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So the Clans finally took over Terra. As a guy who always wanted that to happen, I am still miffed at it. The stories leading up to it all felt bland and kind of boring, and I expect the follow-up to be more of the same. It also kind of doesn't feel earned, for the most part. Like they're just rethreading old stories rather than moving the narrative forward. But also in the more direct sense of them just getting to Terra in the first place. Sure, we have had books leading up to it but I don't think anyone expected it to actually happen.
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May 10, 2021 00:08
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Last minis until I either finish stripping the Phoenix Hawk and Stinger, which will take a week or two (one of the varnishes I use is really strong, so stripping it takes a while even in an ultrasonic cleaner), or Wave 2 hits. I went with the 2nd Regulan Hussars after all. I just couldn't resist painting the unit that almost successfully killed the Word of Blake 20 years early.     Once you see the Awesome's smile, you'll never unsee it.
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May 10, 2021 01:46
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evilmiera posted:So the Clans finally took over Terra. As a guy who always wanted that to happen, I am still miffed at it. The stories leading up to it all felt bland and kind of boring, and I expect the follow-up to be more of the same. Yeah and it was the predictable almost mary sue faction outcome. They could've done a lot more interesting things with it
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May 10, 2021 07:57
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I think the last year of fiction novels suffered from the following; 1) They had Blaine Lee Pardoe write 5 books in the space of a year. I don't care what you think of the man or his politics, no one is going to write 5 good quality novels in the space of a year back to back. I have some of his old Dark Age books/Battletech stuff and the difference in quality is pretty stark. Holy crap if I ever have to hear another character say "We can't let the Jade Falcons become IlClan, they're the biggest threat to the galaxy!1!". When even Republic characters say that, you know that's lazy. Wolf isn't that much better! They're both genocidal kill-civilians-if-you-snipe-one-of-our-officers maniacs. Jade Falcon just dropped the mask for a while (I really wish just ONE, ONE Inner Sphere character had said "Wolves and Falcons are two side of the same coin, kill 'em both"). 2) They had the novels playing catch-up to the sourcebooks. That meant that most of the surprise of the novels was gone. You knew X was going to happen, Y faction was going to win. They still managed to sneak in a few surprises here and there (Like the Fidelis betraying the Republic, gently caress Paul Moon forever), but it felt like a lot of the novels were just trying to hit the beats they needed to. 3) They've been planning THE ILCLAN for 9 years at this point (i remember way back in 2012-2013 when a Gencon event had the Wolves invade Terra and duel with Stone for control of the Republic. I even have the pictures people took of that con saved on my home computer), but then they kept trying to make a surprise who was gonna be IlClan. TRO intros jumping ahead to 3250, dropping weird hints here and there, and yet they still had to follow through on what the revealed 9 years ago. It makes for a weird storyline. I don't care that the Wolves are IlClan. They were in the best position to do it, but they did not earn it in HOTW. Had they struggled a lot more, lost a lot more, had less POV characters so the Republic could have more, it would've been much better. Give me a Paladin Tyrina Drummond POV so that she can go out in a blaze of glory rather than "lol 2 wolf tank drivers no one cares about run over Tyrina's mech with a Carnivore tank lol".
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May 10, 2021 13:29
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Pardoe couldn't have written one good book in nine years, he's a mediocre writer who thinks he's amazing.Crazy Joe Wilson posted:2) They had the novels playing catch-up to the sourcebooks. That meant that most of the surprise of the novels was gone. You knew X was going to happen, Y faction was going to win. They still managed to sneak in a few surprises here and there (Like the Fidelis betraying the Republic, gently caress Paul Moon forever), but it felt like a lot of the novels were just trying to hit the beats they needed to. It sounds like you're one step away from realizing you can quit reading the novels because you're reading them just to find out "what happens next" and not because they're enjoyable reads
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May 10, 2021 18:24
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PoptartsNinja posted:It's almost like House Marik has historically been kinda lovely to the League's member nations. They took the Palpatine path to power and surprise surprise that means parliament quietly hates them (while still voting to give them an ever increasing number of "emergency powers." C'mon, FWL, you border House Steiner and the Capellan Confederation, it's not like you're fighting off House Kurita. House Marik would be far more interesting if they could hurl lightning (PPC bolts?) from their hands. I do get the impression the only real way they held power as long as they did was all their enemies just couldn't cooperate well enough to kick the Mariks out and keep them out. Which is honestly a more realistic way for a feudal society's politics to work out. Honestly, it's kinda strange more of the star nations in Battletech aren't as unstable as the FWL, feudalism almost by definition suggests some weakness in the central ruling power group because they can't project enough power without support. Hell, Kurita is fascist Japan, they should make feudal societies look downright tame considering how dysfunctional fascist governments get (Not sure what the equivalent of the Japanese Army and Navy fighting would be in this comparison. The feuding Warlords? ISF and the DC military?). Crazy Joe Wilson posted:2) They had the novels playing catch-up to the sourcebooks. That meant that most of the surprise of the novels was gone. You knew X was going to happen, Y faction was going to win. They still managed to sneak in a few surprises here and there (Like the Fidelis betraying the Republic, gently caress Paul Moon forever), but it felt like a lot of the novels were just trying to hit the beats they needed to. Well, they weren't called the SEMPER Fidelis I suppose, and really even the Clans probably agree Smoke Jaguar has genetically engineered purestrain rear end in a top hat into their warriors, so it's just reverting to type. quote:I don't care that the Wolves are IlClan. They were in the best position to do it, but they did not earn it in HOTW. Had they struggled a lot more, lost a lot more, had less POV characters so the Republic could have more, it would've been much better. Give me a Paladin Tyrina Drummond POV so that she can go out in a blaze of glory rather than "lol 2 wolf tank drivers no one cares about run over Tyrina's mech with a Carnivore tank lol". If we had to have an ilClan I prefer the Wolves winning (definitely better than the Falcons, I'm weary enough of cackling evil bastards running around after WoB, let's get back to morally dark shades of grey vs. each other again in BT thanks), but I'll be irritated if everybody in the Inner Sphere responds with more than a "Yes, and...?". Only the Clans took the ilClan stuff seriously, the IS powers should not suddenly be deferential to the Wolves because they took Terra ("Big whoop, we all took Terra several decades ago"). As I mentioned previously, unless Alaric has some amazing diplomatic trick the Capellans should just keep on coming for Terra, and they probably won't be alone. I will definitely be really irritated if "Wolf Clan conquers Terra" somehow becomes "Wolves conquer everybody", the Clan system sucks too much for me to want to watch it control the entire Inner Sphere and that would be WAY too much author fiat to buy. Defiance Industries posted:It sounds like you're one step away from realizing you can quit reading the novels because you're reading them just to find out "what happens next" and not because they're enjoyable reads Hate to say it, but that's about where I'm at. I actually enjoy a lot of the short fiction, but the books are just kinda of ehh to me right now.
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May 10, 2021 19:56
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I haven't checked out this thread in forever, and I come back to lots of colorfully painted well done mechs on each page. 
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May 10, 2021 20:54
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Defiance Industries posted:Pardoe couldn't have written one good book in nine years, he's a mediocre writer who thinks he's amazing. Exodus Road, Target of Opportunity, and Surrender Your Dreams are all great books. Even Forever Faithful was pretty good. I won't lie, I was excited that Dark Age was getting a bunch of novels to finish out the Era. I had high hopes, but HOTW killed that. MadDogMike posted:House Marik would be far more interesting if they could hurl lightning (PPC bolts?) from their hands. I do get the impression the only real way they held power as long as they did was all their enemies just couldn't cooperate well enough to kick the Mariks out and keep them out. Which is honestly a more realistic way for a feudal society's politics to work out. Honestly, it's kinda strange more of the star nations in Battletech aren't as unstable as the FWL, feudalism almost by definition suggests some weakness in the central ruling power group because they can't project enough power without support. Hell, Kurita is fascist Japan, they should make feudal societies look downright tame considering how dysfunctional fascist governments get (Not sure what the equivalent of the Japanese Army and Navy fighting would be in this comparison. The feuding Warlords? ISF and the DC military?). You've gotten hints and strains of that in the fiction before. The Warlords of the D.C. definitely undercut each other to the detriment of the nation. Lyran Commonwealth keeps having secession problems. House Davion has always inched toward rebellious vassal lords who never seem to go all the way quite. Only Liao seems to not suffer from that, probably because there's never been a big effort to flesh out Capellan nobility much. quote:As I mentioned previously, unless Alaric has some amazing diplomatic trick the Capellans should just keep on coming for Terra, and they probably won't be alone. I will definitely be really irritated if "Wolf Clan conquers Terra" somehow becomes "Wolves conquer everybody", the Clan system sucks too much for me to want to watch it control the entire Inner Sphere and that would be WAY too much author fiat to buy. I'd be surprised if the IlClan manages to conquer much more than Republic borders/Hegemony borders. Alaric has nothing to actually cajole the other Clans into obeying him. He's Clan Wolf and two shells of Clans. He could probably make peace with Republic remnants and welcome them back into some sort of hybrid govt., giving him a few extra regiments. And marrying Trillian would win him the Commonwealth. But he's got nothing on the other Houses. The Capellans are going to rock his poo poo if they get into a fight. I do wonder how the Clans will respond to entire galaxies being nerve-gassed in their barracks. quote:Hate to say it, but that's about where I'm at. I actually enjoy a lot of the short fiction, but the books are just kinda of ehh to me right now. Same, Shrapnel has been real, real good for the most part (Especially the Cracked Canopy stories), but I'm hoping the novels get better now that they're able to cover new stuff rather than sourcebooks.
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May 11, 2021 00:53
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Defiance Industries posted:It sounds like you're one step away from realizing you can quit reading the novels because you're reading them just to find out "what happens next" and not because they're enjoyable reads Real talk, I just want a collective lets read of the Dark Age novels now and we should grade them on the Jeremiah Rose curve. I have basically no memory of them outside of like bizzarre 'this one random character shows up with a cool mech and then for some reason takes over the Steel Wolves for some reason???' stuff.
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May 11, 2021 01:16
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I have all of the Dark Age novels and am currently re-reading them because i am bored. I'd be willing to a let's read but I'd probably not be as funny or interesting about them than say PopTarts Ninja. Just don't make me read the Isla Bick novels again... please...
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May 11, 2021 01:31
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The problems HOTW had were not going to be magically resolved by not being related to a sourcebook, as evidenced by how that sourcebook isn't even out yet but the book still sucked. Pardoe writes point A to point B with eyes glued firmly to the destination, and completely ignored any kind if interesting storytelling with the exception of making sure everyone knew he saw Stone as a Hitler allegory and making sure everyone knew how brilliant Alaric was over and over. Neither of which is actually good but at least it was there. Even if he wasn't a Confederate apologist and convinced of his own excellence HOTW would have sucked, IlClan or not.
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May 11, 2021 02:25
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I forgot how Edit: Settled on Stone's Defenders because they've got the least bad skeleton motif. 
PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 05:52 on May 13, 2021 |
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May 13, 2021 01:20
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PoptartsNinja posted:I forgot how Spoopy Halloween skeletons are the best and never embarrassing  Out of curiosity, why not use one of the line regiment schemes or the Republic Standing Guard instead of the Stone's Brigades? Also I one hundred percent agree with BLP's lackluster bullshit novels being responsible for my "meh" at ilClan at this point.
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May 13, 2021 09:07
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Because Black and Gold is boring as hell (Black + any other color is easy mode, it will always look at least half-way decent), I'm already doing Red and Gold with my Sword of Light, and if I was going to do White and Gold I'd be painting Thomas Marik's Knights of the Inner Sphere. The only Republic color scheme I like is the Olive Drab + Maroon of their militia but there's no way they'd assign an Ares to the Militia. So Stone's Defenders it is, because Stone's Fury are war criminals (and have a worse color scheme).
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May 13, 2021 09:39
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What makes Stone's Fury War Criminals? You could always do the clix color scheme (Red and Gray-Brown, the more red the more elite) Steel Wolves also have a cool silver and brown scheme, with the brown supposed to be like fur with silver highlights. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 13:25 on May 13, 2021 |
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May 13, 2021 13:22
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They were the Republic's go-to riot busters. Their targets were primarily civilians.
PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 17:42 on May 13, 2021 |
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May 13, 2021 17:30
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PoptartsNinja posted:They were the Republic's go-to riot busters. Their targets were primarily civillians. Good to know, is that in Wars of the Republic Era? EDIT: What books are those in? Field Manual 3145? VVV Field Manual last I checked only said Stone's Fury was "The most dangerous regiment in the RAF, warrior for warrior", I just want to know where you got this info from. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 18:32 on May 13, 2021 |
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May 13, 2021 17:42
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Stone's Fury and Stone's Defenders were formed after the Fortress went up. The Defenders were basically an NAIS Cadre type unit, with a few commanders pulled from Stone's Revenants to ride herd (they had a lot of Ares units and that was about all they're notable for). Stone's Fury were formed as a counter-insurgency force to 'punish' rebellious populations who were upset about the Fortress Republic being activated.
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May 13, 2021 18:00
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In the new Legends art book, Stone's Atlas II looks pretty amazing. But also way beyond my ability to paint for now.
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May 13, 2021 23:16
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PoptartsNinja posted:Stone's Fury and Stone's Defenders were formed after the Fortress went up. The Defenders were basically an NAIS Cadre type unit, with a few commanders pulled from Stone's Revenants to ride herd (they had a lot of Ares units and that was about all they're notable for). Stone's Fury were formed as a counter-insurgency force to 'punish' rebellious populations who were upset about the Fortress Republic being activated. What book is that from? Just curious if I missed a Dark Age era book somewhere along the way. Field Manual 3145 describes Stone's Fury as literally an elite regiment designed for combat filled with Knights, "man for man the most dangerous regiment the RAF has", so that's a strange switcharoo from crowd control. Also, the school I work at periodically gives away old books from the library that no one has checked out in years. Lo and Behold they had a Mechwarrior Dark Age book for the taking... But it's #3, The Ruins of Power, ugh. Well I never read it and it is free...
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May 14, 2021 12:47
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Field Manual: 3145. They were stationed on Liberty, where they were tasked with putting down protestors. I think the 3145 tech manual entry for the Celerity says they were experimenting with using drone 'Mechs for the task, so it could be their crowd control was relatively benign. I'm just don't believe that. The "Riot Duty" is hated by mercenaries for a reason.
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May 14, 2021 13:57
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PoptartsNinja posted:
Wasn't the Blackjack intended to do just that? And I believe the Vulcan as well?
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May 14, 2021 20:53
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Yes but the Blackjack also sucks at that job. AC/2s are as bad at anti-insurgency weapons as they are at everything else
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May 14, 2021 20:58
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Defiance Industries posted:Yes but the Blackjack also sucks at that job. AC/2s are as bad at anti-insurgency weapons as they are at everything else I'll disagree: they're very good at shooting civilian vehicles while doing minimal damage to infrastructure. If you need a crowd of people killed you use a Firestarter or a Scarecrow or a Vulcan. If you need to snipe a hilux, you use a Blackjack (or a Vulcan).
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May 14, 2021 21:37
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As long as it's not close to you, which is a very real possibility.
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May 14, 2021 21:56
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That's what the medium lasers are for. 
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May 14, 2021 22:06
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I'm on riot duty, I don't have time to kill one person at a time. That's why god and jesus invented frag rounds for my SRMs. The 2nd Lyran may be gone but I can still have a Commando vomit a cloud of white-hot razor blades at soft targets
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May 14, 2021 22:07
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I just remembered the Blackjack OmniMech exists. If you wanted to be really mean, you could load one up with RAC/2s and inferno SRMs. Although I'm not sure if they do more damage to infantry or not.
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May 14, 2021 22:35
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Ares WIP: Since this one's an Ares Hera, I went with lion bones since lions are one of Hera's sacred animals (and I'm saving the bull for the Zeus).  Still lots of clean-up to do. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the Ares Aphrodite, since her sacred animals are 'Dolphins' and 'Seashells'
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May 15, 2021 02:55
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Dolphins are loving insane murderers to a man. Maybe steer into that.
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May 15, 2021 05:13
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I finished my Ares (Hera) last night. I couldn't upload pictures until just now, but I figure the Executioner is a good choice for scale!  
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May 16, 2021 14:23
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You painted those? That's very impressive. I'm guessing that Executioner is Wolf Alpha Galaxy?
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May 16, 2021 16:55
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That's correct! I finished it about a week ago!
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May 16, 2021 17:17
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Nice! I just finished a star of Alpha Galaxy Wolves the other day. Does MediaFire work for image hosting since I don't have plat?
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May 16, 2021 17:27
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No idea about mediafire, but I know Imgur works so long as you post the picture link.
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May 16, 2021 17:36
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https://imgur.com/a/3nIxS1Q Take a look. Fairly close to your star actually.
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May 16, 2021 17:48
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Communist Bimbo posted:Take a look. Fairly close to your star actually. Very nice! PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 18:30 on May 16, 2021 |
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May 16, 2021 18:08
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Thank you! Gonna go Falcon Guards next.
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May 16, 2021 18:16
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Communist Bimbo posted:Thank you! Gonna go Falcon Guards next. I've got one of those (but only because I had to paint Aidan Pryde appropriately)!   My only advice for your future 'Mech painting would be: since 'Mechs are at 6mm scale, static grass and grass tufts make them look smaller. Each 'blade' of static grass would have to be about 2 meters / 6 ft / roughly the height of a very tall human to be visible at 'Mech scale. I find static flock (the little tiny ground-up foam that lays very flat) tends to look better and make your 'Mechs look bigger and more impressive. Static grass can still work as part of a jungle base, but if you're doing that you'd probably want to use some clump foliage as well to represent bushes to show that yes, that grass is just really huge. I'm fortunate enough to own a 3D printer, which makes this part easier (3D printer supports are normally just thrown away but they make great scrap for bases); but anything you can put on a 'Mech's base to help make it look bigger is really cool. Even just one or two 'Mechs in a formation with a little something extra at their feet can help make them feel bigger and cooler.    If you don't have a 3D printer, you can substitute with bits of toothpick painted silver with some rough orange splotches, some bits of broken plastic, or even dried superglue (believe it or not that curved chunk of rusty metal on the Awesome's base is just dried CA glue that I broke off one of my improperly-stored glue bottles). If you can paint it to look like a chunk of rusting metal, it looks great on a 'Mech base! Edit: And please don't take this as "static grass is bad," it's a really useful tool! Anything at all on your bases helps immensely. I just have opinions and like looking at awesome robots. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 18:51 on May 16, 2021 |
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May 16, 2021 18:34
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I'll keep all of this in mind, thanks. I don't have a 3D printer, although I want to get one at some point
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May 16, 2021 20:30
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