Strider Love

I'm Back!

I've been painting a fair bit in the past week, thanks to a prompt delivery of Black Talon miniatures.

Here's some pictures of my Dark Naga. I chose the HRP+LPA configuration to allow for cheapish heavy firepower and accurate short range defense. When painting, I did all the metallics first and I noticed how superior the new sculpt is compared to the old one. The new Naga is as beautiful as it is menacing.

I also have a couple of Ravens to accompany my Dark Skirmisher. The still need a couple hours of work done. I'm really not convinced a Forward Observation and Recon Team is a viable army choice under 1000TV, but I like the models, which is the most important thing.

Finally, I grabbed this spice rack for 99 cents at a second hand store. That's a good investment if I ever saw one.

Offline

Hey all, as I'm moving back to Canada tomorrow evening, I will be offline for a bit. Thankfully, I packed a small painting kit to hit the ground running while I wait for the rest of my stuff to arrive.

I also just put in an order for some extra stuff, such as some Hoplites and  infantry for my Black Talon, and the majestic new Naga sculpt to provide some extra stealthy punch.

When I finally get settle in Kingston, I'll try to find some players for a Heavy Gear campaign. I have been working on it for a good while now. It will be something like "24" with Gears, set during the Interpolar War.

Dark Skirmisher

From the huge Dark Kodiak, I went on to paint the diminutive Dark Skirmisher. It was quite challenging, but it turned out OK.

This would probably end up being my army commander, in a squad of recon Gears.

Enjoy!

C'MON

You can now vote for the Dark Kodiak on coolminiornot.com. Just once I'd like to break the 7 threshold, but it doesn't look like it's in the cards. Not complaining, mind you. CMON voting is harsh when you're receiving it, but after a few days it averages out and is actually pretty accurate. Assuming you don't go vote repeatedly for yourself.

Thank you in advance for your vote. But one person, one vote!

Monster

A couple pics of the Dark Kodiak I finished painting today. This it that largest Gear miniature I have painted yet.

Last Chance for Heavy Gear Free books

Having not received any emails from interested parties, I'm giving it a couple more days and then the books are going into the recycling bin.

Army Painting Contest Winners

I always look forward to this. To few people show their painted Heavy Gear armies online, so it's great when a yearly painting contest draws them out.

Congratulations to the winners in both categories (Army and Commander). I'm especially fond of these two pictures:

Henri Harkonen's Northern Guard:

Leif Raiha's Rabid Grizzly:

I'll definitely participate next year, but the combination of having a newborn baby at home and the previously mentioned factors really did me in.

Now, you two, I want to see more minis from you.

Books, Books, Books

As I am getting ready to move back to Canada this August, one task that is especially difficult for me is to sort out the books that are valuable enough that I want to keep them and those that I want to get rid of.

A couple years back, I took advantage of a half-price sale at the Dream Pod 9 store to grab almost all 2nd edition books for Heavy Gear. I love these books, even though they came out in the 90's (for the most part) and I absolutely WILL be shipping those back home.

I can't say I feel the same way about my 3rd edition books.

I don't want to go on eBay to sell them because I frankly could do without the hassle, but I don't really feel like tossing them in the recycling bin either. Sure, I think the 2nd edition was superior, but they're not THAT crappy. Hopefully, someone will be willing to give them a home.

So here is what I have to unload:

DP9-900 Silhouette CORE Rulebook (first printing, NOT the deluxe edition)
DP9-925 Heavy Gear Player Handbook (Hardcover, two or three pages coming loose towards the end)
DP9-926 Earth Companion
DP9-927 Vehicle Companion
DP9-928 Terra Nova Companion

To be clear, these are ALL the books for Heavy Gear 3rd Ed. and the Silhouette CORE rulebook.

Here is the deal:
1) If you want to trade me, let me know what you have to trade. I don't hope to make money on this, but I just want to cover what it's going to cost me to ship to you.
2) I will ship Cargo, so it will likely take a couple months for the books to arrive.
3) All books are second hand, but are in good condition. They have been read, but were never thrown around.
4) I won't split the books. This is very much all or nothing.
5) Yes, you got this right. I want to GIVE the books away. I just want to swap something to compensate for the shipping costs, and everything above that just puts a smile on my face.

I would announce this on the DP9 forum, but I have a feeling they would frown on this. If you are interested, email me at patrickstamand@gmail.com and let me know what you are willing to part with. I am perfectly aware that I run the risk of getting screwed, but I choose to have a little faith in humanity and human decency. And at any rate, it only costs me shipping and wins me tons of great Karma.

Random Non-Gear Pictures

After thinking about it long an hard, I've decided not to participate in this year's army painting competition at DP9.com. There are many reasons for this, not least being the fact that between my job, my work to relocate to Canada and my two-months-old son (see post below), I just don't have much time for painting, and I don't want to be the guy who just enters an Iguana in an army painting competition: that's just not right.

But I also have two other reasons.

First is the decision on the part of DP9 to disqualify Gears and combat groups previously entered in an earlier DP9 painting contest, which leads me to believe that I'd be disqualifying my whole army from future competitions, which I don't want to do right now. Granted, I have lots of other Gears to paint, but nothing like my current MilICIA army.

Second, and this is largely me being an asshole, but I just don't feel like the target audience for this. To quote on of the pod guys one the Dream Pod 9 forum (and this is nothing against them, just part of their pragmatic strategy to promote the game), "it's to encourage people to show up at the American Championships at GenCon with painted armies." That's all well and good, and I get it, but then I look at the people who placed in the three top spots last year:

1st Place: Jakes Staines (Sar), UK
2nd Place: Patrick St-Amand (Commando Zero), Taiwan
3rd Place: Henri Härkönen (SickBunny), Finland

Shameless self-promotion aside (yes, I got second place, but there really weren't that many entries last year and I did submit three different squads. Let me say it now: I am a mediocre painter. CMON says so.), I don't think any of us are going to attend GenCon, for obvious geographical reasons. And then there are the nice guys at Heavy Gear-France (see link in the sidebar) who do an awesome job of promoting the game on their side of the pond. My frustration (if I can call it that; it's really just an itch, actually) comes from my impression that the current Pod Squad-centric promotion drive for Blitz! leaves us old timers in the lurch in a way. I'm sure things will be different next year, but for now, that seems to be the strategy and us overseas fans have to wait it out and hope for different terms next year.

That being said, I don't paint Heavy Gear miniatures to participate in painting competitions; I paint them because I love the minis and the overall imagery of the game. And here are a few more pictures, this time featuring infantry and tanks.

Infantry, Infantry, Infantry

I've finally been able to complete two new combat groups I had been working on, which get me two step closer to having an army to submit for this year's army painting competition at dp9.com. Both are infantry-based, but rather different.

First, a "vanilla" infantry platoon:

Second, three squads of Jackrabbit ATVs (I'll be the first to admit that the model for the Jackrabbit looks goofy, compared with the Northern ATV):

And here are some picture of a completely motorized infantry platoon, with both ATVs and ORVs:

Mordecai

Ok, I know this has nothing to do with Heavy Gear or miniatures, or anything this blogs concerns itself with usually, but here it goes:

On April 9th, at 10:28 in the morning, my wife Ariel and I received this wonderful little package.

CCG Armory

I have never done business with these guys but I have read lots of bad things. Buyers beware.

Thread on the DP9 forum.

Some blog.

Really, people, watch out.

Stripped-Down Jagers: Getting There

A couple more hours on these guys and I'm through with them.

Huns and Kodiaks

Hi there, I spent a couple days working on a pair of Hun tanks for my MilICIA army.

Hun 1

Hun 2

Back View

Huns in the Badlands

Or in the forest ;)

I also assembled these two, which are absolutely huge when compared to the other Gears in the Blitz range.

The Dark Kodiak (left) was fairly easy to put together, but the base Kodiak (right) had a large number of small parts and took me about two hours to put together. I also used over two complete paperclips to pin that monster.