Infinity Line Kazak

Hello!

My name is Will and I've been invited to post to this blog, which was really nice of the guys who run it.  I play 40K and some other games, and I do my best with painting and I'm going to post some photos here of a recent paint job I did, the Infinity Veteran Kazak.

So, about me, I'm a lazy, lazy man.  With that in mind, I started by giving the model a black base coat:

I do this because my approach to painting is to create depth through shadow.  With a black base coat I can then build up highlights through dry brushing, which is really easy and works great.  

I then applied a coat of dark angel green on the armor parts, and graveyard earth on the pants, arms, and other leather parts.  But because I was kinda drunk while painting this model, I forgot to take that picture.

Right, so after that, I hit the model with a badab black wash:

 And as you can see, that almost completely undid my first coats of green and brown!  Actually I guess you can't see that since I didn't take a picture of this model before the badab black wash.  Anyway, I've never had that happen before.  I've used this trick many times since the GW wash was introduced to me, and normally it creates great depth.

But I'm not sure if because this model is white metal, or if I used too much of the wash, or what, but it backfired on me completely.

So basically I reapplied the green and browns, and then drybrushed on highlights, and this is how the model turned out.

Oh yeah, I should probably mention, I highlight by mixing 1/2 of the original color with bleached bone.  I like that better than straight up white because the highlight comes out a little softer.

I'm pretty pleased with how it looks, considering I had a few beers in me and apply so little effort to my painting jobs.

Product Review: UAMC Marines from Defiance Games

I Stopped by one of my friendly local game stores last weekend and was curious about a box I saw piled in with some new releases.  Immediately, it was apparent there was some serious potential for some great veteran stand-ins in my Imperial Guard Army but the more looked the more I was really interested in these new models. The dude working must have noticed how intrigued I was and popped over to let me know about this cool new model kit.

He explained that these infantry models are from Defiance Games a, local manufacturer, and then handed me a sprue as a free sample. Apparently the folks a Defiance Games also gave this FLGS (Hobby Bunker in Malden, MA) a stack of the new models to give out as promo items. I guess it's the luck of living close to a cool small model company.

So here they are, my first look at the "UAMC Marines." Immediately those who are familiar with Wargames Factory's stacking sprues will see the same design here. Both are Boston based companies with a nearly identical manner of manufacture, one can only assume there is some connection between these two (though how much innuendo we can draw from the name Defiance is anyones guess).

Being familiar with the Wargames Factories Greatcoat infantry, I can see a lot of similarities here. The UAMC Marines are also a great value but the level of detail is much improved over what we saw with the Greatcoats. They also have some other nice additions like surprisingly detailed heads and a variety of sidearms and backpacks and pouches.

Also, much to my delight, these guys have really awesome looking weapons. I'm not knocking other independent model manufacturers but a lot of the time 3rd party (not GW) models have disappointing looking guns, often they look like an afterthought. Not UAMC Marines though, it looks like the design for the guns was a key component in coming up with the aesthetic for these models. Everything about them is modern and tactical with picatinny rails, underslung grenade launchers and pretty badass looking squad automatic weapon.

I was ready to buy these based on the pictures on the box, now having held them in my hand I can't go without them. For anyone who likes a more sci-fi and less gothic look, these guys are for you. A little bit Master Chief from Halo and a lot of Elysian Drop Troop.

There you have it - go buy some, the price is right.

Infinity Continues...

Now I've completed my first six Haqqislam troops, the next three are the ones that I think are starting to get really cool.  The first (on the right) is the last and best looking of the Ghulam light infantry. That guy is ready for action.

L-R: Hunzakut, Hassassin Fiday, Ghulam

The next, in the middle, is the Hassassin Fiday.  As you can see he is a tall, cool slice of badass.  The Fiday is an infiltrator, he can deploy pretty much anywhere on the board, and he can deploy as an "impersonation" token.  Impersonation means that super-suit he is wearing has disguised him as the enemy making him very hard to stop before he strikes.

Impersonation is like this...with a smile

Finally, on the left, is the Hunzakut, an irregular skirmisher.  Irregular means only he can use his order (it doesn't get added to the general order pool).  He has camo (can hide as a camo token), can infiltrate (i.e. deploy half way up the board), and is equipped with a sniper rifle and antipersonnel mines.

Group shot

While I was looking for the picture of the Fiday I found this cool map on the Infinity Forums:

Cool map showing deployment zones in Infinity

Five more troops and two remotes to go...

More Infinity

So far I've completed three Infinity models (a Naffatn and two Ghulam), all light infantry.  The bases are "Broken Concrete" by Dragonforge Design, they look great with these guys.

I still don't do eyes...

"Favelas" iKube

The iKube paper terrain is from the Favelas series by Palanka.  I'll be making a shanty-town out of this stuff sooner or later.

Infinity

My interest in Infinity was recently renewed and this was the result:

Group Shot

I've been interested in the game since reading about it on the Tau of War about a year ago.   I resisted for a while but this was probably inevitable.  I picked up the Haqqislam starter set and a few additional models (Fiday - used once but possibly my favorite).

From the game:

"Haqqislam, the New Islam, is a smaller power which possesses a single star-system only, Bourak. Separating itself from fundamentalism, Haqqislam bases its culture on an Islam which is humanist, philosophical and in continuous contact with nature. Biosanitary Science and Earthformation are the two major strengths of Haqqislam, which includes the best schools of medecine and planetology in the Human Sphere."

So basically they're fremen.