Hunter Assembly

After a learning game of Munchkin (been a long time since I played and they never had) at a friend's house came home and started to work on the Northern GP squad.  Right now all five have everything except their arms and primary weapons assembled. I'm going to paint the arms and weapons separate in order to keep them out of the way while I paint the torsos, pretty much the same way I paint my other mecha figs.

The most common thought I had tonight was, "Is that detail or a mold line?" Which isn't unusual when I'm working with figures I've never seen before. However, the problem was compounded when I discovered the metal Dream Pod 9 uses is much softer than what I'm used to. So the first pass with a file got a lot more pressure than was needed and I'm sure I'll probably anger some WYSWIYG purist out there for having accidentally filed off the interior left repair access panel or some such. Otherwise though the casting was overall good, despite a tendency to have some pitting on flat surfaces. Thankfully those those were all at points that would be covered when glued together. Assembly was fairly straight forward. Fit is a bit loose, but not overly so. I have a feeling I should have pinned them, but the kids broke the drill bit I use for that and I can't seem to find the right size without having to buy a whole set of bits. Probably about the only thing I had some issue as far as assembly goes was that I filed the mount on the back of the torso for the V-Engine "backpack" down too far while cleaning up molding irregularities and I'm not real comfortable with the resulting join.

Tomorrow should see preparation of the arms and weapons, priming, and maybe even a little paint. Something I'm already not too sure about though is where exactly the Heavy Panzerfaust is supposed to go...

GADD Strikes Again

Well, my Gamer Attention  Deficit Disorder has raised it's ugly head again. Being the mecha enthusiast that I am, I have been going around and around with myself for about six years about whether or not I should get into Heavy Gear. They finally got me with their summer promotion which gets you the Locked & Loaded and Field Manual rulebooks in .pdf format for free via RPG DriveThru. And seeing as how my current main CAV opponent works for Dream Pod 9 I decided that I've got free rules and an opponent, I like most of the miniatures, why not.

What makes this even better is that yesterday I found a model railroad shop to source some modern buildings that fit with sci-fi settings. They just happened to have the North vs. South starter set for HG Blitz...at 35% off! So I now have a General Purpose squad for both the North and South, though my intentions is build a force from the Northern Guard 33rd Regiment, the "Roving Guns." From what little fluff I've read, they are a force of heavy raiders that favor hit and fade tactics.

The Northern Gears are going to be painted in a sci-fi version of chocolate chip desert camo. I think the Southern ones will be painted as standard MILICIA, meaning grey drybrush. I'm not all that interested in the Southern Gears and they may eventually end up on eBay.

Speaking of which, my 6mm sci-fi figures will be offered up for sale as a way to fund the further expansion of the HG forces.

And in totally unrelated news, I'm totally stoked about the impending release of Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing. I'm getting to like the idea of the big box board games that are either fully or mostly self contained, as evidenced in my backing of the OGRE Kickstarter. I'm looking forward to X-Wing for a few reasons: as with most gamers I'm a big Star Wars fan, I don't have to paint the figures, my kids are getting to be almost bigger Star Wars fans than I. The game rules look like they will be easy to pick up. If nothing else I'll end up with a couple of TIE fighters and an X-Wing.

Look! Something Shiney!!!