Saturday, December 5, 2020

A Lone, Wandering Samurai...

 

This piece was borne out of an accidental paint discharge while I was trying to clear the nozzle of a bottle of VJ Jade Green. Rather than let a lot of paint go to waste, I grabbed a spare BattleTech Hatamoto-Chi Assault 'Mech and went to town. 

I tried to get a verdigris effect on the bronze armor sections with some watered down turquoise paint. That's the number 7 in kanji on the chest.

I gave it my best shot to freehand the kanji character for 'fire' and (barely visible) 'blade.'

The characters for 'free' and I forget if that's 'wind' or 'sky.'

VJ Jade Green with an edge highlight of VJ Foul Green.

For the base, I wanted to evoke the image of BattleMech combat in a city park or similar. The head is from a Project Phoenix Thunderbolt 9M from Iron Wind Metals, and I tried to paint it with molten edges at the neck and a cracked canopy as if it was freshly blasted from it's shoulders.  


 As far as who this is meant to represent, I left it ambiguous. I really like it when minis can fulfill multiple roles, and this scheme doesn't match anything canon in BattleTech. So this mini can serve as a notable commander or noble, an ace MechWarrior, a Solaris gladiator, a wandering ronin MehWarrior, a corporate mercenary, a pirate, or part of a merc group that doesn't have a unified scheme. This 'Mech is a House Kurita design, who rule the Draconis Combine and are well-known for their favor of Japanese culture and stylings, which make it all the way down to BattleMech design! The Hatamoto is known as a tough 80-tonner, with plenty of armor and the ability to hit from longer ranges with x2 PPCs or up close with twin SRM-6 racks, and were quite a rude shock to the invading FedCom when they debuted during the War of 3039.

Updated Mistweavers

 
I have just about finished my Clan Smoke Jaguar Beta Galaxy Command Star. I need to seal these and then apply some decals, but otherwise are set to go!