My First Tournament: Initial Thoughts

Well Saturday saw my first proper Infinity tournament, at The Outpost in Sheffield. Overall it was a great day and a very well run tournament that has stoked my interest in attending more of them in the future.

So let's get into it then. Behold, my ramblings on playing competitive Infinity!

Ariadna Tournament Preparation: Cordelia

I've had the Scarface and Cordelia set for a good few months now, and Scarface got painted up fairly early on. Poor Cordelia however has been sat in primer the whole time... so I decided to end my Infinity painting block and get her done.

I think she came out alright for an impromptu four-hour painting session last night. Still need to base it but aside from a slightly derpy facial expression I'm pretty happy with her.

No prizes for guessing what Ariadna have hired to accompany them to the tournament on Saturday? Scarface and Cordelia, or an Irmandinho and Vet Kazak HMG?

Steel Phalanx Painting Challenge: FAILURE

Well last night I admitted defeat. With a completed Ajax, Thrasymedes and a couple of Myrmidons well on the way to completion, the full awfulness of the colour scheme hit me hard. 5mins later the whole army was sitting in an inch of Fairy Power Spray.

There is a good reason people don't paint their ALEPH models bright purple or turquoise.

Also I have a comfort zone when it comes to painting, and this was well outside of what I am capable of. I always, ALWAYS prime with black and go from there. This time I primed grey and tried to pull off a super lurid colour scheme I didn't have the skills to do justice - at least not to the standard I expect of myself.

So it's now confirmed, Ariadna for the tournament next Saturday. Which is a shame as I utterly love the Phalanx.

Steel Phalanx Painting Challenge: Day Eight

I think I've broken tha back of this one. Two full days of painting ahead of me this weekend, with a couple of games on Sunday night. Should make a big inroad into it by Monday. Seven days remaining...

Steel Phalanx Painting Challenge: Day Two - I've Given Myself 'Airbrush-Thumb'

Well day two of the challenge, and it's been pretty productive. Still no sign of the base for the Rebot, but aside from that I think I stand a good chance of finishing! Famous last words...

Today has been all about the purple (more like lilac).

Suffice to say, I've given myself a newly invented condition of Airbrush-Thumb. Painters RSI.

Here's the frankly ridiculous sequence of layers you can (or can't...) see in the photo above:

Full coat of GW Naggaroth Night
Generous highlight of GW Xereus Purple
Highlight of 2:1 mix of GW Xereus Purple and GW Genestealer Purple
Highlight of GW Genestealer Purple
Highlight of 1:1 mix of GW Genestealer Purple and GW Slaanesh Grey
Final highlight of GW Slaanesh Grey
Post-shade touch up of GW Naggaroth Night to re-emphasise the darkest shadows

Eighteen models done in a day.

Next: Final shading with pin washes and blocking in other colours

Steel Phalanx Painting Challenge: Day One

I've set myself the insane challenge of painting a full army of the Steel Phalanx to compete in a small tournament in Sheffield, on March the 8th. That gives me exactly 14 days (possibly 13...) to complete all of the models required for my two lists. At this moment, I have absolutely no complete models for this army so it's going to be a bit crazy to try and meet the deadline... but I'll certainly try.

Today's progress? Not great. Sorted out a few basing issues, and some minor reassebly which took an annoying amount of my time up. Then a simple light grey airbrushed primer coat to cover over most of them having the original grey scheme and the bare metal new comers.

There are seventeen 25mm based models plus Ajax and Penthesilea, and the unbased Zayin Rebot (still waiting for bases to arrive!) is still bare metal. Out of that lot, I'm using probably between twelve and fourteen models but I still haven't settled on a list yet!

My plan is to do all the airbrush work on all the models initially, then finish off the tournament models by hand/brush. This at least means I can go back to the rest later without having a different colour scheme on them.

Next: basecoat and shading.

Operation: Steel Phalanx In 15 Days Or Bust

Bit of a gap in posts, but I'm pleased to say this post will show I've managed to progress towards two of my Infinity resolutions for 2014.

Tuesday was 'No Shirt Or Slacks Day' in the Lhost training camp

Myself and a pair of friends (Starmonkee aka James, and Nate) are driving down to play in a small tournament in Sheffield in March, Paradiso Lost, hosted by The Outpost.

Suffice to say I'm really excited to be going as this will be my first proper tournament. I've been spending a lot of time with different lists, tweaking here and there to try and get the best out of the Steel Phalanx as far as ITS is concerned (a lot easier said than done).

Three games, 300pts, objectives with classifieds slightly modified from stock ITS. You must provide two lists and use them both over the three matches so lots of scope for list building fun, which I absolutely love. Honestly someone could create a tabletop wargame that involved just writing army lists and I'd be set for life!

It promises to be a really friendly day. Interested? Head over to the Facebook page for 'Infinity The Game: Northern Alliance' and have a look for yourself!

My second goal was for a painted Steel Phalanx. In an earlier blog post I'd mentioned batch painting them in a warm grey scheme reminiscent of Splinter Cell or Deus Ex. Well that stalled pretty suddenly as I really wasn't feeling the grey... partly as I realised I was effectively colour matching my army with my buildings. And partly as grey just isn't fun to paint. I've just added the Myrmidon box, Spitfire Myrmidon, Machaon, and a box of Rebots to my Phalanx collection and so I'm taking the opportunity for a wholesale repaint.

Small issue... it needs to be done in under 15 days to be ready for the Sheffield tournament. It's going to be extremely tough to do this, but I feel with my airbrush I have a chance at meeting this goal. Emphasis on the word 'chance'. If by March 3rd (army list deadline) I fear missing the March 8th final deadline, then I'll fall back on Ariadna instead as my army. I really don't want to have to do as I've been loving using the Phalanx of late!

Expect a progress report over the next two weeks.