IJW's Infinitely Long Painting Thread

(April 2016!)

Due to assorted forum glitches this thread was locked for some time, plus I'd not been painting many Infinity models so this thread didn't get updated. That's about to change...

I did get some models painted in the intervening two years which I'll come back to later, but first some new stuff. Ages back in the thread I was converting a Szalamandra to have a rotary cannon and a better ammo feed, and finally painted it a couple of months ago using my new (and very cheap) airbrush.

First up was rebasing it on to one of Antenociti's 55mm bases. This was undercoated with Vallejo white and grey primer, basecoated with Vallejo Air Bright Bronze and then given a dark brown wash. A day later when this was fully dry, I masked out the flat areas to do the yellow stripes.







It was then grimed up a bit by airbrushing Vallejo black dip over the middle and around where the feet were going to go, plus painting some on along the edges of the yellow and in the indentations in the yellow areas. The areas under the feet were then scraped back so that the feet would be glued to resin instead of to paint.



The indentations in the brass-etch LoF compass bar were painted with a green-yellow wash.



The Szalamandra was separately undercoated black and given a small amount of shading with the airbrush. Note that the pin on the top was added recently, and happens to measure 67mm from the ground for easy eyeballing of the S7 Silhouette.



The rest of it is brushwork, using quite a bit of parallel lines of paler grey, inspired by Angel's book.











At this stage the model was largely done apart from picking the head out and adding some OSL lighting.

As it was about to be used in a tournament i decided to varnish it as-is and come back to the rest later. Unfortunately I started off with Vallejo Satin Varnish which turned out to be very matt and completely destroyed the subtle contrasts of the greys.



Fortunately going over it immediately with Gloss salvaged it!



So the Szalamandra is now done apart from the head, lights and doing a Tunguska pennant on the computer to go on the banner pole. Yay painting!

 

And then I started something new...







One of the reasons I've not been painting many Infinity models recently is because I don't feel like painting 'normal' 28mm figures at the moment, with fabric, human skin etc. Handily, there's a new Sectorial which doesn't involve much of that.

So here's my test piece for a small Onyx force. The overall theme is for a slightly biomechanical look where you've not entirely sure which bits are mechanical and which are organic. Blues, greens and pinks were chosen as the main colours to make them distinct from my other forces, and because I don't usually use those combinations.

Basing was a very simple coat of Vallejo Sandy paste mixed with a small amount of sand.

Pink base colour on the head. You can also see the effects of the zenithal highlighted undercoat, doing a lot of the preshading already.



Blue and yellow glazes applied as base colours on the armour.





A mix of green and yellow glazes, chestnut and brown inks and VMC Smoke was then used to shade the yellow/green areas, adding more and more brown and smoke in the darker areas.





A wash was then mixed for the pink areas, largely from purple glaze plus assorted reds and purples. VMC Smoke was then mixed in and applied to the darkest areas to enrich the shadows.





The gun and a few unpainted bits of leg were given a thick dark grey wash and some highlighting.



The blue areas had been given another coat of blue glaze at some point, and now had some highlighting added. The gun was given a glowing green barrel and bumps on the plasma canister (mostly VMA Light Livery Green and white) and the eyes were painted in shades of blue.



To finish off, the base was given a thick wash of browns (this may have been straight VMC Smoke) and black-edged. Ta da!



In all, the test figure took about two and a half hours which I'm very pleased with - it's fast enough that I might manage a fully painted force...

 

The Umbra Legate got a much darker undercoat, starting with actual black rather than German Panzer Grey.

I started with the sword, with a thin coat of green that lets the preshading show through slightly.



Using clingfilm to mask the rest of the model, I airbrushed on some dark bands and highlight areas.







Then some stripy highlights and shading were added with a brush.



To echo the biomechanical theme of the test Unidron, the muscle fibres got a pink base coat. Severalareas that will be yellow got a white undercoat added.



The sword got a green-yellow glaze to bring back the richness of the colours.



Pink-brown shading wash on the pink areas, followed by VMC Smoke in the darkest areas.







Most of the fabric areas got a thin coat of dark purple that let a little of the preshading show through, followed by a couple of layers of highlighting, keeping the overall tone very dark.





Most of the remaining areas were painted black.





The ribbed areas got a yellow base colour.



Followed by shading with Gold Yellow and then browns, and highlighted with Medium Yellow and white.







Mask base coated white and then washed with dark grey, and the base texture smoked.





The areas around the yellow-gold ribbing got a black wash, but slightly thinner to keep it paler than the back areas.



Mask highlighted and eyes added.



Base edge blacked in. Ta da!

 

The Unidron and Legate with grass and snow added.




Going backwards slightly, this is the rest of the zenithally undercoated models, with the bases painted already.



And time for a bit of fun, the Imetrons. I've loved these as sculpts since they first came out and they're a great model for the biomechanical theme.

Green wash followed by pink base colour.





Followed by a couple of coats of blue glaze on some of the more rigid-looking pieces to echo the blue parts of the Unidron.





A warm brown ink/glaze mix to start adding colour to the rest of the model.





Then some green added to the mix in several coats, adding more to the more recessed areas to increase the shading.





I also added some thin dark green-brown ink to parts of the 'leaves' to give them some more shape, layering it up darker and darker in the creases.



Pink-brown wash added over the pink areas, plus some browner washes added down the 'roots' to make them blend into the colour of the base, and along the lower edges of the blue pieces.





The pink-brown wash had been a bit too thick to the pink areas got highlighted again with pink and then a small amount of pink and white. I also added some pale edge-highlighting to the 'leaves' to make them look like a harder material.



The four painted models together.

 

By the way, the Umbra took about four hours including a couple of short breaks, the Imetrons about two hours for the pair.

Now the model I'm most pleased with so far, the Noctifer with Missile Launcher. I decided to take inspiration from a Spektr Sniper I did a few years ago and have the model shown in the middle of uncloaking from Hidden Deployment.

Here's the Spektr.







Unfortunately he suffered a bit from having been 'overdone', he actually looked better in an earlier stage before I added the blue glow effect.





So, the Noctifer.



To keep things simple I just painted the 'cloaked' areas exactly the same as the base, with straight VMC Smoke. The patterns were partly based on Friesian cows, partly on paisley and partly on assorted fractals, aiming for the feel of something that was degrading and breaking up along the edges.

I may have cheated a little by deciding that areas of the model that I didn't want to paint properly, like the legs, would be completely cloaked...





The next step was to paint the visible parts of the underlying trooper. Given the sculpted detail on the cloak tail, wasp-like black and yellow stripes came to mind.





All the colours used so far on the model.



Yellow areas finished and black areas painted dark grey.





Black areas shaded/highlighted. Note some bits of white left over along the boundary line of the cloaking effect.



The entire boundary edged in white.



And then given a blue glow.



The Missile Launcher was then painted in greys to look a bit like the Unidron's Plasma Carbine, but with a big red barrel to really stand out - and to look slightly disturbing/organic. I also added some pale green glow to the two lights on the left arm.



The colours for the face assembled.



The face finished and some more green glow added to the arm lights.





The boundary glow hadn't looked electric enough, so I ended up going over the whole edge adding a stronger blue stripe and then adding some pure white highlights in the tips of each curve into the cloaked areas, which really made it pop.





Overall, much more successful than the final version of the Spektr. Final painting time (from undercoat) was about three hours.

 

The paints are closer to 15/25 years old, and still (mostly) going strong! Although I'm mostly using Vallejo Air these days, even with a brush.

 

(April 2016)

Getting the thread up to date as far as the Onyx are concerned is the Anathematic. He's not available in Onyx but for now he'll do proxy duty as a Sphinx, Xeodron or Overdron as needed.

I got most of these Combined Army models secondhand and the Anathematic needed some reconstruction, with most of the parts getting removed, cleaned up and reglued more firmly. The whip tentacles were in one part but had detached cleanly from the head, so I scraped off all traces of glue and added some 0.5mm brass rod pins.





The whips were then carefully repositioned so that they looked less 'flat' by having them curve in two planes, and so that they would pass the knees or calves of the legs, enabling me to glue them solidly there as well. The end result is that there is only about 3cm of unsupported whip at the end, and that's mostly underneath the raised arm.









'Boo!'





As far as painting is concerned, he'll end up similar to the Unidron to reinforce the design similarities.

 

(May 2016)

Time for some updates. I did the Ikadron and the other two Unidrons last week.

But first, the reason why I just bought a big bag full of replacement paint pot lids...





First glazes of colour. The Ikadron got a yellow-brown glaze instead of yellow, the idea is to make it a slightly different colour from the Unidrons.





The middle one has had it's first allover green/yellow/brown wash over the yellow glaze but hasn't had the darker areas shaded.





All greens done, with the Ikadron again getting less yellow and more brown in the mix.





I love me a good shading wash on a well-detailed section.

You can also see the browner shadows on the right head tentacles, with slightly watered down VMC Smoke.





In the background you can see the original test-piece model, the pink-brown wash on the newer models is less pink and more red than the original as it's only three different colours mixed together instead of six, but I like it.





For the slat areas on the Ikadron I took some inspiration from the Noctifer's wasp stripes and went for a thin coat of Golden Yellow shaded with Leather Brown and (of course) Smoke. It reminds me a little of a hornet.







All done bar the black base edges, grasses and snow.

 

And getting up to date, a load of construction and undercoating work from this weekend and this evening.

A special treat for myself, the big bad gribbly himself.





'My, what big... knees you've got, Grandma!'





Having placed him very far back on the base he's not too bad for balance, but I added some extra lead under the base to make sure. Plus some bigger magnets than usual.





With a weapon swap he'd also make a pretty good spirit for Some Other Game™ in 6mm.





Alongside three SWC Unidrons and the second Ikadron, also assembled this weekend.







The usual mix of Sandy Paste with a little sand in.





The Anathematic got a spare PanOceanian leg to snack on, and to break up the flat base a bit.









The whole lot plus Doctor Worm undercoated in Vallejo Surface Primer German Panzer Grey, apart from the Umbra who got straight black.





On the left, plus some VSP Grey from about 40˚ off vertical.





Followed after that by VSP White from about 20˚ off vertical, with some extra over the base.





While the Umbra Samaritan just got white in the areas that I think will need a pale undercoat to make the colours brighter.





And the back. At which point I realised that the Vorpal Snicker-Snacker's blades were going to need white undercoat as well...





While I was at it, the tips of the cloak remnants got brightened up some more.





The undercoated family shot.

 

A bit more progress. Pink areas basecoated and bases gone over with VMC Smoke.



Yellows and browns basecoated on the Corax, I've decided that variations on wasp and bee stripes will be the theme for any Shasvastii used.





The VMC Smoke on the Samaritan's base was blended up into the undercoat so that the final colours will merge into the base more.



I tried a slightly different blue for these two Unidrons, mixing in a little VGA Magic Blue to give it some more coverage. I'm worried that it might be too vivid, but we'll see how it goes once some green-brown shading gets added later on.



The Ikadron and Dr Worm got the same but with Coat d Arms Chestnut Ink mixed in as I want to keep the support units a visibly different colour.



However this was too drab, so they got a glaze of Turquoise Glaze.



That was enough proper painting for the evening, so I did the base edges in black to finish off.

 

I forgot to take any construction photos, but the first Drone Remote is put together. It mostly went together cleanly but I did add a pin through the intersection of the legs and up into the body.



With magnets...







The body had four 2x1mm magnets in the 'neck', and then the arms have two 2x1mm magnets in the 'shoulders', apart from the Smart Missile Launcher which had three.



And with texturing. Plus the base for a second Noctifer.

 

Some more paint on the Samaritan. I wanted to make the tips of the cloak slightly dry and leafy-looking.

First I added some grey-brown wash to the darker parts of the bottom half.



Then some purple and green washes were mixed.



And applied in a couple of passes, painting into the shadows in a mix of purple, green and the two mixed together into a brown colour, drawing some inspiration from @whisper's inking techniques (http://infinitytheforums.com/forum/topic/28957-whispers-wips-the-return-again).







A pale wash was then applied to the tips.





Followed by adding white to the mix for the highlights, followed by a small amount of almost pure white.







I then did the trousers blue but am not happy with the lack of smooth highlights, however I'm hoping some glazes and washes will deal with that.



The pink areas then got the usual pink/brown shading wash plus blending VMC Smoke into the shadows. This required a lot more manual intervention than on the other models due to the darker undercoat and different type of detail, but I'm happy with the end result.



Finally for last night, the ribbing round the neck got a white undercoat as these will be yellow-brown to match the Legate. The blue on the undergarment came out much better than on the front!



Still to do on the Samaritan:

• The rest of the cloak needs something, probably a very dark purple (darker and less rich in colour than the Legate), possibly shaded up to a pale greenish colour.
• The Vorpal CCW body will probably be flat black, and possibly the forearm and bicep armour and hood as well. For the blades I want to go for a translucent green-turquoise effect as if they were glass, echoing the probable inspiration in the form of the Shuriken from Neal Asher's Polity books - a semi-sentient 'chainglass' flying weapon that can change shape and cut through almost anything...
• The yellow ribbing round the neck.
• The face/mask, in white again.
• The gun, but that might get a zenithal white undercoat first, when I undercoat the Drone.
• The codpiece. I have no idea what to do with the codpiece.
• Washes/glazes on the trousers.

 

The main body of the cloak was done in purple, mostly VMA Hexed Lichen shaded up with VMC Green Grey.







I then picked out the veins on the cloak.



And blended them back in with a wash of Hexed Lichen and VMA Fire Red. I also added another layer of highlighting to the cloak with hexed Lichen and VMA White, as it was too flat.



The front, which also had a little blending in of the trouser highlights.



Given the midnight blue undergarment and the almost supernatural nature of the sculpt, I couldn't resist adding a starfield to the back.



Colours and mixes for the last few steps.



Now the Vorpal CCW. In honour of Shuriken (see previous post) and also from someone's comment on Twitter a while ago, the idea was to try and get the effect of translucent glass like you sometimes find on a beach, with a mix of deep turquise colours and sand-abraded pale areas.



As you can see above, I'd put a lot of white undercoat onto the blade areas, step zero was to use a thick wash of VMA Black on the 'body' of the CCW. Paints used next:



I started by taking a mix of the green and turquoise GW Glazes and painted it directly over the white undercoat, building up layers of colour, darker towards the base of each blade and towards the leading edges, but leaving the actual leading edge almost untouched white.



I then mixed increasing amounts of VMA White with the glaze mix and used that to add highlights as that gives really clean colours. I used a 'crosshatch' technique with lots of narrow parallel lines of pale colour as that usually gives a good shiny/translucent effect, making sure to leave some of the darkest colour visible.



This still wasn't quite as smooth as I wanted on the two main blades, so I mixed up some darker tones of glaze+white and went further towards the leading edges of the blades, highlighting up again afterwards and bringing the pure white highlights further down the blades from the tips.



Going in, I wasn't sure I was up to the challenge as my fine line painting is still a bit rusty/suffers from poorer eyesight, but it came out better than I'd hoped!

 

Time for another image-dump...

Masking out the rest of the model using clingfilm, while undercoating the gun.





Gun given a black wash followed by semi-wet-blended grey shading, followed by blue OSL.



Highlighting on the greaves before a black wash.



While touching up the OSL on the gun I used some of the same mixes of VMZ Magic Blue, GW Turquoise Glaze and VMA White to do the area round the neck.





And then decided it was too bright/vivid and toned it down with some Green Glaze mixed with Smoke.





I couldn't think of a colour to do the codpiece, so went for a muted bronze, to be given a wash in the morning.



Better photos in daylight.





Codpiece given a brown wash.



And the final touch, red-orange knuckles and claws on the fingers.





Another one done!

 

All the painted models (plus Sepsitorized HVT) and all the constructed/undercoated models. Plus there's a Fraacta that needs a wing repair, a Noctifer Spitfire and a Unidron Missile Launcher to come.

 

The replacement body for the second Drone arrived, so it got magnetised on the arm socket.



The rear antenna got magnets too.



And like the first one, a pin was added through the intersection of the legs and up into the torso.



With magnetised bits:





And without:



Alternatively with the Smart Missile Launcher:

 

It was time to add the 'yellow' under colour to some more Remotes. The Unidrons got the standard Yellow Glaze but for the Ikadron and Doctor Worm I tried mixing in a tiny bit of Hexed Lichen, thinking that it would make a richer colour than adding Smoke.



Yellow on the right, 'brown' mix middle and left.



And then I didn't feel like painting green...

So it was time for the Shasvastii Corax, aka Designated Proxy Number 1. The black areas got a thinned coat of dark grey while the purplre areas had a thinned coat of Hexed Lichen. I don't normally paint models in parts, but the sword arm was just too much of a pain.







Yelow areas shaded with VGA Gold Yellow and then with a tiny amount of Lichen mixed in.



Then highlighted with VMA Medium Yellow and increasing amounts of white. The 'black' areas of clothing got highlighted as well.





Backpack and some other areas painted black, because I ran out of colour ideas.



I'm pretty pleased with the OSL on this, I used assorted mixes of white, VMA Light Livery Green and VMC Yellow Flouro, which is a weird beast.



Backpack finished apart from the sword. The red grenades and green tentacles were mostly Devlan Mud over flat colour (the tentacles had had a little highlighting) as it was all small detail. The shading on all the straps and bags was mostly Devlan Mud as well, plus some very thinned Hexed Lichen for the darkest shadows.



And done! Having run out of inspiration for colour for the sword, I went with an effect similar to that used on the Samaritan's Vorpal CCW, but with blues and done faster. The sword on the back was then done in dark blues to look like a 'deactivated' version of the same.











And again in daylight.











As a bonus extra, here's the Noctifer again, with satin varnish painted over the uncloaked areas - the gloss varnish used over the whole model was looking a bit odd in places. The satin makes the areas easier to see, and adds more distinction between the visible and cloaked parts.

 

(June 2016)

XEODRON!

Legs and base attached.





Even in Infinity terms, these have got a lot of fins, and they need to go together in exactly the right order...





The U-shaped piece with a fin on each end slots inside the middle curve of the backpack.

Note 1 - the backpacks are torso-specific but similar, they will only fit properly on the correct torso..

Note 2 - do not add any glue yet!





Glue the U-piece and the backpack to the body in one go, you may need to wiggle the U-piece a little to get it to bed into the slot at the top of the shoulders. I also added the head, bending the mouth fins out and forwards to make them easier to paint and to make them clear the chest-piece.





Then the two pieces with two stubby fins go alongside the neck, with the back ends interlocking with the sides of the backpack and the U-piece. This forms the mounting slot for the big overhead fins. If you look closely you can see the scoring of the joint surfaces for better gluing.





Both sets of stubby fins attached.





The left and right overhead fins added (they're identical). The righthand one needed filing down a bit at the end as it was slightly too fat to fit into the slot formed by the other pieces.







Arms added, assembly done.













With an HVT for scale. No pins were used, but I spent some time making sure all the joints were a good fit, scoring all joint surfaces and then afterwards adding extra glue to the set joints by dipping a needle into superglue and letting capillary action pull the glue off the needle into the joints.





No assembly photos of the second one, but it went together almost identically to the first one.









And the Fireteam: Haris.

 

Now with textured bases, and some Slave Drones thanks to @Lilith