by Grant Hill

At the end of December Corvus Belli released four new miniatures for their anime inspired Sci-Fi game Infinity:

• PanOceania Kamau
• Nomad Securitate with HMG
• Haqqislam Ahl Fassed with boarding shotgun
• Combined Army Vector Operator with HMG

Kamau Price: €7.00

This latest release for the PanOceania faction is trained as part of an amphibious intervention team and this is represented on the sculpt by some sort of breathing apparatus/propeller on the back and “air-lines” connected to the helmet. The figure is armed with a combi-rifle and light grenade launcher and the pose suggests a braced firing stance which, although seemingly sensible for firing a grenade, seems a little static and almost two-dimensional when compared to some of the incredibly dynamic Infinity releases such as the Yu Jing Shaolin Monks. When I originally saw the promotional photos of this miniature I thought that it looked a little “chunky”, but in reality in seems well proportioned and certainly in keeping with the rest of the range. It is a well-detailed miniature with lots of armour plating sections that should paint up well and includes some extra equipment such as a pistol, knife and some aquatic looking covering on the feet.

The sculpt is provided in four parts (main body, two arms, aerial) and is approximately 29 mm from head to toe in a slight crouch. The casting is of very high quality with the only noticeable mould line between the legs. There are a few tags of excess metal from the manufacturing process but these are easily removed with a sharp knife. One tag was attached to the weapon’s stock, which lead to some loss of detail as the area has some sort of ridged padding sculpted on. As the right arm piece is holding the gun and this has the left hand attached to it there is little choice in customising the pose, but ball and socket type joints ease assembly. One construction issue I had was with the aerial, it is too small to pin and easily knocked off if only held with Superglue, epoxy resin seems to be the best option for a lasting hold.

Pros

• Plenty of detail
• Well manufactured

Cons

• Static pose compared with rest of the range

Securitate with HMG Price: €7.00

The Nomad Securitate are light infantry that handle security and intervention for the Tunguska faction within the Nomad Nation. This particular figure is armed with a heavy machine gun (HMG) and the weapon dominates the figure. The gun actually seems a bit too big to me as it is almost as long as the guy carrying it is tall and I got the feeling that it would be very difficult for him to carry it, yet alone fire it. The pose is purposefully static and makes me think of someone guarding something, which is accentuated by the jumpsuit and cap, in fact the figure could easily be used as a generic Sci-Fi security guard. There is a lot of detail on the miniature with lots of panels and folds sculpted onto the jumpsuit and the gun itself seems to have more detail than some manufacturers put on an entire miniature.

There are three parts to the miniature: body (32 mm from the top of the cap to toes), right arm with HMG, and left arm. As the left hand is part of the gun sculpt there is only a single way to assemble this miniature without some extensive converting. The casting is up to Corvus Belli’s usual high standards with only minimal mould lines, but there was some excess metal around the joins that needed to be cleaned away before the arms would attach to the body comfortably – the metal is soft enough that this is an easy process. As the gun is held across the front of the body it will be difficult to paint the chest area completely when the figure is assembled. Combining this with the amount of detail on the sculpt will probably make the miniature a challenge to paint, but the detail also gives good painters a lot to work with.

Pros

• Excellent manufacturing
• Would also make a good generic security guard

Cons

• The gun seems too large for the miniature
• The gun also blocks painting

Ahl Fassed with boarding shotgun Price: €7.00

The Ahl Fassed are a heavy assault regiment for the Haqqislam faction in Infinity. This sculpt is provided in four pieces (body, head, left arm and right arm with weapon), with the head and left arm attached to a small sprue, and is 32 mm tall. The miniature represents a female Ahl Fassed and this is evident both from the obvious adaptation of the armour to the female form and by the fact that it is noticeably slender when compared with males from the Infinity line. The detail on this miniature is very impressive, even compared with the rest of the range, with very small armour plates and intricate twisted wiring connected to some device on her waist. The shotgun itself is of a pump action style, with a circular magazine and again is highly detailed. Once again Corvus Belli’s casting is hard to fault as I had to look hard to find a mould line and the few pieces of excess metal were very easy to remove.

The pose of the miniature is stationary, firing the boarding shotgun. While one had is pulling the trigger the other is on the slide, ready to reload. Although there is very little choice in how the arms can be attached to the body, the head can be rotated – although my favourite position for this would be looking along the barrel of the weapon, with her next target in sight. The pose does a excellent job of capturing a dynamic action without being too over the top and combined with the detail and subject matter this adds up to be one of my favourite Sci-Fi sculpts for quite some time. Being really picky it could be possible that there is so much detail that it could intimidate some painters, but this is really a bit of a stretch so there are no cons in the summary for this miniature.

Pros

• Very high level of detail
• Excellent pose that captures the action

Cons

• None

Vector Operator with HMG Price: €10.00

This seven part miniature (torso, head, two legs, two arms and “cod-piece”) represents a forward commando for the combined army faction in Infinity. Although the figure is 36 mm from its feet to the tallest point, its anatomy means that this figure is larger than this measurement might suggest. It has a bulky torso that is longer than it is tall and its head is at the very front of the torso piece rather than directly on top. This means it actually looks reasonably alien rather than the “guy with a funny mask on” type of alien that you might recognise from many older Sci-Fi TV and films. The torso is well armoured on top with various vents on the back and both the legs and arms have some armour plates around the joints. The heavy machine gun that the figure is armed with is actually just a reasonably short tube and this contrasts strongly with some of the huge HMGs that humans in the Infinity range carry, reinforcing the alien aspect.

This miniature has noticeably more visible mould lines and pieces of excess metal than most of the Infinity humans, which may be down to the increased size of this piece. That said, it is easily removed and is still much less than you find on pieces from some other manufacturers, a case of Corvus Belli being a victim of their own success in this regard. It did take me a little while to figure out how to assemble the miniature, the two legs pieces come together with one leg piece forming the base for attaching the torso. As the torso is so large and heavy I didn’t feel comfortable just bonding it to the legs with superglue and decided I needed to pin it, the same goes for attaching the arms to the torso as they are quite long and thin and liable to be knocked off. Although there is little choice in attaching the legs and head to the torso, the arms attach via a ball and socket joint and there is some choice in the arms rotation. I also found that joining the legs so that the feet were flat on the ground left a gap that needed filling after construction.

Pros

• Suitably alien looking

Cons

• Some minor construction issues