Yummy Postman-Presents (Infinity Unboxing).

I recently ran out of Infinity models to paint.  After indulging myself in such fine miniatures, I lacked the will to paint Games Workshop miniatures which seem clumsy and misshapen in comparison.  Seriously, it's like comparing a proper take-away curry to those meal-for-one things you pop in the microwave.

So I got some more.

A Karakuri box, a Shang-Ji Invincible and a Hac Tao.  Because Yu-Jing is the massed heavy infantry faction.

I like the way they're packaged so much, I'm just gonna post photos.

Single blisters come in a plastic container that is very easy to open;
tear off the cardboard tag on the top and a single staple is the only thing between you and a great mini.

 

Opening a box of blisters is like a treasure chest moment.

Models!

Lovely models!

If I come across as slightly gushing - it's because I am, that's why.

On to the blisters themselves:

Karakuri x3

Those. Look. Fiddly.  Incredibly so.  But so worth it to have android geisha girls with guns.

 

 

Like this.

Next is the Shang Ji Invincible, a basic all-purpose heavy infantry selection - something I desperately need considering my Japanese Sectorial Set is extremely specialized to short-range combat.

So something that doesn't need an inordinate amount of supporting fire just to get in range of an enemy is rather nice (looking at you Domaru Butai).

Last is the Hac Tao with a missile launcher.

Think of her as an invisible terminator (40k termie, not Schwarzenegger) with a missile launcher, and remember that this is a missile launcher in a skirmish game.  Sometimes considered cheese.

Still, I consider her official paintjob to be rather dull, so I'm looking forward to see what I can do with her.

That's it for now, got job interview to fail in 40 minutes time!
Happy dice rolling.

New Stuff Day (?)

Apparently it's 'old stuff day' today for bloggers.  I.e. blog necromancy/nostalgia trip.  Bringing some posts that didn't receive as much attention as the should have (with lower follower numbers in the past and all).

Unfortunately, my blog is not exactly 'old', not being even a year old yet, and the number of posts I have put out is also rather small.  So... I'm just gonna show you what I've been working on lately.

First off, my current project - Shinobu Kitsune WIP.

A special character ninja.  Now, my struggle to find a suitable palette choice for the colours of this model led to the first time I actually went on the forums, begging bowl in hand, to ask for advice.  I was told by someone regarding one of my other ninja that black highlighted with grey was too dull and I should use a subtle highlight of the complementing colour. 

Long story short, I tried to make blue with black subtly highlighted red and came out with blue and black unsubtly highlighted orange.  I'm generally quite happy with this, as it does accentuate the cyberpunk anime feel of Infinity, though it does mean that she won't quite fit in with the rest of the ninja, as they are simply *bright colour* and grey-shaded black.

Oh well, she's a named character, she gets perks.

And then some Dark Elf updates:

First, me trying to remember how to paint Black Guard.  The one on the left is a heavily damaged and chipped model I painted about two years ago - the one on the right is one I began painting about a week ago.  I'm keeping the old one close for reference as I try to remember the combination of washes and highlights I used to paint them.

Then some Witch Elves:

Mostly stretching my legs as regards to the skin tone and the hair, which are the two new factors that these models posses in comparison to my existing army.  That and working out where each colour will go and so forth.  These three will accompany the Cauldron, so it's a good place to work out the colour scheme in preparation for when/if I get some proper Witch Elves.

That's pretty much it for today then, au revoir.

Dark Elf Spearmen

It may come as a surprise, but yes, I still do collect my Dark Elves.  They are still the only actual army I own, now excepting the Infinity Yu-Jing bunch, but I count them as more of a strike team than an army...

This is a unit that I actually built almost a year ago now, but only to 66% completion.  I finished the highlights for the blue armour and the skin, the highlights and insignia on the shields as well as the gold-ish pieces of bling and the bases in the last couple of days.  My next port of call with the Druchii would be to either finish off some characters that need finishing, or to begin the labourious task of repairing my badly chipped Black Guard regiment.  I'm either going to need a battlefoam-esque contraption to carry them or I need to varnish them thoroughly, the first's expensive and the second's undesirable.  Unless I bother tracking down the good matt varnish I saw promoted on some forums...

There's an Infinity hacker ninja in the works too, but there are still a lot of hard-to-reach pockets of metal visible on the model, so it's gonna need a bit of touching up before it gets uploaded.

That's it for naow.  Happy dice-rolling!

Infinity: Ninja

So, many of my photographs from now on may seem different.  That's because of this thing:

Behold my new state-of-the-art high-spec no-expenses-spared MLG awesome-to-the-max (rubbish) Lightbox.

I am very proud of myself, yes I am.

Sarcasm aside, here's what I put in it (and then cheated by running them through Picasa).

First is this here Tango Ninja, I went for a scheme that ended up looking like the bad guy from Tron: Legacy, which isn't necessarily a bad look in my opinion.  In the original studio colour scheme, the Ninja are all in bright Neon green colours - an interesting juxtaposition with their stealth role I thought - so I wanted to have the same kind 'you shouldn't wear orange if you're trying to not be noticed' kind of vibe to them.  The fluff reasons for them being successful in their stealth of course is that they have invisibility fields.  More or less.

The second Ninja is one I got from Maelstrom because Maelstrom (as opposed to Wayland) give clear information on how much stock of model X they currently have - thus when two of the models I ordered from Wayland were out of stock (and given full refund, fair do's) I got them from Maelstrom instead.

Here's the Barbie Sniper:

I have two other Ninja set to paint and a green Oniwaban already done, so, yeah I'm doing Power Rangers.  If Power Rangers were invisible and used lethal force.  They should so do that.

Anyway, many scoff at the mere idea of a sniper ninja, seeing as how the Ninja's high CC skill is entirely wasted as you sit at one end of a fire-lane.  In fairness though, CC is extremely risky even for a vanilla-equipped Ninja, who'd be better off shooting at enemies with a Combi-Rifle.  Shooting lessens the risk of discovery and gives you 3 dice to kill your enemy with instead of CC's 1.

One last 'BBF' shot.

Well, I've got the Hacker Ninja and Shibobu Kitsune left to paint, so I'll get on those sooner or later.  If they'll be next is anyone's guess as I have a hankering to get some LotR rangers and some Khador Warjacks painted and out of the way, so we'll see eh?

Any painting or photography comments, criticism, advice, insults and/or slander welcome and encouraged.  May your fingers remain unstuck of super-glue.

Unboxing Ninjas!

Got me some more Infinity stuff.  Ninjas specifically.  Ordered two from Wayland Games and two from Maelstrom (uneconomical, I know, it just turned out that way).  The Wayland ones arrived today.

This first one is a special character, Oniwaban Shinobu Kitsune. Oniwaban is more of a title meaning 'Gardener' - pertaining to a Ninja chief's knowledge of poisons, but I'm pretty sure her given name means 'Stealth Fox' or something.  Anyway.
     One of the difficulties with Infinity models is the assembly - as they are in True Scale as opposed to GW/PP's more cartoony 'Heroic Scale', the pieces are smaller and more delicate to plonk together.  This is especially true of this lithe female character, and especially true of one of the two arm configurations, which has her posed in the process of drawing a sword i.e. the one I want. A tad typical of my luck I must say.  I also have to stick her head on, because of all that hair.
In-game, she's an Oniwaban - a stealth close combat one-hit-kill assassin with no ranged weapons at all, and ranged weapons are King in Infinity.  Models with high CC usually shoot and waggle their eyebrows at the enemy, daring them to get closer.  Unless they've got stealth, like Ninjas and Oniwaban.  Or smoke grenades. Or both, like Shinobu Kitsune.

The second is a bog standard Ninja, who comes with sword/scabbard arm configuration and a combi-rifle for some reason.  Well, the reason is that he has a combi-rifleis that his basic loadout includes one I suppose, but I have no idea where it would go.  I could glue/strap it to his back, but that would not be aesthetically preferable, and gluing it onto his base seems lazy.  It'll probably be the first addition to my Infinity bits box I suppose.  Nevertheless, I don't see any major difficulties arising to assembling him, past the normal 'small fiddly bits' problem.
In-game, he'll be deployed close to the enemy front lines for harass and killy duties, preferably shooting people off, despite his CC prowess, as closing with an enemy in CC often dispels his greatest defence, the TO: Camouflage (read: invisibility stealth suit).  Close Combat doesn't happen often in Infinity, yet I've gone and chosen the army that literally brings a sword to a gunfight as my starter army.

Sounds fun.

D20's

In other hobbying news, I got me some twenty-sided dice for Infinity.

All I need now is a second force, a shitload of terrain and a digruntled-with-GW hobbyist...

Ithilien Rangers

Watching the Hobbit trailer a few weeks ago re-awoke my passion for the original fantasy world of the Lord of the Rings.  Well technically, the first would probably be R.E. Howard's Hyboria, but we all know it was Tolkien who kick-started the fantasy genre as we know it.

I digress.

  So I had a rummage for good LotR models and found some Southern Dúnedain to paint, because they're probably the closest thing LotR has to ninjas.

Many of you might not have played/bought the LotR wargame, so you might not know that the plastic models almost always come in packs of 12, usually in three 'wargear option' groups of four.  Ithilien Rangers come in groups of four archers, four with spears and four with swords.  That's mostly for aesthetic diversity, as the basic wargear for all of them include a sword and a bow, only the spear dudes are different in-game.  I did the four spear-dudes first.

 These were painted to be tabletop level rather than a serious go at painting, plus my camera sucks.

Also, I know some people out there don't like the LotR models (I'm looking at you, Smurf) but I still don't like Sisters of Battle, so nyah.

Anyway, that's it for naw.