A Grizzly and Other News!

I wanted to post something about the totally awesome Heavy Gear Grizzly. This is a Northern Heavy Gear for Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear Blitz game.

I purchased this multi-part miniature recently and as soon as I got it out of its blister pack I just had to put it together! The model is 1/144 / 10-12mm scale and stands around 5cm tall. The blister includes numerous weapons (see more details here) which can be used to make a variety different types of Grizzly, if you play or are familiar with Heavy Gear Blitz. I’ve constructed mine as a Rabid Grizzly which will form part of a small United Mercantile Federation Army for Heavy Gear Blitz.

I’ve heard stories of badly miscast Heavy Gear miniatures but this miniature’s parts were all well cast with no miss casting or loss of detail, minimal flash and just a few cast lines. Each of the major (body) parts fitted together really well and did not require cutting, filing and filling in order to bond together. Each of the hand weapons required the removal of their handles so they would fit the Grizzly’s hands.

The Grizzly does require some modelling expertise to construct if it’s going to survive on the battlefield. Many of the parts are small and lack sufficient surface area to be secured using glue alone.

I used a pin vice and a paper clip cut into segments of between 1 and ½  and 1 centimetres and superglue to secure parts of the kit together. I used 9 pins to secure parts of the model together (the only parts I did not drill and pin were the model’s head and 3 pieces of additional ablative armour). I also used 2 pins to help secure the model to its base – which I ordered separately as the model comes with a 25mm hex base.

This miniature is certainly not cheap and retails for around £14.50 (UK) / $21.00 (CAN). It is however a beautiful model and I cannot wait to get it undercoated and painted!

In other news I'm sure some of you have noticed that I am now a contributor to Dropship Horizon. It's an honour to have the chance to take over from Mark and contribute to the wonderful blog he created. It's also great to do so with some great bloggers. The last few days has been something of a creative whirlwind as we've shared ideas and my inbox has been practically groaning under the weight of emails!