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 TalonZahn wrote:
Well, the obvious solution to better pictures is to take them yourself.

Next time I won't bother posting anything.

I appreciate the pics even if I don't necessarily like what they show. Now make sure to swing by the Palladium booth and snap some photos of the all of the new mouth watering wave two minis as well.

Those images are so painful too see. Ugh. Especially Sally. Looks very Morat/CA to me. No, I'm not confusing it with the avatar.

It does look a lot like a Sogarat w/ Feuerbach in that pic, but I think with a clearer pic and a proper Nomads paintjob it'll fit right in next to the Iquana and Geckos. I love this redesign, but a new take on the old design would have been really interesting to see. New one is a completely different model, it doesn't keep any of the design elements of the old Szalamandra and that's a little sad. I've had the same issues with the PanO heavy infantry redesign, the Guijia and the Maghariba Guard. In all of those cases the redesign was hands down better quality sculpts, but I do miss the more GitS/Appleseed aesthetic that the old ones had. Still, the redesigns are much cleaner designs and the assembly has vastly improved over the years. Also, the added size makes them pretty impressive on the table compared to the old designs. CB has been redesigning most of their older totally-not-appleseed designs into more original (and complex) designs the last few years. Newer stuff is easier to paint because of those added details, more panel lines and greebles to catch washes and edge highlights and accent colors, fewer large smooth round areas

Well, the obvious solution to better pictures is to take them yourself.

Next time I won't bother posting anything.

He's talking more about the actual content shown in the pics, not the quality. Posting those here is always appreciated, even if they'll just get replaced later with HD versions. Makes my slow saturday more interesting at the very least

Just to illustrate:

Yup, Sometimes you just want this


Corvus Belli is more interested in giving us this


Good designs and certainly more detailed, but they're very different designs from the originals instead of just modernizing the originals

Sorry, my kids are making me pissy. Which is also why I only posted a couple pics as opposed to every single one like last year.

I'm not even at the show, jaw surgery. :(

CB has been redesigning most of their older totally-not-appleseed designs into more original (and complex) designs the last few years. Newer stuff is easier to paint because of those added details, more panel lines and greebles to catch washes and edge highlights and accent colors, fewer large smooth round areas.

The general redesign direction has pushed Infinity into more generic territory. Changes on the models such as increased scale, flat surfaces and open poses are their attempt to lower the bar of painting skill. Oddly, I thought the entry curve wasn't problematic as you really required only time and patience. The rest is up to the individual. Of course ignoring the experience that the design/production team has accumulated (be it in or out) over the course of various procjects and pin every success on the director doesn't seem quite correct assessment.

I'm firmly in the camp of "one of these things doesn't look like the other". Why not just retire the old model and bring out a new TAG rather than retcon the look. Yes, the new models are technically better than what they replace, but they aren't really resculpting the originals so much as making something new and calling it the same thing. As CB moves away from the original anime inspirations My interest wains in Infinity.

Addendum: Wonder if CB will give the Szally its Morlock pilot from the original art. Also, without the tail it looks like a Cobra from Heavy Gear.

Whether you prefer the old or new design is subjective, but I don't believe CB should be beholden to their old designs.

Any mention of anything Morat at all? I got excited last month seeing the Kriza Borac only to realize that it was a Nomad unit.

No hospitallers :( but yay blackjacks!

 ImAGeek wrote:
Just to illustrate:

Awesome sauce.
Avatar is bitchin' too.
Blackjack kinda sucks. Shouldn't have a sword & ought the be carrying the HMG, not shoulder mounted.

It's a sniper rifle, not HMG.

Machete, not sword.

So:
SWAST
Joan d'Arc
Szally
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the order in which my wallet is being emptied this Autumn.

 Bladerunner2019 wrote:

Blackjack kinda sucks. Shouldn't have a sword & ought the be carrying the HMG, not shoulder mounted.

Why? there are many good reasons why a shoulder mounted hardpoint is good if the frame can support it.

 Bladerunner2019 wrote:

Blackjack kinda sucks. Shouldn't have a sword & ought the be carrying the HMG, not shoulder mounted.

T2 sniper rifle--and yeah, it absolutely should be shoulder mounted.

Best design yet for a HI like that in my opinion. And the machete will be super easy to clip.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Bladerunner2019 wrote:

Blackjack kinda sucks. Shouldn't have a sword & ought the be carrying the HMG, not shoulder mounted.

T2 sniper rifle--and yeah, it absolutely should be shoulder mounted.

Best design yet for a HI like that in my opinion. And the machete will be super easy to clip.

The thing is overwrought with junk strapped to every surface.
Clipping the machete will give it the hated ragefist.

 Bladerunner2019 wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Bladerunner2019 wrote:

Blackjack kinda sucks. Shouldn't have a sword & ought the be carrying the HMG, not shoulder mounted.

T2 sniper rifle--and yeah, it absolutely should be shoulder mounted.

Best design yet for a HI like that in my opinion. And the machete will be super easy to clip.

The thing is overwrought with junk strapped to every surface.
Clipping the machete will give it the hated ragefist.

The thing is "primitive" exoarmor called the Buffalo.

Of course it's overwrought with junk!

And ragefist is better than random machete, in my opinion. I think a big reason that the shoulder mount looks funky is that the SMG and T2 Sniper are on the same arm. If the SMG were on the left and the sniper remained on the right it could look a bit less cluttery.

But given that the T2 sniper and SMG seem to be operated differently, with the T2 sniper having what looks like the rig for the crewman operated remote weapon systems we have on APCs and the like now while the SMG just looks like you point and "brrrrrt"...I'm pretty okay with this.

Man, all the hype, all the waiting, and we get that? I'm glad I never got into USAriadna.

 -Loki- wrote:
Man, all the hype, all the waiting, and we get that? I'm glad I never got into USAriadna.

I'm actually really happy with it. I had hoped for something akin to the "Goliath" armor suit from Call of Duty's "Advanced Warfare" game...and I got it.

Even though my group has been on a massive Malifaux binge for the last few months, I'm genuinely excited about three months of awesome Haqqislam releases. New Bahram starter, new Muyibs box, resculpted Druze.

 -Loki- wrote:
Even though my group has been on a massive Malifaux binge for the last few months, I'm genuinely excited about three months of awesome Haqqislam releases. New Bahram starter, new Muyibs box, resculpted Druze.

I'm feeling that way about the Blackjacks(OCTOOOOOOOOOOOOBEEER!) and the Szalamandra...
I split boxed a Beyond Icestorm with someone locally so I have a Kriza Borac that will be awaiting me.


I'm hoping to be able to replicate this by GenCon of next year.


Automatically Appended Next Post:



Better images of the Staldron and Avatar--they're Facebooked though, so they can get rehosted if necessary by someone else.

The new avatar... unexpected. Cool (maybe) but I like the handwave the current version is doing. Like it's controlling a marionette... or a sepsitorized someone...

 TalonZahn wrote:
Well, the obvious solution to better pictures is to take them yourself.

Next time I won't bother posting anything.

The obvious solution is focus the camera.

But you're not the photographer, TZ, so don't take my comment personally. I do appreciate that you posted something. Blurry images are better than no images, even if they give me an eyestrain head-ache if I look at them too long. (Presbyopia sucks in many ways.) We can at least get a sense of the mini, and know that it is not vaporware anymore.

 TalonZahn wrote:
I'm not even at the show, jaw surgery. :(

Have a speedy recovery.

 Red Harvest wrote:

The obvious solution is focus the camera.

But you're not the photographer, TZ, so don't take my comment personally. I do appreciate that you posted something. Blurry images are better than no images, even if they give me an eyestrain head-ache if I look at them too long. (Presbyopia sucks in many ways.) We can at least get a sense of the mini, and know that it is not vaporware anymore.

CB's GenCon seminars are generally packed. Doremicom(the guy who live-streamed the seminar) was probably set up not too close to the screen so as to not block anyone out from seeing it, but at a weird angle as well...add to it compression, etc from the stream itself and you get these kinds of issues when people take stills from the stream.

We know we're getting high quality scans of the slides from CB themselves sometime(tm).

Yea, the Stream I was actually watching, while trying not to throw a brick at my 2 boys, was Joels. His stream was crystal clear, but on a phone and he wasn't snapping pics.

I've eaten some hydrocodone, so I much more mellow now.

The Blackjack looks exactly like what it should: A Low-tech piece of crap compared to streamlined and nearly form-fitting suits everyone else has. Mounting the main weapon either as an undermount or as a shoulder gun was exactly what I hoped, as well as having all those roll bars and stuff.

It looks like someone had a Humvee merge with a Space Marine Terminator, which is perfect given that it's very mechanical and not 'cyber' at all. For those, you have the Haqq S5 units.

Meanwhile, stuff like the ORC Suits outperform the Blackjack due to being way more high tech, which is perfect.

Super happy with Sally's pose. I'll definitely have my vanilla stuff painted up for Christmas now.

The flamethrower is mildly annoying though, just because it adds so much height to an already (assumed to be) tall model.

The Avatar should have less Godzilla / Reptile and more twisted alien menace in his design.

There's still the old Avatar model for that. It holds up pretty well even today. I like the new art direction more and will definitely pre-order it.

I love the old Avatar, so this one has a high bar to aim for here!

I love that the staldron has the same little manipulator claws as doctor worm, its a good callback.

Also, do kinda like the new avatar (also like the old one too), and his massive multi hmg. Anyone recognise the corpse it's standing on?