Soap Dodger’s Yu Jing

This was the next logical purchase to expand on the starter though that choice has been removed if you don’t get the older sets.

• 1x Shàng Jí Hacker
• 1x Yě Māo
• 1x Jing Qo

Shàng Jí Hacker

Solid hacker in heavy infantry form. Good armour and good resistance from other hackers with aggressive movement to get you in position Again Dodge +2″ to help you move even further if you decide not to shoot back and as a hacker there is a chance you wouldn’t want to do that.

“The new Shàng Jí (“Superior”) armor is quicker, lighter, and definitely better. Only the highest quality material is used for the brave defenders of the People. Because of this, the tough core unit of the StateEmpire Army, those regiments of Invincibles with the most brilliant records will receive the new Shàng Jí model.”

Yě Māo

You have a sniper in a tower. This is your solution, a medium infantry with a spitfire which is nice at close range (so the sniper is bad) a visor to help target these foes, super jump to get up to see them and ok enough armour to potentially take a hit.

“At first they were only known as Unit 365, but they showed such fierceness and rage that they ended up being called Yě Māo, ‘wildcats.’ So you’d better not get close, and leave them alone, because if you piss them off these snow cats won’t just scratch your soft little asses…”

Jing Qo

This is a close combat medium infantry specialist who is also a great button pusher. Hard to see and can dodge for days and get up to locations with ease. double action close combat weapon is nice in code one with not many about.

Little is known about Jing Qo yet she is a character and nicknamed “Shadow of Huangdi” Suppose it fits the shadow part.

Quotes are from Guilang – Human Sphere (human-sphere.com) and Infinity – Infinity CodeOne (corvusbelli.com) not my own work. Other words are just my opinion and may even be wrong.

This is where I started Great starting place for the force.

• 3x Zhanshi
• 1x Hùndùn
• 1x Jujak
• 1x Dàofěi
• 1x Gŭiláng

Although this is only enough for smaller games it’s a great starting point making your way up to a Code One force.

Zhanshi

Basic troopers, nothing special apart from that they come with the most options including lieutenant which can be good for hiding the model in some missions. All in the box are armed with Combi Rifles however you can proxy them to any flavour of Zhanshi you wish.

“The Yu Jing Ministry of State Defence has eight separate armies spread across the land, each identified by their distinctive banner. For this reason, they are collectively known as the Zhànshì Qízhì, Troops of the Banner. The Mandarin zhànshì (combatant), also used for individual Banner soldiers, can be traced back to the times of the People’s Liberation Army, and has become more widespread than the traditional bīng (soldier). The Zhanshi are the core of the army, the most important general purpose light infantry corps, and they take part as regular troops in most joint operations and offensive deployments. They also form the defence garrisons of border cities and settlements. One of the features of the training these soldiers receive is the cardinal importance given to close quarters combat, something uncommon in other regular armies. The Zhanshi are the anonymous heroes of Yu Jing: disciplined troops, comfortable under enemy fire because they know it is their duty to bear the brunt of all military operations.”

Hùndùn

Good medium infantry sniper choice for closing off lanes of advance not horrible in close quarters but if your at that point something gone wrong. You want to be at long range with nothing moving for long.

“After seeing them in action and witnessing the havoc they wreaked, popping up from nowhere to break the enemy offensive with their deadeye shots, the intelligence service began to call them Hùndùn, the faceless, evil creature from Chinese mythology who embodies chaos and confusion.”

Jujak

Good at being in your face these heavy infantry should be the ones pushing forward. They have loads of options but you can only have 2 in Code One. Having Dodge +1″ you can even move forward more when getting shot.

“We’re not the best. The Jujak are in fact the worst. The worst adversaries anyone can face. Those are our credentials, and they’d be corroborated by our enemies if they weren’t all dead.”

Dàofěi

A Sneaky Heavy Infantry model that starts anywhere on your half of the board  not a close combat specialist here, but doesn’t mind being in your face or close enough to see you sweat.

“Dàofěi are Heavy Infantry specializing in Infiltration and Hostile Environment Survival. The Tactical Section of the Invincible Army combines training in infiltration techniques with the standard Heavy Infantry program. Dàofěi units receive their name, meaning ‘Bandits’, from the final test they must pass to graduate the State School for Scouts. For the test, they are abandoned in the inhospitable region of Dailing without food or weapons, and expected to survive two months surrounded by poachers, highwaymen, outlaws and the police forces of the area, who consider prospective Dàofěi the worst of all criminals. In order to survive in these lands, they must resort to banditry and pillaging, attracting the attention of the Law as well as the local criminal element, who are unwilling to share their territory with these outsiders. From that point on, the graduation test gets messy and people start to die. The survivors, callous but excellent infiltrators, are welcomed into the Dàofěi Section, where they are entrusted with missions that reproduce the conditions of their graduation, only with better weapons and support.”

Gŭiláng

Solid Skirmish model if you use this in conjunction with Dàofěi it’s harder for your opponent to find out which is which also you can set out an anti personnel mine which makes this even more difficult as well as defending a stairway or path your opponent may wish to use.

“Gŭiláng (Ghost Wolf) Skirmishers are the special arctic branch of the Yu Jing State Army. They receive their training alongside Zhànshì Qízhì (Troops of the Banner), but must finish an additional eight-month program in a remote location in the Huangdi Peninsula (or, as PanOceanians call it, Niflheim), where climate conditions are extreme. Their comprehensive training is adjusted to the operational profile of the corps, that is, infiltration and camouflage techniques. The Gŭiláng can carry out missions that include waterborne and/or airborne operations, infiltration, mimetization, artillery spotting, relocation through mountainous and snowy terrain, etc. Their usual routine takes place inside the infamous Fimbul storms that sweep Svalarheima with winds capable of tearing meat from bone. These troops are used to being parachuted onto a hunk of ice, or deployed via submarine, and then marching twenty miles through no man’s land or, even worse, through enemy territory, hauling a rucksack full of materiel, weapons and explosives. Honestly, no one but the Gŭiláng can call that hell just another day’s work.”

Quotes are from Guilang – Human Sphere (human-sphere.com) and Infinity – Infinity CodeOne (corvusbelli.com) not my own work. Other words are just my opinion and may even be wrong.

Leather details

Sometimes you can use this paint style with the blacks but I like to break it up with some hard leather. but I think you should use the same paint style.

I paint a base of dark rust and a patchy layer highlight of flat earth and highlight with dark sand and and put scratches in all over with this as well. After this is done use glazes of smokey ink to darken everything down if you want to take this further also use glazes of purple or violet ink in the corners or folds.

Lights, lenses and OSL

You can use the turquoise like in some models just add black and white.

However most new Yu Jing have this done in a neon green and I can see this being the case going forward for now.

I love this and have done it a number of ways. my most recent is painting the object or lens in white and do a couple of coats of Green fluorescent use glazes of the dark green in the corners or around the base of the object you can add black to make the dark green even darker.  After this is done I use an airbrush and just  Green fluorescent around the area for the glow. Add white the the Green fluorescent for the highlights and a drop of white only on the object and not the surroundings.

Finishing up

You have painted your socks off by this point it takes me between 2 – 5 hours to paint a Yu Jing model at the moment. Want to keep it that way?

I use varnish so that I can handle the models without fear. I start by using gloss varnish this is the main hard coat. This is great however you will probably see that it looks horrible now due to the glare of lights on it.

To remove that glare after it’s dry I use ultra matte varnish. This evens out the different finishes of all the paints inks and glazes I have used and I like the look. Again if you do this another way that’s ok too.

Mediums and varnishes are not required however they are there to make your life easier. glaze is used to thin the paint but keep it strong and not separate. Retarder medium is used to give you another couple of minutes working time and it’s easier to remove mistakes. Varnishes are used to protect your models to remove the fear of people touching them or you using them to play games.

I have picked up most of my colours from Angel’s books which I can highly recommend. I have not directly referenced his work for some time but no doubt it’s still close as the end results still look similar. You can layer techniques on top of this by adding chipping, battle damage, rust, dust, snow, ice, etc onto it. I would only leave your OSL stuff to the end to light these effects properly. You could also chose to paint them blurple but I would say from experience it’s much easier to resell an army painted in close to the studio scheme unless you have a full force.

There are loads of YouTube tutorials, free painting guides, introduction booklets and even one in the paint set which contains most of these colours along with a Zahnshi forward observer that you cant use as that in Code One but you could use it as a medic or hacker.

Whatever you do, remember to have fun then it’s always worth it.

All infinity models have the ability to change the colour of their armour at a whim. Though the propaganda you see at half time on Aristeia! and on the biased news outlets and independent reporters like Xiu Chen seem to only show parade ground colours.

You can paint any army any colour you want, they are your models. The above fluff reason is great as it gives you a great excuse to do what you want and it’s all in theme. You can even go crazy and not have a uniform colour scheme. Perhaps the lieutenant is a child of the 2160’s? Who knows or cares? Well you… that’s the point.

For a lot of my Infinity factions I go with the studio scheme. and this is how to paint them…

Primer and Zenith

After cleaning up the parts with files and sand paper and gluing them with superglue and activator I get to painting.

I start by Priming the models in black. In my experience using rattle cans on infinity models will obscure detail unless done is extremely light coats. You are better doing this stage by brush if you don’t have an airbrush.

All over in black. Why Black? I want contrast I also don’t want to have to waste time painting the very underside of parts I cant see. If I get a good primer coat any missed parts are just in shadow.

But your models are mostly yellow on parts at the end isn’t black a bad starting point?

Yes this is where the Zenith in white is done. On most models I do a 45 degree spray of white ink. However as Yu Jing are yellow and orange I like to do a 90 degree and up light coat of white another coat at 45 degrees and a top coat at 0 degrees. This builds up section of pure white on the top of the model but you can still see black sections if you look from the underside.

If the model your painting is mostly dark or non yellow you could just do 45 degrees or miss this step off completely.

This is just what I do though you can easily get good results doing it your own way.

Armour

This is the most Iconic part of (the studio) Yu Jing The orange/yellow armour. They used to mostly green back in my day before Angel for a hold of them.

The main colours are the same no matter what style you want

The studio way is to use Orange brown as your base airbrushed followed by a Scrofulous brown 1st highlight and add white for the last highlight. After this is done use glazes of cavalry brown by brush and that’s you.

I think you need a darker level I use hull red for the real nooks and crannies  or mix black into cavalry red and do a second pass of a glaze.

If you want it darker start at Calvary down as your base if you want it lighter use Scrofulous brown as your base this is more like late N2 style.

If you didn’t have an airbrush you could dry brush these on or layer them up adding a little bit of the next colour until you cant tell the difference between what’s on your pallet and the bottle before adding the next. I tend to do this is the model is mostly not the Yu Jing yellow colour.

Airbrushing is magic? Yes and no. They can be I don’t use them to their full potential I don’t think the miniature hobby ever could. I use the airbrush to get volumes and make this easier. You can see the above step and a finished model they don’t look the same. Hopefully they have more contrast.

You need to create points of light. These tend to the closest or the highest points on that section to the direction of the imaginary light. this involves going in with the brushes again and taking your lightest mixture and adding even more white to them.

Here is where you can use retarder medium to keep the paint wet on your brush when doing so. When building these up you can also use glaze medium to help keep your paint more translucent to reduce your layer lines when moving up  adding more white each time.

When your at your lightest colour you can then use this to edge highlight everything using the side of your brush tip where possible.

After this is all done I tend to go in a basecoat everything again in black this is when the model starts to pop. I go back to the above steps when fixing areas and to fix highlights that no longer look right as I paint more of the model.

Yu Jing green

Some other main clothing elements are this green colour. This is achieved by adding in a dark turquoise colour in with green and highlighting with flesh tone.

Too much blue and it looks blue to much green and it looks green. You decide how much. When done add sunny skin tone in and it changes this into a very interesting colour. Don’t be tempted to add white it desaturates this to much unless you have went for a very white looking yellow this probably wont work.

Metal or gloss black details

This is the most of the rest of the majority of Yu Jing models.

You start with black and highlight like a normal surface with a mixture of black and dark grey with a final highlight of dark grey. This sets your volumes.

Then you mix in white and highlight only the tips of points or the edges of objects adding white to the mixture.

After this is done you can use glazes of blue and turquoise to add interest and stop it from looking as stark. If it looks too light you can also use glazes of blank to darken areas down.

Yu Jing is the Second most influential nation within the Human Sphere. Their belief in their nations leads them to think they should be the most influential and powerful faction within the sphere. They are astute not only in the art of war but in subterfuge and politics. The factions goal is the become the most influential and powerful force in the human sphere. This comes across not only in the deep lore of infinity but in the models and rules of the game.

In my opinion they are very well balanced in the game and can turn their lists in N4 to any playstyle without much of a problem.

I started with Yu Jing for my own force by collecting Code One which is a way I would recommend, without getting lost in the hundreds of options and additional rules you get with Infinity N4. Simply buy the action pack (of your choice) and then the boosters for the Code One faction. Or see if you can find the buy all options they had at holiday time 2022 everything fits and it’s easy and simple for Panoceana or Yu Jing. If your light on cash, get a friend and proxy all the models. Rr use tokens on the right base size and the free rules to get started.

If you wish to go direct to N4 you have a few options. Vanilla Yu Jing, Imperial Service, Invincible and white Banner. Additionally if you just wanted a few Yu Jing models these can be found in a number of nonaligned army’s. The Code one forces are pretty much the White Banner force but contain elements that can be used in the others as well.

• Vanilla Yu Jing are generic and have a wide range of options Nothing that specialised but a solid option as it’s the balanced option. Only drawback is that unlike sectorials, currently you cant have fireteams which are squad like arrangements of troops that can add power and flexibility depending on how they are composed.
• Imperial Service a high tech option if you like gadgets they have them all available to achieve their objectives. They act as the Police force and intelligence services and are a good hacking option for Yu Jing. They have good enough fireteam options and means you can have a tool for everything that needs fixed on their road to victory.
• Invincible Army,  the Yu Jing armoured fist. If the emperor wishes to punch something he uses the Invincible Army as his fist. They can use fireteams which become walking tanks to get the job done with high tech equipment and weapons to fend off almost any obstacle on the way to their objectives. This one is an aggressive option which do not have great reaction options.
• White Banner are a force that pushes the frontiers of Yu Jing and are used to working in the Cold due to this they are hardened and patient. They have loads of stealth and surprise attacks which makes them an interesting option. They do have fireteams but these options are quite limited.

Again Sectorial come with some additional rules you need to learn so if I was recommending to a new player I would say Code One Or a Vanilla force is the way to start. Just because it sounds dull does not make these options non competitive. Will you come first at  the Interplanitario Tournament with them… No. Could you place in a local tournament. Yes.

Talking of new players if You wish to get into infinity here are some links:

Code one Rules (full free rules)

Code One Infinity Army (full free army builder)

N4 Rules (full free rules)

N4 Infinity Army (full free army builder)

If you want more Lore and additional free things like tokens, quick start guides, FAQ’s you can go to https://infinitytheuniverse.com/

In the army builder app you can also click on each skill that will open up perhaps the best feature which is the WIKI  This prevents you having to look up the rulebook for any less used skills during play and really speeds things up and takes you right to what you need.

There are multiple Facebook groups for Infinity as well as some of us here on OTT. My Experience of both of these things is hugely positive and the community as a whole is very supportive and helpful. There is also the Corvus Belli Community Forum this can be slightly more salty in here but I have not seen that directed at players more to CB themselves on occasion.

I started collecting the above a bit at a time and painting each section. I have only played about 6 games to date.  Mixes of losses and wins as always so I am no Yu Jing Code One expert, so I wont share my lists just yet. The range of models gives a good selection to chose from, though you do have the wider N4 options if you want to go wysiwyg mad with most of the weapon options and space for duplicates if you wish.

They are fun easy to paint in the studio schemes