With most of my army painted I have now transitioned to basically full competition painting mode. However, having never painted for a competition before I knew I couldn’t just wing it the way I have been with the minis I painted for army; I needed to have a plan. And one of the first things I needed to figure out was what mini I was even going to paint.

When choosing minis intended to be used for a game system such as Warhammer 40k or Infinity, you choose the mini based on you need that mini to do in that game system. Fore example, If you need more firepower to deal with the tough units you expect to face then you would things like tanks or units that can carry heavy duty weapons. But for a competition, you’re choosing a mini based largely on aesthetics and personal preferences.

So I have to ask myself, what qualities am I looking for in a competition mini? In other words what are the things I need to consider when picking out a mini, and after some soul searching I came up with the following:

• genre
• aesthetics
• availability
• modification potential

Of the four things I listed above, choosing a genre will help immensely in narrowing down your choices. For me personally, I tend to shy away from fantasy or monster minis since I lean more towards sci-fi as a whole.
However, sci-fi is a very broad category and we can break down further into genres such as cyberpunk, grimdark, future dystopia, and even post-apocalyptic.

So to help narrow it down even further I took a look at the entries from past competitions. It became immediately apparent that the majority of the miniatures were 40k/grimdark and so, in an effort to differentiate myself, I decided to look at the other genres, particularly cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk as a style is known for having bright colors, flashy looking tech and can pull off a sleek and clean or grungy look equally well. And when it comes to that style, the first thing that comes to mind is Corvus Belli’s Infinity line

Infinity is a tabletop skirmish game that takes place in the far future where humanity has reached the stars but is mired in constant conflict between technological hyper-powers. So there are a myriad of different factions each with a very unique style. The game itself is fairly popular too so getting my hands on these minis is pretty easy. Also, the minis are very detailed which is no surprise as Corvus Belli basically sets the standard for metal minis…..yeah did I forget to mention that the whole line is made in metal?

That’s right the entire line is made of metal and this directly impacts modification potential. Metal minis are difficult to kitbash or modify relative to plastic to resin minis since the material itself is difficult work with. Plastic and resin are very soft materials and can be cut, sanded and drilled with ease and trying to do the same with metal minis is anything but easy.

Also, another issue is that Infinity models are true scale as opposed to the heroic scale I’m used to with Warhammer models. Heroic scale models have enlarged or exaggerated features resulting in bigger heads, feet, hands, weapons and wider bodies. True scale models have more realistic proportions resulting in minis with relatively thin arms and legs and overall have smaller details. This means I don’t have a lot to work with if I wanted to do any modifications and any extensive work can run risk of breaking pieces of the model which, since it’s made of metal, would be nigh impossible to fix, especially at my current skill level.

So now that modifying the mini is not really an option I now had to look at the line and find a mini that spoke to me. I wanted it to have a striking or dynamic pose, something that really exuded the character of the mini.

And the Panoceania Joan of Arc mini was everything I was looking for. She had a very open, striking pose that allowed for all the details to be visible. The dead solider she is stepping one is a wonderful detail that really adds to the feel and is something you don’t really see in stock minis. As a bonus,the way the model is sculpted allows for minimal sub-assembly and easy access to all areas for painting. And Corvus Belli does a ton of art for their minis, including a concept design file which highlights what the model is supposed to look like from different angles, which is a great reference for when I start painting.

However, Joan wasn’t the only thing I was looking at. The Capital Palette has multiple categories and while I perusing the Infinity line I found this big guy.

This has tempted me to to also take a stab at this guy for the vehicle/walker category for Capital Palette. Is has the same pros as Joan of arc does with an open pose and easily visible details. Although a little less striking he’s twice as tall so he does command a certain amount of presence.

So there you have it, if luck is on my side I’ll be able to submit two different entries. However, I am a pragmatist at heart and will put my Joan of Arc as my top priority should it come down to the wire.

That’s all I got for now but if anyone is interested in other things I might have seen or if I had other considerations or candidates, feel free to drop me a line.

Till next time my wayward compadres.