To bring a little bit of personality to our table, I am now writing little background pieces for the mechs I paint. So let me introduce you to Salt ‘n Pepper. This was one of those keep it simple affairs. The Boy had an idea to paint a big skull on a black Urbie and from that came the idea to have one black and one white. Paint wise, it could not have been simpler – primed, dry brushed and…
The last of the House Davion lance – the Phoenix Hawk. This one went smoothly, from primer to the base colours – the Boy’s getting the hang of it and there was very little clean up to do. We used the same process and the archer, so Citadel Bone primer,then lay down the white red and blue. This time though I tried something a little less shotgun than the contrast wash, instead opting fora modelling ‘panel lining’ technique, using a…
Number three, this time an Archer. I tried to sell the Boy on the idea of painting it up ‘properly’ a.k.a in Macross colours but he was not having a bar of it. This one took three tries but eventually, someone learnt that trying to rush this stuff does not work and that there’s a methodology and process that needs to be followed. In the end, the Boy did a great job in putting down all the base colours, so…
So the Boy and I had another go doing up his House Davion colours, on an Atlas this time as I figured the larger size might just make it a little easier. I was wrong. What I’ve learnt this time around is that 1. split colour schemes like this are bloody hard to get right and are ALL about process; maybe if one of the colours was not white,it might be easier but as it is, this scheme is…
This one was a bit of a joint venture between the Boy and I… The Boy’s keen to build a House Davion lance, so finding a scheme that would be interesting, easily applicable to a range of mechs, plus be a good learning experience, we found this scheme that fitted the bill really well. There was a bit of a learning lesson for both of us here – only after having the Boy putting down the base colours did I…
Ral Partha Warhammer, circa 1986 (or so) Another of the ‘unseen’ metal’s from the Ral Partha days, this time the legendary ‘Warhammer’. The Warhammer was perhaps the mech that got me into Battletech in the first place. It’s hard to forget the big one plastered on the box… The original box art. This was actually used when Battletech was called Battledroids – before George Lucas came after them! If you didn’t know, the Warhammer was directly ‘borrowed’ from…
Ral Partha: Battletech Locust circa 1986 or so. Edit: 30th May ’23: Accompanying background story My first paint in, well, let’s not go there. This old Locust has been repainted many times and the last paint job was on it since it went into the box decades back. Striped back, lightly wire brushed and then steel-wooled, this mini was quite hard to paint. Even after so many paints and strips, there’s plenty of fine detail left but the minute paint…
Way, way, way back when, you know, before ‘life’, I used to paint ‘professionally’ for one of the main miniatures stores in Sydney. And when I say professionally, don’t get all excited, I passed muster and was on the books, so I was one of a crew of painters the shop would call on to paint for their customers who did not paint themselves. I had a bit of a niche, I painted Battletech, Micro Armour (1/285th scale modern armour)…
Urban Mechs – Salt ‘n Pepper Phoenix Hawk Archer Atlas House Davion Locust Ral Partha: Warhammer Ral Partha Locust What’s old is new again.
