Two more for the Horde

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You will pass the potatoes!

I've been a little burnt out on painting mechs here of late, and so these and a few other half painted mechs have been knocking around my desk for awhile now. To be honest, all but one of them are at the ready-to-be-inked stage. As I was inking some Star Wars minis this weekend (visible here), I added these two into the inking batch in order to push them across the finish line. 

Looking down the business end, a sight few survive unscathed. 

Mech # 14, the arm also shows a few kill marks which may, or may not have occurred during it's previous career as a Dark Caste Bandit. 

The Starslayer was previously painted for my Dark Cast Bandits, but I stripped and repainted it for my Desert Horde. It will most likely be used as the STY-2C-EC as I have been wanting to field this oddball variant with a force of pre-Clan invasion Nova Cats. 

The sight of a Hoplite usually doesn't alarm an opponent, this one might though...

I couldn't resist the adding the checkboarding on this one, making this the only Desert Horde mech to have any sort of decorative flourishes. 

As this model is armed with a PPC (either a standard of ER model), I carefully trimmed off the AC-10's ejection port and covered the area up with more checkerboarding. 

The Hoplite has been modified using an LRM-15 launcher from reddogminis to serve as a HOP-4B, and/or the far more dangerous HOP-4Bb. This came out well enough that I may order some more hoplites and repeat the process for my Wolf's Dragoons. 

The latest paints

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Totally not carrying the Captain General's battlefield wardrobe and personal bivouac replete with waterbed and satin sheets...

So...my favorite Cyclops variant is also the least effective variant on the tabletop. That's almost like a theme with me. Anyways...the CP-10-HQ model is a free roaming forward operating command center, the AC-20 was removed and in it's place and strapped to the mech's back is a Collapsible Command Module. 

The fold-a-fort parts are carried in the mech's 'backpack'.

Its not entirely toothless still having an LRM-10, SRM-4 and lastly a medium laser in each arm. 

The mech is usually in a command lance and it's weaponry is more defensive than offensive as the B-2000 computer system, when connected to said module makes this an effective command center for a planetwide assault. Thus it is too risky a mech to use in an assault. If anything, headhunter units will likely try to capture or destroy this mech if it's presence is detected. Few command modules survived the Succession Wars intact and the surviving CP-10-HQs likely had lesser systems in its place. 

Something about this pic just bugs me...

Like so many catalyst KS rescuplts, the new Cicada sculpt is fantastic! During the succession Wars, Marik only had access to the base model, but their neighbors the Capellans had a few of the more interesting variants, and most likely donated a few along with a planet or two...

Fast and fragile fire support. 

Note the tiny unit logo on the shoulder plate.

Last up is a new mech for my beloved TBAGers: a Valkyrie. Ya know, in all of my years of playing Battletech, I have never owned one of these mechs or at least not that I can recall (am damned near 50 at this point, so take my memory with a grain of salt).

Shoot & scoot baby! Shoot & scoot...

I'm adding a lance of light/fast mechs to my otherwise slow and plodding TBAGers. Previously recon was left to a Phoenix Hawk and oh so average speed Panther. I plan on adding a Commando and Vulcan which will at least offer some speed, if not firepower. 

But wait, there's more...

Last but certainly not the least: The following pic was taken from FB IM and is evidence of Screech finally painting mechs! Looks pretty good to me.

Insert grey joke here: 

Production! Production!

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Technically, this isn't all of them...

This is more like 2ish weeks of painting or so. As mentioned above there is one more, a repaint of the (now former) Hotshot of the Whipits. That mech can be seen running around in my prior post. Here are the latest mechs up close: 

Just a minor conversion of an existing conversion. 

Previously, this Urbie was one of two UM-R68 conversions (the other one is here). However I recently bought the new Urbie lance box and got an actual UM-R68. So, with the addition of a little bit of plasticard, and a decal of 'IV' to drive the point home, I present to you the UM-AIV. The artillery Urbie that has been known to launch nukes from time to time. Of the two, this one turned out better, so the other went to eBay (I seriously don't need two arrow IV Urbies) and is currently transiting the inner sphere enroute to a repeat customer of mine Texas.  

Yeah, this is too dynamically posed to be an actual Catalyst model. 

Originally I gave this stats for an industrial mech called the 'Tonka' that could be modified in times of crisis to wield a modular LBX-10. That said, more likely than not I'll just use it as an Arbiter (if ever).

Marik Militia Ostroc & Quickdraw.

The Quickdraw, I have yet to use this mech but it seems decent enough on paper.

I just love the garish color scheme of the Marik Militia.

The Ostroc, another new KS mech, and a vast improvement over the old model! 

Years ago I had the ancient lead version of this mini and it did fairly well on the tabletop, it was just hideous looking which resulted in it getting sold off.

The whole, newly finished lance together. 

Why did the Dark Caste Bandit cross the road?

This is another mech where the base was harder to do than the mech itself.

The Starslayer is...kinda ugly, but it's grown on me. These guys must've been digging deep into the trash heaps to find and refurbish this old STY-2C-EC (Early Clan). 

Closing out with a group shot. 

Tonight I am going to the FLGS for some campaign games hopefully (I'm waaaay behind on those) and next wednesday Nick is coming over tentatively for the first mini game to be held at our new house. So I should have some battle reports to post on next week!

Finally painting some Mechs!

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In homage to the now hidden blue resin that this was printed in, the ruins on the base were painted blue.

Call sign: Yankee.

As promised in my last post, I painted up my Enforcer that took down the executioner with a lucky headshot. It seemed dumb to leave out it's lance mates, so they're in progress too...well, most of 'em. The Charger, deserves paint  for sponging a hideous amount of damage whilst refusing to simply die. However it's destined to go with The Buffet Assault Group, and as I lack their primer color currently, it remains in the mini case. Instead it was replaced in the lance by a Hunchback HBK-4SP. 

One of these is not like the others...

The Vallejo camo beige that these are all base coated with is anything but opaque. Thus, three successive coats were needed to achieve a consistent opacity. Thus whilst they were drying, I painted up a Clan Wolverine Zeta Galaxy Hoplite. This is a conversion to represent the Operation Klondike era HOP-4Cb, which is armed with a gauss rifle and SRM-6. I also painted up a base of motorized infantry to match which took no time at all. 

Stomping it's way thru the underbrush...

That yellow is such a bitch that I only added the accent stripes across the top side.

These are technically 10-ton wheeled APCs, but they're Savannah Master sized, so I used them as motorized infantry.

Locust LCT-1E Conversion

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The Locust LCT-1E is a Capellan Confederation variant of the ubiquitous Locust. Created with the intent to increase the mech's rather paltry firepower, while also (and conveniently) removing the volatile machine gun ammo that was lurking frighteningly in the center torso. The latter is an important consideration given that this little mech lives under the aegis of 'speed is life', and the last time I used it, Friggin Hoss' Griffin damn near tore it in half after rolling an 11 (WTF?!?) to hit it!

Big guns, little body...perfect!

The 1E is pretty much the only Locust variant I ever field, and as I'd prefer it to be WYSIWYG rather than a perma-proxy which is more often than not the case in Battletech.

The new side profile.

Digging around the bitz box, I found a pair of 'robot arms' from Hasslefree Miniatures and whilst a bit beefy, I think they work nicely! I trimmed off the chin turret (yay for soft plastic) and popped off the MG 'arms'. Smoothing the plastic out at the joints, I used an 1/8" drill bit to hand drill in two holes to serve as arm sockets, a little glue and violà! All it needs now is paint!