Slight Diversion

So I went to start the next batch of Arkab Legion and just decided that after 50 miniatures in the same color scheme I needed to take a slight break and do something different. Thus taking four of the Kickstarter mechs that weren't going into the Arkab, mainly the Wraith, Caesar, Shogun, and Devestator. Three of the four are post Clan Invasion which is as far forward in the timeline as I play 95% of the time. Three of the four are post 3048 with only the Shogun being from pre-3030. As to the Shogun though, it is far too slow to make sense in an Arkab Legion regiment. So I lumped all four together into a lance and they got to become my only Marik Militia lance. I feel like Cheef a bit for doing a small one off unit.

So after they got a base layer of Vallejo Violet, the red and blue stripes were done in Vallejo Dark Blue and Vallejo Carmine Red. This was followed by Vallejo Gunmetal Grey for weapons, antennas, jump jets, and other small details.

The wash layer was done with Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade. This was my first time using this Citadel wash as my go-to will be 99% of the time be the Nuln Oil if using a Citadel Wash. What surprised me though was it turned the entire minis a glossy finish which I haven't had happen before.

So I went ahead and based the lance using basic medium green grass flock and added a bit of Gamers Grass 2mm Moss to give the color some depth and variation. I didn't paint the base edges as I like the contrast the look had with the dark minis, brighter basing, and then the solid black clean base to contrast with the grass. With that done, after consulting briefly with Cheef over the glossy issue, they all got a layer of matte sealant and as he reassured that dealt with the finish issues.

So that is my Marik Militia lance and I'm pretty happy with how they came out. I have no idea if they will ever hit the tabletop but they'll look nice on the shelf. Next up will be back to the Arkab Legion by the end of the week.

We're Cooking Now!

I seem to be hitting a really productive groove here and that is really nice for the Kickstarter backlog. This time around I got the 4 Von Luckers and the 4 Schreks painted up. First step was to get the Dark Sand and then the Bronze Green and Cavalry Brown camo layer.

Next up was the Gunmetal Grey for gun barrels and other bits, Black for the treads, Nuln Wash for the overall, and lastly the Tan Earth for the base. I forgot to take a pic in the middle of that so unfortunately it's multiple steps all in one jump.

And finally here they are added to the rest of the 8th Arkab so far. I am at 2 full Mech companies, 2 full armor companies and then two loose Mechs that will get some comrades at some point.

The next step will be the 4 Hetzers and the 4 Bulldogs. After those I still have 4 Pegasus, 4 Condors, 4 Drillsons, 4 Skulkers, 2 Galleons, 4 Warriors, 2 bases of Savannah Masters, 3 each of Long Toms (plus trailers), MASH, and Mobile HQs, 2 Warhammers, 1 Rifleman, 1 Jagermech, 1 Archer, 1 Atlas, 1 Blackjack, and I believe that is it for the Arkab force at the moment. Yeesh, still quite a list to go.

So that is where I stand at the moment and I will see you all next time.

More Arkab Armor Forces

So we have a new installment of completed vehicles from the Catalyst Kickstarted joining my AltHistory version of the 8th Arkab Legion. This time up we have 4 Sturmfeurs and 4 Ontos. First up they got the Dark Sand basic layer followed by the Bronze Green portion of the camo.

Next up they got the Cavalry Brown portion of the camo and Gunmetal Gray for weapons and sides of the treads.

Last step was adding the Vallejo Black for the tank treads themselves before adding the Nuln Oil wash, and finishing up with the Tan Earth for the base. Again no sand or anything else added since so little of the base was showing from under the tanks.

And here is a quick pic of all the completed mechs and vehicles of the 8th Arkab Legion so far.

So I figure in the 24-ish days since I've received my Kickstarter loot, I have managed to get through roughly 1/3rd of the miniatures which I am super happy with. I'm hoping to keep this pace up and have all the miniatures slated for the 8th Arkab done by late January to mid February. I still have a lance of post 3060 mechs I have not decided what to do with yet and I still need a plan for 7 Clan mechs but I'll deal with all of those once the Arkab stuff is out of the queue line. That's all for now and I'll see you all next time with 4 Schreks and 4 von Luckers on the block.

On To The Tanks!

So taking a small break from the mechs and moving on to the tanks. I'm doing a batch of 8 tanks first, 4 each of Demolishers and Behemoths. First up they get the Dark Sand base coating.

Second step is when they get the Bronze Green and Cavalry Brown camo markings. I've been enjoying the easy camo but I have to catch myself to keep from getting too repetitive with it.

The third step they get Gunmetal Grey for some small bits, black for the tracks, and then the wash layer. After all that dried, I added the Tan Earth on the base. There isn't enough base showing to bother with trying to add sand to it.

And that is it for this update. Next up with be 4 Sturmfeurs and 4 Ontos tanks though Christmas next week might push off the update for a bit. Thanks for reading and see you all next time!

Arkab Mechs Done For Now

Alright, so progress is continuing. I got the first company's worth of mechs based up to match the test model in the first batch. I didn't take any in progress pictures as they really wasn't much to show.

Then I got the other batch completed as well. I didn't have enough of the one palm frond bracken leaves to do them all so a little over half of them got a smaller foliage style for their trees.

And then here's a picture of them all together.

Next up I'll be starting to get paint on vehicles. I've got almost a battalion of heavier or slower vehicles that will be a defensive force for my Arkab. They'll be the unit used to defend their landing zone when deployed, dependents when not deployed, etc. This will all the heavy tanks from the Kickstarter and some of the slower vehicles. The hovercraft will be going into a different part of the Arkab and I'll tackle them once the heavies are done. That is all for now and I'll see you next time for another update.

More Progress on the Arkab Legion

So I'm continuing to make good progress on the mech portion of my Arkab Legion that is getting most of the miniatures from my Catalyst Games Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter. Picking up from my last post, the next two mech lances received their camo and metal highlights as well as their Nuln wash layer.

After that, the last ten mechs this unit is getting for now got their base paint layer of the Vallejo Dark Sand.

They also received their camo splots and metal highlights and then finally their wash layer as well.

At this point I'm heading into the basing of the unit. I completely finished one of the Ostscouts first as a trial version. Using small oak tree limbs that are regularly on my front porch and laser cut foliage from Gamers Grass, I'm making palm-ish trees. The rest of the basing is a medium grit sand and then painting the base edges with Vallejo Tan Earth.

At this point I've got three lances with their tree trunks in place. Next up with be getting the sand and paint added to the base. I'll be doing the foliage part last as I didn't do it in that order with the test model and I ended up reapplying the large leaves multiple times as I moved the model around to do the other parts.

So that's where I'm at for the moment. I'm hoping to get the basing done over the weekend which will let me start painting vehicles at the beginning of next week. Hopefully making regular progress will keep me on a schedule of posting to the blog regularly which I was quite bad at for most of this year. See you all next time and thanks for reading!

And So It Begins

Well, I have all the Catalyst Battletech Kickstarter items sorted so it's time to start getting paint to miniatures. As said in the last post, the majority of the units are going into my fictional 8th Arkab Legion. I'm starting out with two lances of battlemechs, 2 Ostscouts, 2 Spectors, 3 Chameleons, and a Starslayer. I'll be using Vallejo Dark Sand for the base color, Vallejo Bronze Green and Vallejo Cavalry Brown for the camo, Vallejo Gunmetal Grey for detail and cockpits, and lastly Nuln Oil for the wash.

After the basecoat is down, next up was adding the green and red camo blotchs for the desert scheme I'm going for.

Next step is picking out the cockpits, gun barrels and jumpjet parts with the gunmetal. Last step was the Nuln wash and then they're ready for basing.

I have the next two lances started and am planning on holding off on the basing until I have about 3 companies painted up so I can large batch the basing.

So that's where we are at the moment. I think I'm going to keep after the mechs and get the ones slated for the Arkab done completely and then move into the vehicles. I've got 10 more Mechs that are going into this unit and then it'll be moving on to the 60-ish vehicles. That's all for now and I'll be trying to have another post up by the weekend.

8th Arkab Legion

So it would seem that my Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter MIGHT be here soon. The first of three boxes arrived today but contained none of the minis, books, or other stuff that I'm really looking forward to. I just have the anniversary t-shirt, Savannah map pack, and some small non-swag things. Anyway, after trying several trial mechs the past few months, it is official. I cannot pull off even a janky version of a tartan pattern on a mech so the McCulloch Highlanders will stay in my fluff files but won't be turned into a table top unit anytime soon. So since I've messed around with doing an Arkab force for a while, I've decided to go the desert camo route which will stand out amongst the rest of the units I have done previously. The following is my take on a new Arkab unit based around the existing fluff. I'll start filling in the unit compositions once FedEx stops playing around with my delivery.

8th Arkab Legion
"Fulfilling Broken Promises"

As the Third Succession War wound down through the 3010s, the Arkab Legions found themselves with four of their seven Legions destroyed, disbanded, or deactivated for being at an extremely low percentage of unit strength. As the First, Third, Fifth, and Seventh were slowly rebuilt, the leadership of the Azami Brotherhood found themselves becoming more and more frustrated at the lack of help that the DCMS was providing to assist in those efforts. It was felt that the leadership of the DCMS was willing to allow the Legions to bleed and die without caring to help keep them prepared and honed for battle.

Worried that their remaining three Legions would be wasted or thrown away before the other three were combat capable again, they took the extraordinary step of secretly forming an Eighth Arkab Legion regiment as a back up force just in case the DCMS continued to seek their depletion. Key personnel who were chosen for the leadership of the new unit were carefully selected, vetted, and then disappeared to begin their work. The goal was to have the 8th Arkab Legion ready for deployment if needed by 3030 with the possibility of expansion into more Legions afterwards.

Using the material movements to Azami worlds for the four regiments being reconstitued as a cover, work begins on the creation of the new regiment that will be a medium to heavy weight unit. As new companies are formed in the rebuilding units, single lances are sent to "reinforce" the three deployed regiments and disappear into the Elix System that was now depopulated to a point that it had been dropped from maps of the DCMS. Using some of the deep desert mountains found on the world, a base was built into the caverns located there with some deep spring underground sources of water.

As the Third Succession War found itself with a mutual cease fire of all the combatants, the 8th Arkab Legion found itself at two full battalions in strength with an attached regiment of infantry and a battalion of armor. The unit also finds itself with two Overlord, a Triumph, and two Condor dropships allowing the unit to be fully deployed if needed along with a Mule dropship for supplies. A pair of Tramp Jumpships that are capable of transporting all six dropships are deployed at a pirate jump point.

Almost all of the dropships and jumpships were captured on raids into the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Commonwealth but not reported as captured due to the accidental losses of the ISF agents that had deployed with the Legions on their raids. The remainder of the dropships came from a hidden cache that the Azami Brotherhood maintains. They form the basis of a small hidden fleet that the Azami Brotherhood are starting to form in case they need to move the Arkab Legions of their own accord seperate of the wishes of the DCMS or local Combine officials.

Raids in company and battalion strength by the 8th Arkab Legion also provide the unit with more mechs to continue their expansion through salvage and captured equipment. Since the unit is unknown and deploys with lack of unit markings, the lack of identification leads these raids to be attributed to pirates. This allows the unit to begin the formation of their third battalion but it will not be activated until it reachs full strength. As the third battalion is formed, its members are rotated in and out of the other two battalions to gain experience.

The unit is based around fast or jump capable medium and heavy battlemechs with a few lights for scouting. The support units are built around fast or hover vehicles with just a company of heavier vehicles to defend the dropships when deployed. Infantry is also split between fast moving vehicles to support the battlemechs or heavier units for defensive deployment. The units next priority is to add at least one but preferrably three aerospace fighter squadrons. The Azami Brotherhood deploys a number of agents from their Saurimat intelligence agency to protect the secrecy of the 8th Arkab Legion and its hidden base.

Another prong of the Azami Brotherhood is a hidden training area to produce mechwarriors and vehicle crews for the Arkab Legions seperate of the DCMS academies to supply their hidden forces. This was located on in the Miyazaki System which like Elix had been depopulated and removed from the DCMS maps. This new Arkab Legion Academy was placed with easy access to the Elix System and the 8th Arkab Legion as well as within easy reach of other Azami Brotherhood worlds. The academy was able to use the former base of the 8th Dieron Regulars when they were stationed on Miyazaki in the First Succession War.

8th Arkab Legion Naval Assets
ALS Blessings of Peace, Tramp-class Jumpship
ALS Desert Visions, Tramp-class Jumpship

ALS Walls of Algiers, Overlord-class Dropship
ALS Oasis Rose, Overlord-class Dropship
ALS Mashouda, Triumph-class Dropship
ALS Memories of Aqaba, Condor-class Dropship
ALS Tigris Tears, Condor-class Dropship
ALS Dawasir's Descendants, Mule-class Dropship

8th Arkab Legion
1st Battalion "Hidden Strengths"
CO: Tai-sa Al-Husayn Dallaire
Sho-sa Mosoud Faouzi

2nd Battalion "Peaceful Threats"
Sho-sa Taieb Abdelkafi

3rd Battalion "Stealth in the Shadows"
Sho-sa Onissa Sharief

8th Arkab Infantry Regiment
1st Battalion
Tai-sa Hassan Tomassau
Sho-sa Yahriev Gallieni

2nd Battalion
Sho-sa Mahmut Avenieff

3rd Battalion
Sho-sa Eilat Simhoni

8th Arkab Armored Regiment
1st Battalion
Sho-sa Jaelle Haciego

Other Important Persons
Faheem Badawi
This is a Saurimat agent whose cover is the chief negotiator for the small Jeddah Merchantile Group that can be found in and around the Albalii System. Faheem is the decent of survivors of the Dalkeith Massacre in 2775 and holds a bitter animosity towards the Draconis Combine. The work of building and hiding the 8th Arkab Legion from the DCMS and potentially protect the Azami Worlds from the DCMS has made this a project that Faheem can throw all of his efforts into. He is also able to draw upon a wide range of resources from the other members of his Albalii Sauriat enclave.

Allamah Daud Haumallah
Daud is the ranking religious teacher on Dabih who leads regular scholarly tours from Dabih to Rukbat and Algedi. These trips allow him access to a wide range of people and allows him to keep tabs on the major DCMS forces on Algedi. Daud handles a number of spies and agents in the region and is a major trafficer in information for the Saurimat.

Rowena Sahlama
Rowena is a highly regarded artist in the Azami Brotherhood community. Her paintings and sculptures are known and in high demand across that section of Draconis Combine space. She often holds shows on Al Na'ir, Dieron, and Algedi which allows her much freedom of movement in that region of space for the Saurimat. In addition to acting as a courier of sensitive information, she also is a top level recruiter of intel sources.

So that's the plan as it stands for now. I have the paint colors I need and basing material but going to need to get some flat sand colored primer to use assuming FedEx can figure out how to not fail to deliver when they never came to the house in the first place. I'll post as update on my Kickstarter stuff once I get it all and then start organizing the 8th Arkab. That's all for now and hopefully it won't be as long without an update next time.