by David Hyde

A few years back some friends of mine and I were involved in creating large showcase games for the miniature gaming industry [yes Dungeons and Dragons, Battletech and the like...] As a novelty we would recreate a tabletop size game such as Steve Jackson Games "OGRE" as a huge arena style group game event. This was going well with the 1/35 scale OGRE game...[our 1st in 1993] a huge Star Wars Capital ship combat and a custom 1/25 scale Car Wars layout were the biggest draws. The Star wars Game alone could play 40 people at a time, though that tended to bog down and the rules were adjusted to handle 15- 20 just fine. But one thing I really wanted to do was some sort of large scale mech game. We were playing a lot of Battletech then and that sort of inspired the next project: Battletech MegaSize!

The first thing to decide was the scale. A lot of games played Arena style used the off the shelf kits of between 1/72 and 1/60 or so and I wanted ours to be noticed so we decided to go all out and build in 1/12 scale. That would make my first model, the Warhammer WHM 9-R around 40" tall! I drew plans that were a composite of the best references I could find [since no two drawings or models are alike with this design I soon found out] using mainly the small lead battletech game mini, the cool cutaway blueprint from FASA and and of course the appropriate destroid kit

Built mainly of 1/8" Sintra and styrene detail over a 1/8 plywood shell there is an internal structure of aluminum conduit that runs from the feet to the inside shoulder. These models were going to be handled by the public in a very crowded setting and experience had taught that nothing is "unbreakable". There is a fully lit cockpit complete w/ ejection seat, working running lights and an internal CO 2 system that vents the players overheated mech in a loud, foggy attention getting WHOooossshhh... if he gets taken out. The shoulders and arm PPC's are poseable and it can pivot at the waist.

The feet were the only cast pieces on the model and were bolted directly to a 24" hex base w/ 2"swivel wheels on the bottom. This game wasn't going to be contained by an arena...these mechs would use the halls and aisles of the convention hall itself in a roving battle.

This would have happened if not for the disastrous [for some of us involved in the miniature game industry anyway... ] debut of Magic the Gathering in "97". Suddenly collectible card games were all the rage and support just sort of ran out for the mech project. The other mechs, all in 1/12 scale, were the classic MadCat, Zeus, Hatchetman and Locust designs.

Image: Head and torso under construction

Image: Standing tall

Image: Forest sentinel

Image: Rear view