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Sunday, 25 March 2012

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Davion's "Chevalier" light tank lance painted

I was able to get these from people around the Battletech forums: they are small 1/144 scale plastic vehicles that originated from the Crab Gunner kit from Dougram.

Although not exactly the "Chevalier" design from Battletech, I was able to add a view details that allows me to field them as the latter nonetheless. I will call this one "Chevalier Mk.1b" and its going to support the infantry component that I have planned for my 3rd Crucis Lancers.

The full lance of 35 ton Chevalier light tanks in all its glory.
It's a rather tiny vehicle as you can see. Here, next to a Kurita infantry NCO and a coin for scale. Consider this a vehicle used for scouting and recon, just as the mid-80s German Bundeswehr Spähpanzer Luchs.

You might notice that one barrel looks slightly different - that's due to one kit missing the original part, so I had to replace it with something that looked similar.

My lance (=squad) commander, unbuttoned in its turret. For this one I had to cut away the hatch and glue it back into an open position. The figure is a Dougram Mecha pilot in 1/144 scale.

Though the Chevalier's armament is weak compared to modern designs, it has an extremely ammunition-efficient design, allowing it to stay in the fight for longer than other vehicles from the same weight class. For long range, it mounts an Large Laser in its turret. A pair of forward-mounted Streak-SRM-2 allow it to exploit any holes it may have made in an opponent's armor.
The SRM rack was salvaged from Mechwarrior Dark Age vehicles, its not part of the original kit.

Yes, the wheel is crooked. You have seen it. Argh. Oh well... :-)

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Standard Foot Soldiers" early tests (WIP)

!!! Click the pics to enlarge them !!!

Tiny little things. A first work in progress batch of House Kurita standard foot soldiers. Conventional infantry. These are re-based old Mechwarrior Dark Age infantry miniatures that were removed off their base (they come in groups of five per base) and based individually.
As you can see their new bases bring them into scale with my Mech forces.
This should give a good impression on how tiny they really are. Their base is the same coin (1 Euro cent) that I placed next to the SRM gunner. To the left you can see a WH40K Space Marine shoulder pad for scale...

I repainted all of them, using the coloured picture of a female Kurita trooper (found one in the Mechwarrior Roleplaying Game core rules) as a guideline. Sand coloured boots, a maroon coloured jumpsuit with leather coloured body armour and dark red shoulder pads / helmets. The tiny bright red dot on the shoulder pad is supposed to resemble the House Kurita badge of the Dragon.

And yes - I even painted some gloves. :-)

As you can see the little troopers still come with lots of detail: even backpacks and power cells for the support weapons like this shoulder-launched SRM of the trooper on the right.

These were only some test pieces. Tell me what you think, please!