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Description
The Sentinels acquired their first Atlas not long after the regiment was formed; Charles Kinosh joined the Sentinels Company in 3027 with his AS-7D. Several others joined the unit as the Sentinels expanded, though numbers were never high because of the expense in maintaining 100-ton ‘Mechs. By the Clan War, only two were on the rolls. One of them was piloted by Kinosh’s son, Charles Kinosh Jr., who fought under the nom de guerre Charles Badaxe. Badaxe often found himself outranged by Clan opponents, so he used his personal wealth to replace the SRM-6 and three heat sinks with an ER-PPC. The remaining heat sinks were upgraded to doubles, and another heat sink was deleted for CASE protection. Master Tech Nicia Caii liked this modification so much that she made it standard after the war, dubbing it the AS-8SA1.

She was still not satisfied with the hitting power of the Atlas, and worked hard to find a way to replace the AC/20 with an even bigger Ultra AC/20. This weapon was so huge that it defied every attempt to be fitted in the already crowded internal structure of the Atlas, and the autocannon jammed frequently. Finally, by 3062, Caii felt she found the solution: the Ultra AC/20 was mounted at an angle, with the shells fed by gravity. This mitigated if not solved the jamming issue. The ER-PPC was retained, as well as the original medium lasers, though one of the rear-firing weapons was deleted in favor of a C3 slave unit, mounted in place of the old satellite link dish. Caii designated it the AS-8SA3, as it was her third modification of the Atlas design. Because it does not use a XL engine, the AS-8SA3 is remarkably hard to kill.

(Back in the real world...)

This may have been the second or third Battletech mini I ever bought, back when I started playing the game in 1990. It is the original Ral Partha lead mold, and my favorite of the four Atlas minis that have been done over the years. Though it's squat, this has the tendency to make the Atlas even more intimidating, and putting this five-pound mini on the table makes people take notice! Though Battletech 'Mechs aren't robots, this one looks like it's going to pound some poor MechWarrior into the ground, and love every minute of it.

The forest camouflage on this really turned out nice; this is probably the third time this mini has been repainted. I could've done a better job with the tactical symbol on the lower chassis and the "death's head" nose and teeth. Still one of my favorites, though.

Description
The Sentinels acquired their first Atlas not long after the regiment was formed; Charles Kinosh joined the Sentinels Company in 3027 with his AS-7D. Several others joined the unit as the Sentinels expanded, though numbers were never high because of the expense in maintaining 100-ton ‘Mechs. By the Clan War, only two were on the rolls. One of them was piloted by Kinosh’s son, Charles Kinosh Jr., who fought under the nom de guerre Charles Badaxe. Badaxe often found himself outranged by Clan opponents, so he used his personal wealth to replace the SRM-6 and three heat sinks with an ER-PPC. The remaining heat sinks were upgraded to doubles, and another heat sink was deleted for CASE protection. Master Tech Nicia Caii liked this modification so much that she made it standard after the war, dubbing it the AS-8SA1.

She was still not satisfied with the hitting power of the Atlas, and worked hard to find a way to replace the AC/20 with an even bigger Ultra AC/20. This weapon was so huge that it defied every attempt to be fitted in the already crowded internal structure of the Atlas, and the autocannon jammed frequently. Finally, by 3062, Caii felt she found the solution: the Ultra AC/20 was mounted at an angle, with the shells fed by gravity. This mitigated if not solved the jamming issue. The ER-PPC was retained, as well as the original medium lasers, though one of the rear-firing weapons was deleted in favor of a C3 slave unit, mounted in place of the old satellite link dish. Caii designated it the AS-8SA3, as it was her third modification of the Atlas design. Because it does not use a XL engine, the AS-8SA3 is remarkably hard to kill.

(Back in the real world...)

This may have been the second or third Battletech mini I ever bought, back when I started playing the game in 1990. It is the original Ral Partha lead mold, and my favorite of the four Atlas minis that have been done over the years. Though it's squat, this has the tendency to make the Atlas even more intimidating, and putting this five-pound mini on the table makes people take notice! Though Battletech 'Mechs aren't robots, this one looks like it's going to pound some poor MechWarrior into the ground, and love every minute of it.

The forest camouflage on this really turned out nice; this is probably the third time this mini has been repainted. I could've done a better job with the tactical symbol on the lower chassis and the "death's head" nose and teeth. Still one of my favorites, though.