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Hi! I have been planning on starting with Infinity for the longest time, but they're not readily available in the part of the world where I am. After seeing the Infinity painting contest, the interest reignited! So I was thinking of purchasing Haqquislam or ALEPH.... but I don't know what models to buy and where to start! Are the starter packs worth buying? Or should I just buy the models I want? I want to have at the very least a decent group of miniatures.

Any help in this regard would be appreciated!

The starters are a great starting point. I recommend every new player to get a starter first, along with an extra one or three models that they like.
And when it comes to choosing minis, I follow these steps:
1: Look for the most good-looking ones on the site (in the relevant faction).
2: Check up their rules and such in the free army builder (check it out, it's great! It's on Infinity's homepage)
3: Buy the most interesting one.

Yeah, that approach works pretty well.

I would suggest picking up a starter, but then grabbing something that comes with Special Weapons -- a Heavy Machine Gun, Spitfire, or Sniper Rifle is a good one to start with -- as most of the starters are a bit short on those.

I don't know Haqqislam very well. For Aleph, the starter is very nifty. Good additions to it include Achilles, Garuda Tacbot with HMG, and Myrmidons or Myrmidon officers -- but there are no real "wrong" options. The game is very nicely balanced.

I'd suggest getting the normal Haqqislam starter, as the Hassasin Bahram is a difficult one to start with due to many special rules on the models.

I'd support what Ian said above - roundinng up your starter wit ha special weapon will never hurt.

The haqqislam starter is pretty good actually, the ghulam are effective and cheap point wise and the janissary kicks ass. Also, they have flamethrowers. Nuff said!

Thanks for the replies! For Haqquislam I was thinking of getting Hassassin Fiday, an Odalisque and an Al Hawwa' Unit. I've been painting hordes of masculine miniatures for two years straight and would like to paint something feminine for a change of pace.

For Aleph, I'm interested with the posthuman models and the Nagas. Are they any good in-game?

The Fiday is really great in-game in that if you understand the rules and use it right, it has a great chance of taking out a single enemy unit. If you're lucky or just good, your Fiday will be a tremendous nuisance to your opponent.
However, the Fiday is not a really good beginner unit both because it employs some tricky rules (Impersonation) and may simply be unfair for your opponent if they're also new.

The Odalisques are great overall. Solid unit. I prefer the one with the Spitfire.

The al Hawwa utilize camouflage and infiltration. They're also not too newbie-friendly on that alone. It's also interesting how the Sniper, the Hacker, and the Forward Observer all perform completely different roles in the army. Never used them myself; no opinion on how good they are.

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As for Aleph, the Posthumans are possibly the least newbie-friendly unit ever. They work amazingly in-game in terms of providing a great performance for their cost. However, their Ghost: Jumper ability is immensely complicated and odd for your first few games. You'll also need Netrods for them to do well.

Nagas, similar to the al Hawwa, have Camouflage. They're pretty much the same thing in the minelaying, sniping, hacking roles. I assume you're a fan of the Naga Sniper (as I am). You'll have to learn the rules of Camouflage, Infiltration, and MULTI weapons. Not newbie-friendly. Great units regardless.

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If you're interested in starting Aleph, stick with the Starter for the moment (in spite of the hacker and camo unit). A Sophotect and Myrmidons are also a solid choice in the beginning. Great units with nothing too advanced.

If you're interested in starting Haqqislam, the Hassassin Bahraim is great stuff, but tons of advanced stuff. Plus, you'll likely need Ghulam for your first few games. Solid Light Infantry with a variety of weaponry.
You could always proxy the Daylami Infantry in the Hassassin Bahraim as Ghulam Infantry.

I'm planning on buying a Haqquislam starter pack, so no worries when it comes to having Ghulam Infantry. I was also planning of buying stuff in one go (since it's not available in the Philippines, so I don't have the luxury of just buying a few models first), so I guess buying starters would help me feel the game first, and later on when I'm more comfortable with the rules I can use the more complicated units. And I guess there's no harm in proxying units, since it'll be all friendly games.

Oh, another thing? How much terrain would I actually need? I mostly make the terrain for our group, and, well, if there's a lot of it I might convulse... and die.

But still, I want to see nice boards specifically made for Infinity games! It might inspire me, and I might enlist the group's help.

It's good to have terrain coming out your ears when it comes to infinity!
Luckily there are plenty of sites offering paper terrain you can download and print. Makes your terrain highly portable too!
When I play at the local club I need to bring some of my own terrain since all they have is 40k stuff, and both my intro game forces and a couple of dozen paper cargo crates from toposolitario fit perfectly in my battlefoam PACK C4.

Any links to those sites for paper terrain?

You need a fair bit of los blocking terrain, but from what I have seen, people tend to play on smaller boards so it kind of cancels out

Check out the infinity painting and modelling thread in this sub forumas I think it has links to some infinity terrain threads.

www.toposolitario.com it has loads of paper terrain and tutorials for making cool stuff.

The ones I use are the iKube