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This review will be a brief rundown of what you can expect from the Heavy Gear miniature line. For ease of reference, I am breaking the review into 3 sections: Gears/Frames & Striders, Tanks, and Infantry. Some of these sections will have further subcategories. Within each section I will speak about the ease of painting and the cost of said miniatures, things that I have found to be important to most wargamers and collectors. So that the reader has some reference point for my review, I am a member of Pod Corps, the DP9 demo team. I have put together and painted over 75 heavy gear miniatures. Keep in mind that I live in Canada and, as such, all cost comments are based off of what minis cost up here.

Gears/Frames & Striders: On the whole, the walkers of the Heavy Gear universe are easy to assemble and look good. Cleaning is normally fairly easy, although the one-piece bodies tend to have mould lines on the inner legs that are a pain to get rid of. Assembly requires a moderate to high level of miniature experience and a good eye for assembling models with only a picture as reference. This is one of the most annoying things about the models. Most of the pinning will be needed at the arm connections and armor plates if there are any. However superglue will normally hold things fine, as pinning, for the most part, is not necessary with normal use models. I, as a demo person pin everything for extra stability. Most of the pinning that is needed will be the rocket packs, at the arm connections, and armor plates if there are any.

There are a few things to watch for. Any model with an older mould will most likely have an excess amount of flash. I have noticed this on Black mambas and Jaguars mostly. This has been disappointing because the level of quality is normally very high, and I don't like having to spend half an hour cleaning up one foot. Also, the Paratrooper gears come with a separate Paratrooper accessory sprue, and the gun included is attached rather annoyingly to the sprue. Getting it off will require clippers, and a fair amount of filing to get it to look good. The same gun inside of the Weapon pack is attached in a much friendlier manner, making me wish that DP9 would redo the paratrooper sprue with the same setup. The Naga Strider also should be based, otherwise it will not normally stand on it's own.

The Gears are relatively well priced in both a Quality for cost and Points per cost comparison. The pricing gets better if you buy the 5 packs, where you get 1 Gear for free. Currently the Earth Frames are not sold in 5 packs. Striders are a different matter. For the cost, a Naga is a better value per point in game, and the Mammoth is not so good (almost double the price for 100 less points). Both are decently priced for the miniature, as the amount of pewter and Quality are very good.

All of the walker paint up very well, but I would recommend leaving the backpacks off of the Gears, and keeping the Frames' upper body/ lower body separate while painting, as this makes things much easier.

Tanks: All of the Tanks are well molded at this time. There is very little flash or mold lines that cannot be easily removed. The HT-68 Hovertank can be difficult to assemble, and I would recommend that inexperienced modelers not attempt that mini. All in all the tanks are also decent values for points, with the Earth Hovertanks being the best value. The Terra Novan tanks are about $35 Canadian, which may seem a bit steep, but isn't all that bad considering the amount of pewter you get and the worth they are in the game. Do keep in mind that the Hovertanks for some reason are not quite to scale with the rest of the minis, and appear a bit small. The tanks are easy to paint, as tanks should be, and look wonderful. I have not experienced any troubles with the 9 tanks I have, although the Visigoth Turret does not sit flat, and I pinned it, as I am expecting many people to handle the tank during demos.

Infantry: The infantry are *small.* The scale is 1/144 or about 12mm, and the detail on them is amazing. So good in fact, that I was almost afraid to paint them. Removing the infantry from the sprue is best done with clippers, and cleanup is easy. Painting is also much easier to do than I originally though. Value-wise, the Infantry is about the best value, as one mini can represent a full squad, and there are 10 figs to a pack at about $8 CDN. I have had some mismolded areas on the models, but you can make any of that look like really cool damage.

Overall: On the whole, the entire range is very well done. The sculptor (Alain Gadbois) is amazingly talented and the latest miniatures from the company are phenomenally well done. On the other hand, some of the molds are beginning to show their age, and the single piece body can sometimes lead to improper cooling of the metal, and you can end up with crystallizing. The extra filing I had to do on the last set of minis was very annoying. Customer service is very helpful, and everyone I have spoken with who had a problem has had it rectified quickly.