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Tuesday, 3 February 2015

CASE-2X Updates



Here are the finished Heavy Gear models that I've converted to represent the combat armour suits in my novel Bad Dog.   The above shows my February submission to the ongoing TooFat Lardies Vis Lardica 2015 painting challenge.  What I have here are two sets of jump off point markers, three stone heads from Dream Pod 9 for a mission objective marker, and two much modified Heavy Gear models.

Here are close-up pictures of my finished Heavy Gear models that I've converted to represent the combat armour suits in my novel Bad Dog, which are used as recon units, or for Special Forces operations where getting conventional vehicles into the Area of Operations would be difficult.


This is the standard Marine Corps CASE-2X: Combat Armour System Environment Dash (Mark) 2 Extreme.

This miniature shows the CASE suit in its stripped down configuration, to maximize speed.  Therefore it carries a basic load-out consisting of a M41-AC2 20 mm auto-cannon with a Mk 30 40x53 mm under barrel grenade launcher, and on the left arm it has an inbuilt snub nosed Beowulf 50 cal anti-personnel weapon.

The second picture shows the CASE-2XC (Command variant) that officers ride in to control their command.  Again the CASE suit carries the basic load-out, but has a one-shot anti-armour missile pack on the right shoulder.  Added to give the commander some defensive capability against vehicles, rather than an indicator of putting her in the front-line as such (think TOWs on Bradley recon IFVs).

I have also received another packet from Dream Pod 9 with more Jagers, a Kodiak and for some reason two Diamondbacks (I must have had a reason for doing so, I just forget what it was).  So my plan now is to start fiddling with the Kodiak and Diamondbacks to make up the next Bad Dog universe combat armour suits.


Finally, I also thought that the stone heads turned out really well too.  So here's a close-up.


  
NB: Edited pictures as feedback suggested the pictures were rather dull and didn't show my painting off at its best.


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16 comments:

  1. Paul O'G3 February 2015 at 14:41

    Very nice!

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  2. RogerBW3 February 2015 at 15:16

    I definitely prefer the new guns. The painting helps too, of course.

    Jump off points, eh? Why, anyone might think… :-)

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    1.  Ashley3 February 2015 at 16:58

      What might they think? :-)

      Seriously, it's an idea that is well worth stealing and applying to similar games. Just saying.

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  3. Phil3 February 2015 at 16:24

    Love the stone heads, excellent!

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    1.  Ashley3 February 2015 at 17:00

      Yeah, they came out unexpectedly much better than I thought they would. At one point in the painting process they were looking less than good, but I just kept persevering with a combination of washes and drybrushing until they looked like this. I think repeating the finish is going to be a bit tricky to do.

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  4. Stroezie3 February 2015 at 21:34

    Wow, those really turned out great!
    What rules are you planning on using them with?

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    1.  Ashley4 February 2015 at 08:29

      Well I'm thinking about the new edition of Heavy Gear, using them as a base anyway and adding a lot of house rules to steal things like jump off points and command dice from TooFat Lardies Chain of Command rules, which are excellent BTW.

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  5. Vulture4 February 2015 at 08:30

    They look very cool ! Great painting :)

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    1.  Ashley4 February 2015 at 09:11

      Cool is always good. Thank you. They're a variant of the scheme I did before, but simplified by making the pattern larger.

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  6. SITZKRIEG!5 February 2015 at 17:06

    What are the jump off point markers for? Is that a Blitz beta rule that I haven't seen or something for OGRE? In any case, they look nice. I'm curious to see what you do with the Kodiaks. While not the best thought out sculpts (the rockets are IIRC moulded onto the shoulder and the arms are in alot of pieces), the overall look of the design when built is pretty darn cool. Will you be keeping the large bazooka on the model/in the fluff for the dogs?

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    1.  Ashley5 February 2015 at 18:16

      Nothing to do with Blitz, it refers to rules in the latest TooFat Lardies game: Chain of Command (the best WW2 platoon level wargame rules on the market). Each game starts with a patrol phase and as a result of this mini set-up manouevring the players place down on the table jump off markers, which you can think of as entry points from the table edge that rather than being defined by a fixed edge (å la Heavy Gear and the host of other conventional games) is rather instead variable points as resolved in the patrol phase; therefore even the same scenario played twice never has identical starting positions for your force deployment.

      INMSHO, Heavy Gear needs to do something radical to reinvigorate the game play, but is probably going to end up rather conventional and in the end still not please people: changes are not enough for those looking for the new, and the changes that are brought in will upset the old guard who are comfortable with what they know (a bit like BattleTech where Alpha Strike loses old time players like me, because it's not BattleTech enough – as in no longer addresses the core concepts of the game i.e simplifies stuff and in the process loses the flavour)

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    2.  Ashley5 February 2015 at 18:21

      Sorry, forgot to mention the Kodiak. Bazookas are cool, but technologically of another era, replaced by RPGs etc. In the Bad Dog universe we have bazooka analogues, but they're technologically Gauss rifles – assuming that makes sense? I will be posting stuff to explain the background of the books, and how to play games in the universe over the next few months on here. It has to fit in around my real work, which is getting the novel sold.

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  7. SITZKRIEG!12 February 2015 at 16:32

    Ah, thanks for the clarifications! I agree that HG is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. They do seem to be backtracking from the changes that were a bitter pill for some to swallow a year ago but had largely passed through their systems. It's odd IMO but I'm pretty much watching from the periphery as someone else informed me of the apparent changes in movement closer back to blitz.

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    1.  Ashley12 February 2015 at 17:31

      I deleted the double entry post for you.

      Uhm, having only played a couple of games of Heavy Gear I'm not really in any position to comment on the rule changes that Dream Pod 9 have made to the game. My only comment is that given the quality of the layout of their RPG books I'm put off reading the miniatures rules as the layout of the text gives me headaches when reading it (a combination of the text being too small or the lines too long, whichever way you want to look at it).

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  8. SITZKRIEG!12 February 2015 at 18:34

    Thanks, I didn't know it double posted. I pressed once and it only showed up once on my screen. In any case, I can't comment much of the more recent RPG book layouts as I only have a few from 2nd and none from 3rd. They were at least back in 1st edition somewhat well known (at least in my local circles) as having a great and very modern layout. They were at least for me the first company that I bought from that used digital layouts judging from the look. My first experience with them was with their Macross II supplements for the Robotech RPG 1st edition as well as a few issues of Protoculture Addicts.

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