Geckos Done, Based, and Photographed!

Not that they're going to be a surprise to anyone, what with my in-progress reports, but I finally finished off the Geckos! I'm using bases I custom-printed for the task, with nice front/back arc indicators.

First up is the Mk.12, known as "Huntress" - I decided to keep the glossy look, so even though it obscures a bit of detail in the photos, it really adds a nice bit of shine when you see them in person. You can see on the pictures where I added decals: Two on the Mk.12 itself, (Caution warnings to keep people away from the magazine ejector and shell ports!) Plus, a large warning label behind the head to denote the various important things that are there.

On the back, a few decals denoting what I figure are the Zero-G movement packs. No matter what exact method they're supposed to use to move around, you can guarantee they'll involve things you don't want to be close to without significant protection!

Next up is the very actively posed Combi Rifle Gecko. His decals are much the same. You can also sort of see on the images how unobtrusive the front/back indicators are: Visible enough to be clearly identified in game, but not distracting when displayed.

In this shot, you can see both a clear view of the caution warnings on the massive Combi Rifles, and see the tiny caution warning at the head of the Chain Colt. Especially for a gun like that I assume they'd have warning avoidance indicators!

Also, I'm gradually refining my NMM-with-metallics painting methods. It's easier on models like this that are supposed to be all bright and shiny and well kept. (I dislike the look of rust on Infinity models: I assume they must have figured out some means of keeping them rust-free that far into the future!)

Final shot for this post: A very-close-up shot of the inner leg. I have a large set of warnings there, since that's where the pilot needs to get in. Stuff like where to hold, what to avoid, how not to lose an arm... Only on one leg, but matched on them both. Now I just can't wait to field them in a battle!

You may also be able to notice what the next post will be, hopefully not as delayed as this one: Alguaciles! I've been painting like mad this summer, trying to get Icestorm stuff finished, in part to play with it, and in part to justify getting more models >.>...

Look for that soon!

Gecko Shoulders Completed!

After the difficulty of creating the Escher shoulder, the remaining three actually went fairly smoothly and quickly! I haven't had time to upload them, but they each took maybe a few hours of effort.

On the same TAG as the Escher shoulder, I did a roughly-transcribed starfield, as though someone was using a thick brush and not too concerned with borders. I gave it a slight highlight from black to grey, then added a nice simple starpattern.

Then, in the same way one usually paints flat panels (highlighting from dark) we have the TAG's name (Space Gecko) and an adorable gecko in 1950s style imagined spacesuit! (Including helmet sheen!)

Next up was the name shoulder pad for my other TAG, which I decided to call "Huntress" - This is a fairly straightforward idea, which I decided to do because I figure at least one TAG had to have the under-dressed female painted on. In this case, a warrior woman holding a shield spearing a tiger (perhaps the Yu Jing tiger?)

Highlighted as with the gecko; the tiger's a mix of orange and brown, the skin tone is leather brown mixed with gradually increasing layers of pale fleshtone from Vallejo. The shield as you can see will be the Nomad icon.
 

And here it is finished! I decided to go wild on hair, (they are Nomads after all) and painting tigers to not look like weird orange wolves is hard! I contemplated covering her up in a trailing sheet or toga-like wrap of some sort, but decided it was more honest to just go for it.

For the final shoulder I decided to go a slightly different direction. After trying for a while to look up African art styles, I realized a lot of them either don't lend themselves well to shoulder painting, or have become incredibly overdone. (Much like the 'random Japanese/Chinese characters tattoo'.)

To that end, I decided to switch to the other major Terrestrial influence on Nomad culture; Central America!

I did some image searches for Mexican and similar art styles, and decided to try to imitate a gecko done up in that kind of pattern.

I don't really have progress photos because the interior painting went kind of fast, but behold, a Mexican styled gecko! With this shoulder painted, and all four coated in varnish to make sure I don't mess up their painting down the line, I finally got to assemble the geckos, so they don't look really silly with stubby little arms and massive legs! Now it's time for clean-up painting, tweaking highlights, and then applying decals. They will probably be put on the back burner for a bit with my Morats as I attempt to custom-make transparent bases for my Infinity stuff.

Up next, in all likelihood, Trollbloods! (Because I am good at focusing on a single game...)

Gecko Escher Madness

Well, gradually things are calming down, and I'm actually getting painting time!

To that end, I finally motivated myself to get done something I'd been staring down for some time and trying to work up the nerve to start.

I speak, of course, of the Gecko shoulderpads.

First up is the Combi-Rifle off-shoulder: I decided to do a neat Gecko/Lizard themed pattern on one that may be familiar to some folks, namely:

(From Wikipedia)

Escher's an artist I love looking at, and I had to recreate it if I could. I don't know the size of the original, but I suspect it was larger than the Gecko!

Sorry for the blurriness; cell camera fun...

The process remains, I suspect, the same: Carefully dot thinned black paint in a hex formation, after which I connected the dots with thin traced lines. This allows me to rough out where the gecko limbs need to be, and how I need to line them up.

Next came a rough initial paint of the geckos. At this stage there are still a few flaws, and the paint isn't too thick, but it gives me an idea of what I need to sort out, where things will go, etc.

The return of real camera!

A second coat followed the first, cleaning up all the lines, thickening the paint, and getting rid of the remnants of the hex grid on the solid-red geckos.

And then it was time for a lot of washes, re-highlights, and cleanups! There's a painted gradation from the left side to right side, since the gun will be held directly into the air. (The eyes have been cleaned up since these photos were taken.)

As a final step, the whole shoulderpad was hit with a coat of gloss to seal it in. I'll probably go over it with a matte finish afterwards, but for now I want to make darn sure it's not going to get chipped or marred!

It was a fun if mind-bending paint, trying to remember where various limbs should go, making sure the paints were thin enough, trying to follow the lines properly. It ends up looking good though! I did have a friend ask why I wasn't doing an entire tag in this pattern, and... I think I'd just snap if I had to fit this pattern around legs and hands!

Next up is the Huntress shoulderpad, which is about half done so far. I've finally settled on all four shoulder designs, so they should be along in good order!

And now, back to painting...

Pre-Wedding Update: Geckos, Morats, Artwork!

With my wedding about a week away, I'm sure I'll have _loads_ of painting time shortly. That said, there's some stuff I've managed to get work done on in the interim.

Morat skin! It's a bit glossy at the moment, but it's been highlighted from a purplish colour up through red to dark fleshtone. It adds a vibrancy to the skin, and prevents it from suffering a pinkish fade.

The faces on these two is a bit more limited in visibility than...

...the Huntress! Here you can see a lot of skin painting, because she's got a lot exposed. I am amazed at the amount of detail sculpted into this dangerous woman. You can see all kinds of minor muscle clusters around her ribs, as well as more realistic folds where her body twists. With this much skin you can see how the red seems to glow!

And if not, here's a nice close-up of her to get the idea. Again, I'm not certain I like the level of gloss, but since I'll be layering over with varnish coats, it'll not really hold through. It was interesting trying to highlight skin so it looks natural, but in a colour no normal skin is!

But wait, there's more...

I have been sketching for a few days trying to figure out what I would do for Gecko shoulderpads. I have one or two I know I want to paint on, but I need to pick the "Named" shoulderpads.

I themed this off nose art from bombers, which will hopefully explain the mix of weird/random, and 'sexualized' sketches (if you can make out the tiny doodles)

This is typically how I decide my freehand before actually applying it. A lot of sketching to try to figure out how detailed I'll need to go, and to get an idea of what it'll look like in the end.

Soon, I hope, I'll have after-pics of awesome Gecko shoulderpads! After here meaning after painting, after moving, and after wedding...

Mini Madness Update

Well, work is kicking my butt, and that plus being sick has meant I haven't gotten a lot of time painting. That said, I have an open call to all helpful readers of this blog: I am trying to collect ideas for 'bomber art' for my Geckos. I want their shoulderpads decorated in a very non-military fashion.

For examples, I am so far looking at WWII bomber art, Terran Marines armour art, and anything along those lines. I don't just want it to be 'seductive woman' type things, though I'm not against it.

That said, I can show you what I have managed to get done since the sickness passed. (Yay for strep throat)

My Geckos now have pilot names! I figure much in the same way that planes have the pilot's name painted on the side, it'd be neat to do something similar with these models.

Sankuru is the name of one of the longest rivers in the Congo region, and "Mwene" is a name meaning "Prince" (at least as far as Wikipedia tells me) - I wanted to have my characters named in an African style, for reasons of Nomad fluff and making an army in at least one game that isn't 90% "white" soldiers. I figured the orbital elevator mentioned in the Nomad fluff that is supposed to have been in Africa would have caused a lot of issues with people from that area, and didn't want to pick the name of a person actually alive. (I first thought about picking famous resistance fighters or soldiers, but didn't want to get into politics with models!)

It was fun picking the typeface online (a 'face called Planet Kosmos btw) and then painting it carefully in so it'd fit with the lines.

My paint consistency was so low even my airbrush would have complained, but I had to make sure it wouldn't dry on the brush! I had lots of water standing by to soak the brush out as well afterwards.

Next up for them is cleaning up glowy bits, deciding where, if anywhere else I put the painted lines, and then adding caution and warning indicators (like all good military craft have).

Geckos Nearly Done

Well, despite the madness of the holidays, I've still managed to get some painting done! The Morats have been getting some armour painting, though I'm not certain how I'll paint the main plates. More importantly, I've made forward progress on the Geckos!

I love how, with no TAG arms, they look so stumpy!

First up is the main bodies. I've been carefully washing with agrax into the cracks, and even more carefully drybrushing white and edge highlighting to get the sharp redness.

Put 'em up... you wanna go?

It's been hard getting just the right amount of highlight. As much as his paintscheme is awesome, the main Infinity painter I feel does his models too pink, not enough red. To that end I've been trying to carefully only highlight with white, and if it goes too strong, I cover it in red and try again. I'm also trying to make the armour not look metallic red, which can be a challenge.

Now I need to determine where, if any, to depict white stripes and alternate colour plates. I may do the pilot's arm bands, torso, and chestplate in black, as well as certain elements of the helmet and legs in white. I also purchased a Gundam decal sheet so I can do a lot of appropriately accurate "Caution" warnings and arrows, since every real military vehicle has loads of those just in case. I'll have to consider where on the TAG warrants such a warning!

The metal bits are done in my favourite NMM-with-metallics method, going right from almost-black to mithril silver. I've decided to go a bit brighter than I normally would for military troops, because these are TAGs driven by pilots who know they're going to be spotted, might as well be flashy!

After I decide where all the proper military elements will go, I shall also be adding pilot art. (Think bomber art circa WWII.) I need to decide what style to do though: I can't just go scantily clad women for both! I'll likely pull inspiration from said bombers, and also any Starcraft Terran Marines I can find; they often have neat elements of the sort.

Not So Camouflaged Update

After great deliberation and much consideration, I stripped the paint from my Geckos and started again. As much as I liked the camouflage look on the infantry, for the TAGs it just didn't quite feel right. (Also, the paint came out fuzzy on the feet for some annoying reason, and that just can't be let go!)

Eventually what I figured was unlike the line infantry, who want to not be readily seen, the Geckos can't really hide, so instead they're trying to draw fire to help keep the nearby infantry safe. Also, in boarding actions, being a large terrifying blazing red behemoth could help when a poor defender hears the ominous thumping preceding its bursting around the corner, weapons blazing!

That said, images time!

So far they're entirely red. At some point I'll decide which plates (if any) will become other colours, and how to pattern them. These lads were airbrushed, with proper Vallejo Air paints, and I'm getting more used to using an airbrush for detailed work, not just coating or basic highlighting. I'm certainly nowhere near an expert yet, but I can at least come up with something competent looking!

Ah, the forest of bitz. Even more than the main body of the tag, these parts make me happy I'm going the red route. The bright shiny red shoulder pads alone make it worth the effort.

Next up is careful highlighting of edges, and determining if (and by how far) to highlight brighter than red. If you're not careful, the red starts looking either orange or pink.

I also have finished Tomcats photos, I'll probably do a post with them this Sunday.

Infinite Joy

Time for an update on Infinity, as I finish up some other things.

First, the Geckos have finally been released! I bought some the instant they were in our FLGS (I got the last box of the first order!) and am drooling over the pieces, biding my time until I can get a colour scheme I am settled on.

I love the Geckos. They are truly the reason I got into Infinity, and the model quality is as good as their pics look. Legs slot comfortably into lower torsos, limbs are joined at logical points so if you want to do a conversion, it's not impossible, and the detail is incredible. Here are pics of the bitz, for those who, like me, find this kind of thing tantamount to porn:

(By the way; all the squares are centimeters.) Torso back and the backpacks. The alignment nubs socket well, and for the most part the backpack looks like it'll go on securely. I'll probably end up pinning it anyway, mostly because they'll be painted separately and then glued, so a pin will help secure the join.

Torso front and legs: The legs look blocky and powerful, which is what an exo-suit would need. You can see in places under the armour-plating the ferro-fibrous muscle bundles, and other than a few places where the flash is sizeable, the casting is fantastic. Everything sockets logically, and the shapes are slightly different, so you know which legs go with which torso.

The guns! I am a huge fan of the Mk. 12 pose, and I'm becoming more of a fan of the combi-rifle pose as well. These pieces are incredibly detailed and smoothly cast. There's again a few spots where the flashing is in bizarre locations, so be careful before you clip that you're not taking off detail!

"The Rest" - All the tiny bits and pieces that go into making the suit work. Stubby little person arms, back-toes, the heads, and the chain-colts (thank you Corvus Belli for making those separate pieces!) There's a lot of extra pewter in here. I have a bag sizeable enough I could start making my own models!

So, that's the Gecko. I also have been continuing to paint up my Nomad Prowler, trying to nail down his colour scheme:

I've nailed the overall armour colour, I think, and decided to go with deep red pants just for the sake of force unity. The white shoulderpads are also a nod to my final look. I still need to fine-tune their highlights (or more, the shade) and then add all the various military-like patches. The guns being olive drab I figure is a good way to convey that the guns themselves may get sold to mercenary groups, so a generic colour (and a neutral one) broadens the market. I may fool with that later, and especially with a gun the size of the Spitfire, give it more detail.

You can also (possibly) see on his stomach-plate, I tested the hex-armour idea. It does not work. The model overall is too small for the plates to come off looking right, and as a result they end up looking like some weird speckling. Once I've cleared the painting table a bit more, I'll get back around to finishing him up and determining if there's anything I want to adapt.

I still think I'm going to make the models that are more 'sneaky' the drab, and then more "aggressive" the red in increased amounts. No way a Hellcat is being stealthy, and a Gecko's not exactly going to hide behind a shrub! I will also, however, be limiting and essentially eliminating the 'glow' aspect of a lot of Infinity models. It's very sci-fi, I know, but it's also a bit silly to have a stealth suit that looks like a raver... Probably just wrist-comms and hacking gear that will end up getting a glow treatment.