Quite possibly the best feature of X-Wing: The Miniatures Game is that the models come painted. You can walk into a game store, drop $15 on a ship in a cool toy-like package, pop it open, and be using it in a game within 5 minutes. It's amazing.

Since my last blog, I've started playing two games that are not like that at all: Malifaux and Infinity. While both of the games immediately captured me with their rules and their fluff, I have found myself far more devoted to Infinity than Malifaux (even after spending $150 on two Malifaux crews). Unfortunately for Malifaux, I rarely have Tuesday nights free to play at my FLGS.

However, both of these games come with figures that are unassembled and unpainted. You cannot pop them out of the package and get to playing within minutes, or even days.

Malifaux can be particularly nasty to assemble. The models are done in a type of plastic (I won't pretend to know enough to say which type) and require tweezing, scraping, holding, and praying to get assembled. Some of the Malifaux models are unbelievably complex and tiny at the same time. I'm looking at you, Mr Unassembled Electrical Creation.

Infinity is usually much easier to assemble, but all of the models are made out of a 2%-5% led compound. Not exactly the best for having around kiddos, especially when they're unpainted and unvarnished. Most models come in 3-5 pieces, and some have tiny antennae that will get lost, bent, or broken.

The Infinity miniatures have been a joy to paint. The metal sculpts have plenty of detail, and you can probably get away with a simple base coat plus washes to turn out great figures. To keep my motivation up, I started a personal blog of my painting progress and goals. There were some incredible deals over Black Friday, and suddenly I'm looking at only having about 20% of the models I own painted. This isn't good enough. My personal challenge is to flop that to 80% of my Infinity painted. That is going to take a few months, but it is the end goal. The painting journal and goals helps to keep me on track.

Here are a few of my favorite Infinity figures:

This is Keith Young, the baby of the 3 Young brothers in my Caledonian Volunteers. He's carrying a Chain Rifle and is the cheapest of the Caledonian troops at 6 points. He also has 1 kill to his name so far, the game winning kill when my brother was playing the forces of PanOceania. This was the second batch of tartans I had painted, and turned out okay. I could clean the tartans up more, but I left them where they are in the interest of time.

Munro McGill is the first of the Highlander Grey Rifles that I painted. I did a standard Black Watch tartan on him, and tried NMM on his chest plate, which looks better in this picture than it actually does. His skin is okay, but as the picture shows, his chrome dome isn't as blended as it should be. I should probably also add a spot highlight on the top of his head for the reflection off of the skin.

Abigail Thompson is one of the 3 PanOceania Fusiliersfrom Operation: Icestorm that I painted. I tried applying a blush with a very thin wash, but it didn't turn out as well as I was hoping. Otherwise I'm quite pleased with how she turned out.

Eva Nogales is Abigail's counterpart on the Nomad side. A standard, Combi Rifle Alguacile. I love how her hair turned out, though it's actually bad. It looks incredibly fake and that's not such a bad thing.

Mateus Garcia is a Mobile Brigada from the Corregidor Nomad's ship. I really didn't give his tactical rock as much attention as it needed, but otherwise I'm pleased with how he turned out. There is some detailing on the gun that is obvious when you're holding him, but this picture doesn't capture as well. I still need to add a few extra touches to him.

Derek Ortmann, a Knight Hospitaller of PanOceania, is my favorite miniature I have done to date. Not only do I love how dynamic he looks, but I'm really pleased with the paint job for getting him done in only 4 nights. The picture unfortunately adds a little highlighting that isn't there, but otherwise captures the paint job perfectly. The free-hand work on his paudrons and robe are my favorite part, and the rest of the figure is shaded well enough to help him pop.

Infinity is immensely fun to paint, and also incredibly fun on the table. I will hopefully start doing a weekly summary blog to go along with my personal painting journal.

Figures coming up are: Nisse (for Gamers Haven painting competition), Cameronian, William Wallace, Reverend Healer, Spektr, and an Akali Sikh.