After trying various paint schemes throughout the last 3 decades, I’ve now settled on a straightforward green scheme for most of my Inner Sphere ‘Mechs. Green is suitable for at least the following units:

• SLDF and hence Eridani Light Horse
• Lyran Regularss
• Davion Crucis Lancers
• ComStar in battle, as the well-known white is a parade scheme
• Any unit being smart enough to go to battle in camouflage instead of a bright parade scheme

Here’s a tutorial that shows how I paint this scheme. The ‘Mech is IWM’s relatively recent “Classic” Marauder, 20-5216. Catalyst have been busy with new art and plastic miniatures for most of the unseen designs, and IWM produces these in metal as well. The looks of the new designs are much closer to the original designs than the Project Phoenix re-seen sculpts from the mid-2000s, which I never liked.

Assembly of multi-part miniatures is a bit of a hassle. You need good superglue that dries quickly and work your way up from the feet. Superglue can be brittle, so once everything is together I reinforce all joints with some two-component glue. Here’s the assembled miniature on a 3D-printed base:

The first paint step is applying primer. Some people prefer black primer and work towards lighter colors from there, but this can be a lot of work with paints that have poor coverage. I prefer light primers. I used white gesso for a long time, but these days I use AK Interactive Grey Primer. 

Then it’s base coat time, in this case Vallejo Medium Olive. Just like with the primer, you can use a large brush to get this done quickly.

The next step might seem counter-intuitive. I apply a dark wash (in this case P3 Armour Wash) to get shadows. This will also leave stains on the raised surfaces that need to be cleaned up.

This is done in the next step, using the base color once again.

The following steps are panel highlighting. The goal is to use ever lighter colors on surfaces that are oriented towards the light. I start out with Vallejo Olive Green and then blend in Vallejo Golden Olive until arriving at pure Golden Olive. The brighter the color, the smaller the area that it is applied to. The goal is to get contrast through a gradient from dark to bright.

The final step for the green color is edge highlighting with Vallejo Pastel Green. This makes the corners and edges really pop. 

With the main color done, I finish up the other things, like using grey and metallics for joints and weapons. I also apply jewelling to the cockpits, which is explained in another tutorial.

With everything done, it’s time for the varnish. It has taken me a long time to find a varnish that is both easy to apply and really flat. Luckily, I’ve found AK Interactive Ultra Matte varnish. It’s an acrylic varnish, so easy to apply, doesn’t smell,  and you can clean your brushes with water. Here’s the end result with finished base.