I'm indifferent to prepainted minis, although the one I received was fairly well done and wouldn't complain if this is something CGL continues to do. I am stupid excited that I got to add a Thunderhawk to my collection.
Good critical analysis, nice to see the quality of the sculpts continues to get better. I'm digging the painted Orion, but I only ever need 1 of them, so I'd have to repaint all the others I end up with (going to get more than 1 of that box for sure), so that part isn't great. You might have the right idea, repainting it as Teddy K's Orion, but that doesn't last too long in the fluff, so it would be a pretty niche paintjob.
As someone more interested in gameplay and not too great a painter, I'll happily pay $5 more for that mech. I think you are right that they should go all in if they do it at all.
If the whole box was pre painted and they offered a non pre painted I’d have been happy and likely would have gotten both. The half measure just doesn’t do enough to appease both crowds imo. But I’d totally bug a full sldf pre painted box to play games on the channel with and then snag an unpainted to throw my paint skills onto.
Personally I prefer it when sets comes fully unpainted or comes prepainted. I kinda feel like my army would look so weird with one hyper detailed figure, next to goop mgee XD
Justin, I agree the painted mini is a half measure. This box seems like a proof of concept. Although they did the same thing with the 2nd Star league box and the Daishi Prometheus. With a single painted mini you could have that guest star experience behind some of narrative scenarios. The player force has been besieged; Aleksandr Kerensky is personally leading a relief force- that kind of thing. I feel like a full painted box would balloon production time, but it would still be cool. It would give that X-Wing level of accessibility where players could just crack open a box and play. As far as paint jobs go, I think it's pretty good out of the box. there are some extra accent colors there that I was not expecting. Although, if you don't want a painted Orion there is a different pose of Orion in one of the regular force packs. I'd be frustrated if the Star League pack was the only way to get an Orion, but its ok because there is another. My draw for the pack was the big boys. Where the Thunderhawk is concerned I very much like the redesign in the plastic. I have to admit the proportions on the IWM sculpt are a bit wonky, but faithful to the original art. I haven't compared the plastic and metal Atlas II's side by side yet.
I still feel that the Orion needed to be an individual salvage box or it needed the entire force painted as a hero box. It was also missed opportunity to make a unique sculpt of the Orion and not just a repose.
I really enjoy the Star League - Second Succession War time period, so I'm quite excited about this 😊 I do kinda wish the one model wasn't painted tho.
Feel like whole pack should be either completely painted or unpainted. Like the idea of offering two versions. Prefer unpainted overall. But pre-printed option good for those that don't like to paint.
I like this new intro animation better. I'm still undecided on getting a painted mech with a set. I like it, but worry it'll make my own painted minis look worse lol
I thought the pre-paint wasn't bad, but I don't get mixing pre-paints with unpainted mechs. I also wish they had actually made the model match the Kerensky Orion variant. The prepaint Prometheus Dire Wolf seems to match the variant. Odd choices there.
When you are painting some figures, they appears to be in a tool that holds the figure by the base. Did you make that, or is it sold somewhere, thanks.
I’m typically using the old school Games Workshop paint handle. They don’t make that version anymore unfortunately. The paint handles from Game Envy are solid though :)
Agreed 100% on the painted Orion. It’s well done but why just one mech? I didn’t notice the gun blocking the intake on the Phoenix Hawk and now I can’t unsee it. I was originally going to use it in my Northern Assault list but now I might just paint up the base version instead.
The gun is placed there as a homage to Macross. The Phoenix Hawk oringally used the same art as the VF-1S Super Valkyrie, where the long booms sticking out of the back-mounted engines are missile launchers. The Strike Valkyrie replaces one with a particle cannon which can tilt forward to fire over the shoulder in Battroid mode.
I wished catalyst sell two versions of their force packs. One pre-painted and the other unpainted. It would help new players get their miniatures to the table much faster since it’s somewhat difficult to choose a faction and paint scheme in the beginning. For more veteran players, they can just buy the unpainted versions since they typically already have an idea on what faction to paint them up. Just my 2 cents
I just got into the hobby this year, started at the absolute bottom in terms of painting skills and this box just seems wrong to me. I want to paint stuff. The paintjob of the Orion is nice, but apart from the little details I could do this myself, more or less. The cockpit especially seems boring and lazy. I followed your painting tutorial for the Davion Battlemaster and it came out really great, looks a lot more interesting than this Orion. I´m not hating on people who like the pre-painted mechs, but if you like this, would you not rather have a full box of pre-painted ones? Like you said, they should have a paintjob on all of the models, or on none. This middle-of-road-stuff just makes me never want to pick up a box like this, because I would pay premium for a mech that I have to strip anyway. Which is a shame, the other mechs are pretty cool.
Ding ding ding! You're right on the money! And the Davion video is a really easy tutorial to follow for really good results relative to the time investment. Little extra effort and you're moving up the overall detail levels! Nothing on the Orion is anything you couldn't do yourself and have it look better for minimal effort relative to what was in this box, Spot on.
I love the artwork in this box. I'm the guy that cuts the art out to keep. Adding an artwork sheet to the box would be great!
I'm indifferent to prepainted minis, although the one I received was fairly well done and wouldn't complain if this is something CGL continues to do. I am stupid excited that I got to add a Thunderhawk to my collection.
Good critical analysis, nice to see the quality of the sculpts continues to get better. I'm digging the painted Orion, but I only ever need 1 of them, so I'd have to repaint all the others I end up with (going to get more than 1 of that box for sure), so that part isn't great. You might have the right idea, repainting it as Teddy K's Orion, but that doesn't last too long in the fluff, so it would be a pretty niche paintjob.
That Atlas II was fun to paint.
House Cameron is the noble house that ruled the Terran Hegemony and were the First Lords of the Star League
Morning BattleTech video (missed it yesterday)! I did get this one, I didn’t mind the mix of painted and unpainted minis.
Loved the blooper. I do things like that all the time. 😂
As someone more interested in gameplay and not too great a painter, I'll happily pay $5 more for that mech.
I think you are right that they should go all in if they do it at all.
If the whole box was pre painted and they offered a non pre painted I’d have been happy and likely would have gotten both.
The half measure just doesn’t do enough to appease both crowds imo. But I’d totally bug a full sldf pre painted box to play games on the channel with and then snag an unpainted to throw my paint skills onto.
Personally I prefer it when sets comes fully unpainted or comes prepainted. I kinda feel like my army would look so weird with one hyper detailed figure, next to goop mgee XD
Yeah 1 of 4 is a weird choice. It's all or nothing imo.
Justin, I agree the painted mini is a half measure. This box seems like a proof of concept. Although they did the same thing with the 2nd Star league box and the Daishi Prometheus. With a single painted mini you could have that guest star experience behind some of narrative scenarios. The player force has been besieged; Aleksandr Kerensky is personally leading a relief force- that kind of thing. I feel like a full painted box would balloon production time, but it would still be cool. It would give that X-Wing level of accessibility where players could just crack open a box and play.
As far as paint jobs go, I think it's pretty good out of the box. there are some extra accent colors there that I was not expecting. Although, if you don't want a painted Orion there is a different pose of Orion in one of the regular force packs. I'd be frustrated if the Star League pack was the only way to get an Orion, but its ok because there is another. My draw for the pack was the big boys. Where the Thunderhawk is concerned I very much like the redesign in the plastic. I have to admit the proportions on the IWM sculpt are a bit wonky, but faithful to the original art. I haven't compared the plastic and metal Atlas II's side by side yet.
Great review! I wish there were 3 versions: a painted version for each side of the AS cards (2 boxes) and an unpainted version.
I still feel that the Orion needed to be an individual salvage box or it needed the entire force painted as a hero box. It was also missed opportunity to make a unique sculpt of the Orion and not just a repose.
Really excited to get some of these
Great video! Nice Force Pack!
I'd have bought a fully painted box. But then, I do like painting things.
Great video! Love the Thunderhawk. Looking forward to more videos.
This is next pack on my list.
I really enjoy the Star League - Second Succession War time period, so I'm quite excited about this 😊
I do kinda wish the one model wasn't painted tho.
If they painted one then they should have painted the rest of the lance.
Orion looks better than I was expecting TBH.
Feel like whole pack should be either completely painted or unpainted. Like the idea of offering two versions. Prefer unpainted overall. But pre-printed option good for those that don't like to paint.
I liked the painted mini, I'd like to see some more
That phoenix hawk mini looks like a strike Valkyrie from Macross instead of a super Valkyrie
I’m with you on the card inserts idea for the art. Is there a suggestion box for CGL?
I like this new intro animation better.
I'm still undecided on getting a painted mech with a set. I like it, but worry it'll make my own painted minis look worse lol
I thought the pre-paint wasn't bad, but I don't get mixing pre-paints with unpainted mechs. I also wish they had actually made the model match the Kerensky Orion variant. The prepaint Prometheus Dire Wolf seems to match the variant. Odd choices there.
He’s probably tied in because that would be the one that people would steal out the box
I would intensely dislike there being optional rules in force packs. I like how Battletech is Big Book of War focused.
honestly I bought it for the PH and the Atlas
As a painter, I'm torn if I like the single painted miniature in my box or not.
When you are painting some figures, they appears to be in a tool that holds the figure by the base. Did you make that, or is it sold somewhere, thanks.
I’m typically using the old school Games Workshop paint handle. They don’t make that version anymore unfortunately. The paint handles from Game Envy are solid though :)
Agreed 100% on the painted Orion. It’s well done but why just one mech? I didn’t notice the gun blocking the intake on the Phoenix Hawk and now I can’t unsee it. I was originally going to use it in my Northern Assault list but now I might just paint up the base version instead.
The gun is placed there as a homage to Macross. The Phoenix Hawk oringally used the same art as the VF-1S Super Valkyrie, where the long booms sticking out of the back-mounted engines are missile launchers. The Strike Valkyrie replaces one with a particle cannon which can tilt forward to fire over the shoulder in Battroid mode.
I wished catalyst sell two versions of their force packs. One pre-painted and the other unpainted. It would help new players get their miniatures to the table much faster since it’s somewhat difficult to choose a faction and paint scheme in the beginning. For more veteran players, they can just buy the unpainted versions since they typically already have an idea on what faction to paint them up. Just my 2 cents
If the gun was left on, it would hit the packaging
Not sure how I feel about a pre-painted piece.
#cardinserts
Let’s gooooo!
I just got into the hobby this year, started at the absolute bottom in terms of painting skills and this box just seems wrong to me. I want to paint stuff. The paintjob of the Orion is nice, but apart from the little details I could do this myself, more or less. The cockpit especially seems boring and lazy. I followed your painting tutorial for the Davion Battlemaster and it came out really great, looks a lot more interesting than this Orion. I´m not hating on people who like the pre-painted mechs, but if you like this, would you not rather have a full box of pre-painted ones?
Like you said, they should have a paintjob on all of the models, or on none. This middle-of-road-stuff just makes me never want to pick up a box like this, because I would pay premium for a mech that I have to strip anyway. Which is a shame, the other mechs are pretty cool.
Ding ding ding! You're right on the money! And the Davion video is a really easy tutorial to follow for really good results relative to the time investment. Little extra effort and you're moving up the overall detail levels! Nothing on the Orion is anything you couldn't do yourself and have it look better for minimal effort relative to what was in this box, Spot on.
I'm not a fan of having a model pre painted.
Careful with the use of the "J-Word" when mentioning the Word of Blake Era. Rumor has it YT punishes videos that have that word in it.
I’ve heard that too. Unfortunate given context goes out the window these days :/