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Every year I try to put painting miniatures aside, even if just for a bit, to bring to you a Battle Report. Infinity the Game is still my favorite miniatures game and once again I participate in a yearly online campaign. Keeping the story short – it’s that time of the year and to uphold to tradition – I’m back with this year’s Infinity the Game Battle Report. (Apologies to all those who have no idea about Infinity and it’s lore).
After berely surviving ALEPHS incursion at Wotan blokade the Dong Peyote repurposed freighter fled to deep space for vital repair. It took a year to fix the ship, during which it’s crew kept a low profile, gathering reasources necessary to rejoin Nomad military operations. Couple of weeks ago DeePee’s long range radio scanner picked up a call for help from Johhny-5 Arachne Node, based on planet Dawn. The ship and it’s crew burned their engines dry to finally arrive at planet Dawn just in time. Battered yet unbroken, Dong Peyote entered the atmosphere of Dawn using a meteor shower to disquise it’s signature from Ariadna low-tech scanners, the same night as Vince McMahogany news of conflict erupting at Novyy Cimmeria shocked public media of the Human Sphere.
It was Zhàn Huó Firebase that picked Dong Peyote’s approach before it’s mighty load could be dropped at J-5 Node. To avoid being shot down, captain of the ship decided to fall back to low orbit. This did not sit well with the crew, eager to aid their Nomad brethren in defense of the node. Small elite squads were formed and then dropped over entire island in assault pods. Each squad was to carry it’s own mission, to then converge at the J-5 node, all the while Dong Peyote would support them from orbit…
Team ‘Kraken’ ,named after Kriza Borac suit of power armour that formed it’s core, crash landed at the no man’s land between Panoc-23 Multi-Base and the outskirts J-5 installation. Their secret mission doomed to fail, the team received orders to head north and intercept a heavy armoured Panoceania kill-squad. Guided by the all seeing eye of the Dong Peyote, team Kraken layed the trap…
After setting up the trap Nomads layed in wait. [Won the roll-off and kept the Initiative, which resolved in setting up first.] The plan was to take Panoceanians by surprise, going in loud and hard, Full-Auto to cover Wraith (Spectre) advance and enable him to deploy Repeaters. That in turn would allow team’s Interventor to turn the tables on top of approaching Panoceania Heavy Infantry. Kitty, the Chimera was kept in reserve – being a fast runner, capable of crossing long distances and taking the enemy by surprise. A good simple plan. Exactly the type that might go wrong…
Critko was barely able to contain Kraken’s lust for blood. The big man was breathing heavily over the comms and Critko knew all to well that the time he had to cover a firelane with area of White Noise was counted in merely seconds. No one said that being LT was easy, especially when commanding a group composed of individuals from all three mothersships. He closed his eyes, counted to five and screamed loud ‘NOW!’ over the comms. (LT order and 4 regular orders for the White Noise to succeed. Like WTF?!)…
Entire team reacted almost instantly, springing into action. Kraken led the charge opening up with a wide salvo from his heavy mashine gun. Hot ultra-sonic rounds zipped through the air and over the heads of surprised Magister Knights, who tossed themeselves sideways and into cover. Blinded by the area of White Zone, a Black Friar reacted too late and was shredded to pieces. ‘First blood!’ roared Kraken, just as enemy panzerfaust missiles started exploding around him…
Enemy shock lasted less than five seconds. Just enough for Wraith to throw himself forward and behind cover. ‘These Pano Knights are a real deal’ he murmured to his team, deploying first of the repeaters. ‘They surely are’ whispered a voice behind him. The Spektr noded, more to himself than to Mighty Dong Peyote shadowing him, still being Camoed. ‘Allright Dong, one more repeater and you can go in. Oh, the sweet surprise these guys are about to get.’ He cackled…
Heavy mashine gun shots peppered the air around Magister Knights yet they regained composure in a matter of seconds. With a loud ‘Deus Vult’ booming from their helmet speakers, they threw themeselves in the direction of incomming fire, swords raised high. The leading knight was first to fall into the trap. Critko Isolated him with ease, denying leadership to the entire squad. One more knight got Gotcha!’ed before the rest realised what’s going on and backed away…
An Order Sergeant de-camoed on a rufftop and opened fire at aRGee (Riotgrrl ML) damaging her armour. She ducked for cover, AP rounds bouncing off her armoured shoulder guard. That’s when comms exploded with a scream of agony. Kitty, the Chimera got shot in the back by a rapidly decelerating AD troop. Crusader Brethren landed in a cloud of dust and sent another volley from his spitfire. He then switched to supressive fire, blocking entire fire lane and covering the howling Chimera against any attempts of Nomads trying to aid her…
Except for immobilized leader, knights were falling back behind cover. That was an opening Kraken waited for. He rushed in, taking the statue-like Panoceanian out of his misery with a short, well placed series of HMG fire. He gained momentum and steered his heavy armour to a new direction, moving around a low building and outflanking remaining knights. ‘Bullseye’ he murmured to himself, once his armour’s targeting lenses caught new signatures. Crouched behind cover and protected by a Magister Knight was Panoceania’s Leutenant. Kraken pulled the trigger and the world around was set ablaze by the light of high-speed tracking rounds. Both Panoceanians returned fire, but it was too late. Smoke rising from the holes in their blooded armour, Panoceanias barely touched the ground when Kraken exploded into action once again. He covered half the distance between them and jumped onto a ladder, holstering the HMG on his back. Strong pulls from his massive hands saw him emerge on a rooftop across Panoceanian Sniper. Termo Optic Camo haze danced all over sniper’s silhouette, while he pumped round after round pinning aRGee and Aby behind cover, across the battlefield. Kraken had just the right tool for the job. Full-Automatic fire cut poor Panoceanian in half…
At the other side of the battlefield a nameless Zero shimmered into being. Spitfire wielding Crusader Brethren was unlucky enough to find himself at the receiving end of Zero’s Combi Rifle. Kitty was barely alive but not beyond reach of heavy drugs mixed with some Aby’s magic…
Sudden redeployment of Kriza Borac allowed the two remaining knights to attack through empty firelane. As one, they threw themeselves out into the open and charged. The first knight to emerge from behind corner, in hope of rounding up on Wraith, had a nasty surprise waiting for him. The Mighty Dong Peote (Bran DoCastro) dropped Camo and Engaged the knight, moving under the barrel of his shotgun and closing the distance in a blink of an eye. The knight took a wide swing with his sword, but the Mighty Dong Peyote parried it easily and put the knight down with a strong punch of his energised brass knuckles. Second knight joined the fight eager to drew Nomad blood. Mouth opened, Wraith watched in ave as the Mighty Dong Peyote whirled and danced around the knights, using one of them to throw himself into air and laying a devastating punch on another knight’s helmet. For a moment there, it looked like a strange mix of blue armour, Nomad mask, smoke and blood. Entire fight lasted less than half a minute and then it ended just as suddenly as it begun…
Kraken allowed himself to be distracted by close combat that took place below. Energy discharges and blood dropplets seem to slow down before his eyes. This was a sign that the suit pumped a fresh coctail of drugs into his bloodstream just to keep him standing. He turned to survey the battlefield, just in time to see a boarding Shotgun wielding Crusader comming at him from behind. He squeezed the trigger hard but a rain of bullets never came. The display showed ’empty’. Kraken had no time to reflect on this, cause a Borading Shotgun slug hit him square in the chest and sent his heavy suit to the ground. Another round blasted a huge gap in his thigh, blood and nano-oil exploding in every direction. Kraken roared like a wounded animal. With inhuman effort he unholstered his pistol and sent few rounds in the direction of the assailant, but it was already too late – his vision blurred, he let himself be embraced by blackness…
Kraken woke up suddenly, surrounded by chaos. Screams of the wounded and the dying were accompanied by constant gunfire somewhere in the background. High walls decorated with ‘J-5’ signs surrounded a vast hall, filled with makeshift beds, each being occupied by a wounded soldier. Aby stood over him arguing passionately with what seemed to be one of the cat-eared Daktaris. ‘Where are we?’ he wanted to say, but a short, rough gasp was all that managed to leave his dried lips. ‘Shh big boy, you lost a lot of blood’ said Aby and put her hand on his bare, muscled shoulder. The touch of her warm hand made him realize he’s been stripped of his armour and this sent a burst of adrenaline into his brain. He tried to sit straigh but couldn’t. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. He looked down his body. ‘Where’s my fucking leg?!’ he roared through cracked lips. Aby just smiled at him gently. ‘Don’t worry big guy. We’ll get you a new one’…
This battle of Firefight was fought between me and my dear friend Astharis. At the end of turn two, Panoceania retreated, but not before earning a honourable one Victory Point, by taking out Nomad Data Tracker with two well placed Boarding Shotgun rounds.
The end result was 8 for the Nomads who managed to:
*kill more Lieutenants than the adversary (2 Objective
Points).
*kill more Army Points than the adversary (3 Objective
Points).
*kill the enemy DataTracker (1 Objective Point).
*accomplish two Classyfied Objectives (Extreme Prejudice & Secure HVT).
against 1 for the Military Orders who :
*killed the enemy DataTracker (1 Objective Point).
We had a lot of fun as the game was plagued by rolls that broke stathistics, some really cinematic moments and funny situations.
Highlights:
* I totally lost faith in Critko (Interventor) who up to now was always a reliable, almost godlike hacker. 5 rolls to place a single White Noise was just beyond rotfl.
* Kraken (Kriza Borac HMG) was vital to achieving vistory. The HMG beast is fast and was able to outflank Panoceanians and take out some vital targets. He was ultra badass, even tho last Pano effort to earn some OP’s actually took him out (Unconscious).
* In this game Intruder HMG done literally nothing, except providing orders XD
* Double Repeater trap combined with Kriza’s AROs was a bullseye, that allowed me to keep the Magister Knights at bay.
* The Mighty Dong Peyote (Bran DoCastro) was insane in this match, overcoming two Magister Knights in a glorious and brutal CC.
* I expected to see more TO: Camo. Imagine my surprise when first Crusader entered the board behind my troops and killed the Chimera. Imagine my surprise when second Crusader entered the board and took out the Kriza XD If my forces weren’t spread wide or if I lost the Initiative – these guys would be devastating.
In this easy, step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a Lush Base. I designed these bases to fit Infinity the Game Tohaa ‘tactical rocks’ – you can see how it turned out at Infinity TOHAA ‘Witness Me!’ gallery.
* I started by separating Grape mounts from the dried out Grape branch. Being rather soft, their topf have been removed to improove durability and shape.
* I then applied a drop of basing glue onto the base, followed up shortly by another drop - this time super glue.
* Before mixed glue drop was able to dry out I've planted Grape mount on top of it, creating strange looking plant.
* Once glue dried up I've painted the bases following choosen colour scheme (see below). I then added some texture on top of them with Stirland Battlemire texture paint.
* orem ipsum dolor sit amet, Integer commodo tristiqu odio, aliquet ut. Maecenas sed justo imperdiet bibendum. Vivamus nec sapien imperdiet diam. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed onsectetur suscipit nunc et rutrum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,volutpat. Sed onsectetur suscipit nunc et rutrum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, volutpat.
* Last step was to apply regular tufts. I used some noname tufts in large numbers filling most of the flat areas. Job done.
Black Undercoat,
Stirland Battlemire (GW), texture
Karak Stone (GW), stones & plants
Flayed One Flesh (GW), flatbrush stones & plants
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP), wash
Here are some Colour Recipes for Combined Armys from GALLERY: INFINITY COMBINED ARMY lvl 5. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
BLACK/GREY armour & weapons:
Black Undercoat,
Panzer Dark Grey (Val),*
Light Grey (Val),*p
Fenrisian Grey (GW), l&p
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW), l&p
Dark Tone Ink (AP),
Wolf Grey (Val), blend
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW), l&p
Red Terracota (Val), blend
Off White (Val), l&p
ORANGE fibers:
Mix Hot Orange (Val) 9:1 Troll Slayer Orange (GW), wash
Mix Hot Orange (Val) 1:1 Troll Slayer Orange (GW), wash
Mix Troll Slayer Orange (GW) 9:1 Mix Hot Orange (Val),
Mix Troll Slayer Orange (GW) 9:1:X Mix Hot Orange (Val), Pale Wych Flesh (GW), l&p
Pale Wych Flesh (GW), p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1:1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP), Bloodletter (GW), Medium,
Hot Orange (Val), blend
RED lights:
Lugganath Orange (GW), l&p
Gory Red (Val), glaze
LAVA bases:
Mahogany (Val), *
Gorthor Brown (GW), drbr rocks
Gory Red (Val), * lava
Scrofulous Brown (Val), * lava
Mix Scrofulous Brown (Val) 2:1 White, * lava
Black, p lava
Scrofulous Brown (Val), *p lava
Lamenters Yellow (Val), * lava
Hot Orange (Val), * lava
White, * bubbles
Mix Scrofulous Brown (Val) 5:1 Black, * rocks
Black, blend rocks
Gloss Varnish, lava
l&p – lines and points,
p – points,
bl – blend,
gl – glaze,
drbr – drybrush,
flbr – flatbrush,
stpl – stippling,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
In this easy, step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create and paint a Lava Bases. I used these bases for Infinity the Game Combined Army – you can see how it turned out at Infinity COMBINED ARMY ‘Witness Me!’ gallery.
**Where I’m from there’s a small paper bag filled with moist absorbsion balls in every shoe box. If you can’t get that, just use some grains or make small balls out of green stuff or even modeling clay.
* I started by breaking a piece of Cork into smaller bitz.
* I then applied Super Glue over the bases in a random pattern. No need to be precise here.
* Pieces of Cork followed to form 'volcanic rocks' and future spots for the miniatures to be mounted on.
* Once Super Glue dried out I covered entire base with Basing Glue.
* I then dropped tiny balls (shoe moist absorbers) oon top of the Basing Glue, between 'volcanic rocks' to create an effect boiling lava bubbles.
* Next I applied Basing Glue over the bubbles.
* Black Undercoat.
* Mahogany (Val) airbrushed all over the base.
* Gorthror Brown (GW) drybrush over the Rocks.
* Gory Red (Val) airbrushed over Lava.
* Scrofulous Brown (Val) airbrushed over Lava.
* Scrofulous Brown (Val) + White airbrushed over Lava.
* Black spots added around Rocks
* Scrofulous Brown (Val) airbrushed over Black spots.
* Lamenters Yellow (GW) airbrushed over Lava.
* Hot Orange (Val) spots airbrushed over Black spots, White airbrushed over bubbles.
* Scrofulous Brown (Val) + Black, then pure Black glaze applied oved the Rocks.
* Gloss Varnish applied over Lava.
Welcome to the fourth installment into the ‘Painting Philosophy’ series, where “I let you in on ‘how’ and especially ‘why’ I do some things in a certain way. In my opinion a proper approach to painting is crucial to maintain healthy and rewarding experience. Final result depends on it in the same way as on techniques, know-how and tools used. Nowadays internet is full of painting tutorials yet it takes some inner understanding of our own capabilities to find what suits us best and fully benefit from all acquired knowledge. That being said – In this series I will reveal what works best for me as a painter. I hope you will find some wisdom in it…”
Today I would like to talk less about painting and more about basing and composition, cause it does not matter how great your paint job is – if you based a miniature poorly it will look off, so there’s that. By ‘basing and composition’ I understand the way a miniature is set up on a base. It’s not enough that a miniature is just mounted on top of a base. In the end base is a display for our miniature and together they create a composition, that should be both stable on the gaming board and tell a little story about the miniature itself…
Basically, every humanoid miniature has a center of gravity. In most cases it is located slightly below the chest and over the pelvis of a miniature. If a miniature is armed with giant gun or standing with hands spread, the center of gravity might shift a little to encompass additional weight. In these cases both gun (big, heavy part) and main body of the miniature are treated as a single ‘body’ and the center of gravity is shifted away from natural position and towards additional part/parts evenly.
The key is to base a miniature so that it’s center of gravity is alligned with the center of the base. It does not have to be exact, but let’s just say the closer the better. In case of more complex miniatures it is possible that aligning shifted center of gravity with center of the base will move main body of the miniature to one side of the base (for example to the back of the base). This is ok for as long as the miniature stays within the invisible lines of the base’s edge and seem to still occupy the top of the base evenly.
To put it simply – because it looks better and adds feeling of ‘physics’ to the composition. As mentioned before a base and miniature are a single composition. This means that the way you mount a miniature on the base will translate into a short story about what is actually going on. Imagine a base to be a visualisation of physics of your miniature. For example:
‘Bakunin Taskmaster charging, using his right pauldron like a battering ram to slam through enemies…’ You can see this guy is heavy and moving forward. This is achieved by shifting center of gravity to the back of miniature, towards extended armed hand and aligning it with center of the base. This guy is moving forward and you can actually see his immediate destination on the base he’s moving over.
Now imagine how stupid it would look like if Bakunin Taskmaster was mounted with his feet at the center of the base instead. You don’t actually have to imagine, cause I will show you. Now this giant of steel, polimer and fiber muscles looks like he lost his footing and is jumping off a cliff as a result. Entire right hand and part of the pauldron is off the base and seem to drag the rest of the miniature along.
Here’s a set of examples I dug in the web and how I see them performed.
You have now finished the fourth Painting Philosophy article. This series is all about sharing forbidden knowledge so if it drove you insane, just stay calm and paint some. You get back to normal once it settles up in your mind. As usual – ‘Please take note that what works for me, might not necessarily work for you – still there are many ways to accomplish certain things – mine is just one of them’. If you find this article helpful – be sure to leave me some feedback. Have a nice hobbying 😉
“Many fall in the face of chaos. But not this one, not today.”
Here are some Colour Recipes for Steelheart’s Champions from GALLERY: SHADESPIRE STEELHEART’S CHAMPIONS. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
GOLDEN armour:
Black Undercoat,
Mix Rust metallic (Val) 1:1 Blackk metallic (Val), *
Bright Bronze (Val), *
Mix Bright Bronze (Val) 1:1 Brass Balls (P3),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Mix Brass Balls (P3) 1:1 Shining Silver (AP), l&p
BLUE:
Steel Blue (Val),
Magic Blue (Val),
Mix Magic Blue (Val) 1:1 French Blue (Val), l
Mix Magic Blue (Val) 1:1:1 French Blue (Val), Off White (Val), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Baharroth Blue (GW), l&p
Guilliman Blue (Gw), glaze
Off White (Val), l&p
SCROLLS:
Khaki (Val), *
Bonewhite (Val), *
Mix flayed one Flesh (GW) 1:1 Off White (Val),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
Hot Orange (Val), gl
Gloss Varnish (Val), p
METAL weapons:
Black Undercoat,
Warplock Bronze (GW),
Gun Metal (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
GREY belts & strips:
Black Undercoat,
Panzer DK. Grey (Val),
Fenrisian Grey (GW), flbr
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
ORANGE hafts:
Black Undercoat,
Cavalry Brown (Val),
Orange Brown (Val), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Orange Brown (Val), l&p
Lugganath Orange (GW), l&p
Off White (Val), l&p
Hot Orange (Val), gl
BASES:
Medium Sea Grey (Val), *
Light Grey (Val)*,
Pale Grey (Val),*
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
Dirt (Val), bl
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP), bl
l&p – lines and points,
p – points,
bl – blend,
gl – glaze,
drbr – drybrush,
flbr – flatbrush,
stpl – stippling,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
Here are some Colour Recipes for Garrek’s Reavers from GALLERY: SHADESPIRE GARREK’S REAVERS. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
SKULLS:
Black Undercoat,
Bonewhite (Val),
Skeleton Bone (AP),
Mix Skeleton Bone (AP) 1:1 Off White (AP), l&p
Off White (Val), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
SKIN:
Black Undercoat,
Red Terracotta (Val), *
Dwarf Skin (Val), *
Flesh (Val), *
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Dwarf Skin (Val), bl
Flesh (Val), b
Tanned Flesh (Val), gl
Flesh (Val), l&p
RED armour:
Black Undercoat,
Red Terracotta (Val), *
Khorne Red (GW),
Mephiston Red (GW),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Fire Dragon Bright (GW), l&p
Lugganath Orange (GW), l&p
Streaking Grime (AK),
METAL armour:
Black Undercoat,
Warplock Bronze (GW),
Gun Metal (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
BROWN belts & strips:
Red Terracotta (Val), * undercoat,
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW), flbr
Off White (Val), l&p
Mix: Scorched Brown (Val) 1:1:1 Dark Fleshtone (Val), Medium,
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
GREY clothes:
Black Undercoat,
Panzer DK. Grey (Val),
Fenrisian Grey (GW), flbr
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
BASES:
Medium Sea Grey (Val), *
Light Grey (Val)*,
Pale Grey (Val),*
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
Dirt (Val), bl
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP), bl
Off White (Val), l&p
l&p – lines and points,
p – points,
bl – blend,
gl – glaze,
drbr – drybrush,
flbr – flatbrush,
stpl – stippling,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
Here are some Colour Recipes for Sepulchral Guard from GALLERY: SHADESPIRE SEPULCHRAL GUARD. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
BONES:
Black Undercoat,
Dark Earth (Val), *
Khaki Brown (Val), *
Bonewhite (Val), *
Mix Bonewhite (Val) 1:1 White, *
Off White (Val), l&p, stpl
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Streaking Grime (AK),
Off White (Val), l&p, stpl
METAL armour:
Black Undercoat,
Warplock Bronze (GW),
Gun Metal (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Shining Silver (AP), l&p
Streaking Grime (AK),
BROWN belts & strips:
‘BONES’ undercoat,
Mix: Scorched Brown (Val) 1:1:1 Dark Fleshtone (Val), Medium,
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Flayed One Flesh (GW), l&p
Off White (Val), l&p
BLUE clothes:
Black Undercoat,
Stegadon Scale Green (GW),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Stegadon Scale Green (GW),
Mix Stegadon Scale Green (GW) 5:1 Off White (Val),
Mix Stegadon Scale Green (GW) 4:1 Off White (Val),
Mix Stegadon Scale Green (GW) 3:1 Off White (Val), l&p
Mix Stegadon Scale Green (GW) 2:1 Off White (Val), l&p
Mix Stegadon Scale Green (GW) 1:1 Off White (Val), l&p
Off White (Val), l&p
BASES:
Medium Sea Grey (Val), *
Light Grey (Val)*,
Pale Grey (Val),*
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Off White (Val), l&p
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP), bl
Dirt (Val), bl
Off White (Val), l&p
l&p – lines and points,
p – points,
bl – blend,
drbr – drybrush,
flbr – flatbrush,
stpl – stippling,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
“The Mirrored City of Shadespire is a nightmare plane of illusions and madness, an ever-changing labyrinth of endless stairs, cramped streets and soaring archways. The original city is drained of all color and life, and for thousands of years, it has rested as a foreboding ruin. Those unfortunate, brave, or foolhardy adventurers that set foot within its walls are drawn through the veil between realms and trapped within the Mirrored City. For such wayward souls, all hope seems lost. Yet there are those who will not accept their fate without a fight.”
Whenever I pick a new title I always crave to have an ultimate gaming set – the same happened with Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire. It started when I’ve finished working on a small Shadespire commission and was instantly drawn into the game. Two days later I was already painting my first warband – the Sepulchral Guard, but it wasn’t enough to quench my hobbystic thirst. I moved to another warband, being Garrek’s Reavers, all the while my hype was kept strong by Shadespire facebook group – full of awesome inspiration. Somewhere in the middle of Garrek’s Reavers paint job I let myself be overwhelmed by hype and decided to go for a Shadespire scenery set. The idea was to keep it as crazy cool as I am capable of. Concept was there – inside my head – all along, fueled by Shadespire’s background story and insanely sweet art from the rulebook. So, the scenery was to fit the board with a ‘ruined city of sorcery and mysticism’ theme in mind. Most important part: ‘Shadeglass’ – broken, ghostly lit mirrors incorporated to a variety of trinkets, statues, pools, wells etc.
The way I see scenery making is this:
I faced “Shadeglass Scenery” Project following these key points. Started by preparing all the stuff that seemed usable and/or necessary. I like my scenery to be light, durable and painting friendly, so I picked 3mm plasticard to become both bases and baseline shape. Used hot water to bend some pieces, then cut ‘walls’ and hex bases out of the stuff…
Plasticard is very easy to work with. Adding texture all over newly created ‘pieces’ was a matter of using a right tool, rather than sophisticated and time consuming techniques…
With texturized walls and bases I was ready to move to major features – Shadeglass vessels of all sorts and sizes. For this purpose I used perfume cups plundered from my wife’s collection. (At the point when I’m writing this article she already noticed all the missing cups – fortunately the scenery is done and we played with it so she’s more like – ‘for the greater good’)…
Throughout about twenty years in the hobby I accumulated a vast collection of bitz, although until recently skulls where a rare commodity in the collection – Praise Nagash, Games Workshop released a set of skulls thus rendering them near to unlimited. Skulls backstory aside – I used some bitz to add detail and points of focus to the scenery…
I then used self prepared Hobby Gravel to add more detail and make the scenery pieces look ‘ruined’. Once I was sure that each piece is telling it’s own story – final polish followed and all was ready to get painted…
Painting a ruined city of sorcery and ghosts was an interesting transition between a color recipe I use for Shadespire warband’s bases and working on a much more bigger scale. I decided to follow my guts – start as usual and then see where it would take me. Somewhere along the way I started adding blends of purple to compliment incoming ghostly green’ish-turquoise hum. This turned out to be a bullseye hit, creating an illusion of morbid, colorful lights dancing across the ruins…
The ghostly hum of Shadeglass was a real challenge. I feel very comfortable with toxic green light, but going turquoise is moving away from warm color spectrum – my sphere of comfort. Still a hobbyist gotta do what a hobbyist gotta do – I braved the unknown with a mix of Vallejo’s Jade Green and White.
Broken Shadeglass mirrors – a special feature and main theme of the scenery. Decided to approach this in two different ways. First are the hand painted broken mirrors, adorning walls. I simply airbrushed hard angles with a mix of Jade Green and White using a Scarhandpaing’s business card like a stencil. I then adjusted transitions of particular ‘pieces’ of glass and made them more distinct with sharp white lining. Other vessels were a different story. I cut translucent plastic into shards and tossed them into resin-filled vessels. Some sunk instantly, while others stayed afloat – creating a really nice effect – which unfortunately looks much more badass in real life, than in the pictures.
The “Shadeglass Scenery” set is done and it have already seen some Shadespire action. Who knows what will come next if the hype continues? Either way – if you plan to venture into the Mirrored City – be sure to head there through “SHADEGLASS SCENERY” SPECIAL PROJECT gallery…
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“The Colony” – an Infinity gaming board project that streaches in time and space.
Yes – The Colony Special Project lives on and dayum! I almost run out of space to store it! Last time (“THE COLONY” SPECIAL PROJECT part nine) I was pretty sure that once I airbrush a bit here and there, The Colony would finally be completed. Imagine my surprise when I saw how the project expanded since last article. So, let’s dive straight into it…
It finally happened – The Colony is now fully painted with no MDF, be it white or regular, visible. The project was set aside for few months, when all of a sudden I got new buildings from Gingermane and painted them to match my existing set. I then followed through with all the rest including bridges, food booths, walls and ad stands. Fortunatelly for me, Bocian from Gingermane is a cool bruh of mine and he cut thin paper pieces to cover all illustrations adorning his designs. I only had to take care to cover plexi elements by myself. Once done – my work went fast and easy. Few evenings was all it took.
The Colony is vast already, but there’s always room for some extra terrain pieces. With new Gingermane designs appearing every month it’s difficult to stop expanding . It gets even harder, as he let’s me peek on work in progress designs and I sometimes get to buy some before release. Obviously when I saw ‘SF024 The Tower’ I freaked out and demanded these be handed to me emmediately. Gosh how I love these two…
Another addition to The Colony – ‘SF010 Cargo Crates’. Slowly my own designs and scrap-built scenery are forced off the gaming board. I don’t mind it, cause at this point I’m already hooked on Gingermane’s stuff either way 😛
With ‘SF024 The Tower’ I intorudced black/grey colour to The Colony’s overall scheme. It seem to compliment the board so I followed up on this, going back to older scenery pieces. I wander if these, once paper box, buildings will ever rest…
One day ‘The Colony’ will be finished, but seeing how it changes time and time again I can only say TO BE CONTINUED…
