Painting Lore: Miniatures Inspired by the Story

  The scenario book Sorenson's Sabers was created right at the same time as Citytech, and was clearly designed to supplement play in that new rule set.  With the Saber's specialty being city fighting there were lots of opportunity for street fighting.  One of the quirks of this era was that the two major vehicle units to use in CityTech originally were the humble Vedette Medium Tank and the Hunter Light Tank.  The result is many of the scenarios in this feature those two tanks nearly exclusively. As I work towards a DCMS Armor Regiment I thought I would pay homage to this era with my second company of Medium Armor.  Here I selected the 255th Armored Cavalry as represented in the Sorenson's Sabers scenario book and expanded it to reflect the ubiquity of the Vedette in this era of Battletech.  In support are a platoon of Hunter Light Tanks to sling LRMs. My standard colors for the DCMS apply - Tan body color which matches what I feel like is the aesthetic of ...

The DCS Kiken was an Overlord class dropship in service to House Kurita in 3027.  This overlord was the means of delivering a battalion of, oddly enough, nearly all Panther class light mechs of the 2nd Sword Of Light Regiment onto Chara III in an ill fated attempt to kill members of the Kell Hounds mercenary regiment.  The operation fell apart for many reasons, not least of which is that its hard to kill a unit of mixed weight - arguably on the heavy side of the equation - elite mercenaries with a bunch of light mechs... even if they are the venerable and much loved Panther.  Either way the DCS Kiken made a clean get away by all accounts even though most of her cargo were lost in the operation.  This was my first foray into painting map scale dropships, I have dabbled with a Union proxy earlier but this model was the largest I have painted so far.  This is the new CGL sculpt... and I am a bit on the fence as to its quality.  It has the strength of non-3d Pr...

 As the 4th Succession War drew ever closer House Kurita continued its feud against the mercenary unit known as the Kell Hounds, sending the 2nd Sword of Light to there garrison on Chara IV to eliminate the mercenary unit. Slipping an entire battalion, almost entirely made up of Panther light battlemechs, the 2nd Sword of Light had hoped to take the Hounds unawares.  Unfortunately there was a compromise on OPSEC and the orbiting force was discovered and a trap laid.  With that the 2nds attack failed to accomplish its objectives, and lost another company to aerospace fighter attack.  While a final attempt was made with another Panther company, in the end the Kell Hounds left mostly unscathed. This project was one I wanted to do for several reasons - firstly its a unique formation.  Rarely do we see in lore horde units like this, and since I had a TO&E for it I wanted to include it in my 2nd Sword Battalion.  Secondly it fits nicely into my Kell Hounds pr...

This is the last installment of the Sorenson's Sabers project which captured there OPFOR as well as the unit itself.  Here we have the ill-remembered Swan's Cavaliers, a mercenary unit in the employ of House Davion on Quentin in 3026.  There the Dieron regulars committed the usual Kuritan war crimes of that historical period, killing many of the valleys inhabitants.  Having moved on to another objective the Sabers of the 5th Sword of Light took up there position overlooking the carnage. When Swann's Cavaliers returned from whatever skirmish had drawn them away they found a lot of dead civilians and the 5th Sword standing over them.  Perhaps in light of the 5th's history of involvement in such things it was not surprising that the Cavaliers made the assumption they were responsible, but Sorenson and his company took the brunt of there anger. This is the exact company as it appeared in the Sorenson's Sabers scenario pack. I wanted to do this company for a couple of re...

This was a short terrain project I did after being inspired by an Esty seller Panhandle3D  who was selling some really cool looking pre-fab desert dwellings.  I ordered two sets, put the big office buildings aside for my city terrain project (I have yet to start) and then added in a factory, a power plant and a mining tower like building to get the effect.  The terrain is all primed ash gray and then either a strong tone wash for the desert outpost vibes or a dark tone wash for the grimdark concrete look.  I used the Sand Dune maps for the basic idea, rending the terrain flat and the sandy bits between the dunes serving as dirt roads around the outpost.  I thought it turned out pretty well... in fact it has me redesigning my Arkab Legion project from several years ago to make a defending force for it.

The original entry in the world of Batteltech for the now famous Kell Hounds was the death of Ian Davion on Mallory's World.  Here the 2nd Sword of Light caught the Davion first prince and killed him as he covered a withdrawal of his Guards off world.  With the Prince down one the field the Kell Hounds rushed the 2nd Sworders to secure the body and prevent it being carried off to the Combine as a trophy.  The original Kell Hounds scenario book has one such meeting between Zakahashi's Zombies (see previous project post) and the 1st Co. of the Kell Hounds 2nd Battalion which I have recreated here. The Kell Hounds are one of the most Iconic of units in the Battletech universe, taking a central role as a way of telling the story of the 4th Succession Wars as well as acting as a kind of window into the Clans via Phelan Kell's capture by Clan Wolf in the Clan Invasion.  Always portrayed as tactical genius and elite; the Kell Hounds have always been donned in expansive plot...

In 3024 the world of Altais was defended by the 5th Sword of Light when Waco's Rangers dropped on the world in an attempt to raid a supply depot. The mercs, in Steiner employ, rapidly marched on Supply Depot 23 for which Sorenson's Sabers arranged a defense in conjunction with the limited planetary defense forces they could muster - in this case a platoon of the 255th Armored Cavalry and a the 107th Motorized Infantry Company.  This project is part of my love of the poor infantryman in this game - they are rarely decisive, but when deployed in strength and in the right way, can make a difference to the wider game.  And they are cheap - oh so cheap.  Planetary garrisons can field infantry in division strength at times - and in campaign play quantity has a quality all its own.  This is the first company in a battalion of DCMS motorized infantry - one company each of jeep, quad bike and motorcycle troops.  This particular set up was kitbashed from a light jeep mode...