ScrapYard Armory

I’ve never been a huge fan of Liao so it comes as no surprise that my miniature collection from that faction was sorely lacking.  Time to make amends and add some Capellans to my collection.

Truth be told I had intended to make this post about a full reinforced lance of Liao units (hence the ‘Mech and vehicles in the early pictures) but the way things were going I really needed to get something into the DONE column.  So here it is, my attempt at cooking up some excellent Iron Wind Metals infantry figures in a plausible Liao color scheme.

Preparation

One thing I’d like to mention is my selection of miniatures for this group.  I included some infantry figures from the 3075 line from Iron Wind Metals.  The sniper looking units are actually Word of Blake units.  But from two feet away (or possibly closer) I challenge anyone to positively identify them as anything but cool looking snipers.  That is one of the great things about the available infantry figures.  If they look like snipers, use them as snipers.  If they look like heavy shock troopers use them in whatever faction makes sense.  The WoB doesn’t have the monopoly on snipers and these minis fit for what I was going for.  No need to unnecessarily restrict yourself.

Rounding out the infantry squads are a motorized infantry squad and three Liao Battle Armor squads.

All miniatures are from Iron Wind Metals and were in excellent shape right out of the bin.  Not much to clean up.  Quick work with a sharp exacto knife made these ready for paint.

Base Coat

Base coat for this round of infantry was my usual collection of Vallejo Game Colors.  Khaki forms the base with some Snot Green highlights (not on all of them), GunMetal, and Stonewall Grey.  Very basic stuff here and not too carefully applied.  I hope it all looks good in the end and it usually does.  Base coats are just that, a foundation on which you will build the rest of the shades and highlights.  The shading is what is going to bring these miniatures to life so my base coat is pretty basic.

A New Method

I decided to try something new this time around.  A while back I picked up a can of Army Painter Quick Shade at a convention.  This is my first opportunity to use it on a painting project.  From what I’ve been able to tell the Quick Shade mini dip is normally used for human miniatures like historicals.  It works as a wash on steroids, providing instant and detailed shades on your miniatures.

So how would this product perform on BattleTech miniatures?  I was curious to see how it stacked up against my normal wash of Black Ink and Future Floor Finish.

After a vigorous shake I pried off the lid with a screwdriver.  This stuff stinks like turpentine so use it in a well ventilated space.  I used a set of pliers to lower each figure into the goo and shook off the excess.  I was concerned at the time that the presence of bubbles would impact the finish but it worked out ok in the end.

I set everything aside in my garage for the dip to dry.

After the Dip

This stuff took a very long time to dry to a non-tacky state.  Definitely not for use if you are in a rush.

One additional benefit to using this dip is the super thick layer it leaves on the mini.  This can act as protection of sorts from frequent use.  On the down side because it is so thick there is at least a chance for some details to be filled in if you don’t shake off excess well enough.

Some Details

Very few details were added to these minis.  I was pleased enough with the shading done with the Quick Shade that additional details and highlights were few.  Part of that was the small size of the minis.  Would you really see the difference from a few feet away if I added additional highlighting?  Probably not.

I touched up a few areas and added some blue to the snipers scopes.  Other than that I was good to go.  A bit of flocking finished off the miniatures and I applied a final finish of DullCote to take off the shine.

Final Verdict

I found the Army Painter product to work pretty well.  Not bad when compared with the ink washes that I normally employ.  I was skeptical at first but I think I would like to try out this technique on the rest of the lance when I get the time to finish them off.

Until next time, keep those dice rolling!