MotW: Vulture IV

[Phobos]

Thank you for the write up :) Great article, and she's a different breed from the old Mad Dog but you can see the heritage for sure, sure she's not an optimised design, but then again, optimised designs are all kinds of dull.

There is a special kind of beauty in uniquely optimized designs. Pulse laser TC boats or stuff that everybody does is indeed rather bland, I agree.
A well thought out subpar design can be a lot of fun however and might be as difficult to come up with as those uniquely optimized designs. But most subpar designs are just bad designs all around TBH... not that the Vulture IV is necessarily one of those, but I think there are much more plain bad designs out there than bad designs that were given some serious thought.

[Maingunnery]

The mini is sort of a halfway measure compared to the nightmarish arms of the Savage Wolf. It's the same problem at the shoulder- small connection points make for a very difficult area to glue, the shapes are almost identical. However, the elbow (where the upper arm meets the weapon pod) isn't a separate glue point, it's fused into one piece. Mine is still unassembled (it's a project for this fall at some point), but having cleaned up the parts last night I was very displeased to see those familiar shoulders. (On the bright side, same legs too, and those were pretty easy to build compared to other recent multi-piece legged messes.)

It can be pinned, however the mini is just soo ugly. They based the mini on the DA sculpt and not on the 3145 Merc Cover art, a real shame.

[Scotty]

Has the Vulture Mk III been covered yet?  It'd be nice to get a look at the divergent evolution of the same design family between two different factions with different needs.

[misterpants]

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=45457.msg1047204#msg1047204

[Arkansas Warrior]

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=45457.msg1047204#msg1047204

Much obliged.

[SteelRaven]

It can be pinned, however the mini is just soo ugly. They based the mini on the DA sculpt and not on the 3145 Merc Cover art, a real shame.

Yeah, it's a shame after the Savage Wolf turned out so well in the looks department. Anthony and Plog's artwork really won me over. 

[cavingjan]

Odds are that the mini was done from the DA mini at the same time that they were both doing the art for 3145. It may even predate it but I'm not willing to bet on that.

[Maingunnery]

Odds are that the mini was done from the DA mini at the same time that they were both doing the art for 3145. It may even predate it but I'm not willing to bet on that.

Well that is possible, I just hope that there will be a resculpt one day.  :'(

[SCC]

Only possible if the current mold is worn out or lost AND there's enough interest to do a new one.

[Kitsune413]

So when I use these in megamek to test them out....

when I use a Savage Wolf against a Mad Cat for some reason I die to a headshot every time. It's not even random anymore. I just will die to headshots in Savage Wolves versus Timber Wolves.

But Mad Dog seems to fit this unit more than Vulture. When it's up against a Mad Cat it'll drag it to the ground and rip it to pieces.

[Colt Ward]

 . . . Mk I, II, III and IV- all different sculpts . . . various arms from Omnis that you can plug in to be whatever weapon pods you want.  Why do you need a resclupt?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The contact points on the Vulture Mk IV mini are tiny and mean that it's prone to having limbs pop off at the slightest provocation.

[Colt Ward]

Like the Savage Wolf?  I had to get mine pinned by someone who did it better . . . but I am thinking of using other Mad Dog/Timberwolf arms for others in the future.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I found that a little dab of green stuff in the shoulders gave enough surface area for superglue to hold.  You "almost" can't see it either, but a paint job can camouflage it.  IMO easier than pinning, even if it is a lil sloppier.