A birthday gift

Hello,

For my birthday last Tuesday, my wife decided to give me a decent macro camera lens for the camera she actually owns.
Well, it is her hobby as the only pictures I usually take are ones from my miniatures.

With a little bit of free time I decided to test the lens out on some older (apart from ones from Bushido, which I took to see the difference between these and the ones I took with my phone) miniatures of mine.
These were painted back in the day when I had no kids yet and a lot of time (less responsibilities too, both at work and at home).
The pictures were taken using natural daylight, so they ended up a bit dark.

First up is Anima Tactics, a game we used to play a lot and I have a lot of, both painted and unpainted, miniatures for.

Next the ones from Bushido, old and new.
A bit dark, but with sharper details. I should take out my lightbox though.

 Freebooter's Fate next:

And Malifaux, ...
Both Malifaux and the following pictures were painted at what I still consider the peak of my painting skill.

 Nemesis:

Relic Knights, a Noh berserker I used to play with colours on.
This is a metal with resin miniature which was available long before they released their Kickstarter.

 

 And just to see how far I could go, a 15mm miniature for my sci-fi SCS army:

 

Funny enough, it looks a bit like a trip through time.

 

It's not I haven't anything new to show, but it is still WIP.

All I can see is I took a little break from assembling tanks and gears.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Wouter

Seeking shelter

Hello,

I haven't been doing a lot of painting the past week.
The major reason being a serieus lack of concentration due to sleep deprivation.
Recently both my youngest and middle son have developed the habit to wake up at night, waking me and my wife. This in combination with the mosquitoes buzzing around my head at night results in a permanent headache during daytime hours.

It is not I haven't done a thing though.
Miniatures is fine, but I also need some terrain on the table.
Cleaning and gluing stuff together isn't the hardest thing, and soon I had some domes from Ion Age and barracks from GzG on 80mm bases, ready for an undercoat.

So here's the result of a whole week of labour ;).

Now I only need to paint them.

Thank you for reading!

Wouter
 

Taking the lead

At last I finished my 50TV for my Southern force.
It took me a bit longer than expected because I was a few days away for work, celebrated our wedding anniversary and my wife's birthday, all in one week ;-).
Well, 50TV down, up to the next wave.
I actually have next 50TV planned already and assembled most of my CEF.
As my friend and regular opponent really want to start using his Black Talons, my south will be on hold for a little while.
The idea is to first learn the basic rules (without most of the EW rules) with my South and CEF and then learn the EW rules with EW (ECM, ECCM, TD, ...) heavy troops, something the Black Talons excel at with their owls.

The commander is actually a Christmas exclusive on a base I ripped from a Warrior IV chieftain from the PRDF.
As it is part of a destroyed hun, the commander looks a bit as if wants revenge for the destruction of his material :-).

 Group shot:

 

Some more hover tanks next time.

 

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Wouter

 

Back and forth

When I started painting my South, I realized my CEF force was badly build.
The hovertanks could easily dispatch anything the South was fielding, making the Anti-tank Frame unnessecary.
But having a recon frame could really provide an edge with his target designator.
True, the hovertanks could do this themselves as well. But by adding the recon frame, they could launch their missiles at the target from a safe distance. I hope the frame's ANN (Advance Neural Network), which can boost a skill once each turn. If I use this for defence, it will surely enhance his survivability.
I also added a jetpack for easier maneuvering to get him where I want.

 

After sending a lot of mails to Dave, one of the creators of the new rules, I actually attached the wrong weapons to my frames. This mistake was made because some weapons, which were there in the previous edition of the rules) disappeared and new ones popped up in the Beta version.

The recon frame is fitted with the weapon which was the light laser cannon option in the old rules, This is now the particle accelerator. And the weapon I attached to my anti-tank frame was the former sniper laser cannon, which is now gone in the new rules.

Sniper laser cannon gone, new light particle accelerator instead, so it seemed logical the weapon just got another name. It seemed this assumption was wrong, ...

The sniper laser cannon was the standard weapon in the old rules, the light laser cannon is the standard weapon in the new.

Anyway, it is easy to see what each frame represents by looking at the rocket pack (now a anti-tank missile, ... Yes the CEF were hit pretty hard when it came to changes between the two rule-sets) and target designator.

 

Here's my two frames side by side.

Thank you for reading!

Wouter

 



 

Getting some light support

As I had some days off this week, I actually managed to get quite some painting done, despite the fact I had to babysit a lot :).

I started with adding arms to my unfinished Southern Gears, so I have something to play with in the near future. They just need a leader now, which is on my painting table.
Unfortunately I made some mistakes while positioning the arms. Some are holding their guns by the barrels now, which just looks stupid.
I guess I didn't assemble enough Space marines with two hands holding the bolter during my 40k period, ...

 

The jägers are very cheap gears (the black mamba isn't part of the squad anymore), so I could add 5 of them and still have points left (from the 50TV) for some support 

When we are going to get serious in the future, they will be even cheaper as they become conscripts. Which means I can add in a very expensive second unit or three cheap ones for 100TV.

The hun I painted up will provide some long range back up.

With its smoke, amphibious and off-road traits it is also remarkable fast and versatile.

On the missile pod I painted the squadron it's logo, which is also on the helmets of the gears (but very small and hard to see).

I'm still not sure if I will put it on a base or not in the future. Perhaps to tie them all together as a force and define it's arcs.

 

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Wouter

 



 

The war for Terra Nova

Late again, ...
But this time I have a good excuse, as I have spend little time on my pc or phone apart from work related stuff. The reason: I have been painting fanatically to get some miniatures which were sitting on my desk for about a year.
Two of them had nothing but a basecoat, but the third was nearly finished.
Unfortunately I had forgotten which colours I used on him so I had to start again from scratch.
Because of that you can clearly see some difference between them.

I had told about my rising interest in Heavy Gear.
The hunters, I showed in my previous post, are neatly stowed away as I need an airbrush to finish them.
A post by Brandon Faro actually pointed me in the right direction for how to do the colour scheme I wanted (https://dropshipstudio.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/ucm-digital-camo-for-dropzone-commander/).
Which leaves me my CEF and South to get me playing as soon as possible.
I know my friend has some Black Talons, but as these are a highly elite group they are not really suitable for learning the mechanics.

What I mean to do is finish 50TV and build up from there.
50TV will get me one combat group and fits nicely in what I already have almost finished so far.
I also tried to create two completely different groups: Small and fast for the CEF, A large group but vulnerable for the South.

Here's the work I got done this week.

 

 

The frame was fitted with a rocket pack as this was still possible under the Blitz rules.

Both the rocket pack and sniper laser are now gone, so I treat the laser as a Particle Accelerator and the RP as anti-tank missiles.

 



All of them are fitted on urban bases, as I wanted to give the impression as if they are flying over/standing on a destroyed Terra Nova city or town.
As the CEF are the main antagonists in Heavy Gear, I went for a combination of greys.
Mainly to enhance the fact they are a highly effective military machine. But also because I wanted them to look a bit dull, while still visually pleasing.
I think they turned out rather well.

Thank you for reading, I hope you like them.

Wouter
 

A little trip to Terra Nova

 These last few days, the temperature outside and in my painting corner rose to the point painting was getting difficult (40°C), as the paint dried out far too quickly.
So I decided to take a small break from painting my samurai house to building some miniatures.
Perfect to do with this hot weather as the glue even dries a lot faster.

Last time I had already shown my Southern Silver Vipers in progress.
They still needed a leader and a support unit, and most of all: an enemy to fight against.
 
The Northern hunters have a bit of a sad story actually.
They are from a number of different boxes and blisters: Some leftovers from Wayland, part of the Blitz two-player starter set, a Gen-Con exclusive miniature I couldn't resist when ordering online from the DP9 store, a Hunter XMG from Arena.

When I finally made my mind up of which North force I wanted to collect, they were suddenly not welcome anymore as the Cat's Paws aren't allowed to field them.

So they ended up in my bits box.

A bit of a shame actually, they are the most versatile chassis in Heavy Gear and at a low price cost. Even compared to their Southern counterparts they have a lot better options to choose from (like the snub cannon and medium bazooka).

Which is why they ended up in a box marked 'Leagueless', a box for unwanted miniatures I couldn't field otherwise.

 With the release of the Beta rules they finally seem to have found a home in the PRDF as a subunit, where their versatility will only strengthen the PRDF force.

The idea for a PRDF force has actually grown from the plans I had with my Leagueless.
While playing Valkyria Chronicles I knew I wanted to do a force in the Gallian colours.
However, the Leagueless are too much of a bandit group, and I wanted something more organized.
So the idea for a rebel Southern faction, which was originally sponsored by the North to harass their Southern enemy, which fled to the badlands when the two large nations came to a peace solution took root. So much I see them as my second faction now instead of my Cat's Paws :).

I definitely am going to add some more older Northern chassis like the bear, giving me the opportunity to field them as either a Northern or PRDF force. After all, when the plastic figures from the KS finally arrive I will get a lot more hunters searching for a home.

 

 

As you can see I already undercoated some of them, these will be paint try-outs and my starter force (except for the Chieftain IV).

I took the liberty to switch some of the legs, arms and torso's with those of some Para-trooper hunters I had laying around, to create two MP hunters and two Assault hunters.

The infantry are some sandriders I had from long ago, probably bought them in an impulsive mood.

Some of them still need some cleaning up with a bit of putty after I had cut their arms apart in order to get more different poses.

All of my bases are 40mm so far, I just hate the overhanging feet and it also gives them a bit of unity.

 

That's it for now, hopefully I can show a fully painted house the next time!

 

Thank you for reading,

 

Wouter

Running late

I know this post is way overdue, the reason ...
Well I miscalculated my next project as it takes far more time to complete than I estimated.
Another factor is the hot weather over here (it's 34°C), meaning I spend a lot more time with my children.
They are often in the swimming pool to cool down and as a responsable parent I can't let them drown :).

So, while I don't like posting WIP, I have very little choice this time.
The project started with the idea to build some terrain for Bushido, I also have a shrine and cherry trees to do after this samurai house.
While I still have to finish a few Bushido miniatures, my wandering mind needed something fresh to get a focus again.

 

I'm also building some more Heavy Gear mini's while the glue on the building is drying.

When DP9 released the Heavy Gear Alpha rules, I really wanted to participate and test the rules out, give some feedback.

But the project stranded, ... like so many others.

The Silver Vipers I started are still missing some parts, but I plan to finish these after my Bushido adventure.

And finally play some games with the Beta rules.

 

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Wouter