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Infinity Ariadna Tankhunter 1/35 scale
In 2015 I decided to paint a series of projects — each as a gift for somebody who influenced my hobby a lot, and to whom I feel grateful till this day. Each gift includes a miniature, a vignette (small terrain piece for it), and background story (written by me as fanfiction) on a pack of small stylized cards. Everything comes in a custom gift-box, so when you open it your jaw is meant to drop. Here is Exclusive Gift #5 for Fernando Liste, awesome Corvus Belli CEO. We met at GenCon 2014, and it so happened that my professional experience was valuable to Corvus Belli (guys who make Infinity). So Fernando, being open-minded and extremely welcoming person, invited me to visit CB headquarters in Cangas. So a month later we met again in Spain. We had a great time, partly working with CB team, partly travelling in Galicia and eating local seafood, Fernando being our awesome guide there. Of course I wanted to thank Fernando for that unforgettable experience and an opportunity to give my professional advice to CB. And since that time, I already knew what gift I want to make. The idea just needed some time to mature. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Exclusive Gift #5 Dawn Infinity started as an RPG, and only later evolved into a skirmish wargame. And in that early RPG days, Fernando played as Ariadna Tankhunter named Vassily Plushenko. Since the moment he told me about that, I knew that I would somehow do a vignette based on that. Fernando's character was a sniper in the RPG, and current Infinity range does not have Tankhunter snipers at all. I was going to convert it from existing Infinity miniatures. But one day I came into a hobby store and noticed a box of 1/35 modern Russian infantry. The reason I noticed it? Modern Russian infantry looks surprisingly close to Ariadna Tankhunters! Still, it required a lot of conversion work and some sculpting / scratchbuilding. While I was working on the miniature, I though about a scene I want to recreate. And the image that came to my mind was a sniper standing on a roof at the sunrise. Something like 'Campaign Paradiso' cover, with all that warm colors of the dawn. Nice idea for sure. And extremely hard to pull off, as I discovered later :) Since dawn light modifies all colors a lot, the hardest part was getting the right colors, and also getting nice transitions between cool blueish-violet shadows and warm pinkish-orange highlights. I've literally spent several nights waiting for sunrise, to observe and understand the colors. Not just think of it in my mind, but observe in real world. Second unusual and uneasy part was painting shadows. I mean, not the shadows on the mini, but shadows on the vignette. Since dawn light comes horizontally, not vertically (like you assume with most painted miniatures), there must be hard shadows on walls and objects. Otherwise the scene lacks realism, the mind doesn't believe in it. I was also trying to paint this vignette more sketchy, more like a drawing than in realistic style (again using 'Campaign Paradiso' cover as an inspiration). All in all, I'm happy with the final result. And Fernando now owns the only 1/35 scale Tankhunter in the known universe.
Posted: 6 Sep 2017
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