Make Your Own Mechwarrior with 3D Printing
June 3, 2013 by dracs
There an be no doubt that 3D printing has the potential to revolutionise miniature sculpting, something made all the clearer by this model printed by a Mechwarrior fan named Valcrow.
We came across this on Kotaku and were thoroughly impressed by the level of detail it shows off. It apparently has 11 points of articulation and from the waste up has only two parts that needed to be glued together.
Close up we can see that the model might benefit from some slight sanding and filing as certain parts look a little over textured, but it is still a very impressive fan made sculpt.
The implications of making miniatures ourselves like this are interesting to say the least. As you can see from these images the 3D printer can achieve a pretty good level of quality which is at least on par with mass produced miniatures. I could certainly see it being a positive step for those who might want to get into creating their own miniatures and sculpts but might otherwise lack the resources to do so.
What do you think 3D printing like this could mean for the miniatures industry and hobby as a whole
I’m actually in the process of refreshing my 3D skillz for exactly this purpose – not to make Battlemechs, but to see what I can achieve in terms of spare parts etc for some of my miniatures. If the printing services offered by Shapeways is a good example then it seems as though 3D printing is still only good for prototyping and making master molds because the materials don’t seem to be ‘there’ yet.. with even the most expensive ones failing to match up to the clean, crisp results you get from resin.
After some very careful preparation, a larger object assembled from printed components can look pretty good but the idea of carefully sanding every surface on a fragile ~28mm printed model fills me with dread 😀
..are a good example, not IS a good example. Bah.
What is fascinating is that companies can utilize this technology to create print on demand miniature lines, that is something I am really waiting to see.
God, if only Iron Wind would make something of this quality for Battletech.
Seriously, I just picked up a Tundra Wolf off of Ebay (a heavy ‘mech) and it’s ludicrously out of scale with my Saggitaire (an assault ‘mech). Damn thing is HUGE!
Of all the games out there, I think Battletech would benefit the most from this technology. The sculpts look dated at this point and quality of the plastic starter mechs can be sketchy. How hard would it be to take the updated mech designs from a game like Mechwarrior online and port them to a cad program for 3d printing? Sell the premium cad designs for a competitive price and people would go nuts for this stuff. Or simply use 3d printing as a means of avoiding the horrific costs of new moulds. Companies need to embrace this.
P.S.@dracs The term “Mechwarrior” refers to the pilot only. What we see here is an example of someone who made their own Battlemech.
P.P.S people need to play more Battletech.
People need to play more Battletech is right. Randall posted a blog last week wherein he mentioned that they’re re-re-releasing the intro box set and the minis are getting resculpted. The pics so far look promising.
With the hundreds of mechs and thousands (tens of thousands now?) variants of those mechs though, Battletech is definitely a prime candidate for some new mini production methods. It’s still not ready yet though. The cost of 3D printing is still much higher than casting when doing full production runs. If Iron Wind shifted to a 100% print-on-demand business model with no inventory, the cost might work out in their favor, but not with any rapid prototyping technology that actually produces a smooth surface (right now, stereo lithography and laser sintering, both of which are more expensive than 3D printing).
In time though. The quality is only getting better, and the cost is only getting lower. It’s only a matter of time…
Unfortunately the resculpts are…well, they don’t look like massive improvement, and they’re still the same 80’s stick figure designs that old fans hate and that work like kryptonite on potential players these days.Even the iconic models like Vulture or Madcat look cheesy with the sippy-straw arms on which their weapons dangle. They don’t need to go full 3D print on demand, they just need to use the possibility of quickly and cheaply producing masters to update the models. The Atlas above still has the goofy elements of the old atlas, but is much better design.
Agreed. Playing 3039 or 3050 Battletech looks a bit campy due to the old 80’s mech designs, which is unfortunate given the amazing visions we see in MWO (not the best game out there, but at least the mechs look great).
Maybe 3d printing isn’t the answer, but man…Iron Wind needs to do something to bring this game into the spotlight. Battletech is by far the most inclusive and flexible rule-system I’ve ever seen, but the mini line has really stagnated…and that DOES stop people from playing.
I’ll be buying another starter box just for the better quality minis, and the premium Battlemaster, but what’s really needed is a complete re-haul of the older mechs. Do a quick comparison between the Iron Wind Centurion and the one featured in MWO just to see what I mean.
I like some of the old designs (except the LAMs and other anime-looking ones). They look like walking tanks and not like cartoons. I think what they really need though is to just push more 3050-3067 era stuff. The clan designs from the 3050 TRO are cover-worthy mechs, and if Catalyst would just push out that damn clan starter set (now cancelled I hear?) that would really pull some new people in. There were some mean-looking mechs from the FedCom Civil War era too. Most of the stuff since just seems too cartoony to me, though some of the post-Jihad designs have promise.
Lately though, it kind of seems like Battletech is on autopilot. I think their decision to print the Dark Age era for two years coincides with their decisions to focus on Shadowrun and Leviathans more. Maybe when “the year of Shadowrun” is over and the Leviathans line is finally in full-swing, we’ll see some cool new stuff post Dark Age. But I think until then, BT is effectively in maintenance mode.
I like Shadowrun too, so it’s not like I’m crying. But I do kind of wonder if Catalyst is stretching its resources a little thin.
> They look like walking tanks and not like cartoons.
No, no they don’t. They look wierd, silly, campy or clumsy like someone thrown a bunch of pipes over a cereal box, but not like tanks. I know it’s personal tastes and those always differ, but I can’t recall a single mech, even the supposedly better-designed clanmechs, that looks remotely like an actual weapon of war. They are MORE cartoony than TTGL, and that was designed to look outrageously over the top.
I think Dark Age is actually being done by WizKids (so named for taking the piss out of gamers). Classic Battletech is being run by Catalyst while minis are done by Iron Wind. Although I think Catalyst is doing an EXCELLENT job with rules, I think there are just too many hands in the pot at this point.
@t9v3
Nope. The Dark Age collectible mini game with separate rules was WizKids and that went out of production many years ago. The timeline of the main game has caught up to it though. Catalyst is making Dark Age era supplements as we speak (TROs already printed, Field Manual coming soon). WizKids isn’t even involved with the IP anymore. The parent company, Topps, is the licensee now. Once the Catalyst guys are done fleshing out the Dark Age era, they have plans to move onto the next step of the timeline, though they haven’t yet said what that will be.
I actually came to Battletech via the Mechwarrior games on PC and then Mechwarrior Dark Age minis game, and prefer a lot of those designs to the ‘classic’ Battletech models.
And I freaking ADORE what has been done to update them for Mechwarrior Online. If your a fan then each Mech is instantly recognisable, yet feels much more ‘real’. I canlt wait to see how they update the Clan chassis’…..
I play it, love it, and love the models. Since being introduced to it early last year it’s replaced 40K as my main game. I agree with you that this could breathe fresh life into older sculpts, but we have seen that not all the plastics in the starter box are as you put it sketchy – the Loki and Thor are good (if massive, but then I can’t compare them to the metal), it’s a shame we haven’t seen any other models released in this style. I’m actually in the process of tweaking MWO’s take on the Raven for BT use right now, cutting out small parts like rails and antennae ready to send to Shapeways. I will be keeping it as a personal project, not for sale
The Loki and Thor aren’t going in the new starter box. They’re going to be replaced by a MadCat (Timber Wolf) and a Battlemaster, both made with the same injection molding process that the Loki and Thor mechs were made with (so better than the rest of the mechs in the box, even after their resculpt).
When a games design can’t break out of a dated image it’s time for a complete overhaul. If anything the Mech’s from Battletech give reason for mankind to never make giant humanoid robots for battle. If they have yet to break the yoke of the stale 80’s look, it’s time to move onto other games with fresher outlooks. Heavy Gear Blitz anyone?
I don’t think Catalyst is worried. The company is growing. Sales are increasing. The game has been steadily gaining audience since CGL took over. The IP has fueled two successfully crowd-funded games. The booth at GenCon keeps getting bigger and more crowded.
No overhaul required, frankly. There’s nothing wrong with the game (except the IP licensing maze that seems to accompany everything Jordan Weisman touches). The reason for Battletech’s decline was solely attributable to the fact that it’s creator wanted to make video games instead. He shut down the tabletop company, turned it into a video game studio and sold the tabletop rights to WizKids (who created a terrible HeroClix version of the game and then later transferred the rights to Topps). FanPro kept making the old Battletech (under license from WizKids), but they just weren’t managed very well. Catalyst isn’t picking up the pieces of a broken game. They’re cleaning up the mess left behind by a neglected company.
For all the good things Weisman has done (Battletech and Shadowrun being top of the list), it’s easy to question some of his business choices over the years. He rightly foresaw that video games would become a bigger entertainment industry than any other (which it is, by a margin of several billion dollars annually), but he wrongly assumed that tabletop games would disappear as a consequence (the opposite has happened. More customers have come to tabletop from the videogame side of things than have ever been brought into the hobby from any other source before). And his record with intellectual property is pretty abysmal. His decision to license (legally) mech designs from Japan came back to bite him when Harmony Gold got their panties in a twist (which was really caused by his decision to license his own IP to Playmates for a toy partnership that fell through). His decision to license (and later sell) his IP to Microsoft was a huge mistake he’s now paying for (and probably means we’ll never see a Crimson Skies game of any kind ever again). His decision to sell the tabletop rights to WizKids nearly killed several great games, which were only saved by the efforts of companies like Catalyst (and the sacrificial lamb, FanPro).
Great games. Fantastic fluff. Great universe. Great designs (IMO). Just some questionable business decisions.
>The game has been steadily gaining audience since CGL took over
Really? From 10 to 20 players across the world? Because the game’s deeeeead as doornails wherever I look. It has pockets of deep-seated fans, often left from the 80’s or 90’s even, with minimal fresh blood injected. The system is massive, bloated, and at it’s core, a chit-based boardgame. It has stupid flaws like being able to damage something just by throwing stones at it long enough (In BT, you CAN destroy a mech by firing a pistol at it long enough…), and as mentioned before, there is a reason every computer game iteration in the last decade tried to re-design the awful, awful original designs- that’s because they haven’t dated well at all.
Overall, the game is in a dire need of being put on a strict diet and training regime, because it’s about to suffer a massive heart attack. New MWO players do NOT mean new players for the CBT, not when the computer version is relatively hasslefree compared to the un-newbie-friendly game that CBT is.
I think people’s experience with CBT has a lot to do with the people they’ve played with. Simply lining up a few mechs and smashing into each other gets boring fast. You might as well just eject your ammo and run into melee. The game works “best” when you take the time to design interesting scenarios. Combat can be slow, but when you design a scenario that emphasizes objectives the game really takes off.
I’m currently writing a scenario that involves a having small group of mercs disable a moving train, secure the cargo, and call in VTOL’s to extract the cars. Players will have a number of options on how they want to stop the train that range from using a software program to activate the track’s emergency shut down, shooting the train, destroying the tracks, (DFA the engine and uncouple the cars?)….whatever they can think of. Each option has a number of risks, spectacular results, like a derail and skid (hope no one is in the way), and the players will be engaged by enemy mechs after a few turns. Since I’m Gm’ing the scenario all the “bloated” rules become my responsibility. The players merely concentrate on executing their plan. I tend to play Battletech more like a game of D&D, and the rules let me bring in all kinds of crazy stuff.
I’m sorry you don’t like the game, but that doesn’t change the fact that sales are increasing, and the audience is actually growing. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to think the designs are good or the game is good. But other people do, and the products keep selling. CGL is doing pretty well these days. Maybe that isn’t reflected at your FLGS. But it is elsewhere. Sales are good. I don’t know if BT ran over your dog as a kid or what, but you’re taking these statements of fact awfully personally.
P.S. You can’t destroy a mech by firing a pistol at it. Small arms fire is ineffective against mech armor. Infantry has to use anti-mech weapons (mostly explosives) to take down a mech.
As for being a chit-based “boardgame” (also known as a wargame like every other hex-based wargame), so what? Do you have the same complaint about Dreadball, which could be played on the exact same hex board it already is without minis and be exactly the same game? If anything, the hexes are what makes BT practical. You can’t have hundreds of different unit types and thousands of variants of those types and expect players to actually collect all of those minis all the time. The abstraction of the game is what makes the storyline of the game (its strongest attribute) practical. It might not be to your taste, but it’s not necessarily a mark against it. And if you want to play it like a miniatures game on terrain, you can. Everybody wins.
Plus they’ve announced plans for a more streamlined ruleset (I believe it’s called Battletech Alpha Strike) using their un-hexed rules as a basis…
Looks like this one uses the Atlas design from MWO, unless other appearances for it have given it the same shape of missile launchers, those X marks on the chest and the arm-mounted lasers being on the backs of the forearms.
I’ve been blown apart by enough Atlas’ in MWO to recognise the design. 😛
The good thing about making 3D models for something like this over what I do at college is that at college we are limited by a polycount, which restricts detail. This on the other hand wouldn’t have that problem so i could go as wild as i like on details and not have to worry.
Could probably do with a bit more practice though, not quite at this level of detail yet 🙂
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