Guijia TAG and Pilot - Almost Finished!

This might be my finest work yet. Occasionally, when painting a miniature I have a jump forward in technique. This time, it came when I was painting the grey NMM steel on this Guijia (don't ask me how you pronounce that). Handily, I took a few pictures during the process, so I should be able to talk a bit more about it later. 

One of the things that I really progressed in was actually not what you'd expect. Oddly, I improved my technique when masking the model, which in turn allowed me to go further with the airbrush and push the application to 3 separate blended colors - namely, the orange armour, steel, and blue sword. I still haven't finished the base, but I was so excited that I couldn't wait to take a few pictures. 

The pilot is cool too. I'm not sure how often I'll actually get to see her in the game, but I like the mini. She reminds me of Evangellion or something. I struggled a bit with her face though. I might have to go back and make some corrections to her later. Faces can still feel a bit like a gamble; you never quite now how it'll turn out!

The orange is even more saturated this time too, thanks to an additional shade of red that I added to make it pop even more. I love the design on this thing too. It really screams Gundam, which is always a good thing in a sci-if robot.

I was particularly happy with the calf parts as the gave me a nice big space to work up the NMM. The surprising part about this thing is  that even now, I've probably only spent 5 hours on it over one weekend, which for the quality of the job is pretty damn good. Unfortunately, my speed  is also sort of a curse, as I lack the patience when it comes to actual competitions. I guess I'll live with it, as the trade-off is having a lot of really nice minis!

The other side. I didn't want to put too many layers into the airbrush for the steel looking NMM as I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I might layer the highlights more next time I use this technique to push the contrast.

Like I said earlier, I'll post more about the painting techniques later. For now, I'm just gonna take a break; painting this intensely sure is tiring!

Infinity Domaru Butai Painted

Well, the blog has been a bit quiet lately; must be time to break the silence with something fresh and different!

I've had these miniatures sitting about for quite a while now, and I was looking through my drawer the other day and I decided that it was high time I finished them. Those of you with good memories may remember them from my Painting Orange Tutorial from a while back.

If you don't play Infinity, they're from a faction called Yu Jing that are basically a conglomerate of futuristic Chinese and Japanese factions. These guys are specifically from the Japanese Sectorial Army. Like I mentioned, I did a tutorial on this color scheme a while back for anyone interested. Technique wise, I use the airbrush to lay down a blend and use a bit of pre-shading. The thing that I really like about this scheme is how saturated the colours look. It's basically the same as my Necron scheme, although for these miniatures I went a bit further to get a higher quality look.

Another thing that you might find interesting is that they're all metal. A rarity in this day and age, but the detail is great, and given how much of a minefield resin can be, I'm glad they went with metal for the whole Infinity range.

I figure it was a weekend well spent. I'm hoping to continue with the force soon, but with Salute breathing down my neck (well the painting competition anyway) I might have to hold off till I can finish Greyfax up, as I still have a long way to go.

Well, that about does it for now. If you like these, feel free to check out the PanOceania stuff I painted too:

PanO Post

PanOceania Nisses

The next finished model for my PanOceania faction. I really like this model (who doesn't like a cool cyber-sniper). He performs well in games too, which always helps!

I had a bit of indecision about what colour to go for with his trench coat, but in the end I chose a sort of pale grey off-white colour. It seemed to fit well and while I had originally thought of doing it red, it seemed a bit too garish and I wanted the focus to mostly be on the armour.

Again, I've been trying to emulate Angel's style here; going for a sort of blended NMM/Ceramic type look. It seems to be working out, but that guy just makes it look so easy and gets such clean results. I can only dream....

PanOceania Sikh Commando

Things have been a bit quiet on the hobby front for me for the last few days. With that in mind, I decided it was the perfect time to break out some shots of my Infinity stuff that I've been slowly working on for some time.

A week or two ago I was digging through some of my work in progress drawer when I came across most of the PanOceania starter set from Operation Icestorm (the starter kit for infinity). I had painted some of the models, but most of them had been undercoated and airbrushed with the basic blue colour blend without having any of the details finished. In a moment of hobby indecision, I picked them up and started working on them just because it seemed easy and they were nice models.

Anyway, this is the Sikh Commando, which is a sort of drop trooper (hence the techno-pack on his back). I'm really happy with the way he came out - especially the blend on the armour panels and the overall effect it has given. I've relied heavily upon the trachings of Angel Giraldez for this one and his rather interesting Masterclass book (well recommended for anyone with an interest in airbrushing or infinity).

One of the things I've really enjoyed when painting Infinity stuff is not just the really nice sculpts they're producing, but also the semblance to modern day. It was cool to be able to cut a length of old spear pole to shape and use as a drinks can on his base - I like the look a lot and it's one of those touches that would just be totally "wrong" in 40k, but makes a nice feature here.

I'll be posting more of the faction later this week, so stay tuned for some more shiny blue dudes!

I'm rather happy with the "Cola" can on his base.

Infinity - Joan of Arc Ltd Edition Miniature

 

In an attempt to broaden my painting horizons I bought a copy of Angel Giraldez's "Paining Miniatures from A-Z Masterclass" about 6 months ago. The book came with this rather nice Joan of Arc miniature (the book also includes a painting guide - which as I didn't have an airbrush at the time I didn't use entirely for this paint job). I tried to capture some of the feel of his paintwork despite not having an airbrush at the time entirely with a paintbrush and good old fashioned regular techniques.

For those who don't know, Angel is the studio painter for infinity. He has an excellent style built up with a combination of airbrush and paintbrush - characterised by smooth blends and sharp highlights. It wasn't long after painting this model that I actually bought an airbrush so that I could take the technique further myself. The best part was that it turned out that our painting styles were quite compatible, so it was easy to incorporate some of Angel's style in to my own. I think I'll write a proper review for the book later, so I won't say any more now.

The miniature itself was a bit of an experimental piece, so I make no promises as to the actual quality of my work on it. It did inspire me to start playing Infinity though, so I suppose that is one hell of an endorsement for it. For those who don't know, the Infinity range (by Corvus Belli) are all entirely metal models (28mm scale), making them somewhat unique in today's market. The quality is really high too - with more of a focus on realistic proportions and fine components (particularly noticeable with guns) than the "Heroic" scale style of 40k.

Somewhere in the future a reincarnated electronic version of Joan of Arc squares off against a cyber-samurai ... this could definitely happen.

 

I've since gone on to use the airbrush and brush style found in Angel's book on a number of my own projects (some examples pictured below).

I'm still getting the hang of adding highlights to models in 28mm scale with an airbrush.

My Necrons are largely an adaptation of Angel's style used on 40k. Quick and easy too!