Monday Miniatures - Clan Ghost Bear Intro Star

Welcome back to my hobby nightmare, where all I do is paint miniatures that don't use for games that aren't popular anymore.

Today's finished miniatures kind of fit that bill, as Battletech is still played at my local - for now - but I haven't played a game of Alpha Strike since the birth of my second child.

And with the FORDK (if you know, you know) dataslate being updated as of the 11th of December, I think I'm ready to move on with my hobby life. Perhaps next time with an airbrush spray booth so I don't cover my big vehicles in little particles of rubbish.

Donations will be available through my GoFundMe.

But before I declare myself to be completely over Battletech as a concept, I wanted to paint and finish up the boxes of miniatures I opened up. The Clan invasion box is filled with iconic mechs, all of which I enjoyed painting - although the unique nature of each battlemech means it wasn't possible to batch paint them.

Also they were a massive pain to recess shade, as, despite being 6mm scale models, they're covered in little bits of texture and detail which need to be shaded, and then highlighted - so despite there being fewer models, it somehow took longer for each model to finish.

So, without further ado, here's the intro star from the clan invasion box:

And let's go through the Battlemechs, one by one:

Executioner (Gladiator)

The Executioner is an iconic design of the Clan Invasion period, and also an iconic design for Clan Ghost Bear.

As Goonhammer explains, the Executioner has a M.A.S.C and Jump Jets, and a big-ass engine. This means it's hideously expensive, thanks to the way battle value (BV) is calculated.

The good news is I don't play classic battletech, and in Alpha Strike it's just a battlemech with lots of armour, high speed, and a bad attitude.

Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)

What's in a name? Well, in the case of the Mad Cat, it's two-fold. The Timber Wolf clan name is a tip of the hat to the designers of the Mad Cat, Clan Wolf.

The Inner Sphere slave name comes from a combination of two Inner Sphere designs - the Marauder, and the Catapult. Mad. Cat. Geddit?

Anyway the Mad Cat is an excellent design that's really fucking expensive and emblematic of the difference between Inner Sphere garbage and superior Clan Technology. As Tex from the Black Pants Legion points out, you could buy one Mad Cat, or three Black Knights.

I'd take the Mad Cat, but it is a tempting offer.

Puma (Adder)

The Adder is one of my favourite designs from Mech 4, because it's such a cool design - it's small, light, and mounts twin ER PPCs.

So you cruise around blasting people on two legs and then you go home and collect your C-Bills on the dotted line.

Great design, no notes.

Nova (Black Hawk)

Now, if you know about the world of battletech, I know what you're thinking. "That looks like a smaller Supernova!"

You were right, smartass - all those barrels on the arms of this design are lasers. So where the Puma is a small and convenient death machine because of two very good guns, the Nova is a design that has twelve (12) extended range medium lasers.

Is it good? Is it bad? Who knows. Probably not. Maybe.

Mongrel (Grendel)

This design is the one that grew on me the most whilst painting it. Is it a little man with a cannon for an arm and a goofy missile rack? Yes.

But does it also look kind of cool after spending six hours painting it? Also yes.

That's all for now. Next up on the block are some Clan Elementals!

Catch you next time,
Vulkan

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