ScrapYard Armory

I have two more ‘Mechs to add to this unit before they are completely done but thought I should share what I have so far.  This particular Shadow Division uses a black to gray fade with gold highlights on the arms.

The Seraph is the miniature I entered for the GenCon 2009 painting competition.  I was sure blown out of the water in that competition.  The CamoSpecs crew are a hard bunch to beat when it comes to slapping paint around.

The lava base was inspired somewhat by the last battle in the Wolf and Blake starterbook.  I wanted to add more color to the models besides the simple green jeweling and cockpits.  While the technique I used is not as precise it is fast and effective.

Easy Lava

I started by tearing apart a cork and gluing the jagged looking pieces to my hex base.  I filled in the gaps with medium ballast from Woodland Scenics.

After allowing the glue time to completely dry I laid down a thick layer of bright yellow paint.  From there I simply dry brushed up with orange then red, and finally black.  Each dry brush is successively smaller in scope with the exception of the black which was brushed heavy enough to cover the tops of the cork where the ‘Mechs are supposed to stand.

Each ‘Mech had to be trimmed down at the feet and attached to the cork via 5-minute epoxy. Simple as that you have a very nice looking lava base.  I think it is a little over the top but there is nothing saying you couldn’t cover a smaller area and have a more appropriately scaled lava.

The 68th Royals are a fan faction created by HaasWerks, a local artist and miniature war gamer.  I had the pleasure of taking these miniatures under my brush to add a bit of flare and highlights to them.  I hope that their owner is pleased with my end result even though I do not believe my highlights came out exactly as I would have liked.  It’s a hard thing to do when you did not put down the base coats yourself.  Color matching is a tricky business.

The picture above is the old 68th Royals as I received them.  Below are the improved paint jobs.

The additional (and subtle) highlights are a mix of Liche Purple and Bone White. I added a bit of extra Blood Red highlights as well.  The cockpits are done in a fade of Stormy Blue to Magic Blue to Electric Blue with the usual white dots in the right places.

I have at least one more item from HassWerks that I plan on showing soon.  All I’m saying for now is that HaasWerks is also an excellent sculptor.  Stay tuned!

Posted under Minis

I screwed up recently.  Big time.

I spent a good number of hours painting up another lancemate for the 15th Lyran Regulars unit and then, in an impatient rush, I decided to go ahead and apply a final coat of spray varnish despite the near 100% humidity in the area.  There was a painting contest I was going to enter the very next morning and I wanted to give it time to dry before I hit the road.

Protection is important.  A good two or three coats of varnish or Testors Dullcote will go a long way to protect the time you invest in painting.  Rushed application of said varnish in less than ideal conditions will screw you over big time.

So there you have it.  The high humidity fubar’d my miniature clouding up the layer that was supposed to protect.  I guess I could sprinkle some snow on the base and call it a winter unit.  Either that or I send it to the PineSol graveyard.

PineSol can work wonders but the fact remains that I wasted a good amount of time and because I rushed, I spoiled a perfectly good miniature.

Lessons Learned

• Take your time, patience will be rewarded.
• High humidity and spray primer/varnish = bad

If you have never used Waterslide decals this video tutorial will show you the steps.

All of the decals I use come from Fighting Pirannha Graphics.  Decals are a great way to spice up your minis without the pain of small detail painting.  Sorry for some bad framing during certain parts of the video.  It is kind of hard to work with a camera in front of you.

I hope you enjoy!

After a long wait I finally got around to finishing this company.  I originally had big plans to try out a new style of painting.  When it became obvious that I didn’t have a clue what to do, I regressed to my usual routine and for a while became so disappointed that I left them to collect dust for weeks on end without so much as touching them.

Every project has it’s lessons learned and this one is no different.  At this juncture, I’m just glad to be able to wipe the slate clean and rid my work bench of this albatross (both figurative and literal).  I am excited to get to my next project whatever it ends up being.

Command Lance

• Albatross
• Grasshopper
• Tempest
• Anvil

Fire Lance

• Archer
• Catapult
• Longbow
• Stalker

Chase Lance

• Wraith
• Valkyrie
• Wolverine
• Shadow Hawk

Support Lance

• Regulator Hover Tanks
• Schiltron
• Galleon Light Tank

Aerospace Wing

• Transgressor
• Chippewa

I’ve long advocated the use of Mechwarrior figures to play Classic Battletech.  It just makes sense to me and I think my readers agree.  Since my original post on the subject debuted in July of last year it has been the most popular ScrapYard article every single month.

Since then my modest collection of a battalion of converted figures has ballooned into a short combined arms regiment of ‘Mechs, vehicles, and even infantry.

Is Quick Strike the New Mechwarrior?

The introduction of the Strategic Operations core book gave us a special treat in the Quick Strike rules.  I swear, this rules set is the new reincarnation of Mechwarrior Age of Destruction.  What’s so good about it?

• All the charts you need to play fit on two single sided sheets
• Each company/binary/2 level IIs of figures takes up one sheet of paper
• ‘Mechs have special abilities to reflect specific Classic Battletech loadouts

Quick Strike features fast play and does away with copious record keeping.  It is a great transition from the Mechwarrior game to the Classic Battletech style of play.  It retains the combined turn mechanic that Battletech players love while simplifying game play without too much sacrifice in detail.  The developers have outdone themselves with this latest update.

It may not be for everyone and I am probably getting ahead of myself in thinking that this new set of rules could replace Mechwarrior completely.  There will always be those out there who will never give up their combat dials.  Nothing wrong with that at all but it also doesn’t hurt to have this new way to play.

More Miniatures, More Things to Blow Up

Even if you are not going to give Quick Strike a try, Mechwarrior figures are a fun and easy way to expand your miniatures collection so long as you have access to 2″ hex terrain or are adventurous enough to go with hexless miniature rules.

Keep your eyes peeled.  There are plenty of deals out there on Mechwarrior figures and they are only going to get better.

My recently painted Warhammer has made it onto the front page of a gaming news blog Robot Viking.

Full Article

I’m thrilled to share my work and it’s great to receive positive reviews from those outside the Classic Battletech community. The added exposure is a great thing for the game too.  Just about everyone inside the Battletech circle knows what a Warhammer looks like.  I hope that at least a few people who see the Robot Viking article may be intrigued enough to take a look at what’s cooking at Catalyst Game Labs.

For those of you who may have wandered over make sure you take a moment and look at the Leap Into The Action page at ClassicBattletech.com.  It holds a great assortment of information on the game including more than enough free PDFs to satisfy any curiosity you may have.

Here again is that Warhammer I painted up a few posts ago.  I’ve tried out a new technique for this series of miniatures and now I’ll be sharing it with you.

I apologize for the poor lighting and framing at times.  I’m getting the hang of this video thing as I go.  With each one I learn a little more.  Sorta like painting.  To get better you have to give new ideas a try.

Materials List

• Woodland Scenics Fine Buff Ballast
• Woodland Scenics Medium Buff Ballast
• Woodland Scenics Talas Rock Debris
• Woodland Scenics Fine Yellow Turf
• Woodland Scenics Static Grass

Paint List (Vallejo Game Colors)

• Black (Base Coat)
• Stormy Blue (Base Coat)
• Cold Grey (Base Coat)
• Stonewall Grey (First Drybrush)
• White (Final Drybrush)

I knew I wanted to do something exciting with this miniature.  The Reseen Warhammer’s left leg is sculpted with a slight bend at the knee.  Perfect for a walking pose or stepping up onto something.  I had some extra pieces of miniatures I did not have all the parts for.  It all just came together.   Here is how it went.

Starting Out

Like most Reseen scuplts, this miniature came in an impressive number of pieces.  Just great for those wanting a little flexibility but an added trouble to put together.  I ended up pinning each and every part and let me tell you those arms were a bitch.

But not nearly as bad as those hips.  In the picture you can see the early stages of assembly.  I spent a good few minutes figuring out just how I was going to go about putting the legs together and keep the hips level.  Nobody likes a miniature that looks like it is in a limbo contest.

See the leg on the right of the picture? I put one pin in that and then drilled a hole straight through the hips to the other leg which had a matching hole.  I wish I had a secret technique to share, but honestly, I just slapped superglue on the thing and held it together knowing I would have at least one adjustment before the glue set fast.

The base was a simple matter of slapping green stuff together with the MadCat torso.  I drilled in some bullet holes for good measure as well as some laser burns cut with a file.

Adding Some Color

I slapped on the first coat of green both on the Warhammer and his little friend.  The Warhammer is based in a mix of Dark Green and Camo Green (These are Vallejo Game Colors acrylics).

The MadCat started out with a coat of Jade Green.  Simple so far.

Note I am working on the Warhammer using a cork.  That way, while I paint, I won’t have to touch the mini itself.  I have already at this point dry fit the Warhammer on the base and drilled a mounting hole in the MadCat for a pin coming out of the Warhammer’s foot.

A Quick Wash

Just about every miniature I do gets a healthy dose of magic wash.  You can see in the picture how the dark ink leeches into the crevasses of the miniature.  If applied properly, you get a great base onto which you can highlight and bring the color of the miniature back up to a final shade.

It is slowly starting to look like something.

Beside the Warhammer you can see the quick job I did on the MadCat torso.  I added in progressively greater amounts of Scorpy Green to my Jade Green and dry brushed in the highlights.  A final panel line of Scorpy Green in all the right places finishes it off.

Final Touches

Both green and tan sections of the miniature get at least two dry brushed highlights and sharp panel lines.  A quick cockpit jeweling and some final yellow dots put on the final touches.

And now… I have to get the damn thing off the cork!  The super glue stuck a bit too well.  I ended up scraping off the paint from the toes on both feet.  A did a quick repair job with  several dark green mixes.  Bet you didn’t pay that much attention to the feet anyways!

I was sweating bullets when it came time to glue him to the MadCat.  I used epoxy because I wanted a super strong bond that wouldn’t crack under heavy use.

In the final image you can see the Avatar from an earlier post from which I practiced the paint scheme.  I think they look good together and I can’t wait to paint up the rest of the lance.  I’m thinking a T-Hawk and maybe a Sunder.

One thing I do know for sure, this is not the last time you’ll see this Warhammer.  That’s a promise.

As a player and a collector I love seeing large uniformly painted forces in my battles.  I kicked off this quest with my first demi-company of Free Worlds League Militia.  For the most part, the militia were easy.  The colors just worked and I found little trouble duplicating the color scheme later on when I added a Perseus and a Cerberus for the Twilight of the Clans collection I painted for a friend.

So I moved on, and started an even bigger force, this time a reinforced company of Regulan Hussars.  For whatever reason, orange is just difficult for me.  The worst part of it is, the full company is sitting on my work bench on corks waiting to be finished because I am not happy with how they are coming out.  Since I decided to do the whole kit and kaboodle at once, I have all those miniatures waiting for me to break out of a color confused malaise.

Test Pieces

Make a test piece before you embark on anything larger than a lance.  Get a representative miniature, not something too difficult to prepare or anything with a complicated pose and slap some paint on.  Work out the details and don’t be afraid to toss the results and try again.  Pine Sol cures all woes.

Since I’m a little embarrassed to show my Hussars, I’ll let you in on a few other examples that I am working on for a friend and ScrapYard commenter Quigs.

In the first picture are two different tries at an admittedly difficult 2nd Donegal Guards.  I’m not happy with either attempt.  The first (the one on the right) came out far too flat and the second (the one on the left), far too dark.  I am going to Pine Sol both and adjust my technique for a third and hopefully successful paint job.

Moving on, I attempted another Lyran scheme in a color I think I am usually pretty comfortable with.  The 15th Lyran Regulars use a familiar drab green with khaki highlights.

Suffice to say, I am much happier with the results.  I think the only thing I would change is making the highlight color a little bit lighter.  It looks more light brown than it does khaki.  For the most part, this mini seemed to paint itself.  I painted him up start to finish in a single day.  Dry times between coats were absorbed with other tasks, like coding for Solaris Skunk Werks and writing this blog.

I’m looking forward to replicating this paint scheme to give this lonely Avatar a lancemate or three.

Take Some Chances with Your Brush

You never know what is going to work and what isn’t until you try.  You’ve got to pick up the brush and give it a go.

Life’s too short to play with badly painted minis.