Assault - Hatamoto-Chi

Kimiko Nishikawa strode across the terrain in the cockpit of her modified 28T variant of the Hatamoto-Chi. As she pursued her prey, she came upon a battered stump of a tree on the edge of a burned region. She knew that battle had occurred here, perhaps many times, in the past. As she walked her 'Mech down a mossy incline, she stumbled as her right foot stepped upon something unstable. Distracted by her musings and otherwise focused on the enemy, she had not noticed the head of a 'Mech planted in the ground near the stump. She was lucky she had arrested her fall so quickly. It would have been embarrassing to return to base having been taken down by a dead 'Mech...
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Three Hatamoto-Chi 'Mechs were salvaged during the Hilltoppers combat operations on Ashio. However, their treatment was so harsh at the hands of the Hilltoppers that the techs could only reconstruct two from the remains of those three. They were also modified for heat load reasons to improve their combat effectiveness. The C3 slave from the third was installed in a salvaged Phoenix Hawk, to function as the flanker and closer of the Hilltoppers new C3 lance.

The two ER PPCs were replaced with standard versions, as with the two ER medium lasers. A third medium laser was mounted in the head, facing the rear, which if combined with this unit's ability to flip arms is intended to spell bad things for an enemy that gets behind these 'Mechs. One of the Streak SRM-6 racks was downgraded to a Streak SRM-4 to free up the tonnage for thismedium laser. All the ammo now resides in the left torso, with the right torso's CASE system removed. This freed up sufficient volume to install an eighteenth double heat sink for further heat management concerns.

After Ashio, Kimiko Nishikawa was recruited to pilot this Hatamoto Chi. On Arboris, she distinguished herself . She recorded two infantry platoon kills and three 'Mech kills. The use of the C3 network to link fire was instrumental in these results, impressing Holt immensely.
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This is one of those minis that has haunted me for some time. I did the mods in the first part of the year (or was that last year) and only finally got around to painting it now for this contest. The arms were modded to match the image from Games Unplugged, while the left torso SRM launcher was partially filled in to represent the SRM-4 there. The No Dachi head was placed under the foot of the reposed right leg, and the head was given paint work to make it appear aged and worn. The tree stump was added to balance the base out a bit, and the flocking was added to show that the area around the tree was barren. Black was drybrushed around the tree to indicate previous fire damage, while red was drybrushed around the No Dachi's head to show that paint had flaked off when it landed there. The base was made from modeling clay.