And for the final part of the Heavy Lance, we have this. First, there was the Trebuchet, the asymmetric baby of the group. Then there was the Zeus, an oddly buff generalist. This was followed by the Longbow, which is reasonably described as a missile rack on legs. And finally, we now have the Stalker, a mech that resembles nothing so much as a chicken walker's angry dad.
It's actually quite a glow-up from the original art, which had more of a "phallic symbol on legs" thing going on. Its still easy to make jokes, TBH. It's not an especially sleek or elegant, but it gets the job done. As a machine, the Stalker feels a lot like something that grew out of game mechanics rather than in-universe logic. I. E it exists because someone thought it presented an interesting gameplay experience rather than something an actual military might order. Its characterised by having a selection of powerful but progressively shorter ranged guns, with the intent of firing each in sequence as the mech closes. Its very slow, but it's equally as durable, making it something akin to a self-propelled gun or siege weapon. That's the basic definition of an assault mech of course, although they usually have more going visually than the Stalker does with its "weaponised acorn" vibe, and these usually have more weapons coverage too. That said, you have to respect the minimalist brutalism of the thing. It's daft until you have one shooting at you, I imagine. The design has a few stripped down variants, which operate oddly in game terms, as the thing tended to wear its frame out as it aged.
I think we're entering comedy territory again.
I painted it my standard style, and like the Longbow, attempted to pick out the missiles. This was slightly more difficult as the LRMs are flat, but it came out table-worthy. I was also pleased with the glow effect on the tiny cockpit area. Its a very recessed area, so I’m glad its noticeable from at least some angles.
Up next: a change of pace.
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