Infinity: Defiance & Beyond

Rahman Rouhani is the ship’s doctor and while certainly a willing crew member, he’s a reluctant combatant. Despite his best efforts he often finds himself in the midst of trouble and is forced to take up arms, his experience and skills often calling him to places where trouble can’t help but find him.

Haqqislam is pretty much my favourite faction for Infinity, although for some bizarre reason I haven’t actually gotten round to painting any of my (not insignificant) collection. Until now, obviously. He was a trailblazer for models in the future and I also saved the colours using the Paintrack App (if you haven’t used it, I highly recommend it).

As with Jazz, Rahman also has a remote assistant, NASMAT by the name of Gaspar. I haven’t really changed my opinions of these remotes, it’s probably the only bit of Infinity I don’t really like. Also, Gaspar didn’t come with two feet, unfortunately by the time I realised I had lost the little QC ticket that Infinity miniatures come with that you need in order to obtain replacement parts. Again, another aspect of Infinity I find terminally frustrating. I love metal miniatures but some of the components in Infinity are so small and so finicky sometimes it’s hard to tell what is a part of the model and what is just a bit of flash or overspill.

Anyway… It turned out ok in the end. Apart from the missing foot, which I can’t help but see every time I look

These two characters get a combined entry because they’re quite similar. They are both speculo agents, genetically modified Shasvastii programmed to impersonate other species – in this case humans – for infiltration purposes. Their missions can be many and varied from espionage to assassination.

Aïda Swanson is, or rather was, a sub-mondo (the criminal underworld of the Infinity universe) with a reputation for being able to source whatever the buyer wants with no questions asked; information, weapons, drugs… people. For the right price of course, and with no questions asked in return. Then, one day Aida was no more, her last client an exact replica of herself, created by the Shasvastii. The creature killed her and took her identity and took up where its victim left off. Since then, the creature has become so immersed in the personality of Aïda that it no longer fully knows what it is; when called on it unquestioningly fulfils missions from its alien overlords without knowing why, extracting whatever information or items the EI has decided are necessary to further its goals

Victor Messer is a different beast again. Very little is known about Victor save that he exists. He bears the moniker “Autonomous Agent of Chaos and his main goal seems to be just that – to spread chaos and disorder among the Human Sphere. He has been detected numerous times on the Maya network, orchestrating various protest and hacker groups with the goal of disrupting human sphere operations. His actions have brought him to the attention of O12 as a person of significant interest and they want him taken alive.

According to most sources, Naish Sheshkiin is supposed to be the hardest of the Shasvastii opponents in the game. However if the N4 rules are anything to go by, I think this guy will give her a run for her money. The Heavy Infantry models are one of my favourite parts of Infinity – I guess they’re the Infinity equivalents of Space Marines and this is the Shasvastii take on that concept. The Shasvastii have some very different concepts that juxtapose the Human Sphere. Where the Human Sphere is very focused more on computer technology, the Shasvastii have a lot of genetic and biological technology fused with that. This big guy is a great variation on heavy infantry that brings in some of those features with lots of organic parts and shapes. Unlike most Heavy Infantry, the Charontids don’t have a pilot, they’re similar to the ALEPH constructs; a bio-engineered construct with a fragment of the Evolved Intelligence’s personality downloaded into it.

Agnes was a miniature I was really looking forward to painting;  she’s totally non-essential for the game, appearing only in mission 1 as the mission objective;  she’s been locked up and you have to free her from prison and get her to the ship because she’s the pilot.  But it’s cool that Corvus Belli included her in the kickstarter.

I was also interested in the colour scheme.  I have been generally sticking to the artwork as much as possible and I really like the light grey and blue combo with orange contrasts – it’s that grey/orange thing again that I did on the doors.  In fact, I used the same colours I used on the doors on the step that she is standing on.

Painting Agnes was a bit of a treat, of sorts.  I saved her till the last and I absolutely love the result.  My only complaint is that the miniature kind of looks like Christiano Ronaldo with boobs…

With Agnes done, everything I need for mission 1 is now in place.

It’s been feeling like a bit of a slog recently.  I absolutely love Infinity miniatures but I have been painting them for quite some time now and for someone like me, that’s hard work.  I keep looking at other miniatures sat on shalves waiting to be painted and wishing I was doing that.  But then I think about how close I am to the goal of being able to play Infinity: Defiance with all painted miniatures and I somehow find the will to continue.  I was playing Imperial Assault recently with my neighbour (totally new to gaming but absolutely loves the Star Wars games) and commented that he had been looking at Imperial Assault online and how much better the game looks when all the miniatures are painted, as mine are.  So although this is supposed to be a hobby and not a job, the effort being put in now will be paid back many times over when I sit down and play the game with gorgeous painted miniatures.

So.  Jazz and Billie.  I have to say, I find the little robots that seem quite common in Infinity to be a bit strange.  I guess maybe it’s some anime thing that I don’t get, having never been overly interested in anime.  Painting that robot, while not difficult just felt like I was painting something for the sake of it.  Painting Jazz was a lot more enjoyable and that might explain why “Billie” as the robot is called, sat unpainted for 2 weeks after I completed Jazz.  In fact I actually sat painting doors and other random scenery bits using speedpaint rather than paint Billie.  Anyway they’re done now and that’s the 4 core crew members done.  Only one more item to go…

I had a flick through the mission book to see what other possible token upgrades I could use.  I found a couple of missions that had “Engine Access Panels” and also some energy cells.  But, as I was reading I also noticed that some of the missions were set in the Human Sphere but others are set in the enemy heartlands, on the worlds of the combined army.  Which then gave me an idea.  I backed the Star Saga Kickstarter a few years ago and Mantic, in their generosity, gave me extra Scenics meaning I had twice as many of everything – including doors.  I decided to use these spare doors in my defiance game rather than having 8 of everything in Star Saga – which is just overkill.  I created a hex stand using Tinkercad which I printed out and stuck to the bottom of the Star Saga doors

Then I designed a second Colour scheme for doors that would look more dark, nasty and alien.  So I went with the same colours as the Shasvastii I painted – black and crimson.  There’s also a bit of religiosity to the combined army, they serve the E.I. (Evolved Intelligence) whose goal is to discover the secret of transcendence.  So I decided to add alien markings/runes to all the doors to make them feel a bit more spiritual.

To paint doors, I just primed them black and gave them a dark grey drybrush.  The crimson panels were then picked out using Vampire Red, which I have decided is now one of my favourite paints.  The black panels were painted using a black speed paint, which made painting them a lot easier, especially the narrower recesses.  The writing was done first using a black marker and then I painted over the top using Necrotic Flesh.  To finish off, the black panels were given a coat of gloss varnish.

I also decided to look for some alternative consoles, because I wanted everything to look and feel different.  I had some alien consoles lying around which were made by Microart Studios but appear to have been discontinued ?

The engine Access Panels were made by taking a model of a cryo-chamber, chopping the legs off and standing it on its end.  This was painted in a similar colour scheme to the doors, as were the consoles.

The Energy tokens were produced by combining a scenic base STL with a chemical container STL which I shrank down to around 2cm tall.  I am actually really pleased with how this has turned out.

The final scenic elements were the Taigha Creature breach tokens.  Not exactly sure how they work in game but I decided to try and make these “neutral” in so far as they would fit with either the Defiance scenery or the Combined Army scenery.  This was done by using a mid-grey colour scheme but not using either the crimson or orange.  The lights are turquoise in both schemes and so the middle of each token was painted in that colour.

After I painted the terminals and containers I painted a couple of doors.  I went with a grey/orange/white colour scheme with any lights in a turquoise colour.  I have used this before on some Star Saga miniatures and I think the orange and white really pop against the grey background and the turquoise is a really nice contrast to the orange

This prompted a rethink for my colour scheme on the terminals.  Having looked at the rules and the scenario guide, I don’t think there’s any real need to differentiate terminals by using different colours so I quite like the idea of a consistent colour scheme and those colours do have a nice sci-fi vibe to them.  The corpse tokens don’t follow the colour scheme, but instead I painted each in a different faction’s colours (nomads, O12, PanO and YuJing)

The aim right now is to get the bare essentials finished so I can play mission 1 fully painted and then finish the handful of models I need after that to play mission 2 (which amounts to 1 Combined army model and 2 more heroes).  When I was looking at mission 1 I happened to notice that it had two generic marker tokens labelled as “Magnetic Clamps”, which appear to be clamps keeping the shuttlecraft from departing and which have to be disengaged before the players can leave and complete the mission.  They’re also classed as line of sight blocking.  I was suddenly a bit jaded that Corvus Belli would supply the game with some lovely scenery pieces and then ruin it by using some generic tokens for this so I did a digital kitbash.  The base model was the top of some sort of loading crane which I stood on its end.  I then used TinkerCad to attacks the magnetic clamps and some pistons before sending them to my resin printer.  I am quite pleased with the result!  It looks like there may be more such items in later missions and I am already looking for possible kitbash ideas.

Following the Slapchop discussion on the weekender I thought I’d give it a go.  Because I really want to have a crack at this game relatively soon, I decided to experiment on the Scenery upgrade I got with the game.  I have primed the turrets and doors too but I only did the terminals and containers.  Well, colour me impressed.  Sure, it does darken the colours a little bit, but if you want to get brighter, more poppy colours I think you can probably apply a heavier white drybrush for that (although that will reduce the impact of the highlights).

I shall be using this on the remainder of the scenery elements.

Qiang Gao is probably my second favourite of the hero models from the core set and I was really looking forward to painting him.  It also gave me chance to practice yellow armour – something I may have a lot of in the future when I get around to painting my Yu-Jing Infinity models (of which there are many).  He wasn’t as easly to paint as I was expecting, mostly because of the way the arm is posed.  I decided to paint the gun arm separately which actually proved quite fiddly.  The main model was done using a paint grip but I didn’t have anything equivalent for painting the arm and so paint was constantly being worn off.  Eventually I settled for doing a very basic paint job on the reverse side that isn’t very visible and then sticking it to the main model before finishing it off.  Also the face was a nightmare, I still don’t really know how I got that eye on there because the eye sockets were TINY.  I think I need something smaller than a 000 brush for some of these.

Overall though I really like the miniature, and I kind of like his backstory too, it really resonates with me.  An honourable soldier who did the right thing  and took the consequences rather than a yes man working his way to the top.

Sheshkiin is the first of the combined army characters in the Defiance set and also something that I already had a miniature for from the Wildfire starter set.  I have to say, I much prefer the updated defiance miniature – even with its foot on rock.  She kind of reminds of Liara  T’Soni from Mass Effect, although probably more of a bitch.  I of painted these at the same time, because they use the same colour palette to try and ensure a consistency of colour across both miniatures.

One thing that really disappointed me – and this is because of my eyesight – I didn’t spot the mould line on the leg.  Now it’s painted it’s sooo bloody obvious.

I am kind of taking a pause on Combined Army models here though.  I realised that I have painted more than is necessary for the first mission and if I paint another two heroes, I can actually start playing.  So the Shasvastii are now on hold

Yes the name means what you think it means.  While I think it’s a somewhat unfortunate name for a unit (I don’t know whether it has some other meaning in spanish), I can sort of see why they are called that.  Their human features are just a false, genetically engineerd exterior.  The entire lower half of their face opens into a huge, fang filled mouth.

Although there are two speculo killers in the box, they were both painted separately.  When I checked out the artwork and examples of these, one of them was painted with the pink jumpsuit and one red.  So I decided to do the same which then allows the Nox to fit in a little more with the army as there is now a better mixture of colour schemes.

The Seed Soldiers, the basic troop unit of the Shasvastii. The Shasvastii as a race do not typically engage in full frontal, all out assault to achieve their goals and favour stealth and surprise, their aim is to have full control of a battlefield before the fighting ever starts; by the time the fighting actually starts, the invasion is already well under way. Seed Soldiers are the way they achieve this, with thousands of “seeds” (capsules containing a single shasvastii warrior) being distributed and hidden, often buried, in an around target objectives and potential battlefields. The seed capsule provides constant tactical updates to the waiting soldier until eventually they are given the order to attack. Their appearance in a battle is usually used to effect an immediate change to the tactical situation in a battle by drawing the enemy into a desired position and then opening up new fronts to force an opponent to split their forces or even surround them.

These are the last of what might be considered “troops” that have for the Shasvastii. I think I have something like 10 miniatures left in total, but they’re all individuals and characters now. This means the rate at which things get painted is likely to drop a little, because I can’t really batch paint them and I am likely to put a bit more time and effort into them. However it feels like I am getting toward the end of them and when they’re done I will have quite a sizable force for Infinity as well

I painted these at sort of the same time as Uma, or rather I did the black armour at the same time as painting Uma.  The rest was finished later so my eyes were much improved by that point.

Ironically I am starting to master my quick method of doing the armour (because I hate painting black) just as I am getting to the end of the Combined army models.  Those that remain are of high enough importance that I may consider painting them properly.  To get the black armour I prime black then drybrush three layers of great, a heavy drybrush of dark grey, a lighter drybrush of mid grey and finally a light highlight of pale grey or white.  Then I thin down some black speed paint and use it like a strongly pigmented wash.  Because of the nice red contrast and other details, your eyes are generally drawn away from the black (and thus all my sins).

This turned into very much a “mental health” project. Painting is my primary hobby and is a bit of a crutch that I lean on to support my mental health. However I also had physical health issues while painting this (an eye infection which caused blurred vision in one eye) and so the two were competing.  That’s really why there’s not been much progress in 11 days.  It’s just been one of those weeks (Well, one of those years if I’m being honest and very much a continuation of an ongoing theme).  But I try to ensure that when I have motivation to indulge in my hobbies that I do so and that, unfortunately, meant soldiering on with it. Ultimately, it’s better than I thought it would be but I wouldn’t really say I am happy with the results. Luckily I have the alt-sculpt of her so I will save that one for when I my eyes are in a better state.

Up to now I have focused all my efforts on the bad guys, the Shasvastii. But Defiance is a Dungeon Crawler and it’s a co-op game at that so the story is all about the heroes, of which there are many.  And as I have painted a significant number of the Shasvastii, I decided now was a good time to paint one of the heroes.  I could have gone for any of the heroes, they’re all amazing.  However I am trying to convince my gaming group to let me run an Infinity RPG game later this year but nobody really knows anything about it.  However, knowing at least one of the group as I did, I thought if anything was going to sell the setting to him, the idea of a Space Werewolf would, especially as Dog Faces (as they are affectionately known) and Wulvers (which is what Cadin is) are a playable races in the game.  So Cadin it was.  This was also nice for me because I haven’t ever painted any Ariadna miniatures and this one is, in my opinion at least, a very nice model indeed.

I love the psuedo military look, sort of half combat fatigues half biker gang (yes, he has a gang motif on his jacket).  The pose is also nice, leaping over a piece of some destroyed TAG with that machete or whatever the hell it is raised high.  He looks like he is ambushing some poor, unfortunate and unsuspecting enemy, although it certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to be quiet end.  And honestly, I suspect that’s exactly how Cadin likes it.

Right.  This one is serious.  I had been dying to paint this since I got hold of the box.  This is the Megalodron, to date the largest model Corvus Belli have ever produce, and it is BIG!  To give you an idea of scale, each of the hexagons on the base is large enough to fit a standard 25mm, round slottabase inside it.

Unfortunately, when I assessed the model, it came in two pieced, the upper torso and arms and then the lower torso, legs and base.  Ideally this needed to be supplied in THREE parts with the base, which is a lovely, sculpted scenic base, as a separate component.  After a little more investigation, I determined that the base should be easy enough to remove with a little jiggery pokery.  So I put the part in the freezer for a couple of hours which makes some glues go brittle and with a little bit of elbow grease, it came off.  There was a tiny bit of damage to the bottom of one of the feet but when I looked at it, it would not be visible once the model was reassembled.  So no worries there

Next I had to figure out a colour scheme.  I wanted it to tie in with the rest of the Shasvastii, but, because it isn’t a Shasvastii, it is something else, I also wanted it to stand apart.  So I went for a reversed colour scheme.  I used a predominantly deep red for the armour with black details.  Both halves were primed using Army Painter Chaotic Red which is dark enough that it doesn’t really need any wash or shading.  The highlights were built up very gradually and mostly near the edges, using a series of red paints from Vallejo, starting with Carmine Red and working up to Scarlet.  To maintain some consistency, I also used turquoise and pink for spot details, like I had on the rest of the army and I also used the same pale green skin tone.

Finally, the base.  Wow, what an amazing design.  I love the jungle undergrowth, I love the remains of the TAG suit sculpted on the base and slightly overgrown (and yes, if you look on the Corvuse Belli store that TAG is an actual TAG that you can buy).  Painting it was as enjoyable as painting the main model and, as a final touch, I bought some flourescent “alien grass” tufts

I have to say, painting it was a royal pain in the arse.  Because it was so big, and such an awkward shape, I could fix it to any of the painting grips that I have.  The upper torso was easy enough, I just mounted it on the legs and held the lower piece.  The legs, however were incredibly difficult to do because there was only a tiny stub of plastic at the top that could be used to grip it.  I don’t know whether it was a problem with the primer, the material or the paints I was using but you only had to so much as look at it funny, and paint was being rubbed off the harder edges, such as armour plates.All in all, including the base, I spent around 60 hours painting this thing I felt like I spent as much time touching up areas where the paint had rubbed away as I did painting the actual model.  Although I am absolutely amazed by the results, it’s not an experience I would be rushing back to do again because of the paint adhesion issues.  Which is obviously why I backed TAG Raid which comes with another two or three massive monsters made out of the same material…

Upon hearing the sad news that Antenociti’s Workshop had closed their doors, I decided to interrupt my Defiance work and squeeze in the Citihopper.  I have always loved this model and I am really sad to know that there is no way now for anyone else to get one of these – unless somehow their STL collection can be saved and sold online via My Mini Factory.  I am hoping someone picks that up.

Anyway, painting it was really good fun and also something a bit different, both in terms of not painting more Shasvastii but also because I don’t often paint vehicles.  I opted for a simple approach.  The model was basecoated using the colours I wanted to use in each area than I used pin washes to line all the panels.  The canopy was painted silver and then I blended yellow and orange speed paints over the top.

The HVTs (High Value Targets) I have had for a while but I thought they were a perfect match for the Citihopper.  These are exactly the sort of characters who would utilise such a luxurious form of transportation

I got a bit of a break from the drudgery of black armour with these.  They’re quirky little things but they do have a nice  colour scheme, or at least I think they do.  I always find painting white a challenge, but I have found that using things like artists inks and contrast paints you can get some really good results.

I started off by paint all of the white areas.  The models were primed white and then given a slightly thinned coat of the white speed paint – contrast paint will give you the exact same result.  After that the tips of the claws were painted using a very dark grey and layers of lighter shades of grey built up over the top, feathering the edges a little to smooth the transitions a little.  The actual talons/claws were painted jet black and then I lightened it with some turquoise to provide highlights.  This was done in two layers but then a final highlight of pure turqoise was added at the end.  The harnesses are exactly the same formula as all the black armour on their masters – black, drybrush and heavy wash.

Whereas a lot of the lights and details so far had been in purple and pink, I went for a different look on these.  The lights on whatever contraption they are wearing over their faces were done in a jade green colour

All in all, I absolutely love these little critters

The Jayth were a bit more interesting to paint because they have a different skin tone and there’s a lot more of it on display.  I’m not sure whether they are the same species as the Shasvastii or a sub-species.  For all that I love Infinity, I haven’t read that much about the Combined Army, I have focused on the Human Sphere.  With all its politicking and intrigue, the Human Sphere is large enough and rich enough to keep me occupied.

Anyway, these were done pretty much the same way as everything else.  Black primer, drybrush and a wash with the brighter colours on top.  It’s not really showing very well in the picture, but to do the purple rings set into the armour, I used a highly thinned down white ink.  Thinning it down causes it to “pool” and as such it runs off the raised surface and settles into the recess.  I then painted some purple contract over the top

As I looked through what I had available, I realised, fairly quickly, that there were several different types of troops for which I had a number of models.  This meant that in theory they could be batch painted – something novel for me when it comes to Infinity.  So that’s what I did with the Cadmus and the Caliban soldiers.

The process was exactly the same, however I wasn’t overly keen on the pink under-armour on the Nox, so I switched it to a deep red instead, which I am much happier with and will likely be sticking to from now on.

As with the Nox, I had Caliban and Cadmus models from Operation Wildfire as well as Defiance so I painted them all together