Nomad Iguana Squadron

This impressive model has been in my WIP box for quite a few weeks now. When i started painting this  model i was quite determined not to rush it, meaning i only painted when i had time to finish what parts i started. Sometimes the lack of actual time to sit and do this was frustrating, but it has been nice to casually sit with this model and give it my best. Hopefully you will agree!

Without further adieu, i present Iguana Squadron!

I'm incredibly happy with this  model, and i think it is some of my finest work to date! I'll be looking forward to showing it off at Firestorm Games this weekend at their Spring Skirmish Infinity event!

More soon!

The GunGrave

DropFleet Commander - UCM Repaint

Its been a while since I've done anything with my DropFleet models, and i haven't played since December last year. The main reason for this (aside from never being able to make it to club because of work!) is that I've become unhappy with the paint scheme.

The grey that they were sporting before was a rush job, something simple to get the fleet painted and ready for gaming. Now that i have said fleet assembled it was time to get them painted up properly.

I anguished for a long time over a scheme, wanting to do something a bit more original than whats already out there, a process that was much harder than i thought!! I painted up two other colour schemes which i ultimately didn't like. So i fell back on some colour combo's that i knew worked, as i had used them for my Infinity Nomads! Also, i haven't seen many red UCM fleets out there! So here it is, an Athens Light Cruiser for the newly founded 'Crimson Fleet'!

I hope to have some more ships painted up soon!

The GunGrave

2018 Hobby Goals

So the last 3-4 months have been pretty bust for me hobby wide. I smashed out 2 new Nomad list for Infinity in two months, attended an ITS tournament, and I've been rapidly progressing through a new terrain set. As the hobby pace begins to slow slightly, I've been thinking about what goals id like to achieve this year. I'm a pretty goal driven person, so if I set a goal or target, I'll work hard to achieve it (the new Nomads lists last year were a good example!)

The important thing about goal setting is that they must be achievable and realistic. No point in setting a goal in paint the entire Infinity model range my next Tuesday is there?! So here are the 3 things I want to achieve this year:

1 - Attend at least 1 painting class this year.

In September 2016 I was fortunate enough to attend a 2 day master class by Meg Maples, who held a few dates in the UK that year. I learnt a HUGE amount about miniature painting over those 2 days, lessons which I continue to refine and apply today. Not only did it teach me new things about miniature painting, but it also gave me the momentum to try new things, experiment and push myself.

Sadly Meg won't be back in the UK this year, however I do have another artist in mind who I'm very keen to meet and learn from - David Soper. A retired graphic designer now full time miniature painter, this guy has brought home no less than 5 (!) Slayer Swords and numerous other awards. I have followed his blog for a long time, and have always been inspired by his work. You can find his blog here:

https://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.co.uk

I know he ran a few classes last year that sadly I couldn't make, so I hope to attend one of his sessions this year.

2 - Paint at least 1 bust

No I'm not talking about a ladies fun bits, but a model bust! So far the sum total of my painting experience is 28mm mini's and terrain. Although this is fine, I want to expand my experience into new areas and scales. I also think that practicing core techniques like blending will be better practiced on a larger scale. I will then hopefully be able to apply those lesson's to my more familiar 28mm scale.

Practice and advance of techniques aside, I want to branch out into a new area of painting, an area where what your creating is solely an artistic piece rather than a gaming piece. I'm keen to know how this will change my attitude towards painting a piece like that and where that will lead. There are also some amazing sculpts out there! I'd love to get my hands on C-Girl Akito bust and the bust of Acherontia, an Infinity Mobile Brigada bust!

3 - Be a better Infinity gamer!

While my painting has advanced noticeably over the last 6 months or so, my Infinity game has been sadly stagnant for the better part of 2 years! I've never been one to study any war game I play to hard, I enjoy the fluff of the game system and my lists tend to reflect that. I can hold my own on the table top, being pretty up to speed on most of the rules, but I rarely come out with the win, preferring more to enter the painting competitions instead! However that attitude doesn't really do much for my game!

The solution? Play more! We have a pretty healthy Infinity community here in Worcester UK with around 6-8 players in the area (trust me, that's good for around here!!) but sadly we don't get to game that often. The best place to get a game of course is at an ITS tournament. In that respect we do very well, being within travel distance to a number of venues that hold ITS events reasonably often. I'll be trying to attend as many of these as I can over the next 12 months in an effort to improve my game! I've already signed up for 4 events this year so far (2 events at BonesCon in February, 1 in Wales in March, and another in Cheltenham in March also) with another one expected at the UK Games Expo in June.

I hope to pad out the times between tournaments gaming with my Infinity gaming buddies, hopefully getting at least 1 game a month. This time next year, we'll see if its improved my game at all!

So that's my hobby goals for 2018! I think all of these goals are achievable and they all will contribute positively with my hobby. Either that or they'll ruin me and I'll quite the hobby altogether!

Do you have any hobby goals this year?? Have you completed any already?

The GunGrave

Comanche Terrain from Warsenal

Its time for something a bit different this week, a splash of terrain! Well, a bit more of a splash, there's quite a bit of it!

Back in the tail end of last year the madness that is Black Friday descended. I normally don't take much notice of this, but this year I noticed that Warsenal were offering 25% of ALL of their products, with free international shipping for orders over $50! I live in the UK so getting this stuff over to me is quite expensive (I think this order would've cost me around £95!!) The free shipping was my starting gun to start shopping, and then I got the 25% as well! Happy days!

I've eyed up Warsenal's terrain offerings for a long time. Its quite different from anything else on the market I feel, with an attention to detail and aesthetic which fits so perfectly into the Infinity universe! I will be doing a proper terrain review soon, but for now I want to share with you what I've got done so far. I went a little mad admittedly, carried away with the great offer Warsenal were running, so I've got enough terrain for a packed table, maybe even 2 if I spread it out with some decent scatter terrain.

First up is the Pillbox Bunker. This is quite a large building with multiple firing pints out of the front of the structure. I also picked up the Scout Tower that sits on top of this building, but I haven't put that together yet.

I chose a simple colour for the interiors, with the browns and beige's contrasting nicely with the greens!

No Comanche table would be complete without some walkways and towers! These 3 here the are Comanche Octagons. I have another 5 square towers to build and paint, all of which can be connected with...

Walkways! What you see here are 5 short narrow walkways, suitable for 25mm based mini's. I have some of their longer cousins to build up, as well as some short wide and long wide walkways which will take 60mm bases.

This is the Spetsnaz Sniper Tower. I didn't allow my lack of actual Spetsnaz from getting in the way of buying one of these! This building will give some much needed height to the table. I have to admit as well, it was a bit of a pig to put together!!

These are the 2 smaller cousins of the Pillbox Bunker, the Pillbox's! As with the bunker, I have the Scout towers to go on top of these at some point.

The interiors were done the same as the Bunker, with browns and beige's. These buildings also came with lockers! (random!)

One of my favourite buildings from the Comanche range now, the Black Eagle Landing Pad. This piece is quite big, so I should've put a model on there to show you! I couldn't decide for a long time after I finished painting it up wither or not to decorate the centre of the pad with an emblem, but as you can see I went ahead in the end! That part was a lot of fun, and I was very pleased with the end result!

There is a bit of scatter terrain available for the Comanche range as well, so I picked up 2 packs of these barriers to break up the table a bit. This time I did remember a mini for scale!

Every single one of the Octagons, Pad's and Towers comes with a ladder! Now this is a really nice touch, because it doesn't force you into having to by a system of walkways to link your buildings up. They can stand independently with a ladder access from ground level. However, this does mean I have a butt load of ladders!! They're a bit of a pain to paint, so I think I've painted all the ladders I'm willing to for now!

Here's the whole lot together! You can see in the background the next lot of walkways ready to be primed. I'd say i'm about halfway though this terrain set ) I subsequently orders a bit more after the first lot arrived !) It's going to keep me going for a while, but I should have a pretty sweet table at the end of it!

More soon!

The GunGrave