Rasalhague Dominion / Clan Ghost Bear Mechas (Battletech)

 I was supposed to be painting 15mm fantasy, so, as is the way of things, I wound up painting my first clan star for Battletech instead. Why is it so hard to focus on the things you need to do and so easy to get distracted by side projects?

2nd Tyr Assault Cluster, Rasalhague Dominion

With the release of Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands, and all the photos of the boxes at Essen this week, I felt inspired to paint the clan mechas from the Alpha Strike boxed set. I had undercoated them an age ago in blue, so, despite originally thinking I would paint these as Jade Falcon and those from the Clan Invasion boxed set as Ghost Bear, I chose to follow through on what I had started instead. I am quite pleased with how they worked out in the end and it was a fairly painless process, apart from painting all those gold and silver stripes. I am happy now, but was cursing at the time, especially because my hands are not that steady so the stripes come out a bit wonky all too often.

Warhawk (Masakari)

The painting process itself involved an ultramarine blue base coat, block in weapons and other colours, and then dip with Army Painter strong tone. After that, I dry brushed the base coat and two lighter shades of blue over the top. Then I touched up the gold and silver panels a bit and highlighted the weapons and cockpit windows. Nothing radical there.

Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)

After the painting, I applied decals bought from Defiance Industries Wargaming. They did not have 2nd Tyr Assault Cluster in their inventory, but produced the specific decals to order for no extra cost. I really feel like the decals set the mechas off nicely.

Pouncer

Regarding the background, I am working with the Dominions Divided supplement set in the Ilclan era. The story there feels a bit contrived, but the Rasalhague Dominion feels a smidge less evil than the other options. Also, I like the colours plus the Scandi connection.

Nova (Black Hawk)

I picked the 2nd Tyr Assault Cluster to be my formation. The history of the Rasalhague civil war has them taking a beating, describing them as "understrength in both machines and personnel" at the end of it. That gives me a lot of freedom to field whatever I want/have to hand, because it means they will have to pull old mechas out of storage and maybe rely more on salvage than they might otherwise do. I like this freedom that also fits with the canon.

Fire Moth (Dasher)

These mechas will be fielded as Rasalhague Galaxy from Clan Ghost Bear for games set in earlier periods, but I am hoping that Battletech Aces: Snowblind is not too far away so that I can use them in a solo game set within the background they come from. In the meantime, I shall just have to nag my local games shop until they get Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands in, and then I shall have to paint the originally planned Jade Falcon units for that.