Today’s models are something that regular readers have probably been expecting for at least a little while, what with the unpainted “winter whitewash” mechs that have been standing in for scale of the “Epic Scale” terrain pieces the past couple of months, and now it’s finally happened – some painted Battlemechs!

My experience with Battletech has been limited over the years. I owned the first edition boxed set many years ago (not Battledroids) but the combination of confusing rules to my young mind (all those dots!) and the more alluring game with Space Marines happening around the same time caused me to abandon Battletech before I even really started.

I played a few of the PC games over the years, and we used to go down to The Jam Factory every so often to have a few goes on the Battletech Centre that they had there, with the enclosed networked cabinets. Despite all that, it’s only now in 2025 that the existence of Alpha Strike – a simpler, more accessible ruleset and version of BattleMechTech has caused me to become interested in the tabletop game again.

The plan, as it were – was to work out two Lances (or whatever) of around the same points value so we can play some simple games for dummies and learn to play. One in Tan/Desert Yellow and one in Green. I don’t know or honestly care about which Clan or Era or whatever, because frankly I’m too old and tired to pretend to want to care about another epic background that’s been ticking along for 30 years – so both are Mercenary Companies. Problem solved.

This Unit, the “Desert Yellow” one was painted based on how I painted the Warhammer, which I’ve painted along the overall scheme, of the Robotech Tomahawk Destroid. Because my road to being interested in mechs (and to a lesser extent, Anime) was via Robotech. One of the old-school entry points.

I’ve also added segments of hazard striping across some panels on the mechs as well, mostly on the shoulders and knees – just something besides the basic desert yellow and the brown chest panels to tie the group together. I’ve added some tufts to break them up from the base just a little. I might also add some weathering pigment down the line, but for that I’ll probably wait until I’ve “finished” all of the mechs that I’ll do in this particular scheme before moving onto something new entirely.

Now that I’ve got some mechs painted, I feel much better about photographing a ton of the terrain pieces I’ve been holding back on showing for the past (almost) 2 months. Now it’d be better if I also had some smaller tanks and infantry from Legions Imperialis to show alongside, as well as an Imperial Knight or two or even a Titan. But Rome wasn’t built in a day! Expect a bit of a run of terrain posts for a while now as I photograph and clear that backlog!

Oh yeah. Mechs are vehicles, right? Walkers are vehicles? I think they’re vehicles. It means that these also count for Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery ’25. Hope you’re feeling okay, Dave – we all miss you!