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Armorcast has been around for years now producing resin terrain pieces for miniature wargames as well as their more well-known vehicles for Warhammer 40,000. Now they're doing Battlemechs and the results are stunning.

Late last summer Armorcast announced that GW was not going to be renewing their license to produce Titans and tanks for Warhammer 40K. Although some might have thought that this might signaled the end of this small company, that was not the case at all. What Armorcast did was to go out and get a new license. Battletech!

The first piece being produced under this new license is the Battletech Poster-mech - the Mad Cat (or Timberwolf - depending on who's side of the conflict you're on). It's 1/60th scale (28mm) which makes it the scale of most of the SF miniatures on the market today.

The kit comes with about 70 parts both resin and pewter. The resin is a nice smoothe white type that's only drawback is the smell (it's stinky). The first thing that you notice is that the detail to the pieces is just incredible. The details of the design have been faithfully reproduced in every detail. In fact, I could not find a flaw with the detail at all. The missiles are seperate from the racks and are cast in pewter as are the machine guns and small lasers.

Casting quality is nice. Actually, it's among the best for "garage kit" type models that I have ever seen (only being surpassed by DP9/Fusions Model's Kodiak Heavy Gear). There are some seam lines that need to be sanded as well as some areas where the castings were poured that need some significant snading/shaping. It's not difficult work but it is not something that a complete novice could be expected to do properly. I had mine sanded and ready for test-fit in about a half an hour.

Test fitting was where the true beauty of this piece really shined through. This is an engineering marvel. Mike Biasi has managed to find a way to not only allow you to choose different positions for the kit, but to leave many parts free to be repositioned after you have finished it. You can turn the torso and swivel the guns with virtually no extra work. You can also free up some of the other joints as well. Many dynamic poses are possible if you are doing a static model including putting it into a full run. This is something that you almost never see in resin kits - and the styrene kits that do this are generally produced in Japan, not Santa Rosa, California.

At this point I've test-fit the entire kit. What has been fun is to see the majority of it built up and standing on its own without any glue! It has gotten me excited to use it to game with... which is the only strange drawback. There really isn't a game built to use this with. Sure, Battletroops is a possibility but it's been out of print for a long time. Of course, I picked one up on Ebay after I heard about the kit. Still, You could always use it with the upcoming Mechwarrior 3rd Ed. coming out soon but I always like to use my miniatures with wargames, not RPGs.

So as a modeler, I love this piece. As a gamer, I love this piece. It satisfies both of these passions equally and I urge you to pick it up, even with its hefty price-tag.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

28mm Mad Cat Battlemech
Author: Mike Biasi Category: Gaming Miniature Company/Publisher: Armorcast Line: Battletech Cost: $115 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Jay Adan on 07/22/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space	Armorcast has been around for years now producing resin terrain pieces for miniature wargames as well as their more well-known vehicles for Warhammer 40,000. Now they're doing Battlemechs and the results are stunning. Late last summer Armorcast announced that GW was not going to be renewing their license to produce Titans and tanks for Warhammer 40K. Although some might have thought that this might signaled the end of this small company, that was not the case at all. What Armorcast did was to go out and get a new license. Battletech! The first piece being produced under this new license is the Battletech Poster-mech - the Mad Cat (or Timberwolf - depending on who's side of the conflict you're on). It's 1/60th scale (28mm) which makes it the scale of most of the SF miniatures on the market today. The kit comes with about 70 parts both resin and pewter. The resin is a nice smoothe white type that's only drawback is the smell (it's stinky). The first thing that you notice is that the detail to the pieces is just incredible. The details of the design have been faithfully reproduced in every detail. In fact, I could not find a flaw with the detail at all. The missiles are seperate from the racks and are cast in pewter as are the machine guns and small lasers. Casting quality is nice. Actually, it's among the best for "garage kit" type models that I have ever seen (only being surpassed by DP9/Fusions Model's Kodiak Heavy Gear). There are some seam lines that need to be sanded as well as some areas where the castings were poured that need some significant snading/shaping. It's not difficult work but it is not something that a complete novice could be expected to do properly. I had mine sanded and ready for test-fit in about a half an hour. Test fitting was where the true beauty of this piece really shined through. This is an engineering marvel. Mike Biasi has managed to find a way to not only allow you to choose different positions for the kit, but to leave many parts free to be repositioned after you have finished it. You can turn the torso and swivel the guns with virtually no extra work. You can also free up some of the other joints as well. Many dynamic poses are possible if you are doing a static model including putting it into a full run. This is something that you almost never see in resin kits - and the styrene kits that do this are generally produced in Japan, not Santa Rosa, California. At this point I've test-fit the entire kit. What has been fun is to see the majority of it built up and standing on its own without any glue! It has gotten me excited to use it to game with... which is the only strange drawback. There really isn't a game built to use this with. Sure, Battletroops is a possibility but it's been out of print for a long time. Of course, I picked one up on Ebay after I heard about the kit. Still, You could always use it with the upcoming Mechwarrior 3rd Ed. coming out soon but I always like to use my miniatures with wargames, not RPGs. So as a modeler, I love this piece. As a gamer, I love this piece. It satisfies both of these passions equally and I urge you to pick it up, even with its hefty price-tag. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

28mm Mad Cat Battlemech