Oh I didn’t see you there. You’ve caught me writing a blog addressed directly to you, opening it with a traditional ironic youtuber opening.
This week I’ve painted my first Iguana, something I took aaaages to get around to doing considering the Iguana, Jager, Black Mamba, and Spitting Cobra are the four iconic gears of the Southern military.
I’m very happy I’ve now painted at least one of each and it’s interesting to see how my style has changed over the years I’ve been painting minis (how long is it now,.. four years?)
I promised another HGB player I’d stick up a picture of my ESE force so far, a mixture of minis I’ve painted and minis I bought second hand already painted in this scheme and rebased/altered/touched up.
I think they look quite nice.
Back row is a Longfang Black Adder, Spitting Cobra, Black Mamba.
Front row is a Blitz Jager, Jager, Stripped Down Striking Jager, Anolis Refit, and Dartjager.
In the Brigand ruleset I’m not sure how I’d field them. Probably like this if I had to (the force is under construction and I haven’t given much thought to the finish composition):
CG Alpha
Primary Unit SK – Blitz Jager, Dartjager, Jager
Support Unit GP – Stripped Down Jager
CG Beta
Primary Unit FS – Spitting Cobra, Black Mamba, Longfang Black Adder
Support Unit RC – Anolis Refit
It’s nice that in Brigand it’s almost always possible to cobble together a valid list from a handful of models : ]
I’ve been continuing with my good habit of doing 15-30 mins of painting almost every evening at a specific time, as I chat with a friend before she goes to sleep.
This has resulted in a slow, relaxed process of painting minis that I’d previously primed and had been intending to paint for ages.
The latest of these is another Fer De Lance (my third) for my SRA Honour Guard in their purple, grey, and white scheme. He’s magnetised so I can deploy him as the stock, Slashing, or Force variant as I wish. He’s set up as the Slashing variant (with the powerful Medium Anti Tank Missile) here:
Read on to see the other variants and a group shot of my Honour Guard.
I enjoyed working on that ESE Black Mamba duelist so much that I decided to paint a gear in Guillaume’s style to add to the group, rather than rebasing and touching up another prepainted model. Since they’re the ESE they like an odd mix of cheap military surplus gears and more expensive flashy mercenaries and bodyguards to the Emirs, so I painted up a cheap old Anolis Refit recon gear.
The objective was to have the model fit in with the stuff Guillaume had already painted, but still fit with the way I paint. I don’t know what paints he used, so I had to approximate using what I have.
On the left, my Anolis. On the right, a Jager in the style I’m trying to replicate. Everything on the Jager except some minor touchups and the base was painted by Guillaume.
A while ago I bought a collection of Heavy Gear minis from a very nice fellow by the name of Guillaume. The minis were clearly quite lovingly painted and very nicely based too. He also sent me, for free, a bunch of Heavy Gear parts and even a couple of models he hadn’t assembled.
I don’t mind having and playing with models that other people have painted at all, the only downsides for me were A) they were based on hex bases, which I dislike and don’t use and B) they weren’t magnetised and I like to magnetise so I can pick between the many variants Heavy Gear Blitz tends to offer for each model. The second point wasn’t really a problem as I don’t have to magnetise EVERY model, but for me it’s important that the bases match the rest of my minis (and I really don’t like hex bases at all), so I knew I’d have to do some rebasing and some touchup work.
Working on these already nicely painted models is actually quite a pleasant break from painting a model entirely from scratch, as it takes less time but I still then feel some creator’s attachment to the rebased and slightly altered model. It’s also quite enjoyable to sort of mimic someone else’s style when doing the touchup work.
Here’s the latest, which I rebased, magnetised, gave a shield, and gave a light rocket pack instead of the medium one, since that’s the standard loadout for the Mamba. I will be fielding him as an Eastern Sun Emirates (think sci fi Saudi Arabia) Combat Group Leader or Duellist.
The design on the shield is the faction symbol for the Eastern Sun Emirates – a 12 pointed Sun. It was a bit of a pain to paint but I’m fairly satisfied with the result, even if it’s rough in places. I might tidy it up a little or add more blacklining in the future.
Hey Duckfans, it’s me here, back with a little bit of Black Mamba painting. I’ve always been a big fan of this model and I grew to appreciate it even more when I saw how disappointing the plastic Black Mamba came out. It’s such an iconic gear and has just the right amount of detail and bits and bobs to be really fun to paint. This is actually the first one I’ve ever painted though – I think because I like the model so much I was actually a bit intimidated to get on with it.
Anyway here it is! More pics after the jump.
Both hands are magnetised, the Medium Autocannon is newly painted but the sword is one I have shown on the blog before. I’m really happy with how the blue ammo display thing on the gun looks.
I saw someone on one of the Heavy Gear Facebook groups ask about how to assemble the variants for the Southern Drake Gearstrider and since I have mine magnetised so it can be any variant, I offered to take some pictures. Here they are:
Here’s the Drake with nothing magnetised attached, and with the magnetised components laid out. They are a HRC, linked HRL, linked MLC, HGL, HBZ, linked MRP, and MABM.
This weekend my esteemed Brother Duck came to visit. Many games were played and much fun was had. We hadn’t had a chance to hang out in person for a while and it was really nice to just chill and enjoy some gaming.
First my Duck Bro, his girlfriend, and I played the Warhammer Quest Card Game (by Fantasy Flight), which I’m generally very impressed with. It reminds me of Death Angel (also by FF) in that they’ve managed to capture the feel of a specific miniature game very well with just cards in different stacks. It’s quite similar to the LOTR co-op living card game (another FF product) but it’s easier to understand what’s happening and why.
Overall definitely a co-op game I’d recommend. It’s got a fair bit of depth and replayability and it’s pretty cheap too at about £20-£25. Sadly the addon packs are extremely rare and expensive, but it’s a game I could imagine making my own addons for.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a painting update, partly because I haven’t been painting much. A little while ago a cyclist crashed into me (entirely his fault) and I badly broke one finger. Sadly the finger will never work quite as well as before and has to be splinted for a couple of months, which has made many activities quite annoying for me. Happily it was on my off-hand and wasn’t the index finger.
It’s taken me a little while to get used to painting with that annoyance and to generally get back into the habit after a break (hahah).
But I’m very pleased to say I’ve finished painting a model which I started about two years ago and had made a resolution to finish this month; the Drake Gearstrider by Dream Pod 9 (available from Dream Pod 9 if you’re in the New World, or from Shiny Games by request if you’re in the EU).
Duck Brothers 