Heavy Gear Confederated Northern City-States

2025-05-23 heavy gear / hgb-north / showcase / 10mm-SF /

150TV if you add some upgrades.

I rolled my Golden Gear 2024 prize money into a classic metal Northern force. Hunters, Jaguars, Grizzlies, and a cheetah. I wanted them to contrast sharply with my Southern force in plain green, and because I needed an OpFor slightly less asymmetrical than Talons or CEF for future con scenarios.

Camo Process Notes

I really intended to use a limited palette, but it got away from me again.

First attempt did not work at all. My colors were too similar in value, if you gray scale the image you lose almost all the camo pattern. The grey was also too close to the silver, it confused the pattern and the detail.

stupid stray cat hair

I tested out a bunch of different mixes on the model knowing he'd get stripped down and batched once I had something I was happy with. About the 4th mix finally was reading how I wanted it to. I still have no facility for producing a model concept-to-perfect-execution. I go in with a palette and idea and improvise until I'm happy with it, paint-to-find-out if you will.

not pictured are attempts at stenciling digi-camo that failed miserably

Ochre base, brown spots, black spots, khaki spots. If not for the lack of shading, I was actually pretty happy with the unwashed models.

wish I'd had a decent shot of one individual at this stage

The washing warmed the model up, bringing the base yellow up to something that evoked the construction equipment feel I wanted then Northerners to have. I kinda over drybrushed this first guy.

Snapped before the base rim was even dry, as evidenced by that finger print. I did fix it.

Then I went and made a bunch of them look like ass in photos when my varnish fogged up.

Hunters

"Front line infantry!" Still a little conflicted on the worn metal look of the engine exhaust Needed some of the North's iconic snub cannons This guy fogged the worst of them all, but you can't really tell at a table without picking him up, so eh?

Jaguars

First pics were ass, had to go back outside later but it was overcast The drape of that cable looks casual, but was quite fiddly Again a reshoot. Note the power pack below the engine Does this count as cross-body shooting? Better look at the SatUp and stance

Cheetah (Whitecat)

I almost did a full recon group of them, but ultimately decided to expand in the future with some Ferrets and Weasels, so just the one.

I wanted one cheetah as FS EW support to complete the classic model roster

Grizzlies

Love the body language I got out of this guy. You can barely see on the missle packs where I was trying to free hand some white checker or cross lines but I never found something I was happy with in both execution and desgin, so just painted them back red.

Ready to rock I slightly modified the guided mortar, moved the attachment point up and out to expose more of the engine

Style over utility, I just liked the elements of the Defender variant, plus an AA fire support gear suits a future overall purpose to this platoon I have in mind.

I wanted to split the difference between Tank Girl and a samurai, so big ass gun and smaller side arm akimbo Read below for the AA missile mod Points to anyone that can place the unit insignia decals at this point.

Defender Grizzly Mod

I dislike how the stock AA missile pack attaches. It rests over the engine with small contact points making a lever that will inevitably break the joint. So I broke out the dremel and cut it in half, splitting it into two tubes and attaching them further apart.

gaps gulf lever solution

Other Model Features

macro lens is sometimes wonderfully useful

The hunters have actual APGLs modeled on them, in quite a bit of detail compared to the Southern 'stack of tubes' look. Spiffy.

seriously, look at his legs above

The Spearhead Hunter in theory is just a Hunter with a SatUp, upgraded head optics, and a gun it can barely carry. The model is actually a competely different master though, not an upgrade sprue. It's a couple mm wider overall, notably the legs are much thicker, the corners sharper, and the handhold details less pronounced.

cables trump magazine batteries

I wanted to give the energy weapons, the light laser cannons of the Flash Jaguars, a cable running back to their engines, but then I also added a capacitor bank out of repurposed Crossbow Grizzly MATM pylons. The cable is this perfectly equally stiff and bendable copper coated wire my daughter uses for beading, I ordered her a new roll and borrowed a couple feet of it for the toolbox.