Battletech | Sirrob01

Posts Tagged 'Battletech'

Battletech – Buildings Sci-Fi Light Commercial

Published November 8, 2014 Mine , Papercraft Leave a Comment
Tags: 1:300, 6mm, Battletech, Mine, Papercraft

Here are my next lot of battletech buildings, three light commercial buildings to expand the city. The powers on, the roads are down, people are getting comfy in there homes and now they can walk down the road to the corner shop for a quick coffee, a haircut or some dancing at the local night club. As with the houses three designs have been created by the three companies offering building designs to the newly formed city.

B.O.R.I.N.G Construction Company are back and have truly excelled to bring you an even more lack luster design than before. They have developed a lower level shop unit that can simply be placed down before the existing house design to give you a small shop with an upstairs apartment or a large venue featuring up and downstairs area’s. Fortunately the designers did see clear to add more expansive glass paneling at the store front – bullet resistant glass is available on request for those buildings located in less reputable surroundings.

The next offering is from Cubico Construction Pty Ltd, they have continued with the modular theme for there buildings. They have added a new shop front base with a slightly altered upper floor window configuration module, more suited to use as a small office space or open plan restaurant, they do however offer this new upper floor in an open plan house configuration.

STAR Industries realizing they needed to keep pace with the other two companies, looked over the back inventory of star ship components and uncovered that they had several thousand units of standard cargo transport pods (HEX-11-21) on hand. Sealing up the entry and exit hatches on the ends and then tipping them on there ends provided a near instant light commercial building. They then simply added some windows, a new door and some internal fit out. For STAR Industries these are cheap to make as they are currently using up there stockpile of transport pods, so if you need a building fast no-ones going to be able to get one on site faster than STAR.

I’ve included about 23 different shop signs with the buildings so you can make the buildings multiple times and place different signs on each one. I’ve done two different sign types a flat glue on the front sign and a vertical sign. For the vertical sign you’ll need to run a thin film of glue down the edge and bottom to glue it in place, at this scale including glue tabs is near impossible. The second design (Cubico Construction)you should be able to mix and match with the existing pieces to get some interesting looks. Once again I’ve uploaded a copy of the sketchup file to the warehouse(Here).

I’ve created a 32/33mm PDF version and a 38mm (1.5inch) PDF version, links are below enjoy:

Commercial Small One 32_33mm

Commercial Small One 38mm

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. – Leonardo da Vinci

Battletech – Building Sci-Fi Houses

Published October 12, 2014 Mine , Papercraft , Wargaming 1 Comment
Tags: 1:300, 6mm, Battletech, Mine, Papercraft

Now that the Power Plant is built and we’ve established some Roads, People have started to move into the Town. Three styles of house have started to spring up designed and built by three different construction companies but with a sci-fi look and feel (hopefully) – Sorry to much Simcity again :).

First up we have the Bunker by the B.O.R.I.N.G Construction Company. A fairly simple industrial looking concrete bunker building, used for both military and civilian purposes. Quick and cheap to build and extremely sturdy. The company plans to extend the range for the military by offering rooftop mounted weapon modules in the future.

Cubico Construction Pty Ltd is providing a more modern look to their buildings in a two story layout. With the top floor of the building dedicated to the living areas/bedrooms and the lower floor for the garage/workshop/laundry space. Appealing to the more affluent members of the city, these buildings are more expensive to build due to the extensive use of large glass panels. Due to the square design the floors can be built offsite and then moved into location and bolted together, this also enables the floors to bolted together differently or added to at the client request very easily.

Lastly STAR Industries a former spaceship building company has entered the housing market to try and bolster there income streams. There design more than a little resembles the spaceships they normally design and assemble. This does however mean the designs are strong and suitable for both civilian and military use. Unfortunately the interiors also resemble spaceships, with bulkhead doors used in some of the cheaper fit outs. Great for military applications but not so much for your daily household when little Tommy continually trips over the door jam.

Messed up the texturing on this one, should only have a doorway on the right

Okay enough fluff stuff :). I used the same texture pack that I used for the power plant so the houses have a consistent look and feel with the power plant. I’ve also uplaoded a copy of the sketchup file to the warehouse, not sure if that will be useful to anyone in the future (Here). I’ve created a 32/33mm PDF version and a 38mm (1.5inch) PDF version, links are below enjoy:

Houses Group One 32_33mm

Houses Group One 38mm

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest – Benjamin Franklin

Battletech – Roads Asphalt

Published September 22, 2014 Mine , Papercraft , Terrain 4 Comments
Tags: 1:300, 6mm, Battletech, Mine, Papercraft

Now that we have power on our Battletech map-board we need some roads so people can move around and start to build the city…maybe I’ve played a little to much Simcity in my time. Some simple asphalt road tiles to spread around your map board to give it more of a city feel. Later I may do some transition tiles for cross-country roads so they meld better with a green background.

The road tile image I created myself using base textures, there’s not to much to a simple road tile, concrete, asphalt and some drop shadows and your pretty much done. I did throw on some drains and rubbish but at this scale you’ll need a magnify glass to see them. As Battletech runs in two very different scales, 1:300 for the miniatures and 1:900 for the ground scale I struggled a little with what to do. In the end I scaled the road widths to about 1:300 so two 1:300 cars can be placed on each road half and not look strange. The car-park tile I split the difference and just made the parking spots about 1:500 no particular reason other than it looked okay. Later I might do a proper drop in 1:300 scale car-park area in various hex sizes making the single tile redundant but it works for now.

It would seem that hex size on the old Battletech maps and the new Battletech maps is different. Not by much 32mm vs 33mm. However that 1mm causes big problems when you string 10 road tiles together in a long straight suddenly your either half hex short or half hex to long. So the only solution I could see was to export a version at 32mm and a version at 33mm. If your using mostly new map-boards or the downloaded map sheets from RPGnow. It is safest to stick with the 33mm size, if you have a ton of old printed map sheets from the 80s/90s go with the 32mm sized tiles, If your not sure I’d run with the 33mm as that’s what the new stuff seems to be created in. I also created a 38mm/1.5inch version for those playing on a larger hex size. If someone has a need for some other odd size feel free to leave a comment and I’ll export a copy at that size (hex dimensions flat to flat in mm) – not promising it’ll have the layer options :). Due to this 32/33 discrepancy I’ll also need to upload a new base for the power plant in 33mm but I’ll do this when I get time to finish the page of plain concrete pieces.

I used the Megamek Road tiles to check I had included all the various turn shapes etc, hopefully I haven’t missed any. Later on I might try and pull together a high tech road set if I can find some inspiration but for the moment I’ve got more than enough basic models to work on. No cut files as they seemed a tad redundant as you’ll need to glue the tiles to some heavier weight card and cut around them so the tiles have more heft/durability. I’d recommend box board, matt board, cereal box card as good starters to back the tiles to, or you can do what I did and mount them on 0.8mm magnetic sheet. They are much easier and quicker to cut out with scissors than using a box cutter or scalpel blade.

To prevent them slipping around you can paint the backs with a thin layer of PVA glue or if you can get hold of it that paint on rubber stuff that should help a little with keeping them in place (trusty old blu-tak will also work). If you do use magnetic sheet simply place a big piece of flat tin/steel (1.5mm thick) under your paper map and then drop the tiles on and they wont shift and as a bonus the map sheet wont move either. Links to the pdf files are below- enjoy 🙂

Roads Asphalt 32mm hex 1.25 inches

Roads Asphalt 33mm hex 1.3 inches

Roads Asphalth 38mm hex 1.5 inches

Step with care and great tact ,and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. – Dr. Seuss

Battletech – Building Sci-Fi Power Plant

Published September 19, 2014 Mine , Papercraft , Wargaming 3 Comments
Tags: 1:300, 6mm, Battletech, Mine, Papercraft

There is not to much card/paper hex based terrain around the internet that is designed to neatly fit on the standard 32mm or 1-3/16 inch Battletech hex without overhanging. As a sort of sub project in one of the several larger projects I’ve been working on, here is a Sci-fi power plant designed to fit neatly inside 5 standard Battletech hex’s.

Battlemechs not included 🙂

I designed the simple mesh in sketchup and then retrieved one of the many free sci-fi texture packs available across the internet to texture the mesh in GIMP – Full credit to Philipk across at the polycount forum for making the textures freely available. I did do some recolouring and tweaking to textures so they looked better on printout although at 6mm scale, textures are pretty redundant by the time the printer prints them.

I did do two size varieties a standard 32mm 1-3/16inch hex size model and a 38mm 1 – 1/2 inch hex size model. Essentially the larger is just an upscale of the smaller although I kept the single door at about 7mm tall on both. My goal for the 32mm model was to have all the parts on a single page which was a bit of tight squeeze but they all fit with a bit of careful placement, unfortunately the 38mm model spans two pages. I did a cutfile for the 32mm version which I also test built, although my cutter is playing up again so use the cut file at your own risk. The larger 38mm model has no cutfile – sorry, but I did include the rego marks in the 38mm pdf so generating one from the 32mm cut file should be easy enough if you have the desire. Minimal instructions included as most of the shapes are pretty simple box’s and half circles to assemble, although I have included an exploded view of the completed model inside the PDF’s and a few assembly dot points.

I’ve uploaded a copy of the cleaned up sketchup file with the blue textures in place to the sketchup warehouse (Here). I have some plans for a modified 15mm and 30mm version for normal sized wargaming but I’ll have to see if I have time pull those together later on.

Power Plant One 32mm 1-25 inch

Power Plant One 38mm_1-5 Inch

Rename the studio file from .txt to .studio once you’ve downloaded it

Power Plant One 32mm cut File

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Miniature Painting – Battletech 3rd Edition Mechs

Published March 25, 2014 Miniature Painting , Wargaming Leave a Comment
Tags: Battletech, Miniature Painting, Wargamming

I finished painting four battlemechs from the old 3rd edition intro box. The four I painted are the Phoenix Hawk PXH-1, Griffin GRF-1N, Thunderbolt TDR-5S and Warhammer WHM-6R. A good friend let me take them from his stockpile of mechs to practice painting on with the understanding if I totally turned them into messy plastic blobs no problem. I think they turned out okay and should be okay for use on the tabletop.

These miniatures are not what you would call premium quality with sunken bits, holes and missing detail. The plastic itself doesn’t sand or file very well and only a really sharp blade seems capable of cleaning up the flash. The plastic itself is also very slippery with super glue struggling to adhere unless its roughed up. On each mech I did my best to clean them up as well as bending the arms around a little, I also added some magnet sheet to the bottoms to add some weight. I picked a paint scheme from the Federated Suns -1st Aragon Borderers basically because it was majority blue which is an easier colour to paint and would fit the 3025 era mechs.

First up the Griffin, I reworked the gun and replaced it it with something more substantial and hopefully PPC looking. I’m pretty happy with how the cockpit came out on this one and the mech overall although I’m a little biased as the Griffin is one of my Favorite mechs.

Next up is the Phoenix hawk, minimal changes a little arm bending, leg bending and a new gun barrel. The 4 antenna were a little painful to insert in place but they turned out okay, I used a bristle from a dustpan brush. I did paint this one slightly different to the others, on the Phoneix Hawk I tried to highlight the edges using the side of the paint brush rather than dry brushing. The result is definitely cleaner and nicer looking so I’ll continue practicing that technique.

Next up the thunderbolt, bent the arm up and replaced the end of the gun barrel but he still appears slightly off balance. I did not paint any of the numbers or insignia on any of the mechs they are all self print decals.

Lastly the trusty old Warhammer, He really is the most boring of the bunch although I used him as a checker pattern practice, hard to see in the pictures but the bulbus bits on the backs of his lower legs are all checkered. If I paint another one of these I’ll try and add some different coloring around the torso area.

I had fun painting these and for the first time I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. I hope to paint a few more next would be a star of Clan Mechs.

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure – Bill Cosby

Sirrob01

Posts Tagged 'Battletech'