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Well it has been a long hiatus, two years to the month since I last posted!

I am excited to be creating, painting and posting again and about a classic game that I discovered as a teenager in 1986.

The tabletop wargame BattleTech had been out for two years when the first TRO or Technical Readout 3025 was published.
At the time, the leading manufacturer of miniatures was Ral Partha which made lead figurines, here is their 1991 catalog:










I acquired a large number of these as well as some Unseen plastic model kits:



Just the metal miniatures:



. . .

While the wide range of Mechs and even vehicles were produced, the metal miniatures were heavy and it was just a matter of time until plastic Mechs were available.
The first were the Plastech in 1998 which offered sixteen Mechs, two each of eight different designs.










When this product came out I immediately ran out and purchased a box!
Alas I proceded to paint them with a horrific thick paint job of Testor's enamel, and thus am in the process of stripping





. . .

Next was the 2014 release of the BattleTech Introductory Box Set, I was fortunate to purchase seven of the the individual miniatures from eBay.






From what I understand there were about 24 plastic Mechs during this period:



. . .

Most recently are the current Catalyst plastic miniatures, I bought the "Beginner Box" first to check out the two new highly-detailed figures, and then "A Game Of Armored Combat" for the additional eight.

I then acquired some more of the plastic models and some Warhansa resin Mechs from a Facebook Battletech group!



Warhansa is a German miniatures casting company that seems to have discontinued their line of "robots" and now operates as "Warhorse Miniatures": https://warhorseminiatures.com/category/warhansa/

More to come as I paint up the plastic Mechs from 1998, 1992 and present-day!

. . .

Holy

To quote Indiana Jones, that belongs in a museum

Amazing Collection.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Holy

To quote Indiana Jones, that belongs in a museum

Amazing Collection.

Oh wow, praise from Caesar! Thank you for coming in to check out this Blog, and for the kind words!

I fondly remember going into my local games stores in Vancouver, BC and coming out with precious treasures!







Later in life I discovered used book stores, which is how I acquired two sourcebooks, House Kurita and Dropships & Jumpships:




The real gems are the fanzines "BattleTechnology" and "Future Wars", I also recall buying some comics by Blackthorne Publishing.

Originally we started our collection with a total of 20 plastic 'mechs

I would to take this post to mention the excellent work done by Warhansa Miniatures.

They previously produced some Unseen style 'mechs under the "Terra Promessa" line, however these have now been removed from the website.
Google Search will provide some information from years past, including painted miniatures on Instagram!

They still continue to produce miniatures however are also known as Warhorse Miniatures: https://warhorseminiatures.com/category/warhansa/



These are cast resin miniatures with a decent amount of detail however the material can be brittle.
The four I received originally were a Banshee, Quickdraw, Vindicator, and Valkyrie.

Along with 16 Catalyst sculpts, I now had 20 plastic 'mechs:




I then acquired an additional 7 plastic FASA 'mechs and added 8 more Catalyst, making for a total of 28 Catalyst sculpts.
As you can see I originally chose three of the main Houses to start painting; Davion, Steiner and Kurita



. . .

This is glorious memory lane joy. And you kept all this until now, mate? Wonderful.

 Ragsta wrote:
This is glorious memory lane joy. And you kept all this until now, mate? Wonderful.

Thank you for taking the time to check out and comment on my labour of love! I once visited Edinburgh, making Edinburgh Castle a stopping point!

It was 1982 and I was only in Grade 2, so without the knowledge of medieval castles and lore I had know idea I was visiting the lore of Scotland, and how the crag was a considerable defensive vantage point for the many tribes before we started recording written history and mythology.

One day I'd love to return to England but I did go up to see Hadrian's Wall!

. . .

Wishing everyone a glorious Friday in this brilliant New Year of 2025 !!!

I have been hard at working completing a grand total sixty (60) BattleMechs, or five full Companies, one for each of the major Houses.

The three photos show the difference the new Catalyst injection-molded plastic Mechs and two companies that employ traditional resin casting, Warhansa and Stratos;
by the end of this project I would find myself using a total of five different production lines of miniatures.

During this time several repaints were required as Mech's changed allegiances in order to balance each of the Companies!




Miniatures out for painting: (Vallejo Flat Black spray paint, which comes with 2 aerosol can tips for wide and narrow stream):




Miniatures back from spray primer:




At this point there are plenty of House Davion, Kurita and Steiner 'mechs. Next post update: we start work on a new Company!

Happy weekend everyone! Here we go with a new major house ... House Liao!

Classic green is being used as the company is from the St. Ives Lancers.

A base of GW / Citadel Caliban Green is applied with a layer of Snot Green. The model is then weathered by making a custom shade with Nuln Oil and Vallejo Black Wash.

I started with what I considered were three "classic" House Liao 'mechs: a resin Vindicator and two Catalyst miniatures, Catapult and Awesome.

Originally trying to stay away from 3D printed miniatures, however I acquired some 'mechs including a Grasshopper, Enforcer, and Centurion.












I decided to try painting up one SLA model, an Enforcer for House Davion. This one addition brought our total count from 51 to 52 BattleMechs:




The new Thunderbolt plastic 'mech from Catalyst was next to be added, making for a complete Lance.

Also four more 'mechs were added; two resin Stratos "Tin Man" or "Hatchetman" and two old-school PlasTech miniatures, a Panther and an Atlas.

The older PlasTech 'mechs were previously painted with a thick coat of Testors oil-based enamel and required stripping with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner:

Here are the PlasTech miniatures in an ice cream tub prior to stripping:




Easy-Off Oven Cleaner has been sprayed on and I actually had to strip the miniatures twice, first round:






Second time in the stripping solution, front and rear:






At this point there is a grand total of 56 BattleMechs:




Here is a photo of four Stratos cast resin miniatures, they are multi-pose and provide for a lot of different poses:

Krieghammer ( Warhammer )
Assegai ( Archer )
Spinner ( Dervish )
Acme ( Whitworth )




A resin Stratos "Krieghammer" or Warhammer and a newer Catalyst plastic Commando added to the Company, halfway there!




Keeping in the theme of 'mechs with jump jets and a movement of 4 / 6 / 4, the Victor, Grasshopper and Whitworth were added.

Nine out of twelve mechs done for House Liao = 3 / 4 there!



Next update: we start on another of the great houses! Can you guess which one?

. . .

The old PlasTech Atlas! That was easily the best in the box. It was a seriously beefy mini.

I bought two of those boxes, and I have no idea where any of my four Atlases wound up. Sigh.

On the flip side, I know exactly what happened to all four Hunchbacks. They all broke at the exact same place, at the very thin ankle joints. And at the time I was not aware of the technique of 'pinning' to repair it...

 Vulcan wrote:
The old PlasTech Atlas! That was easily the best in the box. It was a seriously beefy mini.

I bought two of those boxes, and I have no idea where any of my four Atlases wound up. Sigh.

On the flip side, I know exactly what happened to all four Hunchbacks. They all broke at the exact same place, at the very thin ankle joints. And at the time I was not aware of the technique of 'pinning' to repair it...

Howdy and happy Saturday Vulcan, thank you for coming in and checking out this blog!

Yes absolutely the Plastech Atlas was a chonker plus it really did have some decent detail, I have seen some truly excellent paintjobs recently!


We continue with the latest addition, House Marik! With it's iconic purple parade scheme, I had never attempted to paint any units in the Free Worlds League colors.

However I had several iconic Marik 'mechs including a Vindicator and an Orion, so some repainting was in order to shift units around.

First photo: Starting off with five 'mechs, a Locust, Dervish, Crusader, Orion and Awesome




Second photo: Added a Commando, Shadowhawk, Catapult and a second Awesome for a total of nine 'mechs.




Third photo: Added a tenth 'mech, the Plastech Atlas! I somehow only have one although the box came with two... total of 11 / 12 for the Marik company so far!





Next update: we are sick of seeing blue and white, so guess what is gonna happen?!

. . .

Hello and happy Saturday! Thank you each and every one for taking the time to check out this continuing blog...

I decided that the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns 'mechs were too close in colour being primarily blue...

Blue with white for the the Lyran Guards of House Steiner, and blue with a red and white vertical stripe of the House Davion Royal Guard.



As a result the Steiner 'mechs are getting a change of regiments and a complete repaint to a color scheme I always wanted to try, the Arcturan Guards.

In particular, the 15th Arcturan Guards with their distinctive parade paint scheme of white with orange Bengal tiger-stripe upper arms!



For inspiration I researched the Cincinanti Bengals team helmets from the National Football League, one of my favourite color schemes:





I started off repainting a lance of 4 original dark blue of the Lyran Guards 'mechs to test out the colour scheme:




Another five more 'mechs were added to make it 9 out of 12 ... the company is 75 % there!




Finally the 15th Arcturan Guards company was completed!





At this point you may have observed that the bases of some of the 'mechs are being finished... more on base modelling next post, thanks again!

. . .

Howdy and happy Friday TGIF everyone!

It's been a while since my last update, in that time I completed the basing of the five companies.

This is accomplished with a lot of help from the superb Games Workshop range of Textured Paints which offer a variety of options to complete the look of your miniature from snow-covered wastes to barren deserts and everything in between!



. . .

First was House Kurita's Sword Of Light Company, which received both textured paint and green flock to simulate vegetation.
As green and red are opposite on the Colour Wheel, this made the base contrast better with the miniature:




Each 'mech had their base painted in a flat Chaos Black prior to the application of GW Textured Paint:




However for House Steiner's 15th Arcturan Guard I decided to go with Hazard Striping, which was easily facilitated with GW Chaos Marines Transfer Sheets, making for a futuristic starport look:




It had been awhile since I applied transfers and as I did not have any MicroSol or MicroSet, I went to my local hobby store and picked up Vallejo Decal Set which was disappointing but still did the job:




I had already acquired some miniature plastic highlamps (like streetlamps but high height and usually found at airports) and was hoping to use these with the House Steiner company when basing was complete, as it is nearing now and the stripes neatened up with Chaos Black:





Next update: bases have details added! Thanks for your time and more to come

Happy Sunday everyone! A quick update this weekend, just three photos showing touch-ups and more basing to come.

Awesome productivity dude! Basing is gonna be super satisfying I bet.