ShimmeringSword

Havoc Sculpt

Here's that speedy shark themed Jenner, the Havoc.

Decal lovers rejoice! Few lights have this many large clean panel spaces haha.
Not a whole lot I have to say on this one, other than Alan Blackwell did another great job sculpting it. Might have to add this one to my painted forces.

J-27 Ordinance Transport Sketch

Here's the final reveal for utility vehicles in the Star League force packs. Jumped the Savior ahead because it's more exciting, but, here is the J-27 Ordinance Transport.

The old design trailer almost looked like a horse drawn carriage, a bit comedic considering the speeds this thing can drive at, offroad. Wheel travel still sucks but I hope it looks a little more offroad capable now. I also wanted the cargo to look in the range of the listed carrying capacity.

So, who has playe...

Legionnaire Sculpt

Phew January flew by fast. I thought I'd posted early in the month, but whoops. Time for a content dump to round it out. Thanks to everyone that is patient with my sporadic posting schedule.

Here's the Legionnaire, the one RAC wonder. I praised Alex's redesign of this earlier, and now I have to praise the 3D result that Alan Blackwell came up with, and also to say how fun this thing is on the table. Maybe less fun for opponents trying to shoot down a 7/11 ground based A-10.

Hopefu...

Malice Concept Sketch

Here's a mech that I think has always looked pretty cool, despite its stats. The Malice. I've also got a little nostalgia for it, having illustrated it a few times before.

For this task I started with my old existing 3D proportion model that I'd made for said illustrations, as I never found it too off proportionally. The goal was to improve the mid level shapes, and smaller details. Particularly trying to make those feet a little more flexible.

I've always found it a little odd th...

Falconer 3D Sculpt

Here's the 3D sculpt for the Falconer, put together by Alex Immerzeel and Alan Blackwell.

Super long sculpt front to back, with the most overhang of all our sculpts so far. I didn't want to stifle the long barrel design that Alex Iglesias put into this one. Looks super cool though, and is quite the deadly nuisance on the table.
Does take a bit more effort to nicely paint up panel edges on this one due to the smooth forms that don't as easily catch dry brushing. But worth the effort....

Havoc Concept Sketch

Here's an interesting one, the Havoc.

When I saw this one come up on the list, my first reaction was to try having it swapped out haha. It's a fairly obscure dark age clix mech that has remained so when rolled into the CGL lineup (though, tell me if this is a mech you've used). I find most of the shapes on this mech to be really funky. My question was, if we have the jenner, why this?

So, my direction from there was to say if we're gonna make this a plastic mini, it's gotta look c...

Thanatos Sculpt

Meant to post this a few days ago, but Thanksgiving weekend was hectic. Time for the Thanatos sculpt. Design by Harri Kallio, sculpt by Aaron Harris.

Add another MW4 mech to the list that looks great in 3D and in physical mini form. I'd have already used this guy on the tabletop if it wasn't more of a C3 focused unit. Have definitely brought out his Argus brother in plastic though.

I'm looking forward to what modern era variants CGL will make for it.

Falconner Concept Sketch

Here's another design from Alex Iglesias, the Falconner. Once again knocked it out of the park. I only made a few detail reductions, and shifted around the torso and pelvis so that (as in the original) it wont have as many issues with kneeing its own elbows :D

I will make an attempt soon to get some miniatures pictures taken as I've got one of these painted up. It looks amazing, but does take a little extra effort to nicely highlight the torsos edges. It's a lot of detail but also along...

Savior Repair Vehicle Sculpt

Well, I started the month strong then fell off a cliff. Whoops. Lets finish it with something cool. The Savior Repair Vehicle 3D sculpt, by Alan Blackwell.

Here you can see the gantry in the deployed position. If all goes well that will hinge up and down, along with the side doors of the gantry also moving (just not the little 4 end sections). I'm looking forward to (or dreading) to see how this one goes in product and how far we can push our vee sculpts, and the possibilities of miniat...

Legionnaire Concept Sketch

I always enjoy when I can snag Alex Iglesias for some concept work. This time the Legionnaire.

Dude absolutely knocked it out of the park. Some of my only edits were sizing up the fists a little and reducing down some of the insane details levels he shoots for. A bit hard to escape after designing mechs for Mechwarrior over the last decade or more.

Really took a focused yet goofy design and flipped it into pure cool. Definitely a mech I had not interest in fielding until this glow...

Lament Sculpt

Here's another goodie, the Lament sculpt. Done by Ray White.

I saw some concerns about the new chunk. Certainly it's a bit thicker, as most of the new sculpts get. But I see some of that sentiment might come when comparing to the existing IWM mini, where it's definitely much thicker than that.
When doing my redesign I stuck closer to Nelson's TRO lineart, which has more bulk to it, especially in the legs, torso, and pelvis. It can be hard to tell for some designs if more love lands o...

Thanatos Concept Sketch

Another MW4 mech coming in hot. I'm sure plenty have seen prototypes of this one floating about. The Thanatos.

Harri Kallio had previous experience with Thanatos redesigns so I gave him another pass at it to really lock it in, with just a few tweaks of my own on the lower legs and arms. I think this one came out perfect. Looks great in 3D and as a mini too.

Not the most exciting mech in the firepower realm, but a very mobile and jumpy 75ton mech to lead your fast moving mediums, a...

Rifleman C 2

Another poll time. We recently put a project phoenix style cockpit on the NAIS Thunderbolt variant. Now I'm thinking of putting phoenix style radar fins/booms/shells on the Rifleman.

We haven't caught ever...

Savior Repair Vehicle Concept Sketch

Here's an interesting item we have coming up. The Savior Repair Vehicle.

Having a repair vehicle would be a great unit for campaign missions, be it protecting (or attacking) a convoy or field base. Matt Plog's original design for it looks cool, but could use extra visual components to show how it might repair mechs, not just salvage them. So I bulked up its structure to account for internal storage and workshop space (though it would still be very cramped), along with enlarging the gant...

Templar Sculpt

Here's the final Templar sculpt, done by Eliza Gibbs.

Came out as a great looking Templar I think, and for those that like cleaner/lower detail sculpts this one is pretty sleek. Feels like you could drop it right into a MW4 remaster. (PGI please)

Now to see if I can grow a liking to some of its variants to have it on the table more. I've been painting up a batch of prototypes from a few of our upcoming packs like the Davion or final Star League sets.

It's something I regular...

Thunderbolt IIC Concept Revision

Thanks for all the feedback on the last post everyone. Seemed largely in line with our management feelings but confirmed that a huge redo wasn't necessary. The changes that have been made go a long way though.

The head was replaced with something more classic Thunderbolt mixed with VMI sleek.
CT bulge was smoothed into the main torso shape along with adding more Summoner bits.
Torso shoulder hunches added to better hold the LRM box and a senor pod.
Arm laser hexes broken up mor...

Thunderbolt IIC Concept

I've worked up a Thunderbolt IIC redesign for an upcoming project and I'm curious what yee players think of it.

Particularly, any attachments to its old look versus the game's modern looks. Many old iterated designs (II, III, mkii, and IIC) don't quite surpass their original designs, making them not look more advanced. The Thunderbolt IIC, Loki mkII and Thor mkII in particular look more ruggedized than advanced.

Do you think the Thunderbolt IIC should look like this, more rugged?...

Gencon Begins!

All set up for day one of Gencon. Until they need this table for a tournament at least haha.

If you're here come by and say hi.

Lament Concept Sketch

Here comes that Lament, a nice simple bruiser of a mech.

I'd place this one as one of Justin Nelson's best original mech designs so there wasn't much to change about it. Some proportions changes like giving it a bit more torso rather than such long shoulder spacers or the previous mini's long wait section that was a sub par solution to the art's unseen areas.
The biggest design change was the cockpit area. The original art has some interesting shapes that are hard to resolve in 3D sp...

Dragon Fire Sculpt

Here are the Dragon Fire renders to check out. Having this in 3D and also a physical print it looks really nice all around. I'll have a painted up prototype at GenCon if anyone is there to check it out.

Alan Blackwell sculpted this one, quite a complex mesh with many compound curves to manage accurately. The top sensor pod should be a separate part that is compatible with the Legendary pack Marauder guns, should you want to add even more dakka to the blob of gun barrels that this mech i...

Templar Concept Sketch

Here's another MW4 callback mech, the Templar. Was always a fun mission in MW4 Mercs defending Hesperus II. If I'm remembering right they give you one of these for the help.

When referencing for this one I made a fairly even combination between the videogame and tabletop versions. I find they nicely cover each others shortcomings and the end result is really nice looking. The prototype prints look great too.

My only sadness is how eclectic and funky so many of its omni loadouts ar...

Hellspawn Sculpt

Here's the chunky boy in 3D, the Hellspawn.

I think there are prototype print pictures of this one floating about, and the production masters I've seen look amazing (though they typically do for every mech haha).

As my team is already closing in on completing all of our production items for the year I'm looking forward to seeing how timelines work out for actual release. Things were a bit crushing to start as we didn't kick things off until late last year. Shipping route issues ha...

Dragon Fire Concept Sketch

With another Battletech Activity Book dropping recently there were a few new art reveals, including the Dragon Fire here.

I don't believe we've revealed how this mech will be releasing as a miniature yet, but it is coming and in a pretty interesting set.

I'd put this mech solidly on my list of the most ugly mechs in Battletech's history. Definitely not at the top, but the raw chicken body with actual chicken thin legs, combined with some questionable weapon placements (and the art...

Gunsmith Sculpt

Here are the renders for the Gunsmith. Sculpt by Ray White.

For all of its blockiness it also has a few areas of complex curves. The cockpit in particular was a doozy.
Just a few days ago the production prototype print came across my emails for quality checking and it looked quite nice. The head area being its own part to allow for the head fins to cast cleanly. I'm curious to see how all the detail translates to the final plastic as this is a very high detail sculpt for a 25ton mech...

Hellspawn Concept Sketch

Here's the Hellspawn concept redesign that Bishop Steiner worked on.

This is another one of those nice MW4 designs that didn't need much for changes. Just pushing a few proportions around. Though I admit we might have allowed it to get a little fat :)
The final 3D model proportions still have a nice look with things pushed around further.

I felt between the shoulder launcher and the sensor mast, it would become quite a bust top silhouette with the left torso launcher also had a...

Coolant Truck Sculpt

Waterguns go pew. Here's some renders of the Coolant Truck.

I'm not sure what to say on this one that I didn't hit in the sketch description.

I am however curious what you guys will be running through those fluid guns. Any shenanigans at hand?

Gunsmith Concept Sketch

Whoop, month half way through I better do my job for y'all :D

Here's the Gunsmith. Didn't feel this one needed to be drastically changed in design, but it did need some proportional changes. In particular the head was sized up some and brought into the torso more so that the pilot can more easily fit and feel secure. Though in the end I think they can entirely fit reclined within the head rather than awkwardly snaking their legs down the neck of the mech.

With plastic of this one ...

Tian-Zong Sculpt

Here's the final sculpt for the Tian-Zong.

Came together quite nicely I think. Sculpted by Aaron Harris. Dainty little arms but it's all about hauling those gauss rifles around.
I've seen the prototypes and plastic tooling for this one already and it is pretty clean. So hopefully it wont be too much further into the year before this pack hits retail.

Gyrfalcon Concept Sketch

Here's a redesign that was run for the Legends II book, but will now also be included in a Jade Falcon faction pack, the Gyrfalcon.

While not the biggest fan of totem mechs as a concept, I still like them when they're done well. I think the Kuritan samurai styled mechs have fared the best. On the other end I think the Jade falcon totems wasted a lot of potential. Bird mechs, but often stuck with odd proportions or body types. Also likely a lack of technical capabilities when introduced ...

Tian-Zong Concept Sketch

Here's the new Tian-Zong redesign for the upcoming McCarrons Armored Cavalry lance pack.

I illustrated this one for the cover of TRO 3145 Liao, so it was fun to give it a fresh look. It's been through quite a bit of iteration, starting as a Clix design that looks very different. From there Chris Daranouvong redesigned it for 3145 with a blockier appearance. I followed from there with proportion improvements and trying to work some hints of the stealth armor into the surfaces.

This...