Anyone that is into the 'tabletop world' has a number of games that they all play- Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and anything Games Workshop. But there are many that were playing before the evil empires had taken over and remember such things as Car Wars, the many hex-and-chit historicals, and maybe even that mech game before computers. Can you believe that we used to play "Mechwarrior" with miniatures and paper maps!?
Battletech has been around even longer than 40k (and every Battletech player will remind you of this as soon as they can) and was most popular in the era of extra-granular, black-and-white tomes for gaming. After the inundation of board games and before the usurpation by consoles, nerds everywhere played games that required thick books, notebooks of paper, and often funny-shaped dice. Battletech is one of those that OWNED the miniatures wargaming industry until the Emprah spread his truth to all corners of the globe. The miniatures game disappeared (there may have been some lawsuits involved), but the universe became one of the top-selling computer games with the title "Mechwarrior 2". It took years before Topps acquired the license and released the game again, but the quality of the PVC plastic miniatures was horrid. Now, Catalyst Games has released the game with outstanding miniatures, high production quality, and a level of community support that this game has never enjoyed.
At one time, I worked with a guy that was a Battletech fanatic, often poo-pooing on 40k for its lack of balance and insane bloat creep. I constantly pointed out the irony in that, as I am not new to the ancient hex-maps myself. I started with watching the Macross movies, playing the Robotech RPG (as a Veritech pilot that couldn't figure out how to transform his machine), and giving the Battletech miniatures a try themselves. I preferred Car Wars. I tried to get into again while in the service of the Emprah, but the miniatures were so bad that I couln't bring myself to lowering my own standards (working for the best game company in the world sets some unrealistic expectations sometimes). I then found a group of guys that ignored anything in the present to play only old, forgotten, and unsupported games, and they introduced me to Battletech Tactics. Okay, now I'm interested, but the unit bloat (why are there 19 different Locusts pre-Clan Invasion!?!) still made me trepidatious. But I finally gave in and got back into it.
Right now, I just wanted something to hobby on that is not GW. You may remember that my Chaos Space Marines are frustrating me and I still don't have the time to play a full-size game, so I figured finally putting some paint on these mech-thingies would be a good break. And being a House Steiner fan, I figured to slap some paint on the biggest of the Assault Mechs- the Atlas! This is also the old metal model from Iron Wind Metals because, well, I wanted to feel that pewter weight in my hand again...
Below will be the series of pictures from primed metal to finished, with the colour that I used next to it. There were no special techniques and I constantly had to stop myself from adding more highlighting or lining-in or just insane details. These are not GW models and I'm not trying to spend a week on one 25mm model.
I added the yellow stripe down his sides to reflect that this is an officer for the lance. The Atlas is a combat beast AND a command mech. I enjoyed holding the heavy metal model, enjoyed only needing to drybrush to bring out the crisp details, and enjoyed not having too many skulls, spikes, chains, trims, feathers, and other details to muddy up the paint-flow. It was nice. Now, let's see if I can finish a whole lance...
Happy Hobbying!
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