Warship Build 15 — Dropships

And now, for something completely different. I have made posts that were more like compilations than about a single unit in the past. Today I’m going to do the same, because due to the scale I’m using (1 stud equals 75 meters) these models are really tiny.

In BattleTech lore, dropships are the smaller space ships that carry troops and cargo into the surface of planets. Bigger spaceships simply cannot do that, so they carry these vessels for that reason. Although still massive for real-life standards, these dropships are still much smaller than the nominal warships and, thus, the models based on them are quite tiny, ranging from 3 to 8 parts apiece.

There are two main types of dropships. Aerodyne dropships are much like massive airplanes that can go to space. Complex to build and maintain, they are very efficient when flying in the atmosphere, being preferred for in-world operations for this reason.

In this set, I bring you the Leopard, the Vengeance, and the Titan classes. The Leopard is your standard aerodyne dropship, being used to ferry BattleMech lances around and being present in most battlefields. The Leopard is also the only ship out of scale. Because of how tiny it is, I ended up making it around twice as big as it should be so I could make something that retained the visual cues of the original.

The Vengeance is a large bulk transport, while the Titan is a Clanner fighter carrier — akin to an escort carrier in a historical naval context.

However, the spheroid dropships are way more common than the aerodynes. They are easier to build and maintain and can be built to larger sizes. Thus, they are the epitome of cargo transport across the Inner Sphere.

The Union is the standard one, having been built in untold thousands and serving across the entire known space. Moreover, the Overlord is a specialized military transport, being able to deploy entire regiments on its own. Finally, the Vanir is part of a family of military dropships built by Clan Ghost Bear to complement its spacefaring combat fleet.

Most, if not all, of these ships, have been converted into so-called pocket warships — essentially system-bound monitors that need larger vessels to carry them from one star to the other. These small impromptu warships can still pack a punch and have been growing in number since the Jihad.

Due to their size and doctrinal role, these vessels essentially fill the role of a gunship in most space-based wargames. I think this is how I’ll use them within Orion’s Gate, relegating the smaller ship role to the fighters — which will have their own post sometime down the line.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this dropship extravaganza. Six builds in a single post is not bad, I guess. Even if they are quite tiny.

See you soon!