Rob's Mech Painting

[Robovski]

So, backstory, haven't painted a minifig since the 90's. Back then they were mostly lead, but some places you could get some plastic kits from (like GDW) and they were moving from lead to alternative metals towards the end of my time painting but I gave up just about all my hobby stuff when I moved to Scotland, all the paints and minifigs included. Recently, I caught the bug for Battletech again and opted to get some figures and having looked at them, I felt the need to paint them. But the world has changed, and things are different. The figurines are resin, my eyes are worse, and when I was painting figurines, I mostly painted undead for an army I had then. I did have lead Battletech figurines but I never gave them a great painting, I gave them a city camo and moved on. I'm creating this thread to document this project and my development, kind of an early New Year's resolution for myself.

So for my first steps, I decided to start with by priming in grey the Beginner Box Griffin and Vindicator and the Inner Sphere Striker Lance box Blackjack, Panther, Wolfhound, and Jenner. These should make a good mix to mess with to get started.

I then decided today my first victim would be the Jenner. It's a solid light mech for scounting and ambushing. I also thought I would try the AP SpeedPaint Camo Cloak as I have never used something like this before. I did used to make a wash by diluting paint myself, but the claim for AP SpeedPaint is that it's 'one and done' base, shader and highlight. I expect that I will want to do more after I have used it but I was very curious to see how this performs.

Here it is wet:

Looking forward to seeing it dry. Some slop on the base but I do plan on doing bases towards the end. If nothing else I will paint the base to clean it up. Need to decide what to do next with it.

 

[Robovski]

OK, the next figure I selected to work on is the Griffin, which if you were looking for a counter to the Jenner, it's a fine choice. Usually a PPC/LRM combo with decent speed for 55 tons and a full 5 jump jets, it manages quite a bit of mobility, often with heat implications.

Went with Army Painter SpeedPaint Fire Golem for (what I expected) would be an orange starting point. It went on fine but on the grey primer comes over very burnt, almost brown. Left the gun barrel and the missile pod clean for a different paint I will apply later.

 

[Robovski]

I also started the Vindicator (which comes in the new Beginner Box, as does the Griffin), which in a way is a bigger (mostly Cappellan) brother to the Panther. Despite the Capellans, I've long enjoyed Vindicators as a good lighter medium mech. Unfortunately I failed to take pictures of the figure primed but before beginning painting other than the group picture at the top of the thread. Sorry about that. I decided to start using the Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green, which went on a bit thicker looking than some of the other painst in this line. On white paper it's a mossy green, on the grey primer it's definately green, which I guess is fine for a start (and Cappellans).

Here ist is wet:

And dry: