I think the paint scheme turned out a bit better on the gears than it did on the tanks and bikes. I had initially planned on putting the skull decal on the front chest panel but it looked odd there and detracted from the solid red so I instead put it on the right shoulder top instead (after trying about the calves as well). They still remind me a bit of men in tuxedos but I do actually like the overall look in the end unlike with the tanks. Here is the whole army in a pic just as a reference.
Special thanks goes out to Paradox 01 on the dp9 forum for a tip about putting a brown undercoat on top of black when you want to put red as the final color. I suspect this will be last Heavy Gear hobby work that I do for a long while. My only opponent in the state has pretty much gone belly up in terms of interest in playing for a variety of reasons and there is alot of uncertainty in Heavy Gear at the moment with the upcoming release of the next edition Beta rules. I'll still try and play my FLASH! house rules locally here if I can get an opponent but I'll likely bow out of the new edition until the final version shakes out next summer. I've still at least a dozen more unpainted Northern gears that I'd like to eventually work on as well as probably another squad's worth of odds and ends gears that I don't plan on working on currently so I'll have plenty on the plate next summer if I like what I see.
In the meantime, I've also put my 40k Deathwatch Truescale marine squad on hold for the moment as a dastardly thread on Dakka about an excellent VOTOMS 28mm campaign (Iron Hands VOTOMS) got my interest in VOTOMS piqued again. Infinity is coming out with a new edition this summer which I plan on checking out so I figured I'd get some models to use along with my existing 40k collection to test the waters with that new ruleset.
The thread on Dakka which gave me the idea of using them as TAG (Tactical Armored Gears) models and Paint it Pink Blog's very nice VOTOMS articles on various model sizes (Paint it Pink) helped alot in getting the scale right. I basically plan on trying out the rules using my Cadian IG as Nomad Infantry and the VOTOMS as Gecko TAGs. Additionally, I wouldn't mind trying out 28mm Heavy Gear using my FLASH! rules and 40k figs. Basically, the cadians would be northern infantry with the VOTOMS as 28mm Gears (Hunter XMG?). Opposing them would be my xenos "earth" forces with either Tau or Eldar tanks as Earth Light Hovertanks and eldar "GREL" jetbikes or Tau stealth suit FLAILs.
In any case, thanks for reading and I hope to post an update with the VOTOMS soon (or at least not the two months it took for the NuCoal GP squad).
The VOTOMS are gorgeous, I want them all.
ReplyDeleteStill, DP9 models are more practical, and their hovertanks are to die for. I must start saving up for the big bugger they do, the one that carries all the GRELs.
You're a bit further along in catching them all than I am! The VOTOM models are actually quite impressive as they're much more poseable than I expected. Each limb has three points of articulation, i.e. the leg has hip, knee, and ankle joints.
ReplyDeleteThe DP9 12mm size though is much more practical but my local store has alot of terrain for 40k that I could use with the VOTOMS (and Infinity) that just doesn't look right with HG. The big Earth hovertank is quite nice for HG and I even considered starting an Earth force with it for a short time; luckily, common sense kicked in and told me that three armies are more than enough for one gamer who can't even find a willing opponent for HG.
Hey man, I have been way out of the HG loop. You have any info on what is up with these new rules? I picked up the draft of the beta rules and the section of how to build an army I could not make heads or tails of.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm not up to date on them either. I was in the early testing but my last actual game was around this time last summer and I haven't even downloaded the latest version of the rules and didn't read the one before that. I saw some of the same mistakes like ignoring overwhelming opinions on the forums about very common mistakes happening yet again just because the developer liked it (i.e. variable pricing of the exact same thing depending on what faction) and it turned me off to the alpha. It also didn't help that the original alpha release had glaring and obvious favoritism applied to a certain pet faction just like I saw in Blitz during playtesting. It was the same ol' stuff that plagued the current game behind the scenes happening just with a new set of rules.
ReplyDeleteI made a big push last year to help improve the game and, once the original developer left the alpha and distanced himself from HG in general, felt like pretty much everything was completely ignored. I'm just sitting out the rest of the process and will see what shakes out the other end. I wish them well and hope for the best.
I forgot to mention this in the previous post but I figured you were done with HG. You hadn't updated your blog in almost a year (excluding the bit of an odd incomplete update about online stores) and I saw you were selling your figs on bartertown. I just assumed you were done with the game and getting out to be honest as the HG churn rate is quite high.
ReplyDelete