Update XI: Haqqislam Forces, Test Schemes, and Chipping Experiments

Hello friends!

It's been a little under two months since my last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to hobby-wise since the start of May.

1. Finished getting my Infinity JSA army tabletop-ready.

First I focused on finishing the bases and getting an airbrush and some base layers down on the two remaining models for my JSA forces. With a layer of varnish these two were up to snuff with the rest of the army and ready to use on the tabletop while I finished their brushwork.

My Oniwaban proved to be an incredibly effective attacker in my first two games with him. Really cool high-risk/high-reward unit!

However instead of being satisfied with my JSA army and getting down to finishing them off with brushwork I instead completely shifted gears and began assembling and prepping a non-sectorial (aka 'vanilla') Haqqislam force.

Even now it's entirely unclear to me why I did this beyond liking the faction and having the Red Veil forces available to me. I really am a glutton for punishment...

2. Assembled and started prepping a Haqqislam army for the tabletop.

I supplemented the red veil box with a box of naffatuns and this, in tandem with the Knauf mercenary sniper I got with the recent infinity Manga, will make a solid 300 point Haqq list. However it added about thirteen more figures to paint on top of my eleven JSA units.

The current painting backlog, about 24 figures. :/

Consequently instead of having one finished army I now have two partially finished ones and lots of brushwork to do. Thankfully the Haqq bases are now almost entirely done and the figures are airbrushed so at least I'll be able to use both on the tabletop.

3. Initial models for both JSA and Haqqislam armies

Once I settle on a color scheme for an army I always get an initial test model to at least 70% completion with the colors I've chosen so i'm aware of any particular challenges that the combination of paints or colors might offer me. For my Haqqislam forces this was a female Ghulam line trooper.

Initial basecolors down over a completed base. I've uploaded a detailed basing tutorial seen here.

Haqqislam troops look somewhat less "high-tech" than other factions and I wanted to use earthy tones to reflect that realism while still keeping the colours bright and punchy on the tabletop. I settled on cream-coloured armour with green clothing  accompanied by some dark blue spot colours.

Working on this model proved really useful, particularly in regards to how to approach the cream armor, as I realised that doing white zenithal highlights on the airbrush beforehand was a pointless step. Definitely a time saver in the long run!

I also made my first attempt at doing a really simple NMM effect with two shades of metal over the black basecoat on the weapon. I am SO pleased with the result, which actually a lot faster than doing a full bascoat of true metal. This is probably the first time I've felt like my metal tones look good.

The current state of the model after further work. Armor and weapon are basically finished here but the skin, green, and blue have all yet to have any highlight/shading.

Rear view.

I'm definitely really pleased with the overall effect of my color scheme and it's been a lot of fun to paint.

I had already got to this point with a JSA test model, but continued to work on the Doctor figure in order to finalise my approach. I'm only somewhat happy with the result but this told me a couple things about the process that i'll keep in mind for the remaining figures. Specifically how to approach highlighting the puffy pants and also that the red armour doesn't really need a glaze to get the most out of it.

Front view. Armor, weapon, and pants pretty much done here. Skin, hair, and brown spot colors need a lot more stuff going on .Haven't evne gotten around to base coating some of the straps yet.

rear view

4. Chipping experiment on Haqqislam Heavy Infantry

One of the Haqqislam units from the Red Veil box is encased head-to-toe in armour, and I wanted to try something different to set him apart from the others. I decided to use some chipping medium to give him a really weathered look as I'd done on my Gorkanaut around this time last year.

I won't go through a detailed step by step process but I undercoated him with a rattlecan, then sprayed him down with "doombull brown" through the airbrush. I varnished that layer, and then gave it two coats of Vallejo's "Chipping Medium" which comes in a dropper bottle.

Over the chipping medium I airbrushed him with the cream colour from my colour scheme, along with some basic airbrush zenithal shading and highlighting.

How he looked before I started chipping.

I did some spot colors using the greens and blues from the rest of color scheme to add some flavor, and then began the chipping process.

I started using water and a toothpick to chip away at the top layer. However I quickly became very frustrated with the way the Vallejo "chipping medium" behaved.

With the Gorkanaut I had used AK interactive "Worn Effect", which is used the exact same way as chipping medium. However the AK interactive effect has a lot more grip, and while it takes a lot more effort to remove the top layer of paint, it gives you lots of tiny chips which makes for a really realistic rust effect. I ended up using a toothbrush to rub down my Gorkanaut and I was really pleased with the effect.

Unfortunately with the Vallejo chipping medium it was way easier to take off the top layer, so that my initial use of a toothbrush took off almost all of the colour on the side of his right leg. It was very frustrating and upsetting. After letting it dry and fixing up the leg as best I could withe some sponging I stuck to using a toothpick and carefully picked off large flakes of the armour. The takeaway here is that Chipping medium gives you very big chips.

The result doesn't look very natural and makes him look "spotted" rather than actually worn down from use. I can see chipping like this looking fine on tanks, but on an infantry model at this scale you really need to use something else if you want a realistic worn effect with lots of little chips. Another possible solution is to only use one layer of chipping medium rather than two, and also spending more time in the chipping process to get it looking more natural. I admit I was so disappointed I sort of rushed this a bit.

The same model after the initial chips, note the fixes on the side of his right leg from where I took off too much of the top layer.

Thankfully this guy isn't my favourite model ever and I don't expect he'll be getting a ton of table time once my forces expand, so I was happy to just say "lesson learned" and move on. I did give him a bit of sponge weathering before gluing him to his base, and I plan to give him some oil washes which will help tie in the overall look and make things a lot more natural.

After some sponging on the legs and being glued to his base.

Rear view.

Front view. It looks quite sloppy here but once the details are picked out it will look a lot more cohesive.

I'm looking forward to doing something similar with Haqqislam's other heavy infantry unit but using the AK interactive effect rather than Vallejo. I expect it will look much much better!

5. Played some games!

I've actually been playing Infinity quite regularly at my local and I'm really pleased that my hobby work is being used on the tabletop so frequently! There's currently a large casual campaign being run by Corvus Belli and Beasts of War called "Strikezone Wotan" that is really encouraging people to get out and play. People upload battle reports for various theatres of war which impact the overall narrative of the campaign!

I represent the Yu Jing forces with my Japanese army sectorial and you can check out my battle reports and profile here.

Well with that you're all caught up on my hobby times. Thanks so much for looking! 😄