Monday, January 30, 2012

#02 Infinity Post

I've been rather productive over the last few days, but this mostly boils down to the simple fact that I have time and four seasons of BBC's fantastic show QI, hosted by Steven Fry, of Monty Python fame.

Anyway, I've painted up the last two of the 45th Highland Rifles "Galwegian". Within the Infinity fluff they are quote: "...Units of crazed Scots specializing in close combat and are famous for carrying extravagantly large cutting weapons..." If that does not properly represent the Scottish warriors from centuries past, I'm not sure what does. Corvus Belli (the company that produces the models and game system) also have a model called "William Wallace" and is a cyborg like version of the Scottish hero. Apparently he likes to lead members of the 45th into battle, so I will have to add him at some point.

Anyway, on to pictures!



The beard on this model is fantastic, very fun and easy to paint as a ginger



All four of the models together. They come in a box of four with a few extra bits to make different load outs. Only other possible combination is giving one of them a boarding shotgun, but I snapped the very thin model by accident, so I just went with the assault rifle.

I scratch made the bases to represent an urban terrain and I am quite happy how the turned out. I used as base for the.... base... the wooden lazer cut ones from Litko. They are much better then the Games Workshop style slotted bases they come with.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

2011 in review

I know its 29 days since the beginning of 2012, but it is high time that I sat down and looked at what I have actually done over the last 365 days.

1. Started an ImagiNation army: This was the major project for the year. As it stands right now, I have painted up 23 infantry and 10 cavalry. Not that much I know, but considering I only began the project in ernest six months ago and four of those six were spent in a funk, its not toooooo terrible in terms of production..

Goal for 2012: I have ether on hand or ordered 95% of the models I need to complete this project. I hope to finish 100% the whole army and once it suits my needs, add on new units here and there.

2. Custom space fleet: It took me about 3 weeks to sculpt and paint 53 ships. Production tapered off rather quickly after that surprising outburst of painting, but it still stands now that I have a rather large fleet in which to play with. I still have to sit down and actually design the load outs for each ship class, but since I have had a bit of a personal lul in space ship gaming, its not high on my priority list.

Goal for 2012: I have the material to produce another dozen of ships, so once my attention inevitably shifts back to painting spaceships, I will have some more models to build. Also as a goal is to design each ship class and play at least half a dozen games with them by years end.

3. 15mm Continuation War: Almost like my spaceships, I had a huge outburst of creative power and painted up a huge number of figures. Then again, its not all that difficult considering the scale in which the models are. After some wheeling and dealing with other members of my wargaming group, I have traded for 15mm Finns and Germans to face my hoard as well as some terrain on which to play.

Goal for 2012: Paint the German complement to my project, build some more terrain and get at least a few games in. Secondary goal is to look into a new ruleset to use as the current one is only alright at best.

Looking back on previous posts, my readers might be wondering what happened to all the other projects I had ongoing during 2011. Well to be honest, as I'm graduating soon enough and will have to make the move west to British Columbia, I went through a period of wholesale consolidation. In order to further higher priority projects, I traded away many of my projects.

Four month long hiatus

Its been a little over four months since I have posted on this blog. The year is 2012 and since the turn of a new year, I have gotten only a little painting done. Granted, I snapped at four month long painting funk, producing the first completed miniatures since September of 2011....

During my funk I have shopped around for new game systems, leaping into Corvus Belli's Infinity and Wyrd Miniature's Malifaux with both feet. The radical shift in my gaming needs come from the lack of local opponents for my slowly forming ImagiNation army (at least until I decide to start a second army....). I have also found that to be able to paint consistently I need be able to see finished products on a regular basis. With my ImagiNation army, I "assembly line" paint eight figure batches at a time. While once completed this allows me to put a whole "company" on the table in one shot, it causes me to have long periods were its hard to see that I'm making any progress at all. I get burned out a little after spending two or so hours painting boots and rifles...

To this end, my painting needs have pushed me to take on smaller, skirmish scale projects at the same time as painting up large hordes of figures. The two advantages of the skirmish game is that for the most part, every miniature is unique versus my ImagiNation one, where in reality, other then hats, facings and sometimes boots, every single model is the same. The second advantage is that I can pour a lot of effort into painting each model individually, usually being able to complete them after one or two painting sessions.

Having the mostly GW 40K members of my wargaming club gushing over more sci-fi models like those produced by Infinity is also a bonus, as they tend to overlook all the details I put in the less flashy historical models.

Anyway, on to a few pictures so that I don't post an all text based blog entry:






For 60$ less then a GW rulebook, full colour with absolutely gorgeous pictures, the Infinity rulebook is a fantastic buy. It is also available for download from Infinity's website, but lacks all the artwork and fluff.





The first two of my "SCOTS IN SPACEEEEE!!!!!" (Read with a loud, deep and forceful voice) completed. These models are from Covus Belli's FANTASTIC Infinity range of models. These are the "45th Highland Rifles" and come in a box of four. The remaining two are sitting on my painting rack. My first attempt at painting tartans... I think they came out well enough for a first try.

A little teaser of what is to come:



More to follow...