To Infinity and Beyond

The photos on this post, which dates from about a week ago, appearing vaguely fuzzy, I've taken some new ones.

I painted a few Infinity figures last year, then put the project aside so as to finish my various Saga warbands.  Now that is done, I'm painting Sci Fi again.  I usually paint by layering, but for these guys, I'm trying to use more subtle blending techniques : for the moment, two brush blending and some glazing.  I've tried wet blending but can't get the hang of it yet.

Anyway, enough blather, here is what I've managed to paint so far.  They are in the order I painted them, so hopefully you can see progress as you scroll down the page !

First attempt : a Bakunin Moderator.

Second attempt : a Riot Grrlz.  One of my favourites, I've always liked painting red.  The battle scars are way too chunky.  I painted them as I would shield damage, whereas I should have used just lines of really thin paint.  Live and learn.  Still I think she kicks ass.

Number 3 : a Morlock.  I'm really pleased the way the legs came out, the armour less so.

Number 4 : herein begins my run of Nuns from Space, with a Reverend Custodier.  I got a bit dismayed when working on the back of her cloak and ending up using layering to finish it off.  The front view is better though.

Number 5 : another Reverend Custodier.  This was my first attempt at two-brush blending, and I rather foolishly chose white to try it.  Not the best of the bunch.  The blending on the back of the figure is a lot better but hasn't been pushed up enough.

Number 6 : a Pilot (from the Hasslefree range).  I'm particularly chuffed with the helmet and the gun, both of which I painted using NMM-style techniques, plus some satin varnish.  And those battle scars look better, don't they ; )

Number 7 : a Reverend Healer.  I had a go at blending green into blue, which could have been done better, but didn't go so bad.  I'm pretty happy the way the armour plates came out.

Number 8 : another Reverend Custodier (aaah, Nuns from Space…).  Things are starting to pull together.

That is all for now.  Having gotten a fair bit of practice with all these, I've been watching some You Tube videos to get better at it.  I highly recommend
-  the "Hobby Cheating" channel (excellent technical information on blending, especially in video number 107, the best overall summary I've seen on blending)
-  the "Miniac" channels (less technical, but very cool painting style and Scott is really funny)
-  Uncle Atom on Tabletop Minions, less for the painting tips than for his "wargames philosophy", which is both food for thought and soothing balm for painter angst !

I'm working at the mo' on an Infinity Sin Eater.  So far, so good !  I'll post him here when he is finished.

Last up, this is just a quick photo of my photo set-up; not so much for you, as to remind me what I actually need to do.  That said if you have any tips, they are welcome.

Using a tip I got from watching Scott on Miniac, the two cork tiles stop any light from the lamps hitting the black background.  This creates what he calls "infinite black", although mine is not quite infinite yet (can you be "not quite infinite ?").  I probably need to raise the figure off the ground somehow but don't know how to do that yet.  The paint pots just keep the cork tiles from tipping over, obviously square ones (or any other square of opaque material) would be better.

I place the figure and move it back just until a shadow from the cork tile falls on it, then bring it a couple of mm forward.  The camera is set to -2/3 exposure and 6000K white temperature.  I bring it to within 10-15cm of the figure, with no zoom.  I use Gimp to check the white balance and the "black spot" but it seems to be ok as nothing changes.