Miniatures of the Fortnight #100: UrbanMech and UrbanMech IIC

[Xiwo Xerase]

Every franchise has a mascot.  Often the mascot embodies what a community holds dear or finds endearing.  The BattleTech community has a very special mascot and... I don't know what that says about us.  Nothing good, probably.

That's right, on Miniature(s) of the Fortnight #100, we're looking at...  the UrbanMech!  Proving slow and steady wins the race, the UrbanMech as first seen in Technical Readout: 3025 brings an AC/10 at a maximum speed that is envied by battle-scarred Atlases, you know, the ones with major leg actuator damage.  (To all of the UrbanMech fans out there, I'm sorry.  I can't do this with a straight face.)  If you'd like to use the UrbanMech in game, check out its 'Mech of the Week article.

Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with the birth of the Arrow IV variant of the UrbanMech, read the story!

The UrbanMech has only had a single sculpt so far, produced by Ral Partha and then Iron Wind Metals (20-857).  I guess you can't mess with perfection.

Meanwhile, Clan Coyote decided to overhaul the UrbanMech because "We can rebuild it.  We can make it faster, stronger." or something.  I have no idea.  But we have the UrbanMech IIC.  Yay?  If you're of the Clan persuasion, the IIC version is also covered in the 'Mech of the Week article.

The UrbanMech IIC also has only had a single sculpt (20-931).

If you have minis of either of these Urbies painted, please share pictures.  We'd love to see them!  And, as always, thank you for reading!

Our next two fortnights will be:

• 8/17: Vulcan
• 8/31: LAM special!

[Talpini]

 Here's one of my early pandemic painting projects. I've gotten better by getting though more mechs, but I'm happy enough with my little forgotten Urbie IIC (might touch it up, mind). Criticisms and thoughts welcome.

 From Mu Galaxy in the Imperio Escorpion touman in a light urban defense star, it's just been standing there long enough for everyone to just ignore it, or to use it as a blank canvass.

[Luciora]

My modest collection of Urbies, covering most of the known variants as of the end of last year.

[Wildonion]

My only Urbie (so far...) painted up in my newly selected Merc colors.

[BaldDen]

My modest collection of Urbies, covering most of the known variants as of the end of last year.

Nice! :thumbsup: Specially 40k Urby :thumbsup:

[Aotrs Commander]

I will say this for the UrbanMech - it may rank among my least favourite mechs (I'm sorry, folks, I never liked Artoo Detoo, even if you scale him up and duct-tape a heavy autocannon on him...!) - but at the very least, I don't need to do ANY assembly on the model.

I just got a shipment from Ral Partha this morning¹. It's been the better part of two decades before I got an UbrnMech, but it was cheap, but I wanted to even my lances out and it was "I really OUGHT to have one, because its so common..." and I have a good 150-ish mechs)

No, why oh why does it have to be that my favourite sort of mechs (the bird/dinosaur legged ones, e.g Mad Cat, Raven, Locust - I have more Locust versions than any other single mech) are always the frickin' hardest nightmare to put together? Avatar, Koto and Osiris are going to be a lot of work, whereas the UrbanMech (and suprisingly the Zeus resculpt) will just need washing and spraying...



¹IWM stuff looks lovely, but they are a good bit more expensive than RPE and in the UK the shipment cost is enormous and even at the moment, where I've hit a bit of BT-phase and am spending probably far more pennies than is sane (but I literally have nothing better to do at the moment), I'm loathe to attempt an order for stuff I couldn't get from RPE because a gentleman customer of my own (for my sins I do 3D print models for modern and sci-fi armour at 144th and starships) in the states was waiting for his MTU-72 model for a good couple of months and at the time, it wasn't even certain anything was being sent out of the US, like, at all.

[Empyrus]

Aotrs Commander, in Europe fantasywelt.de has most of IWM's minis available, with more affordable shipping.

Ral Partha is ofc an option for many older options, but someone noted some time ago that their molds are wearing out so quality is suffering.

[Aotrs Commander]

Ooh, ta! I had had a cursory look around for other places (knowing Germany has a huge BT following), but hadn't found that.

Definitely noting that down!


(Let me just pause and giggle at the dear Raven being apparently their second-best selling mech...! It's always been probably my second favourite after the Mad Cat...!)

[dirty harry]

Back to topic.

A single Urbanmech done in a pattern associated with CC's Syn's Hussars.
The Urbanmech IIc is still a pile of silver parts...