Fourth Succession War: Skondia Part 12 - Second Demo Battle

Two weeks from the big day at the con and a second demo battle under my belt, I think the Battle for Skondia will be a success. On Sunday, four friends of mine replayed the Fourth Succession War: Skondia engagement with some of the improvements that were suggested from last game while I played referee. After a late start (my fault—I forgot something at home) we managed to play through six rounds without a clear winner. In other words, the game was much more balanced. I wished we could go for another six, which I believe would have taken a lot less time because the players were now much more familiar with their units, but alas, everyone had to get back to reality. It was a Sunday after all. I think the biggest thing I learned from this go at it was that I needed many more charts. I intend to figuratively litter the con with charts for my upcoming game. I buddy Dylan will also be helping run the game and each person will likely have fewer units because I intend the game for 8 players rather than 4. I will let you know how the game goes. Until then, enjoy the photos.

The 14th Legion of Vega prepares for battle

A lance of the Skondia Mech Academy move to take up a positions

A Kurita lance decides on a course of action

A tank company of the Skondia Milita takes up positions on the high ground

A secure and partially covered position

The combattants pound on each other in a pitched battle

Coppers sweep in to harass the Legion units from the rear

The Legion is forced to call in another lance from their limited reserve

Clan Cloud Cobra Star: Locust Remastered

This week I thought I would share with you one of my favorite mechs—The Locust. In this case The Locust IIC remastered by the clans. I prefer the classic Locust because it’s…well classic Battletech, but those are hard to come by now. One could use a helicopter as a scout, but “those things go down faster then a clanner on a third date!”quote. So when I saw that someone on eBay was selling five Locust IICs for a great price, I snatched them up. At around the same time I got a free bottle of Reaper paint that and I was itching to try out as most of my paints are Vallejo and wanted to compare the two brands. It was a dark blue-green that matched the mechs of Clan Cloud Cobra’s Delta Galaxy really well. I paired the Reaper sample up with Vallejo’s Royal Purple. Once I finished painting all of the mechs, applying decals, and sealing, I placed the mechs in a scratch built destroyed city that is built with Styrofoam, sandpaper, and lots of hot glue. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Fresh Year

Wow! Has it been four months? I suck and time sure does fly by. My new job has been keeping me very busy and with the upswing in the use of brain power used to learn this new job, I have not felt as creative or motivated to paint or blog about it. That is not to say that I have not done anything.

I have been building and premiering many of my minis in anticipation of painting them. You can see them all laid out on my coffee table awaiting work. I have also reworked the game board for the Skondia battle by cutting up the board into manageable pieces that can more easily be transported to the game convention in May. Speaking of which, I signed up and have been confirmed for running the Skondia battle at the 2011 Kubla Con in Burlingame, California (near San Francisco) May 29^th at 1000. You can see more details here and here. Finally, I have also managed to keep up on several of my favorite blogs regarding Battletech as well others in the game miniature community. You can check out several of my favorites here, here, here, & here. I especially love what Inrepose is doing with his Gruntz 15mm Science Fiction skirmish game and the board he is creating. I also have to point you to Klinktastic’s new website supporting the Battletech community. It’s really is a nicely laid out and attractive site. Ok, enough for now, let me take some photos of some of my completed work, so I can get those posted next week. Thank you for sticking around.

Fourth Succession War: Skondia Part 7 - VTOLs

In today's post, I will focus on the aircraft involved in the battle. First up are a pair of Warrior H-7C VTOLs fielded by the Skondia Militia. Notice that they have been modified to represent the long range missile versions of the Warrior by having their AC-2s removed and replaced with LRM-10s.

 












 



 

 Next up is the Boomerang Spotter Plane in the colors of the 14th Legion of Vega. In the battle for Skondia, this little unarmed vehicle will be calling in artillery fire from four Long Toms three kilometers away in support of the Draconis Combine mechs on the ground in the battle. This was a tough little bugger to put together...very small with multiple parts. I ended up fashioning my own polls to hold the small front wings, because what came with the miniature were too small and bent.

 

Lastly, the Karnov is a light cargo transport capable of hauling six tons of cargo. Like the Warrior helicopters above, this Karnov is part of the Skondia militia. I stayed with the colors of the militia (light blue with red and green highlights) with the exception of the desert flecktarn covering all of the aircraft’s upper surfaces. I thought that this break from the Lyran Commonwealth's color scheme could be explained by aircraft's current environment coupled with a temporary duty assignment with special operations...or something like that.
 

I almost forgot to show these photos off. Unfortunately for the Karnov, it is a target worth a lot of victory points to the Draconis Carbine force in the battle. So, suspecting that it will likely be destroyed, I made a destroyed version of the Karnov that can be placed on the tarmac as it was evacuating non-essential personnel from the base. Iron Wind Metals was so kind to send me a whole new Karnov model when I discovered that the one I had bought was missing several parts. So, with the extra parts, some metal flecks, plastic, and paint I made a destroyed version of the above model.

 Thank you again for looking in. I hope you are enjoyng the photos.

Fourth Succession War: Skondia Part 6 - Steiner Mechs

Thank you everyone for the great comments. Each day this week I will share with you some photos focusing on the units and buildings involved in the battle. Today’s post focuses on the mechs of the command mech of the Skondia Milita and the training mechs of the Skondia Mech Piloting Academy.

Colonel Mitch Freeman's Zeus ZEU-6S painted in the colors of the Skondia Militia (Light Blue with red and green highlights) per Field Manual: Lyran Alliance.

The Chameleon CLN-7V is one of the more popular training mechs in the Inner Sphere. Because the Skondia Mech Piloting Academy is only mentioned in one source the NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2 and that source does not describe the paint schemes of those mechs, I decided to paint the mechs like West German training aircraft of the 1950s and 60s, dark green with orange highlights. I also surmised that the mechs would take a fair amount of abuse from the rookie pilots, so each of the mechs have premiered replacement armor plates and lots of minor damage in various locations all over the mechs.

A lance of Chameleons led by one of their instructors in a Hatchetman HCT-3F.

Faraway shot of the lance moving out from the base.
A second traing lance led by a Commando COM-2D.

Another picture of the traing lace charging an enemy lance on the ridge.

Fourth Succession War: Skondia Part 5 - Board Construction

Welcome back! As promised, here is a succession of photos depicting the evolution of the Skondia battle diorama. It is seven and a half long by 5 feet wide. I originally built it so it could be broken down in-between battles for travel, but unfortunately, the poster board I used for the base warped very badly after I painted them. This rendered the expensive and time consuming to carve Styrofoam useless, so I bought a slab of particleboard and permanently attached all of the terrain elements to the board. Finally, I repainted it and applied grass and bushes. In the coming week, I will focus on the details that will populate the board. Click on the photos to really get the details, enjoy!

I used an old set of knives to carve up the Styrofoam. In the future, I will invest in some Hot Tools, but it was not in the budget this time.

The used foamboards all layed out with the river set I bought from here.

One side done with one more side to go.

Ok, here is the basic shape of the second hill group.

Hot glue is what I used to hold everything together, and to further hold some areas, I used straight pins.

 Cutting Styrofoam makes a big mess. I better get it cleaned -up before my wife gets home.

The cats like the mess though.

Here it is all cleaned up...right before I messed it up with paint. I'm glad it turns out later.

Extra pieces for any number of future projects.

My wife is so sweet to allow me to keep these in the hallway until I assembled the diorama in the game room.

Here is the assembled game board ready for touch-up, drybrushing, and vegitation.

Another angle.

Here it is completed, but without any removable roads, rivers, or trees.

A close up of a level one hill where there will be a small suburb will be set. In the back ground, a level three cliff edge presents a formidable obstacle.

A view from the other side. The Kurita forces will have to move down those valleys in order to engage the Steiner forces on the desert plains.

A close up where the river will take a sharp turn.

A view from the highest point in the battle, a level four.

Me hard at work putting in the final details...with some help from one of the cats.

Final picture from the perspective of the Kurita forces who will be moving south to take the base.

The final picture from the view of the Steiner forces who will have to hold the base and bottle-up the Kurita forces in the river valley.


Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them.