X-Wing in Blue Mode

So Cheef has been showing off his and his GF's X-Wing repaints (found here and here), so I thought I'd show off what I've done so far myself.  First of all we've got an alphabetical order group shot.  (Though this shot does have me wondering when they're going to add the New Republic K-Wing bomber to go with the E-Wing from the same time frame.  Seems a shame to leave out an option like that.  Though a recon X-Wing wouldn't be bad either .... )

As you can see I've got with a blue motif and I'm pretty happy with how they've all come out with the exception of the Y-Wing.  I'm not happy with it and I'll have to either start over or figure out a tweak on it.  That or just set it aside since I rarely run a Y-Wing in my lists.

 

 

 

 

I've still got another A, B, and X to get into the color scheme and there is a Rebel Aces, 2 E-Wings, and a pair of Headhunters in the mail coming that were funded by an eBay sale of some GW BFG that just isn't ever going to see the table top as a cohesive fleet since I can't afford eBay pricing for Strike Cruisers and such to finish the marine fleet.  It brought in a very tidy sum and funded both a decent CBT purchase as well as the above mentioned X-Wing.  I'm also wanting to tackle a YT-1300 conversion and paint but that's going to wait until I get a second one.  I've got one right now and plan on leaving it stock at least.

So that's the Raven Squadron so far.  It's coming along nicely though I'm really wanting to get some Swarm Tactics cards for an A-Wing list based around some of the stuff in the Rebel Aces pack.  I've been putting off Imperial purchases on purpose for now as funding one side of the rebellion is hard enough without going into both sides of it.  So if anyone has a few Swarm Tactics cards they wouldn't mind parting with, please shoot me a message and we'll try and work something out.

That's all for now and I'll see you all later.

Eridani Light Horse 21st Striker Regiment

So I'll go ahead and warn now, this is going to be a bit long of a post.  I want to get my entire 21st Striker Regiment as it stands right now all in one post to reference to as well as to show it off a bit.

As I've said before, Murl had gifted me with 16 pages of Eridani Light Horse material from an early FASA publication.  This stuff includes a complete TOE for the entire force, a breakdown of the monthly expenses for each unit including pay, monthly supply and maintenance costs, overhead, etc.  All the details you'd need to really run the unit.  Plus this material contained the normal background fluff, rank markings, uniforms, etc, and the part I loved best, a complete roster list.  It's got every lance and platoon listed out with pilot or squad leader name, level of experience (green, veteran, elite, etc.), and what equipment.  I also acquired some decals from Fighting Pirannha Graphics that Archon Vortil has been assisting me with as I can't do decals for crap.

The TOE for the entire Eridani Light Horse

Cost and Upkeep Breakdown

Fighting Pirannha Decals, nice quality and reasonable prices

Now then, while I've used the TOE, I haven't stuck to it mech by mech but rather by weight class and role for the most part.  I also kept the names of the major officers like Regimental, Battalion, and Company commanders, but names beyond that have been changed (cause FASA was bad at naming the 3rd guy in the 5th lance, etc).

Unit Collection Coding
X  = Fully Painted, Based, and Decal-ed
*  = Fully Painted and Based
-   = Fully Painted
o  = Model Owned

So, first up is the 21st Striker Regiment Command Company which is missing two tanks and a mech that are part of the artillery lance to protect the Long Toms.  I've got a pair of Demolishers on order to fill in part of that space.  I'm still deciding on the mech.  TOE has a Rifleman in the slot, but I haven't decided yet.

Command Company
Regimental Command Lance
*    Colonel Charles K. Winston, Cyclops
*    Captain George Horten, Novacat
*    Captain Xavier Trompe, Bowman
*    Lt. Heather Broxtin, Quickdraw
Security Lance
*    Captain Paul Hauser, Novacat
*    Lt. Kevin DeSoto, Hunchback
*    Lt. Tomas Gage, Hunchback
*    Lt. Elliot Sheridan, Madcat
Artillery Lance
    Captain Geoffrey Watkins,
*    Lt. Greerson Holland, Long Tom
*    Lt. Carson Tainer, Long Tom
*    Lt. Howard Redmann, Long Tom
*    Lt. Olivia Winslowe, Long Tom
    Lt, Oleg Planatov,
    Lt. Ian O'Kennesy,
1st Infantry Platoon - Motorized Infantry
    Lt. Walter Allenby
*    Sgt. Douglas Haig, Trucks
*    Cpl. James Fisher, Trucks
*    Cpl. Henry Prescott, Trucks
*    Cpl. John Howe, Trucks
2nd Infantry Platoon - Mechanized Infantry
    Lt. Robert Paine
-    Sgt. Doug Steele - Hover Transport
-    Cpl. Amanda Hallister - Hover Transport
-    Cpl. Edmund Burdette - Hover Transport
-    Cpl. William Bagwell - Hover Transport

Next up is the 5th Striker Lance which was just recently started.  I've got a Seydlitz Fighter coming to pair with the lone Dagger to finish the one lance.  I'm still needing 4 more Aerospace Fighters to finish the 25th Heavy Assault Company.  That company is also light in weight class compared to the TOE if/when I start the 3rd Striker Battalion, I will probably slide some of the lighters over into the new unit to put in some heavier mechs to get closer to what's in the TOE.

5th Striker Battalion (Dirkson's Dragonslayers)
Battalion Command Lance (Dirkson's Guards)
o    Major Earl Dirkson, Daishi
o    Captain Claude Tomaslin, Mad Cat
o    Lt. Elise Pienaar, Mad Cat
o    Lt. Coleman Hauser, Orion
4th Company (Pinter's Axmen)
Command Lance
-    Captain Daniel Pinter, Vulture
-    Ryan Wilson, Quickdraw
-    Jillian Giessepe, Grizzley
o    Quentin Veerland, Victor
Strike Lance
-    Lt. Kevin Baird, Awesome
*    Ethan Burke, Enforcer
-    Phillip Cantrell, Crusader
-    Diane Lancaster, Catapult
Recon Lance
o    Lt. Charles Hawestead, Wasp
-    Jason Mannfred, Wolverine
-    Catherine Bennett, Grasshopper
-    Randall Waters, Wasp
Air Lance
-    Lt. Thomas Knowles, Dagger Aerospace Fighter
-    Anthony Wilson, Dagger Aerospace Fighter

7th Company (Tanaka's Company)
Command Lance
-    Captain Tian Tanaka, Dragon
-    Janet McCrory, Jagermech
-    Dennis O'Donnell, Trebuchet
*    Sergei Nakamura, Whitworth
Strike Lance
o    Lt. Shannon Bronskie, Orion
o    Fiona Northbrooke, Daishi
o    Oleg Altunin, Victor
o    Leonard Taussig, Centurian
Recon Lance
-    Lt. Eric Jacobs, Jenner
-    Vasiliy Krepkie, Cicada
-    Jillian Clarkson, Commando
-    Samuel Young, Assassin
Air Lance
-    Lt. Irene Jameson, Dagger Aerospace Fighter
    Ian Brentley

25th Heavy Assault Company (Seflo's Sledgehammers)
Command Lance
o    Captain Misha Selfo, Battlemaster
o    Victor Longe, Grasshopper
-    Deidre Hauser, Dervish
-    Oliver Sternman, Dervish
Strike Lance
o    Lt. Cole Portson, Centurian
*    Hitoshi Katasumi, Whitworth
o    Natasha Solchava, Javelin
o     Alfred Lynch, Javelin
1st Air Lance
    Lt. Ian Andrassy
    Hans Coldewe
2nd Air Lance
    Lt. Kosei Masaki
    Aleksei Beregov

Coming up next is the 7th Striker Battalion.  All this unit is missing is basing the two Aerospace fighters and then decaling the rest of the unit.

7th Striker Battalion (Nigel's Nightslayers)
Battalion Command Lance (Nigel's Guards)
X    Major Jameson Nigel, Flashman
*    Captain Ian Branscombe, Cyclops
*    Lt. Blake Holmes, Zeus
*    Lt. Emily Haerdesky, Victor
11th Company (Pelham's Company)
Red Seven Lance
*    Captain Timothy Pelham, Dragon
*    Madilyn Pritchart, Quickdraw
*    Paul Malherbe, Awesome
*    Douglas Brandei, Highlander
Blue Seven Lance
*    Lt. Li Hsien, Wolverine
*    Andrea Oates, Dervish
*    Matthew Tourni, Valkyrie
*    Elliot Sullivan, Valkyrie
Gold Seven Lance
*    Lt. Harold Crane, Catapult
X    Mark Bronson, Archer
*    Andrew Holbrook, Trebuchet
*    Elaine Hathoway, Catapult
12th Company (Lightning Company)
Silver Lance
*    Captain Elizabeth Henke, Wolverine
*    Jeffery Olmsted, Wolverine
*    Shannon Allenby, Panther
*    Eric Donovan, Thorn
Black Lance
*    Lt. Vincent McCrory, Griffin
*    Marc Baird, Hollander, Wolverine
*    James Cross, Quickdraw
*    Chelsea Dobbs, Grasshopper
Purple Lance
*    Lt. Lisa Brackhaven, Wolverine
X    Sean Boehlert, Jenner
X    Neil Crowley, Jenner
*    Sheila Banich, Raven
Brown Lance
o    Lt. Ivan Chernov, Dagger Aerospace Fighter
o    Trent Mayhew, Dagger Aerospace Fighter
27th Company (Wolfhounds)
Green Lance
*    Major Pierre Bouchard, Highlander
*    Andrea Clavell, Catapult
*    Malcolm Forbes, Enforcer
*    Ibrahim Ghosn, Dragon
White Lance
*    Lt. Lloyd Bancroft, Grasshopper
*    Timothy Leahy, Wolverine
*    Katherine Burke, Valkyrie
*    Roger Waterly, Valkyrie
Platinum Lance
*    Lt. Edmund Dempsey, Centurian
*    Elliot Watkinson. Wolfhound
*    Terrence Pretloe, Centurian
*    Jessica Hearns, , Centurian

The last unit of the Regiment is the 1st Armored Infantry Battalion.  This unit needs a base of halftrack infantry still (I only have one left and need two for the base), get the motorized engineers on a base, and then 3 Mechs for the Command Lance and 4 Mechs for the AA Lance.  All 7 of these mechs will be here when Robotech finally ships.  The engineer platoon is just infantry in the original TOE but having some engineers in a unit like this only makes sense so I made the adjustment.  The two extra tanks at the front of the picture are 40K Epic Baneblades that I'm using as Gurteltier Main Battle Tanks.  They'll take the place of the Rommel/Pattons in post 3080 year games.  The two command track vehicles are also additions on my part because 1. they make sense and 2. they were fun to convert.

1st Armored Infantry Battalion (Mighty Mites)
Battalion Command Lance
*    Major Samuel Perrow, Victor
    Captain Brian Braddock, Warhammer
    Lt. Amanda Sydon, Warhammer
    Lt. Tim Phillips, Rifleman
Tin Can Company
Command Lance
*    Captain Klaus Hesse, Von Luckner
*    Lt. Andrew Fisher. Von Luckner
*    Sgt. Will Yeats, Von Luckner
*    Sgt. Joe Fairmount, Rommel/Patton
*    Sgt. Bradley Sinclair, Rommel/Patton
Strike Lance
*    Lt Llewellyn Trent, Ontos
*    Sgt. Simon Griffith, Ontos
*    Sgt. Doug Puller, Ontos
*    Sgt. Jamie Redmund, Ontos
*    Sgt. Collin Westworth, Hetzer
*    Sgt. Linnet Paulus, Hetzer
Recon Lance
*    Lt. Owen Rache, Saladin
*    Sgt. Edward Niven, Saladin
*    Sgt. Amanda Downing, Saladin
*    Sgt. David Brogues, Saladin
*    Sgt. Victor Ramius, Pegasus
*    Sgt. Nikolai Bondarenko, Pegasus
Alpha Company
*    Captain Lila Oakwood, Mobile Command Vehicle
1st Platoon - Motorized Infantry
    Lt. Hector Torres
*    Sgt. George Osbourne, Trucks
*    Cpl. Allison Blaire, Trucks
*    Cpl. Ian O'Cleary, Trucks
*    Cpl. Jason Allenby, Trucks
2nd Platoon - Mechanized Infantry
    Lt. Tuck Miller
*    Sgt. Owen Yardley, Halftracks
*    Cpl. Chris Morrigan, Halftracks
*    Cpl. James Holmes, Halftracks
*    Cpl. Abigail O'Reilly, Halftracks
3rd Platoon - Mechanized Infantry
    Lt. Richard Diego
*    Sgt. Steve MacGarrett, Halftracks
*    Cpl. Daniel Bull, Halftracks
*    Cpl. Olivet Theisman, Halftracks
    Cpl. Seth Maerkas
4th Platoon - Mechanized Infantry
    Lt. Vince Tulane
*    Sgt. Patricia Parks, Goblin Medium Tank
*    Cpl. Nathan Holmes, Goblin Medium Tank
*    Cpl. Richard Pressby, Goblin Medium Tank
*    Cpl. Dayvid Webley, Goblin Medium Tank
Bravo Company
*    Captain Katherine Burke, Mobile Command Vehicle
1st Platoon - Jump Infantry
    Lt. Nathaniel Greer
*    Sgt. Eduard Altunin
*    Cpl. David Tabanne
*    Cpl, Lionel Foley
*    Cpl. Percy Neville
2nd Platoon - Battle Armor Infantry
    Lt. Erica Tansey
*    Sgt. Franklin Owens
*    Cpl. Vincent Lewis
*    Cpl, Ernest Wexton
*    Cpl. Ilya Vaneyev
3rd Platoon - Battle Armor Infantry
    Lt. Jeffrey Moore
*    Sgt. Mikhail Taussig
*    Cpl. Sean Ambrose
*    Cpl, Grigori Dalmatov
*    Cpl. Elliot Slater
4th Platoon - Engineers
    Lt. Colin MacGuire
*    Sgt. Edward Harding, Engineering Vehicle
*    Cpl. Perry Gibbons, Engineering Vehicle
*    Cpl, James Candless, Engineering Vehicle
    Cpl. Anthony Troubridge, Engineers
Boomer Company
Command Lance
*    Captain Paul Sandoval, Sturmfeur
*    Lt. Manfred VanGeller, Sturmfeur
*    Lt. Trevor Gillespee, LRM Carrier
*    Lt. Victoria Pollack, LRM Carrier
*    Lt. Emilio Ortiz, LRM Carrier
*    Lt. Sonya Lindh, LRM Carrier
AA Lance
    Lt. Thomas Clavell, Rifleman
    Jon Waverly, Rifleman
    Gwen Herdez, Longbow
    Eamon O'Neil, Longbow

And that's where my force stands right now.  Still a lot of work to do but I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along over the past 8 or 9 months.  I'm hoping to have all that is currently here finished and units completed by the end of the year and then I'll start thinking about the last Striker Battalion after that.  Hope you all enjoyed the breakdown and such as much as I've enjoyed working on them all.

Yes, I'm Still Here, and Some BattleTech

Ok, so I'm a bit overdue on a blog post, apologies for that.  Between the latest attempt at a local game store closing and my new work schedule, a bit over half my gaming opportunities have gone the way of the squats, extinct.  In fact I've gotten exactly 2 games played in the past 5 weeks which is not a good record.  Ah well, hopefully this too shall pass.

Anyway, I've been digging into my BT Starter Box and combed out all the plastics that were in good condition (ie no malformations, holes, missing details, etc) and came up with 12 that were worth painting.  I added to that group a trio of mechs that I got off eBay for a good price and a couple Clan Mechs that I hadn't decided what to do with yet.  This gave me a good group of 18 mechs that I got painted up into ELH colors.  I still need to get them painted.  This group goes into the start of the 5th Striker Battalion of my 21st Striker Regiment.

 

I still need to get all of these guys based which I plan to work on tomorrow and after work on Wednesday.  I hope to have them all done before the weekend.  I also found some planes I'm able to use as aerospace fighters with two of them assigned to the 7th Striker Battalion to finish off it's TOE 100%.  The other three are going into the 5th Striker which has 4 Aerospace Fighter lances in it compared to just one in the 7th Striker Battalion.  I'm not sure what system these fighters are from, but they're a fairly hefty metal model.  I'll be using them as Dagger Aerospace Fighter as that's the closest visual profile they fit.

So where does this put my Eridani Light Horse 21st Striker Regiment as a whole?

The Regimental Command Company is missing two tanks from the Artillery Lance and the 4 Hover Transports in the 2nd Infantry Platoon need based.

The 5th Striker Battalion is missing 16 Battlemechs and 3 Aerospace Fighters, and 18 Mechs and 3 Aerospace Fighters need basing.

The 7th Striker Battalion is 100% complete and only 2 Aerospace Fighters need basing.

The 1st Armored Infantry Battalion is missing 7 Battlemechs for the Command Lance and AA Lance which will be done when my Robotech pre-order arrives.  It's also missing one base of halftracks from the Alpha Company 3rd Platoon and a base of some sorts to finish off the Engineer Platoon in Bravo Company.

The 3rd Striker Battalion isn't even being considered at this point in time.

So all in all, I'm quite excited about how this force is shaping up.  Still trying to figure out how to get just a single GHQ micro-armor halftrack without either spending way too much for a single tiny model or buying a full blister pack of 5 which I don't need the extras from.

I've got a couple purchases coming so this force will get some additions next week.  One of these is small lot from eBay with an unseen Battlemaster and Wasp plus a Raven mech.  The other is CityTech score that comes with minis.  This means 2 Victors, 2 Orions, 2 Centurions, 2 Javelins, 2 Dashis, 2 Mad Cats, 2 Black Hawks, and 2 Ullers.  These are plastics, but from the pictures they seem to be in very good shape and should be useable.  This will go a long ways towards completing the 5th Striker Battalion and from this point I'll be looking for a deal on some Aerospace fighters.

That's all for now and I'll see you later.

Eridani Light Horse

So work and such has been a bit of a bear lately, plus I've had a new nephew born this past Thursday, so I've not gotten as much hobby related stuff done as I had hoped to.  I have been able to do a bit of trading online plus a purchase off a buddy at the last time I made it up to the Johnson City game night.  This stuff has me at a point where I'm just a few mechs away from finishing off my goal for the Eridani Light Horse.  I'm four infantry bases away from finishing the Regimental Command Company, and then I need to do eight infantry bases and four jump infantry bases to finish the Armored Infantry Battalion.  It's nice seeing the end is closing in on this project and I'll do a huge blog post on the entire force when it's done.

So what all I've added .... first of all, I finally found the Saladin that's been missing for about five months now.  It had slipped somehow under the foam dividing walls in a storage tray.  So with this finally found, I got two more Saladins and a pair of Pegasus hovercraft.  This completed the recon lance for my 1st Armored Infantry Battalion.  (Using the TOE that Murl found for me from an early publication of the Eridani Light Horse, the recon lance has 6 vehicles in it.)

Using some 40K epic models that I got in a JC game night purchase, I put together a lance of Long Toms using imperial guard basilisks for the artillery and marine rhinos for the ammo carriers.  This lance is part of the Regimental Command Company.

I also got another four stands of micro armor trucks done to finish off my last motorized infantry company.  And then there was the other bit of Epic miniatures I got.  I got four Epic Baneblades which are perfectly sized for Battletech, but what to use them as?  I settled on the Gurteltier Main Battle Tank.  It looks very close to the Baneblade and it looks like a very effective combatant, so that'll work well.  I did one up in Eridani Light Horse color scheme and then I'm going to use the other three for my Tamar Heavy Guard.  It's a fairly late in the timeline unit (introduced in the 3080's) so I didn't slot the tank into the TOE proper of my ELH but rather have it in the extra equipment for if I get a game in that time frame where it'll take the place of a Rommel/Patton in the Striker Lance of the Tin Can Company.

So I got off work at 6pm last night and today I don't go into work until noon so I caught the 7:15 showing of Guardians of the Galaxy last night.  I must say it was every bit as well done as Avengers or the other Marvel movies lately.  It's got just the right amount of completely irrelevance and humor in it that's needed for an offbeat group like that going onto the big screen when it's not going to be known to nonGeeks like that.  Even better, of all the previews I'd seen of the movie, none of them turned out to ruin or spoil any of the plot of the movie or show off any of the more interesting twists in the movie which is a nice change of pace.  I hate seeing a preview and then finding out that you've now seen all you really need to see from the movie.  And the guest appearance of Howard the Duck after the credits was definitely not something I think anyone was expecting.

That's all for now and I'll see about another post here in a few days when I get those infantry and battle armor infantry bases done.  I've about decided on a color scheme for my Tamar Heavy Guard so might have a test model for that unit this week as well.  Until later all.