Its behind you! - Shasvastii action pack
Masters of concealment and the stab in the back the Shasvastii are probably a bit too complex for me to play with any level of competency but on yhe plus side they are pretty easy to paint. So there's that. Below are the contents of the action pack, or rather the contents of wildfire and beyond which i bought and which morphed into the action pack. What follows will be a very in depth tactical analysis and some philosophy required for playing the Shasvastii.
Not!
It will be some nice pictures with a few hints on painting them quite quickly to this decent standard.
First step is to make sure you wash these guys well before even attempting to assemble them. Hot water and washing up liquid in a sieve so you can swirl them around. Also pro tip put plug in sink just in case.... Before I realised that this was necessary I spent money and tears trying out various superglues to no avail and becoming homicidally frustrated. Once washed different story and even Wilko cheapo super glue does the trick in seconds.
Second tip, prime with enamel primer preferably matt black. I've tried spraying vallejo and stynlrez black primer over the metal and while the primer sticks, it does not provide the durability on metal that they do on plastic/resin. I spray enamel then once dry spray again the matt black stynlrez through the airbrush to get a nice black base which wont rub off.
Nox troops - guessing you will have 2 or 3 to get a 5 man fireteam, if not seems odd to be in the sectorial.
With a good black undercoat i then give it a spray with VMC black making sure all the cracks and crevices are black. this also makes sure that if i need retouch later ( and i will!) then there is no difference in the black.
Sheskin - I believe she is pretty good.
next step is to get VMA engine grey, or any mid grey to be honest, and start spraying the upper parts of the armour platesfrom about half way up to the top. add a smidge of white to get a lighter grey and do the same from top third up. This will already look cool as you can see on sheskins leg plates here.
Mentor - sets a good example for the younger Nox troopers and gives them something to aspire to.
This chap shops the black plates well but is here to show off the red. I use a 3 stage dark to light method. i know the cool kids use a light basecoat of another colour but i prefer to start with vmc burnt red and progress up through flat red, vermillion and finally highlight in scarlet. This is done with the brush as we are done with the airbrush.
Shrouded - This one is very mean and is shaking his fist at some Pan O fusiliers shouting "get off my land" in a west galactic accent.
More red and black here. The right thigh pad is a replacement sculpted by a friend who is a professional sculptor (Crusader Miniatures) and I would refer readers back to the point about putting the plug in the sink.
Gwailo - Hefty Infantry with big gun. I departed from the CB painting script here because i prefer the cool black armour rather than having it red. I like the red as contrast but am staying with the cool motorbike jacket black look for the armour. Edge highlighting is another area of taste being the defining factor. I dont do every edge but I like to do lots of the black edges, especially the top edges. I tend to do a grey white edge then reline with Ivory on the most obvious. For edge highlighting I use a Winsor and Newton size 1 (series 7) as it holds enough to run along a few edges without a refill. This is especially important on the greyed upper edges as they cant be retouched as the black can be. Once airbrushed you cant retouch. I cant anyway, better painters probably can.
Malignos 1 - another grumpy figure ready to give someone a thump in the bracket!
Thighpad rank/i.d. markings were freehanded with the same brush for exactly the same reasons as there is no room for error after airbrushing a nice shade on!
Calibans - "Be not afeared, this isle is full of noises..."
Flesh(?) was painted with vmc deck tan then washed with either green (nox & Mentor) or as in the case of these Caliban, purple, then highlighted again with the original colour. Top parts had a tincy bit of white added to highlight.
At some point before I get to play my first game of Infinity I will probably (inevitably) purchase the Alpha and Beta packs for no better reason than just because they're there!
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