Some heavy support for the EarthSec

For the Gruntz painting competition I painted one of the EarthSec/UNSC HAMR teams and the other day I finished the rest of the pack; another HAMR team and two GMS(L) teams.

When painting the first sniper I felt I needed to do something to make it stand out a bit (besides the huuuge rifle itself!) and on a whim I tried making the barrel and magazine a very light blueish grey, almost white. I rarely plan when I paint but do things on the fly and most of the time it works out. This time my friend Anders thinks it looks weird, but to me it feels right! First off it makes the figure stand out, making the heavy ordnance easier to locate, and secondly it breaks up the green/orange/black colour scheme of the rest of the troops. Personally I also think it gives the weapons more of a hi-tech vibe which I think fits these miniatures.

I did the same thing with the autocannon barrel on the APC as well as the missile launchers and I think I will go back and add some white to the SAW as well to make it more distinct and keep with the white=big gun theme. Speaking of the APC I'm happy with how well the red dust came out on it. I've been tempted to pick up some of those FoW dust cloud thingies as well. Not really sure what use they would be during an actual game, but they might look cool.

The Gruntz contest also required a commander and I put one together using a squad leader from the Orion heavy infantry and two miniatures from the UNSC command pack. I also took a backpack from the new NAC power armoured infantry and added an aerial to it to make the comms officer stand out better. I'm quite pleased with the result and I'm glad my EarthSec forces finally have a proper commander. I just have to give him a name! :)

At the moment I'm finishing up some more regular infantry as well as a number of SAW gunners. After that we have two MicroPanzer Seekers that will finally get painted! They are such great models and I feel kind of bad that it has taken me this long. Then there are two more APCs and a couple of light tanks. After seeing some very nicely painted Blowers over at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts I'm seriously consindering getting a couple to use as MBTs for the EarthSec.

However, before getting that far I think I'll have to return to paint some more Infinity miniatures. Yesterday me and Anders sat down together to get some painting done and he got the base colours done on his Alguaciles. This is awesome in several ways! Mostly because Anders simply haven't painted anything in years (not counting some terrain) so it was a lot of fun seeing him back with a brush in his hand. Also, it will certainly make our Infinity gaming more pleasing to the eye. Besides, that red/orange sheme should give my troops at least a +1 to hit. Hehe!

Anyway, this fired up my Infinity motivation. I have a half finished Su-Jian and an Aragoto who's done but missing his bike. This cannot stand! I will be painting on my own of course, but I also hope that we can make these kinds of communal painting sessions into a regular feature. At least once per month or so.

I've also been eyeing those sneaky aliens of the Combined Army...