Heavy Gear UMFA #14

Eyes and Ears!

As promised, here is the eyes and ears of my strike force, my Recon Squad! The squad is composed of a Jaguar, two Bobcats, and two Weasels. They all have had their autocannons replaced with rifles, which I think looks bad ass! 

First we have the Thunder Jaguar, which also happens to be my Army Commander. This guy is sporting a Heavy Rifle, Light Rocket Pod and Vibro blade. He has very high defense skill, and will prove very difficult for my opponents to destroy.

The second part of the squad is a pair of Bobcats. These guys will be primarily providing target designator support for the gears armed with guided weapons. Bring down the rain I say! They will also provide secondary ECM support for my team. Unfortunately, only being armed with a light rifle and light rocket pod they will be plinking away at weak targets at best.

The last, and possibly the most important part of the Recon Squad is these two Weasels. These guys provide rock solid ECM and ECCM support. I should be able to stop alot of important enemy activity down with these guys. Even if I don't use them to block enemy communication, I can use the sat uplink to replace my own command points.  Being armed with only a medium rifle leaves much to be desired in the damage category, but I highly doubt this electronic master machine will do much shooting!

As you can see, I have a nice balanced Recon Squad which will help me shut down, and destroy my opponents!

Heavy Gear UMFA #13

Firesupport Completed!

I can't believe the speed of progress! Bases are complete, details painted and these guys are ready for the table! I really like the Grizzly model alot. Between the Heavy Autocannon and the rocket pods they look very deadly! The Headhunter crouched over is one of my favorite posses in the whole squad. Tonight I start on the Recon Squad, and hope that painting them goes as smooth as these guys!

Heavy Gear UMFA #12

Time Crunch!

Did I mention the time crunch? Well I should mention that the upcoming Heavy Gear tournament is on February 19th, 2012. Did I also mention that I still have a Fire Support Squad to finish and start my Recon Squad? Thank the stars that I finally got int he mail my blister of two weasel ECM Gears so I can assemble them. I almost forgot that I also need to paint up a 1500 point Late War StuG army for the tournament the day before on the 18th. Gah!

Well, working under pressure has sure produced some results as all I have to do to finish this squad is a few minor details like the bases!

Heavy Gear UMFA #11

Washes, Drybrushing and Weapons

Minor update. The Fire Supper Squad has been washed with sepia, drybrushed with light tan, and the weapons have been painted!  Boy these Grizzlies are turning out to be sweet gears!

Heavy Gear UMFA #10

Heavy Hitters!

Here is the start of my Fire Support Squad. It is currently setup to have three Grizzlies, three Hunters. I themed the Fire Support Squad to have really good mid range firepower, and decent long range firepower. For my offence, this unit should be dealing out the big damage.

First we have the three Grizzlies. Two of them are armed as normal with heavy guided mortar, heavy autocannon and medium rocket pods. The last one is the crossbow variant. It is armed with four anti-tank missiles and a heavy autocannon. I am debating giving the ATM armed gear a medium bazooka. Time will tell.

The second part of the squad is the Hunters. The leader is a Headhunter armed as default with light autocannon and light rocket pod. The other two Hunters drop the autocannon, and replace it with medium bazookas. This config should really dish out the pain when needed!

So the squad should look like this:

Headhunter - LAC, LRP
Hunter - MBKZ, LRP 
Hunter - MBKZ, LRP 
Grizzly - HAC, MRP, MGM
Grizzly - HAC, MRP, MGM 
Grizzly - HAC, ATM

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the gears basecoated, as I forgot to take pictures. Suffice to say they were airbrushed middle stone, the same color as the GP Squad.

The camo design I am trying out with these Gears is something I have never done before. The colors used are Middlestone, German Green, and Red brown which are the same colors I used for the GP Squad. With the GP squad, I did a sort of blotch pattern, similar to late 1943 German Panzer tanks. To make things different, I took a brush and flicked and brown and green paint onto the surface. This gave is a sort of late 1944 German Ambush scheme so it matches the other squads.  

Unfortunately the pictures don't do justice on how nice this design actually looks on the Gears!

Heavy Gear UMFA #9

GP Squad complete!

Yeah, you heard me right! Check out these bad boys. I know some of the finer things have not been painted yet, but I will be taking them to the upcoming tournament as is. Don't forget I still have to paint two more squads and a Flames of War army!

Heavy Gear UMFA #8

The Red and Black

Firebreak wrote:

I want to throw my vote for red/black hazard stripe, because it will stand out more and be something a little different from what you usually see. That being said, yellow/black stripes will probably look pretty good on your paint scheme.

You could paint the sensor eye red to see if you like red with the overall paint scheme.

~Firebreak

So I took his first advice, and used Red and Black. I used grey black and dark red for the strips. I turned out pretty decent. I honestly don't know if yellow would of been better. I may still go back over the stripes with a brighter red, and a darker black to make them stand out more. I don't know yet.

I also layered the rockets with a few shades of grey and white, since I'm a big fan of light colored rockets.

So, how do you guys think it turn out?

Zvezda Panzer IV D Review

Panzerkampfwagen IV Sd Kfz 161 Ausf. D

Also known as the Panzer IV. This was a medium German tank that was produced through the entire war. It originally mounted the 7mm KwK 37 L/24 cannon, and later in the war it was upgraded to the long barrel 75mm  KwK 40 L/43 and L/48. It was well armored and had a decent speed for its time. 

The model I am reviewing today is the Panzer IVD from Zvezda. It is in the same scale as Battlefront miniatures and comes from the Art of Tactic product line. The detail on the model is unfortunately lacking. No stowage or commander option is included. The vehicles main selling point is the $5 of less value and its ease to assemble. There was very little mold lines to clean up, and the vehicle went together well. I ended up using stowage from Battlefront, a tank commander from Battlefront and additional stowage from PSC. 

In the end, I do not recommend purchasing this vehicle as Plastic Soldier offers a much higher detailed kit with more options for the same price.

Heavy Gear UMFA #7

Drybrushing and Heavy Metal!

After the Sepia wash dried and harden, I did a light dry brushing of Dark Yellow to the Gears. This really did help the camo blend together. I also painted the weapons with Tamiya Gunmetal. Tomorrow will bring painting of more details like the rocket packs, weapon detail, power packs and bases.

Should I paint the edge of the Rocket Pods:
Yellow and black warning stripes
Red and black warning stripes
Paint them silver, no stripes

I mean, the classic was is yellow and back hazard stripes, with ends of the rockets being red. What about alternate rocket colors?

Ideas? Jordan? Followers? DP9 Forum users? Please post your ideas!!!

... Mitch

Zvezda Panzer III G Review

Panzerkampfwagen III Sd Kfz. 141 Ausf. G

Otherwise known as Panzer IIIG. It is a German Medium tank built from 1938 to 1943. It was armed decently and had reasonably thick armor. In battle, it proved superior due to German tactics!


The models I have built today are five Panzer III tanks made by the Russian company Zvezda. The vehicles are lower detail models designed to be playing pieces for the board game Art of Tactic. The kit has few pieces and is very easy to assemble. Detail is lacking, but at a $5 cost and some stowage from Battlefront and PSC they will look the part! I replaced the barrel with a brass version as well. They will work good for my late 1940 German Panzer force!


Unfortunately some time has passed since I purchased these kits. Since then Plastic Soldier has released their own version in plastic which has much higher detail, more options and included stowage for a similar price. Due to this, I do not recommend this kit at all, unless it can be found for under $4. Even at that price point, the alternative PSC version hold a much better value.

... Mitch

Heavy Gear UMFA #7

Dirty Half Dozen

I used some Vallejo Sepia Wash and applied a liberal layer to to the GP Squad Gears. I'm going to do a drybrush tomorrow of middle stone to lighten up the scheme. There isn't much else to say since this is a very minor update! Onto the pictures:

Heavy Gear UMFA #6

Three Tone Camouflage

I applied the camo on the GP Squad, and I do like how it turned out! I used Vallejo Middlestone as the base, Vallejo German Green for the first accent and Tamiya Red Brown for the second accent. I am partially doing this as practice for my Flames of War army. This weekend I will be detailing the small thing like weapons, power core and bits. The first picture is how the figures looked last night with just green stripes and the rest show the Red Brown stripes.

Heavy Gear UMFA #5

General Purpose Squad

(This post should of been UMFA #3)

My GP squad is the second group of figures I am working on and boy do I like how Hunter 'Gears look with Frag Cannons. All this wouldn't of been possible without the help of flintlocklaser from the official DP9 forums. 

The first thing I decided with this army is how does it mesh with other components of the force. Considering I have a really great Fire Support squad featuring three long range equipped Grizzly's I a decided to do a close range blocking style force. The group is a Sabretooth, Tiger and four Hunter's with Fragcannons. This combat group should excel at dealing with close threat to my Fire support and Infantry threats. Nothing says more then a Shotgun with an AOE! Incase tanks come close? Heavy hand grenades should do the trick!

Here are some WIP shots of the squad so far

... Mitch

Plastic Soldier Sd.Kfz. 251c Review

Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251

The Sd.Kfz. 251, also known as the Hanomag is one of the most well known armored fighting vehicles from WW2. It was used in all fronts, and over 15,000 were built. The mostly carried Germany's elite soldiers known as panzergrenadiers. It is generally armed with two 7.92mm machine guns and has good protection against small arms fire. It has an engine that allows it to travel over 30mph and weighs almost 8 tons!

Now that is exactly why I plan on using 15 of them for my mechanized force!

I originally purchased the Zvedza version of these wonderful halftracks, but the detail was disappointing! I sold them online for a good deal and purchased these from a local hobby store. The ones I bought are the C version which is appropriate from 1940 to 1945. Production did cease in 1943, but units were still equipped until the end of the war. I built 13 with the standard features and made 2 up gunned versions for my platoon commanders! 

The kit itself was amazing and all parts fit together as they should. You do get a gunner, and 6 passengers per vehicle. The stowage included is a spare tire, two fuel cans, various personal kit including bedrolls. All a very good value for about $5 each! The only downside to the kit is the MG34 included is very flimsy since it is cast in proper scale. Because of that, I did replace most of the machine guns with ones from different kits or metal ones.

Anyone building a German force should really consider purchasing these wonderful vehicles. The value on them in amazing. For $100 you could purchase 15 halftracks and 130 infantry from Plastic Solider. In Flames of War that gives you your HQ, and 3 platoons of infantry! Add in a pack of 5 Panzer IV tanks and you have a near complete army.

Heavy Gear UMFA #4

Middlestone!

Just a small previous of the paint scheme I am working on for my GP Squad. I am trying out a new paint line that I have not used before. The paint used is Vallejo Model Air Middlestone. I plan on making a hard edge camo using German Green and Hull Red. I am a relative noob when it comes to the use of Humbrol masking fluid so it shall be a learning experience.

... Mitch

Heavy Gear UMFA #3

Fire Support!

Fire Support Squad is assembled and awaiting primer!

I choose to do the squad as follows:

Headhunter - LAC, LRP
Hunter - MBKZ, LRP 
Hunter - MBKZ, LRP 
Grizzly - HAC, MRP, MGM
Grizzly - HAC, MRP, MGM
Grizzly - HAC, ATM

This mix should give a really nice mid-range punch and decent long range standoff. Every thing is assembled and awaiting primer. Any other ideas?

Heavy Gear UMFA #2

Update #2

I've entered the Heavy Gear tournament that will be happening  on February 19 at the next Game Summit. I plan on taking 1000 points of UMFA. I like the idea of the faction, and how the UMFA fight.

The list will be something like this:

Veteran GP Squad

Headhunter - Light Autocannon

Tiger - Medium Autocannon

Tiger - Medium Autocannon

Hunter - Frag Cannon

Hunter - Frag Cannon

Veteran Fire Support Squad

Jaguar - Medium Autocannon

Hunter - Medium Bazooka

Grizzly - Heavy Autocannon

Grizzly - Heavy Autocannon

Grizzly - Heavy Autocannon

Veteran Recon Squad

Jaguar - Heavy Rifle

Bobcat - Light Rifle

Bobcat - Light Rifle

Weasel - Medium Rifle

Weasel - Medium Rifle

Army Commander will be Jaguar in Recon Squad, and I'll have some +1 skills mixed into the mix. The model count I have is:

9 Hunter

5 Jaguar

3 Grizzly

2 Bobcat

2 Kodiak

Heavy Gear UMFA #1

Building of an Army

Here is the box sets I will be working with in the next few weeks. I will have some WIP posts of how the army is coming along. If anyone has list ideas, feel free to submit them!

Plastic Soldier M4A2

American Sherman M4A2

Here is my brother-in laws Sherman tanks we have been working are. They are made by Plastic Soldier Company, and are the M4A2 version with welded hull. We used Tamiya Fine Surface grey primer and Tamiya Olive Drag as the basecoat.