Archer – Death Commandos

Scheme Reference

Death Commando soldiers paint their BattleMechs black, occasionally trimming them with Liao Green.

Camo Specs Online

Artist Notes

1. (Optional) Make a base. I applied PVA glue using a cheap brush, then dipped the base in sand. I then used another cheap brush to clean up any spill from the feet and legs.Let it dry for a couple of hours.
2. Apply cheap white rattlecan primer.
3. A coat of Army Painter Speed Paint Occultist Cloak. Let it dry completely, then apply a second coat in the same color.
4. Paint the metal parts in Army Painter Fanatics Plate Mail Metal, then apply a coat of Army Painter Fanatics Rust Tone wash over the metal parts. Thinning the wash will improve the look, but isn’t strictly necessary.
5. Paint the green parts in Army Painter Fanatics Angel Green.
6. (Optional) At this part i paint details like weapons and the cockpit. The cockpit is Army Painter Fanatics Basilisk Red, followed by a rough L-shape in Army Painter Fanatics Pure Red, followed by a smaller L-shape of Pure Red mixed with Army Painter Fanatics Pale Sand. The large lasers are Army Painter Fanatics Magecast Magenta mixed with any black, followed by a U-shape of pure Magecast Magenta. I then added a few dots of light reflection with pure Pale Sand.
7. If you made mistakes in the previous parts, you can fix the black with a roughly 2:1 mix of Army Painter Fanatics Matt Black and Army Painter Fanatics Deep Grey.
8. Apply highlights. For the blacks, i used Deep Grey for a pretty widespread edge highlight, followed by spot highlights (focusing the upper parts of the panels etc) with a 1:1 mix of Deep Grey and Army Painter Fanatics Ash Grey, and then some even smaller spots in Ash Grey, focused around the cockpit and hands. For the greens, i first used Army Painter Fanatics Greenskin for edge highlights, followed by a 1:1 mix of Greenskin and Rainforest for spot highlights. You could probably go for a less flashy green in place of Rainforest, but i like my mechs to have some really vivid colors.
9. (optional) Freehanding the logo and some other details. You can absolutely go for decals or even leave them out, but if you want to copy mine, i use layering for the Death Commando logo. A triangle in Army Painter Fanatics Daemonic Yellow, followed by a smaller triangle of Greenskin. Then i painted a rough skull shape in Pale Sand over that, and painted shadows, eyes, nose and mouth with Matt Black. The kanji and the stenciled number are both painted with Pale Sand and a whole lot of fixing my mistakes with the Matt Black / Deep Grey mix i mentioned earlier. 9. Finish the base. I painted the sand in Army Painter Fanatics Desert Yellow and the asphalt in Ash Grey. I then picked an old, broken drybrush, dipped it in various shades of grey i still had on my palette and made some dots on the asphalt. Finally, i painted a road marking in Daemonic Yellow. I then applied a coat of Army Painter Fanatics Soft Tone wash all over the base, and after it was dry, i drybrushed the sand with Army Painter Fanatics Ice Yellow, painted over the road marking again with Daemonic Yellow, and added some more grey dots to the asphalt for good measure. I then painted the sides of the hexbase in Matt Black.
10. Apply AK Interactive Ultra Matte Varnish on everything.
11. (Optional) Apply AK Interactive Glossy Varnish on the cockpit and lasers.