Infinity Operation Mazebreaker - Aleph OSS Force complete painted

 

Showcasing my completed Aleph half from the recent Mazebreaker starter set for infinity. I'll assume most people won't know the game well - in short it's a futuristic skirmish game with a Ghost in the Shell vibe that combines tactical combat and reactions with high tech elements like hacking in a cyberpunk universe. Aleph is the AI that runs the human Sphere and is a bit like a benevolent version of Sky Net from Terminator. Well, sort of benevolent anyway, as benevolent as you can be while deploying special teams to complete covert ops abd having hidden objectives of your own. They're a nice faction with a strong aesthetic and a sort of high tech moral ambiguity that makes them fun to play.

The set consists of 7 models. 3 of the new Dikpala Tacbots abd above is pictured the Asura. Deceptively, she is by far the heaviest armoured and armed model in the set with the Asura representing the highest technology in cyber bodies, so she's sort of all machine. I leant more heavily on white for the model as I got a nice subtle highlight going and it sort of fit the clean high tech look. I've added a bit of weathering to the armoured sections sort of envisaging them as something disposable she would remove after a fight and not upkeep like her actual cyber body. 

The Naga with boarding shotgun (far left above) was actually my least favourite model of the set, but I changed the colours from the official scheme and was happier with the more synthetic look. The Hound Bot on the right was the first piece I painted and I think makes a nice addition to the force. One thing I appreciate is the number of remotes in the force which feels really characterful. 

I made a bit of a mistake with the freehand on the Tacbots. The first was "A1" I was going to do a 2 and 3, but somehow ended up with B1 and C1. I'm not sure how, I had in my mind to increase the number not the letter, but wrote a B on the second one and just stuck with it. 

I didn't get a zoomed in shot, but the Shukra on the far right may be my favourite from the set. Her suit looks great and I was really happy with the non metallic metal of her gold face plate  I do like a nice multi-rifle armament too. I added stripes in purple for interest to the suit. Background wise they're almost like a tech-detective so it's a nice characterful model.

Now I need to paint the Beyond Mazebreaker I got too. I also have Ruby Monday to get through. I split this set with my brother Ed (who runs BERSERKERBLADE blog) and he has just finished the Nomad half of the set, so the battle for Novaro Area of Interest is happening later today.

Infinity scale Sci Fi Cars - scenery/terrain project

 

I'd been wanting to get my hands on a few cars to compliment my new Infinity terrain I've been working on, and was scratching my head for some time. The best option for a while looked to be trying to get hold of some diecast models. There are a few proper options out there, or resin 3d prints maybe, but it was looking a bit expensive. I don't like putting too much money into terrain pieces. While pondering this, I had a flash of inspiration- what about that box of run down old Scalextric cars that had been in a drawer for 20-30 years?

So I pulled them out and hey - the scale wasn't bad. Maybe a little on  the big side, but who knows how big cars will be in the future right? - I'm not a perfectionist for these things. The other advantage was that they were really really dirty... no wait that wasn't the advantage, the advantage was that as they were race cars of a few types they already looked sort of non-mundane and a bit futuristic. Also according to Downfall (an Infinity book/novel - which has been really good) there are still cars that don't fly and even sports cars. It was all coming together. 

With nothing to stop me, I set about the task of cleaning the dust off of them. I decided to keep the clear windows as were, so I put masking tape on those, and then undercoated them with a bit of black spray. 

Some airbrushing later, a few very hasty panel highlights and a freehand go-faster-stripe and here we have the finished result - apparently ready to deploy my Yadu multi-rifle and tacbot into the fray!

It's always nice to repurpose something from the junk heap of life. These cars almost went in the bin about a year or so ago during a house move, so it's a cool thing both to have for the field and to rescue from oblivion. 

Original photo below of the condition  of the cars when they were found. You could almost just clean them up and pit them on the table if you don't mind the cheap plastic look and are in a hurry, but I wanted then to match the aesthetic of the game. I pulled 3 cars for the initial batch. So far I've only finished one, but it's a start. 

Well, that's about it for today - I posted this really in the hope that one day someone else could do the same.  We'll see if the idea catches on.

Infinity Aleph Rudras GunBot

 

Work on odd Infinity pieces continues. A big part of the appeal of the game is the high tech cyberpunk style aesthetic and rules. In that vein, I've painted a rather nice Aleph remote. In terms of the game it functions similarly to a fast heavy Infantry, but also comes with a handy repeater installed that allows you to use it as a sort of hacking hub to expand the reach of your hackers. 

This also gives me a slight opportunity to show some of the infinity scenery I've been working on. It's a mix of different MDF kits and I'm keeping yhr bright colours coming. I love a bright and exciting looking board, so I've had that in mind with the scenery too. I really want it to pop on in the table, and nothing says futuristic like neon bright colours! 

The paint scheme for the Rudra matches my Aleph. Essentially based around a white grey base airbrush blend with everything else being jist normal brushwork. The numbers and letters are all freehand too. 

All the metals are non-metallic style on this thing too. It's a technique I've experimented with a bit over the years, and have made decent progress on. I think to do it really well takes a very long time, so for me I'm happy to get only passable/decent results if I can do it relatively quickly!

Infinity Aleph Army - showcase

Jist a quick post to drop photos of my burgeoning Aleph army for Infinity. It's still a work in progress force, but these are the finished models so far. I've especially enjoyed working on the remotes (robots) for them- some great designs and they also feel very distinct compared to most of the warhammer type stuff I've painted recently. 

I've had these for a number of years, and this was a project almost a decade in the making

 I had a stuttering start on Aleph a number of years ago, but I wasn't happy with the paint scheme and lost momentum on the project. Compared to the official scheme, I've introduced more yellow and gold style non metallic models. 

Speaking of the non metallic metals, it is quite a basic recipe for the gold/yellow - basically, baler brown with Skeleton Horde contrast on it. Then highlighted up with demonic yellow (army painter) and then mixing more white in before finally adding the pure white highlights. It works great on the smaller areas, but I probably need more practice for the bigger areas!

 

Infinity - Aleph Alternate Colour Scheme

I think it is probably no exaggeration to say that this might be the strangest colour scheme that I've ever done.

For those who don't know, Aleph is an artificial intelligence. This miniature is a proxy (basically a synthetic body that can be inhabited by a digital consciousness). With that in mind, I really wanted to get an inhuman and alien look going on.

I had the idea of taking their regular colours (beige and purple) and strengthening them. I also thought of combining them into one color, which led to the yellow blended through purple shade. After that, I still had to choose the other colours, and as I was going for a synthetic look I went for a pale white on the skin. The paints were applied with an airbrush, and it was a bit nail biting to say the least; one misaligned blast and it would've been easy to spoil the effect completely. If anyone is looking to do something similar, I'd say that the secret is to angle the model and apply the shades from below and the highlights from the top to try and protect the dual-tone effect.

After laying down a few colours, I suddenly had a moment of nostalgia. Did anyone else play Grandia 2 on the PS2? I did, and there was an android girl called Tio who actually looked quite similar to what I had. For the sake of it, as I was searching for a color for my proxy's hair, I just went
with it.

Tio

I'm still a bit unsure of the base though. For the moment, I'm sticking with it though, and was quite happy with the overall effect. I started these Aleph as a bit of a side project and for the fun of experimenting with their paint work, as I'm not planning to field them anytime soon. I'll be interested to paint up a few more though and see how they turn out.

Airbrushing and Masking Miniatures - Plus Blue Steel NMM Technique

Masking, is there anything worse? It just never seems to go quite right, and no matter what fancy product you use it can be a bit of a battleground. Most of the time, it tends to go two ways; you either mask so well that you end up peeling the paint off when you take the tape away, or you do it too tentatively and end up with overspray and a bad finish.

Despite these concerns, I've been working on a technique that gives good coverage and protection, whilst not doing any damage. I managed to try it out this weekend on my Infinity Guijia, and it worked wonders.

I started by painting the orange armour sections with the airbrush (as orange is the main colour I didn't do any masking). I completely finished these by adding in edge highlights with the standard brush, and when I was happy, I gave them a coat of Vallejo Satin Varnish. This has the same lustre as the regular paint, but helps protect it from the next steps (It is also very important for my secret overspray defence technique, but more on that later). I painted in the areas that I wanted to do in Steel NMM in black with a regular brush as I was going to add a blend with various greys to them.

At this point, I usually find that something strange will happen. I'll be sitting there at my painting table and the airbrush will start to talk. It'll eye up the masking tape and say "Hey buddy, I thought you were a real man ... you don't need to mask anything, I wouldn't overspray on you". Try not to listen though - it's a trick. Even when it brings up all the progress you've made, and how nice your last mini was...

I find that Tamiya make good masking tape. It's pretty much as simple as that. I've used a few different brands, but it's the only one I trust not to weld itself on and come off with all of my hard work stuck to it. I have the varnish too for protection and I try not to leave it on there too long (an hour or so should be enough time to get what I need done). It does take a bit of time to get the tape on there and get coverage that you're happy with, but you really can't cut any corners. If you only need to mask the model to paint one thing that sticks out, I recommend using some plastic wrap like you used to have for your sandwiches, as the coverage is good and fast and I've never had any problems with peeling it off.

Blue-Steel NMM (Non Metallic Metal)

Top tip for mixing paint for the airbrush - mix it separately, not in the airbrush's cup and the consistency is right when it runs freely.

For the blue steel effect, I painted 4 layers over the black with the airbrush:

1. A general highlight with a mix of black, Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and white. This is a pretty dark mix, and the blue seems to help get some interest into it as well as aids the non metallic metal appearance.
2. I followed up with another highlight, mixing in a greater quantity of white this time, and focusing on the upper areas and places that seemed like they should be reflective.
3. I finished up with 2 highlight layers of pure white. The reason for the second coat was to try to intensify the "shine" that I was going for.

This was the colour that I used for the original mix (although this picture is from when I was painting it with the normal brush later)

After that, I painted his sword in blue, and then it was time for the moment of truth; peeling the tape. Luckily, thanks to all that preparation, it went rather well.

Even with all of that masking, I still had a little overspray on some of the orange parts to contend with. This was quite noticeable on the pilot's arm, where the end had got speckled with white unintentionally. Luckily though, I was prepared to deal with it, and that varnish was a real time saver.

Dealing with Overspray

Remember that varnish? If you're looking to make this work, I hope you applied it!

Like I said, this only works if you added varnish during the earlier step. This is because it protects the paint from what I'm about to do. Working quickly, I grab my airbrush cleaning fluid. This stuff is designed to break down paint in the mechanism, so it'll eat the paint right off. I take a fairly soft old brush, dip it into the fluid and then apply it directly to the overspray. I rub it for about 10 seconds, or until I see it dissolve and then wash the whole area out with a lot of clean water. I want to make sure that there won't be any cleaning solution left as I have no idea what it would do, so I recommend a lot of water (so obviously only do this once the paint you were applying is dry!).

Finishing Up

After a delicate scrubbing, the few little bits of overspray were gone and the mini was ready for the final steps. In this instance, that meant painting in some of the steel bits that I couldn't reach with the airbrush and then finishing up the steel with a final shade in the recesses and sharp highlight to get a bit more shine on it. For these steps, I used pure black and pure white respectively.

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!