Battletech: The Black Widow Company

Howdie.  Natasha Kerensky rides again.... as part of a project I painted the 12 mechs indicated in the old FASA scenario book, all of them 3020's designs pulled from the original set of 14.

Now, not wanting a grey hilight I chose to use a very dark but translucent blue to drybrush these miniatures.  What is interesting is that to the naked eye the blue is not there... but.... when under the flash of the camera, it shows up.  A curious effect, but the black looks pretty good overall.  I tried my hand at painting on representations for Wolf's Dragoons and the Black Widow Company, with less than spectacular results.  I just don't like using transfers.

This early shot shows that blue under the flash....

All of the mechs are original metal.  Most (I think 9 of them) came from a gaming friend's collection, and the plan is to use them in upcoming games against McKinnon's Raiders as per the scenario book.

Here is the entire company....

The command lance consisting of a Warhammer, Marauder, Crusader, and Griffin....

Here is the fire lance consisting of 2 Archers, a Wasp, and a Stinger....

And finally, here is the recon lance consisting of a Rifleman, a Phoenix Hawk, and 2 Stingers...

Overall, I think they turned out well.  When you paint all black mechs, it does seem to explain why its such a popular color... in some ways, its very easy, very forgiving.  But flat black never looks good as you can not note details very well, so getting some kind of hilight is key to the overall effect.   I remember a number of gamers with mechs painted for the Black Widow Company, I find it a bit funny that after all of these years its finally my turn to field Natasha in her trusty Warhammer.

Thanks for reading,
Chalfant