21 replies to this topic

[Logan Hawke]

I finally did it. I finally bought into the absolutely soul crushingly ugly miniatures for Battletech. I tried to stay strong, but alas, this stuff is just too cool to let ridiculously bad sculpts get in the way of STOMPY ROBOT CRUNCH ACTION after all. Finding out about the Alpha Strike ruleset and the plastic lance packs Catalyst Labs are putting out pushed me over the edge.

Soon my Introductory Box Set will be arriving along with 24 gloriously fugly minis. And I'm sure this is just the beginning of yet another consuming and awesome hobby.

So, aside from shitposting, I was genuinely wondering; do any of you have much experience with Alpha Strike? Any good tips on how to get the most out of those minis? Any cool pics of ones you've painted or something that actually makes them look good?

Spoiler

hooray for being extremely bored at work with enough free time to post this

[Mech42Ace]

Sometimes jeweling the cockpits and lasers makes em look less bad. And also a wicked paint job.

[Logan Hawke]

Mech42Ace, on 13 October 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Sometimes jeweling the cockpits and lasers makes em look less bad. And also a wicked paint job.

But alas for my shaky hands, jeweling things does not work. I can pull of highlights though, so hopefully that'll help. Plus, gloss varnish is a runner up for cockpit glass.

[Demi-Precentor Konev]

Paint your base colors, wash it with an ink, touch up with the same colors. Ready for battle. Don't look at them unless you have to, and when you have to - make sure to lean back and squint a bit. I don't know why they don't have people cranking out more 'Mechs based on more recent art. I guess CGL and IWM hate money or something.

[Mech42Ace]

Yea it's becasue the rights are all all over the place here

[Logan Hawke]

Mech42Ace, on 15 October 2014 - 10:27 AM, said:

Yea it's becasue the rights are all all over the place here

Hey, they're still putting out new designs every month over at Iron Wind. They're *slowly* getting better

[Mech42Ace]

Yep they sure are, it's a good idea to go to 3145, kinda a fresh start to make kinda more modern mech designs.

[Logan Hawke]

Mech42Ace, on 16 October 2014 - 05:50 AM, said:

Yep they sure are, it's a good idea to go to 3145, kinda a fresh start to make kinda more modern mech designs.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... but 3145 is way too.. I don't know, generic? I really don't like all the weapons and stuff that gets added in the Jihad era and beyond. Just my opinion I suppose.

Also, mah stuff arrived yesterday. The mold lines are terribly placed and some of the bases are warped, but all in all the models look better than I was expecting. Having trouble getting the basing to stick though, despite scoring the hell out of the bases.

Edited by Logan Hawke, 16 October 2014 - 05:54 AM.

[Mech42Ace]

Epoxy is good for attaching bases, just don't apply to much! Also for the mold lines, you could use different size B-a-s-t-e-R-d files (oh man I love that term) to get in the nooks and crannies, also if you don't have one, get a hobby knife, it'll serve you well.

Edit: what mechs did ya get if you don't me asking?

Edited by Mech42Ace, 16 October 2014 - 06:22 AM.

[Logan Hawke]

I'm not talking about attaching the bases to the model, I'm talking about the basing. The sand/gravel/whatever you glue to the base typically with PVA glue to make it look all snazzy. And I have a hobby knife, it's just that some of the lines are in the most inconvenient and difficult to work with places

It's the Introductory box set Catalyst makes. I believe it is: Atlas, Zues, Cyclops, Banshee, Battlemaster, Awesome, Grasshopper, Jagermech, Dragon, Timber Wolf, Catapult, Quickdraw, Dervish, Trebuchet, Hermes, Clint, Cicada, Enforcer, Vindicator, Hunchback, Spider, Panther, Commando, Jenner, Whitworth, Assassin, and a couple others whose names I can't remember. In total, there's 26 plastic minis in the box.

Edited by Logan Hawke, 16 October 2014 - 06:46 AM.

[Mech42Ace]

Oh ok, I just bought the intro box too, Gotta admit, it's pretty high quality. Have you tried a thin layer of elemer's glue for the base flocking?

[Logan Hawke]

I thought Elmers is just brand name PVA glue? Maybe my water to glue ration is a bit off. And yeah, they're certainly not bad for the price, but claiming they're (the minis) high quality is a bit of a stretch. The other contents of the box definitely are high quality though.

[Mech42Ace]

Oh I have another idea to make the minis look good for you. Have you tried drilling out the ballistic weapon barrels? That looks pretty good also.

[Nachthund]

An easier to base your minis is to go to the hobby store and buy model rail road grass(there are various shades and colors). When you get that get an altoids tin or another small container with a lid and pour some of grass in that. Get a good shade of brown that you like I use a leather brown from msp. Get a brush you don't like glop some of the brown on your base being careful of the feet an while the paint is still wet put the fig in the tin and let It set for a few seconds then lift it out tap the fig carefully to get the excess off the base and use another brush to wipe the excess off the figs feet. Takes me about 1-2 minutes if that to do a figure. Hope that helps.

[Karl Streiger]

Logan Hawke, on 13 October 2014 - 09:26 AM, said:

So, aside from shitposting, I was genuinely wondering; do any of you have much experience with Alpha Strike? Any good tips on how to get the most out of those minis? Any cool pics of ones you've painted or something that actually makes them look good?

Cut them, remodel them use a awesome camo paint....
There is no easy way to make them look better. The starter box miniatures were a pain - and i had the low quality box
(those i did not cut into spare parts - for remodelling (Dragon, Awesome, Catapult) i gifted my nephew - he was 12 maybe the quality is good enough for him

With enough time you can make some good looking miniatures:
You may get some inspiration in this old topic:
http://mwomercs.com/...dpost__p__76063

Logan Hawke, on 16 October 2014 - 05:40 AM, said:

Hey, they're still putting out new designs every month over at Iron Wind. They're *slowly* getting better

So the time of the Titan II - Warlord - shite builds are gone - when ever a miniature price is > 12$ i carefully proceed to buy it - because a rock of tin is cheaper.

[Logan Hawke]

Nachthund, on 16 October 2014 - 01:12 PM, said:

An easier to base your minis is to go to the hobby store and buy model rail road grass(there are various shades and colors). When you get that get an altoids tin or another small container with a lid and pour some of grass in that. Get a good shade of brown that you like I use a leather brown from msp. Get a brush you don't like glop some of the brown on your base being careful of the feet an while the paint is still wet put the fig in the tin and let It set for a few seconds then lift it out tap the fig carefully to get the excess off the base and use another brush to wipe the excess off the figs feet. Takes me about 1-2 minutes if that to do a figure. Hope that helps.

I finally got them based. Took a few coats of PVA and then a sealing coat, but it looks fine now. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Karl Streiger, on 17 October 2014 - 04:18 AM, said:

Cut them, remodel them use a awesome camo paint....
There is no easy way to make them look better. The starter box miniatures were a pain - and i had the low quality box
(those i did not cut into spare parts - for remodelling (Dragon, Awesome, Catapult) i gifted my nephew - he was 12 maybe the quality is good enough for him

With enough time you can make some good looking miniatures:
You may get some inspiration in this old topic:
http://mwomercs.com/...dpost__p__76063

I have considered cutting and reposing them, but since I'm going to be playing alpha strike I will most likely be getting doubles of some of the minis at some point in the near future and I'm not sure I want to mess with them because of that (hooray for mass battles). And I *think* I'm going to be able to paint them well once I figure out the factions I want to paint (I'm waffling between a few), the main problem is they won't have that little extra oomph from freehand decals.

[Mech42Ace]

Hey what you could do is paint a lance from each major faction, and go from their?

[Logan Hawke]

Mech42Ace, on 18 October 2014 - 06:44 AM, said:

Hey what you could do is paint a lance from each major faction, and go from their?

I think that's a pretty good idea.

[Mech42Ace]

Logan Hawke, on 19 October 2014 - 02:02 PM, said:

I think that's a pretty good idea.

Cool man, If your feeling up to it, make sure to post pics when done in the fan art section, I'm sure many would like to see them.

Edited by Mech42Ace, 19 October 2014 - 07:18 PM.

[Logan Hawke]

Mech42Ace, on 19 October 2014 - 07:17 PM, said:

Cool man, If your feeling up to it, make sure to post pics when done in the fan art section, I'm sure many would like to see them.

I would love to but my phone cord is ****** up and can barely charge the thing, let alone download pictures.