Blood Spirit Alpha - detailing

Endo-steel

My default recipe got into use again. I painted all bits that I felt like they were unpainted steel, using dark grey (VMA 71055 Black Grey RLM66). This incomplete list of mine included things like the weapon barrels, all sorts of grilles, vents, nozzles, sensor pods, and various joints. Once again, all this was directed by my guts, I didn't believe in using "Part X always looks like Y" checklists.

Kit Fox

Mist Lynx

Stormcrow

Stormcrow

Shadow Cat

Drybrushing the steely highlights

As my drybrush-highlighter I used cold grey (VGA 72750). To make my process quicker, I wrote down the essential equipment like the weaponry and Jump Jets for each 'Mech on a sticky note. After the drybrushing I painted all of the viewport panels and orifices black.

Stormcrow

Here the reds felt good, as long as I cleaned up the right side's overpaintings. I could also add some steel into the ankles or knees.

 

Shadow Cat

On this one the biggest question mark was the Gauss Rifle. The previous one I painted on a metallic paint and I had attempted the heat-distortion effect with a number of washes (Citadel's paints, most likely dry in their bad pots after a couple of years) .

The shadow-loving kitty might benefit from a bit more pure metal in its lower legs for added variety.

Mist Lynx

Mist Lynx's right bicep needed metallifying. Also most of its upper torso surfaces needed some sandy touching up.

Ice Ferret

I noticed a pattern emerging: the legs/feet needed more steel on them. The Torso and Arms felt ok. As a funny detail I noticed from these photos was the round piece on the roof hatch. It was just like the vent cover on the turret of a Panther or Königstiger but in a smaller scale.

Kit Fox

I was pretty content with the Kit Fox, maybe it needed a bit of steel in its ankles.

 

This drybrushing result baffled me slightly. Before I started drybrushing I made sure practically nothing was left on the piece of paper towel when brushing on it. Still the effect was this strong on the mini.

Fixing and roundeling

I painted the Clan and Galaxy roundels badly, as my skillessness directed me. First I painted the octagonal whiteish shape for the Alpha, and a red droplet inside it. For the Clan roundel I painted dark grey circles, which I filled with a slightly orangeish circle, and made a red drop into that one. In this scale, especially on Kit Fox and Mist Lynx that was pretty difficult for someone as bad at drawing as I was.

 

While I was touching up here and there, I fixed especially the sands and the dark greys wherever my eyes caught something. I also added more dark grey in the legs and especially ankles. I doublechecked each five minis, so maybe nothing was forgotten.

 

Maybe I should've painted the hex bases at this point, but I simply ran out of time. Not that it made a difference for the end result, I just found the clean grounds much more eye-friendly.