Nomads: It Only Takes one (RED)

Nomads was my first faction for Infinity. I started playing the faction not because I particularly liked them more than any other, it was the only faction in the group that had yet to be represented. It just so happened Nomads are one of the more well rounded factions available to play with.

The collection of models has grown over the last year and a half to include a large majority of those available to the faction, mainly lacking a few support models I rarely play with at this point. What I do not have is a painted force. I started a test moderator over a year ago and have since stripped and painted it four times looking for a scheme I enjoy painting and that I can consistently paint.

This relates back to kicking the rust off after more than 3 years of very little painting (plenty of gaming though!) I believe I painted this model somewhere around June of 2013, so not too long ago. I went with a fair amount of washing and little highlights that don't show up under these lighting conditions. I really need to set up a light box for this kind of thing...

I settled on a scheme that is still Nomad like in that it carries the Red, Black, and white colors, but switches where those colors appear on models depending on their status within the army and what I feel like painting.

Here is a good example of swapping the dominate colors around for a for unique look, but still maintaining the scheme and faction unity. This model was begun around the same time that I finished the Moderator test piece. It really shows in pretty much every part of what I thought was OK a few months ago. Now compare the reds on the single should pad I messed around with about two weeks ago to the reds I painted on the Moderator. Happy with the improvement so far.

Now lets get to something I painted about 4 weeks ago (and one of three models I managed to completely paint in 2013) ... a small KrazyKoala for one of my Moran Massi Hunters.

Now I was fairly happy with how this model turned out, including the base. The parts that really didn't work out so well, were the gems and OSL I failed miserably at for the eyes and "Mouth" area. I think I hit a block of not wanting to ruin otherwise acceptable paint job trying to kick rust off of that too. I am tweaking my airbrush in hopes of taking areas like that I can achieve a much better result with less effort.

These pictures are not kind, but in a good way for me to really see where I dropped the ball on technique and thought "That looks good enough." There are areas that stick out as poor (to the standard I want to achieve) i.e. the stomach plates and arms having a pink strip that has no blending and just shows up. The only way I am going to get better and really get a feel for technique is to paint as much as possible, to the best of my ability at all times until it just happens that way.

I made I few decisions for the Nomads paint scheme. I will use metallic paints, I don't have a very good NMM technique and I'd rather just paint a bunch of random stuff learning than try it on an army I would like to have fully painted by NOVA 2014. I not only want a painted force, but I want something that can compete for Best Painted. I feel I can have a good showing at an army level, just a personal goal for 2014.

Tohaa: Conspiracy of Color

When I left off I was struggling with what was my next step. As you can see, I sort of just started shotgunning colors onto the model. The Emerald weapons just created too much chaos and while I liked the grenade colors themselves, again they just did not add anything to the scheme.

I took a few days of thinking with the occasional change being made as I went. I ended up using RMS Imperial Purple for the cloth color and did a gem style nightshade purple fade all the way to the brightest Amethyst Purple for the highlights. I also made the decision to stick with a more classic black high contrast weapon. In doing so I also tried a bright yellow weapon which ultimately (I didn't grab a picture of that mess!) got paint back over with VMC Black. 

The mask got a different treatment, which I while I was happy with the result, felt it was not bright enough for the rest of the scheme (as pictured below.) 

During all of this I realized (and it was pointed out a few times on forums!) a mold line I missed running half the length of the holster side of the body of the Sakiel, so it was going to head back to the a Simple Green dip for me to start over. My Cat thought it would be a good idea to encourage me to do so today by playing a quick game of swat my stuff off the table.

The damage wasn't bad after coming the 40" off my bench to wood floors as I would have thought, but it was getting a repaint to begin with, so its not sitting in a bath of simple green over night.

With that being said, I am happy with what I came out with for my scheme, its more akin to an organic Dark Elf style than I realized. They do stick out in a crowd (and on the table.)

Items I will concentrate more on when I start the Kaemel for the first "completed" model for this army are:

1) Increase the contrast of the yellow, I like the mid-tone and highlight I got to, but it really needs more depth added to it initially with some quick washes with a brownish paint.
2) Increase the brightness and contrast of the mask; I am not sure how just yet.
3) Watch those damn dainty mold lines!
4) Don't give up!

With the release of the ITS 2014 scenarios and formats I have made the choice to continue with my Nomads for the most part as my main army and paint my way through this year. Overall that will mean a Nomad model or two every week, with a Tohaa thrown in so I am painting red until my eyes cross.

Next up is a quick run down of the Nomads models that I have set up to be painted for this year, the scheme I settled on, the first test model and the 2nd.

Tohaa: A Color Scheme

This past August, fellow gamer Todd won a Tohaa starter box at NOVA 2013. He graciously gifted (bartered!) it to me, as I had expressed interest in playing the faction (and it cut down on how much the split bill was in the end!) a few times.

While at NOVA I took advantage of TheWarStore.com being set up with a booth stocked with Infinity goodies and purchased a Chaksa boxset, Makauls Boxset, and a Gao Rael w/ Sniper rifle to get my force started.

Those models have since set in a box, waiting for a day when I felt likg modeling and painting them. That day is now (or about 14 days ago at this point!) and I have started with a test paint scheme on the Sakiel (which when I started with it, I had no real intention of using Sakiels in my lists, but then ITS 2014 came out and BAM! I need as much Viral as I can get, but that is for another post.)

Starting out, I struggled with the color scheme I wanted to use for my army. I am always the contrary type when it comes to official schemes, always waiting to do something different or at least flip major/minor colors around some. The Tohaa presented an interesting avenue to approach the scheme from, they are aliens and they have living things that provide armor for them (for some at least.) I searched  for inspiration among other Tohaa players armies, but never saw anything that sparked my interest. I broadened my search to just include a color that I wanted to work with, Purple. Again nothing really seemed to grab my attention as most of the schemes were very monochromatic. Finally I turned to nature and a silly debate with my fiance about if there were red and purple beetles. A quick Google search turned up such a beast and the inspiration for my Tohaa Army!

Meet Chrysochroa-Buqueti or the Banded Jewel Beetle.

This picture (and others like it) inspired what I am working on now. Executing against what I had envisioned in my minds eye on the other hand as been a very slow process. I am working with some hues I normally avoid like the plague (Yellow and Purple) so I first had to add more paints to my collection (never a bad thing if you ask me.) I purchased two RMS triads; the Royal Purples and the Dark Elf Flesh. The Royal purples will be used on the Armor and Symbiote while the Dark Elf flesh will be used on the Chaksa models skin to tie the army together but give the Chaksa a foreign look compared to the rest of the army.

I approached painting the Sakiel from the inside out, meaning I started with the inner most detail of the model. In this case it was the Symbiote, which I chose the Amethyst Purple as the initial mid-tone color. I washed all the areas with a watered down (with a mix of water and matte medium) coat of purple.

I then did a glaze of Imperial Purple and Liquitex glaze medium to darken the recesses more than the higher areas. I didn't get a picture of this step. I did layers of this, and then switched to the major armor flats. I picked out nightshade purple as the base to eventually create a high contrast dark to light transition, but here is the base coat step.

Also pictured are the kerf cut armor plates and what I view as lower support armor below the outer plates and on the feet. These were painted using a thinned layer of VMC German Gray.

After this I hit a hold point of sorts as I pondered what I wanted to paint the straps over the cloth and symbiote armor. I wanted to paint some sort of soft yellow, but being that I don't use those colors much, I had a small and very bright selection to choose from. I ended up taking a trip to local gaming/comic book store (Parker Banner Kent and Wayne) to look for paints.

This what I settled on, P3 Menoth White Base (a paint that I already had) and RMS Lemon Yellow. I applied a thinned layer (thinned with matte medium) of Menoth White Base followed by a thinned layer of RMS Lemon Yellow. I also followed through with the  Beetle scheme and base-coated the mask of the Sakiel with VMC Flat Red and washed it with Citadel Leviathan Purple Wash (Discontinued..sigh.)

All the paints I use to paint my Reds

That is far as my progress has gotten me to date. If you notice the leg on the left has the straps painted yellow and the cloth parts black. I am not sold on this part of the scheme yet. The weapons and accessories are still in the white, trying to decide what colors would go well (thinking a bright emerald type color for the weapons, but that also means I need to dig around for a green/turquoise paint or take another trip to the PBKW.

Continued in Part 2.