A Call to War: 15th Lyran Guards RCT: The Death or Glory Boys (updated w/pict)

[HeavyGun]

Well this Last Saturday our little group here in Spokane Valley, Wa. played part 2 of our campaign and it was my turn to Opfor. My scenario I came up with and a video of the game can be found here

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=48599.0.

Well I painted up 20 Steiner mechs and 4 SLDF "Royal" mechs for that match, I started painting on the night of 9/13/15 and finished the steiners late on the 18th and literally finished painting the SLDF "Royals" at 12:45pm on the 19th, gave them a couple of clear coats and let dry till 1:30 pm, packed everything up and went to my gameshop to play at 2pm.

So I thought I would use them as "A Call to War" group, well at least three of the lances, all 5 lances would have exceeded the max of 400 :( My goal as a CDA was to show how nice they can look to the many people who stop by to see what is going on and what you could achieve if you bought the box sets and mech packs. So all these mechs are taken from either of those sets. Plus I used the MUL site to build my force with period correct and faction correct mechs. I picked the 15th Lyran Guards because of their bright colors and ease of painting them white and blue. Also I picked a time line of 3020 so no mech would have been produced after 3020 making it a little easier on new people learning the game. So hopefully we can entice more players to join our ranks soon :) 

Here is the force

Assault Lance:
Atlas AS7-D           Skill: 3  PV: 62 
Banshee BNC-3E    Skill: 3  PV:46
Awesome AWS-8Q  Skill: 3  PV:47
Zeus ZEU-6S          Skill: 3  PV:42
PV Total:197

Fire Lance:
Catapult CPLT-C1       Skill:3  PV:40
Grasshopper GHR-5H  Skill:4  PV:39
Dervish DV-6M           Skill:4  PV:30
Trebuchet TBT-5N      Skill:4  PV:27
PV Total:136

Recon Lance
Clint CLNT-2-3T        Skill:4  PV:19
Commando COM-2D  Skill:4  PV:15
Spider SDR-5V          Skill:4  PV:16
Spider SDR-5V          Skill:4  PV:16
PV Total:66
Grand Total PV:399

So the PV reflects the skill increases from 4 to 3. I did the skill decrease because of the importance the Steiners put into their assault mechs.

I'll get pictures soon but you can watch video in link if you want a sneak peek  :)

[HeavyGun]

Well here is the group picture



"All Commonwealth assault lances are centered around the ZEU-6S Zeus and AS7-D Atlas Assault ‘Mechs. The pride of the LCAF, the Atlas and Zeus have proven the bane of many an enemy that came up against their deadly combinations of firepower."

"COM-2D Commando BattleMech. Manufactured by Coventry Metal Works, these Mechs are popular among MechWarriors both for their capabilities and their reliability. They are fast becoming as common as Stingers and Wasps in House Steiner’s Light and Recon lances."

"According to ComStar operatives in the Commonwealth military, there are new Davion-made DV-6M Dervish ‘Mechs now appearing among Steiner units. It is assumed that their sudden appearance is another example of the new alliance between the two states at work."

[Elbows]

Well done.

[TheMaster1955]

good job O0 O0 O0

[ActionButler]

Those look really great  :)

What blue did you use for the base coat? 

[Col.Hengist]

Very nice, I approve!

[Vash The Stampede]

Go Lyrans!

Working on some 1st Steiner Strikers myself

[HeavyGun]

Those look really great  :)

What blue did you use for the base coat?

Yes I guess I should have given a rundown on what paints I used.

Well I am still learning how to airbrush so gave it a go, I used the Blue I had bought which is "Wicked Blue" from Wicked Colors, I then inked them with GW "Blue Ink", lightly drybrushed  some "Brilliant Ultramarine" from folkart over the whole mini, then finished the with a very light drybrush on certain edges with GW "Ice blue". The right sides of the mech's where then painted "White" from folkart, which was thinned with water to cover all the blue three different times. The panel lines where still hard to see because the blue is so bright so I decided to apply GW "Black Ink" that was thinned with water and "Future" floor polish and lightly applied to the whole mini. I then re-drybrushed the white and blue areas again lightly.

I wish I could take decent pictures but I just don't think that is in my skillset. I even made a stand in light box with one of the hard card board maps from the new box sets, and got a light close enough and put a white sheet of paper over light to help diffuse the light but my darn camera just has to many darn settings that don't seem to do what I want it to do. Oh well  :(

[Cidwm]

Those Mechs came out nice. Good job.

[worktroll]

Heavygun, those came out really great! I'm especially jealous that you got good results putting black ink over white. Was the Folkart white a gloss or matt white? Usually if I put black ink over matt white I get grey, and no amount of further drybrushing gets me back to a nice stark white.

(I've thought about putting a matt varnish over matt white before inking; anyone tried that, and happy to show their outcomes?)

Question: how would you feel about adding some metallic details on the minis? I see the cockpit jewelling, so you're more than capable of adding the metal details if you wanted. Nothing too shiny - drybrushed metal on black, or metal inked. Things like joints, heatsink vents, the Awesome's PPC tips, that sort of thing - or have you already done that, and my old eyes aren't seeing it in the group pic?

W.

[jimdigris]

 O0

[HeavyGun]

Heavygun, those came out really great! I'm especially jealous that you got good results putting black ink over white. Was the Folkart white a gloss or matt white? Usually if I put black ink over matt white I get grey, and no amount of further drybrushing gets me back to a nice stark white.

(I've thought about putting a matt varnish over matt white before inking; anyone tried that, and happy to show their outcomes?)

Question: how would you feel about adding some metallic details on the minis? I see the cockpit jewelling, so you're more than capable of adding the metal details if you wanted. Nothing too shiny - drybrushed metal on black, or metal inked. Things like joints, heatsink vents, the Awesome's PPC tips, that sort of thing - or have you already done that, and my old eyes aren't seeing it in the group pic?

W.

WT it is flat or matte, definitely not gloss. And as for metallic details, well I actually chose not to add them as I kinda wanted a more realistic look and also for time constraints. If you think about it any war machine wouldn't have nice shiny metallic areas even if it is a hug hulking mech in a parade scheme as when they would go to war and put on any camouflage any shiny spots would have been painted over and not just for that reason but to protect the metal against oxidation. Now agreed these are mini's and it does look nice and I do paint many of my mini's that way but wanted to do something different. Hope that makes sense.

[worktroll]

Perfect sense, Heavygun.

I like the look of the additional details - heck, how realistic are my Tau Ceti Rangers? :D But it's all good. Very nicely done.

W.

[IAMCLANWOLF]

I like how uniform these all look together, being older sculpts. None of them look too tall, or out of place.

Great job painting them up, too. Nicely done answering the 'Call to War.'