My first step was to set the base down for the mini's lighter sections, using a pale gray thinned with 2 drops of distilled water and Future floor polish. This helps the gray to flow into all of the recess and keep it smooth.
Now I outlined and set down the areas for the darker color, which is a navy blue. Again, this was thinned to help it flow smoothly.
Now I hit it with a light black wash to help bring out the details a little more.
The next step was to go in and lay down a drybrush with the original base colors. Once that was done, I added one drop of white to each and highlighted the edges. Here is a shot of the back where the effect was more visible:
Now I needed to start laying down the areas I where was going to lay down some of the details for the mech. My first step was to paint the stripes where the checkers are going to go.
Now I blacked in the metallic areas and outlined the stripes.
Here is one of the "missed" shots, which was the painting of checkers... so I will just say it was a real fun chore to do.