Description

The Chupacabra CHU-X3 is an artillery mech capable of blowing up enemy positions and retreating at respectable speeds. While its armor is nothing to write home about, but it’s a big artillery canon capable of quickly repositioning thanks to moving at medium mech speeds.

This STL bundle includes a highly detailed mech in 2 pre-assembled poses, but also 15 different pieces for you to pose the mech in any way you want to.

Lore:

Warfare was changing. While trying to upgrade their forces with technology recently rediscovered, and under assault from the unknown enemies, some officers in the armed forces desperately worked with new concepts in order to adapt to the new landscape.

Given how useful artillery proved itself during the last war and in ambushes against enemy forces, one of the confidential projects the army spearheaded revolved around resurrecting the “artillery mech” concept embodied by the old artillery carriers, a very rare sight in current battlefields. No formal request was ever made, but the idea was floated around several engineering teams and industrial firms.

Some of these groups started sketching and working on prototypes, hoping to sell their designs to the armed forces. Among these, Albufera Civilmechs Incorporated, an utility mech firm whose facilities had been retrofitted into full combat mech production and repair installations due to their proximity to the enemy front, started working on a chasis built around an artillery canon, with the goal of taking the artillery carriers concept beyond the old designs.

What started as a 75 ton heavy artillery platform featuring a huge canon and several heavy weapons was soon downgraded to a 60 tonner, as the installations available to the firm were not suited for heavier mechs. Sacrifices had to be made, but the engineers had been ordered to keep the artillery Canon by management. Therefore, the project was reinvented as a fast and nimble artillery mech capable of repositioning quickly, instead of an upgunned old design.

Convinced they had struck gold with a lighter, (and therefore hopefully cheaper) mech that would carry a bigger artillery cannon and be much more mobile than any towed or self propelled equivalent, management gave the green light to the design team, ignoring any potential shortcomings.

Believing selling the design to the army would be easy, a respectable amount of prototype CHU-3X left the production lines shortly after. The pressure from the invasion helped move things forward, as the enemy continued it’s drive into core space, pushing the front closer and closer to the factory each day.

The factory was never taken by the invaders. The first batch of newly built Chupacabras blew it up with their own canons from the distance, denying it to the enemy as they retreated when the approaching jumpships were detected. The machines were quickly requisitioned by different units, which dispersed them along the front. The plans for the CHU were never offered to the army high command since, after losing its production facilities, there was little money for Albufera Civilmechs Inc. to make, certainly with management fleeing towards the southern border.

Capabilities

What was intended as a compact, nimble and easy to transport artillery platform to replace old designs soon spiraled out of control after being greenlit. Given the weight of the artillery canon, only a very large extra light engine would allow the mech to reach top speeds comparable to medium mechs. Even after dropping any heavy support weapon for a trio of medium sized lasers, only 8.5 tons of armor could be installed, which pushed the engineering team to go with lightweight armor. Then, they upgraded the engine heatsinks to higher capacity ones after tests proved shooting with its main gun repeatedly caused shutdown and ammo explosions.

The recoil of the canon was also troublesome. A redesigned muzzle break and hydraulics helped, but the jumpjets on the mech had to be synchronized with the main canon to compensate for the backwards push. In addition, in order to help the mech cope with stabilization and said recoil, the canon-side arm was intended to brace against the ground, as a firing cleat.

It was the first foray of Albufera Civilmechs Inc. into combat mech design, and it showed. The end product was almost twice the cost of the mech whose niche they intended to fill and, while noticeably faster and capable of keeping up with medium mechs, it was also much more vulnerable to enemy fire and less suited to any role beyond long range bombardment.

And with a bit of paint, it looks even better!

Next to Scatter01: Forgotten Forest and a small building from Set02: Chamfered Quarters!