Weekly Waffle #357 – She’s Invincible
30th November 2024
This week’s Weekly Waffle has mainly been trying to fit the time in to get any hobby work completed. We have really busy time at work between now and Christmas with some really tight deadlines. I’ve known it was coming so it’s not a shock or anything but it has been a real challenge to try and get any hobby time in. But I’m pleased to say have managed to get something completed this week and I’m really happy with it. I think it does show that if you really want to do something you can usually find a way to fit it into your schedule. For me this has mainly been making as much use of my lunch time as I can. I’ve been working from home all week which has allowed me to do this. Just keeping the hobby ticking over.
Last week I did a test piece for an Infinity Yu Zing piece using the tutorial over at Lazy Painter. And I was very happy with how it turned out. I would be more than happy to place that on any table top. But as I said last week there were certainly things that I could do better. And I think I have made a little bit of progress this week. One of the things that I really wanted to work on was the small freehand sections with the strips down each arm. In the Lazy Painter tutorial these have three colours, black, white and red. Not the two colours, black and red, that I had on my test piece. So this was something I wanted to try and rectify on the next piece.
That next piece was Tai Sheng, another Zuyong Invincible but this time an NCO with a Cobmi Beaker Rifle. Although I have no idea what that actually means at the moment. I approached this mini in exactly the same way as I did the last one. Although I have to point out that it’s been a long time since I’ve worked with metal miniatures. I pointed out last week how much more work there is involved in cleaning them up when compared to a plastic mini. But what I had really forgotten was how dirty they are to clean up. By that I mean that after suing a couple of grades of sanding pads to get them ready for paint. My fingers were covered in a fine layer of metal dust. It almost looked like I actually worked for a living instead of just driving a desk.
I once again took my time to get the mini cleaned up properly before giving it a really good wash and then dried it throughly. Then it was out with the airbrush for the first few stages. I always use a black surface primer and then it was onto the jade green and the Rhinox Hide to do the shadows before going back to the jade green before the highlighting with a mix of jade green and white. This process is really quite simple. Obviously the more confidence you have with the airbrush the more you can push these steps. It’s quite a simple process and give you a miniature that looks quite good at this stage. If you were painting squads in this fashion you could easily get a lot of minis to a decent standard. Then a little bit of detail and you could be good to go on a larger force.
For me though I was only painting one mini so the next couple of steps took quite a lot of time. They were doing some black lining followed by edge highlighting. These are simple steps but they are very time consuming. Although they are well worth it once you have done them. They do make a massive difference to the look of the finished mini. Whilst my level of painting is nowhere near that of the Lazy Painter but I do feel like I am pushing myself. But I’m also enjoying the process which I think is very important. Going that extra mile compared to what I might have done in the past really does show in the finished mini.
Taking this approach trickled down into the base where I used the Rinox Hide as the base colour to try and tie the shadows from the mini into the base. I’m not a hundred percent sure if it really works but I think it does. Even if most of it has then been hidden under the other colours and snow effect. But I’m working on the principle of getting the little things right and that will make the overall feel of the mini better.
I like the snow effect I’ve added to the bases but think it could be much better. I’ve used what I had available to me but it has prompted me to look at picking up a few extra basing products to try and refine the bases. No major changes just some ice effect for areas that could have still water, some tufts to add a little bit of variety and then some different snow effect. This is really playing around the edges but I think it could make a difference for future minis.
Overall I think that this is small step up in quality over last week. The major difference this week is very small but I think it makes a big difference. That change is that I’ve manage to add the white to the free hand. So I now have black, white and red on the stripes. It’s not super neat but it’s certainly an improvement but with more practice I think I can get better. But what do you think.
You can see more Infinity miniatures at my gallery here
I’m going to continue with more Infinity for you next week and I should be able to give you another update like this one next week. I will also be trying to juggle that with getting a bit more work in on my Ork’s. I have all of the parts I need now so there is no real excuse for me not finishing this squad. The only real issue is going to be trying to switch out of Infinity mode and back into Ork mode. Because they are two very different styles of painting.
One of the good things that could come out of painting different styles of minis in the same week is that it keeps me fresh. It also makes you think a little bit more about what you are doing int the moment. You don’t get lazy because you need to be using the techniques you have developed over time at the right time for the right job. And I think mixing and matching techniques in the same week can really help to develop you r overall ability. Or at least that is what I’m hoping because I’m always trying to get better.
That’s all I have for you this week. I will be back again next week with something for you. But until then I hope you have a great week and that you can all find your way back next week so see what I have to share.
