Paint Roulette Invitational Round 4

Round 4 of the world-famous* Paint Roulette Invitational, the PRI, is in the books, and the turnout for this one was beyond all expectation. This time we had more than 50 painters sign up. Incredible! I made a few changes: a few new assignment categories, and any microscale sci-fi model was allowed not just BattleTech or BT-useable stuff. Nonetheless, mechs were still the overwhelmingly popular choice for subject matter, along with some spaceships and even an aerospace fighter.

Thanks to PRI Sponsors

What did not change was the generosity of the event sponsors, who through their combined efforts made for a mountainous pile of raffle prizes. Fortress Miniatures & Games went all in, as ever, with a huge haul of hot, new BattleTech forcepacks and two whole cartons-worth of Mercenaries salvage boxes.

New to the event this year was Darkest Star Games, makers of fine 6mm metal minis, and producers of the hands-down best infantry to be found anywhere. Regular readers and viewers will have seen these before; those are the space suited dudes I feature prominently in my own work. If you participated in and enjoyed your time in the PRI, or just like what I do, make sure you check out the socials and storefronts of both sponsors.

Fortress Miniatures & Games on Facebook
Darkest Star Games Facebook on Facebook

Participants’ Completed Works

Now it is time to check out the sterling, inspiring work of the participants. If you’d rather watch than read, I’ve got video coverage on YouTube. See the assignment lists below so you have a better idea of what they were up against, and then pics of their pieces and commentary. If you, dear reader, would like to get in on the next round keep an eye on the blog here and especially my YouTube channel; Round 5 will very likely be later on in 2025.

THEMES
Spots – Circles, dots, spheres, etc.
Fade – One or more colors shifting to others.
Blobs – Irregular blobs and patches of color.
Blocks – Squares, rectangles, cubes, etc.
Lines – Just what it says. One or more lines, parallel or not.
Camo – Just what it says. Pick or make a pattern and use your colors.
Dazzle – Eye-melting explorations of an evolutionary cul-de-sac in camo theory. I’m praying for you.
Animal Print – Wildlife-inspired patterns. Mammals, fish, birds, insects, reptiles, etc.
Worn and Weathered – Beat and batter your model good and hard. Rust, grime, wear, streaking, scrapes, mud, burns, damage, etc.
Stencilled – Checkers, quadrants, tessellations, tri-color, bi-color and other liveries or distinct graphical embellishments.
Inked – Flames, bones, thorns, tribal motifs, and any other sort of pattern or iconography you’d expect to see on a reasonably tasteful if ill-advised tattoo.
Junkyard – Paint the majority of your model in the assigned colorway. Pick a few parts and paint them differently. Rusty, bare metal, different colors, etc.

COLORWAYS
Desert – Any colors suitable for use in desert environments.
Woodland – M81 and OD enjoyers rejoice.
Jungle – Emerald greens and other conceivably tropical tones
Urban – Grays, black, dusty brown, white, etc.
Arctic – Frigid white, pale gray, frosty blue, anything that says “cold.”
Basic – Pick a color. Use only shades and tints of it.
Lore – Pick a major or minor faction of your choice, one belonging to the lore of your model’s game system or universe, IP and use those colors.
Two-Tone – Pick two complimentary colors. Use those.
Foundry – Chrome, steel, iron, bronze, brass, verdigris, aluminum. Molten slag. Anything that says “metal”.
Hazard – Think heavy equipment manufacturers. Vivid, contrasting oranges, yellows, greens, reds, etc. Tones that will say “danger” in every language.
Oceanic – Bright, clear beachy tones, or dark and unsettling shades from the briny deep. Blues, greens, white foam, tans, yellow, etc.
Galactic – A cosmic palette of black, deep blues, purples, silver, gold, etc. Or anything else that evokes the vastness and mystery of space.

Rob Jensen

Blocks / Woodland

“”My assignment was woodland block. First words: ‘Ugh, f*** me.’ Banes: a project dependent on fine line work with hands as precise as Christmas hams, essential paints and supplies arriving more than two weeks late, massive time crunch. Boons: Enamel washes, weathering pigments, a devil-may-care attitude, a girlfriend that “gets it”, OCD, caffeine, Casamigos tequila, Dragged Across Concrete, Collateral. Mantra: “Aight. Good enough.” Final words: “Nice” a la Southpark ep. 149

Pilot: Maximillian Jogues, named after two priests that were unflinching in the face of death (one in Auschwitz, the other at the hands of Mohawk warriors in 1646). Perfect patrons for someone piloting a 100 ton bullet sponge known as the Imp of War. Paint Roulette Invitational is the most fun I have painting all year. Shits awesome, gets the juices flowing, and it’s a blessing to be able to participate. Let the heavy metal roll. Cheers, man.”

See more of Rob’s work on Instagram.

Michael Van Brunt

Animal Print / Lore

“My assignment was animal pattern and lore, so I was originally thinking of a killer bees paint job and someone beat me to it! So I then found Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade and liked the overall gist of it. I changed the primary color to more of a blue grey, and used a silver metallic to try and get the stripes to pop more. I was inspired to use the cotton balls as a missile smoke trail (since the Catapult launches missiles like they are going out of style), and I used wooden BBQ skewers to look like the missiles in flight. Overall, I’m happy with it.”

Michael Rushford

Inked / Desert

“Here’s my completed mech. I had Desert / Inked as my drawing. The desert colors were obvious but I struggled for a bit with the idea of inked tattoos until I considered using desert-y tattoos, using Navajo / Dine tattoos as inspiration as that tribe lives in the American southwest desert. I tried using a selection of geometric shapes using this site as some inspiration. Not sure if I pulled it off, but it’s my favorite mech I’ve painted ever now, so thanks for the opportunity!
Looking forward to the next challenge!”

Jon Shore

Worn-n-Weathered / Jungle

“These themes combined beautifully. Immediately I had the idea of an all Hunchback raider lance behind enemy lines. Inspired by ‘Merrill’s Marauders’ from WWII. They were undermanned and undergunned, raiding supply points, hitting vital targets and headhunting key officers. ‘Our forces are spread thin on all fronts. We can’t spare any major assets to harass the enemy….But we do have one option….'”

Jon Shore is on Instagram. Contrary to what he says, he does not suck at painting.

Jason Ashley

Junkyard / Desert

Yellow With Hobby

Lines / Foundry

“… Jero never understood why people were always so negative about their family, the Blakes. And, really, the people blasting their mansion with autocannos right now took it to the next level. Fleeing through a little grove to the cemetery, Jero remembered their grandfather. Crazy old man. He used to say: “In the circumstances most dire, to the family crypt the last Blake will retire…”. Jero never took it seriously, but, being apparently the last of their family now, was doing just that. The crypt sat on an odd stone hump with a huge copper cross lying next to it. The crypt door creaked. It was dark and cold inside, the roar of gunfire almost inaudible there. Plaques and names everywhere: on the walls, on the floor. Grandpa is here as well. And one empty niche in the middle of the hall. This is the one, the one for Jero. Wait, is it a hatch? …”

I started brewing the idea from the colorway, foundry, which assumes painting various metal surfaces or “Anything that says “metal”…”. I did not feel excited about attempting a full NMM or TMM mech, so I latched onto the “says metal” part. And few things say “metal” to me more than a spooky crypt. Once I settled on the crypt idea, it was easy to decide what kind of “one or more …, parallel or not” lines I should have on the miniature. Huge thanks to my friend Martin, who, on a very short notice, rescaled, printed and delivered to me the resin spooky bits that turned this plastic Marauder IIc into a stomping crypt with 9 generations of Blakes (probably not even relatives) in it.

In terms of painting I was heavily inspired by works and tutorials of @gardensofhecate Ana Polanšćak and John Blanche. It felt very nice to try painting in a very different style (my usual mechs are much more cartoony) and looking at the figure from a more artsy perspective. Honourable mention to the recently announced Battletech Gothic which certainly helped me arrange the concept pieces together. Inspirations: GardensOfHecate, Mörk Borg, Summoning, Obsequiae, Hermodr, Enslaved, …

Huge thanks to Chad and the sponsors for this event, each year it is a highlight for me! Thanks to all participants, it was fantastic creating and working shoulder to shoulder with you all! Cheers!”

Instagram: / yellow_with_hobby
X: https://x.com/oleg_ywh
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ywh.bsky.social

Tim Saiers

Fade / Woodland

“I’m fairly green to the BattleTech universe outside of watching “Tex talks BattleTech” series. I have had a rifleman 3 and an Atlas printed for some time having been inspired but never got around to painting them. The PRI was a great chance for that and with “Woodland Fade” I opted to try painting the rifleman 3. My understanding is it’s a 1 of 1 prototype mech that was pressed into service during the Amaris civil war and was somewhat of a fever dream of Amaris. Sporting prototype cloaking and carrying enough ammunition for four volleys before being a 90 ton paper weight.

My Imagination was on fire: My cousin recently gave me some gauze for modelling purposes, and I set to work adding this as a tarpaulin/ cover over 1 arm to create some interest in an otherwise symmetrical model. The character of this example immediately became of a lone survivor or veteran mech enduring against all odds, as such I added a rear bustle rack on the rear (bad idea, as I think these are heatsinks!) and made some plasticard ammunition boxes to fill it with to emphasise the long war. I elected to add some additional protection on the left arm and knee in the form of spaced armour inspired by historical photos of panzer IV’s. I then modelled a recent hit to the right shin to further enhance the worn out mech on long deployment theme. I finally added some ERA bricks to random locations in order to alter the silhouette further and try to add interest, but these do get lost very easily.

Painting wise I was a sucker for the hazard stripes of the base mech, my background is in Warhammer and a common effect done for tau stealth suits is the “blue transition cloaking” seen on the mech here. With blessing from the PRI community to take creative liberty on the interpretation of the null signature system, this would cover the “fade” I had leftover olive drab colour modulation paints from a Sherman project, and these would cover the woodland part. For the transition I followed a tutorial by cerxis on YouTube who does a “skin on skin” effect of cloaking which I thought would be perfect to sell the scale of the mech at 10mm. My efforts are crude, but in line with my skill. I emphasised the lack of cloak in the battle damaged and modified areas of the mech to show the field mods not being compatible with the prototype null signature. Some basic OSL and metallic blending was attempted on the barrels to signify heat warp in the long war – Those gauss guns aren’t in spec anymore!

Basing wise, I opted for some cork, wire, and wood skewers I had on hand to aim for some burnt woodland style basing. To try and sell a predator recloaking, after mayhem. On a circular base which I’m sure is sacrilege for the BT initiated. I finally added some grass flock to bring in some contrast to the dark scorched black and brown tones of the base. Overall, a heck of a lot of fun to participate, great for motivation and great to see everyone’s work. Thanks for organising it, Chad!”

Tim is on Instagram.

Takemikazuchi

Spots / Two-Tone

“I got my assignment done and it was a lot of fun! I kinda feel I could have gone more crazy with the circle designs (like adding smaller dots all across the Mech), but I’m perfectly happy with this somewhat more straightforward approach. I also tried around with “non-metallic metallic” techniques on the shoulders, knees, etc. and I think it turned out wonderfully. I attached 5 images below.

As for the Mech: The insignia on the right shoulder is (at least supposed to look like) the Buffalo Quarter, so this is essentially the Guillotine piloted by David Rowsch of Snord’s Irregulars fame. I felt this paintjob would fit nicely with that group lol. I dubbed it the Freckled Freak… though you might also call it the Tomato Titan.
Can’t wait for the next round of PRI!”

Steven Long

Junkyard / Galactic

“The first thing that came to mind was Star Wars, but grey spaceships don’t really look galactic without the space background, so I went with something else from the era – airbrushed vans. I went through my unpainted models for something with a mix of broad panels and exposed components and found a nightstar. I couldn’t get details fine enough to put in some freehand wizards but I’m happy with how the galaxy pattern turned out. A desert base seemed fitting – it’s mostly cork, sand, and discarded bits of sprue to junk it up a bit. I wish I were a better photographer, the weathered edges and rust effect definitely look better in person.

Thank you so much for having me participate in the PRI. It has been an absolute blast watching everyone work through their projects and trying out something new myself.”

Shaun Scott

Lines / Desert

“A LINE IN THE SAND” Tamarind IV, December 3137. Hauptmann Roderick Frost in his Rifleman-IIC holds the line against the First Tamarind Regulars until relief arrives.

My assignment was “Desert/Lines”. For the first two weeks, I didn’t even begin because I couldn’t decide what ‘Mech to paint. Finally I decided to let the luck of the draw decide that, too – and I drew a Rifleman IIC from a blind box (video is on my Coffee Table Combat YouTube channel!) I was inspired by German tank camouflage of World War II. The red and green are in V-shaped lines, less apparent after panel lining and highlighting. I wanted the camo to look authentic without being so realistic that it would “work” and obscure the shape of the sculpt.

I depicted the ‘Mech defending a small oasis, and decided to carry the Desert/Lines assignment over into the title as well.
this was a fun challenge – it got me out of my comfort zone and let me flex my imagination a bit! Regards, HeadHunter

https://coffee-table-combat.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@CoffeeTableCombat

Roc / Otso Minis

Lines / Woodland

“I got assigned Woodland and Lines. I thought it was fun and it was the first time I’ve stuck antenna on a mech which was a learning experience for me. I didn’t want to slog through making lines with a brush and do a million different layers on the various line so I thought it’d be quicker and look much cleaner using an airbrush. I primed, sprayed it olive drab, edge highlighted, masked it and moved on to the next color, rinse and repeat for everything. Thanks for running this, it was fun!”

Phillip Hall

Stencilled / Basic

“For the PRI I got the assignment stencilled and basic, so I mixed a little bit of the dark red into nearly every colour I used to get the basic done, except for the white and the bright red glow, those were left untouched by the dark red. For stencilled I thought about painting eyes onto the ship and decided to try owl eyes because the PHR Echo Corvette model I used is a silent but deadly hunter for atmospheric engagements. In Dropfleet there are only a few ships capable of maneuvering in atmosphere and the Echo corvette is the most heavily armed of them.”

Mikael Bergstrom

Camo / Basic

“Is I got Camo – Basic and I wanted to paint up the Valkyrie from the command lance the old NAIS camo seemed perfect. I also have a hard copy of the 1632 Camo Specs which I always come back to. I added yellow to make it a little bit more interesting without using a contrasting color (brown, tan, yellow – same, same…). Bright orange would have worked better I think, but I use yellow for my other FedRats so…”

Matthew Birdsall

Stencilled / Galaxy

“My eyes are bad today so tried a wide variety of lighting. Been suffering from bad picture taking for years so forgive the shot-gun load of sample PRI images.
Galaxy + Stencil. Used thin tape to break up the pattern and free handed silly stars with color fade over color fade. Stone Rhino of the Stars. Red earth on his feet. Feel only okay with the result but it seems to express both galaxy and stencil.
Had a lot of fun doing something I would never have tried otherwise.”

Follow Matt on his Instagram for loads more!

Matthew Ruley

Stenciled / Artic

Miniature: Ice Ferret, Hankyu, Huntsman from Catalyst Games

“First, overall thoughts. When I got my assignment choosing colors was easy, grays and whites with a few blues, no sweat. Stenciled? Was stumped on that one so before going to bed I checked the descriptions you gave for each theme. Upon reading checkers and quadrants I instantly had ideas and jotted three down for my schemes before turning in. Miniature selection was more based off the colors so they would “match.”

This is the first miniature I knocked out. I liked the idea of doing something quadrant based but didn’t want to play the checkered pattern just yet, so instead I went with stripes in each quadrant. On the mech’s right shoulder and left leg the strips are vertical while on the other section I used horizontal stripes. I also worked to have that pattern continue down the arms as well. As usual with my minis I painted the base black for minimizing effect.
My second miniature again used quadrants, this time I did a sort of union jack and more horizontal stripes on the other sections. I also split the quadrants into front and back so if you look at either the front or back you’ll still see the union jack strip on the upper left and bottom right. After completing the main scheme I got playful and decided to paint in red some Norse runes on the mech in red. On the right arm, Sowilo meaning Honor / Victory, on the left arm Algiz meaning Defense / Shields, and on the chest Uruz meaning Power / Strength.

My final miniature is the classic checkered pattern all over the mech. I also took a little inspiration from the Davion paint scheme to run a solid blue stripe down the side of the mech’s body and down the leg as well. Overall this one feels the simplest to discuss but I’m also not 100% I got the checkers exactly correct. Still, I do like the simplicity of this one.”

Matt Ruley’s Instagram.

Major The Red

Lines / Hazard

“I had a few mechs preselected for this event depending on the rolls I would get. I was pretty happy to get something a bit silly (“Lines” for pattern and “Hazard” for color), so I went for a suitable silly mech, the Assassin, which is one of my favorites. I already knew at this stage black and yellow would be the main colors. After a quick search on the internet I found a mercenary unit, the Killer Bee, which sported, well, a bee pattern for parade. And then everything clicked about the narrative: someone salvaged a parade-pattern Killer Bee Assassin, fixed the damage, made a few swaps of weapons and went to become a mercenary himself. In reality I took the opportunity to change the LRM to an SRM-6 and the SRM-2 for 2 small lasers using greenstuff to make a more potent variant.

Paint wise, it was tricky because of the yellow. It took many-many layers to achieve some nice gradient, but ultimately it’s the final highlight that gives definition to the miniature. The black lines were treated to reflect light coming from the top. Finally, details like canopee, glow from laser and warning stripes below the jet packs were added for realism. I thought about adding battle damage but ultimately stopped before as I was afraid it would reduce the readability of the mech. There you go: a silly mech I won’t imagine many Houses deploying because of how useless he is, but that a crazy scavenger would use for odd jobs as a lone mercenary.”

JR Thornburg

Blocks / Jungle

“Not going to lie, this was absolutely fun. Rolled 4. Blocks / 3. Jungle Quick description on the painting. Prepped like normal for slap chop. Based with Citadel Mantis Warriors contrast, then lightly striped with a Pro Acryl Dark Golden Brown. Opting for relative large Digicam patter, I painted the shapes in Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White, then shade with either Army Painter Speed Paints Orc Skin, Gunner Camo, or Citadel Skeleton Horde. For more contrast a did another round of shapes inside the first set. Then simple gun metal and silver on weapons and actuators, as well as some slight dry brushing to simulate wear. As a homage to commando characters, I painted the cockpit glass with a ruby metallic and gloss. Final washes with Citadel Nuln Oil and Seraphim Sepia. Simple basing with Soilworks Autumn Ground, a small painted stream and a pair of Gamers Grass.

It was nice combining some techniques I’ve picked up from last years projects. Multi shaped camo is something I’ve done with a lance of Free Rasalhague Republic Hussars, though that was more rhombus and triangles. Using white paint to add on top of contrast paints was something I’ve discovered while painting a Jurassic Park themed company. Kinda hard to paint red stripes over neo-green otherwise. Had a blast and looking forward to doing this again.”

Joshua Budner

Spots / Desert

“I had the category “Desert-Spotted”. I feel that I dropped the ball on this one due to not keeping track of time. But with that said I wanted a faded and subtle look. I wanted to also give perspective on the scale of a battlemech compared to infantry and battle armour. With that said I am very happy to have taken part in this challenge. I do have a suggestion for next time; I would like to see camo schemes from the lore in the roulette with a twist. For example: KellHounds-battle damage or Comstar 7th Army-Jungle. Anyway, thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate and I’m looking forward to your next video on youtube.”

Adolfo Fernandez

Animal Print / Basic

“My name is Adolfo Fernandez and this is my paint roulette entry. The model is an Iron Wind Metals Mad Cat MKII E and my assignment was “animal” and “basic”. The base is an IWM standard hex base with the insert slot. I used epoxy putty and some model gravel as well as bits (head parts and weapons) from the robotech rpg miniatures, an assortment of veritech fighter head parts (Land Air Mech) and missile pods painted in a rusted and decrepit manner.

For the Mad Cat itself I went with a Tiger Camo pattern of the Clan Wolf Gamma Galaxy, but I chose not to use any decals to keep the scheme as clean as the animal itself. I’ve always loved this variant of the Mad Cat MK2, because the 5 is equipped with improved jump jets which gives it cat like agility yet retains its assault platform armor and weapons potential. This Cat is the Maddest of the cats, and to me it was either going to be a white tiger, a jaguar, or a red tiger pattern. As a result of going with a red tiger scheme I wanted to add some color differences, so made the ash and rubble a cool grey as well as made the canopy a slight cool violet but that increases in intensity to a hot pink then white point. The idea is that the Tiger is stalking and hunting his prey with his eyes glowing in a dim violet moonlight.

Overall, I am happy with my result and the tiger stripes came out how I wanted them more or less. As always big thanks to Chad Nabors for the invitation and also big shout out to everyone who is participating and those who applied. God Bless!

See more of my work at: https://www.instagram.com/thecollector927/
Discord channel: https://discord.gg/M9M7mtTd
“

Allan Abanilla

Animal Print / Urban

“This is my entry for the invitational. Paint Job: Animal Skin / Urban Unit: Thorn THE-N. The inspiration is a spotted grey hyena. Due to the Urban color scheme of the grays, whites, and black, I thought this animal would be perfect! I tried my best with the spotting though next time I may try to get a dotting tool, which is usually used for nails. Maybe I’ll get a couple of more Thorns to make the three Hyenas from Lion King. This was fun! I do wish I was able to get better pictures but I’ll improve once I find my lightbox. Thank you for hosting!”

Ben Wendt

Lines / Galactic

“I rolled “Lines” and “Galactic”, a combination which reminded me of old Soviet space posters. I immediately wanted to do a jumping mech, as the jump jets evoke a rocket taking off. I chose the Shadow Hawk as I preferred its less aggressive, more aspirational pose over other jumping mechs. I felt it fit the spirit of the posters better.

I used a dark blue accented strongly with a rich red-orange. I freehanded some red stars with shooting lines behind them. I also freehanded “Triumph” and “Glory” in Russian on the shoulder pads, words that appear frequently in the posters that inspired me. The jump jet smoke has a gradient from light blue to gray, and the flames are a yellow-white. By painting the yellow white into the recesses of the smoke cloud, it makes it seem like the fire continues into the smoke. I enjoyed the contest a ton, and I look forward to the next one!”

Ben Wendt is everywhere:
Blue Sky
Instagram
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Brody Beck

Worn-n-Weathered / Foundry

“So I had been toying with trying weathering for my pirate force I’m making for a campaign I’m going to run for my local group. I used this assignment as my dry run for that scheem and some pictures of damaged Hunchies I found doing a Google search. I think these turned out pretty good. The weathering was not as hard as I made it our to be. I made custome bases and added some battle damage to one arm. The base was some zip ties, a place mat amd some textured plastic sheeting that I modded. The bit sticking out the arm are some thin guitar string and the innards of telephone wire. The molding took more time that I though but I like the contrast and the pop of the leaking fluids.

This was my first time joining but it got me out of my comfort zone. I learned a new technique to use in the future. Thanks for the invite and I can’t wait for the next round.”

Matt Culgan

Stencilled / Basic

“I rolled STENCILLED & BASIC. Mech is named “Blaze Enforcer”, and is a dual use SAR/Assault Unit. Various shades of Orange throughout.
Bio: Battlefields were not only arenas of destruction but also graveyards for the wounded, trapped, and abandoned. Deployed in 3045, entire cities were reduced to rubble, trapping civilians and soldiers alike.Traditional SAR units were too vulnerable to operate in active combat zones, and assault mechs lacked the finesse for rescue operations. The “Blaze Enforcer” was designed to bridge this gap, a mech that could fight its way into hostile territory, secure an area, and extract survivors with precision.”

Watch Matt play games on YouTube.

Josh Neal

Dazzle / Woodland

“For the PRI 2025 – I rolled Woodland Dazzle. A curious scheme indeed, as none of the colors traditionally associated with woodland camouflage are super dazzle-ey – so I went with a lower contrast version! Why the bright red arm? That doesn’t sound woodlandey, or dazzley – because this King Crab is a part of Niall’s Ninth – a Mercenary Company! Niall’s Ninth – or N9 for short – always paints their machines in some form of camouflage, with a bright blood-red splash on the “dominant” arm of the mech/mechwarrior!”

Brushido

Junkyard / Urban

“The inspiration for this charger was junkyard scheme with urban colors. I kitbashed this Charger 1A5 I decided to paint it like it was cobbled together in a junkyard so I varied the grays of various parts so it would look like it was pieced together and worn. This was quite a departure for my usual clean style and came together quite quickly. Certainly a fun side project.”

Follow Brushido on Instagram.

Cole Walker

Worn-n-Weathered / Oceanic

“The Oceanic part of my submission had me stumped for the longest time , until I remembered a trip I took to Oregon a few years ago and remembered the light house and the black rock beach it sat over. Here is my submission “Silent Guardian” Thank you for the opportunity to throw my hat in the ring with a lot of fantastic artists, I had a ton of fun.”

See more of Cole’s work on Facebook.

Jon Nettleton

Camo / Jungle

“Hello, I would like to start by saying thank you so much for including me in the challenge. I had a blast working on this and I think it helped me push myself a little bit further than I would have without the challenge. It might not show in the pics but I can see the difference between where I was and where I am now. And it’s only been a month lol.

And now for my project. I was tasked with camo and jungle and used some inspiration from some movies I’ve seen and games I’ve played. I’ve never painted green camo before this project, and had never painted a background for any miniature, now I’ve done both. I think I did alright for first attempts but there are definitely things I can improve on. Again I appreciate the opportunity and hope to be included in future challenges. Thank you and have a great day.”

Jason Newman

Camo / Foundry

“Rolled ‘camo’ and ‘foundry’ this year. Camo was an interesting one because I’ve never actually painted camo before.

The tricky thing about camo is that it’s trying to do the exact opposite of what you are generally aiming for when painting a miniature. Camo wants to make shapes hard to pick out, confuse edges, and reduce definition. So painting ‘good’ camo usually results in a not so good miniature. The goal then was to try to do something either more stylized or subtle, I wanted to suggest camo without it being actually effective camo. I settled on a darker urban style camo of blues, blacks, and greys. It was definitely a challenge since, as I mentioned, I’ve never painted camo before. I did three passes of a medium cool grey, a near black, and a very bright cool grey over the dark blue base in small random blobs.

Keeping those random but relatively uniform in size is harder than you’d think but I was able to get things to where it all lined up well enough to proceed. That initial pattern was far too bright and contrasty to let go, it was actually doing what it was supposed to do and made it nearly impossible to sort out the visual noise. I fixed this by airbrushing thin glazes of a blue-back shade. This let me both build a little bit of a shadow in but also slowly knock the camo pattern down to a the more subtle level you see here. With some relatively strong edge highlights to help define edges and up the contrast I think I landed on a look at reads ‘camo’ but still lets you figure out what you’re looking at.

Foundry was music to my ears. I love doing NMM and this was as good of an opportunity as ever. I tried to keep the metals warm to contrast the cool armor panels as well as keep it a little more diffuse and dark so it didn’t read as extremely shiny chrome. I ended up going more reflective here and there (the left arm guns for example) but overall I managed to keep it a little more tame. I also tried to put in very warm brown secondary reflections to further up the contrast between the metals and the armor.

This whole thing was a lot of fun and I pushed myself to go faster than my usual glacial pace. It definitely came at the cost of quality, the blends could be smoother and the detail isn’t as sharp as it could be but for the amount of time into it I’m pleased with the results. All told I believe there are about twelve hours or so of painting here spread out over the course of a couple of weeks. Good times as always!”

See more of Jason’s amazing work on Flickr.

Joshua Bressel

Junkyard / Arctic

“This is a Corsair frankenmech of the New Belt Pirates. This ferocious beast, covered in snow, is in an arctic scrapyard, where the hapless pirate needed a barrel fire to keep warm. I used about 10 different mechs to build this guy. The legs and pelvis are from a Thug, waist and cockpit from a Blackjack, torso from a jumping Thunderbolt, with shoulder plates and SRM6 from that and a Thunderbolt 9NAIS. The left arm LL is from an Enforcer, right torso AC10 from a Centurion, right hand from a Dragon, cut and adjusted to be more open, RT LRM15 from a Summoner, and a chunk of right torso from the 25th Anniversary box plastic Hellbringer. There are additional bits and greebles sprinkled throughout.”

Chip Heusinger

Blocks / Arctic
“Thank you for the opportunity to be in this painting expose. My parameters were: Arctic and Blocks
My subject depicts a Linebacker of the 304th Assault Cluster, Clan Ghost Bear, assigned to the planet Celbalrai and is involved in the fighting against the Word of Blake units in the Northern Hemisphere.

I found the scheme a bit challenging at first because I originally was going to do the block pattern like a Tetris-type look but as I looked at the Linebacker, its armor patterns and general shape lead it to seem like there was a natural flow to the scheme. It took over and I genuinely liked how it turned out. Originally I was going to use a Kodiak or Grizzly but I liked the idea of it being a captured Clan Wolf mech.

I used mainly Army Painter and AK Colors, using blues, custom mixed greys, turquoise and Turbo Dork “Ice to Never” color changing paint for the glass.
I custom mixed a black wash and dry brushed white on it, finishing with Citadel Technical Valhallan Blizzard on the base along with some grass and rock. The snow on top is from Warlord Games Battlefields & Basing: Snow. Decals by Fighting Piranha Graphics.”

Daniel Corrigan

Blobs / Desert

“My rolls were blobs and desert. I chose a Battledroids Marauder to work on because it has a lot of clean surface area. Thanks for letting me participate in this fun project!”

Daniel is on Instagram.

Danielius Mockus

Spots / Oceanic

“The themes I drew were Oceanic and Spots, which immediately gave me idea of painting the miniature in a pattern of some Oceanic animal and in the end i decided it’ll be the whale shark (painting planes as sharks just fits, doesn’t it?)

There’s been quite a few ‘firsts’ for me in the process. First time trying to paint a free-hand pattern and not just doing paints-by-numbers, first time trying to do glow-effects on the lasers, first time doing my best to glaze a gradient onto the cockpit window, first time using water effects to create the ocean base. Just wanted to say thank you for organizing this, because it felt very good to actually finish something.”

Jeff Carlisle

Blocks / Hazard

“I give you Hazardous Squared. My challenge…square and hazard. Included in this post is my inspiration of a hazardous material truck. I was going to just put squares of color all over the mech. I was working on his right leg and it just felt like that much squares would be too much. Thus, some sporadic areas of “squaring.” Fun challenge! It always pushes me out of my comfort zone.”

John Millner

Dazzle / Oceanic

“I am still quite new to painting, only really picking up the brush and doing it regularly as of September last year. Just about that is. It’s because of this I signed up for the Invitational. I wanted to challenge myself and see what I can truly do with what little skill I have cultivated.

So when I got Oceanic+Dazzle as my results, I’ll be honest I was anxious, but just as excited. Immediately I knew how I should theme my ‘mech: Like that of a hulking underwater beast. So I snagged my Kraken and worked on colors. Muted blues and a red so that I could emulate the natural colorations of fish. Taking the patterning in a more “linear” and striped design, ensuring that each section faced a different direction and adding in the vibrant blue like that of the bioluminescence of similarly deep predators. For the exposed metal I took inspiration from a man-made action: Copper sheathing. Protecting what’s underneath from the salt of the ocean. It adds a nice bit of pop in my opinion without breaking theme.

All things considered, this was a wonderful learning experience.”

Josh Watrous

Blobs / Hazard

“I got assigned Blobs and Hazard. I’ve been doing a lot of dark and earthy tones for an alt-history wargame lately so figured I’d use this as a quick palette cleanser. This was a very liberal take on Hazard, as I took more inspiration from poison dart frogs than I did actual hazard symbology. Blobs was the easy part, I blobs well. Per the usual, it was a good opportunity to play with some colors outside my current range and take a breather from ongoing projects to do something silly.

Jack Taylor

Lines / Basic

“My assignment was basic and lines. Basic meant one color so the base color, highlights, and “white” stripes are all derived from the same color, just adding lighter shades of gray to achieve a lighter color. Otherwise it was metallics and the red for the forward AI sensor port. Models are for Grand Fleet Admiral, a 1/5000 scale game, and these models are the latest release for a solo game where these ships are an artificial intelligence faction. The way this game is played, these photos consist of three units.

First picture is all the battlegroups. Second picture is the battlecruiser group, 3 battlecruisers with 3 frigates. Third picture is a destroyer group. Fourth and fifth picture is the battleship group. Sixth picture is rear shot of the battlecruiser battlegroup. Seventh picture is a side view shot of the destroyer group.”

Jesse Crisanti

Dazzle / Two-tone

“”Burial” Struggled with this one initially. Thankfully a friend sent me a Highlander 3D print and I had some extra bits laying around. When it came to the dazzler concept I thought initially I would do something painted dazzled dodging incoming fire. But then I thought “what if the pilot thought he was safe with that camo and totally wasn’t? Hubris makes for a good story.”

So then the decision had to be made of what mech I was willing to destroy, and obviously I chose a dragon because no one cares about dragons. The Highlander seemed like the obvious choice for the job. The dazzle pattern is tricky enough as it is, but then I realized I had accidentally picked a mech that has many con curves to it without realizing it. Makes lines very tricky, as most traditional dazzle paint jobs have very straight lines and sudden cutoffs. I would have been more pleased if I could have taped it off but it’s a little small for that. The two-tone dragon could not stand up to the might of the three-tone Highlander. Highlander got Vietnam tiger stripe because why not?

Cockpit penetration was made via a metal spike placed in the fire and pushed through the cockpit. Btw, toothbrush bristles for antennas works great. Flexible.”

Find more JC Craftmage on YouTube

Dylan Farrington

Camo / Lore

“Went with a Clan Goliath Scorpion Delta Galaxy Highlander IIC. It’s camo if you’re in the lava fields! I had a lot of fun with this guy. It’s an homage to a piece that really inspired me as I first got into the painting side of Battletech. Shout out to the original artist Cyttorak.

Lots of practice blending yellows and oranges. I don’t think I fully accomplished what I set out to do in terms of blends and final presentation. I started with a white primer into yellow thinking it would be faster to apply the darker shades over the higher I go. Due to the amount of time needed I think going the opposite – black down into the light shades would have been the better approach to having a cohesive and easy to manage steps. However, I count this as a hugely successful Roulette for three reasons: I had my personal skills tested, I had to approach this in a novel way, and it highlighted that I look forward to practicing.

Last year I was super bummed my last move got in the way of finishing, and I am excited to have taken part this year. As an added note: the backgrounds made with the Canva background generation. It also has a super useful BG removal tool too.”

Grouchy Lenny

Camo / Hazard

“Here’s my entry for Camo Hazard. Thanks for running this contest it was just the motivation I needed to get painting again! I don’t have the chops so many of the other entrants do but I have been inspired by their work and the camaraderie in the Discord group! Have a great day!”

Jeffrey Brasier

Spots / Foundry

My inspiration for this was a P-51 Mustang and the clean polished aluminum look. For the circles I used a pool 8-ball on the cockpit canopy while highlighting some of the natural circles on the Bushwhacker. I used a paint that is widely used for the P-51 Mustang models for the base coat, but it does not hold well to handling. I covered the base coat with clear gloss to protect it. I found that the acrylics had a very difficult time adhering to the enamel and kept coming off while I was working on other parts of the mech. As a result, I had to stop a little earlier on my detail work than I wanted to protect what I had already completed.

I created a water base for the first time and feel like it turned out well. I hope the pictures capture that. It looks like a stream passing below the mech. I feel like I learned more don’ts doing this project, but I tried to play around with things I wouldn’t have normally done. I entered the PRI to challenge myself and feel like that is exactly what I did. Thank you so much for running the PRI. It was amazing to see the things everyone else was working on. I hope you continue this in the future.”

Yakudami

Lines / Lore

“For my PRI assignment “LINES – LORE” I prepared this pre-Star League Mackie in Nueva Castille’s Castillan Brigada paint scheme. I first came across this particular paint scheme while browsing camospecs online, and it really stuck with me. This assignment felt like the perfect push to actually paint it.

It was a great opportunity to try out some new colors, paints, and techniques. Doing the freehand lines was actually much easier and quicker than I thought it would be. That’s also the first time for me painting battletech mech in subassemblies. While I wouldn’t say everything came out absolutely perfect, I am still quite satisfied with the final results. I somewhat got carried away and the whole Castillan Brigada lance to accompany my Mackie is already in the making 😛

Thank you for organizing this wonderful opportunity that brings together so many talented artists. I hope to participate again in the future!”

Check out Yakudami on Instagram.

Chad Nabors

Stencilled / Oceanic

“I painted this Steel Rift Scarab up in beachy tones partially inspired by a gorgeous, teal vintage Bronco I’ve seen rolling around town. The teal bodywork has subtle light to dark variations along the limbs and torso. A magenta canopy with bright white frame sets off the scheme wonderfully. Homemade pastel powder I whipped up the beach chair from acrylic card and staples. The beach is closed until further notice!”