Welcome to Throw Back Thursday where I examine things from painting days long past. This week, I'm spending some time musing about one of my favorite pieces--a Broadsword Legion Atlas and reflecting on how this miniature came to be. Sometimes, the plans we have for our lives aren't the paths we take. Painting the Bad Guys of the Battletech UniverseWade into any forum or stand at the side of a table for long enough and you'll find someone shouting "The Blakists only have all of man's best interests in mind," claims that "Katherine was the rightful heir and superior statesman!" or still think that the Smoke Jags were really only trying to reestablish the Star League to make everything better. It's easy enough to claim that roles of "good guy" and "bad guy" are all relative to which side of the map you're throwing dice from or based on what faction swag you're wearing. There are, however, woven carefully into the fiction clear "good guys" and "bad guys," beginning with Amaris and the fall of the Star League to the Combine and Confederation throughout much of the Succession Wars. There are even two entire era's of play that explicitly name the bad guys. Neither the "Clan Invasion" nor the "Word of Blake Jihad" give much room for explaining away who the villain is in this space opera we all love. But sometimes, it can be fun to paint and play the bad guys. Having a force of villains is just as much about--if not much more than--having an Op For to play. There is something liberating about playing the antagonist. Sometimes, it is the feeling of being the underdog and riles a fight in the spirit. Other times, it's the freedom that comes from being able to move and operate outside the constricting and contradictory conventions of "fair play" and "civilized war." Exactly like every kid loves Darth Vader, being the bad guy gives players a sense of freedom of self and domination over others. How did we get to that point, however? Like this Atlas, the stories aren't often quite as black and white as the print in our fiction. This Boradsword Legion piece actually began as an integral part of a DCMS mini-diorama. Initially built and assembled to serve The Dragon, this mini never received those colors. But, like they always do, things changed. As new minis came and went, it sat in a case, cleaned and assembled waiting to be put to the field. When the chance finally came, this Atlas took on the shiny metal of the Broadsword legion with ease. No longer did the stifling and constricting colors of DCMS regiments tell it what color to be, how to stand, what it could and couldn't have for nose art. It had all the space to display properly and proudly all the large sized insignia and art it could handle. No longer was it reaching down to help a fallen comrade--now, it towered above its victims with contempt-full eyes. It became an unstoppable wall of steel. Despite all of that, I still see what was planned for it once. I see what no one else would. In my head, I still see how the pieces fit together--the Atlas with his outstretched hand to save his fellow 'Mechwarrior. The steadfast resolve to hold the line for his lance mates still flashes, from time to time, as I remember what could have been but never was. And maybe that is another part of why we like to paint bad guys. Sometimes, we too feel misunderstood. We sympathize with their plight of lost potential. Maybe, if we play these pieces, we can help tell their side of the story and, in doing so, come to better understand ourselves. Or, maybe we just want to watch the world burn. Hangar Crew Supporters
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A sprint down memory lane--it's paved, so watch out for the skid check PSR!
A sprint down memory lane--it's paved, so watch out for the skid check PSR! This Arcturan Guards unseen Thunderbolt was painted as part of a Camospecs Online Christmas exchange. This piece, if I recall correctly, went to B1BFlyer.
When I work with unseen pieces, floods of nostalgia inundate my creative process. I reference old FASA source books, anime art, and the Battletech CCG-my gateway to Battletech, 'Mechwarrior, and now Alpha Strike. It's pretty easy to tell when I'm painting in a nostalgic mood because of the look. Expect metallic hands, feet, joints, and weapons. Often, the color paler will be a bit more retro, but faded a touch to give it an "old" look. To enhance the old look, I used a brown based white (blue would have been okay too, since blue and orange are complimentary colors). This piece started with a white base coat. From there, I diluted bleached bone into an ink-like consistency with water and polish and lined the piece with a size 1 brush. From there, did the same with sepia ink and a size 1 or 0 brush. The final lining layer was brown ink and a size 0 or 000 brush. After that, I carefully washed the entire piece in several coats of watered down sepia ink. A bit of white highlighting helped to make it "pop." This was also a fun piece to experiment with the tiger stripes. Using just orange would have resulted in a flat, uninteresting highlight. After researching rich color photos of tigers and painted tiger stripe patterns and miniatures, I decided on a fade to yellow, with the white being like the underbelly of a tiger. The base of this fade was orange, since yellow is notoriously challenging to paint. The yellow was added a bit at a time and layered. You'll notice, however, different highlights on the orange and the yellow. For the orange, I added bleached bone and for the yellow I added white. The stripes were carefully painted with black and designed to be asymmetrical. I didn't want to hide all that work with excessive wear and tear. To add a bit of worn paint, I rubbed a pencil lead on the sharp sides of the piece. The ridges on the body and around the left weist are good examples of this. I really enjoyed working on this piece. Unseens are always fun for the history (and usually easy to repose). The scheme was a great change to try new techniques. Most of all, I enjoyed this because I knew it would end up in the hands of someone who would appreciate it. Being a fellow artist, this drive me to push myself and my painting even further. |
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