Wizkids Daishi for Mechwarrior: Dark Age

I did a few builds for Wizkids, back in the day (2006, I believe), when Mechwarrior: Dark Age was in full swing.

One, the Carnivore tank, I blogged about back in 2011, when the original artwork by Dave White went up for sale.

Another was the Daishi, one of the larger assault mechs.  Here's the original concept art I was given to work off.

My art director, Vic Bonilla, was great to work with.  Wizkids wanted their approval/in-progress pics to be in rendered in a specific yellow, since their process at the time involved prototypes recast in gypsum.

 
 
 
 
Here are the shaded renders.

 
 
 
 Here are the same shaded renders, but with exterior lines turned on, to show detail.

This can be confusing, sometimes, and can fool sculptors and clients into thinking there's more detailing and paneling than has actually been carved/sculpted/etc.

Thus, I now try and leave it out in production/approval renders.

 
 
 Same model, just with my current render settings.
 Here's a production Daishi.

And here's when it was included in a four-mech box set.

There was also a Widowmaker unique variant in black and red.

I don't believe my version found much favor among purists.
No worries.  These things happen, and you can't win them all.
The check sure was nice, though!  ;)

That's just a little trip down memory lane.  Back to sculpting.

Best,
JBR

Comments

BROODE said…
I remember those from when I used to play MW:DA. I had at least one of each of those Daishis. My favorite was the Widowmaker, Natasha Kerensky's battlemech.
Cergorach said…
John, I love your stuff. But what the heck did you do to my Daishi! :-p
John Bear Ross said…
That's not the first time that someone has been said to me, usually with tears streaming from their eyes, and their fists balled up in rage.

;)

The answer, of course, is, "I did exactly what the client asked."

Best,
JBR
()nikuma said…
At the risk of of raising the dead and being labeled a thread necromancer, I just wanted to drop in and leave a comment;

I’ve been a Battletech fan since the early ‘90’s, and I tried on multiple occasions to kitbash a Daishi together from MWDA parts (usually using the Cygnus as a base and plopping Mad Cat bits in here and there), so when it was announced that we were getting an official Daishi, I was over the moon happy. Did it look 100% like the original? No, but neither did most mechs in that version of the game. I went out of my way to get my hands on it, buying that 4-mech pack just to do so, giving the other three away to other players.

It still has a place of honour amongst my collection, right alongside the visually refreshed models from Catalyst Game Labs.
John Bear Ross said…
Thank you very much! Not to worry about the thread necromancy. It's good to look back, sometimes.
I am very happy that the mech makes you happy. That's the best thing an artist can hear.
I appreciate it.

Best,
JBR

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