Mechs, Mechs and more Mechs. We’ve had quite a bit of Battletech content lately. But with the Kickstarter out, Tex doing his thing and a couple of decent computer games it is actually a really good time to be a Battletech fan. I did the Kickstarter and ended up with around 40 Inner Sphere and Clan mechs arriving at my door a few weeks back. And I though I should paint a few of them. So I started with some of the Clan, and I desire to do something bright, crazy looking and not that common. Yeah, I should have done some Fire Mandrill shouldn’t I, but I did’t and instead I did some Clan Blood Spirit.

Clan Blood Spirit aren’t in the invasion and so they’re not a huge part of the story. They also keep to themselves so don’t get hugely involved in the ‘not politics, but honour’ shenanigans of the Clan Councils. So now we have a handful of reasons to not do Clan Blood Spirit, and the natural question of why do this clan. And the main reason is I liked the colours of one of the Blood Spirit units. Namely the Blood Guard Keshik. Each Clan has a Keshik and it’s essentially their honour guard that’s the Khan’s own unit (the Khan is the head of the Clan). The colours are Red and Black with yellow trim. You can see a couple of example images below.

The colours that I’m going for are closer to the CamoSpecs image (the Compendium one doesn’t really have yellow – rather gold). My interpretation is mainly a deep red, with dark grey left/right torsos, hips and feet. I’ve then picked out some parts in yellow (in particular where the weapons mount to the mech) and then the weapon components are in a light grey. On top of this there are a couple of other colours for bits and pieces. One other thing to note is the triangle pattern (this is a part of why I went with this unit).

Colours:

I’ve gone with something slightly different for these guys. Most of my painting until now has been 99% acrylic with a couple of enamel washes thrown in, and Testors Dullcote as a final layer of varnish to take away any gloss and leave a nice matt surface. Dullcote has gotten harder and harder to find; I’d picked up a bit of a stash a couple of years ago and I’ve been working my way through it, but it’s gone now. However, that lead me to look for some alternatives and I happened upon Scale Modellers Supply, which is an Australian supplier of lacquer paints. They’re market is more the model kit builders, but there’s no reason they can’t be used to paint other things. They’ve got a great range of colours that tends towards the really bright (for cars/bikes) or military drabs (tanks/aircraft). Which for Battletech is absolutely perfect.

I used SMS paints for the primer, base coat and varnish. And I must say I’m impressed. They’re not suitable for brush painting (dry way to fast), but through the airbrush they go on great. They’re also much more resilient, clean up easier and go through the air brush smoother. So they’re going to be an ongoing part of what I use when painting. In particular I won’t ever be going back to valejo’s primers or varnishes.

• Red panels:
• Base (airbrush): Insignia red (SMS PL70)
• Highlight I (air): Red (SMS PL03)
• Highlight II (air): Blue Angle yellow (SMS PL175)
• Highlight I (brush): Antares red (SC-37)
• Highlight II (brush): Mars orange (SC-39)
• Black panels:
• Base (brush): Eclipse grey (SC-16)
• Highlight (brush): Graphite (SC-03)
• Yellow panels:
• Undercoat I (brush): Brown leather (SC-31)
• Undercoat II (brush): Orange leather (SC-28)
• Basecoat I (brush): Golden yellow (VMC 70.948)
• Basecoat II (brush): Yellow RLM04 (VMA 71.078)
• Highlight (brush): Tenere yellow (SC-10)
• Mechanical (Tungsten gold): Trash metal (SC-64) & Amber alchemy (SC-93) — 1:1
• Weapon barrels (NMM steel):
• Base: Graphite (SC-03)
• Highlight I: Arctic blue (SC-05)
• Highlight II: White (SC-01)
• Cockpit:
• Base: Boreal green (SC-47)
• Highlight I: Irati green (SC-43)
• Highlight II: Spring green (SC-47)
• Highlight III: Autumng green (SC-48)
• Highlight IV: White (SC-01)
• Laser lenses:
• Base: Cantabaric blue (SC-53)
• Highlight I: Sky blue (SC-50)
• Highlight II: Arctic blue (SC-05)
• Panel line wash: Black night (A.MIG-1611)
• Bases:
• Top: Arabic shadow (SC-22)
• Rim: Eclipse grey (SC-16)
• Grass: Coarse turf – burnt grass (T62)
• Bushes I: Bushes – light green (FC145)
• Bushes II: Underbrush – forest green (FC138)