MekTek Issue 2

Again another beautiful piece of artwork from Steve Kyte adorns the cover of issue two.

All uncredited articles and artwork contents for issue two were again me, and was again joined by Alex Stewart, and Simon Kemp who read the first issue, sent me a couple of reviews too.  

Mechs at Large editorial offering pointers to what I was interested in and what I would be writing about.

Japanima Talking about mecha animation shows on American syndicated TV, and how this fed back to influence what the Japanese animation studios were doing.

Manga, Manga  Started with me praising the American mecha comic Dynamo Jo by Doug Rice, which should be much better known that it is, followed by his four issue mini-series of Star Blazers. Also, mentioned were the translated Japanese properties Xenon, Area 88 manga, and Mai Psychic Girl.

Warnography Alex Stewart reviewed Price of Glory by William Keith, and The Devils Hand by Jack McKinney, with again a harsh, but fair review of the latter.

Encounter on Ice was a scenario inspired by watching Mad Max with four mech designs by me for the intruders to give Max's lance a hard time.

Snapshots Simon Kemp reviwed Aerotech, Technical Readout 2, and the Succession Wars Battletech boardgame. While I reviewed Stardate Vol 3, issue 2, and my thoughts on the first three issues of Battle Technology (buy MekTek instead).

Meka of Design was a long article by me breaking down the battlemech construction rules.

MekTek Trio I reviewed the BattleTech Manual comparing the rules against the original BattleDroids and BattleTech box set rules.

MekTek LOCs I published a letter by Sam Lewis of FASA, and two letters by readers of issue 1.

The plan is to put all four of the MekTek issues on DriveThruRPG at some point this year, along with the revised OHMU War Machine rules, which requires some work to make if a PDF.

Chop Shop: Ogre 1 Conversion Symmetry

Symmetry is a thing. One that castings made from sculpts were more of a suggestion, rather than something strictly adhered to. My Ral Partha original Mk5 is mostly symmetrical.

Converting it into a facsimile (word of the week) of a Martian Metals Ogre questions what symmetry means when the originals were anything but symmetrical. So, I took a picture from the front, and then split and mirrored each side, which can be seen below.

As can be seen, I haven't quite got both sides the same. So there's more work ahead.

Catch you on the bounce. 

OHMU War Machine Schrödinger Update

Given the last post about I did about OHMU War Machine was 2023, which itself referred to an earlier post in 2021, and an even earlier mention in 2012. It seems interest in OHMU won't die. 

However, one hurdle preventing some sort of re-issue has been crossed, now I've managed to have my copy scanned.

This is a big help towards proceeding forward with this project.

The question now is, whether this a facsimile of the original, or a revised an updated edition with errata? I'm tending towards the latter, because a facsimile would just be scans of the text as jpegs.

But, as you can see above the pagination will change the look of the book. Let me know your thoughts?

Either way, something is coming as a PDF, but as to when, I'll let you know when I know.

MekTek: A BattleTech Fanzine 1

MekTek was a British BattleTech fanzine produced by me, which came out in 1988. The cover of the first issue was by Steve Kyte.

All the uncredited articles and artwork in issue one were done by me, while the Warnography article was written by Alex Stewart, aka Sandy Mitchell author of Ciaphus Cain.

Mechs at Large was my 'raison d'être' for producing the fanzine, bemoaning the direction FASA focusing on setting, rather than game mechanics (oh boy, did that change later with excessive rules bloat).

Japanima I looked at mecha in Japanese animation, describing the three series that were combined into what became Robotech.

Warnography Reviewed the William Keith's first two Gray Death books, and Ardath Mayhar's The Sword and the Dagger. Alex wasn't kind to the latter.

Thundering Guns described a number of new weapons (Gauss gun; disruptor; fusion cannon; grenade launcher; two sizes of auto-flechette shot guns; medium range missiles; heavy missiles), with a table defining their stats.

Heavier Metal added two variant mech types. The first was armless bipedal mechs, which added the internal arm structure to the torso. The second was the Tetra mech, which was a different way to record a quad mech structure (a record sheet was included). Tetra mech records sheets made it possible to construct quad mechs up to 200 tons (divided into weight classes).

Grunts'n Groan'n When Rock'n Roll'n expanded the infantry rules (mechanized; body armour; platoon organization), and added troop quality too (militia; conscripts; regulars; veterans; elite), and a mechanism for tracking combat experience. A table defined the stats.

Apocalypse Choppers was my way of adding helicopters to the game. At the time this was written, CityTech had just been released, and I had opinions.

So, I'm noodling whether or not to put MekTek up on DriveThruRPG as a PDF, but I'm not sure an old British fanzine from the late 1980s holds any interest for todays BattleTech fan.

Chop Shop: Ogre 1 Conversion Ongoing

 

Above is where I am after cutting back the sculpting putty I applied last time. I realized I made a mistake judging the rake of the front glacis, which you can see below.

It left the model looking a bit of a mess.

I also had to realign the left hand rear track casting, because the body wasn't level. This was probably down to me when I assembled the  model not being careful enough when gluing the castings together.

This setback was a bit disheartening, and made me remember why I put the project aside ten years ago.

And below is the re-profiled front. As I now compare this with my pictures, I realize that I've missed the narrowing of the front glacis at the peak where it meets the base of the tower.

After the epoxy putty has hardened overnight I will adjust this tomorrow.

Chop Shop: Ogre 1 Conversion Progress

 

After fettling the previous day's application of Kneadite and Milliput. this time with more Milliput, and less blue in the Kneadite mix, this is where I've managed to get to.

You can see clearly see the difference in size between my early SJG model and my facsimile of Martian Metals Ogre. 

With the help of Keith Falk's pictures, I have captured both the shape and size of the original casting. Or at least as close as I can replicate, given the donor model I started with.

And a pic from above.

 

And finally, a three-quarters view for good measure, and I hope you've enjoyed this series of pictures. 

The finish still looks pretty rough, but besides the filing and sanding to buff out all the imperfections, I've still got to fabricate new cylindrical missile launchers.

So, there's still a bunch more to do. More in due course. 

Chop Shop: Ogre 1 Conversion WIP

I've been fortunate to have been sent some pictures by Keith Falk of his classic Martian Metals Version one Ogre, and furthermore, graced with calipers to show me the salient measurements. This made me reassess my progress, and consider what I wanted to do.

I drew up a side elevation drawing, and compared the measurements on my model to those of Keith's. Thus armed I mixed a some more Kneadite and Milliput to add to my model. Here's it is sitting on my workbench curing.

 

I'll let it harden overnight, and start work on it again tomorrow.

New Year: Ogre 1 Conversion Restarted

Note: I've retitled this post as I'm not making a Huscarl, but rather trying to capture the quirky charm of the original Martian Metals version 1 of the Ogre Mk 5. 

I abandoned this conversion about ten years ago. I wasn't happy with the shape of the nose, as it didn't replicate the iconic Martian Metals Mk5 Ogre. Over the recent break I played a couple of games of Ogre Objective 218.

Afterwards, I found myself invigorated to have another go at finishing my conversion/rebuild.

During the intervening ten years I have acquired a few more reference pictures, see above. I started by using my new Dremel accessory bits to carve away metal, which can be seen in the first picture. I also realized I'd misinterpreted how the track bogies were meant to sit, which I will correct during this build.

These pictures are a big help in capturing the Martian Metal's profile, though, symmetry was apparently merely a suggestion.

If you look closely at the other Ogres in my reference pictures, you can see that there are two distinctly different Martian Metals Mk 5 Ogres. This can be seen in the placement of the secondary batteries, and the shape of the missiles.

 

So, I mixed up some Kneadite and Milliput to fill in the two big holes I made. 

 Checking on the symmetry of my work I found I'd not done a great job on reshaping the casting either.

Even If I can't reshape the Ral Partha casting perfectly, I want to get as close as I can to making the model symmetrical. The next step was to rebuild the nose.

Now I'll let that harden overnight, and work on it again tomorrow. 

That's all for now. Happy New Year to everyone.

Catch you on the bounce. 

OMWB: Newten Town New District WIP 4

Progress with refurbishing my buildings. Above a cleaned up building where the corner had been broken and part lost. Rebuilt using a mix of Kneadite and Milliput.

Below is another broken resin building showing how I used some Mulberry rice paper to strengthen the brittle wall.

I then put spread some lines of super glue on the paper, drawing connections between the fragmented pillars, and the remaining wall. I made this solid by sprinkling baking soda on top of the super glue to make a rigid connection for sculpting a new wall on top of the paper. 

I forgot to take a picture of the unpainted wall, but it looked a lot like what is in the top picture. After priming the model, I noticed a part of the wall needed to be made thicker.

 

Hence the unpainted Kneadite and Milliput you can see above. 

Over the hols I shall be flocking the bases, adding rubble, and begin the painting to make these buildings ready for the tabletop.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Christmas 2025

Here's my haul. You will notice a theme. Well, apart from the model-maker chisels, I think Japanese tools for Gundam, which was a surprise. All the Dremel accessories were requested items to help me with refurbishing the resin buildings I'm still working on.

Anyway, hope everyone had a lovely Xmas day.

Here's a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.