The First Cateran Cluster was the special forces unit of Clan Goliath Scorpion, composed of the best warriors from all branches of the touman. Famed for its unique Trinaries, the Heartvenom Cluster helped to train Wolf's Dragoons in 3001 before the Dragoons left for the Inner Sphere. The unit would test the Dragoons for over two years, basing their training on original SLDF manuals and holovids, until the Dragoons became good enough to challenge any frontline Clan unit.
In the Trials of Position for Operation REVIVAL, the First Cateran Cluster won against Clan Ice Hellion but lost to Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Diamond Shark.
As of 3061, the First Cateran was responsible for field-testing the Undine battle armor. The Trinary shown is working with a Binary of Undines. The Medium Battle Star is intended to break ground and run interference, allowing the Light Striker Star and Recon Star to bypass enemies to get to the aquatic environments suited to Undine deployment.
The Medium Battle Star is made up of a Nova Prime, Pouncer Prime, Sun Bear Prime, Nova A, and Shadow Cat Prime
The Light Striker Star is commanded from a Black Lanner, accompanied by a Hellion Prime, Ice Ferret Prime, Ice Ferret A, and Viper Prime, along with their accompanying Undine points.
And the Light Recon Star is made up of a viper B, Fire Falcon Prime, two Mist Lynx Primes, and a Fire Moth Prime, plus accompanying battle armour.
So, my experiment with Slap-Chop (almost!) The Cateran's scheme is sandy tan with red highlights. Using Citadel paints, I did
- Base of Abbadon Black
- Drybrush of Grey Seer
- Light drybrush of Corax White to top edges
- overall coat of Aggaros Dune, which seemed the best option for sand in the Citadel contrast range. And it looked like this:
Now you can see the prep work paid off - the black panelling is obvious, as is the white edge highlights. But the colour was a little dark for what I wanted. So I ended up doing a light drybrush of Tallarn Sand layer, which came out like this:
Which was much more like I wanted, and tended to support my belief that most contrast/speed paints benefit from a light drybrushing in a lighter colour.
While for the first few I laid down Grey Seer where I was going to go red - using Flesh Tearer contrast paint - but soon found the red on the tan worked just as well, so stopped doing that step. Metallics, cockpits, and weapons, and we're done!
So overall impression - yes, this works. But does it work better than a simple base coat, all-over wash, and then drybrush? I think it's comparable. More steps, but slightly simpler, so overall workload similar. And it worked where the main colour was the same all over. How I'd do camo schemes with contrast paints? I wouldn't; I'd base in green and brown, then do an overall brown wash, and selective drybrushing. Similarly, great for Marik Militia and Sword of Light, not so good for Lyran Guard or Davion Guard. But would love to hear other's experiences.
Comments/questions happily sought! Cheers.
