Infinity: Defiance & Beyond
17 - More Scenics
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.
These are great!
The Taigha breach tokens are spawn points for Taighas.