Old Third edition Mods

[katya_Kerensky]

When I learned to play, 14mechs was it, When my friends learned to play most of those mechs became unseen, a story I'm sure a lot of you have. Well after I started playing with  players that grew up with the fourth edition box set. Any mention of  Warhammer, Griffin etc was always met with puzzlement.  Until they got older and started playing with the older guys in the gaming group. All of a sudden the old often called craptastic 3rd edition mini's with their heavier armor, more weapons and mean poses suddenly became the force to fear.

It's neat to see all the little design differences between the old plastics and the standard 24 in the box set now that show a difference in play style and feel. 

Either way, these mechs really look like they have seen 300 years of war.

Hands down the SW is the era of choice for the battletech group I play with.  These old boys were modded and painted awhile back. Part of a player merc group no real cannon to it (Sept maybe that Combine grey red, think its the Legion of Vega, but those are more red with grey).

Lots of cutting, putty, old steel rods, paper clips and trial and error in these, But they really keep the old school feel.
Can't wait to touch these up some day But I figured I should photo them while I had a camera on hand.

They are probly going to be stripped and touched up (Twenty + years of bouncing around in a dropship...err box from planet to pla....well gaming table has shown on them a bit)

Also all those years ago the paint quality for miniatures wasn't as readily available as it is now so hopefully something nice will come from them.

The Commander Battlemaster (Royal I guess is what you call the Battlemaster now with two ppc's)

Battlemaster with out extra ppc (Its pinned to pop on and off)



Reposed MAD (Cut to face the letters on the hex, Legs were most of the work on this, to give it a walking, less static look, arm's moved to not stick out so much)



Lead Archer (Because the plastic one never felt to scale, lots of reposing on this)

(Nice to see MW4 Merc's Archer walks a lot like this)

At the time there was a lot of debate about the LRM's on the Crusader. The old 3025book said the boxy for arms were an extra cooling set up. But Stackpole explained the missiles shooting from the wrists in the Warrior Trio of books, so I think its based of the Macross style of launchers




The only Rifleman I've liked was this repose. The normal is to static, and the reseen kinda has a bum knee IMO



Warhammer




Wolverine Great repose I think, Really looks mobile this way




P hawk, Cutting and molding to get that barrel off its thigh.


Wasp Lots of cutting to get this arm out.



Stinger 3G  the second barrel and arm was made out of putty other wise lots of cutting and file if I remember right.



T-Bolt Nice looking mini' once its reposed. Probly my fave 'intro' tech mech is the 5SS cuz its leet BV




Sharp looking Griffin



Locust 3V Nice work done on fixing the feet around



Shadow hawk posed to look like the cover of Battlefield technology issue 101 from way back when



All in all, I would like to say, Yes they are chipped, Yes there not flocked or any work done to the bases. They are here because I wanted to share some old work done on some old plastic, Comments idea's and chit chat more than welcome!

[Vlads Fangs]

 O0

[Ronin Actual]

Old School all the way!

[katya_Kerensky]

They just went in the stripper tub, Along with the vehicals painted the same way, And the old black widow company

[calendraug]

I started playing when it was still battle droids these mechs and the ones from the plastech box were the only readily available ones in the UK at the time, so we all made do with these.
Your comment about the paint quality in that era was spot on. Its definately easier now.
 I mainly use GW paints as they are plentiful here. Repainted most of my plastics too now due to 20+ years of wear and tear.

[agen2]

Nice repose,I wish I'll find time for do the same with mine soon or later. O0

[Mecha82]

Very nice O0.

[jimdigris]

 [applause]

[Jimmy B]

I like the reposing.  I always thought this was a nice set for being plastic. I ended up getting two of the 3rd Ed box set, plus another two boxes of just the Mechs. Im not sure if you know this, but when they made the 2cd Ed City Tech, it had the same style of plastic Mechs in it, included a few Clan Mechs. 

[avon1985]

Lots of good memories tied in with those mechs! O0

[Jimmy B]

What you need now is a repossessed Union C Dropship to put these bad boys in.  :)
And I would say by your work here, if you wanted to, you could build it.

Make it to scale for the Mechs, and not only will you have a dropship for the game table,
but its actually more than big enough to hold all of them. Diameter 10", Height 10 1/2" :)

[billtfor3]

Very very nice reposes.  You have inspired me to hack a Stinger or 8 up now.

[katya_Kerensky]

@calendraug I know, we are currently going though shelves and boxes full of mechs trying to 'update' them and fix up the 20year of use paint jobs, Lots of promise in the project, and stripping older mechs is far cheaper than buying new. Though its leading to a pretty big wish list for IWM in the future

@agen2 Love reposing mini's, Just finished a first run at doing the Griffin GRF-1E

@Jimmy B Oh yes, the city tech box, We have that, and one of each clan and IS mech is in our 'Don't touch for beer and pretzel battletech box' but the extra's some have hit the chopping block, Namely a Timberwolf that once you get the barrels off the arms really looks like its strait out of MW2
-I dunno how much greenstuff that would take to make a whole drop ship... (jk)

@billtfor3 Lol careful, your thumbs and fingers might hate you after that many

Thank you all for viewing this post and the positive feed back.

[VF1LAM]

The only thing I can say about the Unseen Crusader is that my impression has always been that the forearms have the medium lasers and machine guns; the LRMs fire from the big blocky parts on the shoulders; and TR: 3025 says that the SRMs are hip-mounted.  I can't imagine a feed mechanism pushing the LRMs through the shoulders, but if Stackpole claimed that the forearms have the LRMs, maybe he was privy to some information FASA gave him that I don't have... ???  Remember that the 'Mech was supposed to be based on the Armored Valkyrie from Macross / Robotech, which had all those missiles to augment its firepower plus additional armor, but which was too slow and vulnerable to the Zentraedi.

Thank you for sharing these miniatures with us.  They look great, as far as I am concerned. [drool] 8) O0

[Jimmy B]

-I dunno how much greenstuff that would take to make a whole drop ship... (jk)

hehehe, Yeah that would take a LOT of Greenstuff. I wont be using any for mine.
Although I have done large models just with greenstuff before.

I plan to make two Union Class Dropships, One will be a simple
exterior model, internally a carry case. The second one...
When I get to it, is going to be useable for more than
just a Battletech setting. It will be a carry case, But it will have
a fully detailed interior for Mechwarrior RPG games.

That is a ways off though, I am starting on the big daddy of them all first.
A Behemoth. Because I need something BIG, as a bulk carry case for my
Minis and Terrain.

[katya_Kerensky]

Well they are stripped, When I get them and the others not pictured in a new coat of field grey (My go to mech color being a wolf player) I'll try to get some pictures up

[Rinahe]

 Very nice reposes, Katya, congratulations!

These are, by far, my favorite BattleTech minis...

 ;)

Rinahe

[TheMaster1955]

well done, nice O0

[Col.Hengist]

all are very cool but the battlemaster is my favorite.

 Your shad is the same pose as the new primitive too. Very nice all around.

[Stormlion1]

Ah, the memorys of these fine old designs, I ruly do prefer them over the currant updated versions.

[Blacksheep]

 O0  Do you have any shots of the "stripper tub" O:-)

[Jimmy B]

Personally I think they should have just left the unseens as is.
All of the original Scenario packs, and Merc groups were based  on them.
And personally, I cant see units like the Black Widows suddenly
piloting the skeletons that have replaced them. Its History.

All the new "reseen" versions should have simply been models for
whole new Mech designs. 

I have several sets of the plastic Mechs pictured here, they may not
be quite as detailed as the metal ones, but still awesome.  :)  Made
for a cheap easy way to create all of those Classic Merc Units, like
Grey Death, Wolfs Dragoon, Kell Hounds, Cranston Snords, Rhonda's
Irregulars, The Black Widows, McCarrons Armored Cav. Etc.  :)

[katya_Kerensky]

O0  Do you have any shots of the "stripper tub" O:-)

Oh....Oh my No no no not that kinda Stripper, Nor a tub for that kind.  I mean stripping agent to get the old paint off lol

They are all cleaned off, waiting to get some TLC after I finish my first sword of light, Lyran Guards, a unit for house davion House liao, and Marik, Figure get all the parade style painting out of the way before working on another flat grey for these like my Wolves or maybe something in desert camo

[House Davie Merc]

Nice reposes .

I think I like the Wolverine the best of these .

It somehow just looks like it's not as stiff as the others .

More like it's alive then a posed statue .

The original seems to be in an odd pose to me .

[katya_Kerensky]

I like the reposing.  I always thought this was a nice set for being plastic. I ended up getting two of the 3rd Ed box set, plus another two boxes of just the Mechs. Im not sure if you know this, but when they made the 2cd Ed City Tech, it had the same style of plastic Mechs in it, included a few Clan Mechs.

I'm adding the Inner sphere mechs from that box set to this list, currently its just the cusp of the mini's in this old mod, It's almost a battalion of unseens I just photo'd the best I thought.   After I get around to getting more greenstuff  new paint etc I'll probly spend a lot of time fixing them all up  Might be some time though.

[Mars]

good shema colors! :D