6th Sword of Light; 17th Pesht Inf - Kentares Massacre

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The Kentares Massacre in the 1st Succession War looms larger than life in the lore of the Draconis Combine; arguably its most defining characteristic thru the 1st and 2nd Succession Wars until we get the more nuanced view of the House of Kurita in the late 3rd Succession Wars starting in early 3000s.  I have touched on The Kentares Massacre a couple of times already tangentially with the Daimyo HQ post and my Crucis Lancers Sniper Platoon post, but I wanted to highlight this one more directly by pulling from the short fiction piece "Swords of Light and Darkness" by Travis Heermen.  I read this as part of the Legacy Anthology and immediately jotted down notes, as I an want to do when reading Battletech Lore, about how to do a miniature project on it.

Travis captures the inhumanity and the humanity of the Kurita soldiers in this short story rather well, from the detached Battalion commander standing omnipotent in her Atlas overseeing the initial killings to the slow degradation of honor, morale, and morality of the Kurita soldiers in snippets later in the story.  It makes the Kentares Massacre, which on the face of it would seem impossible, somehow more possible to put some emotional struggle into the otherwise faceless Kurita killing machines who did the work.

For this project I wanted to capture the start of that massacre, which is portrayed for the characters in this story as taking place in early September of 2796 shortly after the arrival of Jinjiro Kurita, new Coordinator of the Draconis Combine who, by this point, had already issued his succinct order of "Kill them All" to his commanders.  The main character; Sam Tanaka; is piloting the Grasshopper which is the story telling tool of the entire anthology series as they heard the population of Carinda City, some 50,000, into the city center.  There Sam Tanaka takes part in a massacre; backed up by masses of the 17th Pesht Infantry who mow down civilians as they attempt to flee.


Hardly the glorious victory or righteous last stand most commonly highlighted in the lore.  And that's why I wanted to do this piece, to highlight the more advanced story telling of the battletech universe where the main characters are conflicted, made bad decisions and generally are the anti-hero at times.  This story is a good example of the more subtle forms of story telling the BT universe is capable of.

For the actual miniatures I choose Sam Tanaka's Grasshopper, of course, and two others from his company which were named or mentioned in the story.  I also included the Battalion commander Wong who initiated that first massacre; partly because she is integral to the complex narrative but also because I wanted to do an Atlas in the distinctive Sword of Light colors.

This SoL lance was done in Blood Angel Red contrast, with the usual silvering done with Lead Belcher and then dulled over with a Aggaros Shade.  I like the contrast paints for the SoL and will use it going forward for at least two other company projects in the works this year... Sorensons Sabres of 3025 era (of course...) as well as Zakahashi's Zombies.  Bonus points if you know where that complete company TO&E comes from...

I wanted to do a classic Kurita infantry look, and purposely went out and bough the IronWind Metals Kurita Infantry minis.  I normally will do proxies, because I love the Death Ray Designs ones but also they are a big larger and easier to work with.  The true to scale 6mm infantry are SMALL!  But with Aggaros Dune contrast and a small enough brush for detailing it is not so bad.  I did my best with these... and even ended up having an extra couple of 'squad leader' mini's left over (the ones with a radio to there ear) I used for 'Downed Pilot' markers for campaign play.  I had an extra Heavy Tracked APC from an early purchase so I included that here as well, seemed fitting.  This is painted in the Field Drab which fits the Kurita aesthetic (which is really imperial japan aesthetic from WWII but I digress...)

Overall I had enjoyed this project, and I think I am dialing in the look of these SoL lances.  I will say that the quality of the Catalyst miniatures are superior to anything I can 3D print, the detail is amazing and I love them... but until I can buy them individually and any model I want at will I will continue to 3d print some of my stuff.

Oh yea, I bought a 3d printer... so now all the super obscure units like skimmers, GDL Weapon troop carriers, and variant models of VTOLs are getting done!









Source:

Legacy:  Sword of Light and Darkness

House Kurita Sourcebook


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