Hey guys! Inspired by awesome painting threads here, decided to post my Defiance painting progress too. I've built and based all enemy models from the base campaign, aiming to paint them first, and then do some characters for our first run (likely Jaan, Jazz, Cassandra, and Uxia). My old Shasvastii models were speedpainted at 23 minutes per model (with this approach), which was effective but slightly boring: Since Defiance has a reasonable number of models, I can afford to spend more time on them. We will be looking at them at a closer distance than in usual Infinity games, so it is probably worth it to make them look better. But still, I want to be fast, to actually play the game in the upcoming weeks, not months. My initial plan was to do them at approximately 1.5 hours per model for enemies and slightly more for protagonists. I've done my tests on Nox troops, and that estimate still seems pretty reasonable. I was able to finish these guys in 87 minutes per model (painting time without assembly): I haven't touched the bases though, so that would add some time in the end (I'll definitely batch them together). Pretty stoked about the game and hoping to finish the first playable pack of models soon!
To shake things up a little bit, I switched to Taighas next. I knew its possible to cut some corners here, and decrease the overall painting time of the entire project. My process was based on Directional Glazing and then Edge Highlights to boost the overall quality during the Refinement stage (refer to the Method PDF if you're interested but unfamiliar with this staged approach to miniature painting). In the end, Taighas took me 35 minutes per model, so the entire unit was finished in one evening. Already working on the next wave of models, which would be the whole pack of non-elites — Cadmus, Seed-Soldiers, Caliban and Jayth. So, saving Sheskiin as a cherry on top.
Probably the most boring / heavy lifting part is done. A big chunk of enemy units, painted in one batch, at precisely 90 minutes per model: Just 7 more models before we can play the first mission. And they are all unique elites or characters — more time-consuming paintjob, but also more fun and less repetitive.
I saved these elites for last. Love the models, absolutely couldn't speedpaint them. Took my time and spent 5.5 - 6 hours on each. I like to insert an alternative color scheme into an army, to break up the uniformity and inject some visual diversity. This time I used armor as my playground, making it much brighter and adding more hues to it. Guess this armor would look nice on the new Sphinx model. Already working on the characters, so we're really close to playing Mission 1!
Aaand... I finished all the characters for our first run! It's been a busy week since I was doing 1 mini almost each evening. I started with Jazz, cause she is my least favorite mini out of the bunch. Maybe an unpopular opinion... but somehow I just don't get excited. So I rushed her in 2 hours 15 minutes just to get it done asap. Next, I moved on to painting Uxia, as a reward and a stress relief. Great pose, she is very alive, playful, and flirtatios. So I took my time and spent very enjoyable 4.5 hours painting her. The paintjob on her isn't something special, it's just the crate she's sitting on that took a considerable amount of time. Basically, it's painting a mini AND a scatter terrain piece. Without the crate, the mini itself would be something closer to 3 hours. Then I decided to experiment for a little bit, and challenged myself with adequately speedpainting Agnes in the smallest amount of time, and using Citadel Contrasts. She took me only 55 minutes, and indeed, everything except her skin was painted with Contrasts. I feel more and more into the thing. I saved my fav for the last, so the next mini was Jaan Staar. I play Spiral sometimes, so I used my established process, painting him in my rendering of the studio scheme. This is not an optimized speedpainting process, so he took me 3 hours 15 minutes, and still I feel the need to add some refinement later. Billie was just a by-product of a spare hour, and I've done him in 43 minutes. Took me some time to realize he's actually a bat. My wife still insists he is a kitty though... And finally, Cassandra Kusanagi, probably my favorite mini out of the whole Platinum pledge. Again, I took my time and spent an entire evening, or, more precisely, 4 hours 15 minutes. Ofc there's some upcoming basing work, but anyway, now we've got everything to play mission 1!
Really really cool progress, color choices and updates. Thanks for letting us take part in your journey!
Small update with new minis required for Mission 3 (that we played on January 1st!): Rahman, Trisha, and their remotes. Well, remotes weren't necessary, but I've painted them anyway. Duchess is definitely my fav. Had a fun time playing with Contrast paints on Rahman's cloak:
Oops, sorry guys, seems to be a permissions issue indeed. I changed that on Google Drive, so it should work now.
I like how you used a mix of cool and warm shadows on Rahman’s cloak. It’s reminiscent of some work I’ve seen done with oils, it’s impressive you get a similar result with Contrasts.
Since we've finished Missions 1-6, I decided to paint the few remaining enemies. This guy took me 5 hours 30 minutes:
And it also was a nice chance to finish all Speculo Agents, since they were waiting for their snow bases:
