YPU's Heavy Gear NEW: The South! page 3

[YPU]

Well, I decided to take the plunge and get the 2 players heavy gear starter set, plus a couple of extras. One of my old wargaming buddies is moving closer to me and coming over a lot more, and we concluded that despite my shelve full of miniatures there actually weren't really any full-on wargames we were interested in playing we had on hand, most of the stuff (15mm gruntz for example) had grown stale, and the rest was more roleplay light skirmish such as pulp alley, which we love, but we wanted something a bit more combined arms confrontation, ideally without having to build and paint an entire battalion.  So heavy gear it was.

I've also been working on a collection of scale neutral dessert and jungle terrain, so expect my pictures for HG to show that of as well.

I actually already owned a northern Mammoth, so while I was waiting for the starter set to arrive I painted that! Its ready to be magnetized, but I'm waiting on the magnets from aliexpres to arrive, so I bluetacked the normal loadout on it for now.








1/144 crew model from wave for scale. He's waving, ain't that nice. 



I like my big heavy robots in dark colours, the regular gears will probably be a bit lighter (maybe like the turret on this one)

[Duke Donald]

That's sweet! It should fit in well with your dessert terrain!

[YPU]

Thanks, Donald! Hopefully pictures of my colour tests for the North and South armies on some terrain as well.

[Maspalio]

Got this one too at home...unassembled of course 

a really big baby indeed 

[YPU]

Got this one too at home...unassembled of course 

a really big baby indeed 

Took me a good 5 years or round to it. 

It's all relative size wise, at 1/144 they are the same scale as gundam model kits, but they are absolutely dwarfed by them! Funny thing is the gundams are cheaper and better kits overal. Still can't say no to a cool mech, tough.

[Grimmnar]

Funny enough if i didn't already know or you mentioned it., would be hard to tell if this was current line or previous line.
Still need a Naga for my 1/87 and i actually have a 1/144 scale Naga. Irony eh?
But this is an excellent paint job. Very well done.

Grimm

[Macrossmartin]

Heavy Gear will probably appear on my 'to-do' list again next year... I've been a fan since the days of the original RPG and the RAFM 1/87 scale minis, mis-packed arms and all... 
Although I have to say I'm not in love with the HG Blitz rules... very disappointing to see that the artwork hasn't changed one jot from the old RPG and sourcebooks from the 90's, and the rules are awfully clunky.

A real pity, because HG was very innovative when it first appeared on the scene, and the production and artwork was inspirational and quite immersive.

Might look seriously at a variation of Mobile Suit Skirmish for HG.... that could prove good fun to do. (Says he, currently up to his armpits in editing for Version 2.0 of MSSk...  )

[YPU]

Funny enough if i didn't already know or you mentioned it., would be hard to tell if this was current line or previous line.

I will definitely take that as a compliment, anytime I can make 1/144 look like 1/87 I'm happy. 
I would have loved to get into the old line when it was around, but trying to collect it now seems like madness. heck I only went for the 2 player plastic starter because it was actually affordable, even if the minis aren't the best.

Heavy Gear will probably appear on my 'to-do' list again next year... I've been a fan since the days of the original RPG and the RAFM 1/87 scale minis, mis-packed arms and all... 
Although I have to say I'm not in love with the HG Blitz rules... very disappointing to see that the artwork hasn't changed one jot from the old RPG and sourcebooks from the 90's, and the rules are awfully clunky.

HG was on my radar for a long long time before I took the plunge. I think having the living rulebook available for free helped me over the edge. I kinda like the rules, clunk and all. I would never say they are great, but there are a couple of elements in there that is really like, others are like you say midling at best. Part of the charm to me is probably its lack of popularity. When Warmachine started picking up steam (pun intended) people got so deep into the optimal army build that it lost most of its appeal for me.
And like you say, if the actual rules turn out to not be fun to play, making some myself won't be all that hard either. 

[YPU]

Caught a ray of natural daylight, and tried to take some more pictures of my first try at the plastics. This is about as much time as I can put into a single model and still hope to actually finish both forces anytime soon to do some actual gameplay with painted miniatures.
The plan is to magnetize the weapon arms on the plastic models, since you get 2 right arms per model, but magnets still aren't in so right now the arm is attached by a tube the size of the magnets jammed in there. Works quite well.










More, mostly badly lit, images here: https://imgur.com/a/ctLXp

[YPU]

nice stuff. I have a ton of these but have not really ever got into doing them.

Thanks mate! For me the incentive of actually playing a game for once is a good incentive.

[Sangennaru]

Thanks mate! For me the incentive of actually playing a game for once is a good incentive.

It really is a good motivation!

Great models and pictures!

[Macrossmartin]

nice stuff. I have a ton of these but have not really ever got into doing them.

Really? Dare I ask if you're debating moving them on to a good home, where someone can love them, and pat them, and call them George? 

[Grimmnar]

Christ no. Selling stuff to gamers is like pulling teeth.

And see, this is why i love Scurv. Though he be there for advice in a jiffy when you ask for it. And now he would rather give away his things to fellow gamers instead of selling to them and taking their money.
Got to love him. :-)

Grimm

[YPU]

And here is a colour test for the north, all desert and dusty. I considered going for splinter camo to enhance their angular look but this more part bound colour scheme is a lot easier to do in a reasonable time.
Not convinced about the green camera, I think sticking with the same red as the Jager would probably look better.
I snipped off the peg on the torso connector and angled the whole torso down a bit since that is the way most HG art shows them, and I think it helps break the incredibly stiff poses of these plastics. Again, the right arms are prepped to be magnetized, but just pegged in there for now.

[YPU]

that is some delicate weathering considering the size of those.

The nice thing about weathering is that if it ends up like a random mess that's actually fine.

Also make-up sponge brushes are great, most of the fades etc you can see on the shoulders are with those.