While I have been very heavily into Orks and Orktober recently, I do try and vary things. Catalyst Game Labs recently put out a lot of new stock, some of which will hopefully be posted soon. Today’s subject was completed in and around Orktober stuff, but was pushed back due to the time of year. Orktober means Orks first, although I can honestly see them fielding something like the UrbanMech, so maybe it counts.
So when I write one if these, I like to waffle a bit on the context. This is because BattleTech is still very new to me, and the actual painting of them doesn't help with the word count. With the UrbanMech, it's less about the fiction so much as the fandom. As mechs go, the "Urbie" is a beloved mascot and a meme. It has a plush toy, a wave of blind boxes, a pack of 12, and a famous (life size?) inflatable. People love this thing, often wildly out of proportion to its actual battlefield performance. Its like the Ball, or the Gretchin slaves that Orks abuse. Its not something that is good by the conventional metrics, but it is quite adorable, and has a very specific niche that can surprise people. It's a dedicated ambusher, for, as the name implies, city fighting. Not a fair fight. Of course, I got myself two.
As the UrbanMech's natural habitat is the city, I decided to try urban camo of greys and black. This went disastrously wrong with the first attempt, as I made the mistake of trying Contrast Paints again, but I was pleased to see the Astrogranite Detritus technical paint worked well for a city-styled base. The first Urbie went in the dettol, and the second benefited from the experience. Here I did a Vallejo Dark Grey drybrush over a black undercoat, before picking out panels in Light Grey and Gunmetal, before eventually doing my usual cockpit glass method of Iyanden Yellow over Wraithbone, with ‘Ard Coat for shine. I call this "Urban Camo- Anime", its got the right colours, but it's still somewhat stylised to look cool. I once it was stripped, I tried something more intricate for the other Urbie. Here I tried the "blu tack" camo technique to randomise this grey a bit. Turns out that's not ideal at this scale, but it looks a lot better than my first try.
Overall, this was a learning experience with a few bumps in the road. I now know a few things that don't work, but some things that do. One happy thought though is that I seem to have chanced upon a good dark grey for "special forces", which I want to use on future mechs.
The first attempt
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