In the Works...

I have had to work hard just to squirrel away enough time to do some Battletech modelling. With deadlines screaming towards me like asteroids, and no Bruce Willis to make it better, it has been really tough to get anything done. Odds are, things will get marginally worse this week. As the old verse goes:

"...and a voice came to me out of the gloom, "Smile and be merry, things could get worse." So I did smile, and was merry. And behold, things did get worse."

Anyway here is some stuff that I managed to scrape together before life whisked me away with responsibilities.


1) Jade Falcon Medium Star

These guys have been in their blisters for a while now. I knew I had a lot of modelling ahead of me to make them work, so I was waiting for the right motivation to start. After finishing off my first Ghost Bear Mech, I had a chat with a few folks on the Classic Battletech Forum. There were a couple of threads floating around about speed-painting techniques and the use of metallics/washes that gave me itchy fingers. It got me in the mood to have another crack at it and try out some of the tips people have been giving me. The first step was cleaning up the mould-lines, which I did over three, hour-long, sessions. Three hours. I have to laugh, because I know the first thing the big guns will say when I finish them is "Get rid of those mould-lines". Eyes like hawks, all of them...

Here they are, freshly undercoated! Left to right we have a  Kitfox B, Dragonfly Primary, Adder Primary, Hellbringer C and Nova A. Following that there are some close-ups after they dried.

 

 

 

 

2) Summoner Repair

So this fella belongs to Wade, who I see across the table more than most. The PPC arm had snapped off, requiring a pin and some sculpting work to fill in the gap. A quick job, but always satisfying to get a good Mech back on the table, especially when it is a Summoner.

 

3) Arms, Arms Everywhere

For some reason a whole heap of Mechs in my last Iron Wind order have miscast ball joints and pins. It’s not something beyond my abilities to fix, and I love their stuff too much to complain, but it sure does add time to the work-up. Here is an LB-5X AC and the Hellbringers right arm that I repaired, both of which would have been unusable. To fix them I placed a ball of green stuff in the socket and let it set for 24 hours. While they were curing I cut or filed off the “pin” (also miscast) on the corresponding torso and drilled a hole instead, for more robust pinning. Once cured, I shaped the joint with a file and sharp blade, including a flat surface to join with the torso. Finally I drilled a hole in the flat surface and pinned the arm to the torso.

Hopefully I’ll have some more 40K stuff finished soon, as we have a new campaign on the horizon. I also have a new Luthien update in the works, reporting on yet another tense match that will have a huge effect on the rest of the campaign.

See you across the table,

M4cr0