PanOceania Fusilier

My lastest project is a small PanOceania force for Infinity. I'm getting more and more excited about Infinity lately. I think the small force sizes will allow me to pour some attention into each figure of my army. I've started with the Fusiliers, as I'll have at least a few in any list I write, and they will help me to refine my color choices and techniques before I tackle something more complex.

Here is the first of my Fusiliers, Emmet Wilson.

I used Wilson for two major painting experiments: his armor, and his skin tone.

The armor plates were painted with zenith highlights using my Badger Renegade Velocity airbrush. The procedure was simple: a dark gray base-coat and a black wash prepared the surface. Then, holding the model so that its head faced towards me, I lightly sprayed a medium gray so that only the surfaces facing me would be highlighted. Next, a light gray even more lightly applied completed the highlights.

A word of warning for those attempting this technique: at this scale, any significant spatter from the airbrush is very noticeable. On Wilson's left shoulder, you can see some very small white spots from the last highlight layer. They are almost invisible upon close examination, let alone table distance, so I'm not unhappy. But try to make very sure that your airbrush is clean, and that you are using the right pressure for the consistency of your paint.

His skin tone is the other experiment I mentioned. I haven't painted any African skin tones before, so the color choices were a bit outside of my comfort zone. I used Reaper Master Series Dark Shadow, Dark Skin, Dark Highlights, and Tanned Shadow in order from darkest to lightest tone. The technique itself was tried and true: progressively highlight anything that sticks out.

Wilson is only the first of my PanOceania forces - I have three more Fusiliers, including a hacker, a Croc Man, and and Orc Troop on the painting table right now. Stay tuned!