you can really taste the dougram

While taking pictures of the Mechaton guys below, I did this experiment with a slightly larger scale guy. Normally, I work at a slightly larger scale than this, but I wanted to see if I could condense some and make a plausible Minifig-scale mecha a la Gasaraki or VOTOMS. The shape of the body was also inspired by the Spartan from Macross.

This machine, an Armored Frame (or “Pittman”) is ideally part of a three-person team: the pilot inside the thing, a Human Operations Officer, and a Mechanical Operations Officer. The HOO is responsible for monitoring the well-being of the pilot. The engineer is responsible for feeding the pilot information and watching telemetrics on the suit itself. It stands about 3.5m tall. At the point in history where it’s being used, machines like this have replaced tanks, which can’t get down city streets and are too slow and vulnerable to fire from above. Though larger than a single infantryman, it can nonetheless fit down alleys and into larger buildings, climb onto rooftops (since it weighs little more than a motorcycle, thanks to advanced composite materials), and hide between trees.

These are scattered about the world, having been sold by private corporations to anyone willing to pay, so they’re the rocket-propelled grenade of the late 21st century. They’ve given great military might to individuals who then persue their own nationalist, idealistic, and capitalistic goals with this mighty weapon.

In these pictures, it’s outfitted with a 20mm machine gun. The “hands” are a standard fitting, and many corporations produce weapons that readily fit them.

Can you imagine the saddle sores?

Check out how the shoulder fits into the socket. Oh, yeah.

doop dee doo.

Walking.

Robobung!

The back.

I'm using hinges to get angles a lot these days.

The torso.

With the new measuring rules in Mechaton, it’s totally possible to play with guys this size. The buildings would get expensive, though. But Vincent, I think it could be totally fun.

 

Mechaton dudes revealed!

Over at Vincent’s blog, there’s been a lot of talk about Mechaton, a superfun mecha fighting game. You build your guys, say what all the parts do, then take strategic objectives while smashing each others’ guys, leaving Lego body parts strewn across the table. It’s the best such game I’ve ever played. Strategy’s very important, as is tactics, and luck has just the right effect on things.

Here is the army I like to use the most. There’s one more guy than I can use, and I decide at game time what I want the loadout to be.

This guy’s all defense. He’s got 2 Reds at Long range in the form of a recoilless rifle on his back and a pair of smashin’ guns for 2 Reds at Direct range on his arms.

The same guy. You can see the Glaug influence.

This is Shiva. One Green for bird legs, ECM and carbon chassis for stealth (2 Blues), lasers for kick you ass at Direct range.

This is Scout. 2 Yellows for the sensors, a Blue for ECM, two Green for running on all fours, and a Green d8 for not having ranged weapons. Sometimes, he gets Big Missiles. I couldn’t find the missile rack, so none are shown.

These are the Fuchikoma built to fight as a single, revolting mass. They’ve got two Reds at HtH, a Yellow for their sensor dome, a Blue for being little, and a Green d8 for not having ranged weapons. Their optional Green for having four legs is left behind so they get another initiative die.

One of them, alone.

The game will be on sale at GenCon Indy. I was going to sell kits, but it’s a huge amount of work. I’d have to have a huge demand up front to put that energy in. Nonetheless, you should totally buy the game and play it. I’ve had more fun with this game than all the time I’ve spent playing Warhammer and Battletech combined.