Saturday 2 February 2013

Army showcase: 5th Sword of Light

Hoi,

In the continuing series of Army Showcases the next instalment for Classic Battletech my regiment from the Draconis Combine the 5th Sword of Light.


This regiment came about mainly because I had bought the new starter box for Battletech which included some crude plastic battlemechs. Among them was a Dragon; a classic Draconis Combine battlemech. So I knew I had to start a Draco regiment. The choosing of a colour-scheme was quite difficult since I had a red scheme in mind when thinking of the DC but it appeared that most DC regiments have white schemes for their troops... So upon doing some research I settled for the 5th Sword of Light. They were pretty mauled after the 4th Succession War and the ensuing Clan invasion, and so they were the right unit for me to start building it up again.

At present it is made up of a near full company of mechs, just missing one for the Assault Lance, but still lacking in armoured support. The source book for the DC mentions them without such auxiliaries, but I will add them anyway. The first of these is the swiftwind scout car added in this picture.


Light and medium Lances:


Heavy and Assault Lances:


The latest additions to this regiment are this Warhammer (left), Hunchback (right) and the scout car (front) which I like pretty much. They are all splendid metal models. The Warhammer is an Unseen model, the Hunchback is from the new clam shell package "Sword and Dragon" and the Swiftwind is just an old hand lying in my bits box.



That's all for today folks!

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Ghostboy" by Gabriel Rios

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I did a lot of miniature painting work for FASA in the 80's-90's. I did both pieces used in game demonstrations at conventions and work used on box art. (Battletech 3rd Edition) The subject of unit colors were always a bone of contention.I was told to vary the paint schemes but paint the company in that particular scheme.

In most cases we went for field paint based on the particular planet the unit was operating on at that time.

On the question of uniforms, white uniforms were dress uniforms. The field colors were khaki and a dark brown flak jacket and trim. This may have changed post FASA.

I don't have my reference books handy to give you specific examples, however the original reference color art is still to be found in a couple books. Here is the information on them:

House Kurita: The Draconis Combine product number 1620
October 1987, ISBN-10: 1555600395, ISBN-13: 978-1555600396

Battletech Field Manual: Draconis Combine (July 1996)
ISBN-10: 1555602878 ISBN-13: 978-1555602871

I hope this answers some questions.

Sander said...

Dear Mister Boucher,

Thanks for your lengthy and complete answer! I own both the publications you've mentioned and so concur with your remarks. However in my main article I misstated: I said "uniforms" while I meant:Battlemech colourscheme.

In a campaign I fought with our CBT group a while ago, we had 3 DC players against several non-DC players. We had my red armoured lot, a Desert camo regiment from the Arkab Legion and a white armoured DC line regiment. So it was a decent mix of schemes all round.
While I understand the attraction of the camo-schemes, they are really unnecessary in an age where technology makes the visual camouflage redundant, what with IFF and all kinds of scanning sensors IFR and the sort.

;-) Thanks heaps and on the subject of personal CBT uniforms: keep your eyes on this spot in the near future!