Spring Cleaning Military Orders

I was at the point I wanted this project to end about 3 weeks ago. I pushed on. I am not really the kind of person to leave a project unfinished. I think I need a break from painting infinity as I advised before and my respite enabled me to finish and not turn to computer games for entertainment.

This is where a saying comes from, finished not perfect. I still want to keep a look and quality level to what I am doing but I feel I have painted well bellow my best and even below my average.

In sating that I am still pleased with what I had accomplished. If I had an analogy of what this was like to beat the final boss. It was a 6 hour fight ending with the most basic of attacks with no flourish. Still accomplished a feat but left me feeling odd about it.

The good news is that I get to play with these next. May be a little while until “the event” allows safely.

In defeating the final boss I done 2 things. I compromised on some of the freehand. Just one on this model. Also the freehand I done was textured because I didn’t thin my paint enough and even when I did it more the paint was trying on the model as I was painting. I am not used to painting in any kind of heat. I cant really notice after it was done but it did feel a little like ash in my mouth.

The rest of this model as with all the others followed the same steps as the Joan tutorial. The only think I think I done differently was doing some greenish shadows on the white armour. It looked very stark without it and was done with dark sea blue glazes only about 3 – 4 reducing in sizes towards the shadow. I wanted to keep the cloth look different so missed this off here. I do like the look and think I can refine this so will do again in the future.

I did have plans for battle damage and more of a celebration of the ending of the project but I just needed it to be done. I am overjoyed that it is.

On reflection finishing everything is good. I have my backdrop which I will keep for a while. I am very pleased with this and will use it for the other 8 – 10 models I want for the force if I enjoy playing them. If not at least I have a usable force if someone else wants to borrow them.

I like the effect with the base being the contestant and the characters being present at different times of the life of the monastery. With ruined bases and each looking heroic in their own.

I think they have a strong look and all together are better than the sum of their parts.

I have learned a lot, Freehand is growing on me. I did surprise myself on painting the tiny logo’s. Will I do this more in the future? Possibly not, I can make transfers. Though I do want to do more freehand, during this project I have lost my fear of destroying my models. I do have a long way to go though and I am looking forward to the journey.

I also learned by doing the Joan tutorial and really thought about what I was doing. I didn’t do this to the same extent of any of the other models. I want this to become second nature so will do this more often, but it’s tiring thinking about everything so actively.

So this started out as 1 model to strip then paint and 2 models to tart up. I expanded to a backdrop. Then expanded to a full infinity force of 400 – 500 points (300 being the normal game). So lots of points and things to swap out. My older models will get much more use now though and I am pleased I have the force as I am sure they will enjoy fighting other religious zealots. Looking at Haqqislam mostly, for a good crusade feel.

This did however remind me how easy it is to get into infinity. The low model count lets you get done fast or push the boat out with your painting. It’s a relatively low buy in for a game in comparison to others with free rules and app available online. Along with loads of lore and community support.

Talking of community even though we are small on number here on the project systems, it’s great to see all the infinity lovers here supporting each other and I hope that continues. It does help, not only for support, feedback and competition, but also the inspiration to keep going even when projects get tough. So thanks and I hope others post their infinity journeys as I want to read more.

My first spring clean challenge done. I am off to paint something other than infinity for a short while (as I now have a pile of shame for the first time in years). And vote up other community projects!

No more to come, for a long while at least for this one.