Wildcats, Hellcats, and Prowlers; Oh My!

I have finally gotten the first 'wave' of my Infinity painting done! Ten models ready to be matte coated and based as soon as I can get good weather and some spare time to do it. In the meanwhile, pictures for all!

Pay no attention to the background...

I struggled for a while on how to do their symbols. The entire reason for this paintscheme is that it makes more sense for a military unit to be drab than bright red. That is contrasted by the fact that the Nomads primary colour is red. (Also known as the least camouflaging colour you can pick next to "dayglo"!)

I did a photoshop mockup of where I'd put the symbols in each case, and toyed with them until I found a setup I didn't dislike. First I'll show the easier ones to solve, then on to the harder choices.

The Prowler was one of the first models I painted (and one of the first I bought: Such an awesome pose.) He's the test-case for drab, and other than his pistol's grip, is remarkably subtle compared to some of the other schemes I've seen of him. The symbols for him seemed pretty straightforward; Nomad on the left shoulder, Bakunin on the right, so any enemy that spots him will see the "national" pride, whereas his allies will know where he came from.

Next up were the Hellcats. Being troops that scream in from a dropship on jets of antigrav (?), I was less concerned about 'stealth', which is why their shoulderpads have a nice distinctive Corregidor and Nomad icon. The back of their burners have squad identifiers (3-1, 3-2, 3-3) in case I ever have to distinguish them quickly stats-wise.

Ahh the Wildcats. After much debating, I decided to use that random circular patch on their right shoulder to be the Nomad symbol location, and put Corregidor's icon beside it. Their unit identifiers (4-1, 4-2, 4-3) were likewise done in low-vis beside it, with a kind of sci-fi font styling. Since I didn't want big obvious indicators on their leading shoulder, I decided to do an imitation QR code on each. I figure any Nomad helmet and HUD unit will know to read the codes to indicate "Nomad", and perhaps even name, rank, and branch of service. This way you don't lose your IFF even if you're hit with electric countermeasures (just hopefully your allies haven't been as well), and no enemies will be immediately able to identify.

I did struggle with this at first, because though they are line troopers, it's implied in the fluff they're often called upon to do shipboard combat. I figure in such situations, with cramped corridors, and a race against the clock and overwhelming odds, it's more important to whip around a corner and recognize an ally. Also, camouflage in an enemy ship would be difficult to guess ahead of time. Eventually I went more subtle because it kept the theme more consistent.

Also note the Wildcat's random disks at the front of the armour. Again, since Corregidor is often called upon to engage in zero-g or hostile spaceborn environments, having on-suit lamps that aren't attached to a gun or hand-held would be incredibly useful. I figure they're suit lamps (off when in daylight, of course) and perhaps that left-forearm device is as well.

Thus is my war against glowy armour on stealth units going strong! Since these photos I gave a dark, dark cyan wash to the helmet visors to make them richer, and to the gems to help settle the layers in.

Soon, pics of the Reverend Custodier, Zondbots, Intruder, Alguacile... I wonder if I'll have them all done by the time Icestorm shows up!

Update for May 2-4

Somehow, this weekend is not the holiday, despite being the 24th. That said it's time for a painting update! I've had a busy week and not had a lot of chance to paint, but I have gotten some things accomplished.

Pandora's skirt is fixed, and I had the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Somehow, mixing 50/50 dark angels green and snot green, and leaving it on the wet pallette for a few hours turns it into a colour-change, neon-green! Goes on subtle, ends up crazy bright!

As a result, I'll have to down-blend some of the squiggles, rather than highlighting them...

I also started painting the Teddy yesterday. My intent with him is to make him appear faded, for the most part, since they're turned into these horrible monstrosities from old kids' bears. The detail level is crisp enough that a drybrush works to bring out all the details. I'm going to go with ivory teeth and gloss black claws, with probably pale stitches and glowing eyes. The bow will be green to match with Candy's dress, of course!

Finally, I've narrowed a Nomad scheme down to the point of tweaking final elements. I know the colours aren't the best in this shot, but it's drab green gun, boots, and webbing, dark red pants, pale armour with white shoulderpads, and a bright cyan blue for data link and guide-lights on his backpack. I'll be adding more distinct elements of rank and delineation to his shoulderpads, and likely a bit more ID-type stuff to his helmet as well, before moving on to the Wildcats!

I am going to stick with my idea to have the more... aggressive units in this army depicted more brightly coloured. Hellcats and Tomcats will retain some of their aggressive colouring, as would be appropriate for people who launch into battle from above!

More to come once I manage to get some painting done!

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.