Starter Box Project

[samaritan]

Hon. Mechwarriors;

I have recently finished collecting and painting my Starter Box Project.  I organized 4 boxes into unified lances and placed those lances in parity strength companies serving the various Great Houses.  I then proceded to paint up each of the companies in House colors as defined by my original poster map of the Inner Sphere.  I could not bring myself to ruin 24 mechs with a purple paint scheme so I chose to paint the Marik forces in a Trellisane arctic grey cammo instead.  I can provide close ups for each of the lances in this thread upon request.

This Starter Box Project lets me campaign in the Star League Era against the Periphery as well as the 1st and 2nd Succession Wars.  I hope you like them and I hope the Starter Box Mechs do not violate rule 12.

Thank you for tossing my muse a few crumbs of approbation gentlemen.

Respectfully

Samaritan

[Cannon_Fodder]

Some close-up pics would be nice. I can tell you from that pic they look better then mine.

......I hope the Starter Box Mechs do not violate rule 12.

'Mech figures you are painting and displaying don't normally violate rule 12. Normally just copywrited images of the 'Unseens" do.

[willydstyle]

Rule 12 is more about fan-sculpts that are for sale or illegally-cast minis than it is about unseen.  You're not allowed to post any of the old unseen art, but posting an unseen mini you've painted yourself is just dandy  [rockon]

[noobk]

I did not get a tank or a helicopter thingie in my box.....  :'(

I got a loki and a thor....

I feel kinda sad, less of a person maybe? 

[samaritan]

I apologize for not pointing out that the Comstar AFV lance is not part of the Starter Box product.  I added a Type III Comstar combined arms unit to round out my Inner Sphere major powers.

Here is a picture of the Comstar mech compliment.  I have a couple of brigades of conventional armor to flesh out any given army in play.

[blackjack]

banshee's & cyclops close ups would be cool.

[Mecha82]

Nice .

[samaritan]

Here is a close up of the Stiener Company.  The Banshees have been converted to the Stiener 3S variant.  The Stieners were the last house painted as I had trouble finding a means of high lighting the models against a dark blue paint scheme.  I settled for a mud and blood theme for them and will have to touch them up individually.

[samaritan]

Here is the Capelan Company as requested.  ONe of the Vindicators came out of the box maimed with a missing PPC.  I found some bits and fixed the mech.  The Vindicators and Catapults were an easy selection for the Capelan compliment from the available starter box mechs.. Choosing an assault chasis for a house lacking heavy and assault production faciilities was a bit more difficult.  Mech Commander 2 finnally tiped the ballance towards the Cyclops as each of the Houses appear to have husbanded their Cyclops in service.  The Capalans were as liekly as any to field them.

[Fatebringer]

It's funny to see lances of the same mech. You know, like a real combat unit should be

[Fatebringer]

Here is the Capelan Company as requested.  ONe of the Vindicators came out of the box maimed with a missing PPC.  I found some bits and fixed the mech.  The Vindicators and Catapults were an easy selection for the Capelan compliment from the available starter box mechs.. Choosing an assault chasis for a house lacking heavy and assault production faciilities was a bit more difficult.  Mech Commander 2 finnally tiped the ballance towards the Cyclops as each of the Houses appear to have husbanded their Cyclops in service.  The Capalans were as liekly as any to field them.

The only thing that would make this sweeter is if you flipped out Awesomes for the Cyclops Then you place the Catapults behind them, and move the Vindies off to the Flanks in trees. Tactics, man, Tactics! 

[samaritan]

As the Starter Box Project contains 96 mechs from the 4 boxes my painting could not help but improve.  I also discovered that not all plastic injection moldings proved to be equal.  I think this is one of the reasons my Davion Companies turned out better than the rest.  I chose the Atlas, and the Enforcer for the Davion Heavy Co.  The Jaggermechs practically begged for the D  conversion.  A pair of suture scissors let me cut the arms down to a thin and easily twisted repositioning of the arms.  I added some Blizzard Missile sprues to represent the LRM pods.  The TRO fluff indicated that Davion reserved these models for high priority air defence so assiging them to cover the Atlases seemed a natural fit. 

After cropping my picture down to the bone I managed to get an Atlas and a Jagermech picture small enough to upload.  I will have to go through and take new pictures of my collection in lance and single pics in order to post here efectively.

[samaritan]

Howdy Fatebringer;

Thankyou for your comment regarding unit T.O&E.  I began this project as a means of campaigning in the Star League and early Succession War era.  Unified chaseys were the norm back then in a unit.  As for the best tactical services within any given Co., I erred on the side of company to company parity while keeping the mechs true to the fluff of their predominant House service.  These considerations coupled with the limited slection of mechs to chose from in the Starter Box occassionally made for strange bedfellows.  I trust nothing in the organizational chart will prove too much for your suspension of disbelief.

I occasionally saw an opportunity to put company strong cavalry units together from the Starter Box collection.  In one instance I paired up the Dervish, Clint, and the kit-bashed PPC totting Cicada.  I have included a company pic of the Davion cavalry Co.

I am glad you like them and hope the combination of high speed LRMs, AC10s, and PPCs meets with your tactical approval.

Respectfully

Samaritan

[FedSunsBorn]

Impressive work using just the starter mechs. Paint jobs and kitbashes look exellent.

[willydstyle]

It's funny to see lances of the same mech. You know, like a real combat unit should be

Depends on the era really.  During the SW everyone just piloted what they had.  Once mech production started to ramp up, then I could totally see lances of the same equipment.  However, even in RL military units they often have some equipment other than standard, like the SAW in a fire team.

[samaritan]

Hon. Mechwarriors;

I have croped and edited some of my pics and come up with a company group photo of the Davion Heavy Co.

[samaritan]

Hon. Mechwarriors;

The Starter Box Project has given me the wherewithal to field uniform lance core House Units in the early BT eras.  I have added uniform Co.s of conventional armor to the mix as well.  In this instance I have painted up a Scimitar Hover Tank Company.  The unit consists of 12 Scimitars painted in a jungle style cammo scheme with Marik Eagle emblems gracing the fantail.  A Battallion HQ lance is included as well.  Two Kangas have had their jump jets removed and refited with a command van electronics suit and and ELINT suite.  The security detail for the HQ consists of two kit-bashed Lightning hulls mounted with Glaive Turrets.  I use these to represent the "Hover Tank" design from the Vehicles SSD supplement 5.  The Hover Tank is a cannon AFV that moves 6-9 and sports a PPC, SRM6, and plenty of cargo and infantry bay space so necessary to the propper care and feeding of an HQ element.

With company strong uniform elements and their attendant HQs a Battleforce II Regiment can be disbursed throug out an operational campaign map and gamed out at the company and Lt. battalion level on the 4x8 tables at the local game store.

I am in the process of reimaging the Starter Box Project with a new power adapter for my HP Photosmart 402.  Let me know what you would like to see and I will try to get a 128k clear image of it for you.

Respectfully

Samaritan

PS Sorry about the double post, I did not find an option to remove it from the modify tab.

[samaritan]

Hon. Mechwarriors;

The Starter Box Project has given me the wherewithal to field uniform lance core House Units in the early BT eras.  I have added uniform Co.s of conventional armor to the mix as well.  In this instance I have painted up a Scimitar Hover Tank Company.  The unit consists of 12 Scimitars painted in a jungle style cammo scheme with Marik Eagle emblems gracing the fantail.  A Battallion HQ lance is included as well.  Two Kangas have had their jump jets removed and refited with a command van electronics suit and and ELINT suite.  The security detail for the HQ consists of two kit-bashed Lightning hulls mounted with Glaive Turrets.  I use these to represent the "Hover Tank" design from the Vehicles SSD supplement 5.  The Hover Tank is a cannon AFV that moves 6-9 and sports a PPC, SRM6, and plenty of cargo and infantry bay space so necessary to the propper care and feeding of an HQ element.

With company strong uniform elements and their attendant HQs a Battleforce II Regiment can be disbursed throug out an operational campaign map and gamed out at the company and Lt. battalion level on the 4x8 tables at the local game store.

I am in the process of reimaging the Starter Box Project with a new power adapter for my HP Photosmart 402.  Let me know what you would like to see and I will try to get a 128k clear image of it for you.

Respectfully

Samaritan

[samaritan]

Hon. Mechwarriors;

House Kurita has been extensively represented in the Starter Box Project with a Heavy Company and a Force Recon Company.  The Lustrous Blood Red with black panel high lights shows up better in person.  I will have to investigate the mysteries of lighting in photography for the future.

A combination of Zeus, Dragon, and Panther mechs round out the Kurita Heavy Co.  In this instance the Kuritans did use Zeus heavies, but they have a stronger association with the Lyrans.  In this case the SBP provided a Banshee and Zeus to choose from, I gave the Stieners the Banshee 3S and let the Kuritans run with the Zeus.  Naturally I run the unit with straight PPC variants, maintenance be danged.

The Force Recon Company consists of the Kuritan staple of a lance of Jenners backed up by Trebuchets and Whitworths.  The Whitworth is one of the Star League Era oddities known as a 4/6/4 recon mech.  I figured any recon unit that slow would have to have the means of reporting the destruction of, and not the location of enemy forces.  To this end I lumped the 5.8 Trebuchet with the 7/11/5 Jenner.  All three mechs posses formidable fire power for their tonnage.

I have just discovered the "more attachments" option, this should make for some more concise updates.

I think I have the hang of getting the images substantially below the 128k limit.  Let me know what you want to see next, or just wait for the updates.

Respectfully

Samaritan

[samaritan]

Here are the last two company close up pics of the Starter Box Project.  The first Company is a Marik Heavy unit.  It consists of a Lance of Awesomes, a lance of Hunchbacks, and a lance of Quickdraws.  I made the mistake of trying out a new stone textured spray paint on the whole Co. before I realized that the panel etchings and definition of the models would suffer.  I compromized by painting the company as an arctic cammo pattern which came out fairly well in person.  Dry brushing and a lacquer helped to give the models an effective cammo coat at the expense of the crisp lines I prefer on most of my units.

The last Starter Box Company is a Recon Company in Marik service.  It consists of a lance of Hermes, Spiders, and Assasins.  This 7/11 unit is meant to be able to run down opposing bugscouts and avoid the trouble it manages to scout out. 

This is the last of the Starter Box Project Pics for now.  Uniform lances in House affiliations with matching paint jobs makes for a great spectacle on the table top.  The scenes remind me of my micro armor days with battlemechs instead of Shermans.

Painting 96 mechs like this took some effort and some time.  I now have a nearly unique capacity to game in the early epochs of the Battletech timeline.  A couple of lessons I learned along the way are: 1. Experiment with new techniques on cardboard or a single model, don't experiment on the Company Scale, 2. If you want the unit to look alike try to paint them at the same time, 3. Don't get discouraged when your muse runs dry, break the paint job down into lance and company sized projects.

Thank you for your attention.  I look forward to presenting future paint projects here.  2 Brigades of pewter and lead remain to be painted.

Respectfully

Samaritan