ShimmeringSword

Helios Sculpt

Here's the 3D sculpt for the Helios, made by Alan Blackwell.
Came out with a really nice overall shape I think, Alan did a good job on it.

Those SRM launchers have a lot of gimbal range, both left/right and up/down.

Another one for the digitigrade legs pile, and another for the gauss rifle menace :P

Coolant Truck Concept Sketch

Here's the first of the oddball utility vehicles coming in Star League packs 2 through 4. The Coolant Truck.

I leaned into airport firetrucks for this one. I also put a crane mounted hose on the top side because the implication in art that some hoses plug in anywhere else than the feet / lower legs without assistant is wacky haha.

Who's planning to run these on the their tables?

Helios Concept Sketch

Sorry for the long absence everyone! I had a family trip, and a few flurries of work and social engagements, but I can assure you most of the gap was just me telling myself "I need to post this week" then said thought vacating my mind >_>

So here's the Helios, designed by Alan Blackwell.

I consider this a very funky mech, and wasn't aware that it had much of a following, but since being teased I see it has a lot of fans.
I think the reduction of the "wall of bricks" look...

Emperor Sculpt

Some pictures of prototype prints are in the wild for the Emperor, so here are some nice renders to check out.

Really happy with how this one came out, even if it was a bit of a pain for Alan Blackwell to sculpt haha. Battletech has a lot of funky proportioned mechs, including flat barn doors, but the Emperor does it while looking pretty decent, just needed a bit of modern polish.

Who's looking forward to this one?

Hunter Concept Sketch

Dropping this one in for a quickie, the Hunter light support tank.

I like the shape of this one, though being a tracked brick hauling a brick made it pretty simple to work out. At the time the rec guide this went into caught us in a crunch so I wasn't complaining about the task.

When/if this one gets a mini I'm sure plenty will enjoy the cheap zippy LRM20 launcher flying around.

Urbanmech LAM Sculpt

I showed off a view of the Urbanmech LAM fighter mode a few days ago on facebook, now time for all the modes. Yep, we covered them all. 

Initially we weren't doing a ground mode, because we've got a lot of grounded urbies already, but by the end we thought why not, and it'd be build correct.
While obviously made from our existing Urbanmech sculpt, we did more than slap wings on it. The weapons load is all energy to save weight and remove recoil issues. The feet have thrusters an...

Jade Hawk Concept Sketch

Here's a design that we worked up for the Legends II book. The Jade Hawk.

The main struggle with this design was proportioning and positional paradoxes, which especially came forward in the 3D stage. Trying to get those lower SRM tubes to plausibly pass under the arms but above the legs. The mech would definitely need interrupter sensors to make sure you don't shoot yourself haha.

Argus Sculpt

I posted the sketch earlier so here's the 3D sculpt for the Argus. Already sent off for production as a miniature in the 2nd Star League pack coming out this year.

Alan Blackwell worked on sculpting this one, and much like the sketch stage I think it was pretty straight forward and came out looking great. This is one I definitely want to get on the table, even if it's not the most exciting loadout, it's just cool to have something to usher in that "MW4 on the table" for everyone that wa...

Emperor Concept Sketch

The Emperor here was an interesting one.
It's a funky design, but as far as curvy barrel mechs go I've never found this one too terribly bad looking. I already liked the iteration that Alex Iglesias came up with for the cover of TRO 3058 Upgrade.
So easy road taken, I smooshed that art into our usual flat perspective shape and made some enhancements from there, mostly accentuating some details to make good 3D forms rather than a completely smooth shape with only seam lines. (and uh, giv...

Mackie Sculpt

Finally posting this big boy, the Mackie.

I think almost every Battletech artist has taken a crack at drawing or designing a Mackie. I'd been commissioned for one many years back also.

When the first Legends book was being worked on we needed a Mackie design to present as that's pretty key in the history of mechs and pilots. Not long before that, Eldon Cowgur had come up with a fanart redesign of it for a Tex Talks video and CGL took a liking to it. He'd recently been brought in f...

40th Anniversary Banner

Y'all requested this combo piece so here it is.

There's a little bit of camera/scale fudging to keep each half nicely framing thier respective centerpiece mech, but it's not very much so the whole scene still works nicely together.

I liked the fiery background on the Griffin side that I did first, so when the two pieces were combined and time was tight, the answer was "what if even more fire". Either a huge chemical plant just went up in flames, or Star League aerospace fighters j...

Blood Reaper Concept Sketch

More from the line of Legends II book mechs we rushed out last year. With all of our work the last few years on redesigns, when it comes time to make a book like Legends or Legends II we've got a lot of mechs already done for the pilots, especially on the IS side. Dark Age era Clan mechs is an area that demands a bit more as many of the primary clans made big changes in their mech rosters. So, a lot of the mechs we worked on for this book were of Clan design.

The Blood Reaper was one of...

Chameleon Sculpt

Ok, final of the Mercenaries Kickstarter new designs! The Chameleon. Final stop, your first training mech, if you don't just get dumped into a locust or stinger.

For another of the goofy egg mechs I think this one came out quite nicely, and does present well as a training mech with the large pilot view and soft angles to absorb inevitable repeat fall impacts.

Design by Harri Kallio, sculpt by Alan Blackwell.

Now forward, into this years packed retail release schedule! Happy ...

Karnov Concept Sketch

Here's one from Rec Guide 33. The Karnov.

Big decision I had to make on this one was to either finally make it an aerodynamically sensible design (something that seemed logical to me as it's even got props), or lay full into the ugly shapes and make it very angular. I opted for aerodynamic, being a fan of tilt rotors both in scifi and real life.

I noticed more recent tilt rotors are going with a nacelle design that breaks mid way rather than tilting the entire pod, so I went with ...

Visigoth Sculpt

Here's that funky fighter, the Visigoth.

Still wishing we'd made a sculpt of one of several other cooler looking clan aerospace fighters, especially now that we've redesigned more of them. But these are the picks we're given. Ye exceedingly rare subset of players that do play clan aeros can better say which you'd run and if the Visigoth is a good one to have though.

I think I'm down to just the Chameleon for Mercs KS figures. Anything else I've missed?

40th Anniversary Game of Armored Combat Box

Some of you have already seen this art in CGL posts, but maybe not a clear image like this. The box cover for this year's A Game of Armored Combat box.

Way back when the first GoAC box was being put together I was going to be assigned the cover for that, but just getting the miniatures done became such a task that the assignment was shifted to Marco Mazzoni. That somewhat became the tale for all boxes since.
The composition you see here isn't too far from what my initial box idea was...

Argus Concept Sketch

Oops, forgot to post yesterday. This will be my last post of the year, as I'll be out of the house enjoying NYE. I wish you all a good end to the year, and if that isn't happening I hope next year treats you better.
I'm really thankful for everyone that supports me here, more directly with patreon, but also everyone out there playing Battletech again. The game's revival has given CGL the funding needed to better support its artists, myself, my design and sculpt team, and the rest of the wr...

BattleAxe Sculpt

Here's one that many already have the miniature in hand for, but I know you guys like renders either way. The BattleAxe.

I don't have much to say on this one that I didn't say on the design sketch, but I think the sculpt came out really well. Good chunky Warhammer vibes.
Designed by Eldon Cowgur, sculpted by Raymond White.

For those that bought the minis, which was your favorite mech from the pack?

Tundra Wolf Concept Sketch

Here's a mech that we redesigned for use in the upcoming Legends II book. While we've greatly expanded our selection of mechs that cover famous pilots of all eras, most of them are still limited to earlier times, with a distinct lack of dark age era mechs. So now we're hitting them, which I'm sure will pay off nicely as time goes on when the miniatures line creeps into such eras.

Dale Eadeh already had a decent personal redesign sculpt, but I wanted to work things over more, so I acquir...

Thunder Hawk Sculpt

Two gauss rifles? Not enough, give us three!
After all the Mercs gauss shenanigans I knew this would come one day, but I didn't expect the Thunder Hawk so soon. Another goofy looking mech too, but we got it done.

Ye faithful backers got to see the sketch design stage not too long ago, as we were pushing out that design to complete the first Star League pack for next year.

I still think it's a bit silly looking, but a big improvement over the frog man of old. And now we pay the ...

Mad Cat MKIV Concept Sketch

If the Timber Wolf was the "must get right" of the Clan Invasion era, we once again come upon that task in the Dark Age with the Mad Cat MkIV, the Savage Wolf.

Alex Iglesias and I had done some revision work on the design way back on some 3145 era book covers. Then much more recently Marco Mazzoni came up with a redesign for use in new ilClan era books and covers.

Now the mech was slated to once again show up in Legends II, and Brent Evans wanted a more tidied up sculpt for our 3D...

Pillager Sculpt

Here's one I've had a few people ask for. I believe I'm down to just the Visigoth and Chameleon for kickstarter sculpts to show off, if I don't do the legendary variants.

Time to end the year with a good dump of renders and sketches :)

I put this one on my list of funkier mechs from the mercs KS just based on looks, but I get that people like a mech that brings more than one gauss rifle. In the CI KS we didn't have much of that, I only recall the Nighstar, and a few with a single ...

Striker Lineart

More vehicles are afoot! Hadn't gotten around to posting their sketches yet, but this final piece of lineart came in and I really wanted to share it.

The Striker is a vehicle I feel everyone enjoys visually, but I've never seen them on the table. This one landed on our workflow to help round out the selection of classic vees we've been hitting. No minis plans for this yet, but as it is lately, all things in time.

Of course, had to go with an homage to the original lineart and cove...

Seydlitz Concept Sketch

Time for another aero!

This one was whipped up by Dale Eadeh with some further tweaking by me. Always liked this wedge of a fighter. Maybe we've over worked it here, and I do love a clean homeworld style to space ships, but I think it gaining some bits like well defined glass brings it more in line with the expected Battletech style.

Loki mk II Sculpt

Back on the renders, here's the Loki mk II that you'll find in the Bounty Hunter legendary pack. One more for the gauss boating theme of the kickstarter haha.

Alex Immerzeel sculpted this one. Not his fault but I feel I may have directed the CT to be a bit too chunky. Might like the original Loki a bit more, but this one adds some good variety.

Are all of you picking up the Bounty Hunter pack? I think it has a lot of great variant sculpts.

40th Anniversary Beginners Box

Sorry for the month long silence! I had my head down focused on remembering how to do large complex illustrations for the first time in several years haha.
A newsletter email went out a few days ago announcing some of CGL's plans for the 40th anniversary of Battletech next year, including anniversary editions of the Beginners and A Game of Armored Combat boxes. I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but the cropped griffin was shown in a thumbnail, so what's more about showing off the backgr...

Samurai Concept Sketch

Here's another aerospace fighter concept we put together to have more variety in our illustrations.

The Samurai, one of the rare non ground bound unseen. Went from a full anime style design, to a very sad replacement version. Glad we can bring back the old goodness. The few redeeming aspects of the replacement were worked in, such as mixing the blade and cone prongs together.

Marco Moracha worked on this one, his first piece of official Battletech art. He's done some cool fanart i...

Spector Sculpt

Getting this silly one off the queue :P
Who's gonna be running this other than to have an unhittable stealth mech on the table.

Spector, sculpted by Chris Lowrey. Design by Harri Kallio.

Grizzly Sculpt

Busy time getting settled into my new place, but here's maybe the last render set I can squeeze in on time before the closing of the KS pledge manager. Thanks to everyone that pointed out all the other mechs I'd missed so far.

I really like how this Grizzly came out, and another case of Clan non omni battlemechs being solid machines. A mixture of Clan weapons, but only good ones.
Sculptor on this one is Chris Lowrey.

I count 5 more sculpts from the KS that I haven't posted, not...

Blood Asp Test Casting

I don't usually post our production prototypes or castings because they're a more sensitive item, but I have to show this one off.

The Blood Asp went through my redesign pile for use in the recognition guides without an initial plan for a miniature, but come Adepticon and the kickstarter launch, Loren Coleman came to me and asked what would be a good mech to add to the kickstarter as a salvage box item. I campaigned hard to make it the Bloop Asp, and with some backup from Randall and Ra...