ShimmeringSword

Spartan Concept Sketch

Here's a redesign in from Marco Mazzoni. The Spartan.

More funky mech action, another one for the trash can torso big boy crew, joining the Flashman and Crockett. Now with added fists!
I made it clear I didn't want to see any goofy spartan helmet face, as it was never in the original design, but we did play into the head dome shapes a bit.

Dinky Charger better run while it can.

Urbie Lance Renders

The Urbie Company wasn't enough people, we can do more, we can do variants!
IWM is supposed to have some on the way too, but here is what CGL has ordered up.

We have:
UR-M60 with a "running" pose.
UR-M60L with the chunky AC20.
UR-M68 kneeling with the MRM30.
UR-M27 with AES enhanced SRM6's.

Would have preferred a PPC, Plasma, or RAC variant over the last one, but I guess CGL wants to get something new in there.
I really like how the MRM Urbie came out though. Hug...

Icarus II Concept Sketch

Betcha no one was expecting this one! We have need for some odd mechs every once in a while, so here's a primitive mech, the Icarus II.

Redesigned by Bishop. For this one he'd taken some of my feedback on digital sketching and the results came out good. I didn't even meddle too much! Ok I may not be the best at gauging my own meddling.

Bishop tells me this is one is going into his pile of favorite 40ton mechs. Looking over several of the primitive mechs, their final evolution form...

Highlander IIC 3D Sculpt

Here's a looker, the Highlander IIC.
Design by Harri Kallio, sculpt by Eliza Gibbs.

Through the design and modeling process this one has come out really well. Glad we can add yet another mech to the IIC pile that looks stellar. I honestly think front line omni formations now struggle to look as good as the second line clan battlemechs. That combination of VMI anime and generally upgraded rugged IS chassis is hard to beat.
Who else is in the party?

While not devoid of omni's,...

Hetzer Concept Sketch

Who was waiting for this one? The Hetzer is here.

This was one of the first Rec Guide vehicle requests sent my way, and a welcome one. The cute meme tank deserves a modern look so that it can join its Urbie brother in city domination.

I immediately knew I wanted to give it huge wheels, though my outright intent to make this look like an assault dune buggy was shot down. I'd initially had the wheels unarmored for more turn radius and suspension range, which also kept the armor silh...

Shogun 3D Sculpt

Here's that weird mech some of you like, the Shogun.
Design by me, sculpt by Alan Blackwell.

I still think it looks funky, but what we have now is certainly an improvement over the myriad of old designs with their wide range of proportions.

What do the Shogun fans think?

Also, is part of the designs popularity that it's got a pretty decent loadout? Or is it your sick attraction to the egg mechs? :D

SturmFeur Concept Sketch

Time for another Rec Guide vehicle. The SturmFeur!

A bit of an odd pick, but certainly an interesting looking one and a useful/focused loadout to land on the table.

I do have a question for the more experienced players though. This and the Catapult have the same BV2. The Catapult is faster, has JJ's, and only drops 10LRM tubes (and MGs) to gain 4 medium lasers. I assume the Sturm has a fair bit more armor.
What edge does the SturmFeur bring other than being 40% the cbill cost? ...

Fast Vee Lance WIPs

Thought I'd share some more prototype pictures along with my painting endeavors.
I've recently picked up some army painter speed paints to try out. It takes me just a bit too much time to nicely paint up a lance for me to want to do it often, so I wanted to try quicker methods.

So far they're definitely faster. I wouldn't say they eliminate the highlighting step fully, but they do a great job at combining base color and a color matched wash together. Though when it does come to highl...

Patton Concept Sketch

Here's a cool one I got to work on, the Patton tank. Coming soon to a Rec Guide near you.

My first pick would have been to contract one fan that already had a great Patton concept, but I couldn't get a timely reply so I dove in myself.

Regardless, once the point of deciding whether the autocannon is offset or not is decided the rest kind of draws itself. The original concept was good, just riddled with Escher lines and shapes.

Whitworth 3D sculpt

Here's the Whitworth final 3D model. Sculpted by Aaron Harris.

Such a huge improvement over the old mini, but still quite recognizable I think.

No doubt this fire support trooper is gonna be filling out many forces. What mechs will you group it with?

Merlin Concept Sketch

Here's another redesign done by Harri Kallio. The Merlin.

They had an old sketch of it lying around that I really liked, so I had them polish that up. I did a fair bit of my own meddling on it too.

It has quite an eclectic set of weapons, leaving it feeling a bit unfocused. But at the end of the day it's packing a PPC, and has many ways to contribute if in a combined arms battle.

This design will be featured in a soon upcoming Rec Guide so I'm making this sketch free to shar...

Clint 3D Sculpt

The Clint. Blandest of bland medium troopers.
Who's running this one other than as an opfor mook?
Head honcho in a stinger/wasp lance when you can't afford a pixie?
Tell me what you do with it.

Pillager Concept Sketch

Here's a design from Marco Mazzoni. The Pillager!

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the design, but I can't deny you have to respect anything walking around with twin gauss rifles. Gauss rifles are definitely a big theme of this coming kickstarter. They were fairly uncommon in the last one.
Better not see any of you running a 2 Pillager 2 Devastator lance ruining anyone's fun :D

Marco did well on this one though. On the final 3D model we've reduced some of the curvature on the h...

Atlas II 3D Renders

Someone asked for renders of the Atlas II a while back. Here's what lag time looks like haha.

From all I've seen from the IWM mini it came out looking great. Has anyone here bought it and put it together?

Grizzly Concept Sketch

Sorry for the very slow month everyone. It's been a busy one (and last month also), including my birthday last week. So I've been a bit low energy and distracted. I've realized (at least for now) that I can't handle stacking up conventions, it drains me. So likely sticking to just Gencon next year.

But, here's the Grizzly mech! Was nice to see this one drop in for this kickstarter after being pulled from the last one. I definitely felt like some of the tertiary mechs that made it in las...

Manticore Concept Sketch

A few of you asked if we were doing this one. The Manticore, the pancake stack of combat vehicles.

I felt it'd be a cop out to remove the extra layer on the main hull, and instead focused more on coming up with a more interesting turret shape, as that was another weak element of the original design.

I'm sure many of you can't wait to drop this on the table and terrorize more costly mechs.

Dervish 3D Sculpt

Time for more 3D, the Dervish.
Design by Bishop, sculpt by Alex Immerzeel. For those newer to knowing all the artists and sculptors involved, Alex was my guy for getting all of the GoAC box mechs done and a decent number of early wave one clan invasion mechs, along with a ton of IWM sculpts. He's typically working on other things these days, but always cool to have him hop in for one. He took a liking to the Dervish and picked it, maybe it was the voluptuous missile racks?

I think th...

MASH Truck Concept Sketch

Another vehicle, this time the MASH Truck designed by Bishop.

I felt the original design had a rather boring shape so I asked Bishop to play up the angles it had into a much wider vehicle, more fitting of its described operating room capacity. He also added RV style slide out side sections.

The shape is a little funky but I think it works well in 3D. Certainly makes for a more interesting vehicle shape than a slightly angled RV.

Add another to the objective and map dressing ...

Javelin 3D Sculpt

Onward with the 3D models!
The Javelin came out quite nicely, sculpted by Eliza Gibbs.
I expect this one to be on the tables terrorizing slower foes with all those SRM's.

Whitworth Concept Sketch

Ok ya darn vultures, here it is. The Whitworth! :)

Sketch by Harri Kallio, though we also started things heavily referencing an old sketch by Alex Iglesias. Then there's my meddling on top.
It's still a funky looking mech, but it came out looking great for what's intended.

Is it what you 'weird mech' fanboys dreamed of? :D

Assault & Cavalry Vehicle Renders

Well the cat is out of the bag on pack names and arrangements courtesy of GenCon. So here is the "Battlefield Support: Assault & Cavalry" pack.
Demolisher, Schrek, Condor, and Pegasus. Two of each.

GenCon had production test castings that confirmed friction fit pose-able turrets. Most of them work amazingly, while a few (typically smaller ones) are lacking some friction, risking losing a turret if you flip your minis. I'm sure some of you will enjoy magnetizing them to prevent th...

Condor Concept Sketch

Here's a design from Alan Blackwell. The Condor!
Another workhorse mid weight vehicle for the stack, one with speed.

Somewhere along the line we decided to lean into a metal slug aesthetic on the AC5, short and beefy, a middle ground solution considering it's never been depicted at a reasonable size. Interestingly enough it's not even too thick, as we found our mechs have similar diametered guns.
It's definitely a big redesign from the original, but I think what Alan did came out ...

Mobile Long Tom Concept Sketch

Did you see this one coming? Mobile Long Tom artillery.

The ultimate support unit, so deep into support you might not even have it on the table haha. So this one falls really nicely into the map objective token category for spicing up your games. Or those getting fancy could resolve players flanking the OpFor's artillery on a separate map sheet.

This will also be our first unit that comes on a whopping two bases. One for the main artillery vehicle, and one for the ammo and crew tr...

Welcome new patrons!

But where are you all coming from? 😂

I'm noticing a pretty big influx of new patrons today. I posted that group vehicle render which may be attracting some of you, but someone still has to have directed you here.

So sound off! And welcome aboard. 

Recon & Hunter Vehicle Renders

Not wanting to be buried under a mountain of 3D rendering tasks, I'm going to play with rendering vehicles in their intended sets rather than individually. I guess that makes these a bit of a product preview :)

First up is a bit of a peculiar arrangement, our heaviest and lightest vehicles in one pack. Behemoth, Ontos, Skulker, and Warrior. Scouts to find the enemy, and bruisers to hold them.

And yep, vehicle force packs will generally come with two of each.

Spector Concept Sketch

Here's yet another one from Harri Kallio, the Spector.

A funky little egg of a mech, and spectacularly ugly in previous versions haha. Harri cleaned it up nicely into a more appealing egg, where much of the task was deciding which of the 100s of spammed lines should be retained as new forms.

Ontos Concept Sketch

Here's another one from Harri Kallio, the Ontos. Another vee that was previewed at KerenskyCon.

I guess it's cheap on the cbills but they really found a way to fit 50-65ton mech firepower into a 95ton assault tank haha. At least it looks very cool doing it.

How do you guys employ these? As a city fighter scatter shot version of a Demolisher?

Pegasus Concept Sketch

Here's another design from Harri Kallio. The Pegasus. One for the "go fast and be annoying as hell" category of vehicles. Not quite fodder with those dual SRM6's, and not just an objective piece.

Many of you will have seen the prototype print of it from KerenskyCon. For those that haven't there's an imgur page collection someone put together: https://imgur.com/a/CXqvGMz

Prototype Lance Completed

I dragged my feet a bit, but here are the finished prototype lance photos. Lets call them ACES out of time :)

They all came out really cool looking.

The Sagittaire is a monster to jewel. I wanted a mix of cockpit warm lighting and external blue reflection on this set, but it's too much realestate where you'd expect interior detail to show, so instead you get a sunset like reflection haha. I'm sure better painters will love working with it. 

I experimented with some glos...

Behemoth Concept Sketch

Here's another assault vee for the pile. Our top end 100ton offering, the Behemoth.

Marco Mazzoni designed this one, with a few edits from me such as moving around some weapons. It has so many guns it's very easy to mess up haha, in fact even my edits forgot to include the two forward facing SRM2's (so they're not visible here, but are on the 3D model).

This one let us define the size of a 100ton vee and see how much base overhang there is. Not too bad overall. Clearly more than o...