Ardan Sortek - VTR-9B Victor

- March 13, 2022

In July of 3025 the Capelan Confederation launched an assault on Stein's Folly in the Federated Suns. After successfully capturing the planet from its defenders the Capelan forces settled in to defend it against an expected counter-attack. This attack arrived in the form of an atmospheric drop by the 17th Avalon Hussars into a muddy swamp-bog outside the anticipated landing zones the Capelans has set up to defend.

Ardan Sortek, a close confident of Prince Hanse Davion, led the initial atmospheric drop in his 80 ton Victor. Misjudging the landing zone Ardan had to be extracted from a muddy bog by a fellow

Ardan Sortek

mechWarrior. The resulting muck and grime fouled his Victors Pontiac 100 Autocannon 20 feed resulting in a feed jam and consequently losing the mech's primary weapon system. Anyone who knows a Victor will immediately realize this turns an otherwise dangerous assault class machine into an up-armored light mech in terms of firepower. While Ardan was able to give a good accounting of himself for much of the confused consolidation which follows any airborne drop (mechs are no different than paratroops... scatter a bunch of soldiers from the air and things get crazy) his mech was shot out from under him after running into a Zeus. He subsequently ejected and survived, but his Victor was not so fortunate.

This scene is depicted in the Novel "The Sword and the Dagger", one of the first Battletech novels - and frankly not one of its shining examples. The plot is hokey, writing mediocre, and the understanding of military operations pretty shoddy. But its an interesting read in terms of early Battletech lore as the whole universe was findings its feet.

I decided that since this miniature was going to fall into the 'Pilots' series rather than be part of a larger unit I would take some liberties and represent it in a mottled tri-color camouflage pattern. The base color is Vallejo Grey Green with Vallejo Grey Black and Vallejo Field Drab as camouflage accents. Vallejo Gunmetal Grey provides the silver for barrels and inner workings. As with most of my paint schemes Game Workshop Tasseract Glow technical paint provides the gleam of the cockpit and Baharoth Blue the laser glow effects.

The mech itself is a Mechwarrior Online sculpt I acquired from an etsy shop - I like most of the MWO sculpts as they take the solid Ral Partha miniatures and give them some extra heft and detail. The newest sculpts are all a little to skinny for my taste. In any case this particular model represents a VTR-9B - The actual miniature was a VTR-9A1 which additional machine guns and flamers, but I removed the additional weapon points to better represent the base model.

I added a Games Workshop Stirland Battlemire for the swamp basing effects with Swamp Tuft from Army Painter. To represent the rather rough start and resulting weapon jam I added battlemire effects to the autocanon and am quite happy with how this feature turned out. Muzzle burn and joint effects were achieved with Gunmetal Grey and a bit of Agrax Earthshade wash.