Here’s a model I made a while ago for the game Gaslands. One of the weapons in the rules is a remote-controlled car strapped with explosives, which you can launch from another vehicle and drive around until detonating it. I thought that was a very cool idea, and I wanted to have a suitably cool model for it. I used a super-cheap 1:200-scale car I got from eBay, with a block of modelling putty on top to represent a block of C4 or similar plastic explosives. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, especially the little detonator keypad on top and the wires connecting it inside. Hopefully I’ll get to try it out in a game soon!
Here it is next to a normal Gaslands car to show scale.
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.
I haven’t finished any models in a while so I thought I’d post a work in progress: a battery of Earthshaker artillery pieces I’m making for my Epic Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Guard force.
Earthshaker battery ready to commence fire
The guns themselves came from a set of Basilisks, which have the exact same gun but on tracks. I took them off and plan to use the tracks to make Chimeras or something else similar. The crew I’ve added here are from Trolls Under The Bridge, some of them from their Greatcoat Command set and some from the Greatcoat Mortar squad. I think they look very good and I’m happy with the range of poses I have, from an officer pointing out a target to a soldier with binoculars to a gun crew doing some battlefield repairs on their gun.
I’m going to use some putty to make a mud effect on the floor and then these will be ready for painting.
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).
Hey all. Wayland Games recently put their remaining Heavy Gear stuff on clearance (there was hardly anything left) and it was sufficiently cheap (80% off!) that it was worth me getting it even though they weren’t products I was particularly after.
Here’s the haul. 3x two packs of Support Armigers for Utopia and a two pack of upgrade parts for the old Hun model (which is out of print and I do not own).
I already have 2 Support Armigers for my Utopia force and don’t really need any more, but by duck brother has expressed an interest in collecting Utopia, especially with the new kickstarter coming, so I’ll give 2 of the packs to him most likely. The other pack I’ll probably just use for parts. Maybe even to make some little tanks and drones for a different force or scale.
The custom Hun parts I will also be using just as ‘bits’ to customise stuff. I don’t think they’ll fit the new model Hun, but I might give it a try and see.
I’ve been doing some more painting for my Southern Republican honour guard. Now in the backstory the honour guard was made up of Fer de Lances, Gilas, and the occasional King Cobra. But with the Legion Republique becoming a legitimate military unit prior to the Second War for Terra Nova, they would clearly need to bolster their numbers with other gears. I’ve found mention of the Sidewinder being very popular, probably because of its similarity to the Fer de Lance, but also because it was made during the pilot-safety era of gear construction.
This is something it has in common with the much more recent Diamondback design and I figured my SRA honour guard would be more than happy to field some. The only issue is the Diamondback is a little plain looking, having no ‘ears’ or crests for me to paint white. So I decided to spruce it up a bit with some 3rd party crests!
The crests are from Anvil Industry and required very little work in order to fit to the rounded pauldrons of the Diamondback.
I’ve been doing some more painting, this time of an old Tactical era King Cobra model I got super, super cheap from well known French gaming site Ludik Bazar. Now the model itself I would consider quite a bit worse than the excellent modern Blitz era metal King Cobra – the key differences are that the pose is very static, the weapons are smaller, there’s a little less detail, the stylised look of the Heavy Gear illustrations aren’t really captured, the shoulder rocket pack is different/worse, the hands are normal sized rather than the massive an iconic manipulators, the artillery rocket system is missing entirely, and there are no ears at all!
Still for the price they were a bargain and with some modifications (modded artillery rockets, newer mortar, modified cut down rotary cannon, a pair of old tac era knife blades stuck on as ears and a few other minor changes) I think the model ended up looking pretty good.
Here he is without his weapons (both hands are magnetised). Click on for plenty more pics.
Front view of the King Cobra. Because he’s an older model I decided to paint him for my mercenary Compagnie, who use slightly older or modified gears. Their scheme is green and red.
Hello! Since Bacon’s been posting some 6mm Epic stuff I thought I’d join in and show off some of the conversion work I’ve done. There are tons of old plastic Rhinos available cheaply on eBay, but some of the other Space Marine vehicles are harder to find – particularly the Vindicator, which I don’t think ever had a plastic model. Since most of them are heavily based on the Rhino chassis I thought that would be a nice conversion project. By filing off the doors on the front and top I made space for the various types of turret/gun, which I either build from plasticard or modelled using a mould from one of the official models.
Here’s a sample of the results:
From left to right: converted Whirlwind missile launcher; converted Vindicator siege tank; converted Predator Annihilator tank; and good ol’ plastic Rhino APC on which the other three are all based.
Duck Brothers 