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Author Topic: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike  (Read 29409 times)

Offline beefcake

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #30 on: February 13, 2019, 09:14:39 AM »
Those look nice. More Kurita I imagine. Like the monocycles, printed as well I take it.


Offline Hewlett

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #31 on: February 13, 2019, 09:57:18 AM »
Thanks :)

Yup, more Kurita, Sorenson's Sabres to be exact.

-Busosenshi Seyla Teresa Martinez / PNT-9R Panther

-Busosenshi Shakir Jerrar / HBK-4G Hunchback

from the Sword & Dragon Sourcebook.

Monocycles are old MWDA Clix, sometimes there are some on ebay.

Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike
« Reply #32 on: February 13, 2019, 10:14:40 AM »
Hi!

@sundayhero
It's an Anycubic Photon. So far everything has worked what I have printed with it. Of course, there are problems at the beginning until you know how to do everything but then everything works great.

Mechs work... even with custom posing:



Oh wow. You could even leave the support struts in place and use them for a mech hangar where a mech is being buildt/repaired.

Offline Hewlett

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike
« Reply #33 on: February 24, 2019, 09:29:40 PM »
Oh wow. You could even leave the support struts in place and use them for a mech hangar where a mech is being buildt/repaired.

Hi!

Yes, you could but it just doesn't look good. The support bars are just too unregular for something like this.

Well, than the next unit:

Since my Draconis Combine (Kurita) needs someone to fight with and the bases have yet to come... Here is the Federated Commonwealth (Davion).

We start with a light mech, a Wolfhound 2, unfortunatly the laserbeam has the wrong color. I painted it after my own Wolfhound in Mechwarrior Online with 5 medium lasers (green) but the WLF-2 should have 4 mediums (green) & 1 large laser (blue)... Well, imho thats not much of a problem... i hope. ^^'





The next unit will be the Centurion 9-A, a medium mech (Marine is for scale).



Hope you like him. :)

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #34 on: February 25, 2019, 12:36:11 PM »
That is really awesome! 8)

The prints are coming out great; I can't believe how 3D printing is changing the modeling landscape...

Here I am, for years collecting, converting, and resizing unseen mechs for use in Battletech (in 1/100), and not making much headway because of the ridiculous amount of work it takes to resize and repose an eighties plastic kit, and then you come along and print near perfect mechs in about the same size/scale, for which my method would condemn me to scratch-building.

Not that there's anything wrong with my methods mind; I love the conversion work. It just takes forever and ever, and I've only now got about one lance complete, of the planned four... ::)

Just out of curiosity; are you aiming for a particular scale? because that Wolfhound looks to me to be around 7 to 8 cm tall? That would bring it to about the exact same scale I'm aiming for (1/100).

And yes; I am a bit of a scale nut. I want my mechs to be as close to the appropriate size as possible (model kit scales are a definite constraint here), and also look their tonnage. So a 20 ton Locust really has to be slighter and smaller than a 70 ton Warhammer. In fact; I aim to make them look as if the weight difference is actually believable.

Also: I pledged for a 3D resin printer on Indiegogo late last year, so when I finally receive it, I already know what I'll be wanting to print... :D

At any rate; please keep up the good work, because the printed mechs are fantastic, and I can't wait to see more (and get more motivated to continue on mine...).
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
Find a Way, or make one!

Offline fluffy05

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #35 on: February 25, 2019, 05:16:15 PM »
Truly stunning brushwork  :-* :-* :-*

I loved playing Battletech years ago.  I am seriously considering jumping back in but am unsure where to begin.

Any pointers?
'The German today is like the June Bride; he knows he is going to get it, but he doesn't know how big it is going to be.' - Gen. Richard "Windy" Gale, 6th Airborne Division Commander

Offline beefcake

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #36 on: February 26, 2019, 08:46:30 AM »
That is very cool. I would be saying "pew pew" all through my painting of the Wolfhound.  lol

Offline Hobby Services

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #37 on: February 26, 2019, 05:49:50 PM »
That is really awesome! 8)

The prints are coming out great; I can't believe how 3D printing is changing the modeling landscape...

Agreed, although I'm also tempted to use the word "terrifying" to describe the sea change that 3D printing is causing.  It's great for customers, but maybe not so much for manufacturers.  I truly wonder how minis casting companies are going to remain afloat and relevant ten years from now.

Offline DS615

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #38 on: February 26, 2019, 08:01:44 PM »
Plastics and resin have evolved significantly in the past ten to twenty years, making them very prevelant and sought after.
Yet metals still exist.
This doesn't change much.
- Scott

Offline Hobby Services

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #39 on: February 26, 2019, 10:30:17 PM »
Plastics and resin have evolved significantly in the past ten to twenty years, making them very prevelant and sought after.
Yet metals still exist.
This doesn't change much.

Well, a couple of points:

How's the metal minis selection in you FLGS look these days?  Mine carried about a half dozen ranges more or less in full and dabbled in others ten years ago.  These days, there's, um, let me think - some Blood & Plunder packs.  And some leftover RAFM Call of Cthulhu figs.  Other than that, we've got GW, Reaper Bones, WizKids, Rumbleslam, Guild Ball, Batman, and some Privateer and Mantic.  Oh, and Fantasy Flight.  There's almost no metal left in the shop, and it's been scaling down hard since about the time Bones came out.

More importantly, resin and plastic are the kind of things most people could produce at home.  3D printing is very close to becoming a widespread home hobby thing.  In ten years, maybe less, I'd guess the average US household will have at least a basic printer, and local "print shops" that you can run off models on better machines will be all over the place.

There will always be metal casters, but they're already falling out of hobby distribution chains.  The number of masters made by hand is dropping off too.  Maybe it'll be made up for by the sheer number of new people working on Thingyverse and the like.  I certainly hope so.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #40 on: February 27, 2019, 08:06:40 AM »
The way I see it, the focus on physical sales will become less and less; we can already see that development ever since online sales took off, with brick and mortar stores slowly going the way of the dodo.

The next step will be the replacement of the sales of physical miniatures with the sales of 3D models of the same miniatures. Sculptors are already widely using 3D programs to design their miniatures, and instead of dishing out for a mould, be that a spin mould for metals, resin pressure moulds or injection moulds for plastics, they can sell their work directly, greatly cutting down costs and risks for said sculptor.

Of course quite a few brands will lag behind, unable or unwilling to adapt to the changing landscape, and they will (sadly) disappear. But the void will be filled with others who never got the chance to break into the industry, and the digitization of sculpting now makes this possible for them.

But I fully expect there to remain a few grognard brands that will cater to like minded customers, still selling hand sculpted metal miniatures. Heck; there's still a market for flat, napoleonic miniatures, whose origins lie almost a hundred years or more in the past. But there are still people enjoying them, so there will be a small base of manufacturers (of vulcanized rubber moulds in this case I gather, but still...).

I could see an escape though, for those sculptors hanging on to the tried and tested method of sculpting by hand; 3D scanning equipment. That way, they could sculpt to their heart's desire, probably on a bigger scale too, and then have their work scanned at high resolution, and sold in the same way as 'normal' 3D models. they wouldn't even have to invest in such a (very pricey! I checked) machine, but rather, some enterprising individual could start offering such services. Maybe even the traditional casting and/or mould making companies could bridge that gap?

I've always been a huge fan of metal miniatures myself though. It's how I started out in this hobby, and when given the choice between metals and resins, there really is no other answer but metal. Plastics, when done right, are another matter; I have adapted to them a long time ago, probably because of the plastic model kits I used to build before I got into miniature wargaming.

But at the moment, resins and 3D casts are still just outside of my comfort zone. I am painting up some Modiphius Star Trek miniatures right now. they're resin, which is not fun to prep, and as I found out, is also prone to breaking. But after base coating, I discovered that the bases at least were most likely cast from 3D printed masters, because the layers can still be discerned. Not a problem on techy stuff, but on a desert base, it looks rather crappy...

Give me good metal casts any day over that resin and/or 3D printed stuff, as there is something unquantifiably alive about a hand-sculpted 3-up, that no 3D generated miniature has, no matter how technically advanced, detailed and complicated it is.

So; I think the move towards a 3D model market is inevitable, but for the foreseeable future, I can see that hand sculpted, metal miniatures will still have a market. You will not find them in stores, no. But on the internet, there are legions of offerings still to be found, and they will continue; I have no doubt about that. Metals will become relatively expensive when compared to 3D prints though, but probably not when compared to resins, restics, etc; those will probably continue to follow the price level of metal miniatures as they are doing now (and then exceeding them ::) .

And let's not forget that miniatures were originally cast in lead because that was the most convenient material for the purpose. It's the traditional material now, but had sculptors and hobbyists back in the day had the convenience of resin casting and 3D printing, I have no doubt they would have used those instead, if only from a cost point of view.

But back onto the rails; I think for Battletech models, for which there really is no alternative in this scale (bar the aforementioned building, resizing and converting of old plastic kits), 3D printing is a god-sent. And for this subject matter, I will gladly use the medium... :)
« Last Edit: February 27, 2019, 08:18:19 AM by Daeothar »

Offline Hewlett

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #41 on: March 07, 2019, 10:17:07 AM »
Some Bulldogs (60t) for the Feds:



The Gang for now:



The Centurion is next in line... :)
« Last Edit: March 07, 2019, 10:39:24 AM by Hewlett »

Online OSHIROmodels

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #42 on: March 07, 2019, 10:20:20 AM »
Brill painting  8)
cheers

James

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Offline Suber

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #43 on: March 07, 2019, 09:00:17 PM »
Top notch. I love them all.

Offline Hobby Services

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Re: Mech Attack/ Battletech Alpha Strike (Hunchback & Panther)
« Reply #44 on: March 07, 2019, 09:50:26 PM »
Ah, saw those on the Horizon Wars group earlier.  Thought that mech looked awfully familiar.  Lovely as always.