Trellwan Lancers - Trellwan Ca. 3024

When it comes to foundational stories that give us a sense of the Battletech universe; and the late succession wars era specifically, I always harken back to "Decision at Thunder Rift".  This original entry into the succession wars was great for its depiction of that ultra-modern big stompy robot and space ships contrast to the ultra-ordinary existence of the edge worlds just scraping by with tools we might find quant here.  Frankly the descriptions have always rung true after my time down range in Afghanistan, which can be likened to a pre-industrial society with machine guns and cell phones. It is a fascinating dichotomy which is captured nicely in the late succession wars period; perhaps this is why I find this dystopic sci-fi grittiness so appealing.  I must not be alone, since the gritty edge world sci-fi appeal seems alive and well in the Mandalorian franchise as well.

No Harrassers in Trellwan Lancers, but it
matches the camo and looks cool...

One of the key units we hear about as a side note, but always there, was the Trellwan Lancers hover units.  Always reliably transporting the infantry in and out of battle or distracting some mech unit the Lancers careened around there desert home with reckless abandon and seemed always ready for a scrap.  It was this unit I really wanted to highlight this time around, and I found inspiration for there make-up in the GDL scenario pack which highlights the climatic last stand at Thunder Rift.  The scenario calls for a number of hover vehicles and a few light mechs to hold out against Duke Ricol's household guard as they assault up a hill into the enclosure of Thunder Rift.

The force make-up harkens back to very early lore, before Citytech made every vehicle platoon a Hunter and Vedette for several years.  Instead we see generic vehicle classes of a Hover Scout, Hover Tank (LTV-4) and the Weapon Carrier A.  These are all generic vehicle types and as such can be proxied fairly easily, though the LTV-4 is a little more specific.

The hover scout specifically is little more than a record sheet mention and lacks the artwork associated to its wheeled compatriot.  Described as a generic class of vehicle I went in search of something to fit the mold of a light hover craft with a pintal mounted medium laser, reminiscent of the Wheeled Scout.  I found what I thought fit the mold to a T in the Crow Industries rendition of the Light Attack Hovercraft as featured in the Hired Steal youtube videos.  It features a turreted weapon which I can see passing for a medium laser, and is small with a crew of 1 or 2, exactly what I was looking for.  The STL is great, and I recommend Crow Industries if your looking for good proxies.

The second proxy was the weapon carrier A, described as a generic hovercraft mounting a large laser.  This was a bit more difficult as I didn't find anything exactly to my specifications so I had to kit bash a model.  I started with the the Hover APC from Mazer which is itself a recut of the Seraph Hover Craft by Smight.  First this was to add a hover skirt to get inline with the old school artwork and make it consistent with the hover scout.  The second thing was to kit bash together a top mounted laser turret, which I did with some kit bashing of misc weapon parts I had on hand.  A simple expansions on already excellent work done by others.  You can download the .stl here.

Finally I went with an interpretation of the LTV-4 which has a strong tank feel.  Even though I have since found a model which is truer to the retcon artwork, I still like this one and feel its worth keeping as a sculpt of a generic hover tank.  I will use the newer interpretation in later units, but for the Trellwan Lancers it feels right.  This one is from Yukuzhelev.

In terms of paint scheme - I had been looking for a reason to paint this desert camo pattern for a minute which was inspired by the artwork on the original Decision at Thunder Rift.  Curiously it also appears as the camo pattern on the Archer from the original Citytech cover art and a couple of other old school references.  I think there was an artist out there who thought it looked cool - and they were not wrong.

The original scenario did not call for a platoon of each vehicle type, but I wanted to spread the love to the different models so I made it even, four of each.