Orion Prototype

This was a commission piece for the Everything Battletech Community Art Project. https://www.everythingbattletech.com/community-art-project

In order to enable the creation of more and greater community Battletech art, Everything Battletech needs you to support their Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=20397523&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.everythingbattletech.com%2Fcommunity-art-project&utm_medium=widget

The full high-resolution version of this painting is available there to Patreon Supporters. Go and show your support for art and artists!

This painting depicts the first steps of the Orion K variant as the initial prototype is tested by engineers of Kali Yama Weapons Industries at their proving grounds on Kalidasa.
This initial prototype of the popular K variant incorporated a number of design flaws that were eliminated before the production version was produced on Hesperus II, not the least of which was the faceted cockpit, rejected by test pilots due to poor visibility and replaced with the now-familiar triangular design.
Produced for the Terran Hegemony, this would go on to be one of the most successful variants of one of the most prolific heavy battlemechs in the Inner Sphere. A much-modified version of the battlemech this prototype eventually evolved into was famously piloted by Alexander Kerensky himself, though it would barely resemble this early test-pilot hotrod.