Battletech on Bottlecaps / Battletech on a Budget. Part 1 – Building the ‘mechs.

I first became aware of the Battletech Franchise through the Mechwarrior 2 game.Though I didn’t really play the game just the promotional images, I found myself in awe looking at the Clan ‘mech  , the Timberwolf aka Mad Cat. It wasn’t until Mechwarrior 4 (Which I played in the college computer lab in the early 2000s) came around that I actually got my hands on controlling a ‘Mech. Needless to say , my ‘Mech was subject to extreme overheating with me at the helm.

Much later I realized that it was a full fledged table top wargaming system. Similar to the revelation I had experienced with the Warhammer 40k franchise after playing the Final Liberation PC Game.

Here in India , the exposure to table top and miniature gaming is almost non existent to the best of my knowledge. If anyone reading this can help me out in this regard , I would be much obliged.

So coming back to battletech. I came across the Classic Battletech Quick Start Rules on their website   http://bg.battletech.com/downloads/ which piqued my curiosity about the system once again. I downloaded an earlier version of the quick start rules (which i will abbreviate to as QSR henceforth) from wargamesvault. You can register yourself there and download the QSRs, its free! The one thing that appealed to me the most when it came to the QSRs was there there was no emphasis on heat tracking , internal structures and all that jazz.

Now getting Miniatures (Minis) in India is expensive. So after a lot of trial and error I settled upon creating my minis from paper and bottle caps. A really cheap and DIY stand in for miniatures that would otherwise have burned the proverbial hole in the pocket.

Basic Inner Sphere Battlemechs on Bottlecaps

Here are the following steps by which I made these minis. But first, here is what you will need

1. Paper including the print outs of the ‘mechs.
2. Cardboard
3. Scissors
4. Glue
5. Bottlecaps
6. Paint , Sketch Pens, Crayons etc.

Step 1

Cut your ‘mech of choice from the roster print out. Remember to retain a common base of both front and back sections with the name of the ‘mech.

Step 2 

Here’s the part where you cut out a sufficient size of cardboard or stiff paper piece for the two sides. The stiff paper will help give a sense of mass for your mini as opposed to just having a two sided piece of paper.

Step 3 

Add some color to the ‘mech, I chose a crayon of blue and glue to the stiff board paper on both sides.

Step 4 

After it feels like the glue has done the job , you can snip off the name of the ‘ mech. This will be a great addition to the bottlecap base as it can help novice players identify their ‘mech

I used some left over stiff paper for use on the bottlecap. Stuck the name and then the trimmed paper ‘mech onto the resin glue and then painted the bottle cap , black and Bob’s your uncle!

Ok, since you have come this far, I will be appending the image files of the Inner Sphere ‘Mech roster right below. Enjoy!

I hope this reaches all you aspiring table top gamers who wanna give Battletech a go. P.S. I claim no ownership of these images. Battletech is an IP owned by Topps.

Till next time!

Regards

Chtulhu’s Workshop