BLR-1G Battlemaster - Angela Franks 'The Black Pearl'

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If you have been reading any of my blog posts then you know I love the deep lore stories; and some of the best came out of the side panel fluff embedded in the original house sourcebooks.  I have focused a lot on House Kurita, because lets be honest - they are super fun to write about - but here is one from the equally good House Steiner Sourcebok:  The Legend of the Black Pearl.

Angela Franks
Angela Franks was a holo-vid star in the Lyran Commonwealth, and an avoid patriot spending her time off set running war bon drives and other such pro-war activities.  In 2853 she decided that running charity and war bond drives was not sufficient so she retired her holo-vid career and joined the Lyran Armed Forces to do her part.  Obviously this act was a great propaganda coup for the Lyran state and as such Angela was granted a Mechwarriors training pipeline and, by all accounts, excelled at it.  The Lyran propaganda machine captured her career in holo-vid reality, driving patriotic fervor and the romantic side of a Mechwarriors life.

Angela was posted to the The Stealth's as a scout pilot and eventually worked her way up to pilot a captured Kurita Battlemaster and command a heavy battalion in the regiment.  It was on Sakhalin that her legend was cemented in the lore of the LCAF.  In a fight against Kurita "The Black Pearl" led her battalion in a charge against the flank of a Kurita force; and in the process drew significant fire from the Kurita forces.  In a brutal concentration of firepower her Battlemaster was ruined and the cockpit gutted, presumably killing Angela Franks.  However when a Kurita Warhammer moved forward to the Battlemaster a final barrage of laser fire cooked off from the Lyran machine and struck entirely against the cockpit of the Warhammer, killing the pilot and dramatically dropping the machine.

All this was captured by a holo-vid news crew, and widely distributed.  Angela Franks became a legend and a hero of the LCAF.  Her likeness was adopted on a coin of the realm - there is also a mention of a ship named the "Angela Franks" which was lost in the Siege of Hesperus in 2853; the year Angela joined the LCAF.  So either this was an oversight on the authors of the House Steiner sourcebook or Angela was so prolific a fund raiser they named a warship after her... 

As a final note there was a short sourcebook like short story fiction piece entitled "Pearl's Ghost" which describes a document reported to have been circulated in late 3060's purporting itself to be a diary entry of Angela Franks decrying her role in promoting the Steiner Archon's rule.  It is generally considered a forgery for anti-regime agitators, but is worth an honorable mention for deep lore facts.  I actually had never heard of this piece and took a bit of internet digging to find a copy of it; which is now in my ever growing archive of lore.

In the lore there is one mention of her Battlemaster being all black, however the Stealths regimental paint scheme is one of deep purple running to black on the limbs; which is what I decided to paint for this model. I choose a citadel contrast Leviathan Purple for a base coat on this MWO style Battlemaster.  I then used Citadel contrast black on the limbs in increasing thickness to give it a fade look.  Overall its a difficult paint scheme to pull off, and I am more or less happy with it given my use of brushes instead of a airbrush and general lack of skill.  

The Stealths Regimental Crest
The Stealths are a storied unit in the first and second succession war, though they disapear after that.  I am not sure if I will revisit them unless I uncover some old Battlecorp story or scenario involving them - which is entirely possible given I missed about a decade of excellent short fiction, unit profiles and scenarios for Battlecorp.  I really wish that Catalyst would just re-release all the stored material in scenarios and what not in e-pub format.  Seriously - just take my money already!

Anyway, here is a quick one unit project - we have one more project completed in 2022 I'll post soon.  Then its on to even more random lore projects - this time with my own 3d Printer!






Sources:

House Steiner Sourcebook

House Steiner Handbook

"Pearls' Ghost" Short Story


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