Start your Battletech engines!

Completed the five Battletech that are in dazzle woodland scheme (obviously wrong for the grey industrial terrain!).

With these and the Necrons this week, I have now painted more in the first weeks of 2025 than I did in ALL of 2024… a good start to the year!

First mech done – minus some flock and a varnish. Chose to start with a woodland theme for the first group. Pretty happy with the result, the cockpit glass was done with inks, and the rest with AK gen3 paints. Number was a rub-on transfer painted over.

So the experiment with paint pens was a bit disappointing. The Battletech minis are too small scale, with too many deep recesses, to make the pens really work.

Contrast colours? It’s a first step.

Not knowing how to organize my mechs, I just divided them up by size-ish groups, and then picked a colour to base them in.

They are now drying. On to details and more stuff next time!

So here’s my first ‘mech. Forgive me for not looking up which one it is, I only recognize a few right now.

Primed light grey, painted AK black by brush (the pen doesn’t have the reach for some areas!).

Then highlighting with rubber black AK paint pen, and a light grey AK pen. Tedious, it’s a new method for me, but the half result is now on display.

More to come!

So a week that started poorly ended well. My primer has been sitting for too long, apparently. My poor airbrush, which also needed some new O rings, clogged to the point I needed overnight soaking to loosen the primer.

Ordered new primer (and also 14 AK interactive paint pens – photos soon!).

Great result! I primed in two stages – lower half, and when dry enough, upper half. Last photo is of the stripped down and cleaned SATA 4B airbrush. This is my workhorse, and it can do almost anything! I also have two Iwata airbrushes, one for extra fine work; and one that looks like a small auto spray gun, for doing large areas (like final coats on goalie masks…).

Primer will now cure overnight, and paint begins – soon?

So I dove into Battletech, after being inspired by the Mercs KS discussion, and a solid nostalgia for the game I played in the 1980s.

I now have cleaned all the miniatures I picked up, added pumice gel by Golden to the bases, and am ready to prime!