BattleTech - The Invasion of Huntress - BattleMechs

 Earlier games of Battletech used my own 'Mechs on both side, but my friend Matthew gradually built up his own collection.  He was always an Inner Spheroid at heart, so the Clan 'Mechs were all mine.  The Inner Sphere 'Mechs that featured in our Huntress game were mostly his, but a few were either mine or duplicates of mine that he'd particularly enjoyed using and bought himself.

These are all the painted versions of the ones that appeared in our game, with a normal human for scale.

Elementals.  I had a Star of Elementals, so 5 Points, each including 5 Elementals, for a total of 25.  They were a mix of laser, flamer and machine gun armed.  If you can manage a swarm attack with them, they can be deadly, especially against Assault 'Mechs which often find it hard to outrun them.  My Elementals have killed an Atlas and a Highlander in the past, and using them as mechanised BattleArmour with OmniMechs can deliver them quickly anywhere on the battlefield.  I've also deployed them via Kirghiz heavy OmniFighter in the past, something that can be unexpected for the enemy.  They should really be based, but I like being able to remove the individual Elementals as they become casualties.

Laser Elemental Point

Flamer Elemental Point

Machine Gun Elemental Point

 

Warhawk.  I usually stick with the prime version of this Assault OmniMech.  4 ERPPCs tied into a targeting computer will flay huge amounts of armour off the enemy at very long ranges, though even with double heat sinks the Warhawk gets very toasty if you fire all 4 in the same turn!  The LRM10 is a bit of an afterthought.

Warhawk (Masakari)

Warhawk (Masakari)

Marauder IIC.  This has to be my favourite second line Clan BattleMech.  Adding 10 tons to the original Marauder to bring it into the Assault class at 85 tons, 3 ERPPCs make it a devastating piece of equipment.  4 ER small lasers don't sound much for backup, but each packs as much punch as a standard Inner Sphere medium laser, albeit with a shorter range.  It also looks incredibly cool, very sleek and deadly.  It was also extremely difficult to build, with lots of small joints requiring multi-stage assembly with every stage carefully supported to let the glue set with the parts in the correct position.

Marauder IIC

Marauder IIC

Marauder IIC

Highlander.  Always a good option for a Com Guard command 'Mech.  That's how I painted mine, anyway, the one that appeared in a game was Matthew's.  It follows the same design approach as the Atlas, with the biggest gun they could fit (gauss rifle in this instance), biggest LRM rack (LRM20) and biggest SRM rack (SRM6), with a couple of medium lasers for close defence or when all the gauss/missile ammo has been used up.

Highlander

Centurion.  A good trooper in 3025, though getting a bit long in the tooth by 3060.  This isn't the one we used in the game, it's one I picked up in a load of second hand lots I snaffled from eBay back in the early 00's for £1-2 each, before the recent resurgence pushed the prices way up.  I think this is the original colour scheme, it's certainly the original base.

Centurion

Commando.  The archetypal Lyran scout 'Mech.  I've just 3D printed a couple more of these for my Commonwealth forces.  I've always liked the purposeful, no-nonsense look.

Commando

Caesars.  Only one featured in our game, but I have a couple painted now.  The gauss rifle makes them an appealing long range sniper, but with some good close in defensive lasers too.

Caesars

Caesars

I must have another box of 'Mechs somewhere because I'm missing a lot of my other painted ones.  My Highlander IIC, Executioner, Akuma, plus loads of others that didn't appear in the game, including Catapult, at least 3 Trebuchets, Zeus and more.

Battletech - Jenners!

Time for some more Battetech 3D printing.  These JR7-D Jenners (or "Vaxxers"!) are by CaptainFathom from Thingiverse.  I prefer this design to the original slightly spindly-legged, front-heavy metal model.  These standard Jenners come with a pairt of medium lasers in each arm and an SRM4 in the top of the torso.  At 35 tons they're at the heavier end of the light 'Mech spectrum but they're still pretty fast, and also jump-capable for added manoeuverablity.

The running version is painted Vallejo khaki with a sepia ink wash and bonewhite drybrush highlight.  The camo pattern was applied using Army Painter "camo cloak" speedpaint, which has produced a good result.

The detail is a bit fuzzy round the back, especially on the 4 jump jets but that's due to my poor placement and cleaning up of supports rather than the model.  I also clumsily snapped the sensor antenna off the top when painting it.

I love the pose on this model, very dynamic compared to the fairly static old metal model.

The second Jenner was base coated with Citadel "Gore-Grunta" brown contrast paint, then drybrushed heavily with Vallejo reflective green and stonewall grey for the camo pattern.

The back of this Jenner has come out slightly cleaner then the previous one, though that's not saying much.  Again, it's all due to my poor placement of supports and careless cleaning up.

You can see that this one survived with half the antenna intact.  The other half is probaby on my painting tray somewhere, I might try and re-attach it if it ever comes to light!

 Jenners are something I've been missing from my BatteMech forces, so these will neatly fill a hole in the TO&E for my Draconis Combine recon lances.  Some better Panthers are something I'll need to work on soon, but I do at least I have one or two old metal ones and a couple of the slightly deformed "PlasTech" ones that will do for now.

IMEC Mining Robot

 IMEC often make use of Mining Robots on frontier worlds.  They're able to handle rougher terrain than a wheeled or tracked vehicle, and are more flexible for use in other tasks, able to stand in for a crane or a cargo loading droid without much modification.  Most come equipped with a triple-headed rock drill and a large rock saw (also handy in forest clearance).

 

This robot started life as a Mechwarrior clicky figure.  I ended up with 4 mining 'Mechs from e-bay, so far one has been painted up to see how it looks.  I haven't yet decided whether they are piloted robots or whether they're autonomous/remote controlled droids.  As you can see, this one still has the cockpit canopy, though it wouldn't be too hard to replace it with some sort of robotic head.

 

 Colour scheme is the same as the IMEC ground crew - Humbrol 33 matt black legs, GW blood red arms & torso.  The red is shaded with Vallejo sepia ink and selected areas were drybrushed with GW chainmail to simulate the sort of wear & tear you'd expect on a mining robot.  The whole thing received a light drybrush fo Humbrol 93 desert yellow to achieve a suitably dusty appearance, concentrating more on the lower legs & drill arm.

 

The rock drill arm received an IMEC logo, though I've rather overdone the weathering so you can hardly see that it's there!

 

 Here's a few of the crew with their mining robot & some transport.

 

The transport can also help the robot reach its destination faster than walking...

 ...or maybe not!

 

Some of the mining 'Mechs come with jury-rigged guns instead of the rock drill.  These guns might be useful mounted on something else, as will the missile pods.  I've got a few broken drill-bits, so they will be good replacements for the gun mounts.  I might give one a claw or scoop of some sort too.

Mechwarrior re-paints

Whilst hunting for ideas for my 15mm forces, I came across some good ideas on The Special Corps blog. I particularly like his re-use of a Star Wars miniatures Crab Droid, re-painted as a mining droid.

Browsing e-Bay, I came across some of the Mechwarrior clicky game stuff. Although this is in 10mm scale rather than 15mm, I decided to buy a few vehicles and a 'Mech or two to see how they'd fit in. Even if the tanks didn't look quiet right with 15mm figures, they'd still be useful as super-heavy tanks for some of my 6mm games such as Classic BattleTech games, Dirtside, or GW Epic.
When I told the seller "Nelson's Underpants" what I was intending to use the models for, he kindly threw in some other broken bits which he thought I might be able to use as scenery.

A construction 'Mech was the item that immediately grabbed my attention. Although pre-painted in green and grey colours, I could picture it in my mind's eye in standard yellow "JCB" style colouring.

Once it arrived, I got busy by trimming off exhaust pipes, the cockpit hanging under the front and cleaning off the mould lines all over. A pair of jury-rigged machine guns on the right arm were removed, as this is going to be a civilian demolition robot rather than a fighting machine. At some point I will get around to adding something to this arm - possibly a pneumatic drill fitting or a demolition ball on a chain.

The 'Mech received an undercoat of Humbrol Matt 34 white enamel, followed by a base coat of matt lemon yellow. Some old GW "Spearstaff Brown" acrylic was used for some basic shading (despite the name it's actually a sandy yellow colour), and then the piston casings were painted black. Exposed metal areas on pistons etc. were painted with Humbrol metalcote aluminium for a nice shine, and red warning stripes added where appropriate.

Finally, the whole thing received a wash of watered down brown acrylic to give a suitably "used" appearance and to bring out the detail.

Yet another 15mm Sci-Fi blog!

Well, I thought it was about time that I joined in the fun and started a blog of my own. I've been meaning to sort out a web site for years but never got around to it, but the inspiration from all those other blogs out there has finally overcome my inherent laziness.

Although I'll try to add things at least once a week, this blog won't be updated as often as many out there - mainly because anything I want to add will involve a trip to the library in the next village in order to use their computers!

I'll be covering mainly 15mm sci-fi miniatures & modelling, though the odd 1/300th ("Epic" scale item might creep in, as will a few starships...


What's a blog without a few pictures? Here are a few snaps of the start of my 15mm army, along with some home-made scenery:



First, some GZG NAC marines.











Then a familiar looking team of space adventurers...

Light Vac-suits from GZG









A new use for a repainted Mechwarrior construction 'Mech (10mm but fits in nicely as a big robot for 15mm!)














Next time, I'll try and get a few close-ups of my NAC marines along with some notes on how they were painted.

TTFN

Paul