Infinity Update

Now onto a significant Infinity update. Remember this pic from way back in July?  A whole lot of unpainted,unprimed Ariadna minis.  Here's the same group as of now...

Ooh shiny!

Ooh paint!

I've nearly completed Duroc (the giant dog wielding a giant machete) as well as the Loup Garous (the four dudes with blue cloaks and visors in the front center).  I'm about half way done with Margot (the lady in the center front with the red bandana) and need to get her done so my Mirage Team (Duroc and Margot) will be complete!

Aside from this group I finally... finally got around to finishing the Veteran Kazak.  About time, right?  I gotta start finishing my minis...  

Oh one last thing, I just got an email from Warstore that my shipment of the new Infinity Campaign book, Paradiso + the Merovingian Rapid Response Force box set are on the way!  Woohoo!

Let's see what else.  In other news a coworker of mine lent me God of War 3 months ago and recently I've been playing it on the weekends.  Overall I like it very much.  The boss levels are fun and creative and mini puzzles are generally entertaining... minus one guitar hero/music themed puzzle.  Also the violence in the game is a bit over the top.  It's probably my old age talking.  Anyway I hope to maybe get close to finishing it this weekend.

Until next time!

Quick WiP Update

Just a small post here.  I wanted to show you what I've been up to.

 

It's Duroc from the Ariadna faction for the Infinity game.  Great mini.  The sculpt is really nice and the pose is very dynamic.  I left him off the base (and his left hand) so I can reach the tough areas- that's what you get for dynamic poses I guess.  I couldn't think of an original color scheme for him so I just copied the one on the box.  I like their color scheme so whatever.

In the game, Sgt. Duroc has a partner Lt. Margot Berthier.  I used the team in a game once and really liked them.  I think I like them enough that I may try to squeeze them in my Merovingian list.  As soon as I finish painting Duroc I hope I get motivated to hop onto Margot next... but you never know.

3 Things...

1) I was at Toys R Us last week and picked up Nerf's Retaliator, one of the new Elite models recently released.  All their Nerf stuff were 25% off so it was an easy impulse buy.

The Nerf arms race has begun.

2) Done basing this batch of Infinity minis.  Time to prime.

Yay, prime time!

3) I miss working on my Skaven so last weekend I started working on a converion.  It'll be for this month's Underempire painting competition.  I don't think I'll finish in time but I'm gonna try.

Squeek!  Can you guess what I'm making?

Big Update!

On video games- I am very behind in my video games.  I've only had my PS3 for less than a year and have been trying (failing miserably) to catch up on games I missed out on.  One such game is a PS3 exclusive called Valkyria Chronicles which came out in 2008, a couple years after the console's launch.  I was able to pick a copy up on Amazon and started playing it as soon as I had it.  That was last year.  Nothing to do with the actual game, I just didn't have time to play it.  Good news!  I recently finished it and... man that was a great game!

The story takes place in a fictional European-esque continent where 2 large powers are at war and in the middle is a small neutral country, Gallia, which has an abundance of a natural resource call Ragnite. You play Welkin who leads a small militia group defending Gallia.  You get the picture, right?

Anyway, the story was great.  The water color look of the game was a nice touch.  I loved the gameplay.  Gameplay is a turn based, tactical rpg.  It totally reminds me of Infnity with its Command Points- using the points to play members of your unit.  The rpg aspect is fairly straightforward with upgrades and a little bit of customization.  My only complaint is that I wished there was a wider selection of weapons/equipment and weapon/equipment upgrades... and maybe more missions.  I would really love to see a multiplayer version of this.  That could be really fun.  

On comics- A coworker of mine is a long time comic book enthusiast.  He easily spends $50 a week on comics.  Every Wednesday I'd see him come back from his lunch break with a bag full of comics and he'd show me what issues he picked up and we'd have a chat of what issues he's read.  He's the devil.  Every week he tempts me.  Well I can only do this for so long before I break.

So I started collecting comic books again. Yay Romita!  Yay Bendis!  Damn you Mike.

On Infinity- Infinity by Corvus Belli has probably one of the most gorgeous, finely detailed sculpts ever produced for a miniatures game.  They are just beautiful to look at.  But there is a trade off.  Because of the fine details and intricate poses, they can be difficult to transport especially if you are using foam to carry your figs.  All that weight on its side it's bound to snap parts or chip paint.  A couple Infinity players I know carry a bottle of glue all the time because one or two minis end up getting damaged during the travel.  I love my minis too much to go through that hassle so I did the obvious thing to do- magnetize!  Sure there is concern of minis suddenly attracting other minis in the proximity.  Totally understandable.  You just need to use the right size magnet is all.  Plus the added weight of the metal beings also helps.

My Ariadna force currently magnetized on their TABLEWAR trays. 

Now that they are magnetized I now need something to transport them in.  I was going to go the DIY direction but then I saw these snazzy trays from TABLEWAR.  They are custom trays designed specifically for their display towers.  I can't afford the towers just yet but the trays themselves are a really nice way to display and carry your delicate minis.

Be aware though: If you are an Infinity player and is interested in picking up these trays don't buy their 40mm trays.  The holes for the 40mm trays are smaller than the Infinity 40mm bases.  The folks from TABLEWAR suggests instead to pick up their bottom tray along with the diorama 40mm washers.  Be sure to select the PP size and NOT the GW size washers.

The rest of my Ariadna force finally assembled.

Last night I finally assembled the rest of my Ariadna collection which in includes the Mirage-5 Team, the other Traktor Mul, and a couple of tankhunters.  Next step is to base and prime, my least favorite part of the hobby. :(

On office wars- A few weeks back when I was knee deep in the project at work my coworker - for no reason whatsoever- brought in a dart gun.  It was a cheap Nerf knock off but that's not the point.  At first it was psychological - on his desk just at arms length away.  But it wasn't long before he started using it. He'd poke his goofy head in our offices, make small talk, and then quickly drawing out his pistol shooting us for his amusement.  Sure it was all in good fun... for awhile.  It got annoying and people started bringing in their own dart guns. Now it's an all out office turf war!!!

Well, just our corner of our floor, anyway.  We don't have that many dorks.

My current arsenal.

Until next time!

Missing In Action

Hey folks! Long time no see. About 2 months actually. I had a bit of 'all work and no play' the last few weeks. It started right around Adepticon and didn't stop until recently. The company I work for has been restructuring, getting rid of the fat and making us bigger and leaner. I just finished a grueling project which I think turned out better than I expected. Here's hoping!  Anyhoo, enough about life and on with the hobby!

Adepticon- Overall it was quite awesome as usual. I saw a lot of great miniatures, tried out new games, and took lots of pictures! I attended a few seminars for the first time which were cool. I learned quite a bit about painting- including a nasty habit that many veteran painters do. I will definitely do this again next year.

My favorite game, Infinity, had its first tournament there and had a pretty good turn out despite the lack of advertisement. Some weren't aware of the tournament and some knew about it but didn't know where it was held- myself included. It probably didn't help that it was held on the last day at 8am either.

 A couple things did bum me out, though. First, was the swag. While it was still a nice modest bag-o-stuff I didn't register early enough to get the really cool stuff. I can only blame myself for this one. Second were the crowds and space. It felt like the convention got too big for its venue. The vendor area was way too cramped and the seminars I went to were held in the actual hotel rooms.

Meh.

Whoa!

Check out the rest of my pics of Adepticon 2012 and Crystal Brush here!

Infinity- Well, my hobby New Year's resolution's thrown out the window.  I've doubled my Ariadna and picked up 2 more armies.  I found a couple of great ebay listings and was able to pick up a modest PanO and a Yu Jing starter for an awesome price.  I'm a happy camper.  Now I can provide an impromptu demo/game if any of my friends are curious about the game.

I also got to play a few times recently at a new gaming store a buddy told me about.  Nice little store.  Even stocked a bit of Infinity.  Anyway, I don't want to jinx myself but I think I'm getting more comfortable with the rules!

Warhammer 40k 6th Edition- Before this new edition was released there were quite a few players that migrated from 40k to other games like Malifaux, Dark Age, Dystopian Wars, and Infinity.  Now that 6th is finally out will the players return to 40k or stay with the smaller games?  Definitely a test in the coming months for all the games.

Mini Deviations

I got a little sidetracked from my Infinity progress the past few weeks.  Work has started to pick up and after taking a short but very needed 'stay-cation' I now have a lot of catching up to do.  I might have to start working on weekends soon unfortunately.

I've been playing Batman: Arkham Asylum on the PS3 on and off for the past couple months.  During the vacation, I aimed to finish it.  Four straight hours and I was done.  I didn't think I was that close to finishing the game.  I was a little disappointed with the ending.  Without spoiling anything it wasn't what I expected, maybe even underwhelming.  I'll leave it at that.  Overall though a really great game and I can't wait to start the sequel, Arkham City.

As you know I've been slowly making a Koborlas (Lupines) army for Warlord.  Very low priority, jumping on it when I feel like it.  I was browsing the video game websites when I saw the image of Amaterasu from the Okami PS2 game.  I suddenly thought "Yes, Ameratsu would be a great looking spirit wolf for my Koborlas army!".

Okami WIP

Still not done.  I'm having trouble adding the tribal markings around the eyes and body.  I may be using the wrong brush size.  I'll try again soon.

I haven't neglected my Infinity either.  I've been playing a few games at the LGS and losing all, if not, most of the games.  Mainly due to my newbiness... and maybe a little bit of plain stupidity.  Okay maybe a lot of stupidity than I care to admit.  Learning the tactics of the game will come with experience- that's fine.  What I need to remember and seem to forget all the time are the freaking loadouts for each of my guys.  For example, I always use my Vet. Kazak's T2 rifle but I always forget that they are also equipped with light flamethrowers.  In fact, all Vet. Kazak loadouts are equipped with flamethrowers.  I also seem to forget that some of the guys I use also have smoke grenades.  Key stuff to remember when you are trying to avoid getting shot at.

Adepticon 2012 is less than a month away and I was hoping to get my army completely painted, at the very least tabletop ready.  Here's what I have currently...

Stuff that has paint

Stuff that needs paint

I still have a couple box sets that need assembling.  Not sure I'll make it in time.  Suck!

This weekend John, the dude who is setting up the Infinity tourney @ Adepticon will be showing off the terrain at the LGS and will be looking for feedback so I'll be checking that out.  Curious to see how it looks!  Hoping others will stop by and maybe play a game or 2 on the terrain.  :)

Mini Progress!

More WiPs.  Unfortunately, nothing finished.

I finally got the nerve to add the handlebar on the autocannon.  What a pain!  Worried about the painted areas, it took me forever to get it on.  It's not even on quite right.  Compared to the tankhunter pictures on the Infinity website my handlebar is a little twisted where the hand is.  I guess my way looks more ergonomic. :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

In hindsight, I really should have fully assembled him before painting. It's a special case, the piece was too fiddly to attach in the end.  Anyway, still a great looking model and an awesome unit in the game.  It's almost done.  It needs some touch ups and a few details.

I did a little more work on the highlander.  Still not confident on tackling the plaid pattern on the tartan so I worked on the face a bit.  Lots more to do on him.

 

Started working on 2 more figs: the chasseur and another SAS.  These 2 guys round out my current force at the moment.  I just love the detail on these dudes.  No Finecast shenanigans here- that's all metal baby!  Now if they can make their multi-part minis easy to assemble... 

Ariadna Game Plan For 2012

Keeping to my New Year's resolution to paint all my Ariadna minis before getting anymore I need to document what I have.  First pic is what I've considered tabletop ready- not completely finished but presentable.

Man I really need to get better lighting.  I see many details not painted!

The following pics are my batch-o-WiPs at various stages of completion.  I kind of went all over the place with each one.  Some have washes done, some have highlights and details, but most have a general basecoat.

Generally, I'm cool with the direction I've taken.  I tried priming them white for the first time.  I never primed my minis white before.  So far so good.  I'm happy with the color schemes I've chosen.  Some details like holsters and pouches still need color choices.    I'm quite surprised how well the Highlander's shoulder detail came out.  I was expecting to do several passes on it but luckily only did one.  Now I got to do the tartan... 

Next are the rest of my collection.

Minis next in line

The whole lot. I guess I have more than I originally said. :)

Up until now I really thought I could do this but then Corvus Belli comes out with this...

me wants

This guy will be coming out next month.  I wonder how many minis I'll get done before then, if any.  Wonder how long it will take for me to break.  Ugh.

2011 Recap

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!  Well another year has gone by and before the new year begins I thought I'd take a look back on my hobby progress.

(crickets chirping)

Hmm, I thought I did more than this.

Yeah, there were a few setbacks.  The first was work.  This year work really took a big dent in my free time.  Just way too many deadlines and way too little time off.  In fact, I don't remember the last time I took a vacation. :(   Second, was starting up a new game.  I got to tell you moving to Infinity is the best thing I ever did gaming-wise.  Great sci-fi theme + fun innovative and deep game mechanics + ridiculous minis (mostly anyway) = my favorite mini game.  Yes, that meant more minis to paint.  But, I am talking about 10-12 figures which is pretty much your army compared to one unit of 40 clanrats which is clearly not.  The last excuse, er I mean reason are the freaking video games.  Curse you Nathan Drake and your awesome hi-def game!!!  Weeknights are usually a time to paint but when you put in 11+ hours at work you just want to plop in front of the tv... and squeeze in some video games.  All those nights when I should have been painting but was too lazy were instead spent climbing walls, grabbing treasure, and shooting bad guys.  Arrgh!!!  So much stuff to do and so little time.  It's a good thing that 2012 is just around the corner.

So what's the plan for next year? 

More Ariadna!  My New Year's hobby resolution will be to paint all the Ariadna I currently have (which is around 12 I think) before I grab anymore.  There's a good chance I'll break it but I gotta at least try, right?  Stay focused!

I've been lucky to find players to game with so I can learn the rules and figure out a good list.  It seems like quite a number of gamers are 'gaming small' these days.  I've notice a lot of gamers particularly GW gamers are either supplementing their fantasy and/or 40k with smaller skirmish based games or just switching completely.  Games like Cutlass, MERCS, Malifaux, Hell Dorado, Dystopian Wars/Uncharted Seas/Firestorm Armada, and Heavy Gear all got some loving this year.  Curious to see how this trend will turn out in 2012.

My Skaven are still on the table.  Closer to the back burners but I haven't completely shelved them just yet.  The rat ogres are still in my mini queue.  I'll get around to them eventually.

I've slowly been collecting a small Koborlas/Lupine warband for Reaper's Warlord game.  I recently I picked up a couple boxes of Wolfen from Rackham's Confrontation game really, really cheap that's perfect for this.  I hope to at least get them to paint ready before 2012 ends.

Whadya think?  Can I do this?  Time will tell.  Have a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hope everyone had a nice holiday! I should've had something posted by now but I've been off to videogame land! Let me explain- I'm really late on the next gen console bandwagon and last week I finally picked myself up a PS3. I was so positive I would eventually get one that I even started a small stash of blu-rays and games way before I picked the console up. That very night I opened it and played the heck out of it. The following day I went to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family and then went back home, watched a blu-ray, and played some more. On Black Friday I bought a few more blu-rays that were on sale. Needless to say there was a whole lotta hi-def activity going on but the holiday wasn't all videogames though. I did take advantage of the sales and shopped for more Infinity minis from my LGS and bought some odds and ends at my fav online gamine store.

Yay hobby shopping!

Anyway, more news...

I had my first full game of Infinity a few weekends ago. It was 200pts., Ariadna vs. Combined Army( y'know, the alien alliance). I got pwned big time. My opponent (Combined Army) had a linked team and just stormed down my flank killing everything in its path. By turn 4 my Lt. died and I had to concede. It wasn't a total massacre but it was close to being one. My opponent was actually cool and patient with me and answered all of my noob questions and even gave me advise. We had a bit of a peanut gallery so the game took longer than it should have but it was still fun. There were key mistakes I made in the game and the big one was deployment. I had a couple units deployed way too close to his linked team which enabled him to run his team up to my guys and shoot them down on the first turn. I also had several guys in the wrong place. Another big noob mistake was not knowing my list very well. During the course of the game I overlooked very important skills and weapons that would've helped the previous turn. Hard lessons learned.

Fortunately, this weekend I'm suppose to meet up with a dude from the forums that's fairly new to the game and we're going play a small game that'll help cover the game basics. Baby steps.

ADEPTICON!!! Man, I shouldn't have waited to pre-register for Adepticon 2012. D'OH!!! All the seminars are practically sold out and now I'm going to have to settle on a Partial swag bag. I'm not sure what that exactly means but it won't be as good as a Full swag bag :( . The Infinity tournament was also sold out. It's really awesome to see people sign up for it. Hopefully my experience will be up to par and my army fully painted for the following year. :) Hmm, I wonder if they're letting open gaming for Infinity during the con? 

And speaking of my army here's my progress thus far... My Line Kazaks are done, for now. Until I get better lighting I won't be able to do any of the details I'd like to do on them.  Looking at the pictures I realize it's not my best work but I got to move on.

Next up are 3 skirt wearing, gun toting, scots and a vet. Until next time!

Where Did September Go?!

Wow, I can't believe it's already October! Work has been crazy trying to meet all kinds of deadlines, mostly all unrealistic. These past few weeks has been quite a blur that I hadn't realized I completely neglected my minis. It was only last week that I had the chance to go back to painting again. Funny enough, it was when I was sick. Anyway, onto the minis!

So I started painting the Ariadna Line Kazaks or 'Grunts' as what I'll be calling them in the future. Also, I was missing my rats already so I continued painting my rat ogres.

I'm about half way in and they are starting to shape up I think. I'm basing my color scheme on the G.I. Joe Grunt so they will all have basic green fatigues. I picked up GW's Camo Green specifically for them and it seems to work nice as a highlight for the Catachan Green basecoat. I think after some washes and more highlights they should be good and done. Oh, and yes, there is the Tankhunter but he's taken a backseat at the moment, sorry!

The rat ogres need a bit more TLC. They need another go of highlights and a definite rework of their bases so that may take some time to do.

This weekend a LGS will host their biannual auction and may take a peek. They tend to attract big spenders so I don't expect to be picking anything up. But, if I do luck out and sneak a buy (praying that it not hurt the wallet) I'll let you know. Later!

Air Wagons and More

A couple nights ago I downloaded the Ariadna air wagon from the Infinity Downloads section. I thought it looked fun and simple enough to do in one night.

My first pass didn't turn out great because I used cardboard which was way too thick and folding the tabs became difficult. Second time around I printed on cardstock.

Voila!

Not too shabby but I did have some trouble in the end. Like a lot of papercrafts, for me it's quite hard to get these folds even and correct- especially when they are tiny. I ended up using both types of paper. I used the cardboard for piece #1 as a sturdy base. For the rest of the pieces I used cardstock which is thicker than paper but easier to fold than cardboard.

I made 2 versions. The one on the right is the intended papercraft. The one on the left is just an alternate flat version which is basically just piece #1.

After perusing through the forums I found out the air wagons were done by this guy. What a find! I guess there will be more papercraft projects in the future!

Catch Up

Man, working late has really put a damper on my hobby! Haven't been able to write anything until now. Well, I can pretty much summarize what has happened in the past few weeks on this single post.

So I went to Gamesday. It kinda sucked. Mainly because I got there late. I missed the Golden Demon entry time as a result. Also missed out on a couple activities like the the conversion contests. I did meet up with an old friend and his kids which was nice.

I got to do the 40k make and take scenery which was fun. Everyone got a rectangular piece of clear acrylic that was used as a base for your building. Sprues were randomly given out. One wall sprue, one floor sprue, and one miscellaneous sprue. Mine wasn't quite well thought out but just getting a chance to build something new and different was a nice experience.

droooool

The minis showcased were awesome as always. The large dioramas were incredible and loved the Forgeworld Skaven Exalted Verminlord and Brood Horror monster- probably something that I'll never get to pick up. :( Check out the pictures I took here.

In other news, I got to play my first game ever of Infinity finally. I was able to meet up with one of the guys on the forums and played a game. It was more of a demo really, just learning the fundamentals and the skills my unit had. Overall it went really well. In four(or maybe five) turns we were done. By the end of turn 2 both of our lieutenants(army leader) were eliminated. Mine walked in front of his remote mech with a machine gun. What was I thinking?! Anyway, it was fast and brutal. I hope there will be many more games like this.

There were 2 guys playing a game of Warhammer Fantasy next to us at the store. Seeing all the stuff they had to bring and seeing my army in a box about the size of hard drive just confirmed how much I'm not going to miss it. :)

Lastly, I got to work on my Ariadna. Started painting my tankhunter and got my first group of line kazaks ready for priming.