9/08/2026

Battletech Alpha Strike first painted mechs

 On a nostalgic whim I ordered the box Battletech Alpha Strike. I remember having bought the original box from FASA in the eighties. Later I also played a lot PC games from Activision. 

I loved the concept of fighting giant robots and the background from Battletech, but did not like its rules. Now I am giving another chance with Alpha Strike as it is simpler and faster.

If I cannot find people to play Battletech Alpha Strike, I'll probably keep playing Mekatak GSRE instead as it was fun, fast and it also allowed me to design my own mechs. We'll see.

The box says they are The Inner Sphere Northland Highlander Mercenary Command so I have painted them as my 15 mm  WWII British tanks and also used their decals. These mechs wear the 51st armoured regiment and the Highlander infantry division markings and insignia which I think fit very well for them.


Archer



I tried a bit of OSL on the exhausts because I wanted to stress the importance of heat from their reactors in Battletech rules.


Warhammer





Phoenix Hawk



Locust






14 comments:

  1. Very nice work Javier. They look great and i hope that helps in getting someone else interested.

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    1. Thank you Ben. I hope it too, so far there are two friends that seems to be mildly interested. Let's cross fingers.

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  2. Very nice! Your Northwind Highlanders look great and I really like the idea of using the WWII colour scheme and insignia. I hope you enjoy Alpha Strike, and if not then at least you have more mechas for other games.

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    1. Thank you Ruaridh! They're Highlanders in the box and wear the same colours as British tanks and and I have a priming spray can with that colour at home so it was easy. Then, it came the decals. I had to restrain a bit not to paint the mechs as medieval knights and I'm happy I painted them in a military colour in the end. I'll try another spray can on the clans, dunkelgelb ;-)

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    2. Great idea for the filthy clanners! :-D

      I was tempted to paint my mechs in medieval liveries too. I am very glad I did not

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    3. Scumbags! LOL!. After the Highlanders, maybe I'll paint some kuritas to fight them. They will add enough colour to the tabletop with their reds.

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  3. They look great mate! I was a mid 80s Battletech guy too :-)

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    1. Thank you Paul! I have fond memories of playing with dear friends back in the eighties but my tastes have changed and I don't know if I'll ever play Battletech games though I'm enjoying at the moment painting those mechs :)

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    2. Thats a good enough excuse in my book! ;-)

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  4. They look really good! Lovely work!

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    1. Thank you Aaron. I'm glad you like them :)

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  5. They look great! Good call on the WWII British colours. I remember the 1980s game as well, my brother was quite into it. It wasn’t bad as I recall, but a lot of record keeping.

    Nice OSL too.

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    1. Thank you Alan! Yes, too much record keeping and another thing did not like was shots impacting at random on mechs. The game did not allow you to aim to a specific part or weapon of an enemy mech. Cheers!

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