[x]

Browse More Like This

More from *Shimmering-Sword

View Gallery · View Prints

Featured in Groups:

#Realm-of-Fantasy
Fantasy & Sci-fi Art Gallery

#Game-Art
Game development starts here!

#digital-artists
Premier Digital Artwork

#digitalBRILLIANCE

#Art-Of-War-Club

#MechaDesigners
Of originality and community.

#WeaponDesigners
Creating Destruction

#Mecha-Hangar

Show all (25)

Details

Submitted: December 16, 2012
Image Size: 340 KB
Resolution: 1136×750

Link

Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 259
Favourites: 1,988 [who?]
Views: 25,029 (15 today)
Downloads: 8,297 (0 today)

[x]

Battletech - Experimental Marauderby *Shimmering-Sword

Digital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Sci-Fi

I noticed Catalyst has finally released the XTRO: Succession Wars ebook. My work on the book was finished over half a year ago but I had to sit on the art while it's release was delayed.

Here it is though and I'm excited to show it, a Marauder design that I collaborated on with Matt Plog. Turns out Catalyst was trying to redesign a marauder at the very same time I was publicly redesigning it, when they saw what I had done they pulled me in to help out. After we got the design nailed down Matt plog whipped up some great TRO line art of it and I came up with this painting, which turned out to be used as the cover.

Shown, a Free Worlds League Marauder-4X 75ton heavy mech going through live fire trials on the Ronin Inc testing fields. It uses special cooling jackets around it's blazers to keep heat in check.
Loadout:
2 Binary Laser Cannons
2 Short Range Missile 6's

Enjoy.

*Edit*
Thanks to ^3wyl and ^alltheoriginalnames for the DD. I'd like to again give a shout out to ~mattPLOG for the fun collaboration on this design. He's a great battletech artist.

Daily Deviation

Given 2013-01-05

Battletech - Experimental Marauder by =Shimmering-Sword ( Suggested by ^3wyl and Featured by `alltheoriginalnames )

Critique by ~gunmonkey Dec 28, 2012, 2:43:54 PM

This is great for a book cover illustration. It's not too busy so it won't detract from the title or branding. The damage fits well with the descriptions in the Battletech universe (there are several examples of the armor burned away from the myomer on the legs and the mech is able to keep limping along). I like how the armor is pooling up and melting from the laser fire as well. It makes the damage look more than abstract detailing that most artists put on their vehicles.

The cockpit also looks more functional, with substantial visibility for fighting other mechs. It is a bit large for a real combat vehicle, but Battletech steers pretty far away from one shot kills, and nothing in the game has enough accuracy to hit a target that "big," so it fits with the overall universe.

The arms feel too far forward and would disrupt the mech's center of balance, though it could be the angle. It feels like there should be something in the upper left corner, even though the design is for a book cover. Some helicopters/vtol strike craft might have helped without taking too much focus away from the mech.

Overall, a very good piece. I look forward to a Bushwacker :3

What do you think?

Fair Unfair

The Artist thought this was FAIR

22 out of 22 deviants thought this was fair.

No Replies

Devious Rating

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact

Critique by ~Adeptuschematicus Dec 26, 2012, 2:43:40 PM

I like the overall concept, but the damage is somewhat unrealistic, and the left leg normally would have given way from that many holes. You were a little generous in inflicting damage on that leg. I also noticed that the lazer thingies aren't solid, they look more like crayon smears. The arms seem a little to thin to support the guns. I see this as more of a rough draft than a final concept. I especially like the realisticality of the treads and such, as well as the acess panels in key places. The background is interesting as well, but it lacks detail. This is an exellent start.

What do you think?

Fair Unfair

The Artist thought this was FAIR

7 out of 27 deviants thought this was fair.

2 Replies

Devious Rating

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact

The Artist has requested Critique on this Artwork

Please sign up or login to post a critique.

love 15 15

joy 11 11

wow 8 8

~~mad 0 0~~

~~sad 0 0~~

~~fear 0 0~~

~~neutral 0 0~~

*WonderSparks 4 days ago Hobbyist General Artist

Ah, Marauder, how would I live without you?
I've been reading up on all these TRO's lately and I must say there are some really interesting variants to some 'Mechs.

The Marauder in particular has a LOT of variants. >w>
Those Blazers are pretty cool and all, but I'm not entirely sure they're really that much better than just mounting two Large Lasers on something.

But my amateur ramblings aside, this looks really cool.

*Shimmering-Sword 1 day ago Professional Digital Artist

The Blazers are mostly there because it's an experimental chassis, so they tend to put odd weapons on them. From what I've told, although the blazer isn't an ideal weapon, it is capable of head shotting a mech due to concentrating all that damage into a single area. So fluff wise, when you don't have access to any other heavy hitting weapons, a blazer is a good substitute.

*WonderSparks 1 day ago Hobbyist General Artist

That makes sense.

I've seen that sort of thing on experimental designs a lot.
I did not know that! I'm sure everyone likes to get a good headshot every now and then.

Still, even if it's not an ideal weapon, it's still a neat idea. I wonder what would happen if someone took that concept and implemented it on PPCs? A twin-PPC... that'd be fun.