Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 13 (2026 week 13)

This week we begin the final stretch of this mega theme. These first four mechs are Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance and a gift from a pal. Sarna says that they've kept their original "SLDF olive drab" color scheme so that's what I painted. I thought I'd picked a light enough basecoat but it darkened down quite a lot after the oil wash. The cockpits on these could have been a little lighter as they don't read super well on the table. The Tbolt fell off of his smoke trails which was very fortuitous since it meant I could pant them more carefully. Actually, Sarna says it's intentionally configurable. Left to right: Sagittaire, Thunderbolt, Cyclops, Banshee

These guys are the remainder of the non-legendary salvage boxes in my collection and since I was already doing a batch in the olive drab, I painted these guys in the same scheme. I have many Grendels and at least a couple Dire Wolves but the Blood Asp is both new to my painted collection and new to me. Cool though it may be, it's out of my time period (Clan Invasion). Left to right: Blood Asp, Dire Wolf (Daishi), Mongrel (Grendel)

2026 finished mini counter: 76 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 12 (2026 week 12)

Have you ever wondered what a heavily militarized phone company might look like? No, me, neither, but Battletech has answered our unasked question. I present to you Comstar Command Level II. Their in-universe color scheme is supposed to be plain white with symbols. For those who aren't painters, white is really hard to paint. You don't just slap a white basecoat on a thing and call it a day if you want something that looks good. 

These guys got a wolf grey basecoat, almost no details, then a typical white drybrush and oil wash. Oil washing black over light colors is always a gamble and despite thinning it way down, these guys dirtied up more than I wanted. I could have taken the time to fix that but I clearly didn't. Despite that, I'm still happy with these.

Left to right:  Mercury, Sentinel, Black Knight, King Crab, Highlander, Exterminator

2026 finished mini counter: 69 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 11 (2026 week 11)

This is a Clan Heavy Star and I wanted more green and flame orangey guys to go with my previous Jade Falcon-ish mechs. Week 8's mechs were a little darker than I wanted so I specifically lightened these to match Week 3's mechs a bit more closely. They're still undershaded through the airbrush and I backed off a bit on the oil wash which still got me the shading I wanted and kept the orangey bits brighter than normal. Overall, I think, a good result.

Left to right:  Hunchback IIC, Stone Rhino, Supernova, Marauder IIC, Warhammer IIC.

2026 finished mini counter: 63 

Heavy Metal Menagerie week 10 (2026 week 10)

Another week, another clan star, particularly a Clan Heavy Striker Star. I liked the result from week 4 and wanted to do more guys in that color scheme so these are that. I kind of got that. Unlike most of my mechs, these guys look better close up than on the table where they look a little indistinct. The dry brush edge highlighting worked well but despite being very high contrast, doesn't read super well at arm's length for reasons I don't fully understand. Left to right we have: Ice Ferret (Fenris), Mad Dog (Vulture), Gargoyle (Man O' War), Hellbringer (Loki), and Viper (Dragonfly).

2026 finished mini counter: 58 

Heavy Metal Menagerie week 9 (2026 week 9)

This is an Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance and they were a goddamn mess. They'd been kicking around my prep table for weeks being overtaken by the last three batches because their mold lines were soooooo bad. So far, these have been the worst of the boxes I've dealt with and as a result, they took way, way too long. For their colors, I wanted to match the Inner Sphere Command Lance from week 52 of last year. In addition to really liking that color scheme, I'd hoped that the high contrast would hide many of the prep shortcomings on these guys and I think it worked. Left to right we have: Orion, Marauder II, Atlas, Crusader. 

2026 finished mini counter: 53