The Clan Invasion

 

You remember the '60s, right? (the 3060s...) When a wave of Skiffle bands swept over the Inner Sphere with their mop-top hairdos and Burrock and roll music: The Rolling Stone Lions, the Jyde Falcyns, The Totem Animals, the list goes on. What I'm trying to say is that I've finally painted some more Clan 'mechs and wanted to make an extremely strained pun. I've also got a new SAD lamp for Christmas and while no mental health benefits have yet been observed it does improve my lighting setup a lot.

Mist Lynx (left) and Timberwolf (right). Or Koshi and Madcat if you swing that way.

BattleTech has an excessively extensive backstory, including names, paint schemes and markings for all of the major and minor faction, and there are plenty of resources online to record this (in this case, camospecs). I have therefore been able to do these first two Clan 'Mechs in "canon" patterns. The Timberwolf is in the  grey and brown of Clan Wolf's Beta Galaxy (regiment) which means that the red and brown of the wolf's head emblem of Clan Wolf is almost completely invisible to my red-green colourblind eyes. It does show up a bit better on the photos at least.

Just the Timberwolf (Madcat) but this time with an even worse view of the markings.

Clan Wolf, with all their 'grey' and their 'brown' are, of course, the most boring of the Clans. That's what comes of being the poster-child developer's pet faction I suppose. At least the Federated Suns got all those autocannons. Anyway, the Mist Lynx is also in grey, but thankfully Clan Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs have a big cat skin patterns to relieve the monotony. I included an attempt at the beta galaxy badge, but I drew the line at attempting a grey pouncing jaguar on a grey star on a grey surface covering no more than 25 square millimeters.

Inner Sphere 'Mechs: Charger (left) Vindicator (centre) and Commando (right). All but the Charger are different poses of 'Mechs I already own.

The double-naming of the Clan 'Mechs is somewhat reminiscent of the Russian vs. NATO names for various Warsaw Pact military equipment, with the Clans having one name for a 'Mech (which I consider the 'proper' name) and the Inner Sphere another, as the Clans weren't polite enough to send over any recognition charts before they invaded.

 

Vindicator again, very nice pose on this one.

My other paint schemes have been very much my own invention, with the Charger (a ridiculous design: well armoured and fast for its enormous weight, but almost completely unarmed) as a combination of "racecar" and "red wuns go fasta". The Vindicator is a bit more abstract "dazzle", but on a whim I decided to give the base sand a heavy reddish tint so it doesn't stand out too much.

 

Blurry photo, paint job not the best, but I love the pose.

With the Charger finished, I've now painted all the 'Mechs I need for the next scenario in my Battletech campaign. I've still to find time to getting round to playing it, and I'm not sure if it'll be done for a few weeks yet as I've got some very exciting baking to do, plus organising a Dungeons and Dragons game in my spare time.

It's fun to stay at the YMCA! (Young 'Mechs Christian Association).

In the grand tradition of most wargamers not being able to focus on a single project for very long, I've gone back to my 2mm moderns. After extensive re-basing , and a re-paint in some cases, things are looking a bit more organised. The way things are glued down right now, infantry sections are 6-8 persons on a 50 mm (50 m on the ground) by 10 mm base, while vehicles of all kinds are on 20 mm washers. Weapons teams, such as machine guns, mortars and guided missiles, are on 20 mm squares and I think reconnaissance are too. Artillery are on 25 mm squares, although as those are deployed off-table in Cold War Commander, that may have been unnecessary.

... and the reverse side, with attempted unit marking on the Mist Lynx.

Thinking about it, a good topic for my next post would be some of the many works-in-progress (especially the ones that have been lying around unfinished for years) I have, which has the benefit of producing content while not needing me to actually do anything. I'm sure you can see the advantages of that!