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
