road to Nockatunga ( return to Battletech )

unfortunately life, work and family commitments will keep me away from FactoruM this weekend and from the event I was planning and hoping to attend.

on the plus side I can’t attend the next BattleTech (15mm scale) event either but my haul of Mechs has grown significantly with a BattleTech Game Of Armoured Combat boxed set, Clan Invasion boxed set and sixteen 3d printed mechs of various classes. I wish everyone that attends the best of luck and enjoyable weekends.

I hope to see you there for the next round of games.

so a couple of weeks ago after ordering the 3d prints I noticed that Wayland Games had stock of the clan boxed set available for retail prices, so putting aside past experiences I gave them a chance and ordered a box, to my surprise they arrived after a few days.

having selected a paint scheme for ghost bear it was about time to put paint to plastic so last night i gave it a try.

Is the balance.of blue and grey a bit wrong on the timberwolf/Madcat? Thinking of painting the cockpit area and upper arms grey aswell to rebalanced the model

having tested the ultramarine contrast paint on the urban mechs and decided that I didn’t like to look I gave them all a nuln oil wash and started picking out some minor details

the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a lack of Javelin mechs of which my list for the upcoming event boasts 2, when the boys at WMD games 3d printed my mechs for me they made a logistical error and my tiny light mech turned out to be on of the bigger models and as such they are reprinting it for me. I hope to have it ASAP. so they can join their brothers and sisters…

speaking of which apart from naming the mechwarriors from the original Star Wars expanded universe what other naming conventions would people like to suggest, Since I am fielding two identical mechs I would like to have twin pilots for them, for example Jiana and Jacen the twins of Han and Leia Solo in the expanded universe novels which Disney disavows all knowledge of

my plan was to spray all the unmasked areas white then hit the whole model with a blue GW contrast paint making the grey primer a blueish grey and the whiter areas a light blue but as is often the case I got in my way and decided on the spot to mix up a light blue instead of plain white because apparently that would have been too easy… being limited in my vallejo model air colours to blue, french blue or blue grey I chose the blue grey and mixed it with some white this was then tried and more blue blue was added and more white making it pretty much impossible to match the paint i have now mixed if I ever try to replicate the design.

After dragging myself out of bed and prodding the kids to school this morning I attempted to get my cold ridden carcass into the garden to prime and prep some Mechs, it took all day and I wasn’t technically done when I went to collect the kids this afternoon.

after a primer coat of halfords grey a zenithal highlight was applied with thinned down AV “white” game air paint, once dry strips of blue-tac were applied to mask areas for camouflage

so my road back to battletech and the 4ground / FactoruM Nockatunga weekend started with finding some mechs, I chose for my two lances (battlegroups for battletech) to include

a quickdraw QKD 4G   https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-qkd-4d-quickdraw-for-battletech-105395

Enforcer  ENF 4R  https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-enf-4r-enforcer-for-battletech-105147

and two Javelins JVN 10N  https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/games-toys/board-games/battletech-javelin-jvn-10n

This completes the first squad or Lance of mechs

second lance includes some heavy hitters and some light mechs

Marauder II MAD 5A   which I’m technically using the wrong model for i think  https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-marauder-iic-for-battletech-105380

Trebuchet TBT 5N  https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-tbt-5n-trebuchet-for-battletech-105436

Panther PNT 9R https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-pnt-9r-panther-for-battletech-105393

Locust LCT 1V  https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-lct-1v-locust-for-battletech-105370

I had these printed for me by the excelent services of  https://www.wmdminiatures.co.uk

they are primed and soon with be painted starting with some zenithal highlights. any name suggestions for lance orr individual MechWarrior’s/Mechs?