Ogre Mk4 Reborn

Between working on my Ogre conversion, I've had an ultra rare prototype Ogre Mark 4, rejected by Steve Jackson Games that has been sitting, waiting to be finished. I began working on in April 2016, and thought I can do better than that.

So, I stripped it.Yes, this is me being distracted!

Reassembled, primed, and given a wash to bring out the panel lines.

I painted for about an hour a day during the week before and after Easter, which makes this a labour of love. So, here is the repaint.

 

The eagle eyed will notice the camo pattern is not exactly the same as the first version. 

The eagle eyed will notice the camo pattern is not exactly the same as the first version, but I think everyone will agree this looks sharp?

Or, at least I hope so. 

Currently, I'm in the groove painting so, finishing the MK5 conversion will happen when I've cleared my painting table.

Anyway, that's all for now, catch you on the bounce.

Salute 53

We went to Salute and had a great day. Susan and I played in a game of What a Tanker, run by Joe Bilton, which won the Silver Gold trophy for best participation game. I got to drive a damaged Char B1, with two Panzer IIIs gunning for me, I ended up ramming one of them in desperation, as I only rolled move dice. 

We toured the hall afterwards, and I introduced myself to the CGL demo agents running BattleTech.

As the kids say, I farmed some aura. I told them I was the former FASA freelancer who wrote the all but one of the Clan 2C mechs for the 3055 TRO, back in the day.

We stumbled across the Gundam Assemble game being demoed, and I think the minis are going to be a big hit with mecha fans everywhere.

This Konflict 47 board caught my eye too. The Axis mecha looking alien like was cool.

At 14.00  we went and listened to the Professional Wargaming panel. I know Dave Manley, and he and the other panelists did a good job of describing the wargames they've run for the MoD and Civil Service, and my takeaway was the importance of immersion where story is everything.

And no show report would be complete without a picture of haul. The Battle Group book I picked up for Paul, who now needs to let me know where he wants me to post it (he's gallivanting around the world for work).

The MDF paint rack, Susan bought for me, because she wants my paints organized better.

I picked up my Maschinen Krieger from Drew Edney of Slave2Gaming himself. It was super nice to meet, put a face to the name, and jaw on about SF wargaming, which we surprisingly shared similar views about about.

I bought a copy of O Group, not because I'm getting into WW2 (I can barely keep up with Ogre and my mecha ambitions), but because I want to read the rules for phase lines, which is something I'd like to include in any set of rules I might write.

I picked up end of line sale six pack of 0 to 5 of nice sable brushes from ABC Brushes.

The final  splurge, and boy did I splurge this year, was some packs of Crow Industries Clan Elementals, which I plan to convert into FATS-Cs; Chinese fatties from Bad Dog.

That's it for now, catch you on the bounce. 

MekTek 4: The Final Issue

Dave Hardwood drew issue four's cover, a friend from days when I lived in Southend-on-Sea who also drew the cover, and a bunch of interior illustrations for OHMU War Machine. 

 

This turned out to be a bumper final issue with articles by Bob Nicholls, Dayfdd Neal Dyar, Helen McCarthy & Steve Kyte, Mike Timbers, Marcus Rowland, Glenn Wallbridge, Alex Stewart, and me. 

Mechs at Large my editorial promised that the next issue would have the article on cybertanks, and I promised the next issue would come sooner (Oh, how I laugh now). You can blame money, and me focusing on OHMU War Machine, which was my answer to the problem of introducing cybertanks into BattleTech.

The editorial also included a battle report of the 1988 Boston BattleTech Competition by the late Bob Nichols, the man behind Mechforce UK. RIP Bob, you were a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, I added a quick note about the then Panasonic NTSC VCR that could be rented in the UK. Those were the day when renting TVs and video recorders was still a thing. 

Japanima Dayfdd Neal Dyar provided an extensive article on the genesis of BattleTech's mechs. He described how they were drawn from several anime series including 1981s Sun of the Fang Dougram, 1982s Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and 1983s Crusher Joe. Dayfdd's thoroughly covered the three shows plots, and their characters various story arcs. 

Snapshots Short one paragraph reviews of five fanzines that fell into my hands.

Animé Contact List Helen McCarthy provided a list of useful addresses for beginning to get into animé. This covered magazines, shops, clubs, and organizations promoting animé.

Hover Mechs Mike Timbers delivered an article on adding hover mechs to BattleTech as a way to address the weakness of hover vehicles. 

Warnography With three reviews. The first was Alex Stewart write up of his experience playing Palladium's Robotech RPG. Describing it as a fun game beset by problems with how the rules were presented, and the restrictions of the setting. The main focus of the game was blasting alien battlepods, limiting  play focused on character development.

The second piece was a short offside review of the Robotech RPG by Simon Kemp who was less satisfied with the rules, which he found unsatisfactory for a game of mech combat.

And finally, Helen McCarthy reviewed the Panasonic NVL 28B NTSC VCR, which would play NTSC video tapes on a PAL TV monitor.

Manga, Manga I was reading the following manga: Cobra; volume two of Crying Freeman; Yukinobu Hoshino  2001 Nights; Black Magic and Dominion, both by Masasume Shirow;  the Lost Continent, by Akihiro Yamada; and last, A Plague of Angels by two Western artist's – Adam Warren and Toren Smith –  delivering the third outing of their homage of the Japanese Dirty Angels.

I mentioned in passing other manga I'd seen too: Captain Harlock; Lensman; and Broid, which were all disappointing for reasons of availability, or other issues

I was also reading Aliens Earth War;  Revolver a Dan Dare comic; Give me Liberty by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons; and the wonderful Starstruck by Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta. With the passage of time I'd forgotten how many comics I was reading back in the late 80s, early 90s. Those were the days.
 
A Question of Identity Marcus Rowland provided an article for the Mechwarrior RPG, which would add to the 'fun' of piloting a mech.

House Rules had two contributors. Mike Timbers gave a list of tweaks he made when playing BattleTech and AeroTech, which he found useful to clarify the rules. Glenn Wallbridge wrote about anti-personnel guns, high explosive and armour piercing ammunition, and indirect fire, also adding starting fires too. 

Mech Modelling  Glenn Wallbridge provided an extensive seven page article on how to convert mechs, how to cut and pin limbs for more dynamic poses, and finally, how to paint and base them. Given that Glenn had sculpted a series of mechs and vehicles for a manufacture he brought a wealth of experience to the topic.

MekTek LOCs Twelve pages of letters and replies to questions, which showed how much the game had grabbed the players back in those early days of BattleTech. 

Mechforce Finally, a two page advert for MechForce UK run by the late Bob Nicholls.

So, that's it, the last blast from the past.