Big Update II: PanOceania Infinity & Water Bases

For the second half of my updates on the past year I give you the continued meanderings of my Panoceania army. I’m relatively pleased with how they’ve turned out so far, although I admit that in light of my progress as a painter I now find both the mint green and red seriously lacking in contrast. I might go back and sort this out down the line, depending on how often they get used. Here is the current army

One thing I’m particularly pleased with are the water bases on these guys, and I like the way it offsets their light coloring. It took a bit of experimentation to get it right. I built up the layers of sand on the bases several times using Vallejo Sand Texture in order to provide some depth for the water. Originally I was going to use a sort of resin casting following this guide. However I found the resin too difficult to manage on such a small scale so I had to look for alternatives. What I ended up doing was using VallejoTransparent Water gel to build a “ring” around the edge of the base with water so that between the gel and the sand layers there was a pool in which to use a standard liquid water effect. I then used Woodland Scenics Realistic Water to fill it, which was excellent and had minimal shrinkage. It took a lot of time and patience to build up the layers of both the gel and then the realistic water but I’m pleased with the result, and will be sure to take step-by-step pictures for the next base I do.

Something to note about the realistic water (and other “pooling” liquid-based water effects) is that if your using tufts within the water in order make the fauna look submerged then the water tends to get pulled up into the tuft like a sponge. It can really mess up your base so be careful!

The big addition to the PanO troops is a Cutter, which I am actually profoundly disappointed with. I had no concrete plans with the highlighting on him and kept flip-flopping between doing zenithal-esque lighting highlights or straightforward line work. I painted him largely while watching a television series and I think my displeasure and lack of focus with him is largely a result of trying to split my attention between two things. I’ve reached the conclusion that watching shows or films while painting really compromises your ability to both process the show and paint your figure, and it easily doubled the time that I spent on the Cutter. It is podcasts and music only from now on!

I did try something new with his base though, which is the streams of water pouring out of his knee-joint. I made this strips of Vallejo Transparent Water that had dried separately and could be peeled off and attached to the model. It’s a really cool effect that looks quite good, although I didn’t do it in a very realistic way at all here, as its absolutely pouring off of this one point and nowhere else. I do really enjoy using the Vallejo Water & Stone products in general, they avoid the hassle of gluing and sealing sand and there are some superb textures to work with!

I still have a limited edition Joan of Arc to paint which I will be pulling out all the stops for. It’s a gorgeous model and I want to try painting my PanO mint/red scheme in a way that reflects how far I've come since painting the original Kamau troops. I plan to up the contrast heavily, use proper wet blends, and maybe introducing a bit of weathering a well! I will post pictures once I start working on her.

Unfortunately I no longer play Infinity often as the group at my local store petered out a bit and I’ve yet to catch up with the N3 rulebook. It’s such a great game though that I just know I’ll be coming back to it at some point, so I’m looking forward to fielding my PanO when I do!

Thanks for looking!

-Tom