Painting Lore: Miniatures Inspired by the Story

This was a fun little project that let me use a few  unique elements and recreate one of the more famous scenes from the early novels of Battletech.  Here I did my best to recreate the early hours of the Gray Death Legions landing on Verthandi - nearly shot down in there Danais class dropship the legion was attempting to unload as many of there supplies and war machines as possible when they were attacked by a lance of Duke Ricol's household guard, as well as an aero-lance of Slayers.  To make matters worse they also had a whole company of Galleon light tanks assault there position. In the end they are able to slip away with a group of rebels and keep there dropship intact - mostly.  A fair amount of plot armor in this one I think. The slayers are both 3d Models I picked up at some point and scaled up by about 10% with a little thickening of the model to bring them in line with the current CGL scaling.  The Galleons are all the modern version, these printed real...

  Following the Ozawa Campaign in which the 3rd Crucis pushed the 5th Sword of Light back from its conquest of that world the Lancers withdrew to Markab for rest and refit.  The respite was short lived, as the 5th Sword of Light sought to erase the stain of there defeat in another action against the 3rd Crucis.  A bitter fighting withdraw took place as the 3rd Crucis struggled to maintain its unit cohesion under the surprise attack. In the last moments of the retreat the Crucis Lancers were in a difficult position and there regimental commander Colonel O'Malley decided to lead a last ditch defense against Sorenson's company to hold them at bay long enough for the dropships to finish loading.  As last stands go, having an Atlas handy is a pretty good way to do it. In the scenario presented in Sorenson's Sabers the defending forces are described as basically what ever survived the previous battles; the previous two scenarios have Sorenson's sabers fighting already dama...

Mercer Ravannion had a bold idea.  Maybe not a good idea, but a bold one.  Use cheap inexpensive 20 ton mechs like the stinger, wasp and locust, to just swamp heavier more expensive machines.  Since these machines were still being made, were easy to replace and the Draconis Combine values machines over its men, well - maybe it could have worked.  But it didn't - most of the time. I had done a single Stinger a few years back for Mercer in a camo pattern, but since then I wanted to start building out more complete units - in this case my generic House Kurita battalion in house colors - so I decided to revisit this one and do the unit as it appeared in the Fox's Teeth scenario on Fallon II.  This is the exact TO&E of the test unit - 2 wasps and 4 stingers - who went up against the recon lance of McKinnon's Raiders.  I did choose to buy the premium IWM Wasp and make it a Kurita variant for Mercer's ride; the remainder I printed myself. Unleash the Bugs!

  Artillery is the King of Battle - or so the cannon cockers will tell you.  In BT it is often a side show, or a plot point to move along a battle forcing some action out of the characters.  In tabletop play it can be both decisive and irrelevant depending on deployment.  In either case, it adds a dimension to the game that takes it from Big Stompy Robot skirmish to military simulation - which for me is one of the highlights of BT. There are lots of Artillery units and types in the game, a variety of vehicle mounted guns and even a couple of mechs sporting some indirect fire capabilities.  But the oldest, and most versatile in terms of eras for play, is the Infantry Field Artillery.  These tube artillery troops are the most classic artillery set up - unprotected from return fire they run around there large bore guns loading, aiming, and moving to a new location on unarmored trucks and ammo carriers. It was this feel I wanted to capture for this Field Artill...

  The 5th Sword of Light and the 3rd Crucis Lancers engaged in a hard fought campaign on Ozawa in 3026.  The 5th SoL had invaded the planet and laid the militia low with relative ease but with the Crucis Lancers arrival there fortunes had begun to turn.  After several heavy engagements the Kurita forces were forced to pull out - during which Sorenson's Sabers were ordered to delay the 3rd Crucis in the hills around the capital city of Farrows Junction.  It was outside the Charkai Power Station where Marrow's Company of the 3rd Crucis squared off against Sorenson's Sabers of the 5th Sword. This engagement is detailed in the original Sorenson's Sabers scenario pack and offers the second lore compliant TO&E for the 3rd Crucis Lancers I have made to go with the original company also detailed in the same scenario pack.  I really enjoy the idea of have a battalion of the 3rd Crucis to square off against my completed 5th Sword of Light Battalion and so I intend to ...