SuckyJack, on 01 November 2014 - 06:54 PM, said:
When you look at it in that setting you have mechs being cannibalized for parts in the field either in the form of won salvage or mechs that were damaged beyond the immediate window for repair. Though not fitting into any official factory variant it would be more common than you would think to replace damaged equipment out in the field with whatever was available. These deviations wouldn't have been done as a luxury but rather a necessity and would likely be corrected back to official factory variants if they were returned to their manufacturing plants (for reasons of tactical doctrine or just seen as inferior) and there likely would be little to no note of them existing unless some event made them famous.
Atleast that is the way I view it. Modifications of a damaged unit make more sense than taking a functioning unit out of service for a custom job.
While I don't even pretend to have the artistic talent to show you what I see after reading this, the picture below comes close enough...
