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Damn. Corvus Belli just keeps getting better and better with their sculpts, and the 3rd edition ruleset is finally comprehensible. It's finally time to make the plunge!

I've had a few games with Plastictrees and Winterhound in the last two months, and am absolutely loving it. I started with a handful of random Yu jing, and have been building a JSA force. I've sort of jumped back to straight Yu Jing while waiting for the Human Sphere to be released, mostly because I just picked up a Terracotta Invincible, currently my favoritest model evar.

Here's a WIP:



...and a finished Tiger model I used to test the colour scheme.



Damn you Vermin Brown, everytime I think I'm free of you, you pull me back in with your warm coppery goodness!

I'm adding more orange to the terracotta warrior though, think I'll do that to brighten them up a bit.

Much more to come!


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Alrighty then. Decided to work on my Domarus Butai that just came in.

I have the older model and was pretty happy with it, but these are even better. They have a much stronger personality and details that clearly identifies them as space samurai, particularly the hip protectors.

I painted the older models mostly red with white highlights to differentiate them from Corvus Belli's paint jobs, but I do like the contrast of dark reds with white. I'll be reversing the colours to see the difference.



I've started taking photos of models with the paints involved for each colour for base coats to highlights. I have a lot of similar colours and this helps me keep everything straight for those times I take six months off painting an army.

Working on the calves...




Thoughts? Suggestions? Recipes for low-sodium BBQ sauce?

That red is beautiful, I always have trouble with mine

Thanks... It's the first time I've got it right in about 30 years lol.

Turns out the secret is a cool, dark red transitioning into a bright warm orange-red, no white allowed for lightening or it registers pink.

Of course, now I want to paint all my older red models....

Awesome!
Is the Invincible updated since the last game?
Looking forward to the next game and hurling my guys into your lines of fire.

No, Invincible's still at the same spot, since I got distracted by the shiny samurai sitting on the corner of my desk...

For the Invincible I mixed orange into the vermin brown for the mid tones, and used gold instead of white for brightening the highlights. It's really brightened the models up a lot, and uses more contrast.

I liked it so much I was debating repainting ALL my JSA guys like the Invincible because I preferred the richer copper over my dull reds, but wanted to take one last crack at getting red right. Think I finally got it, I'm happy.

'Course, I still need to fix the flat reds on my Keisotsu Butai, but endlessly repainting is par for the course, right?

Oh man, I love the first two models in the OP!! Really hope to see more in that "warm coppery goodness" scheme with the orange, it is absolutely excellent

Thanks RiTides

I've got the Guijia and second Tiger on order, hoping I can pick them up tomorrow. I'm also considering the two heavy weapon guys... so lots more coppery goodness will be coming!

I'm actually relieved to see the red work so I can flip between the two forces. I'd get burned out pretty quickly otherwise.

I still need to figure out what cheaper infantry to pick up for this force for more orders. Any suggestions? I have the keisotsus for my JSA, but eventually I'd like two complete armies.

Keisotsus!

One of the things that really endeared me to Yu Jing were the Keisotsu's "parachute pants". I know some people find them a bit silly, but they're so unique and give their basic infantry such personality. They were instantly recognizable, whereas a lot of the other LI felt interchangeable with their sci-fi battle gear.

My first attempt was gold armour;



I actually really liked it... But just not for a Japanese-themed force. I wanted to stick to more "traditional" colours, particularly red, black and white. And I wanted to paint the pants in a colour that allowed for dark and light tones to really bring out the crazy sharp folds in the fabric, and black just hid all that detail.

So, I did the following;




Really happy with the pants, but the red armour felt a bit flat. Which is why I was looking for a way to paint a more vibrant red.






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Well, no Gaijia big-ass robo-goodness, but my second Tiger did come in so it's still a good day.



I'm finding the three-point joins don't line up well. With both the Invincible and this Tiger, the arms lock fairly well to the body with the square attachment posts they use, but the supporting left hand on the gun doesn't quite line up with the wrist on the left arm. Managed to make it work but I needed to remove the post from the wrist join, then use players to gently bend the lower left arm into position.

I was a bit surprised that I needed to do that with computer-drafted models, but it wasn't egregious and quickly fixed.

Gah! Too much I want to paint now! (...said every painter ever)

Good stuff! The reds are great.
This reminds me of the hordes of Yu jing boxes I have to paint too.

 Mastiff wrote:


I still need to figure out what cheaper infantry to pick up for this force for more orders. Any suggestions? I have the keisotsus for my JSA, but eventually I'd like two complete armies.

Looks you only have two cheap options for regular orders, Zhanshi and Kuang Shi. Zhanshi are....super old models, so hopefully we see resculpts of those this year.
Kuang Shi are the crazy remote controled convicts! So they could give you lots of cheap orders on turn 1 but with extreme impetuous might have thrown themselves in front of HMGs by the time turn 2 rolls around...

Hmmmm... There's also the Celestial Guard if I go for the Imperial Service. Not crazy about the models, but I could pick up the Bao troops to rep them instead.

I'll hold off until I see what they are releasing I guess. I'll need some cheerleaders if I'm going to field the Guijia, though I suspect I'll field it exactly once before conceding that 80pts is too expensive for a model that can't even hide behind a shipping container.

Some amazing work here!! Keep it up!

Wow... Shiny.

So these are the first Infinity minis I painted, about six years ago I think.



I still use the Daofei, because Infiltrate, TO Camo and an HMG is ----in amazing, but the Invincible's are permanently benched. I'm really happy Corvus Belli decided to bulk up their Heavy Infantry, it adds more variety and easier recognition to the silhouettes.

One thing really annoys me though, when CV makes female versions of HI, they make them knock-kneed. You can see it in the Invincible's above from several years ago, as well the brand-new Domaru Butai. Silly.



These were all Vallejo paints, which I've never been comfortable with. The pigment quality and colour range are superior to GW, but I find the highlights seem to vanish after the paint cures. It's really odd.

I still use them for washes, where the finer pigments really shine; GW paints give blotchy washes IMHO. They also allow for more subtle blends, but I've really come to understand the properties of GW paint, particularly how much water to add for the best balance between smoothness and opacity/viscosity. I find using other paint brands really throws me off, even if they are better quality. Whatever.

I have similar issues with Corvus Belli sculpts. Every female model is basically a pin up in form fitting armor. They have excellent detail and your painting definitely highlights that, but I wish someone would get with the modern age and sculpt a woman in realistic armor.

That made me look through the recent Haqq releases...Female Jannisary and Naffatun don't have rickets! Female Ghulam specialists definitely do though...
Weirdly (for a faction that has bodyguard prostitutes) Haqq probably has some of the least silly females.

Current orange armour definitely looks sharper than your older invincibles which were a bit more pastel coloured, although I don't think I've seen those in person recently.

Well crap.

I got good news and bad news.

The good news is the Guijia I ordered through my LGS came in.

Bad news; it's the old "Stay Puff Marshmallow" version, not the new version. Guess I should have gone up to Myth.

Fack.


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Almost done. Need to finish the arms, but still trying to figure out ghe colours.

Looking slick!

That's a little ridiculous about the Guija...probably why it took so long to get in! They had to track down the old version.

Squeeeeeeeee!!!

My Guijia came in!! My Guijia came in!! The REAL one!!!

Ahem.






So excited... even at $70 Canadian I feel like I got good value. Clean, sharp, great pose... It's been a long time since I've been this excited about a model.

It's frikkin' HYUUGE!

It went together like a dream, all the pieces fit very well. Not quite perfect, but the shadows will hide the slight gaps well enough. I was far too impatient to pin or greenstuff it... that won't come back to bite me in the ass, will it?

Depends how well it does in game...

Wow, those are absolutely gorgeous paintjobs you've given them. I wish mine looked half as good as those. The terracotta on them looks really good. I like it a lot more than the yellowish orange used on the studio models.

 plastictrees wrote:
Depends how well it does in game...

No worries, I tend to destroy my opponent's models, not my own. Ask Justin about his giant Confrontation Wulfen... I broke the arm clean off...

Keep that in mind when you decide how many flamethrowers to include in yournext list...


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 Barzam wrote:
Wow, those are absolutely gorgeous paintjobs you've given them. I wish mine looked half as good as those. The terracotta on them looks really good. I like it a lot more than the yellowish orange used on the studio models.

Thanks!

Yeah, I find the yellow-orange they use a bit too bright for my taste. This copper has some brightness but I think it still looks like it wouldn't stand out too much on a battlefield.

Got some painting time in this week, got the undercoats mostly finished, and proceeded to complete the head:




One of my favorite aspects of Infinity models are the sharp edges and smooth planes. I've been maximizing the contrast to play that up. Horizontal planes are very bright, vertical planes dark, and sharp lighting to enhance the separating edge. I love adding gradients to give every surface some depth. I almost wish I had an airbrush, but I enjoy the blending so I'll stick to what I know.

I've been really happy with the results.

Finished the Terracotta Warrior. I swapped out the box magazine for a drum... I just felt suppression fire needs a bit more ammo to be feasible.






I really enjoyed painting this model. I'll finish basing him when I have a few models completed.

For gits n' shiggles, I did eventually finish that Guijia TAG:

Whoo, lovely . Really like that Terracotta Warrior from last year, too . Your stuff is too pretty to only show off once a year, Mastiff

Love that terracotta color scheme, would steal if I hadn't already settled on yellow.