Battletech Painting Tips
Dustin sent in his painting tips for your pleasure. Hope you enjoy them and they are as useful as I think they are.
Thought I'd add a few more cents worth of painting ideas for your evaluation.
BR>There seems to be two schools of thought as far as painting a Battlemech
goes. The first school reasons that paint can break up a 'mechs outline and
help it blend in to the background, therefore avoiding detection. The
second school of thought reasons that not much will hide a thirty-six foot
tall walking nuke reactor, so might as well stand out.
The first school of thought admittedly gets some really nice paint schemes.
The purpose of camouflage is to make detection difficult. (You can tell
you've done too good a job when you can't find your own 'mechs on the
tabletop) Camouflage paint schemes generally involve large swathes of
earth/foliage colors designed to draw the eye away from the machines
recognizable lines.
Basic camouflage involves swathes of one color over a another. Anything
from two to five colors looks fine, though five starts to get a bit busy.
(For reference, NATO has a standard four color scheme for Europe) The
alternate color pattern is generally irregular, and you can vary your band
size from very large to very thin, often on the same machine.
Small dots (or dapples, spots, specks, ect) can help blend the varied
shades of paint together. I have a Catapult I'm especially proud of --
she's medium grey base, with large bands of brown and light grey, with dots
of the other two colors dispersed among each solid color. I then drybrushed
the whole 'Cat with white (very lightly) to bring out the edges of the
figure. Took me a few hours to paint, but the resulting 'mech looks very
impressive. (By the way, I've never lost that 'Cat in battle -- could be
the paint!)
Besides large bands or swathes of color, another nice looking technique is
tiger-striping. Thin (brush-stroke wide) similar sized stripes are painted
over a base color. Generally it is advisable to use a darker stripe than
base coat, though I've seen 'mechs with white stripes that looked quite
nice. The stripes go on especially well on 'mech limbs, though podular
(Marauder-type) 'mechs and some of the big tanks (Demolisher) begin to cause
trouble with large relatively featureless areas
.
For those not interested in blending in, Livery style schemes seem popular.
Every power in (and outside of) the Inner Sphere has colors associated with
their government, as well as most mercenary units. (the Mercenary's Field
Guide has a nice series of color plates in it -- though I don't know if you
folks will be listing FASA products on your page). If you aren't satisfied
with FASA's house and unit colors, but would like some guidelines on
establishing your own, try looking up the rules of heraldry -- many Inner
Sphere mechwarriors belong to a semi-fuedal nobility, and may well paint the
family 'mech up in family colors.
Nifty looking add-ons to your paint schemes include the ever popular hot
rod scheme (yes, that's right, a flame job) shark's teeth (where paintable)
and skulls. (looks nifty on the Atlas, since the faceplate is already
skull-shaped) Numbers always look very military -- and you don't have to
start at one. Lots of militaries have added 'dummy' numbers to their number
schemes, or just started at unit number 101. WWII style nose art, if you
wish to try to paint that small. (yes, I know she's a 16th of an inch tall,
but ain't she cute?) Finally unit and house insignia always make your 'mech
look official. I find a technical ink pen or other fine-pointed writing
utensil is almost required for work this small -- ever tried painting a
Varga girl on a Warhammer shin?
Well, hope this can add some more depth to the painting guide.
Dustin