri, Haqqislam is the most powerful nation, and his Khawarijs the best troops of all. He considers that his mission, and that of his men, is to carry his nation to victory. Not doing so would be the same as betraying his ideals. For him, Khawarijs are the heart and the soul of the Haqqislamite army, so they must set an example for everybody.
Now picture this person! How would he look?
I immediatly wondered how this badass might look? (As I didn't know the miniature.) I figured maybe like an even more awesome version of the Husam or the Hassassins or Ghulam...
Well, then I took a look at the actual miniature, which I hadn't seen before and I was massively dissappointed! He could hardly suck more, I mean he looks like a freaking warcaster from Warmachine. Baah! Should I ever start a Haqq force I'll have to sculpt/convert a proper one.
Still nothing new to show you guys!
I'm still waiting for my bases to arrive and didn't get down to paint yet. (Borderland 2's appeal to me is declining though.)
I've been helping my noob pal with his nomads though.
He had prepared most of the stuff already and tried gluing it together, but much of it didn't work out as intended.
Especially his TAG was troublesome, the Szalamandra's belt feed respectively was the horror!
He had broken it off in several places and it was impossible to bend it into the right position anymore. So I had to do some tricky pinning to reconnect the pieces and fix it to the model.
Anyway his stuff is fully assembled and based now. (reverend custodier, prowler, spektr, vortex/zero, sineater, szalamandra)
So once I get my bases I will have to catch up, so we can start playing some test rounds.
At the moment I'm preparing my three netrods. SOO much filing...
The first thing next week will be slapping them on bases and giving them a quick paintjob, so that I get this neccessary, but slightly boring part of my force out of the way.
The spell is broken!
After working on my buddy's nomads yesterday, today we sat down again, glued down the last few feet and magnetized the Vortex's spare sniper rifle.
Visual proof:
Spoiler:
Afterwards we sat down and created an army list that would include the whole bunch he had bought. It turned out to be 200p (excluding the szalamandra from our test games) so next thing was making a similar list for my Aleph too.
Which I did and which will serve as my guideline to what's up next (or actually the other way around as I tried to include most of the models I've worked on so far).
Asura Spitfire (prepared, waiting for base, glue and some gs)
Netrod x2 (mostly prepared waiting for base)
Zayin Rebot (PIP, waiting for new base)
Mk1 Doctor (untouched)
Mk2 Hacker (untouched)
Naga (PIP 80%)
Deva Lieutenant with Devabot
The last being unprepared until tonight, because I decided it's time to have a closer look at those lovely Devabots, which had arrived during the week.
More than three hours of removing mouldlines, smoothening surfaces, pinning and assembling later, the one Devabot I set out to work on is prepared for its base (which will hopefully arrive tomorrow or I'll have to go blitzkrieg on those MAS guys).
More visual proof:
Spoiler:
If you have no idea why it took me so fething long to prepare one silly little robot (you've obviously never prepared an Infinity miniature and), you should have a look at this:
Spoiler:
As you can see, with such a great level of detail you have to remove even the slightest hint of a mouldline, especially if you're aiming for good results on the paintjob.
The mouldlines were mostly quite fine (which doesn't mean you don't have to meticulously sand them off), except on the top side of the torso where the two halves of the mould were so shifted, that after carefully sanding them off, I had to reestablish many of the lining details, since the degree of deplacement exceeded the depth of the recesses.
Assuming my bases arrive I'll start putting my 200p together tomorrow. This is obviously a deviation from my initial plan to build and paint taking turns for each miniature, but I realized I had to get a small force going for our test games. After those I'll go back to my old plan.
Waited for the bases to arrive the whole day, until I received a message that they have not been shipped on tuesday as claimed before, but on friday. So if everything goes well, which would be nice for a change, they'll arrive tomorrow.
Shame you're still waiting on the bases, but good to see you're making headway now. I have to say I'm not feeling that devabot at the moment, I'll see how it looks when it gets some colour.
monkeytroll wrote:Shame you're still waiting on the bases, but good to see you're making headway now. I have to say I'm not feeling that devabot at the moment, I'll see how it looks when it gets some colour.
The devabot is special, I'm sure it's not everybody's taste, but the more I'm working on it, the more I'm liking it. Maybe a paintjob and proper pics will do the trick for you.
dsteingass wrote:Do you not have needle files Baiyuan?
Of course I do. Why are you asking? Did I say something to make the impression I don't?
Update:
Bases arrived.
Work has begun.
Netrods (assembled, based, ready for paint/gaming)
Mk1 Doctor (converted, based, ready for paint/gaming)
Mk2 Hacker (needs a bit of GS here and there, but is based and almost ready)
Asura Spitfire (has received a base and basic GS work, but still needs some more detailing)
Deva Lieutenant with Devabot (assembled, based, ready for paint/gaming)
Not much left to do before the gaming can begin.
I'll take pictures once the whole pack is ready. I did some things differently and those might be worth a pic or two.
I have to ask again, why? Are there to your knowledge any limitations when it comes to sanding metal?
Because I actually do that. To be precise I use different kinds of tools when removing mouldlines. Different sets of needle files for the rough work and special shapes, my beloved #400 diamond file for more detailed work and sand paper for round and organic shapes. So when I said "sanding" I meant it that way, because I ended up doing it more than filing in this case.
Still working on my Aleph girls (the naga is the only male in the group), I hope I'll finish up tomorrow and then it's time for pictures.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also: Still no luck with your order yet, Rob? That'd be crazy!
Baiyuan wrote: Still no luck with your order yet, Rob? That'd be crazy!
Oh man tell me about it?! I had to write to complain yesterday as it's over the quoted 9 day period for "awaiting stock" and I was getting very fed up.
To be fair though they kindly refunded me my postage and the order status has now switched to 'dispatched' so should be here in next few days hopefully...however I'm about to sit a series of really important exams for my new job, so it couldn't have come at a worse time really...
I have to apologise for the lack of progress here everyone. This has been a very one sided blog with B doing all the work. Very frustrating.
Ghostflame wrote:I have to apologise for the lack of progress here everyone. This has been a very one sided blog with B doing all the work. Very frustrating.
No, you don't have to apologize, because it's not your fault and even if it was I would still be ok, because we're doing this for fun, not performance. I bet you got enough pressure in your life already, just like me, and there is no need to create more of it.
I do understand that it's frustrating though.
dsteingass wrote:I've never met a metal mini that I couldn't tackle with just a knife and file, I've never heard of sanding metal.
Same for me, until recently. I guess it depends on your standards. I try to improve (i.e. make quantum leaps) in the painting sector and nothing is more frustrating then trying to do wet blending and subtle filters on a surface that's not perfectly smooth.
1. Had my first game of Infinity today!
For our very first game, even though we were playing a 200p match with lots of complicated troops, it went well. It was a little slow of course, but the basics worked and with some (not too much I'd say) practice it'll all be well and a fluent entertaining game can arise.
Also my Asura OBLITERATED every trace of the nomads team on turn one. She received one wound and left behind a battlefield devoid of any human lifeform, with a hellcat ready for AD being the only survivor.
2. My District 9 artbook from weta workshops arrived late this evening and it's a blast! Perfect referential material and thus perfect timing, since I'll get back into painting my Aleph soon.
3. Which leads to my 200p list being almost completely built, only the Asura's still waiting for some GS.
4. Now some visual proof of my progress, I decided to show my stuff step by step and my Mk1 proxy doctor goes first.
But before I show you my "conversion" let's have a look at the original:
Ok, this is actually the hacker version, but it's the better picture and the only difference is the left arm.
You might know that I'm very picky, even more so when it's about poses and I therefore didn't like the strange one on this model.
I usually try out poses myself and if they don't feel right I change them, like in this case.
What is she even supposed to be doing? Landing? Braking? Running? It's just odd and unnatural!
So here she is after a head swap, change of neck position, bending of the leg and removing and repositioning of the foot. After all, a doctor is supposed to hurry the feth up...
It helps to imagine her going at the same speed (but less stiff) as the the T1000 chasing the car in Terminator 2.
Spoiler:
Oh yeah, almost forgot I dropped my her right before the game, when I wanted to show her to my buddy... hurray! The conversion on her foot was quite tricky and the pin that I had inserted (which started in her calf and then snaked through the separate tip of her foot into the base) well it broke off!
I had to bend the pin one time to often before glueing it into the base and I knew it was weak, but I thought the superglue would do the trick. What I didn't think of was dropping it from chest height.
Since it broke off directly at the sole of her foot, there was no pulling out the pin, to replace it. Instead I had to use tongs to twist the tip of the foot until it came off and I could then grab the pin and replace it.
The GS work in this area will have to be redone, but apart from that and the shock, no harm done! Luckily...
What is she even supposed to be doing? Landing? Braking? Running? It's just odd and unnatural!
I think she is almost pirouetting around to her left, maybe after landing from a jump. It seems to me that a lot of these Infinity figures have very over-the-top comic book type poses. It's a very neatly done conversion though, I can only imagine how fiddly it was to do the pin in her foot.
Bruticus wrote:Awesome, another great reason to watch your show.
Yep, I do the nasty stuff too... maybe I should start taking pictures of me while I'm testing the poses!
I think she is almost pirouetting around to her left, maybe after landing from a jump. It seems to me that a lot of these Infinity figures have very over-the-top comic book type poses. It's a very neatly done conversion though, I can only imagine how fiddly it was to do the pin in her foot.
You're right, the look of many Inf miniatures is intended to be ott. In some cases it works great and you get a very dynamic and unique model, in other cases it looks odd, like in this case and then there are those crimes against the putty, like the minuteman...
Spoiler:
Pinning the foot wasn't that fiddly actually. I only got difficult when I decided to saw into the sole of the foot to tilt her forwards. I tried drilling the hole for the pin after cutting and tilting and the torsion of the drill ripped the tip of the foot from the rest (which was to be expected). The tricky part was not the insertion though, it was the bending of the pin. Exiting the heel it has to bend up, pass through the foot and then bend down into the base. And those bends had to be sharp and less then 1,5mm apart from each other.
dsteingass wrote:WOW! Stunning Baiyuan!! I now see why you were yammering about smoothness!
Thanks mate, I didn't expect to get a WOW for that!
Well, the importance of smooth thighs and butts cannot be stressed enough...
Also:
Had my second game today. Same opponent, same lists, same terrain, but we decided he got to go first this time.
So he got to play at least one proper turn, but it that was it, after that my Asura began to tear the nomads limb from limb again. MSV3 is sooo powerful...
Thanks, monkey. You're right, I can hear it now, but it's "Hit me baby, one more time!" and I'm prone to comply...
To explain a proxy one has to explain posthumans first.
My faction, Aleph, the all-encompassing supercomputer that is the base of the infrastructure and information network of the whole human sphere, is an AI and its agents are not human beings but, independent programs uploaded into artificial host bodies, called LiveHost or Lhost.
If the host dies the individual program can only be extracted and resurrected using its cube (An implanted storage device for soul/mind, that most "civilized" humans have as well. It's worth mentioning that Aleph has complete control of the cube operation, so the AI gets to decide who's being resurrected and who's not.).
So 175 years from now, dying isn't that much of an issue anymore, but the cube method is not 100% reliable and it takes a while. There is one other, more sophisticated, way though.
Aleph's most worthy and valuable agents are sometimes granted the privilege of becoming a "posthuman", which means their essence (call it identity, code or soul if you will) will be saved in the network itself, so there is always a backup of them, they become immortal.
These posthumans can download themselves into special Lhosts, called proxies. The best part is that they are not limited to one body, they can jump between up to three different hosts. If a host is destroyed and there is a network uplink available (netrod) they simply exit the body and jump into one of their other proxies.
In game terms there are three general types of proxies, Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3, which each have different subversions with different specialities. An Mk1 can be a hacker, a doctor or an engineer. Mk2 is the thermo-optical camouflage version and can be a sniper or a hacker. Mk3 has only one heavy infantry/heavy weapon version.
You can take 2-3 proxies, but only one max of each type. And all your proxies only grant you one order, as it's effectively just one "person". The advantage is they are relatively cheap for there great abilities and as long as there are netrods, losing one of the proxies isn't a big deal.
monkeytroll wrote: Ahh, cool. Thanks for the info, I was vaquely aware Aleph was an AI, and that was about it. For any of the factions
Some of the aesthetics in the range make a bit more sense now.
So there's no 'true' organics in your faction, all 'bots, Lhosts and proxies?
Correct, it's all machines with some artificial organic parts here and there. Ghost in the shell is the perfect picture to have in mind.
But most of the agents don't even make an attempt at looking human as their purpose is mainly of a military nature.
A fun fact is that the AI can take direct control of them at any time, that's why Aleph likes to send Maruts TAGs as embassadors or negotiators, they speak with its voice and on top of that they are fething scary six meter tall killing machines.
If a more subtle approach is due, Aleph sends its Deva functionairies, who are above all meant to be integrated into the other nations armies as intermediaries. Their Lhosts were designed to look lifelike and attractive in order to appeal to the humans they interact with. They are physically perfect, both in their looks and their athletic performance. The sculpts of the Devas also sport stuff like guns concealed in their lower arms etc. all for a less warlike outer appearance.
Then there are some agents whose looks aren't all functional, but instead reflect their personal preferences and their sometimes eccentric personalities. Achilles is a good example for this, he doesn't need his fair and golden hair for his missions, but he's a vain bastard.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hey guys, I thought it's time for some more pictures. This time round it's another merely prepared miniature, but next time I hope there'll be something painted to show you.
So here some better pictures of the devabot. If you find a mouldline please tell me I'd hate to overlook something.
I'm aware of the one on his knapsack, that will require some putty as there was not much material left to file.
BAM! What a lovely sculpt!
I won't tackle this any time soon, but it will be great project to go in depth with weathering and whip out the old airbrush. I can't wait for it!
Devabot looks super sharp B. Great prep-work, as ever! I'm away for a few days now but I pray to the gods of miniatures when I return my order will be there!
Also on a side note I've been re-thinking my scheme a little. I too have been playing quite a bit of Borderlands 2 and have a bit of a thing for that Hyperion yellow ATM
Ghostflame wrote:Devabot looks super sharp B. Great prep-work, as ever! I'm away for a few days now but I pray to the gods of miniatures when I return my order will be there!
Also on a side note I've been re-thinking my scheme a little. I too have been playing quite a bit of Borderlands 2 and have a bit of a thing for that Hyperion yellow ATM
Thanks mate! I'll include your package in my evening prayers, or sacrifice a chicken or something those religious folks do.
Hyperion Yellow, hhm? I can't see it tbh, but that makes me all the more curious. I liked your first concept, but I'm sure you'll make this one work too.
There was a moment when I unlocked the "maliwan elegance" skin for my Zero, when I thought "Hey this is basicly the missing link between my D9 theme and the blue stuff I've painted on the naga and zayin, maybe I should go that route..." But I'll stick with what I have in mind, no Maliwan theme. I don't like to be influenced too directly, it's often just a craze, that wears of a couple of days later, at least for me.
dsteingass wrote:I got a t-shirt with the artwork from those figs at GenCOn!
Cool! I actually got the miniature from an incredibly nice guy, for free even!
ghostmaker wrote:I shall watch this awesomeness. I am doing Cerberus for my Aleph
You've probably seen that I've considered that too. And to be precise it's quite close to what I'm going to do, so I'm very very curious to see your attempt. Make sure to mention it here or send me a pm, where I can find it.
Ghostflame wrote: Aw yeah Boi! My girlfriend informs me a parcel arrived today and I'm 99% sure it's my Aleph! Finally!
As I said before its not great timing due to work exams but hopefully get a few things built and primed this weekend.
B I'm really feeling the Borderlands Hyperion theme. Might even make my Deva Lieutenant Handsome Jack? Hehe
My only concern is OSL is hard to achieve on a bright coloured base, and you can't get much brighter then yellow!
No worries, it will all work out. I'm looking forward to see your approach.
Regarding OSL, if you go for red or blue lights it's simple enough, just layer it over the yellow and it will look good, just avoid bright colors.
Update:
I'm almost done with the sculpting on my Asura conversion now. Pics soon.
To shorten the wait, I figured I could release the next batch of pictures. This time of my netrods.
I didn't like that they are supposed to stick in the ground, so ordinary. I imagine them to float and slowly spin like a satelite.
They are not glued to the base yet (obviously for painting purposes), once they are painted I'll decide it what angle I'll glue them on, they look quite cool when tilted.
Mate, as much as I hate to be the one who says "I told you!"... nah just kidding, I love saying that, that's why I became a teacher and don't have any friends. So...
I told you!
Now to get serious again, it's not that bad really. You just have to accept the fact that almost every part needs pinning.
For the devabot for example I inserted the pin into the little knob (the one that goes into the little pit) and drilled through the part connecting the legs with each other. You got to be careful though, once drilled through there is no more bending the legs as the bridge between them becomes quite fragile. Glue it in place and it should all be fine.
Do you have Dakinis yet? They are even worse, depending on the specific version.
Looking forward to your first batch of pics!
Update:
I hope I'm done with my Asura now! I'll see tomorrow, if I'm still happy with my sculpting I'll take pictures, otherwise I'll rip it off again.
Which is basicly what I've been doing in my hobby session for the last two days. Trying to get the emblem on her shoulder pad right, that is.
B. Damn things are very difficult to put together but managed to get all parts to hold ok and even got most of the mold lines and surfaces to a pretty smooth finish. Little rushed but I was happy with it after a tough start.
C. So go to prime and haven't used White in years. I thought maybe my can wasn't working so went in close ...so now primmers a bit too thick and I sprayed the girlfriends table! ...but it's ok at least its smooth...right?!
D. Come back to check and there's a tiny hair sat on the freash paint ...tried to get it off and clumsily scratched off the base paint...so all that work getting it smooth gone in a flash...*sigh*
Lucky I was going to paint them battle damaged anyways eh?!
I don't think I'll be doing anymore of these once I'm done here haha
Haha yeah Monkey...flying straight into the bin at this rate!
Nah it's all fixable stuff just annoying after all the work last night. I do feel I'm rushing a bit here...will try to take my time when painting...pics soon
Sorry to hear that, mate. But gak happens, take it easy.
I mean there is no guarantee that I won't ruin my carefully prepared minis with a stupid priming accident too. It happened with my PMW mini and I had to go through so much pain to get the primer off without ruining all of the gs filigree.
Anyway don't rush it or you'll regret it, take your time...
And now hurry the fukk up, I want to see some progress you slacker! Just kidding, take your time.
In the meantime I'll provide some more images.
First of some of the new stuff that arrived this week:
Liquitex acrylic ink. I can't wait to test it, but today was too busy, so tomorrow after work
Scarface & Cordelia. LOVELY!
And now to some "serious" news, my Asura is finished (the conversion part anyways) and now ready for primer.
Before I show you the pictures let me explain what I did here, because this is not the intended use of the model, as you might already know.
I didn't use the actual model for an Asura with spitfire, which would be this:
Instead I converted the Mk3 proxy with spitfire, which is imo one of the most lovely models of the range, but it will not see much action in my army, due to its inferior statline and skills.
If you look at it closely it even represents the rules of the Asura better than the actual model, because it is more heavily armored and has a visor on it's helmet, that perfectly represents the MSV.
What I don't like about it are the cockroach elements of its armor and partly the pose.
So I didn't use those strange design elements, like the antennae, the crazy hair and the abdomen.
The hair was replaced with the plait from a Dasyu hacker, that I bent to follow the model's contour a little better.
The slots for her original hair and antennae I sculpted over. I tried to find solutions that made sense and stayed true to the designs on the rest of the model.
The original pose I kept except for her left arm, which turned out to be what put me off.
The way she's walking towards her enemy casually and slightly desinterested, firing her wrist mounted nanopulser, is actually quite cool, but the way the spitfire sticks out is odd.
I mean she's a machine, she can do it, but keeping the gun at that angle is still unnatural. Barrel up or barrel down, but not sticking out to the side.
So I took away part of her shoulder and arranged the arm at a more natural angle. Then I added a new shoulder pad, with a little additional detail.
I didn't have to worry about symmetry, as her right shoulder pad is hidden under her equipment.
The shoulder pad now looked like it was made for a unit decal lateron, but I thought it would be cooler to sculpt the asura symbol instead. Took me multiple attempts, but came out ok in the end.
Without further ado, my version of an Asura with spitfire:
dsteingass wrote: HOLY Krap Baiyuan! You are a master with the smoothskins!!
Thanks, but I'm actually awfully frustrated at the moment! I sprayed the netrods white and it showed that I shouldn't have been so rash in their preparation.
So instead of painting them right now, I distract myself and try to decide whether to go back to filing, or leave them as is.
Tbh it's more like waiting for the realisation that there is only going back, or else I'll hate every second of painting them, which would be quite counterproductive... Netrods SUCK! stupid mouldline all around and to damn small to get to it without taking away every hint of detail.
Sorry to hear of your issues with the netrods, but your asura is kick-ass (kick-ass-ura ). Great job on the shoulder pad, and looking forward to scarface - that looks very cool.
monkeytroll wrote: Sorry to hear of your issues with the netrods, but your asura is kick-ass (kick-ass-ura ). Great job on the shoulder pad, and looking forward to scarface - that looks very cool.
Kick-ass-ura, I like that and it's so fitting, because well... she kicks ass.
Took care of the stupid rods already, hope they are passable now. Tomorrow's primer will show...
Even though Scarface has no priority at all, it's floating around in my head. And since I decided that for christmas I'll put a new/better airbrush on my wishlist, there is a good chance that I'll tackle this project after christmas.
She looks great B. I don't know how you do it...I struggle to even fix the damn things together as they are!
While in other news my Infinity 'bad luck' continues...half-way through my Devabot paint job and I sit back to take in what I've done so far and I DROP the fking thing! Life imating art and he explodes into bits on impact!
He's back together again now...I guess that's some more battle damage there then too
Ghostflame wrote: She looks great B. I don't know how you do it...I struggle to even fix the damn things together as they are!
As usual it's mainly patience and meticulousness. That and ripping your hair out and sobbing and stuff...
No seriously it's also a lot of trial and error.
I messed up so much while building/converting these few models, but I managed to safe most of it.
The Mk1's leg is on the verge of breaking from trying to bend it into the right shape. The crotch of the devabot is just the same. In both cases I made sure to fix it with super glue before it's too late.
In general I'm extra careful and try to prepare for the worst case scenario, so I rather pin everything than having to commit suicide/homicide/genocide, when the fully painted model gets dropped.
Better to be safe than to be sorry.
Some assemblies are just crazy and I'm not always happy with my solutions, then I wonder how others do it, just like you. Do they take painstaking care of every little mouldline too, or is it just me being overly concerned? Do they care to pin as much or are they taking chances?
When I look at the studio miniatures from CB I think I can spot some that are incorrectly assembled, but as long as it works, who cares?
In summary, don't worry, Rob. I'm sure they'll look fine.
While in other news my Infinity 'bad luck' continues...half-way through my Devabot paint job and I sit back to take in what I've done so far and I DROP the fking thing! Life imating art and he explodes into bits on impact! He's back together again now...I guess that's some more battle damage there then too R
That sucks! At least my Mk1 wasn't painted when I dropped it.
Did you pin the arms? They shouldn't have come off if you did. Do you have a good type of super glue? And different types for different jobs?
And on the flipside what do you mean "half-way through"? You're putting me to shame! It was only right you dropped it, being half-way done after all the headstart I had... pffff!
I don't know what "then" refers to, but your idea is of beautiful simplicity! I thought about filling everything with putty instead of filing it off, but putting additional details on it, I like that. It's noted, I'll see how well it's applicable to the Aleph range.
Baiyuan wrote: Tbh it's more like waiting for the realisation that there is only going back, or else I'll hate every second of painting them, which would be quite counterproductive... Netrods SUCK! stupid mouldline all around and to damn small to get to it without taking away every hint of detail.
Ah, now I got you, Dave. I already took care of them, but for the netrods it wouldn't have been an option anyway, there wasn't much space for a conduit or anything and symmetry forbade it too.
But the idea in general is a smart one, I'll keep it in mind.
Didn't pin arms...my bad. He's re-attached now and luckily it doesn't show but can't believe my luck so far...I just use Loctite Super Glue, its quite thick stuff so fills gaps quite well, not sure if it's the best for metal minis but it worked well with my plastic bits before...I should have GSed the joins too but couldn't be bothered haha
Yeah, trying to do justice to those awesome borderlands 2 graphics...coming on ok, they will have to be a bit dirtier/worn then I had first planned (to hide a few errors) but overall look should be cool and very different from that classic studio look which we both wanted to get away from
My only regret so far is I wish I'd gone for NMM now. I feel my use of metalic paint was a bit lazy in this case but we'll see how those parts look when they're dirtied up a bit and matt varnished.
I'm making slow progress (better than none) on my netrods.
The paint scheme is still giving me some trouble, but I think I've settled on the main colors (i.e. what paints exaclty I'm going to use).
The real problem is finding the right color for the osl. I've tried "MC Blue Green" and the color is nice, but it pops too much and makes the whole thing look like a manga, which is fitting but not the look I aim for.
So today I went shopping for a better color and brought home a bunch of new paints, two of which are light blue tones, that I'll try for the osl.
No pictures yet, but once I've got the basic scheme covered on the netrods I'll take a pictures. Until then I hope Rob get's around to show us what he's been doing with his Devabot.
Taarnak wrote:Just wanted to chime in and express my love for this log.
Great work in this thread so far, and you both found some extremely awesome inspiration pics.
You've also inspired me to finally take the plunge on Infinity, and Aleph in particular.
Question for anyone, since I don't have my rules yet:
Can I use the Guija that I purchased ages ago with my Aleph force somehow?
Thanks, good to hear you'll be joining this ever-growing community.
You know you can download the rules for free, right? I bought the books for the fluff of course, but you really don't have to in order to play the game.
Regarding the Guijia, while you can include one or two Aleph models into an Yujing army, there is no legal way to include a Guijia into the other afaik.
But you could go ahead and make an awesome conversion of it and design your own "greek" TAG to go with the myrmidons, which you could then play as a Maruts, I don't think anybody could dislike that.
dsteingass wrote:Philosophical question: How does one achieve properly done NMM if by your logic, most attempts you see are failures at the technique?
I have a problem with NMM in general. It's a cool technique no doubt, but I personally think it looks out of place more often than not. On Infinity miniatures I actually like it, because it supports the general graphic style of the game. On 40k miniatures there is very little room for it.
The problem is, that the most convincing NMM must find a balance between having the strong contrast that metal surfaces have and at the same time not looking to shiny for the actual object.
An example:
Spoiler:
Yellow One is a god with the brush and his technique is flawless as far as I'm considered, but his NMM on the gatling almost has the contrast of a chrome surface, that's stupid.
On the other hand, if you go for longer gradients it can easily look like a dull grey surface and not like metal at all.
If one finds the balance between those two things and chooses the right miniature/object to use the technique, then I'd call it properly achieved.
Taarnak wrote:Just wanted to chime in and express my love for this log.
Great work in this thread so far, and you both found some extremely awesome inspiration pics.
You've also inspired me to finally take the plunge on Infinity, and Aleph in particular.
Question for anyone, since I don't have my rules yet:
Can I use the Guija that I purchased ages ago with my Aleph force somehow?
Thanks, good to hear you'll be joining this ever-growing community.
You know you can download the rules for free, right? I bought the books for the fluff of course, but you really don't have to in order to play the game.
Regarding the Guijia, while you can include one or two Aleph models into an Yujing army, there is no legal way to include a Guijia into the other afaik.
But you could go ahead and make an awesome conversion of it and design your own "greek" TAG to go with the myrmidons, which you could then play as a Maruts, I don't think anybody could dislike that.
I had forgotten that you can download the rules. Thanks for the reminder. I really want to get the full books for the fluff though.
Thanks for the idea. I'll have to start looking for a cool Greek name for the Not-Guija now.
dsteingass wrote:Philosophical question: How does one achieve properly done NMM if by your logic, most attempts you see are failures at the technique?
I have a problem with NMM in general. It's a cool technique no doubt, but I personally think it looks out of place more often than not. On Infinity miniatures I actually like it, because it supports the general graphic style of the game. On 40k miniatures there is very little room for it.
The problem is, that the most convincing NMM must find a balance between having the strong contrast that metal surfaces have and at the same time not looking to shiny for the actual object.
An example:
Spoiler:
Yellow One is a god with the brush and his technique is flawless as far as I'm considered, but his NMM on the gatling almost has the contrast of a chrome surface, that's stupid.
On the other hand, if you go for longer gradients it can easily look like a dull grey surface and not like metal at all.
If one finds the balance between those two things and chooses the right miniature/object to use the technique, then I'd call it properly achieved.
Spoiler:
Not that anyone asked, but in my opinion, NMM almost never "reads" correctly at the scales were are normally working in. At the larger stuff (say, 75mm+) it can be pulled off, but in my opinion still only looks right from one angle.
So, while a "neat" novelty technique, that can be done, it really isn't relevant to the average gamer/hobbyist?
The reason I ask is that I agree, it can look cool, I just don't have a desire to try it, since exponentially more can be done with metallics with less effort, and in less time.
So, while a "neat" novelty technique, that can be done, it really isn't relevant to the average gamer/hobbyist?
That's how I see it, it's a bit of a show-off technique because you are effectively painting a trompe l'oeil and it's very impressive technically, but it often just doesn't look convincing. Baiyuan's example is good but the gold still looks quite matte to me, even with strong contrast painted on (like on his skirt bit). The only time I have seen NMM and loved it is the Sanguinor because it achieves what looks like a really deep, rich polished gold that you would really struggle to get with metallic paint.
Had the worst tummy bug last few days, even just looking at a mini has made me feel like I was gonna puke but even with that awful illness I managed to pass those tests I was worried about! So only one left, pressure is off a little for now, will get back to Devabot soon....
@Baiyuan - No WIPs B as he's not converted in anyway. I don't like posting PIPs this close to finish.
@ Brut - Yeah I guess...Well I'm not sure if you'd say paint scheme "based on Borderlands 2 graphics" or "looks like Borderlands 2 graphics" we'll have to see at the end. I've tryied to add some of that 'cell shaded lining' in a few natural places on him but not as much as you'd see in game I guess. I'd probably say "based on..." at this stage.
Ghostflame wrote: even with that awful illness I managed to pass those tests I was worried about! So only one left, pressure is off a little for now, will get back to Devabot soon....
Good for you mate! Congratulations! Can't wait to see the Devabot.
@Baiyuan - No WIPs B as he's not converted in anyway. I don't like posting PIPs this close to finish.
That's ok, I understand. I don't like PIPs either, I generally think my miniatures look like crap while painting (sometimes even after that ), because I never finish one part of a miniature and then move on to the next. I usually put down all the base colors and then hop back and forth between different zones as I see fit.
No progress on my part, it's been a bit busy and for recreative purposes I chose Borderlands over painting. Mechromancer rooooocks!
Tomorrow I'll supervise exams for four hours (i.e. I'll read the Iliad or my Infinity books for four hours), hopefully after that I'll be in the right mood for painting.
Hehe, if you were taking a C level exam in German I guess you'd have other things to worry about than your teachers rulebook!
In other news, the first DLC for B2 is sooo cool. First of all it got pirates and you can't go wrong with that. And second it has hovercraft sandskiffs as vehicles. Now I want to build one for my ashwaste nomads... (it goes on the to do list).
Been a really good boy!
Instead of reading the rulebooks again I took care of my translations and instead of playing games I spent the last two nights painting.
I've removed the blue/green attempt at osl on the wings of the netrod and decided not to apply any osl on that rather big area.
I've basecoated all of the colors.
Finished the highlights on the grey parts.
I am still pondering about color choices, but the grey and orange are final at least in theory. I'm extremely pleased with both sets of colors.
The blue for the osl is going to work I think, but I can't tell before the rest is done.
Now I just need to figure out what direction I want to go with the white. I do have a concept, but I'll need to test it once the dark colors are done.
Something just occurred to me about NMM..metal surfaces in Video game graphics are all done in NMM by necessity! (gradient textures being the closest thing you can get to light reflective paint when working in pixels)
Video game graphics are all done in NMM by necessity
Anything that doesn't literally contain metal is NMM. Computer games simulate the reflective qualities of metal by using bump and reflection maps (and probably some other tricks, I am out of date) in addition to textures.
Of course they do and it's possible to create/paint an absolutely lifelike image of actual metal in NMM, but it's a complicated matter and the real problem for me is how it translates to painting miniatures.
There are artists who can paint metal perfectly (I remember an airbrush-god who painted an chrome airsteamer caravan, that I didn't recognize as a painting even after straight looking at it for a minute) and in the end it's just a question of how well you can reconstruct a lightsituation, while taking into account the reflective properties of the chosen material.
I can't do it, but I know people who can and one of them (who's a professional artist for graphic novels) keeps on claiming, that he could teach a monkey how to do it, as it's just simple logic. He's exaggerating I think, but especially painting SENMM is actually just figuring out how the lighting goes.
The problem with miniatures is, that, unlike a painting, they are threedimensional and have to look good from different angles. Which certain incredible looking effects simply cannot do. I've seen ice/glass armor being perfectly painted on a miniature, but you could only look at it from one angle, or the effect would be gone.
These are really cool and they look quite realistic, despite just being painted in blue and brown. But again it's the question how often you'll paint polished chrome and how it looks from another angle.
For more common metal surfaces being painted in NMM it's the same, it's just a matter of achieving the right level of reflection.
If an artist does that right it looks realistic enough to be convincing, but I'd still prefer RMM. It's hard to explain, but some things shouldn't be transported 1:1 from reality to a model.
Take this as an example:
Spoiler:
Taking into account the strength of the lightsource and the nature of the metal, this image is well-done and absolutely realistic. Now picture this being painted onto a miniature, it would only work from one angle and a lot of it would actually be painted in plain white.
Same here (his right arm):
Spoiler:
Could be a stunning effect on a miniature if done right, but it would still look awkward, don't you think?
Most people try to achieve an effect like this one, when they paint NMM on a miniature:
Spoiler:
Very realistic, but fething hard to paint, as you have to be spot on with the reflection and texture of the material, because if you make the slightest mistake you end up with miniature, that's just smothered in different shades of blue/grey.
Baiyuan wrote: and in the end it's just a question of how well you can reconstruct a light situation, while taking into account the reflective properties of the chosen material.
I absolutely agree, but I would add "And lighting properties" to the end of what you said. I think lighting and direction of lighting has a lot more to do with it than the metal. I struggle for light intensity and direction with colors, wouldn't it be safe to say, that the direction of lighting and other lighting properties (intensity, color, etc) are the important part is the lighting? The only difference between using colors, or shades of grey, is the lighting?
You're right of course, the wife was nagging so I had to hurry up and left it out for being obvious. The light is just as important as the material, but not more important than it. That's just my point, some people do the light perfectly but pay not enough respect to the material.
Do you really mean OSL, or do you mean zenithal lighting?
Zenithal lighting is basically a must, when you do proper NMM. Because if your lighting has no clear direction, it's impossible to reason where light and shadow would go.
For OSL it depends, as it's a completely different effect, especially if you include things like glaring or rim light. The difference is that in OSL you try to represent (part of) the cause of the lighting. In NMM you try to represent it's effect on a certain (metallic) surface.
Spoiler:
But then again both are just a way to represent a realistic (complex) lighting situation.
So it's not neccessary, but if there is a light source strong and directional enough, that it would logically contribute to the complexity of the scenes lighting, wouldn't it be awkward to ignore it, especially if you've gone through the pain of painting the rest as realistically as possible.
Now that might sound like NMM is a neccessity for realistic lighting, but it's not. Some people tend to forget, that painting RMM should be done exactly the same way as NMM. So that the painter steers the light by limiting it with shadows, implying shine by adding much brighter tones etc.
The metal particles are supposed to aid the effect, not create it.
It's the combination of all these effects, that makes the most interesting scenes. I chose some scenes from comics as examples, as they have a ridiculous amount of contrast and often feature multiple colorful light sources that make it easy to discern the components of the lighting situation. This can of course be done in a more realistic manner.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
And finally something real, a photography that shows how much a chrome object actually depends on its surroundings and how fictitious it looks if the environment isn't right. Now picture this on a miniature, it wouldn't be very plausible:
I'm still alive, just in case anyone wondered.
The last few days have been a bit busy, but I managed to spent a few hours painting anyway.
After figuring out the (hopefully final iteration of the) paint scheme I went back to finish my Naga first, before I continue painting the netrods.
He's not done yet, but mostly and I'm making progress.
I also took the time to finally add supports to the corners of the frame for my modular table, so that it can actually be used now.
Once I figured out what material I want to use to protect the XPS, work on the table can proceed. I currently think a mixture of black and white gesso with something mixed in for texture. Definitely not sand, I'll need to find something finer.
Also did some research on what airbrush I'll be getting for christmas. It'll be an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS.
oooh, that's a nice ab! Just make sure you can get needles and nozzles locally, or order several for backup. The smaller the needle, the easier it is to bend it.
I currently think a mixture of black and white gesso with something mixed in for texture. Definitely not sand, I'll need to find something finer.
Finer than sand? Tricky. Maybe very fine grain sandpaper sealed quite heavily to reduce the grit (and make it safer to game on). I've tried this before and it works pretty well.
This is a great plog. It occurs to me that it would be really useful to have a plog roll in the Infinity sub-forum. The plogs on here move off the front page so fast that it's easy to miss them.
Bruticus wrote:Finer than sand? Tricky. Maybe very fine grain sandpaper sealed quite heavily to reduce the grit (and make it safer to game on). I've tried this before and it works pretty well.
I'm afraid sandpaper is not an option, as I need to cover complex shapes including walls and stuff. What I want is something that creates the look of concrete, so plaster would be ideal, but it needs to be flexible. I'll make some experiments with gesso.
precinctomega wrote:This is a great plog. It occurs to me that it would be really useful to have a plog roll in the Infinity sub-forum. The plogs on here move off the front page so fast that it's easy to miss them. R.
Thanks, mate. That kind of a thread already exists, but it seems you just found out yourself.
dsteingass wrote:oooh, that's a nice ab! Just make sure you can get needles and nozzles locally, or order several for backup. The smaller the needle, the easier it is to bend it.
Yeah, I'll have to find a good supplier in town anyway, just in case I need some other stuff.
The needles of the two budget airbrushs I have from back in the days are both bent, but Iwata supplies are easy to get. Even if I can't find a store in Hamburg (there was one that had it all, but it turned out they went out of business last year), there are so many online shops that have them.
The real problem will be setting up a proper workplace for the airbrushing. My painting table doesn't have any space left and even though there is a spare table next to it, I'll have to figure out where to put all the crap I usually dump on it. I also think I'll have to build myself a spray booth, because the only place to set up the AB is in my library/study/home office/man cave and I wouldn't want all my gak to be covered in paint.
Also my compressor is a DIY one built by a friend. It's alright, but quite large and I will have to see if it's too noisy to use at night.
Hhhm, maybe you're right, but I think building a small cabinet wouldn't hurt. I really don't want to have to set it all up every time I want to work on a project.
Talking about projects:
I finally took a minute to do some planning on one of the major ideas for our gaming table.
I've been planning to scratch-build a prototype of a futuristic shipping container, that can be used for Infinity and Necromunda alike.
Once done I'll make a mould of it and then make as many copies as my table can handle.
But first things first, I more or less know what specifics I want it to have, but now I need to incorporate these into a design, that suits both games.
They have to be stackable, the doors must open, there must be ladders built into the side panels.
But what else? What would be another cool feature? Any ideas would be appreciated.
I've been planning to scratch-build a prototype of a futuristic shipping container, that can be used for Infinity and Necromunda alike.
Once done I'll make a mould of it and then make as many copies as my table can handle.
Great idea, I've spent a long time trying to find a way to make/buy these that was both affordable and easy. I am pretty sure there must be some plastic train ones somewhere, but I've not found them, or at least, I am unsure of the scale. Lasercut mdf also seems like a good alternative to resin and there are some quite nice ones around on eBay and the like, but not at a price that would allow buying in bulk.
For details, I personally wouldn't be fussed about them all being openable, it might get a bit odd with dozens of dead end rooms around the place - perhaps some blown open walls would help if they are hollow.
Bruticus wrote:Great idea, I've spent a long time trying to find a way to make/buy these that was both affordable and easy. I am pretty sure there must be some plastic train ones somewhere, but I've not found them, or at least, I am unsure of the scale. Lasercut mdf also seems like a good alternative to resin and there are some quite nice ones around on eBay and the like, but not at a price that would allow buying in bulk.
There are many versions available but none of them has the features I'm looking for. I don't want normal modern day containers and the futuristic ones, especially those designed for scifi skirmish are normally HDF and I haven't seen good looking ones so far. I want more detail and a good design, so designing them myself is the way to go.
But if you're looking for a simple, dirt-cheap, but rather cool container, look no further than:
www.plastcraftgames.com/es/sfici/424-contenedor-scifi.html
For details, I personally wouldn't be fussed about them all being openable, it might get a bit odd with dozens of dead end rooms around the place - perhaps some blown open walls would help if they are hollow.
They'll open at both ends, so it will be more like lots of tunnels, and doors for cover, not deadends. I'm thinking big here.
precinctomega wrote:Have you seen the new HDF stackable shipping containers coming very soon from Warmill?
I think I've seen them, but I'm not sure. Warmill does some of the best HDF terrain (the noodle kitchen OMG), but I'm not sure they'll fully convince me.
First of all, I have very specific ideas regarding their stackability and design, so it's likely that only my own version will satisfy all my demands. And in addition to that I need a huge collection. Take your average action movie, container ports are a great battlefield, but I think I'll need about 40 containers to make it work. So buying them would be quite expensive even if they are offered at a fair price.
And they are not futuristic at all! Maybe actual modern day shipping containers have a rather timeless design, but would they really still look that way in 175 or 40000 years?
I'm looking forward to the results of your thinking!
Ok, I didn't know them, I confused them with their container homes.
These are pretty awesome. Hats off to Warmill!
They've covered most of my demands:
They are stackable in every which way. (My design is actually very similar, but I didn't add the slots to the sides, but to the top/bottom and I have added four grooves instead of three, to allow even more configurations)
They have integrated ladders, which is a must. (Love the idea of making standard bases fit between the staves, but with all those sculpted custom bases I'll not bother to go there.)
They can be opened. (Which I think could be done in a more convincing way. But I can imagine that making actual hinges with HDF isn't so easy.)
The real problem is the price. For a normal gaming table it's ok, but I'd have to win the lottery to realize my idea of the container port.
Anyway, thanks for the link, these are the best I've seen so far and even though they are inappropriate for my purposes, they served to confirm the rationality of some of my main concerns.
Although I like the warmill design I am not sold either. I think the MDF looks too thick (especially for the doors) and I don't think they would be practical scenery - imagine a moving models inside one of those. But this is why I am not keen on mine opening, I think they would be great to block LOS and make corridors but actually going inside will get impractical and fussy. Maybe if they were much shorter blocks. Oh and yeah I agree about the price.
The Plastcraftgames ones look almost perfect I'd say, but it looks like you even have to cut the shapes out of the supplied sheets yourself and then glue them? I am not sure I have the patience to assemble a bunch of them, but they are certainly tempting, thanks for the link.
By the way did you ever see a Swiss film called Cargo (2009)? It's a sc-i-fi film involving lots of space shipping crates, maybe some ideas there! Decent movie.
Bruticus wrote: Although I like the warmill design I am not sold either. I think the MDF looks too thick (especially for the doors) and I don't think they would be practical scenery - imagine a moving models inside one of those. But this is why I am not keen on mine opening, I think they would be great to block LOS and make corridors but actually going inside will get impractical and fussy. Maybe if they were much shorter blocks. Oh and yeah I agree about the price.
I completely agree with you, but I want them to open. I'll have to make it work. We'll see.
The Plastcraftgames ones look almost perfect I'd say, but it looks like you even have to cut the shapes out of the supplied sheets yourself and then glue them? I am not sure I have the patience to assemble a bunch of them, but they are certainly tempting, thanks for the link.
They come as scored, so the PVC is not cut all the way through. From what I've read it's quite easy to cut out and using solvent plastic glue you get perfect connections.
By the way did you ever see a Swiss film called Cargo (2009)? It's a sc-i-fi film involving lots of space shipping crates, maybe some ideas there! Decent movie.
Not futuristic enough for my tastes. I'm thinking multilayered metal and lots of 45° angles.
Dave, do you have any idea what other features and gimmicks would be cool?
For example I've considered horizontally opening doors, so that when you just open the upper wing you'd have nice cover. Or you could use the doors as ramps and so on.
Maybe add hatches to the top of the container to provide some cover if needed.
How futurey you want?
Think in shapes, what basic shapes you want and what layers of material.
I could make this cargo bay with mostly just layers of sheets
Whatever shapes you want, needs to reflect a practical reason for stacking/loading.
The Current range of available hab-block stuff reminds me of a prefab building more than a cargo crate.
More of a settler pod tan just cargo
Horizontal doors that swing open upwards and out would be great, when open they could form bridges across to another container, and you could close or shut them even during play. That would be a good game play element. Additional doors on the side might also be a good idea, like this:
Spoiler:
or they could slide open. Again it would just give more gameplay options.
In terms of design, this looks rather cool (on this the door swings down, which could also form bridges when they were stacked double):
dsteingass wrote:I like the idea of a toothed sliding door,
Sliding door, hhm. I think that would be hard to realize so that it works in the game. But maybe I'm not getting you here...
How futurey you want?
I could make this cargo bay with mostly just layers of sheets
That's about it, even though I don't like the style of the cargo hold. Styrene sheet will be the main material, multiple layers with some structured sheets mixed in. I'll need supplies for that as I only have plain styrene sheets.
Whatever shapes you want, needs to reflect a practical reason for stacking/loading.
This is usually the hardest part of any scifi design process, retain some degree of functionality while creating an appealing futuristic design. Form follows function follows form...
Bruticus wrote:Horizontal doors that swing open upwards and out would be great, when open they could form bridges across to another container,...
Hhm, swinging upwards and staying in place would require some kind of locking mechanism and I think they would get in the way when something wants to move through the container.
Meanwhile I'm quite fond of the idea of having one big'ol hatch that swings down like a drawbridge. That would serve to connect the containers on the second floor and above. It would also be an easy thing to put some scatter terrain on it to provide cover.
and you could close or shut them even during play. That would be a good game play element.
That was the plan anyway. Sealed containers can only be opened via hacking, that makes hackers even more interesting and limits the open/shoot/close abuse of the game mechanic. Containers that are setup with the door open at the beginning of the game are considered open, but can again be sealed by a succesful hacking order.
Additional doors on the side might also be a good idea, or they could slide open. Again it would just give more gameplay options.
I've considered including side doors, in case I find time to make some optional variations of the side and end panels, but on the basic version that would be too much I think.
In terms of design, this looks rather cool (on this the door swings down, which could also form bridges when they were stacked double):
Spoiler:
Very cool, where did the concept art come from?
Cargo trailer:
Spoiler:
Cool, it looks good. I couldn't say that I've ever consciously watched a swiss movie, let alone a scifi flick...
Automatically Appended Next Post: Ooh, cool new "blog view" function, when has that been implemented?
I was thinking of a pocket-door that is toothed in the middle, but instead of sliding horizontally, it slides vertically, then you could use the bottom half as cover.
But that would require a "pocket" i.e. space for the door to slide into, I wouldn't know how to make room for that without reducing the size of the door.
Sorry all, my bad luck continues, PCs had a melt down can't afford a new monitor ATM. Dakka via IPhone is a bit of a pain Tbh. Devabot nearly done will post when I can. R
Good to hear that it's just technical difficulties! My PC is making trouble too, I'm just waiting for it to become totally inoperable.
Can't wait to see your devabot.
My own "inactivity" btw is only on the surface. Having less hobby time than desirable aside, I'm constantly working on my Naga. Still so many small things I want to add or improve upon. I hope he'll be finished soon.
I'm too late to comment on all the comedy I've found here so far, but I can say the models are looking great and I'm surprised at how many actual pictures you have baiyuan
Hey guys, there will be more and better content, be assured of that.
Still painting that freaking Naga, but I can see the finish line now. I'm still keeping it blizzard though, it's done, when it's done. Just hoping it will be less disappointing than blizzard's recent work.
Anyway, imagine an asian guy jumping out of a closet... SUPPLIES!
Picked up a new batch of paints during my visit to the LGS.
I went there to pick up... *drumroll* my Assault Subsection starter box! Bam:
LOVELY! I think this will be my next painting project right after the Naga and the half-painted netrods.
Baah, hate the porky face on that guy. *must convert*
Better than I thought, he doesn't look as much like he's ice-skating as I thought. More like advancing under fire.
His arm is a little bit too short to really fit in place, maybe I'll have to change that. Otherwise flawless.
The best of the bunch, he'll look awesome once he's peeping around a courner, you can see he's been sculted to do so.
The black sheep. His gut doesn't look as bad as in the first pictures, but the pose is still ridiculous. Luckily my prearranged conversion plans will work out perfectly, as you can see here:
Just have to remove the fingers of his left hand and sculpt them supporting the launcher and he's ready to pop some missiles out of cover.
Apologies for the lack of pics/progress y'all. I'm a pretty slow worker at best, plus very busy ATM and throw in a few silly set-backs equals a whole lot of not much ...I will try to push through and post some eye candy soon when I get a few spare hours to finish up the fine details.
Apologies for the lack of pics/progress y'all. I'm a pretty slow worker at best, plus very busy ATM and throw in a few silly set-backs equals a whole lot of not much ...I will try to push through and post some eye candy soon when I get a few spare hours to finish up the fine details.
Dog ate your update? Don't worry about it though, it's only page 6, no-one really expects any photos this early in a blog.
Oh thank the spirits you managed to save that model.
I kept looking at the Assault Subsection and everytime I saw the beergut I cringed. And then I'd double take and I'd cringe again.
And then I'd sigh and go look at Haqqislam models.
I'm glad to hear about the supply drop! Looking forward to seeing them worked out. I think I'm going to stay on the fence about ALEPH until they drop Atalanta and the crazy Amazonian chick on the motorcycle. Then I won't be able to resist anymore.
Apologies for the lack of pics/progress y'all. I'm a pretty slow worker at best, plus very busy ATM and throw in a few silly set-backs equals a whole lot of not much ...I will try to push through and post some eye candy soon when I get a few spare hours to finish up the fine details.
Dog ate your update? Don't worry about it though, it's only page 6, no-one really expects any photos this early in a blog.
Apologies for the lack of pics/progress y'all. I'm a pretty slow worker at best, plus very busy ATM and throw in a few silly set-backs equals a whole lot of not much ...I will try to push through and post some eye candy soon when I get a few spare hours to finish up the fine details.
Dog ate your update? Don't worry about it though, it's only page 6, no-one really expects any photos this early in a blog.
Pssh! I started camrea snapping and full steam ahead! Everyone loves pictures!
You can't really complain about the amount of pictures (at least not on my behalf, bad bad real-life-living Rob) there have been plenty and there will be more.
Pictures of painted miniatures is a different subject though, I'm very repentant in that regard, as completing my Naga got delayed by the urge to do a world-first on a proper-looking Agema. (This is partly H+'s fault because he kinda dared me to over at the inf forum)
About that:
I'm making good progress on the Agema. Everything has been cut up and rearranged the right way and I'm in the middle of sculpting the lost areas. His hand is basically done and I'm working on the shoulders and arms now.
It will be at least a two-phased sculpt, so taking into account the delay of letting the different layers cure, it'll probably completely done tomorrow afternoon.
I'll do a (more or less) step by step tutorial of how I did it, just in case someone isn't as reckless when it comes to converting and wants to know what he signs up for.
OK, this will be a big one. Finished two conversions for my Aleph. They might still see some surface preparation to touch up a lack of smoothness here and there, but the conversions are done.
First up is my conversion of the limited preorder miniature from the Campaign Paradiso book, Gogo Marlene.
Which was actually a mere side-effect of my work on the Agema ML marksmen. Every time he had to cure before I could continue, I went to work on Gogo.
It's a nice sculpt as usual, but it didn't get me euphoric. I couldn't put my finger on it until I listened to the 6th episode of the O-12 podcast, when Romeo said he'd take off her pigtails, I knew what had to be done. Thx, Romeo!
So far being a model without rules or use in the game, I wouldn't get to converting, let alone painting, it before retirement. Luckily I had already thought up a way to utilize her.
Since I'm preparing to participate in my LGS's paradiso campaign in january, I've been thinking a lot about what units I'll field and one of my new favorites is Thamyris, the Aoidos.
I know he's a guy-robot, but the converted Gogo is a perfect stand-in once you come to think about it:
Journalist, mostly unarmed, only lightly armored (subcutaenous like a deva's). It all works pretty well and even the more problematic aspects, like the fact that she's also a hacker and is supposed to have a marker, can easily be reasoned to be hidden inside her cute little cam-bot. Cute little bunny hacks your ass and shoots nanopulses and markers.
Here she is with her pigtails removed, which was a piece of cake for the upper part and a pita for the parts that were sculpted onto her shoulders, arms, back and ass. I forgot to take a picture from behind, that could have made you appreciate the work that went into it, but you've just got to compare the final pics to Angel's painted pics to be able to empathise.
As you can see I decided not to go give her a plain bob, but instead kept the hair-grips and added ChunLi style buns.
You can also see I refrained from shaving off half her back-side to remove the hair, so I didn't have to build it up with epoxy putty. Instead I gradually filed, sanded and polished down the areas until smooth and properly shaped and then worked the creases into the the formerly covered areas.
The only other change I made to the model was adding a holster to represent her assault pistol and the fact that she's more than an embedded journalist.
Sorry for the shine btw, but I had to polish most surfaces, even those that I didn't actually work on, to get rid of the roughness from the casting.
Now, let's get on with the main conversion project, the Agema, which was more invasive and complex.
Since everybody (in his right state of mind) seems to hate the intended pose of the Agema, it can be expected that there will be lots of people wanting to convert it. So I decided to provide step-by-step shots of it, to create something like a small tutorial. Let's go!
Here's the mock-up again, that I've posted earlier. As you can see, my goal was an at-ready-position, like he's making a side step out of cover, raising the launcher to pop a shot at some evil TAG.
You might also see, that his arms and shoulders really don't allow for such a position, which required a painstaking process for me to accept.
The Agema as it comes in the box.
At first I simply filed flat the connecting areas and inserted preliminary pins.
This also is the last picture of that silly coxcomb he had, before I filed it flat.
I knew I had to remove the fist of his left hand and replace it with an open hand that could support the ML in a genuine way.
A vertical side grip would have been the easier option, but it would have looked dodgy and I value a satisfying result over an easy workaround.
So I drilled through the fist and cut of his fingers at his palm. I managed to save his thumb and bent it up to the natural position.
Made room for a pin and enough putty to sculpt the hand later on.
Took off the shoulder as it didn't allign properly with the torso and would have looked unnatural.
Pinned the arm into place and experimented with the exact pose and possible areas for pins.
Now I realized there wouldn't be a way around reposing the right shoulder as well, which I had desperately tried to avoid as it's partly hidden by the launcher and therefore not sculpted and hard to remove.
I managed to retain most the shoulder pad while cutting it free from the launcher and then bent the arm away from the launcher and pinned the pad into a natural position.
As the original pose is the exact physiological opposite of what I wanted (chest out, arms back vs. chest in, arms pulled together), I had to make the upper body a lot narrower. To achieve that the pectorals had to be trimmed and the rib cage had to be shaved off.
At the same time I had also decided that pinning both arms into place would be stupid in regard to painting the thing later on, so went for a magnetized right arm, that could be removed to paint the torso and face.
The reposed right arm received the magnets and was stabilized with filling powder.
After glueing in the second magnet, the new pose was generally set and I could glue the left arm into place and add the shoulder pad.
Of course there were big gaps from shaving off the ribcage and shoulder and repositioning the pad.
These needed filling, so the following 200 steps were just sculpting work. Filling gaps. Adding the hand. Sculting a smaller pectoral and ribcage. Sculpting the right shoulder pad after the left one, as it had none of the shape or details. Adding muscles to the upper arms to compensate for the changed position etc.
So here's my version of the Agema marksman, all repositioned and magnetized to fit snugly (the arm is kept perfectly in position by the armor around the ribcage and the little knob in his palm). I still see some minor flaws, that I might come back to, but the general conversion is done and I'll save the touch-ups and the detailing for when I get to paint him, which will not be soon.
Anyway, hope you like him and that I could give you an impression of what you're signing up for if you want to convert your own Agema!
Nice stuff Big B! I love the paintjob on Marlene!- She is ALEPH? I don't understand the little familiar she has, but she looks great! Just for fun, try the Vallejo air paints with a brush, you'll be pleasantly surprised
The work you did on her is great! And that means more BunnyBots on the field for Aleph! And that is something I'm sure we can all get behind. Every omnipotent AI, when given the choice to make helper robots, would most likely choose adorable bunnies to help them out.
Except the EI, which is why it is bad and must be defeated. I "Dawwwwww." a little every time I see the bunnies.
You are 100% right on the Agema. I don't think Infinity has too many models that need fixing, but that is certainly one of them, and what a job you did! It looks great, and once it's all primed up I'm sure you'll be getting constant questions of, "Awesome! Did they release a new sculpt?"
Thanks for the mini-tutorial. My sculpt skills are atrocious, but I shall have to try it.
dsteingass wrote: Nice stuff Big B! I love the paintjob on Marlene!- She is ALEPH? I don't understand the little familiar she has, but she looks great! Just for fun, try the Vallejo air paints with a brush, you'll be pleasantly surprised
No Marlene is not Aleph, go read the wall of text, you slacker!
You're right about Vallejo Air Colors, they are the best paints out there and I've been (brush)painting with them for two years. If a color is available in AC I won't buy it from any other line.
Marlene is not part of Aleph (as far as anyone knows ), she's the most famous news person of the humans sphere and not officially linked to any faction.
The function of her robot isn't clear, but for me it's only logical that it's a camera and broadcasting van all in one.
There are no rules for Gogo, so the miniature is just a collector's item.
Thamyris, the Aiodos, is a unit that was introduced in the recently released Campaign Paradiso book. He's a journalist who's part of the Assault Subsection, the greek sectorial army of Aleph. He's the one who tells all those glorious tales of how Aleph (i.e. its myrmidon armies) rescues humanity from the threat of the combined army.
His character is based on Thamyris from greek mythology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamyris
So they are both journalists and I dig the rules for Thamyris and nobody knows when he'll be released as a model, so I figured I'd go ahead and make Gogo usefull.
Ahh, thank you. I haven't read anything about the new Paradiso book yet. I haven't even finished reading the Human Sphere book yet. That's cool, he's like a cute little anime R2-D2 droid in a sense then
Just had my third real game of Infinity. Played against my buddy with his nomads again and this time it was much more balanced. I won again, but I didn't wipe the floor with him and had some losses.
One of my netrods dispersed 15" into his half of the table and it was his first order to destroy it.
My zayin rebot got killed in a tremendously stupid (move/move, move/move) order which granted him an aro with the model I wanted to kill. I thought being in cover everything would be ok, but his boarding shotgun made short work of my remote. I obviously should have stayed out of sight and spent another order to (move/shoot), then it would have been a FtF roll against my HMG.
And my Asura lost all her wounds, resisted three hacking attempts and killed the enemy Lt. only thanks to NWI.
Good game for both of us. We will have another one soon and maybe we'll even step up to 300p for that one.
In other news, I'm making very good progress on the Naga and I'm sure he'll be done before the weekend.
dsteingass wrote:Sounds like a fun game Baiyuan. I hope to play myself soon, it sounds liek there are some unique nuances strategically speaking.
Unique, oh yes it is and that's even before playing those crazy new scenarios from C, that'll be a cinematic blast on top of the tactical wealth.
Hindenburg wrote:Your conversions are very smooth and the end result doesn't look converted (which is always the best result for conversions). It's very impressive.
Thanks, man! I agree, the best conversions don't show immediately, so I take that as a big compliment.
I thought I'd report on some of my recent Infinity-related activities.
Still painting that Naga.
Got distracted by the need to prepare/assemble/convert some more miniatures for yesterday's game, but I'll be back on it tonight/tomorrow.
battle report:
Like I said, I had a game just yesterday and after pondering over how to handle my opponents Szalamandra TAG (because I knew he would bring it), the game showed me how versatile and tactical it is.
I fielded plenty stuff that could crack the TAG under the right circumstances. I had a missile launcher, a light rocket launcher, an E/M grenade launcher etc..
In the end it only took me one smart move and I nailed the damn thing in my first turn. My Naga sneaked towards the TAG's position laying two of his monofilament mines to block some corridors, before I decided to be more offensive.
So I recamoed, slipped around the corner of the house where the TAG was lurking, layed down a mine so that it would go off as soon as his TAG would do anything. If you don't know, monofilament is scary gak. Treats any armor as 0 and if you fail to roll a 13 or higher, it kills outright regardless of wounds or strength.
So since his TAG couldn't do anything without triggering the mine, I figured before my buddy gets the chance to bring in his engineer to remove the mine/repair the TAG, I'd try my luck. So I spent my last 4 orders on putting one unopposed burst after the other into the damn thing.
In the end I managed to achieve a crit (direct wound) and he also failed one ARM roll, so it was down to one wound. (We forgot, that his TAG is manned and therefore has to take guts rolls, which, should he have failed one for any of those succesfull ARM rolls, would have forced him to move and thus set off the mine)
In my opponent's turn, he brought down two of his jump troops to aid the TAG and remove both the Naga and the mine. Unfortunately both failed to wound my heroic Naga (without cover!), who didn't return the favor and took them both out. Oppan naga style!
That's where we had to interrupt the game and decided to leave the board as it is and pick it up again at a later time. Even though we'll probably restart the game so that he gets a chance to actually use his death machine.
How do all...I'm affraid I'm gonna have to tap-out with this one...
Finding myself with less and less modelling time ATM and I don't feel its fair to do a joint blog with someone and never upload anything! Luckily Baiyuan's not pissed off with me Thanks dude!
Basically from my limited game experience so far I do really like the game play of Infinity, it's almost chess like, which is great for a tactical mind...but sadly its just not really sparking my creativity in terms of modelling/painting, I guess my brain is just too used to "grim dark". I've been really struggling to get a handle on my Aleph force since the start really...
Also I'm just not a fan of metal minis at all I know exactly where I am with plastic and what I can do to it to achieve what I want, using metal again was to be honest un-nerving for me.
However that said I will probably come back to these in the future/play a few games at home etc but with my current limited hobby time its back to 'Munda I go for now.
I will be watching though and look forward to the B man's awesome work!
Hey Rob, like I said I can really relate to what you said.
You're right, it's a game for the tactical mind and only with reckless abandon one can create a niche for real creativity in it (besides just painting).
When I told the guy at my LGS I'm converting most of my infinity models, he looked at me like I'm a mad man.
I'll happily be following any kind of your artistic endeavors and I'm looking forward to your work.
PS: Will we get to see the status quo of your devabot anyway? I don't care if it's finished I'm just curious...
I came to a similar conclusion about infinity. I love the models, love anime to bits and the whole theme really appealed to me, the game is great too. But for some reason i just cant get into it, something about it doesnt make me tick. I have taken great pleasure at chopping some of my yu jing up for 40k though. Weird how the mind works sometimes.
Yes, indeed. Because I don't like anime (a few well done exceptions) and I'm not to fond of the style of many of the miniatures (others are hands down the best on the market of course), but the gameplay... I'm intoxicated!
There is so much you can do (once you learned the rules).
An example: FO, Sensor, HD+
Forward observer let's you mark targets in your LOF (for guided weaponry).
Sensor let's you discover all camo markers in your zone of control (8") without LOF or applying any malus.
In addition to that, if you have both skills you're allowed to mark already discovered targets without needing LOF. And you could even Discover and Mark in one order. Also a marked camo troop cannot recamo until the mark has worn off.
Hacking Device Plus on the other hand, grants you FO in your ZC as well, but doesn't let you discover without LOF. The upside is you can use any kind of repeater as a relay, thus enhancing the range of your LOFless marking.
Bloody complex? Yes, but sooo satisfying and engaging once you wrapped your head around it.
Baiyuan wrote: Hacking Device Plus on the other hand, grants you FO in your ZC as well, but doesn't let you discover without LOF. The upside is you can use any kind of repeater as a relay, thus enhancing the range of your LOFless marking...
Why I think I mentioned this one to you didn't I? Hehe
Yeah will do B, I'll pop a quick snap up later but it wont make for amazing viewing TBH as still only about half done.
Yes, you did and to be honest I failed to realize you could use a repeater, which is why I didn't fully appreciate it. Then again I think GML is a crutch, so I might try it for fun, but it will probably not become a common strategy for me.
I was gonna use that exploit with my Zayin Rebot's EMP grendade launcher to take Speculative Shots on camo targets without those nasty 'to hit' penalties whilst still having it in a position to cover 'escape routes' with it's HMG...but again I'm not 100% sure of the ranges etc so GML might prove more useful tool for this but of course you'll have to get that Lamedh in the right place first too...(aw see I do love the tatics! Oh well)
But you cannot use the Asura's HD+ to mark a marker, that's only allowed via sensor/FO, unless of course you mean you are in the ZC AND have LOF, so that you can take advantage of your MSV3.
Yes there's a lot of 'what ifs' in the plan for sure but if you got your Azura up somewhere nice and high early in game and then ran a repeater in close to targets and pulled it off imadgein how smug you'd feel and how pissed off the other player would be that you'd just wiped their TO Camo troups off the board before they could even do anything or at least damaged all their gear/weapons with the emp blast haha genius!
R
Automatically Appended Next Post: So then man-bots and fem-bots...
This is as far as I got with this chap. I loathe posting PIPs coz they always look a bit gak even if you can tell its broken down into work stages and I always go back over bits and add stuff etc afterwards. Anyways from his waist down was my final colour choice but obviously here he's lacking any battle damage, company markings or oil leaks...etc.
I was really looking forward to the turquoise OSL on the "eyes" but never got to that bit...I will finish him off one day I'm sure.
PIP for sure, but I think it's easy to imagine what he'll look like (one day). Good work on the clean blacklining.
Hope you'll get the chance to finish it at some point.
You guys make Infinity sound pretty interesting, tactically speaking. Necromunda is a solid ruleset but it could use a serious overhaul and it's tempting to look to other rule systems sometimes. Although, like Ghostflame I can't get away from the grimdark asthetic.
It is, Brute. Being stuck on the 40k style is understandable (because it's great and we've grown so familiar with it over the years), but Infinity might be less different than you might expect.
First of all it's not all shiny new and squeeky clean and flowers and sunshine and gak.
In Infinity humanity is not surrounded by enemies and at the brink of destruction, but it's its own biggest enemy and unless it can be united it will be destroyed by its alien enemies even before it can destroy itself.
So basicly it's Terra before the Emperor's arrival. And it basically got all the grimdarkness of 40k hidden under a blanket of hightech and wealth.
There are power-hungry religious orders, anarchistic renegade scum, government assassins, plotting secret services, special police forces specialized in making people disappear, greedy drug trafficers, illegal genetic modifications, public gladiator battles, a disembodied unapproachable overmind etc.
The real difference is that the 40k universe is often portrayed/seen as black and white, which it actually shouldn't be.
CSM aren't just evil because they are possessed or misguided, they are flawed like all humans, no matter their physique and they make their own decisions based on human motives. How else could anyone sway a whole army to become renegades.
However the contrast in Infinity is lower, every faction can be looked at from two opposite perspectives.
Without Aleph the AI humanity would perish and it's Aleph's goal to help, unite and strengthen humanity, but it is also very dominant and could end up trying to usurp the throne.
Tyranids on the other hand are creatures without motives, only instinct. Even the hive mind seems to have no other goal than destruction. That's why despite those cool miniatures I never got into Tyranids. I understand and like the concept of an incomprehensibe foe without a face or feelings, but in the end they are just mindless antagonists to me and I wouldn't want to build an army of those.
All Inq28 and I-munda freaks will agree that being able to
actually relate to your miniatures and their motives is the part that makes it fun.
The closest thing to a one-sided faction in Infinity are the Morat, which are a little bit like Orks. They live in a military society, their only value is power and their only goal is to die in a good battle. Like orks their honour follows a certain warrior's codex, but they mainly crave destruction.
The huge difference is that the Morat's goals are negligable because they are actually just the EI's goons. They are part of the Combined Army and the EI just uses their power and battlelust to its own ends. Not unlike Eldar coercing Orks into testing or distracting their enemies, but as a fixed ally.
Anyway, if you read the fiction behind Infinity the game, you'll see it's not unlike 40k. But in contrast to it there aren't skulls on every surface...
I should add that the Morat definitely don't like being the EI's pawn. They like the violence, but they are still looking forward to the day they can strike back against the opressive machine.
It's in their fluff somewhere, I'll go find it later.
Hey Ghostflame! I love the Yellow! It's a wild contrast to what I'm used to seeing in Aleph and I know it's going to look bangin' when it's all said and done. Keep it up chief.
Aye up guys , Good stuff alround , Big B your conversions are as perfect as ever , your attention to detail , is complimented by the clean lines of the pretty lady reporter. nice basing too mate.
And Ghosty the wip is looking cool nice depth to that lemon yellow and just a hint of urban grittiness.
@ B really enjoyed reading your take on the fiction for Infinity. The boys are watching the new total recall and I can really appreciate that grimy cyberpunk aesthetic.. similar to deus ex actually , the contrast of the clean and the dirty underworld ala demolition man etc.. is what would attract me to model these ... although I think I would struggle with the details.
I just had a look through this entire blog and your 'Eye for Detail" blog (yes yes i know, work is very slow this week okay). i must say you are one of the best converters/scratch builders that i have seen. i wish i had the guts to attempt half the conversions you do, especially with my Ariadna.
Nerm86 wrote: Keep up the super-awesome and inspirational work!nerm
Hey Nerm, sorry man, hadn't noticed you left a comment, otherwise I'd have thanked you earlier. So, well, thank you!
Update:
Do you remember that months ago I talked about a game called Infinity and that I considered buying some miniatures for it? Just kidding, but seriously after all this time I finally managed to finish the first model for my Aleph.
I'm not going to bore you (at least no more than I've already done during those months) with the loong and difficult story of its creation, but let me summarize some of the facts to give the model a little bit of context.
What you're about to see is the Naga operative for my Aleph force. If you're interested in the background of these specific agents of the AI, check out this exerpt from their fluff:
Spoiler:
The conditions on Paradiso require troops with special training and abilities, able to adapt to this savage planetary ecosystem. The duty of the Nagas in the Special Situations Section is to launch offensive operations independently or in tandem with regular forces, striking into enemy-held territory by ground, water or air.
Since their creation, they have performed numerous raids with great success thanks to their first class stealth, night combat and terrain navigation techniques. They also work as a special exploration unit, using advanced cartographic devices to acquire a better environmental knowledge than that of native inhabitants. Nagas are also prepared to run Direct Action and early enemy contact operations. They use non-conventional warfare techniques in all of its forms, both guerrilla and anti-guerrilla warfare, Evasion and Escape, sabotage, counter-terrorism, and their specialty, jungle combat. Since the opening of the Paradiso front, they have built up an incredible reputation in high-risk operations against the Combined Army. Trained on Acontecimento and forged in Paradiso’s emerald jungle, Nagas perfectly identify themselves with the reptilian Hindu mythical beings they are named for. Their greatest virtue is the element of surprise, displaying a disconcerting genius to always appear where a hole in the enemy’s defense exists. Their extraordinary capacity for rapid strike actions in any type of hostile territory makes them unique, not only for the Section, but also for those who fight at their side.
Due to the Naga's special function and equipment (slick body sleeve - oppan night ops style) his paint scheme will actually not be representative for the rest of the army, but I used the same white and grey (the one on the armor plates) as I plan to use for all my Aleph. So hopefully there will be a certain level of both distinction and coherence once he get's company in the cabinet.
I'm sure that I'll get mixed feedback for this miniature, because of the mix of styles I employed. There is fancy anime stuff like the OSL and the techy white weapon. On the other hand there is some realism in the limited palette with a slight nod towards night time camo and the weathering techniques more often seen in military modelling.
This mixup is half intentional, because I don't intend to go all clean and anime-like, but at the same time want to retain the impression of an army of hightech android operatives. So yes there is rust and mud in the Infinity-Universe (especially in the setting I've chosen for my army/board/bases, a deserted military compound in the jungles of Paradiso), if you don't like it I totally understand.
If you see a certain level of inconsistency beyond my beforementioned stylistic decisions, than that's probably because I started painting the Naga before I was even sure what my scheme would be, so he went through dozens of changes and by the time I was done with the suit, I had changed all other colors and didn't want to paint it over again. In addition to that I've been experimenting with a whole bunch of techniques, that I hadn't used before and in hindsight some of those shouldn't have been tried out on the same model.
There are one or two details I might revisit at a later date (troop markings once I decided how much of them I want on the whole force and maybe I decide that his lips could benefit from a little tint, but so far I feared he would look to organic or like a tranny).
Anyway I consider him done for now.
As always I've learned a lot and even though the matte varnish diminished some of the effects, while remaining a bit shiny (can't wait for my new varnish to arrive) and the photographing didn't work out as intended, I'm happy to have finished this one and I'm positive the next one will be more straight forward.
Both of them actually, as I really liked it. It's a major issue I've had painting my ALEPH stuff, and has led to multiple strippings as I was not happy when it got washed as it started to blend too much into one color.
Baiyuan you're taking monochrome to a whole new level! I thought you said this was now in colour!? But i like the scheme as it makes the face and osl stand out more. I would have probably tried to pick out some of the details in a slightly different colour just to define them a bit more. But overall good job! Hopefully it won't be another 8 pages until there is more painting.
Looks very nice, worth the wait I'd say. How did you do the OSL? You don't use an airbrush right? It's a great colour combination, from a graphic designer's POV. Although you could really pair any OSL colour with those lovely greys for a striking look - maybe some different light colours on some of the others?
Bruticus wrote: Looks very nice, worth the wait I'd say. How did you do the OSL? You don't use an airbrush right?
Thanks.
No, I haven't used an airbrush on any of my miniatures, but I plan to change that. I've got most of the equiment from 15 years ago, when I came into tabletop and airbrushed my terrain. As soon as my new AB arrives I'll start to use it for basecoating and pre-shading.
Back to your question, I don't know what to say exactly. I painted it on...
For the light in the chest I first painted the armor, but left the core itself white. Then I started blending white onto the armor towards the core. I could have left that part of the armor white and blended in the grey, but it wouldn't have worked so well.
When I had achieved a smooth blending I started filtering some vibrant yellow over the white, leaving the area closest to the core white-ish. Then I put filters of two different hues of orange over it, one for the main tone, one for the sharper contrasts.
When I painted the stray light on the gun and leg, I decided I didn't like the pale white in the source and went for a more vibrant tone with more layers of yellow and orange.
The stray light itself was painted over the fully painted miniature (with highlights, shading and weathering). I started by generously blending pure yellow into those areas where the light would go. Takes a couple of layers.
Then I added some white to those areas that would be the brightest, like the strap of the holster on the thigh, not trying too hard to make smooth transitions.
Afterwards I added filters of orange again, carefully letting enough yellow show. The result was too bright and intense, so I added some MA Bright Red (which is actually the greatest orange paint in the world) to the shadows, which made it better. Still, the lighting was too intense so I started blending pure black into the areas where the light shouldn't actually get, like above the muzzle of his pistol. This black filter really made it pop for me, so I was done.
It's a great colour combination, from a graphic designer's POV.
Thanks, again. I take it you are a graphic designer then? That would at least explain a lot of the quality of your work.
Talking about a designers POV, only when I was done with the miniature I realized that the combination of colors and the mood looked somehow familiar, ever heard of Battlefield 3? I didn't play it, but there was no way around noticing the great box art:
Spoiler:
Although you could really pair any OSL colour with those lovely greys for a striking look - maybe some different light colours on some of the others?
Oh, yes! I'm planning a much darker orange, an almost white blue and maybe even a pale turquoise. Unfortunately the Naga will be the only one with that combination of greys. Others will have more white, black and orange.
Aw very nice sir...the subtle tones of each different grey used there, very brave...I'm looking at these pics on a crappy monitor (moving house ATM) but even still I can see the high level of workmanship, look forward to the rest
Beautiful job my friend! Your conversions and paint jobs alike are giving me targets to shoot for and much inspiration for the grinder. Hopefully one day I can get up to a comparable level of conversion at least. First lesson, as discussed, I have to stop settling for less than my vision!
Update:
No painted miniatures so soon after the last update (I actually haven't painted since finishing the Naga), but lots of paints at least.
More than a month ago I found an online shop, that was too good to be true. Huge range of items, incredible prices, located in Germany.
After placing several orders, it soon seemed to be in fact not true, no order confirmation or reaction of any kind. Tried calling them, only got the mailbox or nobody picked up. After three weeks of occasionally calling I finally got them on the phone and it turned out, that I somehow tricked their store system into not having any data. No contact data, nothing. Blablabla, boring story anyway, but today...
THE POSTMAN GIVETH!!! Can you ever have enough paints? NO! The shop had some paints in stock that I've been desperately seeking for a while. Like the Panzer Series paints, there are some unique colors in this range and after hearing so much about those, I'm looking forward to try them out myself.
Airbrush supplies.
More airbrush stuff.
Full set of pastell oil chalks. I've seen some interesting techniques involving those and since the set was dirt-cheap I thought, why wait.
I ran out of magnets for my bases, so here's 200 new ones to stock up.
In other news:
I've fully prepared and assemled the reinforcements for my Aleph. They are only lacking some gapfilling now.
On a side note: Probots are the most fugly and annoying models in the whole Aleph range.
PDH wrote: Delightful as always, you should paint more. I shall be asking for some tips on the glowing yellow eyes when I get round to painting a Daemonhost.
I wholeheartedly agree, I should and I will. Will begin work on the next paintjob tonight. Ask away, I'm always happy to talk about hobby stuff.
Chemical Cutthroat wrote: I think from now on I'm just going to go hobby at Baiyuan's house. Because... holy****.
Not sure what you mean, my new goodies? But anyway be my guest! So should you ever happen to come to Hamburg, we can have a paint session.
And I don't think the rebots are too bad, I like the trikes. It makes me think of Claptrap. "**** stairs!"
"Nothing can stop us now, minion! Wah... STAIRS??? Nooooooooooooooooooo! My only weakness..."
Hehe, gotta love claptrap.
The probots on the other hand... the really bad part is the front wheel. Why did they have to put that on one of the arms, that looks so stupid and isn't even very practical.
And if you read the fluff for them, they sound like the best remotes around:
Spoiler:
Initially, ALEPH’s Special Situation Section used the various PanOceanian Mulebot models as their multifunctional semi-autonomous ground unit. However, it was soon obvious they needed to develop their own model, adapted to the tactical and logistic peculiarities of the Section. This new unit design was based on the Rebot model, allowing reduced logistic and maintenance loads due to the use of common spare parts and tools. Teams of contractors were involved in an intensive capability testing period, followed by a careful refinement process of all main systems, before they could achieve the desired goals of the design. Nowadays, this unit represents significant breakthroughs in vehicle design and embodies a new technical development strategy covering the high mobility, efficiency, deployment and survival needs of the Section. Nevertheless, the Probot, or Prototype Robot, is still seen as a first step in a new generation of multifunctional remote units. The possibilities for improving this Remote model are so extensive that its own designers still see it as a production prototype. The results of the Investigation and Development lines of technology generated by the Probot are expected to bear exceptional fruit in the future.
“State-of-the-art Technologies”. Programme from educational channel Techné, subsidized by Bureau Athena. Openly available to all Maya.
Green with envy I look at the Nomad remotes...
Did you listen to the 8th episode of the O-12 podcast? Just listened to it today and funnily they agreed that the Probots are the worst sculpts in the Aleph range.
UPDATE:
Work on the LRL Thorakitai has begun.
The base colors are mostly laid down.
It's so refreshing to have a formula to go by. No big question marks regarding choice of colors this time. Just some potential twists, but no mindboggling stuff.
I expect progress to be swift.
Thanks, again. I take it you are a graphic designer then? That would at least explain a lot of the quality of your work.
Talking about a designers POV, only when I was done with the miniature I realized that the combination of colors and the mood looked somehow familiar, ever heard of Battlefield 3? I didn't play it, but there was no way around noticing the great box art:
Very cool infiltrator guy - I like the almost-anime-but-realistic look to him. And holy ... different formulas for the greys too... kudos, Baiyuan!
And seconded for hobbying at your house- man, I thought your setup was sweet as-is, but you get even more goodies. Are the chalks for weathering? I'll be sure to be around when you start using them- got lots of questions, seeing as how I've got something like that at my disposal too...
Looking forward to the next group of minis you posted too.
SilverMK2 wrote:Love your last paint job - looks awesome
Thanks, mate!
Bruticus wrote:As for the Battlefield poster, it follows the orange and blue trend - check this out: http://www.slashfilm.com/orangeblue-contrast-in-movie-posters/ I think I prefer your orange and greys - a nice striking scheme, although grey really goes with anything.
Hehe, thanks for the link, I hadn't been aware of that, but it makes perfect sense. Not only are blue and orange one of the more appealing complementary contrasts, but they are also paradigms of a cold/warm fusion. Set the canvas with cold colors and then bring in the extra punch through a warm glowing detail.
Makes me think of Roman's tutorial on color theory:
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2010/03/theory-warmcold-colours.html
HF Izanagi wrote:Very cool infiltrator guy - I like the almost-anime-but-realistic look to him. And holy ... different formulas for the greys too... kudos, Baiyuan!
Thanks, Remi! I had to use different formulas to prevent the mini from looking like a uniform/monochrome blob.
And seconded for hobbying at your house- man, I thought your setup was sweet as-is, but you get even more goodies.
Hobby stuff, especially paints, is to me what shoes are to the average woman. You're welcome too, hop on a plane and let's paint!
Are the chalks for weathering? I'll be sure to be around when you start using them- got lots of questions, seeing as how I've got something like that at my disposal too...
Yes, partly. From what I've seen (but not tested yet, will change that soon) whenever you want to create a smooth filter (especially on larger surfaces like 54mm miniatures or vehicles), these are an interesting option. So weathering would be one of many fields of application.
Some amazing work Baiyuan! Those Aero-Colour paints have always intrigued me, you'll need to give me your review of those. I really like the built-in dropper caps. It seems as if you'd waste a lot less paint with that nice precision dropper. Also the acylic ink?? I need some of that!
dsteingass wrote:Some amazing work Baiyuan! Those Aero-Colour paints have always intrigued me, you'll need to give me your review of those. I really like the built-in dropper caps. It seems as if you'd waste a lot less paint with that nice precision dropper. Also the acylic ink?? I need some of that!
Thx. Will do. Yes, you do!
Chemical Cutthroat wrote:And yes, I mean we're all going to your house to paint.
Sure, you bring the beverages, I've got the paint!
Non-Update:
XCOM and XMAS-preparations have brought work on the Thorakitai to a stop. Will pick it up again after christmas.
I just came back from my LGS where I picked up Ajax the Great and bought a christmas gift for a buddy.
I also met a guy who's rumoured to be one of the pros in town. On the 28th we'll have a match of 250p Merovingia vs. ALEPH. I can't wait to get destroyed by him, that will be instructive.
Enough blabla, time for I-Candy. Have you seen the pics of Ajax the Great? Well everybody has, but you have to see him next to another model to fully appreciate his size. Here he is giving a Dasyu a little push:
Baiyuan wrote: I just came back from my LGS where I picked up Ajax the Enough blabla, time for I-Candy. Have you seen the pics of Ajax the Great? Well everybody has, but you have to see him next to another model to fully appreciate his size. Here he is giving a Dasyu a little push:
Conversion of him will begin soon.
Sweet Maker, that's a huge !
I love the pose on him, and looking forward to some Baiyuan magic... I'm sorry to go back to the not-Delaques (as you've done a great many things since, but they happen to be on the top of my all-time favorites... Ever.) but if the work is anything like that... ah man... it'll be worth the wait!
Apart from the wrists I actually don't see much need for pins, it allows for plain glue. Of course I'll pin it anyway, better to be safe than to be sorry...
Taarnak wrote: Ajax is massive! I knew he was big, but damn! I can't wait to get one. What conversion are you planning?
My plan was to change the position of his left arm and replace the hammer with a more appropriate loadout for a homerid. Meanwhile I'm not sure anymore though. Maybe I'll leave him as is for now and buy a second one some time later for a intricate conversion.
Thx, Neil!
Merry Christmas everybody!
I'm still at my parents place, so no progress...
But for the happy birthday of baby jesus I got disgusting aliens from my sister and parents. Yay!
Just back from my first match at the LGS. I fielded a changed list and managed to achieve a 0:0 draw against a veteran (there was a chance he could have scored a single victory point in his last turn, but we didn't play it out). Had a lot of fun and learned a lot, so it was a fantastic game.
My changed list looked like this:
Aleph | 9 models
________________________________________________________
Deva Lieutenant (26|0)
Devabot
Deva Devabot (27|0)
Devabot
Agema Mk12 (28|0.5)
Asura Spitfire (72|2)
Naga Monofilament (32|0)
Myrmidon Officer Combi CC (39|1)
Myrmidon Chain (16|0)
Netrod (4|0)
Netrod (4|0)
________________________________________________________
248/250 points | 3.5/5 swc open with IA by Aleph : direct link
My opponents list was this one:
Ariadna - Merovingian Rapid Response Army | 10 models
________________________________________________________
240/250 points | 3.5/5 swc open with IA by Aleph : direct link
We decided to play a simple scenario, which was about taking and holding one of three terminals for a full round to gain a victory point.
I managed to get a Naga in contact with one of the terminal early on, but he was killed on my opponents turn, so no victory points for either of us.
Highlights of the match: My Agema with Mk12 with the help of myrmidon smoke did a terrific job to decimate the frenchmen, killing the link leader (sniper) of the Loups and one of his buddies on my first turn and another one on turn 2 or 3.
My Asura had a huge impact on my opponents strategy, but unfortunately didn't get the chance to shoot at anyone before she failed her dodge and was gunned down by one of those filthy viral rifles.
My chain rifle myrmidon deployed the smoke cover for the Agema twice, both times being on spot. Survived a burst from the Para's HMG (NWI), then on his turn pursued and killed him. He then hid behind a crate and used his pistol for an ARO against one of the remaining Loups, who was approaching the terminals. My heroic myrmi achieved a crit at distance of 20" and shot the Loup dead. On his next turn he killed himself trying to climb onto a noodle kitchen...
Devas didn't do anything.
Myrmi officer dodged an HMG burst and looked good.
Netrods died.
Conclusion: I made some bad decisions regarding my AROs and should have dodged less. Had some insane luck. Next time I'd swap one of the Devas for a Zayin. (I know I'd need a hacker too.) My Asura could have won me the game if had made better choices.
Long time no posts... and back with a pretty much unworthy update, but well it is what it is.
Recently I didn't have too much time for the hobby and that little time I had I spent on working out or gaming, so nothing worth showing miniature-wise.
I did actually work on some MAS D5 buildings and container stacks, but that has all been straight forward and quite boring.
Work on my current paintjob has been veeery slow, but you know "DON'T RUSH THE BRUSH!" (*whispered with Bob's voice*) I'm hoping to finish it soonish, but you know me 2013 will be over in no time...
The reason why I actually reanimate this temporarily dead thread is how awesome my fiancé is. She got me 30 presents for my birthday (guess my age, haha) and ten of them were these:
That means I've completed the collection of my second full faction (well, the whole Aleph and everything available to Shas sectorial, as I'm not collecting vanilla CA).
Now I just need another 30 years to put everything together (so far I have refrained from assembling any of the CA models to stay focussed on my Aleph) and paint it (most likely yet another 30 years).
Oh right, she also got me the "Avatar - An activist's survival guide (to Pandora)" as reference material, because I told her I'd try to replicate some of the pandoran flora on my bases. She's the best!
Hurray to supportive significant others!
Yeh, great haul from the missus! Happy birthday, mate! Don't rush your hobby, although I've found I sometimes get myself on a roll when I set myself one small task to do. Maybe worth a try? ...Says the guy who does sweet frak all.
Thanks guys!
The supply drop turned out to be reckless enabling, i.e. gateway toys (as usual). Tons of new supplies have been ordered. To name a few: lots of Alclad II colors (finally), the remaining few miniatures for my SEF and the hollow blank bases from SW, which are essential for my plans with the SEF.
@Casey:
Ironically, while being the best cure for them, small task unsurprisingly don't go very well with overambition and perfectionism (especially if they are temporarily paired with phlegm). To look on the bright side things, I've managed to reduce my recently excessive share video gaming in my free time to a mere couple of minutes per day if any. That will show in my productivity sooner or later and once I'm back on the track, who knows I might even finish something worth showing.
Dude... your fiancee is cool. Was she "prompted" to purchase these for you? Or did she just come by and say, "Happy B-day Hunky Future Husband of Mine! Here is a new faction I bought specifically for you!" ?
Either way, Happy Birthday! And welcome back to Dakka! Looking forward to your work on these guys!
Haha so true, dude. I'm still fighting it too. I can't find a happy medium between perfectionism/procrastination and getting things done, if ever. I fear we will be cursed with percrastinism for ever!
What's worked for me is setting myself such a small task that I can give it my all in a reasonable period of time. Of course reasonable to me, or you, is probably ridiculous to most people. But something like, 'I'm going to green stuff that single head plate of chitin,' has worked pretty well. It normally leads to something else as soon as I have time.
I have to say, I started playing Red Dead again a couple of days ago. That's going to hurt my productivity...
HF Izanagi wrote:Dude... your fiancee is cool. Was she "prompted" to purchase these for you? Or did she just come by and say, "Happy B-day Hunky Future Husband of Mine! Here is a new faction I bought specifically for you!" ? Either way, Happy Birthday! And welcome back to Dakka! Looking forward to your work on these guys! -Remi
Thx, Remi. I'm missing the old PMW and I4D times. And I too am looking forward to my work... And yes, she was "prompted" so to say. She had asked what presents from the hobby sector I'd enjoy, so I put everything I didn't already have from the SEF into the shopping basket of the online version of my LGS and told her anything from the list would be much appreciated. And since she was determined to get me 30 presents for my 30th she bought the whole bunch instead of one or two.
Casey's Law wrote:I have to say, I started playing Red Dead again a couple of days ago. That's going to hurt my productivity...
It's Path of Exile and Hawken for me, both of which I've been playing at least every night for the last two months. But I stopped a week ago and I'm gathering the momentum to get (hobby-)busy again.
HF Izanagi wrote:Dude... your fiancee is cool. Was she "prompted" to purchase these for you? Or did she just come by and say, "Happy B-day Hunky Future Husband of Mine! Here is a new faction I bought specifically for you!" ?
Either way, Happy Birthday! And welcome back to Dakka! Looking forward to your work on these guys!
-Remi
Thx, Remi. I'm missing the old PMW and I4D times. And I too am looking forward to my work... And yes, she was "prompted" so to say. She had asked what presents from the hobby sector I'd enjoy, so I put everything I didn't already have from the SEF into the shopping basket of the online version of my LGS and told her anything from the list would be much appreciated. And since she was determined to get me 30 presents for my 30th she bought the whole bunch instead of one or two.
Yea... me too - PMW was great - such zealous energy that everyone was pumped for: spectators and participants.
30 total presents ... hottdamn you're spoiled (and I'm extremely jealous). Hell, prompted or not, you provided a list that she didn't balk at. She deserves a fist-bump for that cool action.
Ah well... I think *most* of us are still around. Still hop by your blog (if case you haven't noticed) and I'm hoping that seeing you spurred back into work gets me going as well. Doing a Cawdor gang in darker hues, like that group you posted earlier on from CMON. Time to practice some new techniques and hit the next level with my work.
That would be cool, Remi. Make sure to drop me a line if you do so!
And about being spoiled, I do not normally get that much, but we both love that scene from HP when Dudley gets his birthday presents and is pissed that it's less than last year. Being as altruistic as she is, my fiance always buys too much and I like to use that line from the movie to emphasize how exaggerated that is.
Hey Baiyuan..because I saw it on your blog, I ordered a few of those Schmincke airbrush paints.those are fething fantastic paints! The metallics and opalescent shiny ones especially!
Yeah, in my experience Schmincke has great quality, but can get quite pricy. The set of metallic paints that I've posted was a real bargain and I got 6 paints for under 35€. Short time after buying them I saw one of those paints at "Idee" (art supply shop for morons, good range of products but very expensive) they sell the exact same paints from the set for 15-20€ each depending on the color and effect. Greedy bastards!
I've just recently used one of those paints (dark copper) as basetone for my dwarven steamship from Dreadfleet, my first impression was a mixed one. I found the paint quite thick, which meant I had to decide between increasing the pressure or thinning the paint (which took away quite a bit of coverage). Several thin coats took care of that problem of course, but I prefer and expect airbrush colors to be usable directly from the pot.
The other thing I found strange was that the tone of the paint changed soo much. In the bottle it looked milky (the medium obviously). On the model it looked very red at first and very dark and coppery in the end. Not a unique phenomenon, but the color in the pot, freshly sprayed on and fully dried had very little to do with each other. I've never seen that much of a difference. Makes me wonder what the other colors will look like when applied.
The overall properties were good though and they provide very nice colors.
Have you worked with Alclad II yet? I can't wait to try them. A proper chrome effect will allow for some fancy-pancy painting if done right.
Well, yeah, pearlescent paints will dry a different color, that's just their nature. Their black is my favorite black from now on, bar none.
I used Dark Ice and Brilliant Silver on this large scale Cylon Centurion
I had a daylight bulb on the left, and a soft white bulb on the right. You see how well the paint reflects real light so well at this scale.
I got them from www.dickblick.com a bit expensive, but the bottles are big 28ml, compared to Vallejo @ 17ml, so not that bad considering...
What's so good about the black?
What do you think about the ModelAir Black? I'm a big fan of that particular paint and the whole range in general.
What did you think about the thickness? Did you thin the paint?
Besides nice Cylon! I've seen it before on your blog, but didn't know you used Schmincke on it.
Dickblick is a really strange name for the german reader.
Yes, I imagine it is. I mean "dick" is obviously an ambiguous word in English. In German it is an adjective and means "big, fat, obese" so it's innocent compared to English.
"Blick" on the other hand is a noun and means "glance, look".
Put together it's just gibberish, but it consists of actual words and thus might elicit some strange associations.
I'm pretty sure that Dick Blick is the name of the guy who started the company though I don't think a literal interpretation on the name means anything.
no, no thinning at all, it's actually perfect right out of the bottle for brushwork. Yeah, I swear by Modelair primers now, but the Schmincke black is just simply a better black shade than al the rest IMHO. You're speaking to a guy who has spent entire saturdays shopping for the right shade of black paint
I'll have to give it a try then. Even though I'm happy with my blacks, I know what you mean (my fetish are greys not blacks btw) I have several black paints that I learned to used for very different effects. Some black paints can easily be shaded with another black. Like the VMC Black, which is brownish and can be effectively shaded with VMA Black, which is much darker, cold and blueish. VMC Black as a wash creates a very soft, flat and cloudy effect. VMA Black a strong and slightly shiny one.
Yes, I'm alive. And if you need to know, I'm very close to finish my next ItG miniature (might take another couple of days), but more importantly for now...
I just came back from a tabletop event (the Magabo-Day hosted by the great guys at http://magabotato.de/). Had some nice chats and some random fun hobby action, but most importantly I got down to play my first two games of Infinity in this year. (I know, sad, isn't it?)
Anyway had two great opponents, who even though they were both quite experienced, endured my pondering and constant questions.
Blabla, end of story, it was a glorious day for mother Aleph, because I had loads of fun, learned a lot and last but not least won both rounds quite clearly. [:evil:]
I'm not going to give a full battle report (Got to get back to painting, next game I want a lot more paint on the table.), but I'll post the lists and give you a quick rundown of what happened.
My list:
Aleph | 11 models ________________________________________________________
Combat Group #1 Deva Lieutenant (26|0)
Devabot
Deva Devabot (27|0)
Devabot
Asura Spitfire (72|2)
Proxy Mk.1 Hacker (22|0.5)
Proxy Mk.2 Sniper (29|1.5)
Myrmidon Chain (16|0)
Myrmidon Officer Combi CC (39|1)
Naga Monofilament (32|0)
Zayin Rebot (27|1)
Netrod (4|0)
Combat Group #2 Netrod (4|0)
________________________________________________________
Pretty much what I've done well with so far, but giving the Mk2 sniper a chance over the hacker, which I've normally taken.
Asura and Naga as heavy hitters.
Myrmis for smoke, covering the rear and ODD+Dodge for order depletion (which worked like a charm).
Proxies because they are cheap and pack a punch, when fed with lots of orders.
Zayin and Devas for a solid perimeter control. (Worked relatively well, one opponent called it "Ballerburg" loosely translatable as "shooty fortress".)
My first opponent played Haqq and fielded this:
(I didn't care about combat group structure and I must be wrong about a detail, maybe his Lt. as this is not a legal list, but pretty much what he had.)
303/300 points | 4.5/6 swc Warnings: too many points spent (303/300)
open with Aleph Toolbox : direct link
The game was great even though right in the first turn I managed to throw smoke in exactly the right position (no deviation, just stupidity) to give the Djanbazan a free shot through smoke if I wanted to move my Zayin into a reasonable position.
Performace report:
Mk2 killed Djanbazan (active) and 2 Kum (reactive) and damaged the Maghariba (active) and ultimately died in a reactive shootout with the Maghariba, which ignored the two mono mines going of in its face and passed 3 armor checks against them before finally being destroyed.
Which means the Naga killed the Maghariba and later two Naffatun.
Zayin killed 2 Kum, but died to another.
Asura was mainly successful in dissuading my opponent from going her way and only got to kill a Kum and to kill the Djanbazan for good, before he could regenerate.
Second game was against Shasvastii who spontaneously upped his 250p list to 300 by adding a Q-Drone and a Seed Soldier:
(Might be wrong about the third Shrouded and the Aswuang as I never got to see them)
Combined Army - Shasvastii Expeditionary Force | 10 models ________________________________________________________
I thoughtlessly gave him the first turn, even though I had heard rumours that he likes to bring his Sphinx, which resulted in the TAG rushing around my fire lanes, climbing up the tall building in the center, killing my Zayin, a Deva and shooting a lot at my Mk1 and Myrmi. All of it practically unopposed ramboing.
Unfortunately I forgot to ARO hack it on its very first attack and thus allowed it to needlessly mess with my plans. When I came to, I actually managed to IMM it, but he managed to reset in his second attempt and went on.
On my first active turn I ran up with the Naga to put a mono in its face, which he reacted to by using his flamer, destroying the mine and burning my Nagas Camo. (Not sure yet this was correct, I'll have to look it up later.)
After that I realized I could have simply immobilized it first, which I did, just to put two more mines around it and shoot it with the combi rifle a little to dare him.
A shrouded also flanked my troops and I managed to steal him lots of orders by ODD/dodging with my myrm and Mk1, before letting my officer kill him later on.
The link team of Seeds was broken by a well placed shot from my Mk2 sniper and then I sent in the Asura to mop up the rest of the filthy alien scum, which she did mercilessly and without resistance by overwhelming them one by one.
Let me know what you think and if you see any mistakes I made. Did you make similar experiences with these units?
PDH wrote: No idea what you're talking about but you sound happy.
Oh Peter, you're a darling. Yes, it made me happy, thanks for taking note of it.
Looking forward to seeing another model painted by your good self.....that'll be what four painted models in 4 years right?
Yeah, thx. That's close enough, let's see.
I've been on DD for almost three years now. In that time I have painted a mock-up firewarrior, four minis for Necromunda (one miner, one delaque, one henchman and Samarianne), so far one for Infinity and yeah I also painted a CRATE. So I'd count that as a whopping five in under three years. I might be able to improve on that in the future. Then again you should see all the virtual achievements I've...
On the upside I'm staying away from most video games and my paint to build/convert ratio has improved lately. Even though building less has had an impact on that, I'm also getting down to paint on a more regular and inspired basis.
Blabla, back to cooking and then painting...
In your face, procrastination!
I consider work on the Thorakitai to be finished.
I'm happy with the overall impression and I decided that the additional weathering effects that I had planned wouldn't actually contribute to it.
Adding chipping and rust on a miniature that already looks quite "down to earth" by Infinity/Aleph standards, would probably rather ruin the vibe than enhance it.
Tomorrow he'll receive his matt coat and as soon as my sister is back from Venice (thursday me thinks) and brings back my camera, I'll take and post some nice pictures.
Next up is the Asura. She has just taken her soapy bath and is ready to become pretty.
Tomorrow I'll break out the airbrush and get the priming and basecoating done.
It's time!
As promised I have finished work on my Thorakites with light rocket launcher.
Taking pictures of it has taken the better half of the day, so I'll cut the blahblah short, just some words about the idea behind it.
Thorakitai Concept: The Thorakitai aren't the most shiny tools at Aleph's disposal. They don't have the flair and popularity of the larger-than-life Myrmidons, who after all have their own animated series on the Maya.
The Thorakitai are the work horses of Aleph's endeavors on Paradiso (and elsewhere if you believe them filthy lying Nomads). The mind of a perfect soldier transfered into an unpretentious Lhost, a body bred with two things in mind: Kicking ass and looking like a normal human while doing so.
These aspects of the background in mind I have gone for a paintjob that isn't as flashy as you might expect and be used to with Infinity and especially Aleph.
Future paintjobs (except further Thorakitai of course) will vary heavily from this one depending on their function. So a doctor/engineer will look distinctively different from a linetrooper.
Pain(t)ing Progress: Started painting it in December, then took 8 months off (Damn you, Warframe!) and have finished it now. Overall I guess I spent maybe twenty inconsistent nights of painting on it.
Unfortunately there has been an accident during application of the matte coat. It came out very grey and even after "saving" it with another coat of a different varnish, some of the contrast and all of the subtle shades (like the blue shadows on the straps) were gone.
Still rather happy with the overall impression, so let's smile and move on.
Maybe at some point I'll go back and add battle damage and troop markings, but I'm currently still not sure whether and how much of both I want on my Aleph.
All in all I tried a load of new techniques and eventually found my rhythm again.
Next one is in the works already and progress is much better.
Nuff talk... here he comes:
I'd appreciate a vote for him over at CMON. It's actually the first picture I have posted there in 17 years of being in the hobby and visiting the page regularly, go figure.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/342538
For all of you who start shaking, when they have to leave DD I've uploaded him here too of course. Click it, it's quite large:
I would love to know how you did the Thorakitai. That kind of matte "stealthsuit" grey-black with the olive drab trim would look stellar on the Wildcats and Intruders I think.
The main armor is GW's Skavenblight Dinge, highlighted with VMC Ice Yellow and shaded with VMA Black Grey.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Over at the ItG forum there were questions about the colours too, so I'll take the time to give a complete rundown, when I get to it.
Here comes a quick rundown of the colors I used. I usually take pictures of the paints (in order of application) involved in the more important areas for future reference, so here they are:
Armor:
Metal (Buckles and launcher tube):
Lights (Visor was the same, but with more Light Red, Mahagony and some filters of VMA Tank Brown):
Cloth/Pants:
Didn't take a picture but it must have been VMA US Grey Light, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey
Corpus of the Launcher:
Again no photo, but it was VMA Olive Grey, VMC Ice Yellow, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey
The mail on the arms:
That was VMA Steel, VMC Dark Sea Blue, VMC Black back and forth until I was more or less happy with it. The texture on the miniature made blending this area impossible.
The straps:
GWfoundation Gretchin Green, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey (mixed with acrylic medium as I was experimenting in this area), later to be followed by layers of VMC Black and VMC Dark Sea Blue to increase contrast and dull the sheen of the medium.
Also here is a small teaser of what's currently on my table or at least was a couple of days ago:
Am I allowed to use 'beautiful' for something so dark and brooding looking?
Love the dark tones, and the subtlety of shading. The visor sets it off perfectly, and stops the mini looking too dark - makes me think of the visor that David wears in the movie Prometheus!
PDH wrote:Stunning as with all your painted works. Really like the colour scheme....especially the green straps.
Thanks, mate!
Question Time: Out of interest how long do you think it took to paint this latest model? Did you use an air brush or just use "air" paints on a brush?
Hard to tell, with all the pondering and staring out of the calculation I'd say 20 hours. As I mentioned there also was a lot of experimentation involved and being a lot more confident in the results I can yield employing the various techniques (i.e. having a little more practical experience with said new techniques) I'm sure I can speed up the progress.
Still no airbrush involved, just traditional brush work. The thorakites as a matter of fact was primed white with a can and from there on just acrylics applied by brush. So far I'm only using the airbrush for priming and sometimes basecoating. Any attempts at laying down basic shadows and lights ended up being covered by brush, because they weren't as smooth as I wanted them to be.
Interesting seeing your painting station it looks really well made and practical, a place you would want to paint and model.
For more intricate modelling work I have my workshop upstairs. This table is actually reserved for painting only, even though recently I have been going upstairs less and less.
GW note: Not sure I like the Tau Warriors paint scheme!
Hehe, that's a test run for my AlcladII metallic paints. Shiny, but not shiny enough, I made a mistake during the application.
Tech Guard wrote:Looks fantastic mate!!
Can't wait to see you pump out an entire army at this standard!!
Thanks! You and me both, let's hope we get old enough to see it. Seriously though I'm working hard on it.
Could be, I was given a sizeable Nomad force by a friend who decided Infinity is not for him. Maybe they are hacking my cube from their showcase in the attic. Dirty Nomads!
I'm currently painting the Mk3/Asura conversion. After a lot of back and forth the base colors are applied, but I'm still wondering whether I've made the right decisions.
Very dark grey armor (darker than on my other minis) with some chosen panels painted in brownish green grey underlined with blueish light grey mesh.
I hope I'll make it through the bottle neck of scheme planning soon. I'm looking forward to actual painting.
As a side note I've had an idea for a long term side project. I'll be building and painting a full fletched Infinity diorama, including at the very least 4 infantry models and a converted TAG.
Pondering over it the last two days it has already developed from a loose idea to a complete scene. Just some details about the setting will have to be determined before the basic construction work can begin.
Well hope you push through the sticking point soon and look forward to seeing what you come up with.
As for the diorama, Ariadna or Bourak depends on what minis you'll be using.
Bourak could be cool for all the desert and dust effects you could bring in, it would also depend on whether you wanted a futuristic Dubai or Rural Afghan kind of look.
What models? Can't say! I'm in favor of a desert theme for said reasons (dust effects etc.), but fluffwise I could place it in the Commercial Conflict on Ariadna just as well. All in all the desert theme will create more room for eyecandy and I guess that means I've already decided. Thx, for setting me on the right track.
How futuristic the design of the environment will be, I don't know yet, but it will be urban, not rural.
I don't know if you've looked at any of the concept art from Bungie's new game Destiny, but the landscapes are awesome and the artwork is very inspirational for Infinity themed scenery. There are quite a few landscapes that merge the sand and dust of a desert world with futuristic city-scapes.
I'm not sure what to say. It's always much easier to tell someone else how to break their block than it is to break your own, I know that. The only advice I would give is to make your color scheme contrast (at least somewhat) with your terrain. You'll look at them yourself more than you will play and therefore more than anyone else will look at them. By that logic, your photographs (and background for photos) will be what people see most.
Automatically Appended Next Post: You named the thread "reckless abandon" which, for you and your exacting standards, is still statistically ALWAYS going to be more precise than anyone else's around here...Throw some paint on!!
@sacra: Yes, I've looked at the Destiny concept art just recently, but of course I don't know what you refer to specifically. So if you have something in mind that could help with urban desert scenery, don't hesitate to post it in here.
Thx, Dave. Two different projects actually, the one I'm stuck on is the paintjob of my Asura. The desert diorama thingy still being in the modelling phase I could easily work on it for days on end.
I actually try to use it as a change of pace, when I don't feel like painting, but it's hard to not dive in head on.
So far I have already pinned the TAG and cut its legs into pieces to rearrange its pose. It's working out quite well and next I'll have to mirror/copy the left knee over to the right side to make it bend.
I hope the infantry arrives soon, so that I can put together a first mockup of the composition. Then I'll be able to decide how much and what kind of scenery I'll have to build.
Regarding my painting trouble I've got some games at the FLGS scheduled for the next few weeks. One is on thursday already, but the other is on the first of november and it'll help motivating me to get the Asura done by then.
These are two of the images I was thinking of from the Destiny concept art:
There is some great artwork for this game that has a very Infinity like feel, at least how I imagine the game anyway.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Baiyuan,
A quick question about the paint scheme on the thorakitai:
When painting the visor and lights on your thorakitai what order did you apply the colours in? Did you start from a base of scrofulous brown and highlight up to golden yellow then ice-yellow and shade down to light red and then burnt umber?
The first one is not what I can imagine for my diorama, to much like Mars or something. The second is great though, I'll keep that in mind when I enter the construction phase.
Did you start from a base of scrofulous brown and highlight up to golden yellow then ice-yellow and shade down to light red and then burnt umber?
Precisely. There was some back and forth until I was happy with the result, apart from that it went like you assumed. I also came back later and painted in fine reflection lines with white or ivory, but unfortunately it's almost invisible on the finished miniature.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Random inspiration. Just stumbled across this. It has got both a lot of 40k and Infinity (at least my dark interpretation of it) vibe.
http://vimeo.com/75782290
Breakthrough, finally found the right main color for the Asura, the rest will hopefully be a more pleasant experience.
Also got another side project that is due next tuesday. My fiancé and I had recently joked about a certain play of words and I had non-commitally said I'd draw her a picture of it.
Instead I have secretly decided to sculpt and paint it instead so that she can put it on her desk or wear it on a necklace. Next tuesday being her fourtieth birthday gave me the perfect occasion to do so.
Alas, the Asura is not getting any love at the moment. I'm still busy with the birthday present, but I'm almost done with it and then it's straight back to the Asura, I promise.
WIP sometimes, but I'm not a friend of PIP. Too much changes during the process, it would be confusing for everybody involved.
Technique... a wide ranges of different ones, depending on the area/miniature that is to be painted. Layering, two brush blending, one brush blending, one brush two colors blending etc. I use them all to some degree when I think it is most efficient to do so.
Recently I've been using one technique more than others though. It's a little trick I learned from Ben Komets, but I couldn't explain it in words alone, you'd have to see it. A specific way of applying and moving the paint to achieve fast but convincing wet blendings.
Also today I went to my FLGS for a game with Schattenschwinge, the guy who organized all the league stuff here in Hamburg and also the german Infinity championships.
We had a very interesting game and even though I lost or maybe because I did, I learned quite a bit.
The only vexing thing about it was, that I know exactly in which moment I messed up. There were two orders which I should have spent in a different order (as in sequence). So sniper first, HMG second instead of the other way around, but I had not even been aware of the fire lane for the ARO until it was to late. My fault because I lose my cool whenever my AD troops touch down and get sloppy. Maybe next time...
In other news, I picked up some paints, the infantry box for my diorama and as it happens Nessaie Alke which arrived at the store right after our game.
For a change of pace I have started changing everything I don't like about the miniature. Namely the goofy hair and the nonsensical position of her sword arm (being a martial artist I otherwise just couldn't help but looking at the wrong positioning of the hand/weapon all the time).
I'll report in detail and with visual proof of my work once it's done.
Thanks for the update and for the insight into your painting techniques.
I think I know the technique you're referring to, I have Ben Komets tutorial that he did for Miniature Mentor and his new Painting Buddha one on its way.
Looking forward to seeing the Asura when it's done and the mods you do to Nesaie Alke.
Totally frustrated!
My compressor just died in the middle of painting the present for the missus.
There are three equally aggravating results to this:
If I can't borrow a compressor from someone I won't be able to finish the present.
Sooner or later I'll have to spend a couple hundred euros on a new compressor.
Until then I obviously can't use my airbrush and I'm currently broke as feth.
Get a cylinder filled with Co2 or air from a gas station, fit your regulator on the cylinder, then put it in a bucket of warm water to prevent freeze-over. You could also buy a can of compressed air, but that's really a waste of money. Got a SodaStream or welding cylinder? Any gas will do as long as it has the right fitting or adaptor to fit your regulator (and it isn't toxic or flammable)
Since I got my Badger TC910 compressor, my old big box compressor is just gathering dust and cobwebs, but it doesn't do you much good here. Sucks man, so sorry.
Venting my frustration without letting my fiancé know why exactly I was so pissed off by the broken compressor was a real achievement. Anyway she was thinking more clearly than I did and set me up to borrow one from a friend who actually lives next door. I hadn't even thought of him.
So I stopped by today and got his Silair, which is a fine piece of equipment, which I'll have to consider getting myself at a later date.
So it's all good for now. I can continue working on the present and worry about a new compressor later. Xmas isn't too far away after all.
Baiyuan wrote: Thanks for the advice and compassion, Dave!
Venting my frustration without letting my fiancé know why exactly I was so pissed off by the broken compressor was a real achievement. Anyway she was thinking more clearly than I did and set me up to borrow one from a friend who actually lives next door. I hadn't even thought of him.
So I stopped by today and got his Silair, which is a fine piece of equipment, which I'll have to consider getting myself at a later date.
So it's all good for now. I can continue working on the present and worry about a new compressor later. Xmas isn't too far away after all.
Nice solution! A compressor dying in the middle of a painting session can be incredibly frustrating... it's already happened to me as well, although luckily it was an easy fix that the company was able to send out a small part to me to get going again. Glad you had such a neighbor and can continue your progress here!
I know you mentioned in one of your posts that you'd used some of Ben Komets' techniques. If you haven't seen it already he has released a DVD set under the title paintingbuddha. It's great stuff and he goes into detail on his wet blending. If you haven't got it already I highly recommend it.
how did your compressor die? My first one was DOA and the guys that sold it to me talked me through a way to repair it. You'll have to excuse the technical jargon here, but maybe this is worth a look:
On the top part thingy that sits above the bottom tank, one side is basically just a wheel turned by a motor, if you open that side up with a screwdriver you can turn the compressor on and check that the wheel is turning. On mine the wheel was turning but the piston arm thingy had detached. They said you can fix this yourself but you need a special strong glue stuff. I sent mine back but I think it was a pretty easy fix if I had needed to do it, and quite common too apparently.