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Category: 3D-Printing

Goodbye Classic Battletech

Goodbye Classic Battletech

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Two days ago I finished the last of the classic BattleTech novels. The series ends with volume 61, Endgame, or Finale, in its german translation.

Finishing a good read is sometimes like waving goodbye to a good friend. This series had its ups and downs but in general I enjoyed reading it. The FedCom civil war was not a highlight to end the series but Operation Snake and Bulldog, fighting the Clans in their own territory, was pure suspense.

The first twelve novels were a re-read for me from around 30 years ago and I stopped with the Blood of Kerensky triology then. Some of the best! I always thought Classic BatteTech died with Hanse Davion but that was not true. It just became different. I grew older with the other characters, Ardan Sortek, Andrew Redburn, Morgan Kell and my somehow favourite Theodore Kurita. Heir to the Dragon is, for me, still one of the best novels in the series. And why did the Gray Death Legion have to perish in such a way?

I was pleasantly suprised by the MechWarrior books. I really liked the stories that show a more backside way of life of the BT universe. These books put me in the mood to play a Mechwarior RPG… maybe one day when there is time.

Now the last twenty books or so will be packed in a box with some other goodies for a very good friend who lent all the books to me.

One of the goodies, 3D printed:


Old adventures end but new adventures await. For the time coming in form of The best gamer ever… as some call it.

Leopard Dropship – 3D printed

Leopard Dropship – 3D printed

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So, this was a try to 3D-print a Leopard dropship for BattleTech. It was printed in one session and to save time I changed the settings to a lower resolution than recommended. Still, printing took more than twelve hours but it turned out resolution was much too low.

The Leopard can carry up to four Mechs into Battle.

Additionally, the bright blue colour of the filament does not really fit the topic and gives it a rather cheap toyish look. However, I still think, with some paint on it, it will still do the job as a scenic craft that came down just too hard in the midst of battle and lost a fin in the process.

The Leopard dropship as shown in Technical Readout 3025.

Again, thingiverse was the treasure chest where I found this 3D-model. Models for Orion and Overlord can also be found there but I’m not so sure if I will give it a try.

Nuclear Power Plant… 3D-printed

Nuclear Power Plant… 3D-printed

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The printing files for this outstanding piece of wargaming terrain are available on thingiverse.com along with several other very nice models for small-scale wargames like BattleTech or Epic. FOR FREE!!! So a big thank-you to all the designers who share their models with people who are not so gifted in computer-aided design (CAD).
The Nuclear Power Plant consists of three different buildings: an office building, a reactor facility and a cooling tower. 3D-printing can sometimes be tricky. The reactor facility took me three attempts unless I had a finished model, however, the office building and the tower caused no problems at all. The cooling tower alone is a massive thing, more than twice as tall as a BattleMech on the field.

While the cooling tower has the definite eye-catching ability, smaller and simpler designs help to make the terrain much more diverse and to bring more tactial options to the game. The Expendable Office Building is only one example of many simpler designs which can be found on thingiverse.

One building takes one to two hours to print and  can be expanded with additional printouts. In the picture you see one main building and one expansion attached to it. I can already see complete city blocks made of these. Printed in grey filament it is not really necessary to paint them, I think, but glueing them on some hex bases might be a good idea. But for now they are awaiting their first battle…