MayaCast Painting Contest

Recently MayaCast, an Infinity podcast produced by Kip Parcel and Tom Schadle, announced they are running a miniature painting contest.  Contestants must enter a non-TAG, non-remote Infinity model by May 26th.  Now, they didn't want to sift through dozens of pictures for each figure so they limited the photos to two per model. I'll show a few more than that here.

After hearing about the contest I immediately determined that I must paint up one of my Nomads.  I selected the Reverend Custodier model with the combi-rifle as that has always been a favorite.  In truth I like both Custodier models but only recently bought the boarding shotgun version after realizing how awesome those weapons are in-game.

Now, it’s been almost two years since I painted anything of note.  I’ve done a couple easy one-off models but nothing that pushed my abilities and nothing at the scale of Infinity figures.  As they are 28mm non-heroic scale they are much smaller and more fragile.  This means less surface for detail work and washes, glazes, and other common techniques work differently.  So I decided I needed a test subject to hone my skills. 

I pulled out my Nomads that were already assembled but either unprimed or only primed, and pulled a few models.  I ended up with my Spektyr hacker and the E/Mauler Zero.  At the end of the day I chose the Zero because her pose is more open and I figured I would have an easier time working my paintbrush around her frame.

To make a long-story short, due to personal commitments, emergencies, work, and other factors I finished up the Zero about a week before the deadline.  Looking at the calendar ahead I knew of a couple other personal commitments and decided that I didn’t have enough time to move onto another test figure or even the final figure.  A little disappointed in myself, I set up my portable photo studio and took some shots.  I emailed them to Tom and Kip that evening.

Now the good point of this painting contest is that I painted my first Infinity figure in a long time and I’m pretty impressed.  The base is not final.  I used a spare MAS base I had laying around.  Those are actually reserved for my Haqqislam force.  I’m currently waiting on my Antenocitis Workshop bases to arrive for my Nomads (I even bought the compass bars to eliminate LoF ambiguity).

Overall I think the final product came out surprisingly well given my inexperience painting Infinity figures.  I do have several issues that I may correct if I have time.  The combi-rifle needs something to break it up.  I plan to repaint the stock padding and the barrel grip in a lighter, but still neutral, sand color.  I need to refine my white process and have better shading.  I paint retribution for Warmachine. I know how to paint white.  I didn’t do it right this time around because I was worried about the small detail on the model.  The orange bodysuit needs better highlights on the ribbing.  I wanted to go and highlight each rib individually, but due to time, I pulled back and did a drybrush.