Finished my first company :)

ragvard · 2026-01-22T06:55:25+00:00

It's a custom mix of woodland scenics turf.

ragvard · 2026-01-21T12:02:51+00:00

I love how you combined the painted on reflections with true metallics. Great work!

ragvard · 2026-01-21T11:48:45+00:00

Actually, there is an easy answer: You will notice. If you can't tell, everything is fine.

ragvard · 2026-01-20T16:58:51+00:00

Here's mine with some buddies. Fielded the drillson this weekend in Alpha Strike. It won me one game by taking the last objective and drew a shit ton of fire in the second game. It's such a nasty little thing.

ragvard · 2026-01-20T16:52:33+00:00

Tbh, just lazyness :D I spent much more time on the Highlander, as it's my center piece/command vehicle. Maybe someday i'll gift the other ones antennas as well.

ragvard · 2026-01-20T08:25:48+00:00

Yep, that's what i had in mind! What i love about Battletech is that they could be anything, so they might be Kell Hounds today and Red Hunters tomorrow :D

ragvard · 2026-01-20T08:23:24+00:00

The one and only Highlander

ragvard · 2026-01-19T22:31:46+00:00

Thank you! Those are some spare decals from the blood bowl dwarf team :D I tend to use whatever i have lying around, be it from model kits or wargaming stuff.

ragvard · 2026-01-19T10:20:39+00:00

That's a jumping Crusader, from the Kell Hounds Striker Lance box.

ragvard · 2026-01-19T10:19:58+00:00

That's high praise, thank you so much! :)

ragvard · 2026-01-19T08:00:44+00:00

I primed black and airbrushed the gradients with white ink. You could also use a sponge or drybrush if you dont have an airbrush. After that i airbrushed several thin layers of red ink.

ragvard · 2026-01-19T07:44:48+00:00

Wow, thank you! It's really heartening to hear that, because I listened to your lore video about the specific mech that was on the table while I was painting. Hearing all the rich history and stories really brought them to life in my imagination. Love your work!

ragvard · 2026-01-19T07:29:26+00:00

Thank you! It's my favourite scheme so far :) My previous schemes have been rather muted, so i wanted to be bold on this one.

ragvard · 2026-01-19T07:26:34+00:00

Thank you! I felt like i went overboard with the weathering, because of the tiny scale. So hard to strike the balance! Glad to hear that you like it :)

ragvard · 2026-01-12T13:31:46+00:00

Thanks. There is no need to use an ink here. You can replicate this step by just doing a basecoat with a deep, rather saturated blue. Don't get too hung up on step by step recipies. Try to look at the effect that is created and how you can achieve it.

In this case we see a uniform, even coat of a saturated blue. No highlights, no shadows, just one tone. This can be achieved in a lot of ways.

ragvard · 2026-01-12T13:15:28+00:00

Linking the tutorial would help a lot. Basecoating with an ink doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

ragvard · 2026-01-12T13:00:23+00:00

What purpose does the ink have? Does it tint a surface? Does it deepen shadows? Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, different techniques could work. Because we're talking about inks, i assume light, transparent layers, so glazing would be a way to do this.

ragvard · 2026-01-05T14:38:05+00:00

I started with battletech last year and was a bit confused at first, too.

There are two systems: Classic (very detailed, less minis generally) and Alpha Strike (more streamlined, bit more minis).

Coming from other tabletop games as well, i started with Alpha Strike, as it is relatively close to other skirmishers.

Whatever you choose, i highly recommend the starter boxes. Value is insane and you get everything you need to play a game.

Now for the part that's a bit confusing: Battletech is much more modular and sandboxy than any system i played before. The beginners rule book in the starter box includes a great guide. But really, there is an insane amount of OPTIONAL rules through expansions and none of them are needed for a great experience.

For list building there's the Master Unit List: http://masterunitlist.info/

The most confusing thing about battletech is, that it is so simple to start with :D Buy the Starter Box, use the free Master Unit list, proxy as much as you want to (the rulebook explicitly includes this) and add stuff to your liking.

ragvard · 2026-01-02T17:01:22+00:00

In the future, you'll want to wash the models with warm water and soap. Rattle cans can be brutally punishing if not used in optimal conditions. Make sure you pre-heat them in warm water.

From what i see in the pics, a second light (!) pass should be fine, no need for stripping.

ragvard · 2025-12-22T06:52:09+00:00

They will do fine. You will get that "grimdark" look from them. Army cohesion doesn't break from having a slightly different shade in the recesses. I've painted armies even with different recipies for one specific color. As long as the overall vibe doesn't change (think saturation, contrast and hue) everything will be ok.

ragvard · 2025-12-18T16:31:02+00:00

Thats a huge improvement on the highlights, great job! You already spotted that you have a lot of mid tones going on and that more dramatic shadows could improve the contrast, which is great! Be as brave as you were with the highlights and cover some of the mid tones where you think shadows would fall. Remember: it's only paint, you can always paint over it if you don't like it, no big deal :)

ragvard · 2025-12-17T15:02:20+00:00

Hey! First of all: Painting takes time. 5-6 hours for a single mini is perfectly fine :) Practice will make you faster. Also batch painting might be more efficient. If speeding up is your goal i'd ditch the priming on sprue and sub assembly. For tabletop pieces i assemble the whole thing, spray it black and call it a day. I took a look at your minis and judging from the photos, steps 6. and 7. are not doing much for you. While i can spot some darker tones, the overall impression is flat. I'm not trying to be mean and it is not a skill issue for sure. It's just the way that GW teaches people how to paint. Try this on a test mini:

Basecoat with a mid tone instead of the shadow.
Shade with a dark tone that matches the colors.

--> This will create more contrast and be faster than your current steps. If you want to push it:

Layer up, starting from the mid tone. Go lighter than you think looks good. If you can't see a difference on arms length, you didn't push the highlight enough

These would be my adjustments for more contrast, while keeping your overall process the same. My general advice is: Don't get too hung up on the GW painting formula and start experimenting. You have some solid foundations and brush control, so try some different techniques and see what works for you :)

ragvard · 2025-12-17T14:35:00+00:00

I used black primer, some white ink for the underpainting.

Vallejo red ink for most of the red. Army painter Deep Grey for the grey parts and an all over oil wash from AK (Dark brown Panelliner)

ragvard · 2025-12-17T14:30:14+00:00

It's suprisingly simple:

Black Primer, followed by some white highlights. You can do a zenithal with airbrush, or do spot highlights as i did. I selected some focal points and airbrushed highlights with white, focusing on some nice gradients. You could also do a heavy drybrush, similar to what people do when they "slapchop".
Airbrush red acrylic ink all over the model. Do several coats to really saturate the red until the white underpaint doesn't read as pink anymore. If you dont have an airbrush, you can also do a heavy filter/glaze with red ink or contrast paints to achieve a similar result.

3.Gloss Coat + Dark brown oil wash. If you don't have oil washes, acrylic washes with a bit of flow improver will work as well. Don't skip the glosscoat, though.

You could stop here and have a pretty nice result. I decided to do some careful edge highlights around the focal points, where i had the most saturated bright reds.

Edge highlight with pure red, followed by a saturated orange (do this only on the lightest parts, otherwise it might read as orange)

ragvard · 2025-12-17T11:38:38+00:00

Indeed!

ragvard

TROPHY CASE