Gray Dragons - CGR-1A1 Charger

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We are going deep into the Lore today.  I am re-reading all the source material to come up with inspiration for my painting, and being the Drac at heart that I am I started with the House Kurita Sourcebook.  This tome goes into probably to much detail (2nd Soviet Civil War of 2015 did not age well...or do we count the Ukraine war of 2022 as that?) but thats what we like about Battletech; its rich and diverse story.  

Here you have a little nugget from the early succession wars era.  Faced with a need to secure the periphery boarder against a bandit kingdoms which had been raiding his worlds without retasking line regiments needed for Lyran and Davion fronts Coordinate Shinjiro Kurita created a bounty program.  This program was open to all DCMS veterans and offered surplus military equipment, to include a limited number of battlemechs, for anyone willing to hunt bandits in the periphery.  Free jumpship transport was also provided to the bounty hunters. Of all the Gray Dragons operating along the border, only Tai-sho Ricardo “Geriatric Judge and Jury” Gillespie and his volunteers were continually successful in beating back whatever raiders they encountered.

For this project there was very little to go on - hell, at the time of this writing there is not even a Sarna entry for the 'Gray Dragon' program (I may remedy that shortly) so I was free to be creative.  Firstly I looked to what the DCMS would have in surplus circa 2911; and what they would not mind giving away.  And then I looked at the original 3025 tech readout and compared what I thought would be fun.  And right away I landed on this gem of a failed Battlemech concept:  The CGR-1A1 Charger.

This is a truly awful Battlemech.  Why the FASA gods ever thought this was a good idea - and perhaps why it would be a 'DMCS' favorite is beyond me.  An assault mech which is armed with basically a Stingers armament - without the range.  Truly good for basically bludgeoning other mechs or acting as a damage sink for its lance mates, this thing is terrible in game play.  Which makes it a good choice for a disposable surplus mech.

There was no reference for paint schemes, so I just went with what I thought a DCMS veteran might use.  Here we have the classic Drac red with white highlights inspired by the Imperial Japan's Navy Battle Flag of WWII.  Draconis Combine insignia, a little Kanji on the chest and bounty 'kills' painted on the leg of this bad boy rounds it out as a one off bounty hunter.  I did enjoy this paint since I was a little more free to do what I felt like.






For this model I used Vallejo Scarlet Red as a base coat, and Army Painter matt white for the highlights, gun metal gray for the weapon and actuators; Citadel tesserect glow for cockpit and Baharath Blue for weapon glow.  Agrax Earthshade adds a little detail over the gunmetal. All decals are my own prints.  Basing is Citadels Technical Astrogranite to give it that periphery asteroid base look.

If you care to give it a go here are the referenced colors:

Citadel - Agrax Earth Shade
Army Painter - Matt White
Vallejo Scarlet Red
Citadel - Baharroth Blue

Citadel - Tasseract Glow

Vallejo Gun Metal Grey

Citadel Technical Astrogranite


Sources:

House Kurita Sourcebook Pg. 78-79

House Kurita Handbook Pg. 58

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