Operation: Icestorm - PanOceania finished!

I've been feeling burnt out on painting for the last couple of weels. I'm sure you are all familiar with what this is like. It's a sudden switch between boundless enthusiasm - painting in the morning, evening and night, to not even wanting to pick up a brush. Every basecoat, wash, highlight and layer seems somehow more difficult than it ought to be.

I'm not sure what causes it, maybe it's just a case of losing your flow. Something interrupts your painting schedule and suddenly the rhythm you had gotten yourself into is gone. Perhaps it's the realisation that you don't seem to be making any meaningful progress into your pile of lead? The worst part is the projects that get stuck in limbo. Half pained models that sit on a shelf because you lost the motivation half way through.

Well, I'm happy to announce that I've managed to break my streak of painting apathy and I've (finally) finished the PanOceania starter forces from Operation Icestorm.

Ready to smash some Nomad scum!

The colour scheme for the army is Citadel Balor Brown (Snakebite Leather) for the armour, Vallejo Dark Grey for cloth and servos and Citadel Administratum Grey (Fortress Grey) for the weapons. I also used Elf/Kislev Flesh.  for the skin and Vallejo English Uniform for berets and cloaks.

The models were given a wash of brown - Devlan Mud or Agrax Earthshade, and then highlighted back up with their original colour with some white mixed in. Super simple paint scheme which I feel comofortable replicating if I fancy adding to these forces down the line.

Three PanOceania Fusiliers - the lady in the middle is probably my favourite Icestorm model.

I really like the light infantry in these stater packs. Their faces are very well done, the poses and proportions are realistic and the armour seems practical and believable. All three models got the same treatment, green berets, visible faces and white or no flowers on the bases to clearly mark them out as being the same troops.

ORC troop and Father-Knight. The black cross with red outline on a white circle is the Father-Knight unit symbol.

And from the back. The ORC is displaying his unit symbol on the right pad.

The ORC is the model that I'm least keen on as he's the most 'plain' and without a visible face just lacks the expression of the other models. But I'm not unhappy with the way he's turned out, he looks like heavily armed and is carrying a big gun so it's clear what he represents on the battlefield. If I had a second chance to paint him, I'd probably try and do something more exciting colour-wise.

The Father-Knight - standing on the remnant of a Nomad TAG - is a lot more dynamic, although I'm not sure how practical flowing robes are on the battlefield. This is the one aspect of Infinity that I'm not particularly keen on. Running towards the enemy wielding a massive sword just seems a bit Warhammer-ish to me. Thankfully it's pretty much restricted to the Military Orders sectorial so those who wish to play as sword-wielding lunatics can do so. Still a cool model though.

An Akalis and a Nisse sniper.

These two medium infantry were the last ones to be painted up and were stuck in limbo for about a week. I ended up giving them blue face plates to break up the models from the front and to differentiate them from both the light and the heavy troops. I'm pretty happy with the contrast and I'm not yet sure that I won't go back and give the heavies the same treatment.

I've also removed the aerials that they ought to have on the backs of their heads. This is meant to be a demo set so I'm expecting the models to be handled heavily. I don't believe for a moment that they wouldn't have broken off somehow eventually!

Right, onto the Nomads then!