1:1000 Scale Battlemechs WIP / Release

Tirick

Member
Inspired by the success of my test 1:1000 scale Catapult I wanted to make more, but there are very few good sources for multi-angle pictures of Battlemechs. I tried my hand at a few, and I even have some 'armour' in that scale I am quite happy with. However, I was not happy with the results of the mechs themselves. I was reinspired though, after playing the open-source release of Mechcommander 2. In fact I was quite excited to see that the models were in great condition for conversion to small scale paper figurines. What is better is that all of the mechs are scaled appropriately to themselves, saving me the trouble of trying to determine how big each really were.

There are 39 mechs in the game and I have managed to extract all of them, although without textures maps intact. I'm not overly concerned as the original textures were quite low resolution and I would have needed to make new textures anyway. The meshes are simple enough that remapping is quite easy. I suspect quite a few will need correcting, I've already redesigned the Catapult torso (I will be texturing a new one, rather than the original test build).

All of the mechs can be seen below. The list is in alphabetical order, so does not map to the pictures in sequence.

MechCollection-001.jpg


Mechs:
Anubis
Atlas
Bushwacker
Catapult
Cougar
Cyclops
Enfield
Flea
Highlander
Hollander
Hunchback
JagerMech
Lao Hu
Men Shen
Raven
Ryoken
Sha Yu
Shootist
Starslayer
Uller
Urbanmech
Werewolf
Wolfhound
Zeus

Clan: Shadow Cat
Clan: Summoner (Thor)
Clan: Mad Dog (Vulture)
Clan: Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)
Clan: Blood Asp

A note on 'Scale'. I've compared the scale Dropship I am working on (which has actual measurements) to a comparative scaling chart of mechs/vehicles. Using this I determined a reasonable range for Assault class Mechs to fall into. The scale itself uses a Banshee as the 'Assault' mech scale reference. I considered that the Atlas likely stands a little taller than it, so rescaled all the mechs to reflect this. This gives a reasonable range of 8-18 meters tall for the mechs, from the smallest, the UrbanMech, to the tallest, the Atlas. Also, I have used a base 32 mm hex as a 30 m horizontal scale rounding it to an even 1000. If printed as is, it actually comes out to 1:938. To get true 1:1000 scale mechs the .pdo models scale will need to be modified to 30 (instead of 36).

Even better, the models and textures will be designed so that those people who are not obsessive about scale (like I am) can resize them and printed them at 'miniature' scale (1:280 or so). The meshes should be quite easy to construct at that size.

Currently the Atlas and the UrbanMech are textured. Next will be the Catapult, shown below compared to the original MechCommander 2 model (the model I am going with is on the left).

Atlas-001.jpg


Urbanmech-001.jpg


Catapult.jpg


I just completed the Beta build of the Atlas, which was very successful. The penny in the second picture, for reference, is 19 mm (3/4") in diameter. The hex 'hills' are 32mm (1.25")
I will be releasing the Atlas as a package (with the .pdo file and a texture file) shortly. If it is small enough I will post it on both Zealot.com and Papermodelers.com.

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Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Sanginus

Member
They looks great, I like your Atlas design
and booth Catapult´s are fine too.
The left is the older variant, looks like the first metal design (lostech)
your right Catapult looks like the the new relaunched figure. :thumb:
 

Tirick

Member
Yes, lehcyfer, I intend to use these as Battletech game figurines rather than the plastic/metal ones that are standard use. The 'real' figurines are 1:280 scale, while the hex-game uses 30 meter representative hexes, which is 1:1000 scale. The disparity irritates me, so I'd rather build play with 'real' scaled Mechs.

Well, I've finished the Catapult textures. I am very happy with the results, I think I really captured the shape of the front/torso well.

I'm heading overseas on vacation in a few days (actually close to your part of the world, Sanginus) so I doubt I'll have time to unfold / build a prototype before then. However, when I get back I plan to build both this and the UrbanMech, as well as the main elements of the 1:1000 train set.

Catapult-001.jpg


Catapult-002.jpg


Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Sanginus

Member
Well then, I wish you a wonderful holiday,
have fun in Europe.

I am looking forward to your further Mech designs.

The texture of the Catapult looks good,
the missile launchers are the 3050 version
with Arrow IV missiles.
Instead, there are 3025 LRM 15 or 20 launchers mounted.
 

Tirick

Member
I look forward to seeing the Alps again and the enjoying the hospitality of Bavaria (and the beer there, to be honest, is the best beer I've ever had).

Yeah, I realize it is the Arrow IV set (although I'll be honest, era-timing in BTech is beyond my casual recollection of the universe) , I just honestly was lazy and could not figure a good way to evenly place 10 or 15 launchers onto the square. Good compromise I thought was to use 5 tubes. They'll only be about 1 mm once printed so it won't bother my sensibilities. I'll be including the texture at any rate so it can be refitted to requirement.

Thank you!
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
Download status is still 'pending' both here at at Papermodelers.com, so I'll add them to a folder on my site: http://tcfgaming.com/

Please feel free to obtain them there. I will continue to upload new releases to here as well.

Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
The Catapult:

IMG_1679.jpg


IMG_1682.jpg


IMG_1683.jpg


Once more I've used a CDN penny for comparison. It is a little over 18mm wide. This build went quite well, despite some of the tiny pieces (the toes in particular). It gives me hope for the Urbanmech, which I will be tackling soon, perhaps this afternoon if time allows.

The textures, I think, turned out quite well, the cockpit panes are sharp enough against the white.

I'll post this up on my site sometime today: http://tcfgaming.com

Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
Well, the Urbanmech is buildable, although only just. Any smaller would have to be 2d flat elements. As it is I made a few build errors, the dome is a little flattened for example.

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I've been presenting these 'as is'. Normally I would be touching the edges up with paint to elimate some of the cut edge error.

At any rate, I have a few modifications to make, although I may post this up tonight on my site.

Enjoy,
Tirick
 
Z

Zathros

Download status is still 'pending' both here at at Papermodelers.com, so I'll add them to a folder on my site: http://tcfgaming.com/

Please feel free to obtain them there. I will continue to upload new releases to here as well.

Enjoy,
Tirick

Did you upload something here? There is nothing in the "que", I just checked it again, there are no uploads pending approval, from you or anyone else for that matter? :confused:
 

Tirick

Member
;) that was two weeks ago mate. I've not uploaded the Cat yet. The Atlas was pending for a few days though, and still was before I left on holidays.
 
Z

Zathros

;) that was two weeks ago mate. I've not uploaded the Cat yet. The Atlas was pending for a few days though, and still was before I left on holidays.

Drop me a P.M. when you upload them and I will approve them immediately. I sincerely apologize for any delays. :)
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
These little guys look FANTASTIC!!!
The amount of detail that you have put into these models (game pieces) (at this scale) is simply mind blowing.
KUDOS to you on a fine job well done.
 

Tirick

Member
Thank you for your kind comments!

Zathros, I've uploaded the Cat and the Urbanmech, although I am unable to upload pictures at all, I get 'Security Token missing' errors.

Thank you,
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
The original MC2 legs for the Timberwolf and the Mad Dog (they appear to share the same leg design) are not very close to canon, so I've made modifications from the original. The new design should prove a little easier to assemble as well. I have a few tweaks yet to make to the models then I will begin to texture, perhaps this weekend if the weather is foul.

The original can be seen on the right, attached to the Timberwolf in the second shot. These will be replaced with a shared identical model (it will have a separate UV map from the 'main' model in both cases).

OmniHvyLegs.jpg



OmniHvyLegsWithTorsos.jpg


Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
The Mad Dog (Vulture) is now complete, at least the panel and detailing layout. I've not fully settled on the colour scheme. I may brave a camo pattern (Ghost Bear) for the prototype build.

MadDog-001.jpg


MadDog-002.jpg


I made minor scale modification to the model to bring the legs to the same size as the Timber Wolf (Mad Cat), this should be mostly unnoticeable, and allows me to share resources easier. I hope to get one built in the next few days, and get it up on my site for the end of the week.

Timber Wolf is next.

Enjoy,
Tirick
 

Tirick

Member
Just the other day I stumbled on a Marauder model made for Mechwarrior 3 by someone named Whammy and converted to Pepakura by vlmarshall (or ShiftDel, hard to tell from the post stream). It is perfect for my needs, with elements I'm was pretty certain I can use directly, rescaled. So I laid out the Pep file at 1:1000 and then built the MAD, although it was quite difficult at that size. I'm not 100% sure it is the exactly correct size (the gun pod is a little taller than the Atlas, although that could be build/fold stack up). I meant for it to be about 18 m tall, a little bigger than the Timberwolf (which is in UV/Texture layout, btw).

All in all it is a good model. As with the others I've printed a second one, but I'll wait to build it. Next up is the Mad Dog, which is printed and waiting patiently for its turn.

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Enjoy,
Tirick
 
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