Heavy Gear: Black Talon Taskforce Finished

2023-03-29 Heavy Gear / HGB Black Talons / Showcase / 10mm-SF /

I finally finished my Black Talon force for Heavy Gear Blitz. 13 models being more than enough for the most elite army in the game. A nice contrast to my sprawling Southern horde, featuring all the Claw series of gears.

I wanted to do a classic black, but I also didn't want them literally black, so I started with a kinda darkish grey and highlighted up and then shaded the whole thing down with a wash. They were looking a little simple through, so I added a high contrast fluorescent looking couple parts in orange. My head canon is that they're narrow spectrum optical IFF flags. A passive IFF system to keep them invisible unless you're looking in a very specific range band.

Eagle Strike Gears

A pair of Beta loadouts with the combo heavy autocannon and underslung grenade launchers. They usually serve as Ace Gunner duelists in my forces, and are the building block of any list. Just great all around combat generalists.

Raven Recon Gears

I've got four of these despite the one pic below, two Alpha loadout with medium rifles and two Chi loadout with light grenade launchers. Not that any of them are likely to make much use of their weapons. They're espionage specialists, as strong as any other electronic warfare unit in the game with extended sensors and stealth in their favor. They pair well with combat gears, providing an ECM defense bubble, target designator for guided attacks, or jamming/haywire attacks to cripple targets before a direct attack.

Owl Command Gears (Customized)

These are not stock Owls. I disliked the head and arms of the standard owl model because they don't fit the aesthetic of the rest of the Claw series of gears at all. So I flipped through all the other gears n the game and decided the Peace River Harrier was what I wanted and those arms and head and voila, love it. I also took the tiny missile pack because it was fairly unique looking. I modeled both a Beta and Gamma loadout with both kinds of combo autocannon. I can't see myself ever field one of them at a time though, at least not at any standard scale battles.

Raptor Fire Support Gears

Delta (rotary cannon) and Zeta (particle cannon) loadouts. Nice big chunky gears.

The Delta I made a mistake when modeling. I measured the height of the blade it's holding to make sure it would fit in the compartment of my case with the other BT units, but I forgot to account for the base. I closed the lid and the whole thing snapped off at the waist. Luckily, I don't think you can see any of the teensy bit of damage to the paint job, and there's still a few more spots in the bottom of the toolbox in the overflow compartment.

The Zeta meanwhile carries one of my favorite guns in the game, and I love the pose I got out of it.

Vulture Fire Support Gears

These are the models that convinced me to make a Talon force. I love the sculpt. My favorite gear in the game (favorite model is the Naga).

The Lambda loadout with the two handed field gun and mortar is an area affect monster.

The favorite of favorites right here. The Omega + Theta loadout with light railgun and guided anti-tank missile rack, and of course big buster looking sword. It's subtle, but there's just enough contrapposto in the legs that it's possible to carry through the rest of the model to get that 'first moment of action' look I most highly prize in a model. The railgun is also a cool unique element with a triangular shape that's just very cool.

Dark Hyena Light Strider Tank

Nu variant, with rotary lasers and magnetized rotating turret, naturally. I was tempted to do the same with the front rotary gun but decided it wasn't really worth it. Getting it to stand up stable was a little tricky as the front and back legs are slightly different shapes. I wanted to get an elevated look, like a Tachikoma. A surprising number of edges on it, I think it took me longer than any other Talon model at double the time.

Painting Notes

Putting these here for my future self

Reaper Storm Grey base coat
AP Uniform Grey for the cloth joints
vallejo Mecha Ligth Steel for the jets and engine and weapon barrels
AP Ash Grey hard edge highlights
Homemade black ink wash over it all at this point
Vallejo Mecha Orange for skirt and arm optical IFF bars
AP Voidshade blue for lenses with white gradient
Plain matte black in the engine vents, jetpack intake, and on the wheelies
Mig Crystal Glass gloss varnish over the lenses

Basing is Citadel Armageddon dunes wiht AP Desert Yellow heavy drybrushed on top
with Shadow's Edge 2mm blackened static grass tufts for scrub brush

Coming Soon: Colonial Expedition Force, GREL Tank Formation