Battletech: Coercion Force

Within our small gaming group we have a tradition of using Secret Santa as a way of irritating each other in a somewhat passive aggressive way.

This year that tradition manifested with Pete buying me the Battletech Beginner Box. Battletech is a game the he has jumped fairly heavily into and so far I have steadfastly refused to engage with barring a couple of trial games.

Well, not anymore.

In retrospect, it was a rather cunning plan of Pete's. He's well aware of my constant desire to reduce the Lead Mountain and whilst he was only adding two models to it, I suspect he knows that Battletech Mechs are fairly quick to paint.

And he knows I like quick wins.

However, before you think that I'm being fiendishly manipulated, you should probably be aware that I also drew him for Secret Santa and in return I got him 20 Morannon Orcs to paint as I'd like to start the Gondor At War campaign for Lord of the Rings and can't be bothered to do them myself.

It's tradition.

Anyway, this is is apparently a Griffin GRF-1S medium mech, which I'd imagine, given that this is a Beginner Box, is a fairly middle of the road workhorse unit.

As I was looking for a quick win, I kept things simple with the paint scheme and went for a Grey Seer base, a coat of Black Templar contrast, a drybrush with Administratum Grey, a wash with Nuln Oil, and then a few panels picked out with Averland Sunset. Metal bits were done with Leadbelcher before the wash and the canopy is Hexwraith Flame over white.

It was a no fuss approach and I was really pleased that, being robots with lots of panels and corners, the model responded well and was enjoyable and quick to do.

So quick, in fact, that I would have no issues repeating this to get more done, should I choose.

The other model in the box is also a medium mech but is a Vindicator VND-1R.

I'm less keen on this sculpt as the design is more humanoid and so it seems more like a 28/32mm robot rather than a towering battle suit in a smaller scale 

The details are also a bit more spongy, and so even though I took the same approach as with the Griffin, the final result isn't as good in my opinion.

The bases were coated with Astrogranite technical paint and washed with Agrax Earthshade to give an urban wasteland feel.

I enjoyed painting these and I did enjoy the couple of games of Battletech I've already played, but I'm not going to rush out to buy more yet until I know it's something I'll play. The rules seem a little daunting and I've only got a quick play version.

However, that's 2 more models painted and I've also managed to palm off a few Warhammer Quest spiders on to Matt (who is potentially doing a Mirkwood force for Lord of the Rings), and so I am making progress up the mountain again.

Acquired: -13

Painted: 120

Lead Mountain: 856