Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: more and more reinforcements have arrived

"Special Project": my best mate wants to get involved in N-scale Battletech and has chosen the Free Rasalhague Republic's 1st TYR as his unit. The RFL-3N Rifleman shown above is going to become a paint scheme test. The armless Warhammer 6R in the background is a WIP of just another Kurita mech.

The Cataphract 3D is going to reinforce House Davion by another 70tons (minor conversion: PPC replaced by multi-barreled Ultra AC/5 - old WH40K assault cannon), the Jenner 7D will be another scout Mech for my 1st Sword Of Light.

While this is not a Rifleman but a JagerMech and not a 1st TYR but a Wolf's Dragoons scheme, the concept art is what I will base the dark blue scheme of the Rifleman upon. I like how dark blue, grey and metal colour mixes with the alloy look of the barrels. I am pretty sure the RFL-3N is going to look awesome painted that way.

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's reinforcements have arrived

I traded Mech figures with a buddy of mine and received a Thunderbolt and a Scorpion in exchange for what I gave him. These are Dougram models in 1/144 scale, really nice kits all together. I still have 15 more of them to build, to include Griffins, Shadow Hawks, Wolverines and Battlemasters.

It's going to be a little while until these will see paint but I assembled them and put them onto bases already. Thunderbolt got a minor re-pose ("walking" and right arm in firing position), a new hand and I added the missing SRM-2 rack to the model. Scorpion is stock (out of box) but I had to create a special base due to its wide stance. I could have gone with a bigger base diameter but our group puts all Mech less than 60 tons on small diameter bases.

Last Mech Standing...

I went to my best mate today, setting up an 6' by 4' table with some rocks, hills and forrest and having a nice afternoon with stomping each other's Recon Lances into the ground.

So, on a not further described planet surface the recon lance of House Kurita's First Sword Of Light met with House Davion's 3rd Crucis Lancier's scout force in a battle that left only one Mech standing.

Starting positions after we set up.

Swinging over to the right flank, I was trying to get as much forrest in between me and the advancing Crucis Lanciers. Note the dice colours: yellow for jumping Mechs, black for walking Mechs, red for those that ran. The allocated hexside of the dice resembles the current torso facing.

Ancient Star League technology trying to intercept the Davion Locust LCT-1V that tried to sneak behind my lines.

My Stinger and my Wasp in a desperate try to a) run away from a sharp-eyed Raven RVN-3L that was costing my force dearly and b) duelling themselves with the enemy Locust, costing it its Machine Guns in its right arm.

Although I kept hammering that Raven's back torso with my Wasp's SRM rack and pulse laser, the only thing I achieved was ripping its Beagle Active Probe out of its torso.

A little later, the four Mechs kept chasing each other with running moves from the large rock in the middle of the table to a small forrest. With my LCT-3M being more than capable to keep up with a RVN-3L, the Davion's heaviest Mech could not outrun me. Unfortunately I could not get rid of the 3rd Crucis Lancier's Locust that kept firing its laser and MGs at my STG-3R either.

The upgraded Pulse Laser technology taking its toll on the Davion Stinger 5M: Gyro critically hit!

The Raven, not giving up, endures round after round of laser fire incoming from front and back, trying to reach cover in dense wood.

Bad Luck! The Davion's took off the leg of my Stinger 3R, causing it to fall and damage its gyro in the barrage that followed the attack.

After a never-ending barrage of fire I finally was able to take out the hated Davion Raven. With no torso hit locations left it went down in flames. In the same round I lost the second arm of my Locust, resulting in an ammo explosion that due to CASE did not destroy my Mech.

The Davion Wasp 1A suffering a lucky hit that made its 40 rounds of left over SRM ammo go BOOOMM!!

At the end of the day the Star League's finest scout Mech is the match-winner, surrounded by burning chunks of metal.

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Archer" finished

House Kurita's ARC-2K Archer - another repainted action figure

Minor reposing to resemble the look of the CBT scale plastic Archer.

Two LRM-15 launchers in the torso and two Large Lasers mounted in its arms.

Sashimono Samurai back banner and cherry blossom on the lids for the missile bays.

The action figure lacks a lot of the detail that plastic kit has, but at least its closer in scale with my other heavy Mechs.

Since my internet and phone line broke down last Friday evening I had a little time (read: no distraction) and spent it on the painting table, cleaning and priming 10 more 40k Space Marines and paint up the above. Ok, the Mech really only has gotten a quick paintjob without to many details being available on the miniature to begin with - but I kind of like it anyways. Maybe because I am an Archer fan?!

Where is the painted stuff, Chris?

Random musings - or - why aren't there any updates, Scream?

Hello my fellow bloggers and followers. Some of you might have asked themselves why the post count on my blog became increasingly fewer and fewer over the recent weeks. That's due to two reasons: new job and my other major hobby: festivals!
Numero Uno - the new job. It's an entirely new field of working, some sort of job like I never did before (I have a craftsman background, now its an office job). Its taking its time to get used to and my painting mojo was not really that high within the last two months either.

And then number two: festivals. Over here in Germany the festival season is in full swing. And if its heavy metal or medieval folk rock/pagan or viking metal then we (that's me and the mates) just can't let it pass without going there to have a good time.

So, instead of painted miniatures something entirely new on this blog: real people :-)

Me and the mates. Btw, I am the guy with the black hat on the far right side.

Rapalje - covering Manowar's "The crown and the ring" !

 Give me a cup of (ice) coffee and no one gets hurt!

"Victor and his demons" are going to town...

Naseweis Met (mead) - what would we have done without you? Probably have gone home with more money still in our pockets... :-)

Thank god - finally some normal people.

Eluveitie. If you don't know them - check out this video

Oh, and before I forget: there are at least a few new painted miniatures. But since they are for Warhammer 40,000 you'll have to check out my other blog, too: www.swordofordon.blogspot.de
Stay tuned, more miniatures to follow soon. :-)

Chris

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Rifleman" finished

House Kurita's 60 ton "RFL-3N Rifleman" ready for action. Another repainted ExoSquad action figure.

Business end: two Imperator Class A AC/5s and two Magna Mk. III Large Lasers.

I added a samurai flag and cherry blossom paintings to make the Rifleman fit in with my other Sword Of Light Mechs.

Having only 10 heat sinks, the RFL-3N is inadequate for constant fire. Most of its dissipating heat is vented on its back, using large grilles.

AVP: Alien Eggs test

Some test models for my Alien eggs. I tried to drybrush them with different shades of brown and added glue to the opened one to simulate the "goo". These models won't win prices but they are good enough for gaming.
Resin models by Dark Art Miniatures (Alien Birthing Pods).

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Davion's "Crusader" finished

House Davion CRD-3R Crusader Mech

"The Crusader has a well-deserved reputation as a reliable, versatile Mech. Commonly found in command and fire lances, the Mech is equally at home
alongside Marauders and Thunderbolts in close-assault units. Some versions
have even served as scout Mechs, but this is rare."

arm-mounted Magna Longbow-15 LRM 15s, Intek Medium Laser, M100 Machine Guns

note the hip-mounted Harpoon SRM 6s

Its been a while since I finished the last Mech. This time I have kit-bashed an Armored Valkyrie kit from Macross with a Gashapon action figure off ebay. Torso and shoulders are from the kit, legs and lower arms from the action figure. The lower arms and shoulders can re-posed as I did not glue them on.

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #3

upper turbine/rotor-shaft housing added, green-stuffed and brought into shape. Needs some filler and sanding and then I can finally start adding all the small details.

After hours of hacking, cutting and exhausting work with a saw, I salvaged an AH-1W Cobra sprue for the upper rotor-shaft and turbine housing to add it to my Venom. Slowly things come into place and the whole chopper starts to look like an UH-1Y...
Some green stuff was added to shape transitions between panels that I couldn't close with anything but putty. It has to dry now for at least 24 hours until work can continue (which means even more fine putty over the rather rough green stuff ;-) ).

FoF "Grundausbildung". A little gift to my fellow German gamers.

I've been asked by a couple of users of German wargaming-related forums I frequently browse through, if I could do some example of Force On Force gameplay in German.
After I asked Shawn at AAG for permission (which I received), I spent the whole day with translating examples that Shawn himself had created. He used drawn maps to give gamers a better understanding of what was described in the text. I went for a more appealing approach and set up a gaming table and brought my miniatures to get some exciting pictures taken.

Here are a couple of the pics I used as an example:

The German version can be found here


Die deutsche Version der Beispiele für Force On Force Spielsituationen könnt ihr hier finden.



Ambush Alley Games recently has created a Wiki page that does include those example in their original English version. I do recommend to save that page in your favourites. There is more and more of free stuff for FoF gamers available and you'll always will find it there!

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #2

Work has continued on my UH-1Y conversion. I have added the turned exhaust ports and the crew, used lots of green stuff to cover up all the cutting that was done to the fuselage to add the resin part etc. It is still a long way until I can add primer. There is plenty of detail still missing, but it already comes in to shape.

SHQ Miniatures were added for pilot and co-pilot.

the heavily modified back part of the fuselage. Don't mind the yellow part on top - I have been scavenging an old italeri kit to get this part.

The top is still unfinished. I need to use some putty to cover up were resin part meets plastic kit. After that I will add the final parts of where the rotor is being mounted in.

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP

Italei's Twin Huey is what I used for the main parts.

The cockpit. Crew is still missing.

This side will get a door gunner with 7.62mm minigun. The other side a .50cal MG.

"Star Force 21" is the call-sign of the helicopter picking up and transporting Team Razor in the PC game ARMA 2. The helicopter is a UH-1Y Venom. Since there is no such kit available, I will scratchbuild one using parts from various other helicopters and Italeri's UH-1N Twin Huey.
Star Force 21 is going to get the complete overhaulin' to include crew, door gunners, sidemounts with Hydra rocket pods, 7.62mm minigun and a .50cal heavy MG. To finish it off, the whole model is going to be mounted on a flyer base from GW. That should give it a pretty stable mount for most game purposes.