A 28mm Word Of Blake Army

 

My child-self would feel a powerful need seeing this picture.

It all started with the Firestarter. 

Well, it started with the first 28mm 'Mechs (and ProtoMechs) I started printing. The Firestarter was just my first Wobbie-painted unit. 

Then came the "Tallman" (all energy) Thunderbolt and the techno-cultists. Eventually, I kitbashed, printed and painted an additional 15 or so robed cultists with guns and added the Javelin to the mix. 

The idea of building an "army" just kind of went from there.

I guess I was kind of inspired by the idea of building a cohesive army in the way people make cohesive armies for Warhammer 40k. Soldiers, vehicles, special units, leaders. They're all here in these photos.

(Battletech is infinitely cooler than 40k IMHO)

You've got your standard ground / shock troops, you've got your heroes and morale-boosting units. You've even got heavy weapons in the form of the good old man-portable SRM launchers that I lovingly handcrafted and kitbashed onto some cultists from Ill Gotten Games. 

There's an armored transport (also from IGG) and some unique cannon fodder kitbashed out of whatever came out of the bits bin. 

Even the rifle cultists themselves are just IGG's cultists with arms from Wargames Atlantic's Rebel Yell set that comes with the welcome package for their very generous Tribes subscription. 

(Some also have Stargrave arms kitbashed on them for energy weapons.)

The works of a lot of creators are present in these photos. The Thunderbolt is a kitbash I made of a Locust Labs creation. The Firestarter is also Locust Labs. The Javelin is from New Marik Workshop. The Rottweiler battle armor is from Wolk. All of these creators are on Cults3d.

Of course, the printed buildings in the background are my own design.

So what do you do with an entire "Battletech Army" in 28mm?

Well, I've seen a few other similar armies out there, so play is not an impossibility. Seems like most of the people out there playing 28mm Battletech with infantry are using One Page Rules (OPR), Trueborn (from Crow Industries) or the original, OOP Battletroops system, but these are not the only systems out there.

I've written extensively on the subject of playing 28mm Battletech. In the past, I've played games using Five Parsecs From Home: Tactics and my own miniature-agnostic wargame BELLONA. 

Oh, and if you want those man-portable SRM launchers for your own kitbashing purposes, those can be found (free!) here. IGG's cultists are also free, but the arms I used were a mix of Skitarii, Stargrave and Rebel Yell bits, so you'll have to provide your own.

Also, having Skitarii as stand-ins for Manei Domini just made sense to me. These are from StationForge and it's a modular kit I highly recommend.

So what's next?

Well, I have some plans to expand this army with some heavier mechs once I get a larger 3D printer (I'm waiting until my Mars 4 dies and that thing is indefatigable. I'm on my third one and I highly recommend it.) 

I'm thinking a Legacy and a Toyama would be nice to add to my "army." 

At that point, I'll almost have a standard Word of Blake combined arms unit (I'll have to fudge the Aerospace assets.) 

Will I do a second army? Or a third?

I just might. I've got a full star of Clan Sea Fox mechs, some protos and a point of elementals. I could kitbash up some "clan troops" and have two battle ready forces.

I'm also currently working on a Jade Falcon star. I've already been supporting them with my Ooh-Rah soldiers (another Wargames Atlantic kit) in photographs. That could be an army too.

Also, I went all-in on the Wargames Atlantic "Damned" kickstarter a few years back. I could build a pirate army and do some frankenmechs at 28mm too. Hmmmm. 

Who knows what I'll create in the years to come.

One thing is for sure, I'll be posting about it here.