These are my Leopard-class dropships. I’ve built one or two paper models in the past, and since there are virtually no dropship models for Classic Battletech available, I figured I could easily design a flying brick like the Leopard. Two months, a couple of printer cartridges, I don’t know how many computer crashes and corrupted files, and seven prototypes later, I have the finished product and a very healthy respect for anyone who designs paper models.

After finding several pictures in various game manuals and on the Internet, I laid out the basic design in Illustrator. Somehow my guesstimates were off, and the initial model was twice the size it should have been, and devoured my entire ink cartridge. After that, I went to printing the entire model on one page, which was too difficult to work with. From then on, I went to a 2-page version, which I liked enough that I kept a finished copy at that scale.

Painting was done mostly in Photoshop, with some details like the engine intakes and running lights pasted in from other paper models. When I cut out the parts, I also darkened their edges with an indelible marker to help them blend in better.

When it came time for construction, the civilian Leopard was built straight from the . . . er . . . printer. There are alternate parts, since I planned on offering this as a download from the start. My favorite version features the shorter-nosed bridge and dual gun barrels (Particle Projection Cannons) on the turret. This is the closest version to pictures I’ve seen. The finished model is just over a foot long, five inches wide, and about four inches high. The “deluxe” version has my Battlemech unit’s insignia on the bay doors, nose, wings, and fins, and a rotating turret.

Since I plan on using it in games, I also beefed up the structure with foamcore and plastic cardstock.

Alternate parts include a longer-nosed bridge, “moon roof” windows over the cockpit (never shown, but I like the idea), an LRM-20 missile launcher in the turret, and two large cargo doors instead of four ‘mechbays, for a civilian version. wrote the assembly instructions.

The whole thing (with all instructions and extra parts) is available for free as a PDF file. If you want to try it and have any feedback, please feel free to drop me a line. If anyone is interested, I’d also be happy to do custom versions, with any graphics or color schemes they’d like.

Image: Bay doors

Image: Aft closeup

Image: Ventral closeup

Image: Civilian Alternate

Image: Both ships

Image: Alternate bridges

Image: In action

Image: In action 2

Image: Pretty little prototypes, all in a row

Image: Generations