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warboss wrote:I mainly skipped the tactical era but did notice tons of blisters (with alot of duelist type special character gears IIRC) on the racks from that time. I do like the switch though to 2 packs with one of most of the upgrades included in the blister. Thanks for putting in the good word about the smaller books. I actually posted a thread on the DP9 forums but from the response I may not be in the majority regarding this unfortunately.

There's some definite interest. I can't guarantee anything, but I personally feel the mini-books feel a niche and would rather have more books out and don't care which version it is.

I know my former LGS had a spinner rack of the blisters and they were "interesting." as you had to hunt for minis... It's just about possible currently for the guys to set up a 'mini store' for conventions with about 6-8 feet of peg-rack space for the current line without overly crowding or doubling up things, and that's for a game that has a lot more factions and models. At the time of the Tac stuff, there was North and South Gears, the older CEF Hovertanks, and a few special items. No Caprice or Utopian stuff, or nearly as many Strider and tank models.

Just finished up my Mambas last night for my two planned strike squads. I took me a while to make a decision about their configurations (the rest of the army was a no-brainer for me) as well as actually getting the bits. Each squad of four gears will have 3 Mambas, two of which will be the gattling-laser Blazing variety and another with the Razorfang Brawler loadout with the final gear being a Black Adder snub-gun tank hunter. For non-southern player blog readers, the fluff for tank-hunting squads in the South usually has the laser Mambas sniping off smaller turrets and systems to disable a tank while the Black Adders close in for the ultimate kill. I added in the Command and Control variant of the Mamba to help regenerate command points for free rerolls (the off-white sensor pod on the shoulder is a satellite uplink) as well as to stun bigger enemies with its heavy grenade launcher prior to the laser/snub attack by the squad mates. While its not very easily seen on the pic, I did add a thick cable connecting the gun to a port on the engine as the laser is slowly recharged in the fluff via the method. Next up for the week are my four iguanas! I'm hoping to get in a full sized game tonight so we'll see if that happens (my possible opponent wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it last week).



After the Iggies are done, I'll take my first group picture! I still have another 6 gears planned for my initial 2,000pt army (2 more Jaeger variants with no upgrades allowing me to field my GP squads as non-veterans, 2 Sidewinders to act as commanders of my fire support squads, and 2 Black Adders for my strike squads). After that, I've got some ideas cooking for a OpSec stealth team (which will need a different paint scheme as they're stealth teams) and a paratrooper gear cadre to round out the force.

Mamba is win, I remember messing about with HG mini's years ago and always loved the Black Mamba,King Cobra and Grizzly.

Nice looking Mambas! I've always wondered if the laser-armed variants are too many TV in one basket and would love to hear how they play.

I'm hopefully putting up an article next week showing how to assemble these guys:

Santobell wrote:Mamba is win, I remember messing about with HG mini's years ago and always loved the Black Mamba,King Cobra and Grizzly.

Definitely agree that there are some pretty gears in the line. As an old Northern player, I have a fondness for their angles but I'm warming up to the curvy lines of the South now that I've switched over. The Support Cobra and Kodiak were always my favorites back in the 1st edition RAFM minis days.

Balance wrote:Nice looking Mambas! I've always wondered if the laser-armed variants are too many TV in one basket and would love to hear how they play.

I'm hopefully putting up an article next week showing how to assemble these guys:

The laser Mambas are actually cheaper than the stock model as they're a 5pt downgrade. While the laser is nice, the fact that it is the ONLY weapon on an elite gear and can run out of ammo on your first roll (as well as the loss of the indirect fire capable rockets) I guess necessitates the points return. I do like their stats and uses on paper though (no experience with them yet) and they do give my army an intrinsic anti-aircraft defense that it wouldn't otherwise have.

As for the caprice models, they're definitely the ones I like the most from the "new" crop of HG designs that weren't around back in the days of 1st edition. I'm not a fan of the golems and armigers of the other factions but the Caprice walkers have a neat look that says different planet. If I were to start another army, I'd probably be picking between CEF and Caprice so as to get a different looking and playstyle army for the second one. For now, I've still got plenty of Southern minis still to go and even a recently acquired Black Talon force to work on. Since it seems I may have an opponent for HG locally, I may end up selling or trading away the Talons (hopefully locally to generate another player).

So, unfortunately my opponent for HG was a no-show yesterday (he was 50/50 to begin with last week when we talked) but I got in some different games as well as painted the base colors of my iguanas for a while. By the end of the weekend, my four little scouts should be ready for their debut. I did notice when painting them that even my new basecoat on them went on a little bit gritty but not even close to the disaster that was the black primer at the beginning of this blog. We'll have to see how they turn out!

In order to meet my initial goal of finishing my 2000TV army in a month and in preparation for a hopeful game tomorrow, I put the nose to the grindstone (or in this case my painting desk) and got two squads worth of guys over the past week.

First up are the scout gears in my veteran Recon Squad. The paint job is pretty much the same as the previous versions except that their chests turned out to have more bumps and handles modelled onto them than previous gear types and I'm not really happy with how the decals turned out. I used softener on them to get them to cover better but it ended up distorting them a bit. After I get a few games under my belt with the whole army, I might come back and redo these guys after a wash in the stripping solution.



After they were done (this weekend actually since I ended up mostly painting them on Friday), I moved on the filler gears for my army. Most of these guys are comprised of the only "upgrade" gears outside the 4 standard variants (Jaeger, Cobra, Iguana, Black Mamba) that the SRA is allowed to take. The two sidewinders (guys with fins on their heads) are a good choice for combat group leaders in my Fire Support squads as they have detect 3 which will allow them to defeat the most basic stealth upgrades available as well as moderate concealment. At only 5pts more than the standard Jaeger you start with, they also have an added punch in case I decide to split my fire and not use coordinated attack for the squad leader's action. The two with tiny heads are Black Adders which will be attached to my two Strike squads. The weapons they wield (snub guns) are the premiere antitank weapons at close range and I hope to use them for the final knockout punch after the BBEG target is softened/weakened by the Strike CGL's heavy grenade launcher and coordinated actions as well as peppering shots from the gatling laser Mambas. Finally, the two Jaegers are the stock variants that I plan to use in my two GP squads when I'm playing lower PL games where I can't afford to make them veteran. They'll replace the paratrooper-rifle Jaegers for a rebate of a few points and a veteran slot each.




Over the past month, I've pretty much been avoiding the television and trying to get in an hour of painting a day. During one of my sessions, my cousin stopped by and caught me in the middle of painting my little army men. When I explained that they were for a new game I was getting into set on a desert world, she decided to make a nice desert themed playmat for me as a surprise. Yesterday, she came by again with my present in time for my group shot the next day. My obnoxious base color sticks out a fair bit but I think the actual gears and sand basing fit well with the colors (keep in mind that the dakka autocorrect image loading features do change the colors somewhat and that the mat is actually lighter in person).



And, without further adieu, here is my month's effort... my 2000pts SRA army painted and based!



These two pics have a Fire Support Squad and Strike squad each. The Strike cadres are identical but one FS is filled with Striking Cobras while the other has Support Cobras.





Here is the head and body of my army, the two GP squads and the recon squad that'll contain my army commander.



As usual, you can zoom in as needed by click on the pic to get to dakka's gallery. I've still got another 2000pts unbuilt/NIB but I think I'll try and get some games under my belt before I start adding more to the force. It's not a real army until they cut their teeth on the field of battle!

Warboss, they look excellent, as always. Are those Gatling Laser Cannons in the 2nd Support Squad (the ones attached to a single arm, not the double-handed ones)?

Also, any idea how exact DP9 is with the 1:144 scale of the infantry/vehicles? I found a bunch of great Japanese model railroad scenery in 1:150 scale on Ebay...

Great looking force - recently puchased a strike cadre for some demo games I'm hopefully going to be running.

I'm a North Guy myself.

ancientsociety wrote:Warboss, they look excellent, as always. Are those Gatling Laser Cannons in the 2nd Support Squad (the ones attached to a single arm, not the double-handed ones)?

Also, any idea how exact DP9 is with the 1:144 scale of the infantry/vehicles? I found a bunch of great Japanese model railroad scenery in 1:150 scale on Ebay...

Thanks! You are indeed looking at gatling lasers in the strike squad (the support squad has the bigger termie bases Cobras). I liked how the the single one I originally had worked in the game (on a Mamba they're accurate enough to almost guarantee a box of damage) so I tried to get some more through trading and purchases. They're also rulewise the only thing I found in my southern list that could reliably take down incoming airstrikes. I haven't actually played using those rules but I wasn't keen on the idea that there was nothing I could do about it, lol.

I don't know how close to 1:144 scale they truely are. I know that they use railroad scale terrain for some of their older pics and can't see scenery being much out of place at 1:150. Scenery should be ok but I'd probably stay away from infantry at that scale, though. For my demo games, I've been using the true 25mm LOTR ruins and whatever 15mm stuff I can borrow from the FoW gamers at the FLGS.

Earthbeard wrote:Great looking force - recently puchased a strike cadre for some demo games I'm hopefully going to be running.

I'm a North Guy myself.

The north is definitely cool (I'm a reformed Revisionist Northern collector)! One thing I'd recommend for the demo is to not take the long shots you may be used to in other games like 40k. If you don't have at least equal modifier to the defender, just maneuver closer or to a better firing zone instead of taking the shot. In my first game, nothing happened because the two sides just hung back and kept taking shots at long range through cover (the attack was rolling 2d6 at -2 or -3 while the defender was just a straight 2d6 roll). Also, read up on the coordinated action, crossfire, indirect fire, and stun rules as the ability to give defenders penalties on their roll is key to making the shot count.

Working the modifiers is definitely a key 'skill' for playing HGB. I was extremely happy during a demo at GenCon when one player had pretty much nothign left and rolled a maxed-out (2d6, both 6s, which equates to a 7...) Snub Cannon shot at point-blank range on an enemy, who was stationary (-1 to defend) and proceeded to roll something like a 2.

Which means that an enemy Jaeger was made very, very dead. Also made the demo exciting as it went from a massacre to an almost even combat.

I require more updates!

Balance wrote:Working the modifiers is definitely a key 'skill' for playing HGB. I was extremely happy during a demo at GenCon when one player had pretty much nothign left and rolled a maxed-out (2d6, both 6s, which equates to a 7...) Snub Cannon shot at point-blank range on an enemy, who was stationary (-1 to defend) and proceeded to roll something like a 2.

Which means that an enemy Jaeger was made very, very dead. Also made the demo exciting as it went from a massacre to an almost even combat.

Are you going to GenCon this year? Make sure you take some pics and recruit some players in the SE United States! And, yes, snub cannons make for a definite *splat* if the rolls favor the shooter even just a bit! I've already maxed out on them for my gears unfortunately with two Black Adders. I have two Vipers unbuilt still but, despite having a variant in the fluff with snubs, you can't outfit them with it in the actual minis game. :(

ancientsociety wrote: I require more updates!

Lol, good to know I'm missed. I was pretty much sitting down for a dedicated hour or two of painting every day for the month I was redoing my army posted above, trying to accomplish a single task on all the gears in a sitting (for instance, doing all the chainmail colors on all the gears in one squad sequentally). I burnt out for a bit with the painting and trying to get the force done so that I could run some demos.

My last two weeks worth of efforts were fruitless (I usually try to demo HG before Deathwatch games and the RPG fell apart last minute for the past 2 weeks) but I've got another attempt today set up hopefully. I haven't heard back from the guy with the Northern army (he works nights and tends to game midday weekends which don't work for me) so I started posting on another local-ish (60 miles away each way) store's forum to see if there were players there. I've gotten in contact with two of them and will try to head up there around the end of July for a game. *fingers crossed*

At this point, I'm starting to get the modelling itch again but am having a bit of trouble deciding what to put together next. Initially, I had planned to finish up my Gear Squads (or cadres as they're called in my army) with a stealth OpSec Cadre and a Paratrooper gear cadre left in my *to do* box. On one of my failed trips to the FLGS to get in a game, a friend from the Deathwatch game saw my painted minis and asked to look through the book. He was very surprised to see that the game had tanks as he thought (probably from my initial selection of minis and the name of the game itself) you ONLY used little anime robots. That got me thinking that I might have to also work on the combined arms minis (tanks, striders, infantry) before adding more gears to the mix so people who see my army don't pigeonhole the game as just mechs.

I'm not anxious to start working on the itty bitty infantry to be totally honest as I don't have much experience at that scale so that leaves striders and tanks. I've got a single Naga (which is partly miscast... see the beginning of the blog) and a Fire Dragon but would prefer to have a unit of 3 (one big, two small) if I'm going to start work on them. I'd have to order another Naga from the FLGS and get the replacement torso for my original Naga to get the mojo of the cadre where I want it. The other option I've been entertaining recently is to try and dig out my old Battletech/Robotech officer battle pods as stand in's for two additional Nagas. Its been a while since I looked at them (and I doubt that they're complete parts-wise after all this time) but it would be nifty to have three of those types of walkers if I could get them looking right together. I'll probably take some pics of them tomorrow blue-tac'ed together to see if the sizes work together and if i've got the necessary bits. The final and most likely option would be to work on the tank squadron. Like with the striders, I'd like to have two small and one large tank in the cadre and that's already the case since I have a single Visigoth and a two-pack of Huns. More info tomorrow (and hopefully pics of my battle pods as well as tonight's possible game) but I'm obviously open to suggestions in the meantime.

warboss wrote:
Are you going to GenCon this year? Make sure you take some pics and recruit some players in the SE United States! And, yes, snub cannons make for a definite *splat* if the rolls favor the shooter even just a bit! I've already maxed out on them for my gears unfortunately with two Black Adders. I have two Vipers unbuilt still but, despite having a variant in the fluff with snubs, you can't outfit them with it in the actual minis game. :(

Sadly, no GenCon for me. My Corporate Overlords at DP9 will help with the trip a bit, but it's still expensive (mainly the lodgings, and I'm getting too old to travel without some crash space pre-arranged). I'm trying to go to The War Store Weekend if they need help, as I can drive and it should be a cheaper room.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I need to take some pics of my Caprice force... i think they're all built now.

And, then, start painting. 14 Mounts and 80 Infantry!

Balance wrote:I need to take some pics of my Caprice force... i think they're all built now.

And, then, start painting. 14 Mounts and 80 Infantry!

80 bases or 80 infantry?? That's still alot either way. You could always start a blog here on dakka with them; that way, I wouldn't have to be the only HG one! My HG game last week was unfortunately a bust as my opponent came late and left early despite actually appearing to have alot of fun playing (and kicking my butt at the same time). At least I got a single round in on my new playmat.. grumble...grumble..

It's 80 infantry, but I paint notoriously slowly. :(

On the plus side, it looks like I'm going to The WarStore weekend!

This P&M brought me to the dark side, broke down and bought a PRDF GP Squad and the 2-player starter kit.

You ruined me.

ancientsociety wrote:This P&M brought me to the dark side, broke down and bought a PRDF GP Squad and the 2-player starter kit.

You ruined me.

Glad I could help a fellow Chicagoan! (albeit displaced in my current case) What do you plan on doing with the North/South minis in the starter? I'm also jealous of your smaller sized rulebooks. Still no luck in scheduling a full HG game down here unfortunately. I'm hoping I can get one in when I travel across town to visit another store and meet with 2 potential players there but that won't be happening for another 2-3 weeks. To be honest, the lack of actually getting a full game in has soured me a fair bit on building more. I'm not considering selling them or anything drastic of the sorts but I'd be lying if I said the inability to actually play the game wasn't a big downer.

This is, regretfully, the damage GW's done to tabletop gaming. It is very, VERY hard to get new players, in spite of your well painted models, full terrain, and awesome playscape.

Do not despair? I would suggest putting out a call on all the forums you can find, and maybe see if you can arrange a 'sale' with your local FLGS. You'll run a campaign, and they can give a discount to all players in the group. Or the store can buy some of the starter kits, youpaint them up, and the store has a two or four ready to go sample armies for use to use in demos, and to start people into the game.

Luck and fortune!

warboss wrote:

ancientsociety wrote:This P&M brought me to the dark side, broke down and bought a PRDF GP Squad and the 2-player starter kit.

You ruined me.

Glad I could help a fellow Chicagoan! (albeit displaced in my current case) What do you plan on doing with the North/South minis in the starter? I'm also jealous of your smaller sized rulebooks. Still no luck in scheduling a full HG game down here unfortunately. I'm hoping I can get one in when I travel across town to visit another store and meet with 2 potential players there but that won't be happening for another 2-3 weeks. To be honest, the lack of actually getting a full game in has soured me a fair bit on building more. I'm not considering selling them or anything drastic of the sorts but I'd be lying if I said the inability to actually play the game wasn't a big downer.

Sorry to hear your struggles...

I have a few extra Jagers, so I might combine them into a Southern GP squad. The Hunters are destined for the Arena.

I'm actually thinking of joining the Pod Squad and demo'ing the game, both at my FLGS and Adepticon.

ancientsociety wrote:
Sorry to hear your struggles...

I have a few extra Jagers, so I might combine them into a Southern GP squad. The Hunters are destined for the Arena.

I'm actually thinking of joining the Pod Squad and demo'ing the game, both at my FLGS and Adepticon.

I'm actually working on a short article for the Aurora fanzine to make the stock Hunters/Jaegers a bit better when fielded straight out of the box without model swaps. Which store is your FLGS? I know that Games Plus used to have a fledgeling HG scene years back but that died down after one of the edition changes so you may want to try there if its not already your store.

warboss wrote:

ancientsociety wrote:
Sorry to hear your struggles...

I have a few extra Jagers, so I might combine them into a Southern GP squad. The Hunters are destined for the Arena.

I'm actually thinking of joining the Pod Squad and demo'ing the game, both at my FLGS and Adepticon.

I'm actually working on a short article for the Aurora fanzine to make the stock Hunters/Jaegers a bit better when fielded straight out of the box without model swaps. Which store is your FLGS? I know that Games Plus used to have a fledgeling HG scene years back but that died down after one of the edition changes so you may want to try there if its not already your store.

Very cool.

I live in the city so GP is a little far right now. I generally game at Black Sun Games, though I'm also close to Dice Dojo

ancientsociety wrote:Very cool.

I live in the city so GP is a little far right now. I generally game at [url+http://blacksungameschicago.com/]Black Sun Games[/url], though I'm also close to Dice Dojo

Yeah, I've heard about them but haven't visited. Chicago has ZERO games stores when I left within the city limits that you could actually play in; I used to buy my stuff at the Hancock Gamers Paradise but that closed down even before I left. Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

warboss wrote: Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

In the snow, uphill both ways, I presume?

warboss wrote:

ancientsociety wrote:Very cool.

I live in the city so GP is a little far right now. I generally game at [url+http://blacksungameschicago.com/]Black Sun Games[/url], though I'm also close to Dice Dojo

Yeah, I've heard about them but haven't visited. Chicago has ZERO games stores when I left within the city limits that you could actually play in; I used to buy my stuff at the Hancock Gamers Paradise but that closed down even before I left. Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

Yeah, around 2009, after all the Gamer's Paradises closed, there was only Games Plus and the Bunker to play at, then BSG opened, then Gamer's Asylum (in Evanston, which closed last year), and finally Dice Dojo.

I was sad to see Gamer's Paradise go as, I worked as Asst. Manager for the Villa Park branch in high school, and it got me started in tabletop gaming. Unfortunately though, upper management made very bad decisions (switching inventory from primarily gaming products to tourist-y ) after ~2000 and their days were ever numbered.

If I ever had the venture capital for it, I'd open a nice, well-stocked games store here in the city with a wide selection of games and demo like mad.

ancientsociety wrote:Also, any idea how exact DP9 is with the 1:144 scale of the infantry/vehicles? I found a bunch of great Japanese model railroad scenery in 1:150 scale on Ebay...

The infantry generally look 'pretty close' with 1:150th to N-scale stuff.The bases add enough height that you don't think too much about door heights from what I've seen.

Balance wrote:

warboss wrote: Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

In the snow, uphill both ways, I presume?

In the snow both ways? Frequently. Uphill? No, lol. The only hill in the chicagoland area of any note is the old garbage dump in Northbrook that they built a subdivision and golf course on. (not kidding!)

It's been a while since my last update but I finally started up on the last two squads I have left and planned for the army. I decided to share the wealth and traded/sold off the non-gears in the force as frankly I didn't think I'd ever use them in a game. Most games tend to use around 3-4 squads in Heavy Gear as that is the sweet spot (any more and the game tends to bog down a bit and/or take too long) so my eventual nine squads of gears should be plenty (especially since I'll have at least one of every gear cadre type the SRA can actually take without relying on MILICIA or Talons). Secondly, I simply haven't gotten a local scene started and it's a bit of a bummer. The closest local store (about 25 miles away) only has one other customer with any minis and I tried for a few months to get together with him but no luck (he works nights and evenings are generally when I'm free). The other 40k players just thought the game was too different and preferred to just stick with the familiar 40k scene instead. At the next closest store with any HG players (65 miles), I got in contact with three people who own minis but never played but only one of them ever came to the demo and not much came of it when the other players didn't materialize.

So, in a nutshell, my Cobra Commander (pun intended), Paratrooper squad, and OpSec squads are the remaining pieces to my HG puzzle. I decided to start up again with the commander and the paratroopers assembly first. I decided to go with my original idea of a army commander in a Brahmin Razorfang Cobra with a medium Bazooka, vibro rapier, and ECM/ECCM upgrade. Since he'll be the one passing down most command points, the built in ECCM will help in making sure I can break through any interuption by opposing players. With all the "upgrades", he actually loses all but a single main weapon (the bazooka) but frankly that should be enough. With the satellite uplink, he may instead choose to regenerate a command point if there are no viable shots available during his activation. He'll be painted pretty much to match the existing army as already shown in this thread.



As for the Paratrooper squad, I decided to go with a Long Fang Mamba with linked MRPs as the CGL, two hunter paras with LGM upgrades, and two Commando Iguanas for a bit of extra punch. I modelled them with folded tarps on their buttplates (which you sadly can't see below) as part of their parachuting method of insertion. I've decided to try a two-tone spray camo paint scheme that is similar to Israeli Air Force patterns. If you look at the picture, you might notice the blue tac under the Mamba's foot as the minis aren't glued yet to the bases. I'll spray them from below with light grey and then use the normal sand camo the rest of the army uses from above. I'll wash the top with my usual Ogryn Flesh and the bottom with some thinned down blue wash. Hopefully my poor man's technique of just using the spray cans will give me a nice variation between the two colors although I expect the edges between the two colors to not be as defined as in the example pic below. Fingers crossed!

All finished with the Paratroop Cadre for my Heavy Gear Southern force. The two tone paint scheme came out ok but took a while with the overly complex method I used (see below) and probably would have looked the same if I had simply painted it with a brush. I basically primed the whole model grey and then washed the entire model with watered down blue wash. I then covered up the parts to remain blue grey with some blue tac (no pun intended) and sprayed the rest with my sand color and washed the uncovered parts with ogryn flesh (my previous scheme). I think it gives the model the general look that I was hoping for but yet again isn't anything particularly astounding... if I ever do something like that again, I'll simply paint it on! They've got the blue grey on the inside of their legs and the underside of the arms as well as on the rolled up parachute on their buttplate (basically anything that would be visible from below when they're parachuting in was the idea). Here's the Long Fang Black Mamba (who costs enough points to practically force the army commander to that squad when fielded!!), two Jaeger paratroopers upgraded with Light Guided Mortars (I don't think they'll use it too much but it looked cool on their backs and I was already going with looks over practicality with the squad commander), and two Iguana Commandos (the only point cost effective upgrade to the squad!).



Next up will be the OpSec stealth squad composed of two Snakeye Black Mambas and two Chameleons with medium sniper rifles. I wasn't sure about the paint scheme so I posted on the DP9 forums and got a very nice idea. Initially, I wasn't sure if I was going to use the traditional stealth scheme with them (black base with some metallic weapon colors and the occasional edge highlighting) or go with making them look as close to the sand I base with as possible (basically, just the sand spray color and watered down ogryn flesh wash to outline a few details). Feor suggested just taking the normal scheme I use and darkening it one large step (so the brown I currently use for the shoulders will be the base color with black as the shoulder/foot color.. along with some darkened metallics). The idea keeps my original scheme of earthtones but adds a definite stealth feel to it and I like it.

Well, my final squad of Southies is done and in my foam carrying case. My OpSec stealth gear squad of two Snakeye Black Mambas and two rifle toting sniper Chameleons painted up in a quasi-stealth scheme of the same brown as I use on my army's shoulders and feet. I'm not too happy with how the decals turned out (especially on the standing Mamba) after my attempt to darken the regimental symbol to match the stealth. I've since darkened that particular mamba's decal yet again but that doesn't fix the way the overcoat crumpled the design a bit. The flash on the camera does tend to exaggerate the issue a bit but its still visible with the naked eye regardless.



Now that I'm done with these guys, I've only got two gears left in the army to work on, both of which are Cobra chassis that I plan to use as my army commander when fielded. The first is an electronic warfare variant Razorfang Brahmin Cobra (whoo.. that's a mouthful!) and a King Cobra upgraded to carrying a Light Laser Cannon. Other than that, I've also started assembling some of my left over bits from various game systems to make a pair of bunkers with turret tops. More info on those with the next update in a few days as the glue is drying on those bunkers and the King Cobra...

Well, it only took me a couple of months but I've got another two figs done for the army. The theme for the army figure-wise was always that it would be a Cobra heavy force with the commander in a Cobra variant of some sort. Since I'm playing SRA, that actually is a bit harder than it sounds since the rules for where the army commander goes depends on which squad is the most expensive with a Black Mamba. In the end, I decided to use my last two planned minis for the army as my alternate commanders (or in really large games.. the commander and political officer). Both are equiped with vibrorapiers and have upgrades suitable for their ranks. The Brahmin Razorfang Support Cobra is probably the best choice mechanically as it has almost all of the armor and survivability of the King Cobra but also has much needed electronic warfare upgrades (as modelled with the dish on the back and satellite uplink on the left shoulder). The political officer (which grants a reroll once per turn to any unit nearby) will usually occupy the King Cobra as its more of a front line in your face type fig. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job of cleaning the model and only noticed the mold line on the chest after applying the wash.



This actually finishes up the army that I started over a year ago for the most part as I only have two figs left to paint (two Vipers). Unfortunately, the variant of the viper I'd like to use (the one with the snub cannon) isn't available in my army faction so I don't see myself putting together those figs at this time. If this changes with the next army book (fingers crossed), i'd gladly put them together and add them to my strike squads. On a whim, I also started working on my quick and easy support turrets for the army and might have some pics of those in the next couple of days/weeks/months (hey, gotta be realistic!) as well as a new army pic of the whole force.