From the painting desk #23 – OPFOR
September 7, 2013I’m slowly getting my painting groove back on, which means I finally finished a few models. They’re both Heavy infantry by Pig Iron Productions, a part of their mighty fine science fiction range. Like most of my scifi stuff, they’ll find use in my Utopia project. The Pig Iron minis will represent the heavy infantry of the Outer Colonies, a counterpart to the UTOPIA troopers the players are commanding.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
I used the casualty miniature to test the colour scheme. I wanted something very down to earth, so used a combination of browns and grays. In order to keep them from not looking too monotonous, I added a simple horizontal stripe camouflage. Another reason for the simple camo choice was that I wanted to keep these guys quick to paint. A lot of both models is painted using drybrushing and washes, with scratches in the armour and the camo adding extra detail. The casualty won’t be based, I just put him on a base to ease photography.
A special mention must go to the flag patches. To go with the typical “opposing force is always red” mentality, I was about the make the flag red as well. Luckily I decided to ask a non-gamer friend what she thought would look cool. “Maybe try green, with some yellow?” she said, and that I did. I love how it turned out, as the green really pops from the muted overall look.
The Pig Iron minis are a joy to paint. They have a lovely simplicity to them, reminiscent of Mark Copplestone’s work. As Mr. Copplestone is one of my all time favourites, this is high praise indeed.
As always, comments and critique welcome!
Dawn of the Lead 
Hmm. Shouldn’t that be “horizontal stripe camouflage”, not vertical?
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Indeed, sir! Fixed. Thanks for the heads-up!
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I am a big fan of painting smarter, not harder and your wash/drybrush plus camo scheme approach draws the eye to all the right places. They look plausible, but not too dull.
Pig Iron make some nice figures. I cant justify buying more armoured space humans until I paint up a few that I have lying around, but the Pig Iron stuff has a lot of appeal. Are they multi-part models? Or do they only come with separate heads?
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Thanks Paul! The smarter, not harder approach is a good way to do it and that’s a phrase I’ll coin. The Heavy infantry are mostly single part castings, unlike most of PI’s later offerings.
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