Heavy Gear Blitz - PRDF Strike Squad painted

As I promised earlier on in the week, I have almost completed my PRDF Strike Squad gears for Heavy Gear Blitz. I still have to clean up the bases as well as mark the front arc like I did with my Cataphract, but that shouldn't take to long.

 As I said before, I tried a different approach to painting this unit, something I simply had not done in the past. I went through and painted each layer of each mini at the same time. I could see both pros and cons to this. The main con for me though is that I found myself missing some pretty obvious parts on the base paint job. I had everything from knee plates to the forearm plating all completely lacking in paint that I eventually found out at a step later on.

I will admit though, it did really help me see the unit come together as a single group rather then piece meal as I am used to. That right there helped me out a lot to want to finish getting everything done. I am rather happy how the force is coming along thus far, as it has a very dark color scheme to it, while still being obviously that it is following the base scheme for PRDF that DP9 uses.

 The 'eyes' aren't as vibrant as I would like, but still noticeable, and once everything is placed on the tabletop, no one will be paying attention to that anyhow. The Strike Squad's group leader actually came out looking excellent with his pose, I am really happy as I was questioning that when I first assembled him.

The bases really came out looking decent enough, but a part of me just feels as though it still isn't as good looking as that Cataphract base came out. I think that is simply because I had so much room on the Catarphract base to work with, was easier to make the base look decent. You can tell each mini of the Strike Squad has a slightly variation to the amount of ballast and flocking I used. Overall I am happy with the results, but think I could do better next time.

The rocket pods just proved to be so much more of an annoyance then I was expecting, you can see multiple areas where the pods paint spread to didn't cover everything. They all look good from a distance granted, so I'm not going to strip the minis over it, but like the bases, I think I could have done better. Really doesn't help that my detail brush isn't holding a shape at all right now. I am trying to fix that, but it doesn't work, then I need to get a new brush that won't have bristles in every direction.

I tried to keep constant with the highlighting, keeping only the heavy highlighting being from whatever angle the light source was coming from. These highlights though also came out a bit thicker then I was hoping, but again I blame that detail brush I was trying to use. Either way I got the job done and in the end, that is all that matters.

Overall I will say I am happy with the results of this squad. They turned out to be following the looks of the Cataphract and Coyote really well. Next I will probably knock out my twelve bases of infantry, as those should be pretty fast (I don't plan on putting to much effort into the 12mm tall minis). As usual, I'll try to keep posting units as I finish them, and eventually I show off the full force once they are completed.

The last unit, and the one that will most likely take the longest to paint is going to be my Fire Support Squad, as I have more then the default number of minis for that unit. I have the Chieftain IV, 3x Warriors, 3x Crusader IVs all with various load outs and upgrades. I'll probably paint the Chieftan IV on it's own since its color scheme will match the Strike Squad scheme you see here. The other minis will need to be painted as packs, assuming I use the same method I used while painting this Strike Squad.

Overall, the force is coming along nicely, and once everything is said and done I am having an amazing time painting these minis and playing the game. Thus far I can't complain about my PRDF at all, as they haven't let me down on the field yet, easy to paint, and look excellent once everything is said and done. If you are going to do something, do it in style, am I right?

I do have another blog post about something else I bought to go along with Heavy Gear, something completely unnecessary, but should look good along with the minis and Blitz Dice from DP9. That will be in a separate blog post though.