September Sun

September is a tricky month. The kids go back to school (or if you are reading this in the future and are currently enjoying Covid-22, maybe they don't) but you can't appreciate it because you are still paying for that time off work you had over the summer.

The days are cold in the morning but still bright and warm in the afternoon, and for about half the month you still have some daylight in the evenings to get things done. And then autumn sneaks in, the rain comes back and you are soon huddled around a fire by 6pm, waiting for the wolves to come and eat you.

When it comes to tackling projects in my hobby closest, I normally need to wait for the perfect storm of need, desire, enthusiasm, time, materials and space in order for that project to miraculously transition from "Something I will do one day" to "Holy cow it is done!". But in September, all of those things can be substituted for desperation.

And so here are some trees, designed to match the mat I will use for Fallout and Gamma Wolves. And some billboards, also for Fallout, though now that I have painted them I've decided I will put them on bases so they aren't really complete. Now that It Is Dark Again, they may not be completed until 2022!

The trees are Woodland Scenic armatures stuck to MDF bases covered in sanded polystyrene and Sculptamold. I messed that up by making too much, so while two of the tree bases are relatively smooth, the other two ended up being clumpy and difficult to work with because it was drying by the time I applied it. I will make it in smaller batches next time so hopefully I will avoid the same mistake.

Also shown is the base for one of my Gamma Wolves frames because I wanted to make sure the colours and style of the tree bases matched. The images I used on the billboards are by Charlie Wilcher and I found them at his ArtStation page here. 

Come for the art style, stay for the setting

Thats what happened to me when I picked up a few of the Heavy Gear RPG books back in my univeristy days and I have followed the progress of DP9's baby ever since. When Blitz first came out, I even dabbled in the Heavy Gear minis game but I didn't really give it a fair shake until DP9 launched their first kickstarter. 

I picked up a few of the metal minis and of course, a pledge for the new plastic kits too but since the rules (and more importantly, force lists) were in a state of flux, I didn't want to build anything until I knew how many of my favourite designs I could fit into a standard game.. and how many points a standard game would actually be!

When DP9 finally put out the force compendium for 3rd edition, I drew up three CNCS / WFP lists (50, 100 and 150 TV), one for each of the three game sizes, ordered what I didn't have from Shiny Games, then began building the models I would need. This evening, I finally finished the last of them*

Back row: Koala, Leopard, Para Strike Hunter, Leopard, Scorpion helo. 

Middle row: Hunter Gunner x2, Assault Hunter x2. 

Front row: Wildcat Pathfinder, Bobcat Flackcat x2, Weasel, Badger APC, Field Gun, Infantry squad x2

I have to say that their resin kits (the Bagder APC and Scorpion helicopter) were in the sweet spot of detail vs ease of preparation and I wouldn't mind if some of the gears switched over to that material. 

The plastics were easy to build (though they don't take polycement very well) but had stiff poses, and were noticeably skinnier and taller than their metal equivalents. 

The metals, by contrast, were nice and chunky with much better posing and the superglue worked as well as you would expect.. but everything needed a ton of cleanup; mold lines were for sure an issue but the biggest headache were the seams where one half of the mold had slipped, or otherwise did not line up with the other half. It was particularly bad on the arms and in filing down the half that was too thick, I lost quite a lot of detail. 

Even so, when I decide to get some additional gears, I will get them in metal as long as they are available, despite the price. I will technically need two more stock Hunters (the Assault Hunters will serve as a proxies until then) and I want a pair of Dingos because the weapon loadouts are a lot more interesting than the ones available to the Koalas.

In the meantime I also have a Strider to build although that's just for variety - it is easy enough to switch out the Scorpion since the points cost is similar. No rush for that, though. These need to get painted first... 

* apart from two more Hunters, which I don't have enough of. And my Wildcat Pathfinder is actually a Wildcat Riotmaster but when I decided I wanted a Wildcat with a rifle, I realised there are no medium rifles on ANY of the plastic kits, and no medium rifles in my bits box from the other metals. So I have another Wildcat to build once I've sourced a medium rifle from somewhere..