I've been working on a few Battlemechs for my Thursday outings to Kingpin Comics and Games. However, I own two 100-ton cats. They are beasts. They keep knocking my painted mechs off the shelf.
They are savage. They skip the unpainted ones.
I came up with a stupid solution to a stupid problem. I put the models in a terrarium I had in the garage.
They've tried half a dozen times to get up there and they can't fit. Problem solved?
I made a point of getting Nathan physical copies of the D&D 5e rules. He has two different groups that play and it would be dumb if they couldn't do that due to an internet outage, lost computer, or other silly problem.
Wayback in 2019, I had a campaign where elves and humans were hostile to one another. I couldn't sell it and no one bought it.
Once an idea is out there, forget about changing it.
You'll notice these are variants, with long gun barrels on the arms and no chin cannons. When they arrived, I thought of cutting the guns off to match the other model. The obvious bend in the barrels bothered me to.
I couldn't do it. I want them as they are.
I decided to fix them. These are obviously resin printed, so fixing them is relatively easy and the technique works on many types of plastic models.
Step one: get a cup of very hot water. I've seen people say it must be X degrees and then they name some arbitrary number below boiling.
Stop. Let me offer some free home improvement advice then tell you about using hot water to bend plastic.
You have three basic choices of water heating: on-demand, electric, or gas. If you have on-demand hot water, you can skip this because that will make as much, and as hot as you like water until the fuel runs out. If you heat water by gas or electricity you have a hot water battery in your home called a hot water tank.
Modern hot water tanks have two heating elements, one at the top and one near the bottom. The cold water comes in from the bottom of the tank and is heated by the first element. The hot water rises and is kept at temperature by the upper heating element. Cold water comes in to replace it and the process continues. This is actually kind of neat. When not in use, the water starts as a column of cold to hot and turns into a column of nearly uniform temperature water.
This is very efficient. This is also why I say not to use the hottest water possible for bending plastic. You won't be able to control how hot it can get consistently because of the heating elements.
If you notice you burn yourself at the sink when the dishwater or shower is running, turn down your hot water tank temperature. It's too hot. Remember, the shower will dump water over your head even if it's too hot. Second, turning the temp down can save you enough over a month or year to buy another mech.
This ends my home improvement section.
The reason for no specific temperature is, I don't know what kind of resin you are dealing with and I don't want you to melt it to slag. Repeating this process several times is better than destroying a model with very hot water.
Also, get a cup of cold water. Again, not as cold as you can get it, but cool.
Initially, I held my model in the water for a minute. Next, I bent the gun outwards and dipped it in the cool water. In the picture to the left, you can see the guns are less bent but not entirely fixed.
I repeated the process. Since the water didn't damage the models, I felt comfortable dropping all three into the hot water and repeated the process.
After the next dip, I thought they looked good enough. I might do it again before priming the models.
This technique works well with bent airplane landing gear, drogues, and antennas. You may give it a try on slightly warped larger pieces, but only if you can press the model's complex shape against an opposing shape. I have yet to fix a model where 2 halves of the model are warped by pressing them up against each other.
It is always too much flex to work but you may have better luck.
As always, you can pick up a copy of this game on DrivethruRPG, but if you hit up brick-and-mortar stores, you can get the physical copy with minis. I will be doing a review of my favorite place to shop and play Battletech soon.
The Commando is a light mech and missile boat. It's an interesting option, as it pairs a single laser with two different missile racks. The range is short and shorter, but it's cheaper than a Locust. And there is something to be said about a low-heat mech.
The Commando Gallery
Iron Temple Guardian
18’ tall iron statues with massive crowns.
AC: 4, HD: 9 (41 HP) Att: 1x fist 1d6 or 1x kick 1d8 or 2x ensnare or 2x push. THAC0: 12, MV 90’. SV: D8 W9 P:10, B10, S12, ML:12, AL: Neutral, XP: 3,000 NA: 1d4, TT: 2x 500 GPS diamonds (the eyes).
Guardians are more determined than aggressive. They are usually set to guard an area such as the temple grounds, hence the name. These creatures are larger and more versatile than Iron Golems, but lighter and lankier. They can guard, pursue, or attack as commanded.
Mundane damage immunity: Requires silver or magical weapons to damage. Blunt and non-metal weapons will bounce. Sharp metal weapons will be absorbed and heal the Guardian for HP equal to the maximum possible damage for that weapon.
Energy Immunity: Immune to fire and cold.
Healed by fire: Each HP of fire damage restores one HP.
Energy vulnerability: If struck with fire and cold in the same round, they heal as per above but then take thermal shock damage. Thermal shock damage is equal to the maximum possible damage from the cold attack.
Mind Jolt: Scrying or mind reading will be ineffective as they don’t have minds. The caster must save vs. Paralysis or be stunned for the attempt.
Bonus XP: If a player role-plays a bouncing weapon, give them 50 XP each time. 100, if it is truly funny.
They pursue at half-normal speed and only use pushing or ensnaring attacks unless attacked, in which case they switch to kicking and punching. They will only punch or kick armed and aggressive attackers. If they flank a target, they switch to ensnaring and pushing again.
Ensnared creatures are carried by the Guardian. This causes no damage and up to 2 characters can be ensnared. The target(s) can wiggle out of the Guadian’s grip on a successful DEX check or after three rounds of trying. The escaping victim can either slide to the ground or ride on the Guardian’s back or crown. Riding characters won’t be attacked once they escape unless they attack the Guadian again. Up to 3 people can ride the Guardian’s back and one more in the Crown. Typically they are not controllable, but wiley characters can direct them by making reasonable suggestions.
If an ensnared or riding character successfully attacks the Guardian, they will be dropped and kicked (2d6 falling damage, plus a kick attack).
Pushing moves a target 6 feet in the direction of the Guadian’s choice and does no damage.
If an Iron Temple Guadian is destroyed by thermal shock, the parts can be gathered up and placed in a fire to restore the creature. This takes all day and the fire must be kept lit for it to work. This will place the Guadian under the fire-keeper’s command. If many people tend the fire, the last one to add fuel will be in command.
