CodeBlade

Next up, a Combat Hacker from the Neon Underground faction.

Next up I painted the Manipulator Hacker for the Neon Underground faction.  Paint went on equally as quickly as the previous one.  Maybe 3 hours total, perhaps less.  This model has the cyberpunkiness cranked right up, so I tried to give it a paintjob to match!

I’ve only painted one model so far, but I thought I would capture my first impressions.

As always when I am forming opinions, I have a quick check of my own biases that I might be bringing to the situation…. On the one hand I am biased towards the creators here – I love CodeBlade, it’s a great and innovative game, and I am rooting for them. On the other hand I came to this really quite skeptical about AI-generated miniatures.  3D printing kind of pushes my boundaries on its own and genuinely, the first thing I did when I opened these models was to count their fingers!!  We’ve all seen how AI can struggle rendering humans in images, so I was quite happy to see everyone anatomically correct!!

So, I concluded that my biases cancel out and I can be objective. Yay me!

I said this was a quick paintjob, and this really was QUICK.  I had the basecoats on in no time and really enjoyed the process.  I’ve done a lot of experimenting with speedpaints and the like recently, looking for ways to get armies on the table quickly.  Here, I decided to paint ‘traditionally’ (basecoat, wash, layer, highlight) as a controlled experiment.  But the process was probably faster than my recently speedpainted Eldar.

Why? Firstly the scale.  These are a generous 35mm. Compared to my previous 28mm cyberpunk minis these have nice large areas to get a fat brush in and paint quickly:

Secondly, and this is something that has been discussed a LOT on OTT in recent times, the minis are not too busy in terms of gribbly bits and details.  The details are crisp, yes, and the models are thematic and characterful, but they aren’t covered in an excess of paraphernalia that slows you down.

So this model painted fast, and it was an enjoyable and relaxing process.  I’m looking forward to the next one!

To be honest, once the primer was on, I completely forgot it was AI-generated and 3D printed.  It was just a refreshingly enjoyable thing to paint!

Ok, base coats and wash were done in the previous step (a couple of posts ago).  Now to finish him off.  This is the part of the paintjob that’s hard to step-by-step because I’m figuring out colours as I go and seeing what works.

That said I have deliberately kept this quick and simple.  Basecoat, wash, layer highlight.  Do an area, move on.  I’m looking to see how these models take paint in a game-ready way.

So no steps but I did capture the paint bottles that ended up on that desk, and the palette after the job:

I am a lucky boy.  The CodeBlade creators have kindly made me into a support character for the Neon Underground faction!

I’m keeping it SUPER simple for the basing.  The AI/3D bases that I was sent with the minis, very simply painted.

Ok so the title of this entry is going to be very ‘marmite’ for wargamers!  But bear with me..  CodeBlade is set in a world where Artificial Intelligence has been let loose on society and, for everyone except the privileged few, people work for AI rather than the other way around. So, whatever existential crisis we might have about the miniature production method, it fits the setting!!

The brainiacs behind CodeBlade have developed a method to create AI generated 3D STL files from AI generated 2D images using an innovative and complex GenAI workflow.  Don’t ask me how – I have no idea (an upcoming OTT interview should reveal all) – but they kindly sent me some 3D printed prototypes to have a play with.

CodeBlade has been, and will continue to be, a miniature-agnostic game, but the arrival of ‘official’ miniatures into the mix is very welcome from my perspective.

My first love faction-wise for CodeBlade was the Neon Underground.  So I was kindly sent models for the whole faction.

I laid them out to have a look and do some final cleanup of the support points.  Very little to do actually. First inspection they looked as good as any other 3D printed minis I’ve handled. I don’t print myself, but I’ve bought 3D prints in the past.

I picked two of the models to paint as an initial test.  I chose the Muscle (a hired Freelancer) and the Manipulator Hacker.  They even printed me some bases so I prepped two of those too.

I had a good look at them after this stage.  Even if a zenith is going to be completely covered up in the next stage, I do find that it really helps to see the details on the minis and plan how I am going to paint them.

At this stage everything was good.  Details crisp, and I couldn’t see any of those odd AI artefacts you sometimes see in GenAI images.  At this point they could be miniatures from any manufacturer (and that’s a compliment!).  I don’t underestimate the amount of work that must have gone into getting them to this point.

I took the Muscle forward as the first one to paint.  Basecoats went on super fast.