BattleTech: Hannibal's Cannibals!

The BattleTech universe is filled with tales of the exploits of colorful Mercenary units like the Black Widow Company, Cranston Snord's Irregulars, the Waco Rangers, and the Gray Death Legion, just to name a handful. When I decided to start playing BattleTech again, and more specifically, the Quick-Strike version of BT, I decided to go all out and create my own colorful Merc unit.

Before writing any background, I've come up with a name and a primary theater of operations for them. Hannibal's Cannibals will be a ragtag Merc Company based in the Periphery area called the Magistracy of Canopus.







What's a rare dueling 'Mech like the Copperhead doing in a Periphery Merc unit? I promise I will explain when I get to writing down the background!



Unit commander Inder Hannibal pilots a 75-ton Orion.








The unit's insignia will be a toothy maw clutching a bone on a field of blood red. I am working on getting some decals made for this.

--Scott

Cobalt Aruks!

Bob Naismith will always be my favorite sculptor. Not only is he an extremely accomplished professional, but he is a joy to work with and quite capable of designing almost anything sent to him.

His alien Aruks from his own Cobalt line are among my all-time favorite models from Bob's studio. I thought I'd share some pics of some Aruks I've painted over the last couple years.



The big guy below is Manchos, one of the coolest alien figures I have ever painted! He's the bodyguard of the the little guy, Erkon-7.











Here's a close-up of one of the great sergeant types Bob did for the line:



They come with slot tabs, but I put them on washers.

These figs are currently in production limbo, but if enough folks clamored for their re-release, I am sure Bob would oblige!

--Scott

BattleTech: The Opposition

Last post I showed the first 5 'Mechs that I had painted from the BattleTech intro boxed set. The next 5 shown below represent their opposition. Again, I went with a very simple scheme, using GW Foundation colors and Devlan Mud ink wash.











I went with a less standard mix of 'Mech tonnages when putting this little force together. That Banshee weighs in at 95 tons, while the next closest machine in the group, the Enforcer, is only 50 tons.

Should make an interesting match against the group from last post.

--Scott

BattleTech

Never let it be said that I cannot be influenced by the projects of friends! I have been a fan of BattleTech since reading William H. Keith, Jr.'s Decision at Thunder Rift novel in 1985. But I have not played or painted a 'Mech since 1997.

Well, my buddies Sky and Dave played a game with Catalyst's starter boxed set in the Phantom two weeks ago, and watching them do so re-kindled my interest. I've no delusions about playing massive games of BattleTech with company level forces, but I do think playing some Lance-on-Lance games would be fun (that's 4 'Mechs per side).

Anyway, here are some shots of my first 5 plastics from the boxed set. The figures are limited, but very functional for a starter set, and you get 24 of them. The actual boxed set is a tremendous bargain at $40.



From left to right, we have a Hunchback, Assassin (background), Quickdraw, Trebuchet (background), and a Dervish.









I am working on 5 more with an alternate paint scheme. Never thought I'd play BT again, but all it takes is the right motivation!

--Scott

Foundry Thracians

Wargames Foundry makes some of the best historical miniatures in the world. My favorite of their Ancients lines are the Thracians. These miniatures ooze character and are sculpted with exacting detail.

I painted these three guys up a while back and thought I'd share them:















Now if I only I could paint a whole army at this level of detail! Actually, I'd settle for a warband of twelve!

--Scott

Old PC Art II

It's time for another installment of Old PC Art! This time around, I've dug out my good friend Matt's color sketch of three vampire characters from our early 1990's Vampire: the Masquerade campaign.



Pictured above are Matt's Brujah Vampire, Vincent Vega (far left), and my friend Shawne's Malkavian, and Bob's Ventrue.

--Scott

Reaper: Female Dark Dwarf

I am rounding out my 300 pt. Warlord force, and I decided to add another Dark Dwarf, but this time I added some spice with one of Reaper's female Duergar models.









All I have to do now is add an archer and I will be right around 300 pts. Then my buddy Charles can start stomping me with this Warlord crew!

--Scott

15mm Men on a Dead Man's Chest!

Finally got around to painting up a pair of Blue Moon's 15mm Pirates. Very nice figures! I've got more on the bench, and I just need to find some time to slot them in.















I intend to go back and clean these guys up a bit, but I am pretty happy with the details on the figures and variety of poses. Ye-Arrrgghh!

--Scott

Old PC Art

Cleaning out some files in my basement, I came across a cache of old character sheets from various games. I decided to scan a few of them to show off some of the great artwork my players used to do to visualize their characters. Today's offerings come from my GURPS 2nd ed. phase, circa 1995 - 1998. At this time I ran both GURPS Conan (still one of the best game supplements ever) and GURPS Shadowrun (my own homebrew conversion).

This first scan is the back of my friend Matt's sheet from the GURPS SR game; he had a great character named Hack Janson, who was a Rigger (drone and vehicle specialist):





Note the little in-game notes Matt took. Very cool. I should make this dude into a miniature!


Next up we have three images from my GURPS Conan campaign, both from my buddy Shawne's Aesir Pit Fighter character. Note that Shawne is a crazy X-Men fan, and his mind never quite leaves his favorite Merry Mutants!









I have loads more of this stuff, and I will make it an occasional feature here. Sure brings back a lot of good memories!

--Scott

Reaper: Lunk, the Goblin Mage

When it comes time to play the Warlord skirmish game from Reaper, I will have assembled a motley crew of fantasy mercenaries. The latest addition to the lineup is Lunk, Goblin Mage.









I will add that this figure is so good that it practically painted itself!

Thanks for checking the blog!

--Scott