Minnesota Project Part 3 - The Mechs are prepared and primed for painting!!!

The painting has begun in earnest, and I have made some decisions regarding paint schemes and units. So far, things went pretty smooth, and my substitutions at times worked out better than I had thought they would.

Let's discuss each unit in detail, shall we?

Rasalhague Regulars: As I said in previous posts, the 20th was an odd unit, and was even odder due to the effects of the 1st Succession War. Casualties had been heavy and the unit itself was never probably high on the list of the Bureau of Substitution's list of priorities so there was probably a lot of "mend and make do" but probably not as bad as, oh, say, the Legion of Vega would be in later years, as the ISF kept a pretty close eye on the Regulars as a whole all during their existence. 

As for their baseworld, Trondheim, the terrain in my mind resembles something like Iceland, volcanic, lots of rocks, crags, mountains, and scrub grass where there is grass. I don't know what the weather is like, but I expect it's probably a lot like Iceland's as well. 

It probably looks a lot like this:

Note the red and green moss, as well as the geothermal venting...nice bit of natural palette for someone to choose their camouflage against!

So, I decided to go with one of the MERDC patterns, specifically the Snow with Trees Pattern as exhibited by this M548 here, as shown on Cybermodler:

Taken from Cybermodler

The scheme looks to me as if it is about 50% White, 50% Green-Grey, and about 10% Tan and Black respectively. I am going to therefore, use the following colors and see how they work out?

• For the White, any old White will work, and I have a few craft paint bottles that will fill the need nicely.
• As for the Green/Grey, this was the hardest, but I think I am going to go with Battlefront's Team Yankee Warthog Green. I think it works the best, and I will lighten it by about 20% with some white to do the highlights.
• As for the Tan, Vallejo Model Color German Camo Beige seems to be the order of the day, with again, 20% White added for highlights.
• As for the Black, again, pretty simple, I'll use Vallejo Model Color's Black Grey to do some highlights, probably very lightly drybrush those.

As for the primer color, I went with some plain old Rustolium Light Grey, using some Vallejo Grey Primer to touch up what needed it. So far, I rather like the results of the Primer and I think this will work out to gradually build up the white. I also plan to try some hairspray method with the white, as well as some chipping and other weathering. These machines should have been used hard and put up wet, IMHO.

The Rasalhague Light/Medium Lance before being primed, three of the 'Mechs are from the Alpha Strike box sets and the Panther is a IWM miniature, based on a hex base.

The Dragon and a Warhammer which wound up with the Minnesota Tribe, the Dragon is from the Alpha Strike box sets and the Warhammer is a Tomahawk from a Robotech Tactics expansion box. (incidentally, I did not find it that hard to put together). 

The Combine Heavy/Assault Lance, this consists of a Banshee and Orion from the Alpha Strike Box Sets, a Stalker from Warhansa, and a IK Marauder (That 'Mech wound up in the Minnesota Tribe force and was replaced by a repro Marauder).

The Rasalhague Mechs are primed and ready for the next step! You can see a unseen Thunderbolt, and a Warhammer in the mix, as well as an Archer, most are Alpha Strike box sets, as well as a repro Marauder (I didn't know what I was buying) and a WarHansa Stalker.

Here is another view from the front

Minnesota Tribe: The Minnesota Tribe has a bit of a easy paint job in comparison. Good old Star League standard issue Olive Drab. I decided I'd go with MiG-0081, the Vietnam Era US Olive Drab color that MiG puts out as the base coat, then use MiG-0929, their Olive Drab Shine to do highlights, and generally prime them all Black. To me, dirt simple and easy to do. I don't expect much trouble and I think I am going to make these 'mechs look as crisp and clean as I can.

In short, probably a simpler task than the Rasalhague 'Mechs, but I am sure I can find ways to make this fun!

The Minnesota Tribe Strike Lance, I have a Unseen Phoenix Hawk and Stinger, an IWM Sentinel (Which I have been dying to use somewhere) and a Alpha Strike box set Firestarter.

The Skirmish Lance, it's made up of a IWM Exterminator, a IWM Kintaro, a IWM Wolverine II, and a Alpha Strike Box Set Dervish.

And here are the 'Mechs, all primed with Black Gesso. I find this stuff works when you cannot prime outside (We had a bit of rain on Sunday, and it made priming difficult). 

And here is another shot, you can see the Intro Box Set Grasshopper in the back, it wasn't too bad a sculpt, all things considered.

So, that said, I think I will be painting the Rasalhague 'Mechs first, they'll be just a lot more fun, IMHO, but we shall see. I do hope I can measure up with all the quality painting I see on FB, as I tend to be more of a speed painter of armies (The historicals guy in me), but I think this ought to be a ton of fun all around.