Okay so yesterday I posted a battalion from Hansen's Roughriders, who trace their ancestry (in part) back to the 12th Atrean Dragoons. So today, let's look at the good Dragoons!
The Atrean Dragoons are part of the foundation of the forces of the Marik Commonwealth, and became transferred to the nascent FWLM by donation of Albert Marik back before the Amaris War. Loyal to the Captain-General of the day, the 12th found itself sorely tested by the Anton Revolt, where they went with Anton Marik. Civil wars are always brutal family affairs; the 12th Dragoons, for example, savaged the 11th Atrean Dragoons. Eventually, and on the losing side, most of the 12th defected, to form Hansen's Roughriders. The 12th's colours were struck from the FWLM.
Revived by Janos Marik before the 4th Succession War, the 12th Dragoons formed a fanatically loyal combined-arms team referred to as an "understrength regimental assault group". They played honourable roles in the 4th War, War of Andurian Secession, and Operation Guerro. Incidentally, they also deployed to squash a disloyal, contract-breaking group of Mercenaries on Helm - the Gray Death Legion. The regiment's commander, Colonel Langsdorf, managed to see through the ComStar manipulations which precipitated the crisis, and therefore played a key role in enabling the Helm Memory Core to be distributed. In a way, the 12th Atrean Dragoons should be thanked for making possible the technological renaissance which enabled the IS to stop the initial Clan invasion.
In the Jihad, the 12th was a focus of anti-Thomas Marik sentiment, and were amongst the first to switch their allegiance to Alys Rousset-Marik. Serving mainly in Capellan space during the Jihad, the 12th was part of the Alliance force reclaiming Terra, and took part in the battles for Sandhurst.
Enough for the potted history, onto the minis!
The armour battalion consists of a mix of scouting and support elements. The Recon lance, consisting of GAL-102 Galleons, have the speed and electronics required to find the enemy, and enough speed and firepower to survive contact. Yes they're DA Galleons, but they look absolutely great on the table.
Backing the Galleons up are a lance of Main Gauche XLs. Their light gauss rifles let them snipe from beyond enemy reach. In later eras, they could of course be used as Main Gauche IVFs.
And finally a lance of heavy LRM carriers. Typically kept to the rear, the ability to drop 2 tons of LRMs per turn on a target make this glass-hammer unit a valuable asset to be protected, and used wisely.
All together:
Infantry-wise, the FWLM is a pain with their outsised BA and infantry formations. This company of the 12th has one BA platoon and four conventional - one laser rifle, two standard rifle, and one SRM platoon. The BA have the League's best BA equipment - two Achileus squads and three Longinus squads. The infantry share a heavy hover and heavy wheeled APC, while the BA have been assigned a Maxim (Infantry) version hover. Don't tell the Achileus squads that the Maxim (IFV) can only carry 12 tons of BA suits - they look grumpy enough as it is ;)
And now for the 'Mechs. Recon Lance consists of a FNHK-9K Falcon Hawk, a CDA-3G for electronics, an EGL-2M Eagle, and a TR1 Wraith for the commander.
The Fire Lance is equipped with an APL-1M Apollo, TDR-7M Thunderbolt, BMB-12D Bombadier, and ON-2M Orion:
And finally, the Command Lance, like all the lances, is just chock-full of Leaguer goodness: an HRC-LS-9000 Hercules (hi, Martian!), TMP-3M Tempest, AWS-9Q Awesome, and the commander's MR-V2 Cerberus.
Their powers combined:
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So I just finished two weeks holidays, which meant I managed to finish off a lot of WIP. You're lucky some items from overseas haven't arrived yet, or there'd be a third battalion being posted tomorrow :D
As you may have noticed, I've been doing a lot of battalion-sized units. It makes me happy, helps use up my Magic Davion Warehouse of unpainted units, and lets me try new repeatable techniques. This Marik unit was originally going to be FWL Guards, based on the techniques I'd developed to do white units for my WoB Level III. But that technique works best on minis with angular features and well-defined panel lines, and many of these units lacked these. I'd done a few units, including a Sirocco, but was really unhappy with the outcome.
So I thought to try using an ink on a white base. This failed dismally. But the white unit became a light grey before I tried drybrushing over it. I found that two black washes on a white base gave a great light grey with good panel definition. It then became a case of finding a suitable FWL unit with light grey base - I found the Atrean Guards, read about the 12th being connected to both Hansen's Roughriders and beating down the Gray Death, and was sold, I did this as a proof of concept
liked it, and got to work.
I didn't do as much mod work as for the Roughriders - I'm particularly pleased by the simple repose on the Hercules. It can be really that simple (if time consuming) to convert static minis to dynamic ones with two cuts. The two that got the most attention were the Thud, and the Orion:
What can I say about the Reseen Thud I haven't ranted before? At the end of the day it's too much effort for such a limited mini. Everything had to be pinned, with no really good posing options due to the ridiculous thighs. And the mini is too tall! One day I'll try another, removing about a third from each of the upper & lower legs. The final insult was that straight left arm. Why make all the ridiculous leg parts, and then provide this stroke-victim's arm? I had to bend it a bit. And of course I removed the ridiculous "counterweight" from behind the ERLL. At least I could put the head & missiles on the right side.
The Orion, on the other hand, was a joy and a labour of love, easily accomplished in plastic with none of the ridiculous hassles. I was lucky enough to have 2 Citytech Orions, so the ON-2M was an easy choice. I can't recall seeing any reposed running Orions before - please post'em if you've got'em! - so both legs came off the base & hips. I separated the right leg at the knee and reposed bent, then reattached the legs with the torso tilted slightly forward for a running look.
The damage? Well, of the two plastic Orions, one had softer surface detail; the other had better detail (still not great), but a gouge had been taken out of the LRM launcher on top. So I ended up using the "battle damaged" version as the base, and at the last minute added some scraping and a little smoke and flame effect to indicate a "through-armour critical". It's not a perfect piece, but (unlike the Thud) it makes me happy to see what I was able to do.
All in all I get a great deal of satisfaction out of this, and the Hansen's battalion. Technically, as well as the double-wash technique, I also applied (at a friend's recommendation) a "Cylon Eye" effect - red cockpit, yellow line, then thin orange paint over the line. The BA got just some red eyeliner, which works well with the base colours. The double-wash works best with 'Mechs like the Apollo, with smaller flat surfaces and lots of panel lines. The Tempest and Cerberus needed a fair bit of retouching work to even colours out, but still came out OK IMHO.
Comments, criticisms and questions all welcomed!
W.
