How to Paint Battletech: Mercenaries & Vehicles Edition!

In anticipation of the newest Kickstarter by Catalyst Game Labs, "Battletech Mercenaries", this video shows you how to paint four of the best known mercenary companies in the Inner Sphere: The Kell Hounds, the Gray Death Legion, the Eridani Light Horse, and Hansen's Roughriders.
It also covers how to handle Battletech vehicles, specifically ones widely available on Etsy. Most are resin and don't come with everything you need to build and play them. So this serves as a guide for that aspect of the hobby as well.
I hope this video proves useful and inspires you to either paint one of these four great companies, or come up with your own! Have fun!

[@lucascunningham1799]

Awesome. I am speechless.

[@Black6Six]

THIS is the kind of tutorial I needed! I even have most of the paints already!

[@MadMax-el2el]

If you want to up your freehand try this. Get all your base colors set, how you normally would. When you are ready to add the free hand. Step 1. Gloss clear coat your model. Lock your previous work in place. Make sure it has time to fully cure. Step 2. Get a tooth pick, or other nonmetal tool that gives you a solid sharp tip, but won't destroy the existing paint. Free hand time. Step 3. Drop on your triangles, use the tooth pick for tidying the edges, Step 4 clear coat the triangles once you are satisfied. Let that cure Step 5 add the head. Again use the tooth pick This will let you etch out the eyes and get the snout line in. Along with getting better definition on the head Hit it with a matte varnish and then gloss or satin on the metallics This is the method we use for putting checker board patters on our mechs.

[@no.6minis]

Solid! Will give that a try!

[@Commander_Nearsight]

Great video man! Those army painter speed paints are so nice. I feel like they go on a lot brighter and smoother than the citadel speed paints. I like how you did the decals. Your version of the ILH is cool!

[@zalin2000]

I have always played with unpainted mini's because painting has always been very intimidating to me. But these do look fantastic! Almost makes me want to try myself.

[@no.6minis]

Definitely try it! My videos are purposely done to make hobbying easy and for everyone to be able to paint their collections. Give it a shot and let me know how it pans out!

[@zalin2000]

@@no.6minis I think I will. Got a recommendation for a good air brush for a beginner?

[@no.6minis]

I actually have a video about this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqrNY4Whhrmpesk You could start very inexpensively with a simple airbrush with a built in compressor like this one on amazon: amzn.to/4aAzLsk. That's how I started and it thought me the rope without breaking the bank. You'll also need flow improver: amzn.to/3RIfiJQ and some airbrush cleaner: amzn.to/3tAcl5K. An airbrush kit isn't a bad idea either: amzn.to/3GSIbxV

[@zalin2000]

@@no.6minis I greatly appreciate the help man. Once I recover from the holiday season I will start picking this stuff up.

[@Whitewing89]

Isn't the Savanah master like half that size?

[@no.6minis]

Yeah pretty sure it is. But it looks better on the tabletop this way.

[@Whitewing89]

@no.6minis fair. It's not like scale matters much for battletech.👍

[@gamerhalim4717]

Sadly this model can’t get at Indonesia 🇮🇩. Only battletech models.

[@no.6minis]

The vehicles? Hopefully you’ll get the new mercenaries boxed set when it comes out in a few months. There’s hover vehicles in that.

[@gearshiv]

Those savannah masters re way too big

[@no.6minis]

I don’t think anything in battle. Tech is truly scale accurate. For instance, the hex maps do not match the size of the mechs.

[@gearshiv]

@@no.6minis map scale and mech scale are purposely different kinda like a old generals map and troop markers and while the old minis were kinda messy with scale the current ones are all 1/285

[@no.6minis]

@gearshiv so back to the savanna masters. Yeah the could be to scale and be much smaller but it doesn’t really mess with gameplay that much and it’s easier to paint if it’s this size. Just my opinion. But I’d be interested in seeing one on etsy at actual size to see if I’d like that.

[@gearshiv]

@@no.6minis I can definitely agree the being easier to paint I have a handful of Savannah Masters that are proper scale and they are very very tiny about the size of a heavy or assault mechs foot. Although on the plus side of that you can turn a standard size hex base into a little bitty diorama

[@bad-people6510]

You don't... base ground vehicles in Battletech... you can fit two vehicles in one hex.

[@no.6minis]

You’re not wrong. Two vehicles can fit within one hex per the rules. But technically up to four units can occupy one hex (but only one out of the four can be a mech). And infantry and VTOLs have bases. So while it’s not common to see land vehicles with bases it’s not wrong to put bases on them. In a 2 or more stacking scenario, which I’ve encountered several times, we usually either stack the bases on top of each other or we place them off on the side.