Dark Elf General - Finally an Oldhammer Update!

Here at last is my Oldhammer Dark Elf General! This miniature took ages to finish after I stripped and repainted it following a mishap. I originally went for all blue armour, but the second time round I added copper detailing. I painted the sword so that it (hopefully) looks like a magical weapon. I painted the rider, shield and steed separately before gluing them together. The figure is all finished and varnished but for a few clumps of some static grass. I plan to do some more Heavy Gear stuff next but after that I'm going to work on the other Cold One riders...

Finished Heavy Gear Southern Jackrabbit ATV Infantry Platoon

Here is the other half of the Jackrabbit ATV Infantry Platoon for my Southern Heavy Gear army. I have to confess I found the second half of the platoon a real slog. However, I do like how they turned out and, though the platoon took bloody ages to finish, I kind of fancy having a second platoon! But not for a while!

One late addition was the jerry can which I got from an overpriced Minifigs 12mm vehicle stowage pack. It could be much needed fuel or water and breaks up the monotony of tarpaulins, adding a bit of colour. The completed platoon is pictured below. Turns out they can only have one demo drone but the spare may still come in handy.

Finished Heavy Gear Jackrabbit ATV Escouades

Here's the first finished section of my Southern Jackrabbit ATV Platoon. I believe escouade is French for 'squad' or 'squadron' and in Heavy Gear an infantry platoon consists of two sections of two escouades, with each infantry escouade consists of around 10 men (or in the case of the platoon I'm painting 7 men and 3 ATVs) and represented by 3 bases. Also pictured is a demolition drone employed by the section to (hopefully) take out the heavier vehicles they encounter on the battlefield.

I had hoped to have finished these little guys before now, and to have made inroads into the second section, but I've been ill for the past week and, as a result, painting time has been nonexistant. Ho hum!

Some Painted Heavy Gear Jackrabbit ATVs

Here's a few pictures of my first 3 painted Heavy Gear Jackrabbit ATVs. I think these little guys came out pretty well given their size. I've got another 9 and 2 demolition drones to go to finish the unit...

Heavy Gear Jackrabbit WIP

Here's a WIP of my converted Heavy Gear Jackrabbits. As you can see I've used quite a bit of Green Stuff, especially on the bikes without sidecars. I'm no miniature sculptor but I've found that, with a little patients, I can achieve passable results - at least in 10mm! Just another 8 to go...

10mm Moto Grunts!

Here you can see various views of the Heavy Gear Jackrabbit ATV. Probably not the first thing that springs to mind when when someone says they're building a Heavy Gear army! These things remind me of the motorcycle infantry battalions which accompanied the German Panzers on the Blitzkrieg campaigns during the first few years of World War 2. But why, oh why, where they sculpted with an empty sidecar!?!

To remedy this I also purchased some of the older, and now out of production, Southern Infantry. Their headgear and equipment matches that of the ATV rider. These come in just 4 poses, and each with different weapons (the officer has a pistol and is not pictured).

And so I fell upon them with clippers, craft knife, needle files and a pinvice. After much dismemberment, including a 10mm headswap (am I nuts!?!) I had the parts necessary for my intended conversion.

Of course, even metal figures of this scale benefit from pinning to strengthen joints... To give you an idea of scale, the squares are centimetres.

They all went together without any glued fingers, lost bits, or sweary words! As you can see from the picture above, I will need to create legs for the pillion passenger using Green Stuff.

So here is the the completed vehicle. I think it looks much better with the extra riders. In addition to the pillion passenger's legs, I also plan to add lots of stowage so it looks like these guys live on their Jackrabbit for weeks at a time.

Once I'd finished the first bike it was quickly joined by the rest of the platoon and two demo drones which will complement the units anti-gear rifles. I managed 3 more head swaps on riders who's heads had been mutilated in what must be a mold close to the end of its life. The bikes towards the rear of the picture have had their sidecars removed. I will need to tidy up these quite a bit with Green Stuff but I think they look a lot nicer without the sidecars, so the extra work should be worth it.

10mm Sci Fi Civilians

Here are my panted 10mm sci fi civilians for Heavy Gear. I still need to varnish them and add a few small clumps of static grass. I painted them in a range of bright colours in an attempt to make them look as much like the game's artwork as possible. I plan to construct my southern Heavy Gear army as an 'Eastern Sun Emirates' force so the middle eastern dress of these civilians should complement my army choice. They can be 'dressing' on a wargames table or they can form part of a scenario where players must avoid killing them. I think three bases of civilians should be enough but I do have plans to make a small train of 'baggage lizards' using several of Magister Militum's smaller 10mm dinosaurs possibly the Atlascopcosaurus and some Green Stuff.

I noticed this week that Studio Sparta have released some interesting 10mm sci fi buildings for Firestorm Invasion Planetfall including prefabricated dwellings and a barracks which could just as easily be used as something else. I like the sci fi desert feel of these buildings and I think they should work well with the TimeCast's 10mm Tunisian and North African buildings and possibly kerr & King's desert city buildings.

Next on the slow moving hobby conveyor belt: I'm going to try and finally finish my Oldhammer Dark Elf Army general and then hopefully construct some figures for my southern Heavy Gear army and Cold One cavalry...