So mere moments after writing my Letter from the Hobby Desk, I looked down and realised that I had another project sitting literally by my feet in a box.

Back in January, the Dastardly Regular Opponent decided that I didn’t have enough tiny robots in my life and got me this set for my Birthday. I was a little distracted for a month or so, meaning this box had to go in my stockpile of unopened boxes.

But, I am a slightly practical man. And I know that I could easily hammer out a lance of Mechs in one evening of painting. Combining that with the prospect of some Mech Warrioring on Friday with the Regular Opponents, I decided it was time… for some speed painting while working from home.

The Inner Sphere Urban Lance contains four mechs (Victor, Enforcer, Hunchback and Raven) as well as various cards needed for them. I do kind of love the Battletech boxes but it also gives me a strong sense of concern at just how easily I could get into this whole other game.

Once the figures are popped from the plastic, you get some very nice plastic models complete with hex bases. Quality is generally good – I didn’t see anywhere that needed any sort of major cleanup and frankly I’d be more than happy to get them on the table as is. However, painting them would definitely be fun and a chance to get used to painting at this smaller scale. I didn’t actually have any colour scheme in mind, more just looking at what I had to hand and what grabbed my attention.

After spray undercoating at lunch, it was then time for some speed painting. I started off painting in Leadbelcher for the metallic look, before going for my main colour – turquoise contrast. This gave me a pretty nice base colour, offset by yellow and orange elements. A drybrush of metal to catch the edges, a black wash to catch any topology I had missed and then a final highlight of the element colours to make them pop. Even so, they looked initially a touch flat, so adding a new shade of metal (a nice bronze) for another accent. Finally, chinchilla dust on the base gave the texture, as well as helping the dark armour stand out.

Overall I’m happy with them! Definitely had a moment or two where I was worried I’d screwed them up but for a painting challenge that took me less than 6 hours from unboxing to painted, it’s not bad. I could probably have done more to make them a realistic or lore-accurate scheme but frankly, I’m just happy they are all painted and ready to game with… once I print off the paperwork for them.

Of course, it’s also pretty cool to see them painted next to some of Lazy Forger’s lovely 6mm terrain I’ve been printing. I really need to get some more stuff printed to use them…

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