What do i do with this grey Battletech stuff?

So as part of my current build of a Cappellen battalion i have a lot of spare grey miniatures.

The problem is that the selection isn’t great, I have:

Black Knight
Hellion
Exterminator
Dragon
Sentinel
Timberwolf
Mercury
Warhawk
Archer
Valkyrie
Enforcer

Now anyone who knows Battletech a mix of clan and inner sphere mechs isn’t great, but also there is a mixture of various faction specific mechs that don’t have great cross over. The factions that work best are Comstar/Word of Blake, Davion or Kurita.

So first of all is pick an era. The easy choice is to go for civil war as its very much a grab bag era, but i have a Fed Suns civil war force.

My current eras im missing that some of these fit with are the Republic eras and the Jihad.

So i’m settling on the Jihad.

Using master unit list ( http://www.masterunitlist.info/Home/Index ) i can see that the Draconis Combine seems to be a good choice.

Looking at building a lance I’ve decided on a

Warhawk – Due to Nova Cat involvement in the Draconis Combine
Dragon or Grand Dragon as its very on brief
Sentinel
Exterminator

This feels like a good start. Next? Pick a regiment and work out a PV for the force.

So that idea lasted about 5 seconds…..

I’m listening to the Eridani Light Horse (ELH) novel No Greater Honour and its struck home.

Having decided that the best bet is to do an Ilclan era force means i can use the Lament ive had sitting around, also the larger number of mechs means i have something a bit more substantial at the end of it.

I still need to work out PV and i’m also toying with making it a Wolfnet 350 tourney list, as i have a pile of inner sphere and purifier battle armour that can ride on the Hellion Mad Cat and Lament.

Lets talk colour. The official scheme is drab so i’ve ordered a velejeo ww2 us army tank paint set, but i’ll get back to that.

Theme is more interesting, in the Ilclan era the ELH are reduced to the 11th recon battalion and some other units claiming linage. So they will be an eclectic bunch of forces and in my head drab will be of different greens to reflect low resources and different commands coming together.

So what’s the force?

Lance 1

Black knight BLK-NT-3B (will need a shield conversion)
Archer ARC-5W
Mad Cat D3
Lament LMT-3R

Lance 2

Dragon  DRG-7K
Hellion F
Valkyrie C
Sentinel STN-3L

So a fast element and a heavy hitting element.

At 286 PV it gives me some spare PV for skill increases if i want to aim for 300 BV.

So next will be some decisions about decals, some test painting and thoughts on weathering.

Very quick update.

It’s a simple conversion using parts from old Gundam kits. Using old parts from old kits fits with the spring clean theme.

I decided to use parts that have mechanics on them, as if the old shield had been lost and a new shield had been jury rigged.

This fits with the theme of a rag tag force making do with what they have.

Ignore the bad paint job.

It’s base coat. Colours? Well Halfords ‘camouflage acrylic spray paint’ (see you can buy camo paint!), Army painter ash grey and a Burnt Umber oil wash.

but i get ahead of myself. Tanks aren’t metal, they don’t have any shiny metal showing.

See what I mean, it’s green with some black bits. So I wont be using any metallic paints…….yet…..

Now the Eridani come in green, well that’s a dull colour that no one really wants to paint, so as the green I’m using is a grey green, I’m going to use a light grey to give a bit more colour on the mini while still being tied into the over all scheme.

Now if we look at the last image on Battletech colour schemes ( a great resource, link here  https://unitcolorcompendium.com/ ) we can see that grey has also been used here.

Now over this i have chucked down a burnt umber oil wash. The reason for this is to a) panel line but also b) it will have a really nice matt finish.

So that’s going to sit and dry for a while, probably for a week as oils take a while to dry. This will give me some time to make a choice.  Do i either do panel lining and high lighting or do i b) rely on the oil wash  panel lines and use weathering to make the mini look less flat.

Below is an example of base coat and oil paint washes with no highlighting and it looks good.

So now the burnt umber oil was is dry, over the camo basecoat i have painted the panels in model colour olive drab and then i have used a VERY messy edge highlight of green grey.

Hopefully this puts dirt in the panel lines from the oil wash and the messy edge highlights make paint look worn and faded, which will help with the paint chipping later.

Now one of the big things is at this point i need to add the decals. I’ve chosen to do the Eridani logo via water transfers, i’ve picked up some very small number decals and now just have to wait for both to arrive while i finish putting paint on the rest of the minis.

What i do need to do is have a proper think about:
a) Highlighting the greys
b) If I’m going to attempt reflective chrome canopies
c) Try and find my spare inner sphere standard battle armour
d) As the Eridani are a combined arms force in lore, do i buy some new minis to go with this spring clean project. Would that be cheating?

Just a quick one. So rather than edge highlights, i have added army painter green grey lines on the edges, but this isn’t with a mind to highlighting, but rather where it is worn the paint is starting to fade.

When it comes to weathering with metal and rust this will give rust and metal more pop.

As an aside, i have a new phone so there was an exciting couple of hours trying to find the white balance on it so the green grey would show up.

I’ve also added US field drab to the base, now im going to highlight this however i cant do that till the decals and weathering are on as i will pull the drybrush highlight up the legs so simulate dust sticking to the legs.

Hopefully the decals will turn up at the weekend, and between those and a HUGE stockpile of Gundam decals adding those will make it look more like a machine than a miniature.

So whats been added?

2 decals. The Eridani logo on the top, with a spot of white off centre under it to give the paint a faded look and a red lance number.

Both need a dab of matt varnish over them, but the micro sol is drying.

After that a sponge-on-a-stick tm was used to dab first black and then gun metal onto edges. Also rubbing it down some edges or flat surfaces.

After that a dry brush of model colour khaki on the brown base and lower legs. The base dry brushing doesn’t show up in the photos, but the main take away is it looks good, but potentially too dark for sand, i’ll have a think about that as just adding either snow or vegetation will make it look good.

What’? well edging the base obviously, but also adding rust spots, soot on vents and around the launch tubes. Along with the cockpit and the lasers

Not a huge update, but a couple more with the base weathering before oils and rust powder.