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So the Battletech: Mercenaries Kickstarter has left me with too many Clan minis (and Inner Sphere minis, but whatever), so of course the first thing I do is buy some premium Hammerheads because honestly, have you seen those things?

Anyways, Clan Sea Fox seems all right and I sort of like the Spina Khanate paint scheme with the water effect but I'm not keen on the green transition on the legs so I'm just gonna do my own thing because I'm not very invested in Battletech lore (I stopped playing for 35 years or so). Heck, I didn't know any BTech lore until I got the Mechwarrior RPG back in the day.



This is also my first time using my red backdrop in my lightbox and hoo boy does it ever oversaturate the sensor in my old camera. Honestly kind of cool.

Anyways, this is a bargain basement version of the water effect. Started with Vallejo Andrea Blue, went over it with Secret Weapon Blue Black wash - all over, to get some mottling - then went back with the Andrea Blue to splotch it up a bit more. Then some Vallejo Deep Sky blue edge highlights to define it, black weapons/mechanical elements and some grey 'steel' paneling. I've seen some people use wavy banding to get the water effect but most of the examples I see on the internet IMO overdo the lines way too heavily, so irregular mottling does the job nicely (and is quicker).



This mech is a lot 'dirtier' than I normally paint. Generally I prefer solid color blocks with maybe a bit of shading (zenithal). Makes him a bit more battle hardened looking, I guess. I may have to get some decals on the forearms, seems an ideal place for them.



And I painted some side and back arc bands on the base, just for clarity purposes. The red went on a bit thick, but oh well.

It's unfortunate that the Hammerhead is super late era Battletech, so you can't so much field them in earlier era play. They're such cool looking mechs with oodles of hardened armor.

The good news is that your Clan Sea Fox/Clan Diamond Shark guy looks amazing.

The best part of playing the merchant Clan is that they would show up to a world, kick the tar out of the locals, and then say, "Its a shame you lost all of your 'mechs in battle... since there are a bunch of.pirates around here.and you'll need to defend yourselves. Thankfully we are here to sell you some of ours. And you just witnessed how good they are in battle, Spheroid. Can I put you down for a Lance or two?"

Very nice mottling on that blue!