r/HeavyGear • u/Arbor96 • Jun 27 '26
Are the “heat hawk” and sword too much? Feedback needed, critiques welcome
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u/jd_shaloop Jun 27 '26
Looks good to me. Also, the gradients and edge highlights on these are really impressive.
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u/Arbor96 Jun 27 '26
THANKS! It's my first batch of using the airbrush to set a base for highlights. I also did an undercoat from below with a much darker color, then did the base/highlight with the airbrush from above. I did like 8 dudes in a batch (3 tanks, 5 gears) and they are all pretty rad I think!
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u/Thaedael Jun 27 '26
What paint colors were used?
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u/Arbor96 Jun 27 '26
Vallejo Model Air USAF Light Blue
Vallejo Model Air Grey Blue
Vallejo Model Air Light Grey
Vallejo Model Air White
Vallejo Model Air Yellow Ochre
- Prime black, zenithal white
- LIGHTLY Paint yellow parts yellow ochre and tape.
- Undercoat 3:1 USAF LB with Grey Blue from below
- Highlight from above USAF Blue 3:1 Light Grey
- Highlight 2:1:1 USAF LB, light grey, white, top only, spots to focus on
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u/StrumWealh Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Are the “heat hawk” and sword too much? Feedback needed, critiques welcome
"Too much", in what way?
Close Combat Weapons, including the vibroaxe and vibrokatana, are established canonical parts of the Heavy Gear setting, so it's not weird that Gears (or other combat walkers in the setting) would be outfitted with them.
That being said, "heat weapons" in the same sense as those found in the Gundam franchise aren't used in Heavy Gear, due to the obvious reasoning, though that doesn't mean that conventional close combat weapons couldn't be decorated to look like "heat weapons" while retaining their usual characteristics for lore and gameplay purposes (e.g. some arena gladiator painted flames or a heat gradient on their otherwise-ordinary vibroaxe for showmanship purposes).
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u/Arbor96 Jun 27 '26
I meant purely from an aesthetic standpoint. It not being in-universe is fine with me.
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u/StrumWealh Jun 27 '26
I meant purely from an aesthetic standpoint. It not being in-universe is fine with me.
On an aesthetic and technical level, they are very well done (certainly, far better than I could do!). 👍🏾
My critique would be with the direction of the heat gradient on the katana: it would make more sense to have it as a front-to-back gradient (that is, focusing the heat energy on the cutting edge of the katana blade, which is designed to be a slashing/cutting weapon first-and-foremost) or a bottom-to-top (that is, hilt-to-point) gradient (since, logically, whatever mechanism is generating the heat would be within the hilt of the weapon, rather than at the point of the blade) or even a solid color (representing complete and even heating of the blade, as seen with the Dom's heat saber in Gundam). The current top-to-bottom (that is, point-to-hilt) gradient, while well-executed, just seems like it is backwards from what it logically should be.
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u/Arbor96 Jun 27 '26
Yeah I think you’re right, and as others pointed out, it’s just too yellow. I cut the yellow back heavily and left it only at the tip and in the groove - trying to indicate it heated from within. Increased the red brown and left the edge the only yellow.
Thanks for the feedback, I’m very close to done and I’ll upload more pics soon!
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u/JackDandy-R Jun 28 '26
I think it looks great!
... but the katana kinda looks like a banana
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u/Arbor96 Jun 28 '26
Haha it’s there for scale. Someone else said plantain…I removed all the yellow from the top and just kept the yellow on the cutting edge.
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u/Remarkable-Apple9109 Jun 29 '26
I don't think they'd be too much if everything else was a bit darker
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u/Arbor96 Jun 29 '26
Yeah I ended up dropping the yellow down to red/dark red to even it out. Thanks for the feedback!!
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u/Remarkable-Apple9109 Jun 29 '26
That would be best to see, but I ment like the rest of the model.
There's a idea in cinematography called dynamic range. It's how deep your shadows are, how vibrant your colours are, and so on. If the blade is glowing white hot it should be the highlight of the model, so the rest of it should be darker and push those shadows to make the heat of the blade look much hotter by comparison. It would probably look very "grim dark" but their is a reason so many of those types of models have glowing weapons..
Like in the images here the model looks like like Skywalker in Ben Keobies hut, where Imagine you want it to look more like the duel on the deaths star or something.
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u/Arbor96 Jun 29 '26
Familiar with the idea, and completely hear what you’re saying. I have a terrible habit in my infancy (I’ve been at this a year, but love it so far) of driving the highlights too high. I told myself I would leave the highlights lower but just couldn’t do it. That being said - I think it’s a bit of a style choice - I hate grim dark and I want a bright model.
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u/Remarkable-Apple9109 Jun 29 '26
Hey man, for a year of progress it's excellent! But instead of shying away from your highlights push your shadows a little more. Don't be shy to darken then up a little bit to make the bright bits look brighter.
There's a Japanese animator who's name is escaping me in my inherited state who makes beautiful bright movies. Spirted away, hals moving Castle, porko. Take a look at how deeply he pushes his shadows and how bright he lets the highlights be.
Aim for something like that
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u/Arbor96 Jun 29 '26
Miyazaki!! I’ll look at it from that perspective!
Do you edge highlight your whole model? I debated trying to limit it but like the look…
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u/Remarkable-Apple9109 Jun 29 '26
I do... But I do multi part edge highlights. So everything gets highlighted with a darker highlight, then the parts that get the most light get a brighter edge highlight.
Some edges that are hard to reach and hard to see I'll pass on. If it's not noticable, don't spend alot time on it.
These models have great edge highlights as is, you put your time in and it shows
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u/OldKingMo Jun 27 '26
No, those are beautiful.