Chain Gang 23 - PHX-HK2 Pheonix Hawk LAM & STG-A5 Stinger LAM

Stinger LAM running amok

Gather around boys and girls as I tell you a tale of wanton waste of soon to be sparse war material.  It is a bit inconceivable today, in the depths of the 3rd Succession war that the Draconis Combine at one point wasted nearly 3 regiments of Battlemechs on suicidal raids on there enemies boarder worlds.  But that is exactly what happened in 2824 in the lull between the 1st and 2nd succession wars.

Justice in the Combine is a harsh business

The Kurita’s use of undesirables in its ‘Chain Gang’ missions was mostly a waste of resources; achieving little except drawing the ire of its neighbors and ridding the Combine of 300 unproductive citizens and Mechs mostly not worth repairing. On Maetsu Chain Gang 23 achieved some little success through its use of Land Air Mechs mobility; though the exact outcome is not discussed in detail. Why LAM’s were chosen, and how they found individuals with enough talent to learn to both fly an aerospace fighter and work a mech in the ranks of the unproductive's is not clear.







Indeed if it had not been codified in later sourcebooks one might have decided to look the other way at the mention of ‘flak’ and the image in the original house Kurita sourcebook where the Chain Gang 23 entry is found and ignore the insinuation of LAMs. But with explicit mention in later canon you just lean into it, and say ‘Hey, why not?’. The old sourcebooks are full of stuff like that… its part of the 80’s charm.



The image associated to the House Kurita side bar on Chain Gang 23 clearly referencing a LAM

In the excerpt from House Kurita sourcebook the audio log tells of a lance leader describing flak and his stinger and Phoenix Hawk pilots having various issues working there equipment. So I went with the most obvious pair of Mechs to represent the Chain Gang 23 contingent - a Stinger and Phoenix Hawk LAM.

Old School Ral Partha

These are the old 1980’s vintage lead ones. It took me a while to scrounge up LAM models for this, and though there are a few 3D printed old school sculpts, I decided for this project, and a future one, only the originals would do. Paint scheme is a camouflage one based on a world war II style I found online - originally a two tone green camo pattern that after a dark wash is hard to distinguish. Gray Blue is used on the cockpit, a departure from my neon glow technical paint I use for most Battlemech cockpits, but given the aircraft nature of the hybrid mode I thought it fitting.

New School IWM

While I dislike a lot of the old school lead sculpts as being too skinny and frail looking compared to the newer mechwarrior style more common these days, sometimes you roll with the old school when the new school is a bit… underwhelming. I have to admit I looked at the new Ironwind sculpts for LAMs and immediately dismissed them. They may be copyright infringement free, but they just don’t look like a LAM in my eyes.



Anyway, I have another special LAM project in the works - so if you like these quirky and tactically questionable ‘Mechs come back and check out my future posts. A hint as to which unit it will represent: Prancing Ponies and High Flyers…

Sources:

House Kurita Sourcebook

Handbook: House Kurita

1st Succession War Sourcebook