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well someone made the mistake of flaring at me while i was buying fish food..... meet Kimchi

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TONIGHT. WE’RE DRINKING FROM THE POND.

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Mechanicum

by niellustrate

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It's like they threw a Warhawk and a Mad Cat II in a blender

Iron Cheetah

The Iron Cheetah is an Assault OmniMech originally designed by Clan Smoke Jaguar in an effort to create the ultimate assault OmniMech. Even though the Smoke Jaguars were running into issues of limited resources, they were still able to develop one last OmniMech. The Iron Cheetah was designed to supplement the Dire Wolf and represented the pinnacle of 3050's BattleMech technology. The lack of sufficient resources precluded the Jaguar ability to field more than a handful of these machines before their Annihilation at the hands of the Inner Sphere. The Draconis Combine was able to salvage a few chassis, which were assigned to the most prestigious of MechWarriors.

The plans for the Iron Cheetah managed to find their way to Clan Diamond Shark but it wasn't until 3080s that the Diamond Sharks were able to put the OmniMech into production. The Republic of the Sphere purchased an exclusivity contract, thus preventing widespread dissemination of the Iron Cheetah. The Republic concentrated its machines in Stone's Brigade and the Fidelis. With the death of the Republic, Clan Sea Fox began selling the Iron Cheetah on the open market, mostly to House Steiner, Marik, and Davion. Out of the Clans only Clan Snow Raven and Clan Wolf-in-Exile have shown interest in the 'Mech.

Designed to improve upon the Dire Wolf, the Iron Cheetah mounts a 400-rated XL engine. This enables to the 'Mech to reach speeds of 64 km/h. While designers feared the increased engine mass would excessively reduce the 'Mech's payload, the increased cooling efficiency meant little impact to the 'Mech's practical punch. Both Endo Steel and ferro-fibrous armor were used to save additional weight.

The Primary Configuration mounts a number of long-range weapons, giving the Iron Cheetah amazing sniping potential. Dual ER PPCs supported by an Artemis-IV-augmented LRM 15 rack and Gauss rifle allow it to disable or destroy most opponents before they can close. Medium pulse lasers and an ER small laser provided close-in defense, while an anti-missile system handled any incoming missile barrages.

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How To Paint: Canopy Glass Pt. 3

After a catastrophic absence (I was taking care of a very nice but grabby dog) the series is back! So far we've done cockpits an easy way with normal paint and an easy way with contrast paint. This time around, we'll be looking at the way I do some of my more complex colored cockpits. I apologize for some of the photography on this one- not all of the steps were properly recorded.

Paints I used:

For the Starslayer I chose to go with a orange/yellow tint for the glass, however you can easily adapt this to any dark -> bright paint gradient you like. Make sure your darkest color is something neutral- I usually like deep browns for hot colors and a deep sea green like incubi darkness for cool colors.

Army Painter Matt White (whit)

Citadel Yriel Yellow (bright yellow)

Citadel Trollslayer Orange (bright orange)

Citadel Ratskin Flesh (orange)

Citadel Mournfang Brown (brown)

Citadel Dryad Bark (dark brown)

Citadel Lahmian Medium (acrylic thinning medium)

Once you finish the rest of the model area around the canopy, begin by base coating it with your dark brown paint with two thin coats. Once this is applied and dry you're going to paint one of the bottom corners of the canopy glass in with your brown paint.

Now unfortunately this next section is both the most fiddly part of the process and the one past-me forgot to take any pictures of. We're going to use a glazing method to build up a color transition from one side of the canopy to the other. First, we'll make a mixture of about 2 parts of our thinning medium with one part of our brown. Then we'll load the thinned paint onto a medium sized and dab off most of the runny excess on our palette- you want the brush to still be damp and have a little color but not leave a visibly wet trail if you drag it across your fingernail. Then with our brush we're going to gently paint in this very thin brown over the dark brown everywhere but the top corner opposite our brown bottom corner. Give the paint a few minutes to dry and then repeat, except this time paint even less of the upper corner area, leaving some of the previous thinned brown layer exposed. Continue this process multiple times, painting less and less of the canopy each time to build up a smooth transition of brown.

I have done this process with just water before and while it does work I find thinning medium works way better.

Next, we'll apply the same technique again but covering an even smaller area using our orange. Mix it with our thinning medium in a 1:2 ratio and repeat the glazing process, focusing just on the lower corner of the canopy. Make sure to leave a small border of brown showing on the bottom and side of the orange. You should have a soft gradient from dark brown to burnt orange across the canopy.

Finally some finishing touches. Take your bright orange paint, thin it, and sketch an 'L' outlining the orange you just glazed on. Then add a dot of yellow in the corner of the 'L' and dot the upper dark brown corner with a little bit of white.

And here's the finished product! This is fundamentally a similar technique to the method I used on the Firefly with some extra tricks and it inherits the strengths and weakness of it- as a flat painting technique this works easiest on models with simple cockpit geometry and straightforward sight lines, but because it's a more labor intensive technique it's best used on models where you want to draw the eye to the head.

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i appreciate that i saw both of these on my dash within about five posts of each other. we’re gonna need both moods going forward, tbh.

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The fact that this is 80 fucking years ago but still just as relevant is terrifying.

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in case youve not seen this masterpiece

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jealous of a fish tbh

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Admech pirate captain is in a 3+ mexican standoff but keeps pulling out more arms with phosphor pistols every time someone else pulls a gun. There’s 6 people, most have 2 guns out, and here’s this guy with 8 and no indication of that being all of them

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Hey, Skit, are you pretty under all that?

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On this Scavenger Sunday we visit a northern raven enjoying an orange. That was stolen from bears.

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Painted up this Eris in my custom merc scheme: Vanguard PMC. They're named and styled after a 1982 Chevrolet Trans Van that used to park in my old neighborhood lol.

They bear the livery of the Lone Wolves, which is a canon merc unit formed from smaller mercenary commands. They operate like a coop which allows them to take larger contracts together. A great place to slot in an OC or two.

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11th Lyran Guards Hatchetman! I love painting Hatchetmans, I can't really explain why. This was a lot of fun to do.

I finally got around to getting checker decals so they'll be making appearances on all my Lyran Guards going forward. I think it adds a little to the scheme?