New Gears and Paint

  
  

So it's that time of the month when... no not that time of the month, no nor that time of the month... wait... just... let me finish!!! No, it's that time of the month when we get to see new Heavy Gear stuff. In case you've been living under a rock or just not reading my Blog (if not why not) you'll have noticed I have a bit of a crush on giant... erm... miniature robots. No that doesn't sound right to me either, but hey it's the phraseology the English language has lumbered me with! So what delights have Dream Pod 9 dropped on us this month? Well we've got some reboots of old sculpts if you will, namely the Tiger and Sidewinders. These basically optional upgrades to Gears like the Jaguars and Hunters if I'm reading it right. It seems the original geriatric sculpts have been given some hip replacement surgery and given ball and socket joints to allow for more dynamic poses, which is nice. No one wants to see Gears shuffling around the board using a Zimmer Frame do they? I will say though that actually they look quite nice, whether they're old sculpts or not! Here have a look yourself:

This is a Sidewinder. As you can see the hip replacement surgery went well, look at that mobility!

Another Sidewinder taking it easy this time. You know, just shooting the breeze... or your FACE!!!

This is a command Sidewinder. You can tell because his helmet is red... that doesn't sound... right.

This is apparently a Tiger. Except it has no orange fur with black stripes. The cats aren't impressed.

They were even less impressed after I told them they weren't those sorts of Tiger.

I thought it best not to show them the Sabertooth! But look how dynamic he is with his new hips!

I myself am collecting NuCaol forces, and that means that these bad boys aren't for me. That's a shame because quite frankly if I could I'd like to own every Gear DP9 make. Alas money and a distinct lack of time to paint them all has put the breaks on that particular desire. If your a P.AK. player though you're laughing as all of your robots are belong to us!!! Southern players can take the Sidewinders, while Northern players get to take the Tigers. Now I've been reading up and dipping my toe into Gear Garage and I have to say from this n00bs perspective I think the Tiger represents a good upgrade option for the Hunter in a number of cases. The Sidewinder I'm not as sold on as a Southern player but I can see them in P.A.K. forces, but hey I wouldn't listen to my advice just yet because honestly it's all new to me! Don't worry I'll get to a point sometime soon where I'll be dispensing my own dubious pearls of wisdom on the system and its options.

It even comes in a specifically designed hard plastic case! Yeah OK so I'd make a crap salesman.

But wait, that's not all DP9 have to offer us this month! Oh no, like Games Workshop they've released some new paints. Unlike Games Workshop they're not trying to claim they've had top scientists locked away in a broom cupboard with a calculator and a Bunsen Burner perfecting an acrylic mix. No they've taken the eminently sensible solution of going to a company who have a track record of making very decent paints, in this case Reaper, and asking 'would you mind doing a paint range for us?' Turns out Reaper were delighted to oblige. Now I'm going to have to admit to being slightly envious of those who live across the pond. I'm a bit of a paint magpie and I'm forever buying paints from different ranges, but Reaper paints have eluded me thus far. That annoys me because I know a good number of talented painters in the States who swear by the Reaper Master Series Paint (MSP) range.

Here you can see the delightful range of colours you get.

Perhaps if I ask really nicely DP9 or Reaper will send me some to review... wait... my spider sense is tingling... it's telling me somewhere in Canada a man called John is... oh... flipping me the bird! The RRP is $119.99USD or in real money £75. It'll contain 36 colours, 8 of which are from the High Density Range, which are kind of like Vallejo's Extra Opaque range, or the Foundation paints in the Citadel range. So it works out to roughly £2 a pot of paint, which isn't too bad. I also have to say that they get the thumbs up from me for using the dropper style pots. Flip top caps are so last year darling and screw on caps are just bloody irritating, are you listening Tamiya? The good thing though if you're a HGB nut and aficionados is that these colours are specifically designed for use within the Heavy Gear universe. Hardly a surprise I guess given they're the official paint range, but nevertheless I guess it's cool to be able to use the exact same colours as the studio paint jobs.

Dropper bottles are FTW. While screw tops are WTF!!! I'm looking at you Tamiya.

On a serious note I can pretty much give my fellow hobbyists advice on pretty much any paint range out there. I've used the latest Warpaints from Army Painter, I've used Coat D' Arms recently and I've seen how good the Foundry Paints are. I'm a fully signed up fan of all Vallejo paints and I love what's actually inside the Tamiya pots... if not the pots themselves. I've even got the full P3 range, which I also really like. But, on Reaper paints I'm totally in the dark. So if any of my Canadian and America friends have any experience with Reaper paints I'd be very grateful if you could just take the time to jot your thoughts down on the range in the comments section below. However, that's it for now on DP9's releases this month, so I'm off to sulk about the fact I still have no laser cut Hex bases or bloody magnets to put my own Gears together. I might even stomp about the house pouting while saying it's not fair like a toddler. Peace out!