15mm Battletech

[steders]

Been playing with my airbrush

[Elbows]

Nice start.  Can't wait to see them finished.  Reminds me I have a large army of 1/200 Robotech stuff to part with (sigh).  What scale VOTOM did you use for the Atlas?

[steders]

The Votom was 1/24th I think.
I finished the bases last night, not sure how much weathering I'm going to do yet.

[Elbows]

How did you kit-bash the Zeus?  Looks pretty good.

[Daeothar]

Awesome!

Great paintjobs. I love the subtle/subdued camo; it works really well, and the two schemes still differentiate between the two groups. Any idea what factions you'll be making them?

I started a similar project last year, also in 15mm. One of the main challenges was to find models of the right size, to match their descriptions in the Battletech universe. Most of the unseen mechs are models from other universes, in which they often have vastly different scales.

Yours seem to match pretty well! Can you tell us where you got the Shadow Hawk and Griffin? I found the Dougram models to be the hardest to source in the right sizes, but those look perfect. The Marauder looks a tad small though, but I found that one to be challenge as well. I take it the Votoms is a Goliath stand-in? And what are the two mechs in the picture with the Griffin, Shadow Hawk and Goliath? I do not recognize them.

Will you also be adding ground vehicles and infantry? And if so; have you given any thought on which lines/models?

And what rule set will you be using? I'm not too fond of the glacially slow original B-tech system, but I do like the Mech damage allocation sheets. On the other hand though, the later fast playing rules lack depth and most importantly, the damage allocation. So I'm still firmly on the fence in regard to rules...

[steders]

The 'Atlas' is a Votoms conversion
The 'Zeus' and 'Awesome' are both votoms kits bashed into a shape acceptable to me! Lots of parts out of the bits box
The shadow hawk and Griffon are Revoltech repaints.

Rules I'm not sure. I might try alpha strike, the cut down BT rules.
(Although it must be 20 years since I've played a game of battletech)

[steders]

I have got quite a few lots of 15mm infantry/vehicles lined up. I'll post some piccies. Mainly GZG plus some kit bashes of plastic kits.

[Daeothar]

Really impressed by the Atlas conversion; exactly what I was hoping to achieve.

Btw; what make are the Warhammer and Rifleman? I've got Bandai and Arii 1:100 kits for mine, but the sculpts of yours look slightly different. The Warhammer looks like the Revell (approximately) 1/72 version I also have.

That would make the Marauder a 1/100 I suppose. Yes; I've been extensively OCD-ing on Mech sizes for my project, and I can confidently say that I've covered most of the options out there (at the time at least; I know there are now some 1/72 Dougram kits available, which weren't at the time):

[eilif]

Nice work!  Your kitbashes are quite innovative.

As for rules, Alpha strike is a good fast-playing ruleset, that really captures the BT universe without the overwhelming number of rules that battletech has.  However, it needs at least 10 or more number of units per side to really play well.

For a lance or two per side, consider "Mech Attack" by armorgrid games. It's got lots of BT'ish elements (damage grid, variable weapons, heat, combined arms, vehicle design, etc) in a package that plays in about 1/4 the time. 
http://armorgridgames.blogspot.com/2010/03/armor-grid-mech-attack.html
We've used it for 28mm and 10mm mech games with much success.  Also, it's cheap.

One thing to note is that it tops out at around 10 units per player.  That's not a huge deal though as Alpha strike only really becomes fun at more than ten units per player.  Between these two fast-playing rulesets  (I don't like battletech rules)bI've got all my mech gaming boxes ticked.

[Jaeger]

Looks awesome. 

[Elbows]

The Warhammer and Rifleman look like the Exosquad re-released toy line (from the original Hasbro/Playmates line in the late 80's)





EDIT: Take it back the models don't match, nor does the Warhammer.

[eilif]

...The Warhammer and Rifleman look like the Exosquad re-released toy line (from the original Hasbro/Playmates line in the late 80's)...

Where are those pics from?  Those are just the kind of comparisons I'm looking for as I build up my 28mm mech force.

[Elbows]

No idea boss, was just googling "Exosquad Robotech". 

[steders]

The rifleman and Warhammer are 1/72 scale kits from imai I think

[Daeothar]

Figured as much; I've still got a Revell Warhammer I got as a birthday present back in the eighties...

+++EDIT+++But then your scale is a bit off for 15mm I think. According to Sarna.net, the Warhammer should measure somewhere between 10 and 11 meters. And since 15mm / 1/100 is such an easy conversion scale, that should translate to roughly 10cm. Yours is probably close to 17cm, if I'm not mistaken.

(Told you I was anal about scale in this project of mine... )

Still a kick-ass project though, and certainly further along than mine, even though I started more than a year ago already...