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From the tone of that, I'm going to hazard a guess that I should google that in private browser mode on the cell and not on the work pc...

My closest opponent is now roughly 200 miles away and the furthest about 8,000+ miles (not sure where that guy is! Antarctic base station??).

Grindr is functionally identical to Rumbl - it's a matchmaker that helps guys get together to have a good time.

Let's keep this topic...on topic.

So, yes, less LULZ posts please.

Sorry.

BTW, painted FLAILS!

They look well painted.

Still ugly, though :p. I've never been a fan of those models.

Well, yeah. It's literally a walking box.

You can lump me in under that "not a fan of the overall design" group as well. I will say that (from the perspective of someone who has never seen the metals in person) they look very faithful to the old models. I think my least favorite part is the big cannon upgrade that looks JRPG ridiculously sized.



I've already broken open some of my blisters of Rafm stuff and am facing a quandry. Should I stay faithful to the old RPG material stats from whence these models came or make them WYSIWIG with the upcoming living rules? My first model is planned to be a Grizzly destroyer whose loadout and look has changed significantly according to the actually named new Gear Grinder web app that has apparently replaced gear garage. While the Hbzk stays the same, pretty much everything else has changed. The IRPs changed to MRPs (and were always missing from the art anyways!), the HGM somehow came back, the fragcannon reverted back to a DPG, and the spike gun up and disappeared. I have about as much chance at playing either ruleset at the moment. I'm considering a chaingun panda as the next variant but will have a similar issue there (as it apparently grew up and became a kodiak).

Those Flails are painted well, but it's a horrible model. Just so.... you know what it reminds me of? That Necron Sprue army.

 warboss wrote:
Should I stay faithful to the old RPG material stats from whence these models came or make them WYSIWIG with the upcoming living rules?

RAFM minis are incompatible with 1/144 Blitz scale minis, so you should just build your RAFM stuff to match the pre-Blitz RPG / Tactical-era specification. You can still play them under the new-new-new-new "Blitz" rules, while using the old specs. Building to the Living Rulebook makes no sense, as it could change at any minute.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Should I stay faithful to the old RPG material stats from whence these models came or make them WYSIWIG with the upcoming living rules?

RAFM minis are incompatible with 1/144 Blitz scale minis, so you should just build your RAFM stuff to match the pre-Blitz RPG / Tactical-era specification. You can still play them under the new-new-new-new "Blitz" rules, while using the old specs. Building to the Living Rulebook makes no sense, as it could change at any minute.

I decided to go with the modern specs/loadouts whenever possible. I figured I'd probably never sell these minis so I should try and "futureproof" them as much as possible in case I ever use them in a game. Ironically, they're entirely compatible with blitz scale minis in the new ruleset (although not the old Blitz rules). Since LOS and such is determined by the type and height profile, the larger size of the minis doesn't matter. The included metal bases (pics at my sig blog link or my P&M blog here) are actually not much bigger than the current plastics. Unfortunately, the larger models hang over the bases as much or even more though so I'll probably base them on 40-50mm round bases depending on the model... which is also 100% legal in the current rules. Ironically, they are compatible, lol!

I doubt anybody could have foreseen the change to the Spitting Cobra's back-mounted IF launcher, for example. I'm a little surprised you're committing to the new rules, though.

My stuff doesn't have the same issue, I believe. I just need to decide which CEF Frame loadouts I should use.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I doubt anybody could have foreseen the change to the Spitting Cobra's back-mounted IF launcher, for example. I'm a little surprised you're committing to the new rules, though.

My stuff doesn't have the same issue, I believe. I just need to decide which CEF Frame loadouts I should use.

In the end, no matter what rules I choose it's an exercise in futility without a regular opponent. It's hard enough to find anyone to play HG let alone play it with an OOP ruleset. What change for the cobra? It still has the HRP but they just call it something different iirc. It doesn't require any modelling change to stay WYSIWIG if that's your thing (and it usually is mine).

FWIW, I find that people are willing to play a first game with the HG models, just because everybody likes robot battles! Where HG falls down is the rules. Big time. I have never had so much trouble getting anyone to want to play a 2nd game of HG.

I don't know if you've seen GW's latest Battle for Vedros rules for 40k, but they have the core clocking in at 2 pages to Move, Shoot, Charge & Fight. With a 1-page Army list where each unit is effectively a playing card of rules. It's awesome. If GW can boil down 40k to 3 picture-filled pages, including both SM and Ork forces lists, then there is no reason HG couldn't radically simplify along similar lines. Heck, I basically did that with KOG Light, which is at least 2x as detailed as BfV.

Anyhow, yeah, the Cobra HRP / LAR change is a name / stats change for the existing model.

And yeah, me working on my HG stuff is mostly because I want my regular opponent to want to play with the robots, too!

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
FWIW, I find that people are willing to play a first game with the HG models, just because everybody likes robot battles! Where HG falls down is the rules. Big time. I have never had so much trouble getting anyone to want to play a 2nd game of HG.

In my experience, the real problem came when they saw the prices. Rules wise it was 50-50, but then again a lot of people I play with like involved systems.

The current prices on eBay and Amazon are reasonable - at half off MSRP, that is!

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
The current prices on eBay and Amazon are reasonable - at half off MSRP, that is!

Mostly yes, if you live on your side of the pond. Over here, not so much . Shipping and customs charges kill any possible discount and then some.

Hopefully the new plastics will help address the price issue.

 Albertorius wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
The current prices on eBay and Amazon are reasonable - at half off MSRP, that is!

Mostly yes, if you live on your side of the pond. Over here, not so much . Shipping and customs charges kill any possible discount and then some.

Are there any local options? Was it any better when Wayland stocked them?

Nomeny wrote:
Hopefully the new plastics will help address the price issue.

How much you want to bet the plastics will cost just as much as the white metal versions?

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
The current prices on eBay and Amazon are reasonable - at half off MSRP, that is!

Mostly yes, if you live on your side of the pond. Over here, not so much . Shipping and customs charges kill any possible discount and then some.

Are there any local options? Was it any better when Wayland stocked them?

AFAIK, every store that carried it this side of the pond has stopped doing so. Having scores of outdated books a year after their printing had something to do with it, I suppose.

Back when Wayland carried the line it got quite a bit better (or at least, much more predictable) for a while, and when the stores dropped the line it got a lot better until they ran out of stocks


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tamwulf wrote:

Nomeny wrote:
Hopefully the new plastics will help address the price issue.

How much you want to bet the plastics will cost just as much as the white metal versions?

Well, it would be the perfect momento to "adjust" prices: plastics at the current metal prices, metals at +50%

 Tamwulf wrote:

Nomeny wrote:
Hopefully the new plastics will help address the price issue.

How much you want to bet the plastics will cost just as much as the white metal versions?

I'd say it's about 50/50 on whether they'll do the smart thing and address one of the biggest issues folks have had with the game. Their costs (both immediate as well as labor) are likely much lower (especially after KS funded the initial costs) so hopefully they'll pass it on. They've shown that they're willing to change (and the price was good during the KS for the models you get) but it's hard for such an old dog to learn so many new tricks after 20 years. *fingers crossed*

 Tamwulf wrote:

Nomeny wrote:
Hopefully the new plastics will help address the price issue.

How much you want to bet the plastics will cost just as much as the white metal versions?

Oh, that's practically a given.

The question is when the plastics will cost *more* than the metal versions.

So they've decided to go with the full airbrush. Which I guess makes sense to just have SOMETHING to show, but it does highlight the fact that they're rebuilding. A "studio" paintjob needs to be better than that.

I think it looks really good.

Airbrush and edge highlighting. Better paint technique than the old stuff. And would look even better with washes / dip.

I know I'm no master painter, but they look pretty good to me!

Oh, don't get me wrong, they do look good. They've got something quick that completely does the job it needs to, and that's essentially all the plastics are, too. But from here, the studio paintjobs DO need to move forward, just like everything else.

But it is certainly a good step.

Frankly, the molds don't stack up wonderfully against what's out there right now. Very good for Heavy Hear's purposes! But not impressive in the modern industry. Where they can and need to shine, then, is with paint. We'll undoubtedly see that once players get their hands on them, it just would be nice to see the studio work really, really "sell" these models.

For what they are, I don't think there's anything else like them on the market at the moment. Speaking of, the news is that the molds have arrived at the manufacturer and will go into production later this week. And...Painted Northern Army!

Looks good. It also appears the painter is indeed (at least in this case) Minimaniak/Phil Leclerc/Xactoboy.

I have to say, Phil has greatly improved since the last minis I saw him paint.