More BattleTech Alpha Strike Pictures

These are a selection of the pictures that were not used in Miniature Wargames magazine the other month for the Alpha Strike article.  Atlas versus Locusts is in my mind the classic BattleTech what if fight.

I supplied a lot of duplicate shots for the article, as in featuring the same mechs, but from a different angle to the pictures shown here.  These are I think the best versions.  House Steiner quads moving into a flank attack.

Though I can see why the picture above wasn't used, because it doesn't have a central focus to the action, it catches the swirling mech-on-mech action that Alpha Strike can deliver.

However, I really liked the picture of the two Locusts advancing, even if there isn't really a lot else going on in the picture.  So now I get my chance to show it.

Again this picture composition is a bit lacking, but House Steiner and industrial mechs with infantry milling around their feet says BattleTech.  I hope you all have enjoyed this small peak into the assignment I undertook, and thank you for taking the time to look.

And that's all folks.
  

Battlemech Group Shot

As you've read in my last blog post, I recently had cause to take my battlemech models off the shelf to take pictures of them, which meant dusting them and then getting my terrain boards out and setting them up to look interesting.  I can't show you any of those yet, because they were taken for a magazine article that I didn't write and know nothing about.  As and when the article appears in print I'll post the unused pictures here.

Anyway,  I have 47 mechs ready to plonk on the table top anytime I want to play a game, and looking at my workbench I have another 42 in various stages of being painted.  This doesn't include the tanks, APCs, helicopters, artillery, and infantry I have to paint either.

So when I put my mechs back on the shelf I sorted them out into combat groups and I really do have a lot of mechs and infantry ready to go.  If all goes well this year I may even be getting the opportunity to put them on the table and play with them too.
  

Miniature Wargame Issue 406

All the models, buildings and terrain were assembled and painted by me.

There are some BattleTech pictures I took for an article on Alpha Strike by Joe McCullough in the upcoming issue #406 of Miniature Wargames.  A preview of the contents can be found here.  Once I know what pictures I took that weren't used I will post them for everyone to see.

NB:

American readers can get Miniature Wargames from On Military Matters:
Web: onmilitarymatters.com
Email: militarymatters@att.net
Phone: 609-466-2329

The cheapest and quickest way for overseas subscribers, is to subscribe to our digital edition. The digital edition is accessible across all devices through Pocketmags: https://pocketmags.com/how-it-works.

There is currently a sale available to customers who purchase via the Pocketmags site, until 15th Jan link–customers can save 37% on the full price for the year–that's 12 issues for just £33.99 GBP. We also have a 99p single copy sale running until the end of the month should the customer wish to try before they buy–this is available on back issues only.

Miniature Wargames do offer print overseas subscriptions – but it's quite a step up in price due to the postal fees. link £76 GBP per annum for US customer.
   

House Kurita: Work in Progress

  

My Kurita force is very much a work in progress, though the same could be said of all my battlemech forces, but I at least can field a lance or two for the other factions.  All of these have had some modifications made to them, ranging from quite minor to more ambitious work (some have commented that it takes guts to cut apart classic Unseens and repose them, but to me they're just my mechs).

The mechs above are missing a Phoenix Hawk and Archer, which I have not yet finished assembling , and my plan is to have three lances of four mechs with the Wasps and Stingers from the picture below to make up a traditional twelve mech company.

I haven't managed to put the base-coat of yellow on all of these, but the WW1 inspired jigsaw pattern camo scheme seems to look OK on the four light mechs I started working on.  I have  Phoenix Hawk LAM to assemble too.  My thoughts at the moment are that the LAMs will make a long range reconnaissance lance, and in addition I have a resin MAC Monster to assemble to finish my House Kurita force.

As per my current photography practice both of these pictures are focus stacks from twenty-five individual pictures using my 14-42 zoom (ISO 200, F8 at 1/6th of a second).
  

Painting: Reflections on Progress

Here is a nice picture of my original Pink Panther battlemechs that I painted back around 1990.  This is the full shot of the blog's motto picture; Gotta Fight? Bring a mech. Bring lots of mechs...  Hard to believe now, but back then I actually won first prize in a painting competition at the Colours Wargame show in Reading when it used to be held in the Hexagon centre.  I post this as a reminder not to think too highly of one's own work, but also because painting models, and taking pictures of them is a journey in its own right.

Back here I talked about getting a new camera.  Itself a journey from my beloved Pentax MX 35mm film camera to using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 digital camera, and then to acquiring my current Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1, which is a micro four thirds format SLR (single lens reflex).  Since first getting this camera I've been very lucky to have been given an Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 macro lens.

The following photographs on the left were taken with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1, while the ones on the right were taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1.

Not only has the quality of the picture improved, but the painting too, largely driven by seeing the pictures of my work.

At one point I had this crazy idea to repaint all my Pink Panther mechs, and add decals to make them pop more.  I did these three mechs, and even painted a couple of new Bushmen up, but then the project ran out of steam.  For the usual reasons; lack of motivation.

Still, looking at these pictures of before and after I'm inclined to think that in the long run I may come back and finish repainting the rest of the mech company, after all it's only a dozen models.  I'd have more motivation if I were playing BattleTech.  Still mustn't grumble, but rather try to play more games.

Besides that I have some ideas about writing up how I now take pictures to improve my model making, which may mean I will end up finishing this project off or not.  Whatever happens I will have me some fun...
   

Circinus Federation

I've been busy over the last two weeks or so.  My partner took time off before and after the Easter weekend, which meant an interruption to my usual work routine, and for those of you who follow my writing blog know I was busy editing 36,000 words of my second novel.  Then we went away for Easter to the British national SF convention, so I've been remiss in posting things here.

So this is another round up of old pictures of wok I've done. The above picture being a Thug that has been slightly altered, but is otherwise a standard model.

Next is an Ostroc, which again is pretty vanilla with regard to the pose.

The Ostol 5D provides the indirect fire support for the pirates lance.

And finally an Ostol 6D.  I still have two more models to paint up for this lance; another Ostol 6D and an Ostscout, but what with one thing and another (shiny distractions like Ogre cybertanks, and not to forget Heavy Gear conversions) finishing this lance has become a project that time has forgot.

The paint scheme was inspired by USAF aircraft of the fifties and sixties, and was achieved by mixing metallic paints with mat white to create different panels.  Once varnished I drybrushed with silver to give a more metallic sheen, because varnishing metallics often makes them look rather dull.
  

House Steiner Battle Armour

Though I've posted these pictures before I thought it worth putting them together into one post to show my House Steiner forces all under one tag. Above are MechWarrior Clix Gray Death Legion heavy battle armour.

MechWarrior Clix Grey Death Legion Scout battle armour.

Republic of the Sphere

I noticed I had a bunch of pictures of my BattleTech miniatures that I've not posted for one reason or another.  So this post is one of several I'll be putting upto address this shortfall, because after all this is supposed to be a BattleTech blog.  Here are my two Republic of the Sphere mechs.  The first is a Anubis.

Hopefully you can see that the paint scheme was inspired by the MechWarrior Colossus class tripod. 

 

I was making my own sculpt of this, but Iron Wind Metals are now selling this, so perhaps I will buy theirs at some point and be done with mine.  So here's my unfinished Colossus class tripod for comparison.

 

Below is a Light Ray, and I have a Legacy and Wight both waiting for me to get around to giving them some love, but I've been busy with other stuff, and just forgotten about them with working on all the other stuff I've been doing.

   

Industrial Mechs

Industrial mechs, people either seem to love them or hate them. More useless than a useless thing unless you need a mech.  Above is a modified Forestry mech with additional rocket pods added to supplement the cutting arm.

A much modified industrial mech with a beefy (it's all relative when one is dealing with converted industrial mechs) combination of gun and missiles.

Another custom modified industrial where I've slapped on some machine gun pods and a missile pod.  All of these were made up for my Mummerset Operation Sandbox campaign, which you can access by clicking the link or looking under the Labels in the left hand column.

  

House Steiner Über Alles: 3 A Couple More Mechs

And as I'm looking through my photo collection what do I stumble upon but a couple more House Steiner mechs.  Who would've thought?  First up is my reposed Victor as I don't like the basic pose the model is supplied in.  This was quite tricky and it broke during painting so I had to rebuild it with stronger pinning.

A Firestarter, gotta love a Firestarter, well at least I love mine, which is a combination of the original Firestarter sculpt and and the new Dark Ages version with added gubbins for the fuel hoses.

I think, for values of think that is, that House Steiner and four legged mechs goes to together like wine and cheese, tea and biscuits etc.  So one day I will have two platoons of four legged mechs for my House Steiner Battalion.  This Sirocco has been slightly modified to sex up the pose. 

Pink Panther Battalion: Update

 

I've posted these pictures before, but not as part of a log of my Pink Panther Battalion and the updated camo scheme that I plan to transition all the models over to in due course (as in as and when I get around to them).  First up Super Griffin custom conversion that I made before I found some nice Bushman gashsapons.

Here is one of the two aforementioned vinyl gashapons.  The Bushman was a light mountain mech in the series Sun of the Fang Dougram and never appeared in the original BattleTech TROs.  Still I like the design esthetic and have another two more models waiting to converted to BattleTech and then be painted up in my signature pink scheme.

Finally, the Atlas from the assault lance. I'm not a big fan of the assault mechs in general, because they're too slow, which means that once you've committed them to the battlefield you're not going to be able to withdraw, in a timely manner, should the battle not go your way.
  

Mummerset Armour Company

I decided that the next painting block would be these  as they've been hanging around in black with white dry-brushed on them for too long. These are the models I've been using for the armour company in my campaign. They are all MechWarrior Dark Age clix models that I've removed from their bases.

I've progressed to putting on six shades of green.  These are painted to match my Freedom Army of Mummerset mechs. Now all I have to do is paint all the shades of brown.
  

Freedom Army of Mummerset Infantry

  

Back last year I wrote a post on infantry with no pictures, just saying pictures later. A year has passed and now there are pictures. First is some Power Armour troops using MechWarrior Dark Age miniatures. These are rather nice models, and what I found interesting was that there were at least two sculpt made, or two separate moulds, as there are some slight variations between figures.

And the second platoon that I finished recently are the motorised, à la BattleTech definition of same, infantry. These are quad bikes with what looks like some sort of rotary machine gun mounted on it. Too big to mount in pairs, hence individual basing.

Finally, the FAM company. I still need to paint up a command (two figure) base for the foot infantry (serves no actual command function, it's just useful to be able to remove figures in different combinations during the game).
 

House Steiner Infantry

Previously, I gave an update on the things on my wargame bench awaiting further work to finish, for definitions of finish that include expanding army's as needed, and wrote about basing them here.

So above and below are some of the resulting figures from my post here, now based and painted.

I sorted the MechWarrior Dark Age figures  by weapon types, and then made mixes to give each platoon variety and add flavour to the game. These are flamethrower figures being used to represent a combat engineer platoon. All I have to do now is make some flame markers like Sidney did.

By having a couple of bases with one figure, and a base with two figures, it's really easy to add and remove casualties to keep track of the platoon's strength.

And here are four platoons acting as a Company. I've still got to paint up two more platoons; one to replace the combat engineers, and the other to add a motorised scout platoon to the TO&E of the player's force.

Marik Marauders: 2 Additions

To see some updated photos of my House Marik mechs go here, and when you come back you can see the new additions to the force below.

The Cicada is one of those nothing to write home about mechs, as it is a bit too fast for its size, which in game terms means it's not able to carry what I would consider a good combat load. Mine are all therefore refits that fix this problem by changing out the stuff it carries and slowing it down.

I never liked the original sculpt of the Jenner, but this one for the Clans looks nice, so I use it as an Inner Sphere captured mech now under House Marik care.

Above is a left leg forward repose of the classic Locust model, which was a tad tricky to do, and I think I can do an even better version now that I've got this one under my belt.

I like Locusts, they are one of my favourite mechs in the game, and I tend to do well with them when playing. This is my interpretation of an LRM5 version.

House Steiner Über Alles: 2 Additions

As part of getting back into doing regular updates on this blog, I've been going through all the old posts and deleting some photos, which some of my readers may have noticed? I've also been updating photos where I have better pictures too. Part of this is to make sure I don't over run my Blogger picture limit, though I have a Plan B for when I do. :-)

Anyway, to see the first House Steiner mechs I painted up go here, and when you come back you can see the new additions below.

The Zeus is  minor repose of the basic IWM miniature, done up in a variant of the dazzle camo seen on the four legged mechs I have shown previously. What I did was change the scheme slightly by adding a differential colour break between the upper and lower body. This was done by simply making the colours darker, or choosing an alternative colour.

The Commando is just a straight out the blister pack model painted in the new scheme. My plan is that each lance will have its own variant of the dazzle camo, which will hopefully be recognisable as all being from the same school of thought, but subtly different enough to add interest to the unit.

As far as this blog goes, I'm not going to be using it for intensive photo essays, but more for talking about what I'm doing. 

1st Republican Guards & 3rd Royal Guards of Mummerset

I'm writing this a couple of days later than planned, because I've allowed myself to be side tracked with stuff; Real Life (TM). One of the things I was musing on, as one does when one is thinking about writing is topics. I have loads of topics to write about, but as most of them involve pictures of stuff I've been painting etc, and I've singularly failed to take said pictures, they will have to wait. Not that every post needs pictures, but the feedback I get is generally along the lines of where's the picture! 

Anyway I've been following advice given by Gordon Y in the comments of the previous post, and have primed up and dry brushed some of the vehicles I need for the Mummerset campaign; in particular those that I need for OPFOR and the occasional friendly support stuff.

First up is the OPFOR, in this instance the units for the 1st Republican Guards of President Marx, under the command of General Spencer. All of these are MechWarrior models de-clixed by the removal of their bases. At the back are four missile tanks with the battalion/regimental command truck in the middle. Then there are four wheeled tanks with an anti-aircraft platform in the middle. In front are four APC/armoured cars, and a Morningstar the company command vehicle leads the way. What I plan to do next is clean up the castings before I paint them up properly at my leisure.

What I'm short of for this company are suitable vehicles for transporting the the company of infantry. I had originally planned on using the APC/armoured cars, but to my eyes they only seem large enough to hold a squad, which is very realistic, but it would mean I would have to acquire and paint up another twelve models. I'm lazy and feel painting as few models as possible is a far better thing to do than paint up hordes.

Here are the 3rd Royal Guards under the command of Colonel/General Whales. Again all of these are converted MechWarrior clix models. At the back are are four SM1 self propelled guns that have been converted to troop carriers, and I've also added a small missile launcher to each so that they can provide indirect fire support. These are quite large models and I can fully imagine them carrying a platoon each. Next are four hover tanks, and in front of them are four scout craft. At the front is the company command vehicle.

Originally I wanted all the APC GEVs to be based on the model I'm now using for the company command vehicle, but it is one of the MechWarrior promo models that I was lucky to get hold of, and I haven't seen any since on eBay. The plan had been to to use the models at the back as the basis for missile carriers, rather than troop transports, but needs must as they say.

Finally, HMS Burlington, a resin model from Pendraken miniatures, which I've assembled, but not yet finished. It is a pastiche of a WW2 Flower class corvette, which I intend to detail up with gubbins and gribbly bits to make it more visually stunning, because as it stands it is a bit bland.

 So there you have it, a picture of another weeks progress on my workbench. Well not quite as I've done a load of infantry, but have yet to find time to take some photographs of them. Neither have I found the time to take pictures of the completed infantry that I promised to post up here from a couple of blogs back.

 However, all things considered not a bad weeks worth of work, even if I feel I could have done more the truth is I've been too tired to concentrate on making and painting things.

Battletech Interregnum

Like most wargame hobbyists I too fit the stereotype of someone who buys stuff and then doesn't get around to actually doing anything with it, all the time buying new stuff that is shiney, which has caught my attention. I'm currently off work sick, and have as such a lot of time, but very little inclination to do anything, hence the sick part. However, I have dragged myself to the work bench this week and spent sometime texturing bases of trays of infantry figures.

The picture at the top are all the extra figures I need for the Mummerset campaign I'm running. Basically more infantry than I've ever painted for BattleTech. What you can see here are two motorized infantry platoons, followed by two standard foot infantry platoons, and at the rear one platoon of Power Armour and one jump infantry platoons. Oh, the bases to the left are modified MWDA clix flight bases for VTOLs and helicopters.

Texturing infantry bases is not the most interesting task in the world, but suits my limited concentration span, and it is something I can do while listening to a podcast. Not something that I would have thought I would ever find myself doing as I find listening to talking voices on the radio rather distracting, but at the moment as long as it is the right kind of distracting I can listen to a podcast about wargaming.

In particular I've been listening to View from the Veranda and Meeples & Miniatures both are quite fun, though I prefer View from the Veranda more, because the chemistry between Henry Hyde and Neil Shuck just really works. Anyway, those of you who want something to listen to can check these out and make up your own minds.
   

Colossus Class Tripeds

Usually when I put up a picture, like these MechWarrior Colossus Class mechs, I tend to chat about the models, which I will, but this time I will also be going off on a tangent. So no change there then I hear you all say!  

For the Classic Battletech  players these models epitomise all that was wrong about MechWarrior. First they are tripods and how silly is that? Second it was just another example of how Whiz Kids were just running roughshod over all that was sacred in Battletech by breaking the construction rules. Third, MechWarrior was a game with stupid clicky bases and silly rules.  

Anyway Whiz Kids produced four variants of the Colossus class mechs. My two favourites were the the blue Poseidon and orange and red Ares variants. I especially like the Ares, as the colour scheme really appeals to me, maybe  because it looks like camo for a hot dessert (sic) environment (sic after the event obviously one with jam and orange in it)? Anyway, I stole the idea and modified it slightly as the basis for my Republic of the Sphere units BattleTech scale mechs I've painted, which will no doubt get a blog entry of their own in due course.  

Anyway, I liked the Ares so much I decided I would have to make a BattleTech scale one, and I've been working on scratch building one for a while now. The trouble is time. I, like everyone else, am really busy everyday that ends in a Y, and I have so much to work on in my spare time that there really isn't enough hours in the day to do everything I want. 

So I like everyone else tends to prioritise what has to be done, or needs to be done first. In this case making and painting models for my Operation Sandbox campaign. However, as I mentioned previously, during the first game we talked about the Colossus mechs as part of the game, and this happened because I had my model of this mech on my work bench.