Post by dupes on May 3, 2015 10:12:39 GMT -5
Wow. Where to start. For as long as I can remember (well, since 1988ish, anyway), I've been a fan of the Battletech universe. Its basic premise is war a thousand years from now in huge walking humanoid armor suits piloted by humans (often confused for robots). For those of you that have never been exposed, go here for a bit of a primer:
bg.battletech.com/new-to-the-board-game/
Started playing the board game with my friends pretty obsessively before I even got into high school with the paper maps and little paper standups of the mechs that came in the original box set. Before too long I graduated to making my own 3D maps and starting to buy the Ral Partha lead miniatures which were a HUGE improvement in the "realism" factor.
Paper standups: airborneace.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/bt-paper-mechs.jpg
Ral Partha lead: www.google.com/search?q=ral+partha+battletech+blister&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HTFGVZ3-GIOrggSf0IDQAQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1600&bih=775
Come the mid 90's the Mechwarrior 2 game came out for the PC...I bought a computer specifically tailored to run that game. I have the stat rundown still for that machine - it's quite humorous. MW2 spawned several sequels, all of which I played a good bit. Fast forward to 2013, when the BT license was sold and Mechwarrior Online came out. Battletech is at the forefront again!
Poking around in the MWO forums, I came across some pics of some large mechs that someone somewhere had scratchbuilt. They were big. MUCH larger than the 1/285 stuff I had been playing with! Turns out that they were 1/60 scale to match a very short run of resin kits that a company called Armorcast put out in the late 90's. That run included the Madcat, Vulture, and Atlas. The reason Armorcast went with 1/60 scale is that it translates (approximately) to 28mm - which is tabletop gaming scale. Accessories galore! Soldiers! Vehicles! Buildings! Terrain!
I did a lot more digging and found that as a result of the Armorcast kits, there spawned an underground community of garage kit manufacturers who were scratching their own short-run (often VERY short-run) mechs to go along with the original three. The underground part is due to the licensing aspect - there are no "official" kits available anywhere. So I've been talking to these guys lately...a LOT. Here's links to most prolific producers:
battlemechclub.blogspot.com/
scott-messydesk.blogspot.com/
reversedisabled.blogspot.com/
ravenstarstudios.blogspot.com/
thorsmechworks.wordpress.com/
Of course, if you're going to buy expensive resin kits, you can't just slap random paint all over them, especially not when you have an extensive canon to fall back on. Hence the website created just for our purposes!
www.camospecs.com/
So there you go. A bit of history, some background, lots of info, and where I'm at currently with my futuristic walking tank addiction (100% committed). This will be where I catalog all of my builds of the excellent stuff that these guys are cranking out.
Oh, and if anyone wants to get in on a tabletop game, let me know.
bg.battletech.com/new-to-the-board-game/
Started playing the board game with my friends pretty obsessively before I even got into high school with the paper maps and little paper standups of the mechs that came in the original box set. Before too long I graduated to making my own 3D maps and starting to buy the Ral Partha lead miniatures which were a HUGE improvement in the "realism" factor.
Paper standups: airborneace.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/bt-paper-mechs.jpg
Ral Partha lead: www.google.com/search?q=ral+partha+battletech+blister&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HTFGVZ3-GIOrggSf0IDQAQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1600&bih=775
Come the mid 90's the Mechwarrior 2 game came out for the PC...I bought a computer specifically tailored to run that game. I have the stat rundown still for that machine - it's quite humorous. MW2 spawned several sequels, all of which I played a good bit. Fast forward to 2013, when the BT license was sold and Mechwarrior Online came out. Battletech is at the forefront again!
Poking around in the MWO forums, I came across some pics of some large mechs that someone somewhere had scratchbuilt. They were big. MUCH larger than the 1/285 stuff I had been playing with! Turns out that they were 1/60 scale to match a very short run of resin kits that a company called Armorcast put out in the late 90's. That run included the Madcat, Vulture, and Atlas. The reason Armorcast went with 1/60 scale is that it translates (approximately) to 28mm - which is tabletop gaming scale. Accessories galore! Soldiers! Vehicles! Buildings! Terrain!
I did a lot more digging and found that as a result of the Armorcast kits, there spawned an underground community of garage kit manufacturers who were scratching their own short-run (often VERY short-run) mechs to go along with the original three. The underground part is due to the licensing aspect - there are no "official" kits available anywhere. So I've been talking to these guys lately...a LOT. Here's links to most prolific producers:
battlemechclub.blogspot.com/
scott-messydesk.blogspot.com/
reversedisabled.blogspot.com/
ravenstarstudios.blogspot.com/
thorsmechworks.wordpress.com/
Of course, if you're going to buy expensive resin kits, you can't just slap random paint all over them, especially not when you have an extensive canon to fall back on. Hence the website created just for our purposes!
www.camospecs.com/
So there you go. A bit of history, some background, lots of info, and where I'm at currently with my futuristic walking tank addiction (100% committed). This will be where I catalog all of my builds of the excellent stuff that these guys are cranking out.
Oh, and if anyone wants to get in on a tabletop game, let me know.