Designed as a small, reliable, uncomplicated assault craft, its systems, with the exception of the sophisticated propulsion unit, are easily repaired or replaced by Successor State technicians. The Leopard continues to be widely used and produced because of its ease of maintenance and low operating costs. Quarters are cramped, and, as the Leopard was not designed for extended operations, supplies are limited. Standard crew complement of a Leopard is nine crew, plus six MechWarriors or AeroSpace Pilots. If so crippled in space, of course, the CV may not attempt atmospheric entry. If its tail section is shot off, the CV becomes like a dropped rock, plunging helplessly surfaceward. The Leopard CV is a fine fighter-carrier, but structural weaknesses in its unusual-looking tail section sometimes hinder its operation. On more difficult operations, the Leopard is capable of carrying heavier 'Mechs, but raiding missions usually require speed over firepower. Its complement of a single four-'Mech lance often consists of light, fast Stingers, Wasps, or Locusts. Its small size helps prevent detection, and it is inexpensive to operate and maintain. The standard Leopard is most often used in raids. Thus, a Leopard that is swarmed by fighters while in the air or by 'Mechs on the ground is in serious trouble. Sufficient to knock out large numbers of opposing fighters, this armament is still less than that of Union or Overlord Class DropShips. With armament identical to that of the standard Leopard, the CV is widely used in operations of all sizes, from short raids to full-scale invasions.Īlthough lighter than larger DropShips, the Leopard's armament is nonetheless impressive: twin heavy particle cannons, three 20-rack LRM launchers, seven medium and five heavy lasers. It was first built several years after the original Leopard, and by then, the technology to form the armor in curved shapes had been perfected. The Leopard's cousin, the Leopard-CV, is the most common fighter carrier in service, carrying six AeroSpace Fighters as well as fuel and spare parts. Although the problem was later solved, the Leopard retained its box-like shape. This is because its aligned-crystal steel armor could originally be formed only in flat sheets. Like many of the early BattleMechs, the Leopard's silhouette is blocky and angular. The Leopard Class DropShip was introduced in the early days of the Star League as a support and transport vehicle for the recently developed BattleMechs. In reference to its layout and allegedly also to its atmospheric handling, the Leopard is widely known by its nickname, "Brick". The fighter cubicles are often repurposed for cargo storage or other uses instead. Its relatively low operating costs and abundant existing replacement parts (with the exception of the drive system) has allowed it to not only survive the Succession Wars as a ship class, but become the predominant entry vehicle for 'Mech recon, objective raid, and special operations missions.įour 'Mechs and two aerospace fighters constitute a so-called AirLance under SLDF doctrine, where one in three lances was an AirLance. Hope that makes sense.A simple and easy-to-maintain design, the Leopard quickly became the standard lance-sized 'Mech carrier for the original Star League and the Great Houses. After I thickened the wings, I replaced the larger slotted part of the wing with the actual 16% slotted part so the thicker wing slot "male" end would fit in the 16% dropship slot. Please note that before that I copied the slotted part of the wings to the side because it cannot be thickened since it would not fit into the dropship body slots. Word of caution, I found that the wings and the fins were real thin at 16%, so I copied them out into their own file and thickened them about 30% more. I then resized the entire lot to 16% to preserve the relative size to each other. STL for the full dropship body in TinkerCad, and then added the separate wings, fins and doors to the same modeling space. The dropship body without the wings at 16% is roughly the size of a recent phone. This is the one that is a huge model, and I followed a recommendation in the comments to resize to 16% for map scale.
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