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The Black Widows independent company, part of the mercenary Wolf's Dragoons. In full cheesy-80s-action-movie fashion, they're a Dirty Dozen-style group of criminals and misfits molded by Capt. Natasha Kerensky into one of the most feared fighting forces in known space. Command Lance Fire Lance Recon Lance And because these are all canon characters, the pilots' names are marked.

I came across the start of a conversion from the last time my group played Battletech. The battlemech in question comes in several pieces and the stock look for the mech is firing platform on two leg-shaped struts: example of a well painted version in a stock pose (not painted by me) Now the idea of the mech coming in pieces is for you to adjust the pose yourself on assembly ... and of course for casting ... but really the only thing you can do without cutting the mech up is to create a "running mech" with the arms and legs pumping. However, if you look at the arms you can see that any real conversion comes from cutting and rebuilding: So, I first considered straightening one or both arms. However, upon closer inspection and sleeping on it, I decided that the effort wasn't worth it. However, I did get an idea as to how I wanted the Daishi to stand. I wanted its left foot raised onto a building's remains with the left leg straightened to hold the mech high as if it had just stomped through the HQ of the enemy. So I cut the left leg in two places: at the backward cantered knee and the toe. The knee joint is curved and sits in a groove so that was fun to cut apart. I cut the right leg at the knee and at the ankle. I built walls on the base using plastic and some putty to lock it all down. I left space around the left foot where the foot had shifted and left a partial impression. You can see the foot pinned to the base: Time to test fit all the pieces and see what pieces I would have to manufacture to get the final pose. So with some sculpey to hold the one side together I fit all the leg & torso pieces together: As you can see above I had a fairly decent gap in the right leg assembly to get the mech stable. So I built an ankle actuator around the pin above the right foot. And to ensure balance and stability I added a large piece of metal to the inside corner of the wall for the mech to stand on. After some fiddling and a series of tweak and dry fits, I finally had what I wanted: Finished parts: Final Assembly: Next we'll prime it so I can better see any outstanding mold lines or details that need fixing.