No, I’m not dead.

Things have been busy around here. I haven’t had any time to post. Here is one of the irons I have in the fire.

I painted my mercenary Battalion, the Second Battalion of Kirstin’s Krushers. I have talked about it before. Here is a summary:

1. Superglue a Battlemech to a base, then fill in the gaps with this stuff, Texture Gel. It’s basically white glue with lava bits in it. I slathered it on, intending for it to provide a realistic look to the base, but it shrank in some cases, leaving a dip in the texture gel. I suppose the bad news is you can’t get it anymore. What I have is all that I’m going to get.

2. Hosed the Battlemech down in the Army Painter system, a spray paint with primer and color in one can, so you don’t fill in the details with several coats.

3. Dip the Battlemech in a lacquer to make the details really “pop” out. That worked, but not quite the way I wanted it to.

4. Paint details, such as the cockpit and weapons. I painted the base an awful brown. I thought it looked good or at least passable at the time.

5. Finish up with a Matte sealer to protect the paint job. This also didn’t work out quite right, some ‘Mechs “frosted,” so they will just look a little funny. I then glued some tufts of grass on the base. Again, I wasn’t too picky, and I used stuff meant for 12mm models instead of 6mm models.

Here is an example of one of my “finished” Battlemechs.

Well, after finishing everyone, I thought the bases were a disaster. So, I’m redoing all of them in these steps:

1. After soaking in water to soften the glue, I peeled the grass off.

2. After letting it dry, I painted the base in white glue, and then dipped the base into some Fine Brown Ballast I bought at the local model railroad store.

3. I then painted the entire base, including the sides, flat black. This seals the ballast to the base.

4. I used this mix of paints on the base, Beasty Brown, then a drybrush of Plague Brown, followed by a light touch of Dead White.

When I make the effort to go down to the Games Workshop Bunker, I’ll get some static grass to put on the base as well. I don’t have the time, energy or money to go there right now.

Well, I went yesterday to start sealing my mechs. It turns out there was too much humidity in the air, and the matt varnish “frosted” on the 7 mechs I sprayed. So now, I have to strip, repaint and redip them all over again. This will set me back by a week, minimum. I should have done just one, but I was stupid and thought I could get away with varnishing them all on the same day, so I got in a hurry. I promise I won’t do that again.

Well, I screwed up. Not badly, but I still forgot a step. So, let’s try it again.

Here’s my Crusader, which like I said in a previous post, needed to undergo another dunk in Simple Green. Careful! These files are big. I like the detail. Click on them for full size.

Spray painted AP Dragon Red:

Detail painted:

Now comes the missing step: Dipping. This is where I dip the model into a “Quick Shade” that I just dip and then shake off the excess. I then let it dry for at least 12 hours. This really brings the models details out.

I don’t consider missing the AP Matt Varnish as a missing step here, because the dip also seals the model. Besides, I couldn’t do it, the weather wasn’t right for me to go out and spray paint it.

So ends the work on this model. What do you think? When the weather warms up, I might pluck the grass off and AP Matt Varnish it just to really seal it, and maybe bring that shine off the model.

This Army Painter stuff works! Okay, here’s the story.

Here is the first picture I took of my Highlander, as part of the four ‘Mechs from the prior post. As with all pictures, click on them for a full size.

Now comes the base coat. This came from a spray can, and is both primer and color. Luckily, this is the exact shade I wanted. I bought three pots of GW Red Gore, and this AP Dragon Red matches perfectly:

Now, one hours worth of work. I painted the base GW Dark Flesh, it was the darkest shade I had. I was hoping for a couple of shades darker, but this will do just fine. I painted a couple of areas with GW Mithril Silver, then painted the cockpit in GW Regal Blue, followed by a highlight of GW Ice Blue:

Finished product. I sprayed a coat of Matt varnish on, then glued some 6mm Highland Tufts on:

Now, this would have normally taken 6+ hours for me to do this one ‘Mech by hand, and I did it in less than two hours. 14 ‘Mechs left to strip, 36 to paint and one completed, with 90 days left to go. I think I can get this job done after all. The crucial point is me getting warm, calm days to paint outside. I’m burning daylight, I better get some more painted!

Divisional Command has given permission for our son and I to travel to Adepticon this year. I have already signed up for tactics classes, how to paint and photograph models, and a Battlefleet Gothic tournament. Just to get a badge is $35, then each class or tournament costs more, so my $35 badge cost me $101. My son’s wasn’t that much cheaper, his cost $89. Then you have gas, food, hotel, and spending money, this is going to cost a pretty penny.

This will mean I have to bust my balls to make extra money to pay for the trip. It also means that I have to get ready an entire Battalion of ‘Mechs including a Command Lance, which means 40 Battlemechs must be cleaned, assembled if need be, based and painted. Plus I must have a record sheet for each one. That’s just one of 962 items on my list to get done between now and the end of March.

Just to let you nee what I’m working with, here is a picture of one of my ‘Mechs. He got dunked in Simple Green for a couple of days,then scrubbed with a toothbrush. There is still a lot of paint left in the nooks and crannys that I couldn’t get with the first cleaning, so it looks like he will have to take another bath. Be careful, this is a large image, and you can see a lot of detail. Click on it for the full size picture.

Here is a lance of ‘Mechs that I picked at random. They are, a Crusader, Vulture, Longbow and Highlander. Again, a high quality image is yours upon clicking the image.

I have been vacillating on how I should paint these ‘Mechs. I was going to basecoat them with a white primer, then hand paint them in a GW Red Gore. I then realized that would take a lot of time, perhaps too much. So, I will see if the Army Painter system has a color that I am looking for. If not, I am stuck with painting them all by hand.

The Army Painter system has a spray can that is both primer and top coat. You prime/paint them, paint highlights and other details by hand, dip them into a “quick shade” highlighting liquid, shake it off and then spray dullcoat on them to seal and protect the paint job. It is a system that is meant for mass production of miniatures that still gives a high quality paint job.

Back to the original subject at hand. If you would like to donate to “Marks Adepticon Fund” Please send it to “paypal” -@- this domain. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank You!

On Saturday October 30th, Gamerz Depot is having a Classic Battletech Poker Run. Just what the heck is a CBT Poker Run? I’ll tell you.

The full rules are posted on the calendar through the link above, but basically you are going to run around the board, collecting playing cards, trying to get the best poker hand. There will be other players trying to do the same thing, so you will be shooting them, and they you, while trying to collect these cards. There will also be automated turrets that activate randomly and shoot the closest player.

You can collect cards from a player you kill, cause a 20+ points of damage to in a round, do a Death From Above and so on. The overall object of the game is to make it off the board with the best possible poker hand.

The hitch to the game is, the smaller your ‘Mech, the better your gunnery and piloting skill rolls. For example, if you decide to run a Locust, you will have a base to hit on 2D6 of zero, and a piloting skill of zero as well. If you decide to run an assault ‘Mech like a Stone Rhino, you will have a skill of 7 and 7. That’s real bad. Rookies don’t have that bad stats. So, the “crunchier” your ‘Mech, the better your stats. If you play a light, fast ‘Mech, one or two hits could put you down. But if they person who is shooting you is in an assault ‘Mech, he likely won’t hit you in the first place. If you play it safe and take an assault ‘Mech, you won’t move very fast, and it will be very hard to hit, but you will have the armor to take a lot of punishment.

If you are a CBT player, or even if you’re not come and play! We will have spare mechs available for people to play.