u/LordofTresserhorn97

I lost my dad to cancer last month. He was 62 years old.

I don't care about upvotes. I want to share his work, and some of his life, with others that I know will appreciate it.

My dad was always a nerd at heart. When big names in gaming started finding their footing in the 80s, he was amongst the first generation to appreciate Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering, and many video games to come - yet, funnily enough, Battletech was something that he never got into. When he wasn't playing the Dungeon Master for his friends or skirmishing in Rogue Trader WH40K games, he was stealing road signs and hammering them into plate mail for his LARP group so that they could clobber each other senseless in the woods while playing at being knights. He loved animals and the outdoors, and spent most of his younger years exploring the woods or engaging in archery, paintball, and driving like a wild child without fear of physical injury or the cops.

My dad originally tried getting me into both Magic and painting minis as a kid, but it wasn't until I was a teenager (and well after he sold his old card collection) that I found an interest in trading card games. It wasn't until I'd graduated college and found my own footing with Fallout: Wasteland Warfare that I felt inspired enough to begin learning how to paint miniatures from my dad. And later on, that interest in painting evolved into an obsession with Battletech after MechWarrior 5 reminded me of a setting I hadn't seen since I was a child, playing MechAssault 1 and 2 on my old Xbox.

My dad loved to experiment with his miniatures. His confidence and ability to apply skills from a lifetime of handywork gave him the drive and fearlessness to do whatever came to mind in order to test a new method of kitbashing or painting. Whether it was making his own terrain tiles for Warhammer or practicing wet blending on D&D miniatures, he always pushed himself - and me - to furiously hypothesize and then put to practice whatever we could conceive of. It's that style of learning and painting that led to me boldly doing a cockpit gradient on my very first mech, in spite of how small the Blackjack's glass was.

Pictured above is the Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance that I got him for Christmas in 2025. He painted them in his own style, inspired by the Howling Griffons Space Marine chapter from Warhammer 40K.

At the end of the pictures is a snapshot of the miniatures he was unable to finish. Someday, when I feel ready, I plan to finish the company that he started. I'll give them the same waterslide decal treatment I do my own projects. Sometime after that, my friends and I will expand them beyond the basic company they were only ever meant to be.

And one day, Bill's Howling Griffons will hit our tabletop as a mercenary company, whether it be as allies or OpFor.

Some of you may have noticed that of the incomplete minis pictured, only one of them comes from after the Succession Wars: the Wraith. I'd like to think that if he were still here, my dad would appreciate the idea of a tough as nails group of mercs surviving the Clan Invasion and thriving for years to come.

Quite pleased with how this mini finished up. While the MW5 version of the Black Knight looks awesome, I am a big fan of this sculpt and wanted to get another good energy boat onto the table.

In typical fashion for myself and my buddy I play with, immediately after spending a week busting my hump to finish this mini, it's head was promptly shot off by a Cataphract ripping double 12s on a RAC/5 after a prior hit. It's genuinely fascinating that we've had roughly half of our new additions lose their cockpit in their first game.

Another one done, and four more to go to have the minimum for a Cluster (3 Binaries). I'm overall pretty pleased with how this guy came out, though there were a few issues that persisted to completion: despite rolling it out flat, the waterslide decal has a little silvering on one corner, and the gradient on the cockpit is a little wonky due to the sculpt itself being asymmetrical on the cockpit. Honestly, though, I've reached the point where I'm willing to just accept the minor faults and move on, if only because after a certain point I'm just quibbling over something 9/10 people will never see.

Haven't posted in a while but I've stayed busy with painting. Been dealing with family medical issues and I've been doing my best to keep up the pace and not stress myself to death over things I can't control.

The Caesar's cockpit took +2 hours alone in the detailing phase but I'm very pleased with the final result. I opted for a purple gradient as purple is a royal/ruler color, and that fits the Caesar thematically.

The Hunchback from start to finish was one thing: straightforward and simple for base design, cockpit painting, and overall effort. I realized after glaring at official art long enough that the louvres on the cockpit are technically still in front of glass, but I opted to not try and get cute with washes to emulate glass between the cracks and kept it simple with some black wash.

For some reason, the Longbow was a pain in the ass the entire way, and I'm glad I stayed with a basic base setup. From needing a ton of corrections to falling over while spraying varnish and having random dust become cemented to its nose, necessitating MORE corrections and a bigger decal, this big boy was a big pain. Worst of all, I realized the sculpt is asymmetrical and the uppermost cockpit panel is off center! Thankfully, it came out pretty well in spite of all the trouble.

For some reason, the Flashman was one of those projects that felt like it ended up being harder and taking longer than expected. But honestly, I really like how it turned out overall. It's not perfect, especially in the crevices, but it ended up being pretty colorful with the base offsetting the highlights on the mech, including the painted-on capacitors on the arms. I'm quite happy with how the cockpaint gradient looks like a miniature sun in the driver's seat.

If anyone is curious, the hill on the base was made with Green Stuff and coated in Citadel Paint's Stirland Mud for texture; after painting, model train grass was added to the green patches. Really satisfied with how that looks and will probably be doing more hills in the future.

My second clan mech is finally finished. I've been working on painting up the Warhammer family to field together and now I just need to finish up my 3D printed Hammerhands to have a full star of Warhammer and Warhammer-adjacent mechs. I've also opted to have them share a cockpit color scheme, just for fun.

While it may not be the most optimal I definitely feel like a star consisting of a Warhammer, Warhammer IIC, Battleaxe, Hammerhands and Thug would be a pretty intimidating sight. Though I do have some other minis lined up to take care of before I get back around to the Hammerhands.

With this little fella complete, I now have a complete star of each weight class (barring ultralights and superheavies). I rather enjoy how he came out and I hope to use him as a friend for my bigger boys that want to get in close.

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I'll likely be focusing on some more heavies and assaults for the next few minis as I am determined to avenge my Battleaxe's death by first-game-first-turn headshot by chasing my regular opponent around the board with a star's worth of headchoppers and/or 5/8 assault mechs to show my dissatisfaction.

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Anywho, I figure once I hit the bare minimum of a cluster (three binaries) of Wolf's Dragoons done and dusted I'll take some pics of them all together.

Here's tonight's biggest loser, whom I spent many hours on eagerly preparing for today's game(s) throughout the week prior all the way up to the day of only for him to eat a gauss slug to the head on turn 1 of his first game.

lol, lmao even

I had a lot of production issues with this SOB so I'm just happy he looks mostly fine. The Dragoons decal went on a little cock-eyed and a hair off center, but I'm just glad to have it finished. Holy hell did this miniature have a lot of panel edges to highlight.

Edit: spelling

Realized that I hadn't posted pics of my Thug, so I decided to rectify that. I went with a vertical cockpit gradient this time that ended up looking more subtle due to the heavy "brow" over the front windshield, but I like how it kept the cockpit looking nice and mean with a bright red. Additionally, I decided to paint the arms' fins/vents like PPC Capacitors, mostly for fun.

I still need to make a master post for producing base tags like mine, though I've decided not to bother with a group photo until I have more finished up.

I'm happy with how the cockpit gradient came out on this guy; I was a little worried due to the numerous asymmetrical panels but the blue looks pretty nice at a distance. On a related note, I think the shade I used for edge highlighting the red kind of looks too purple up close, though it thankfully looks reddish at tabletop distance.

With this mini finished, I now have a reinforced Succession Wars-era company for my Wolf's Dragoons. I plan to celebrate the occasion with a post showing them all together in the near future, along with another post dedicated to my process and files for producing my base tags, since several people have asked about them now.