Lego Set 34 — Catapult

After the recent sharing of the Catapult made by a follower of my work, I had to come forth and show my own rendition of the same BattleMech. Most of these models had already been shown around, so there’s nothing new to this one, albeit I had yet to make instructions before now. The Catapult is a classic within the BattleTech universe. It has consistently shown up in all videogames and most other products. It isn’t surprising.

It’s a simple design, easy to figure out, and somewhat realistic in shape and role. Even Tex from the Black Pants Legion had to make a video to talk about it.

Originating back into the 2500s, the Catapult was designed as a mobile fire-support weapons platform, at a time in which specialization was still the keyword in Mech design. However, despite its many qualities, political favors meant that other designs were favored instead. Thus, the production run was short and this machine would be quickly rendered a forgotten footnote in history.

Only that it didn’t. Easy to maintain and pilot, the Catapult was also built in such a way that you could replace its main weaponry with anything that was at hand. Sure, it would take a while to make the conversations, but they would work. Particle Projection Cannons, short-range missile launchers, rocket launchers, anything. If it fits it can be used.

For these reasons, the Catapult survived in second-line units for centuries, and when the Succession Wars came about, they became a valued weapon of war, with most of them falling into the hands of the Capellan Confederation. When the Clans invaded, some factions had already started producing new Catapults, which is a testament to the quality of the base design.

The model I bring you today uses 50 parts and, as the machine in the lore, is a simple, rugged, and easy to modify model. I also tried some subtle new things in the page layout. Let me know what you think. And, again, thanks to Timothy McCormick for allowing me to do his own interpretation — it was fun to make it and it’s cool to have two construction sets available.