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For those who aren't familiar with Heavy Gear, the Black Talons are an elite special operations force which is equipped with some of the most advanced technology available on Terra Nova.

I'm painting up a small strike team for an upcomming tournament. While I'm not quite starting from scratch since I assembled and primed these guys earlier this year, I'm operating on a tight timetable, the tournament is on the 13th.

Fortunately for me, with Black Talons being an elite force, I've only got 6 models in my army.

(All images are clickable for a larger view)

So far I've laid down a base coat of Stormy Sea on the ballistic cloth areas.

6 MAN ARMY!!! Wow that is pretty small. Looks good. I can't wait to see more photos.

It's a 1000 tv army (one of the standard tournament sizes), and each model weighs in at about 160 tv after upgrades. This is fairly expensive compared to a basic trooper gear that would cost around 40-50 tv.

I've added an asurmen blue wash to the cloth, I'll need to go back over and touch up a few spots that didn't get enough wash, but I think I won't need to highlight. I'm trying for a very dark and subdued look.

Glad to see you went ahead with the blog!

I'm not familiar with the game but your models look really good! I don't think they 'pop' too well though. I'd love to see some small changes that wouldn't take long and would really bring the models out. I'm sure you could do this while retaining the stealthy subdued look you are going for. I think some very simple highlights would look good. To add to that you should pick out some of the smaller details to break up the uniform colours. Maybe just black on some of the small raised details would work. As i say, shouldn't take too long(I know you are on a tight time scale) and it'll really show off how good your work is. Lastly, if you have time, paint any lights/opticals a pale blue and wash some watered down blue over any areas the light would touch? It will take a while but will really add to the sinister/cold element on your models.

I love the fact theres only 6 of them, they sound really elite and hardcore! They are posed really well too, full on action. Can't wait to see more of your work!!

Part of the reason they don't pop in the least is because other than the cloth, they're still primer black.

Frak really?! I need a new computer, i'm getting shiny Mithril Silver! I also need to go to bed its 4:35am now!

Whatever the case i guess my suggestions still stand and i'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Nice little force!

I remember playing this game when it first came out in the mid-90's because a friend of mine was the lead artist for Dream Pod 9 at the time. Even got a free Jovian Chronicles book. Ah the memories... You can check out his portfolio here

I like that you've inverted the usual scheme of painting the cloth black and the armour a bright colour. What other colours are you intending on applying?

My general game plan is a very dark grey (tentatively stormcover grey /w Devlin Mud or Badab Black wash) with some edge highlighting for the armour plates

I'm as yet undecided on the non-armour bits, probably adamandium black, though I need to try it out and see if it will give me the effect I want.

For sensor lenses, probably green.

Weapons, TBD.

Looks very good, for a 6 man army.

Not as much progress as I'd like, I have discovered that RMS Adamantium Black is, in fact, black. This is good and bad. Good in that it's not too bright, bad in that it's very dull. Hopefully once I lay down some 'lighter' colour, things will perk up.

I've also discovered that Gunmetal Blue is absolutely beautiful.

This is good since it means I've figured out how to paint the guns.

No pics because I can't get my camera to accurately pick up the blue or the black, it seems to want to take them about 2-3 shades lighter. Will worry about it later once I start laying down the main armour colour and seeing how that goes.

Woohoo! I'm not the only Heavy Gear blog on dakka anymore! Welcome, and yes, those guys can really suck up the points. I was shocked to see that my 8 BT models (which only had scout and trooper variants, not the heavy expensive vultures you do!) got up to 1500TV with upgrades. How are you thinking about arming them? BT tend to have a ton of weapon options.

I'm going VLFG + AGM for the Vultures, LPLC for the Raptors, recon drone for the Owl, and either 2x HRP or 2x HGL for the Naga (will most likely depend on whether I go Command Naga or not).

I'm contemplating going HGM instead of AGM, but I like the ability to poke my head out and nail someone with an absurdly accurate direct shot.

Moar dakka! Looking forward to seeing your stuff finished.

Dark_Gear wrote:
I remember playing this game when it first came out in the mid-90's because a friend of mine was the lead artist for Dream Pod 9 at the time. Even got a free Jovian Chronicles book. Ah the memories... You can check out his portfolio here

Yeah, a lot of Ghislain's art still gets used in DP9 stuff because it's so awesome, although the guys are trying to use newer art so it's not all retreads.

Dark_Gear wrote:
I like that you've inverted the usual scheme of painting the cloth black and the armour a bright colour. What other colours are you intending on applying?

I'm looking for how to do my BTs eventually. I am thinking I want to try a dark grey over green I did on some A Call to Arms ships years ago to give it a rubbery stealth look. This look is tempting, though, and looks very nice so far.

The Tournament is tomorrow! Did you get them finished!? :O

Unfortunately, I didn't, I'm checking if there is a painting requirement or not.

Life, it has a way of eating your spare time. :(

Aw thats a shame man, hopefully you can still play. Going to finish the models anyway, yes? I'd like to see the outcome.

Hobbies... they have a way of eating spare time even faster than Real Life(tm).

Hope you got the models finished on time for the tournament. Waiting for results and pics.

In the end, I wound up winning by a single VP. It had been a while since I last played, and there was some rust that needed blowing off.

Either that, or the mostly unpainted nature of my army (I didn't manage to get them finished) took its revenge.

I definitely want to get them painted by next May for Cangames.

Well done on the win mate!