Wednesday 9 May 2018

Battletech !


A week ago, I had absolutely no idea these would be painted or that I would even have them...
That's what it is to have great people around you. Let me just explain a few things.
This WE, a fistful of friends and I are gathering at a convention in North-Eastern France to have a few oldschool games and amongst them, my pal Goulven has offered to GM some Battletech (providing table and miniatures as well).
Now It's been more than 15 years since I last played any Battletech and the time before this one was so long ago I cannot remember.
Fast forward a few years up until last week when I was in Ireland in the exquisite company of my friend Cheetor/Sho3box and here he is getting a bagful of models to pick from...



Uh Oh !

Yep, as much as I like enjoying a game run by a good friend, I do like to have my own models and there are projects you want to give a go to without fully committing...
So I thought seizing the opportunity to paint a small group of robots was a good one !
Of course it's also a silly idea since I have still plenty of things to prepare for this WE but you know...


As you can see, the models are pretty rough, there's nothing to do about it but embrace it so after some cleaning, I just opted for some fast rewarding process. Yes the injection points are visible and could have been hidden. Yes a few places are hard to read and the blending on the optics and windows could be smoother but they're done and good enough for a table and they took me like 3 hours tops, leaving me time and energy to finish more scenery for our games so I think it's a good compromise in the end. ^^

Since I just had a bucnh to paint I selected which, it was out of question to get the soft plastic ones because even I have a limit to how stupid I can get. So I picked my favourite from the plastech set.



Now the first I picked was obviously the Atlas since it's probably the most iconic of all :



Then another classic with the catapult :


Then came a Trebuchet :


And a Hunchback


And a Blackjack :


So here they are, a bunch of good old Robots which will have an opportunity to camp in lakes, drinking Perrier and eating ice-cream to cool off while shooting stupid amounts of ammo.
Pics of the battle to come. ;)

33 comments:

  1. I bought those when I was 17 I think.

    It's good to see a few of them painted nicely 25 years later. You did a good job with them.

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    Replies
    1. At least a few of them got painted which saves it all !

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  2. I never knew you were a mec-warrior - it seems, even after all these years, you still have what it takes to surprise me <3

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  3. Battle Tech, Robo Tech, Macross, it's all a blur. Hope you have fun gaming it. I look forward to a battle report.

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    Replies
    1. It's just an ideal world with giant robots fighting which is all that matters right ?

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  4. Great paint jobs on all these god awful sculpts, bar the Atlas....he is an iconic Mech. Wonder what happened to their ability when it came to creating the other bots?

    I never had a chance to play Battletech, but I've always wanted to give it a try. I'm looking forward to reading your batrep so I can see what I've been missing out on.

    Cheers JB :)

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    Replies
    1. I believe that I'll need inch thick rose tinted glasses to enjoy this game but you know, there's little that a few friends, booze and painted models can't improve. ;)

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    2. All the best designs were pinched from Macross. They were designated as the superior Clan mechs. The Inner Sphere suffered from a lack of talented Japanese designers... and FASA got into a lot of trouble over it all in later years.

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  5. Well this is something different! Looking forward to your battle report.

    And now that you have painted these old models, you should head off to Ebay and buy a new Alpha Strike boxed set (maybe even the Assault box with the Atlas). Browse Camospec for a while and see what you can come up with. It would be great to see what you could do with better sculpts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly, the plan here it to scratch the Battletech itch and to avoid dwelling any deeper into it !
      These are rather poor models so not spending much time on them made sense which was perfect.
      But then, we never know what's coming next... ^^

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  6. Cracking work. I really like how teenage cheetor wrote their names in pencil on the sides of the hex bases. Your fast and furious approach to these has worked really well – I'd have fallen into the trap of wanting them with clean precise highlights as my brain would insist that because they were hard plastic they needed a crisp paintjob. And I've have been driven insane.

    Looking forward to seeing how these get on!

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    Replies
    1. It's always tempting to try and "fix" the models and show their full potential but I had very little time and the models showed their limits very quickly, way too much resculpting and high skill technique required for me at this point.
      You could surely do something great but honesty you'd lose a bit of sanity in the process.

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  7. Great paintwork!

    Recently I also got some Battletech models to paint - these are really cool although not really my cup of tea. Battletech never was very popular in Poland :(

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    Replies
    1. I only play every 10 years or so so you know... ^^

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  8. For such rubbish rough sculpts I think your painting made em look rather kickarse.

    Never played the minis game, though did manage to game on my mate's lan-pc setup 16 years ago on... Mech warrior (I think?), with joysticks and everything. Quite fun.

    Look forward to seeing some pics of these behemoths in action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The paintjob is just as rubbish but it suits the sculpt !
      I'll be back with plenty of batreps !

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  9. Loved this game - I have something like 100 of these models around here somewhere... where did I put that box?

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    Replies
    1. Careful now !
      There are worse things than to play with them be it with brushes or dice !

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  10. Battletech was a fun game. Havent played since I was 12 or 13. Good job with these awful miniatures... you make me want to buy some mechs

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    Replies
    1. Good thing is these must be pretty cheap. ^^
      Cheers brah !

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    2. If I end up buying a bunch I'm blaming you.

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  11. You did an absolutely splendid job at making those plastics come to life. I'd love to see what you can do with some of the beautiful old Ral Partha metals...

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    Replies
    1. The old RP ones would be fun for sure ! I'll see how I feel about it after we've played a bit. ;)
      Thanks Matthew !

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  12. Nicely done on such a small scale.

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    1. The scale isn't really as much an issue as the lack of details really !
      Thanks !

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    2. Ahhhhh ... your detailed painting actually distracted me from that fact! :)

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  13. Replies
    1. They're fun and it was nice using them !

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