A long time ago, in the same galaxy we reside in today, there was a fictional intellectual property that featured big stompy robots, genetically engineered super-people, and not a little bit of late-stage capitalism.

And no, it wasn’t called “Warhammer 40k”.

Instead, it was called Battletech. Over the years, the game has been passed around monolithic corporations, and little studios alike, with each adding a little bit of themselves to the final product.

It landed in the capable hands of catalyst game labs in 2007, and eventually, after making do with miniatures sculpted entirely by third parties like Iron Wind Metals, they released a series of plastic miniatures which were gobbled up by a hungry and restless fanbase, sick of buying miniatures that looked like they were sculpted by Octodad.

I bought some of these miniatures AND painted them - see here.

Which is a rarity for me.

But one particularly angry person on reddit told me that the scheme was not complete until I had applied decals to my Omnimechs. Being the thin-skinned egotistical loser I am, I headed to that great repository of fan-made hobby products, etsy, intent on finding some decals that would fit my miniatures.

It didn’t take long – I landed on a small store called Defiance Industries.

(For those not acquainted with the background of Battletech, Defiance Industries is a company which produces Battlemechs in the setting.)

(He? She? They? Also has a website here. The hobby store, not the battlemech factory.)

First, I had to message the owner of the store, who, despite being French, was very polite, as there was no option to ship to convict island:

But, after about two weeks, I received them:

And, after about eight months of thinking about applying them, I applied them to my completed ghost bear star:

Now, to be clear, my method of applying them uses Microset, Microsol, and Vallejo Matte Varnish. I do not think you would have much luck with these, or any other decals, if you don’t use the right hobby products to apply them.

Because the decal film is printed over the entire sheet, you need to cut quite accurately, and you cannot use the backing paper as leverage to remove the transfer. This means the particularly small decals are tricky to work with, and you need to use the sheet of decals as a reference to make sure the extremely small decals are the right side up.

Or, so that the decals appear to be the right side up, as the smallest two sizes have to be printed in such a small size that can’t really see the details on either of the bears. I would hasten to add, however, that this feels less like a fault with the print and more like a limitation of the medium.

The slightly bigger transfers, which I used on my Gargoyle (boo! Hiss!) and my Executioner (fuck yeah, Ghost Bear) look clearer, although there’s still absolutely some loss of definition.

I think for the price I paid I am satisfied with my purchase. I am not overwhelmed with the awesome quality and definition of these decals, but some decals that look reasonable are better than no decals and a snarky response from a jerk on reddit about how my Clan Ghost Bear force isn’t actually from Clan Ghost Bear until they have these transfers applied.

Catch you next time,
Vulkan

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