Weekend Warriors

o/

My Dad came to visit this past weekend. So it was 2 more extra days off, and another long weekend spent working around my grandparent's place to get them settled in. As such they're pretty close to done on that front, so soon I can get back to my normal state of gaming on the weekend, and have more time for hobbying than just the 'quick and ugly' Battletech minis.

I picked up a Mobile Headquarters as I had proxied two of them in the game where my Ruff Puffs Mercs managed to have their Urbie kill a King Crab in one shot. Were it not for that one act, then that name would have disappeared, never again to see the light of day. Instead however, they've become my own little 'home brew' merc unit (when not playing podunk PDF forces). The only difference between the Puffs and the Podunks is the Mobile HQ addition (the remainder of the force is a motorized infantry company).  The Urbie, using the fame garnered from its infamous kill shot, has since been inducted into my Chisolm's Raiders company.

For the Puffs, I used the Mobile HQ, ICE -LL variant (Internal Combustion Engine - Large Laser) as a dirt cheap, slow  (and generally crappy though amusing) tank destroyer. However on receiving the actual Mobile HQ in the mail, it was HUGE! More and more the scale issues in this game are starting to annoy me (I put together a Toro last night and its the size of an assault mech, WTF!?!). Sure, the MHQ a glorified tractor trailer, in which people need room to maneuver inside, but clocking in at 25 tons, it dwarfed my new 60 ton Po tanks!

So hack saw in hand...

(yes really)

MUCH better!

I removed approximately half of the body, and most of the axles in the undercarriage, and made it more the size I think it ought to be. I also looked up 'communications equipment' to see what that does. At 3+ tons, it has tangible benefits, however all of the ICE variants have only 2 tons, so its basically a waste. Given that I've already modified the mini, I took it into skunkwerks and swapped the bogus equipment for 2 MGs (one on the left, the other the right) sharing a half ton of ammo, and put the other half ton into beefing up the armor. It can now take a gauss rifle slug to the front and not go internal. Plus there was enough armor left over to add another point to each of the other facings. I've named it the 'Garbage Truck of Doom!'

'The Poor Man's Patton Tank.'

Next up, at the repeated suggestions of Counterfett, I picked up a blister of Po Heavy Tanks for my Capellans. The Po is their quintessential MBT anyways, and is fairly respectable for its BV. Both tanks' muzzle breaks were mismolded, so I just cut them off. Not an all that unlikely field modification, and I figured that would just make the main guns recoil like hell now!