Journal Entry 11: BattleTech · 6:16pm Sep 29th, 2016
I've been hard at work on the final chapters of Planet Hell, and with making the necessary steps to launch my own business, but when I'm not writing or working, I'm usually painting miniatures. 
In case you haven't noticed from all the little references scattered throughout Planet Hell and Awakening, I'm a HUGE BattleTech fan. While I never really played much of the table top because of the, in my opinion, needlessly complicated rules, I recently discovered a quick play version designed for large scale battles called Alpha Strike. I've pretty much dived right in and, while I'm not particularly good at playing the game, I have gotten really good at painting. This is all of my 41st Shadow Division stuff that I've painted over the last few months. Although I've been at this hobby for a while, it took me a year to learn how to paint all those seamless color gradients. 
Although I've painted other models since then, I still think the Preta OmniMech is my best work thus far.
Not my usual kind of update, but I really wanted to show off just a little. For those of you who want to know, Planet Hell is still on track to continue updating on Friday, October 21st. I know the wait has been atrocious, but having this time to reflect on the piece has given me the chance to approach editing it with a more mature eye, and I think it's paid off. I wasn't happy with it before (that's why I stopped updating), but as I look over what I have of it now I get really excited! It still won't be perfect, but I'm really hyped about this one.
Dude, battletech is top. Linebacker 2good Also liking the griffon in the background. Good shit.
I'm assuming the lava terrain is custom made, aye?
Oh wow, BattleTech? I played MechAssault and love it to death, and while I adore the concept of BT and a lot of the mechs, I never delved into the fluff beyond the barest basics, i.e "giant mechs fight each other and something about the Inner Sphere and the clans", so I didn't pick up any references. You never put a Mad Cat into the story either, so... boo!
The only BattleTech I have experience with is a "BattleTech Grinder" thing that's normally running all day at miniatures conventions I've gone to, but I can still appreciate that painting! Lord knows I know how hard just painting a PzKwIV is, even with guides AND having the exact tones of paint for German camo!
Battletech! I am a huge fan of BT - I've played all the Mechwarrior games, and the (really old) Battletech games on the PC (the Crescent Hawks Inception/Revenge). I've even played some of said overly-complicated tabletop, and it's a nightmare to play. I tend to stay away from large-scale miniatures gaming just because I am a) flat broke and b) not patient enough to paint them. Yours look pretty awesome, though!
(There's also a new Battletech game coming - the same folks who made the Shadowrun Returns games, Harebrained Schemes, had a Kickstarter and is actively developing a new tactical squad-based Battletech game.)
Go ahead, mech my day.
I'm a site admin for Equestria Royal guard, which rose up when MWO rebooted the BT franchise.
Still have my books, still have all the games ever released (including the diskettes for MW1, lost the manual though so I cant verify passphrase anymore.)
Big time BT nerd.
4232562 Little references, not so much Mad Cat sized but more "myomer" and "jump jet" sized. I think that the most blatant I ever got was the ship start up sequence in one of the last chapter of Planet Hell that got uploaded. But they are there!
4232528 If you can believe it, I had to jump through a few hoops to get my hands on that MWO sculpt Griffon... I like to call him Gerard. And yeah, the lava bases are all custom made, but not too hard to do. Mainly it's just a matter of using drying retardant mixed in with the paint so you can mix the colors together. That and Green Stuff.
4232841 I know, they're even based about five minutes away from my house and I applied to help make their game... but I ended up at Lowes, at least for the time being, instead. It took me a month or two to rinse all the salt out, but I will admit I am excited for it!
4233061 Do you play any factions?
Also as an addendum, I've been plagued by these little fibers I keep finding on my models after I paint or varnish them (you can see them in the close up on that Preta). There seemed to be a correlation between how long they sit out on my desk and how many fibers appear, and you know what? I finally figured out what they were the other day. Spider webs. There are spider webs everywhere over pretty much 90% of the surfaces in my house and I had no idea until just the other day when I was taking these photos and looking over some of the WIP models on my table. It's pretty much an infestation.
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I bet all the trouble started when Thunder Gale took parts from the heavy mechs to fix the light mech.
4233328
Ah, green stuff, my old nemesis. While it may be great for filling in any gaps and making small additions to most models, that's easier said than done in anything Tyranid. Jesus fuck I loved those guys, but holy hell was it a nightmare to do anything cool with them.
And yeah, I noticed it was the MWO version. Do you play regularly? I've got a group of a dozen or so folk who love to stomp giant robots in that game.
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I liked playing clan vs clan, ROE makes it so that you cant leg some one, so by all means have fun. Otherwise I wasn't too picky about what house to fight under. I did enjoy missions from Draconis Combine or Comstar comguards/Blakists.
If its an independent group playing, I've got a soft spot for Gray Death Legion.
Nothing says I love you like a Marauder to the face. <3
4233328 Oh, man, that sucks. It would've been awesome if you were working on the game itself.
4234036 Eh, I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'm still happy the will be coming out though.
4233577 Blakists FTW. Grey Death are pretty cool too; they got their own battle armor and everything.
4233405 Just the tabletop stuff; MWO isn't exactly my cup of tea to play. That said, the MWO team did a fantastic job redesigning all the old battle tech sculptures.
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Ahh, fairy nuff man. And yeah, there's no denying that basically all of the MWO mech models are bloody gorgeous
4236174 I see you too, kind sir, have good tastes in B-tech. <3
Keep up the good work, and may the peace of Blake be with you.