paints 
Throttling down his Maelstrom, Lt. Colonel Kenny White slowed his 75-ton machine to a halt to survey the battlefield. Even before he gave the command, infantry units were scurrying ahead and clearing out any remaining opposition from the bunkers and trenches scattered across the valley.
"Another no-name planet with something to fight over... Another paycheck," he thought to himself. The Hydra Squadron had taken relatively few losses, but this was mostly due to the overwhelming force the Medusans brought to the fight.
The severed head of a No-Dachi lay at his Mech's feet. Kenny had dealt the spectacular killing blow that sent the cockpit and pilot crashing to the ground. As he gazed at the potential salvage, he couldn't help but wish there had been a more organized force. Realizing he was longing for a bloodier fight, Kenny shook off the notion and advanced his machine through the battlefield. He was now thinking, "Any fight we survive and get paid for is a good one."
Since I didn't put this in my last write-up, I'd like to thank everyone for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this contest. I'm glad I was able to make it to the finals, and now past the first round of elimination. I've already taken a few nuggets of wisdom from the comments made about the entries here and started applying them to my work. Hopefully, this piece will be as well received as my last. I hope you enjoy the write-up and pictures, because I certainly had a great time with this project.
From the miniatures sent to me, the one with the best surface area for something like nose art was the 75-ton Maelstrom. I've never assembled or painted this particular model before, but I had a lot of ideas about what I could do to make it fit this round's theme.
My original idea was to paint a Roman soldier throwing a spear on the right side of the mini. While doing research on the armor and look of a Roman soldier, I stumbled across some Greek and Roman mythology sites and started looking at images. This evolved into painting Ares and his dog, and then further evolved into adding Zeus on the opposite side. With all the Greek inspiration, I decided the Mech's name would be "Olympus," the mountain where the gods lived, and that I would try and incorporate an official Classic BattleTech paint scheme if at all possible.
Some research in my own collection - as well as on Camospecsonline.com - led me to a mercenary unit named "The Medusans." Well, there's the Greek theme I was looking for, and although the scheme of basic grey with gold, red, or blue trim doesn't make for an eye-catching paintjob, it does allow more visibility of hand-painted nose art and emblems.
There's the background to my work, so on with the write-up!
Preparation:
I filed and trimmed all the flash and mold lines from the miniature and hex base. I used a pin vice, and pinned all the joints for added strength.
I decided not to repose this miniature, due to its leg and hip structure being attached to the body. I did, however, choose to add a No-Dachi Mech's severed head and infantryman to the base, along with some rocks, to counter the static pose of the mech.
I placed the Infantry into the still soft JB Waterweld epoxy that I used to fill the base - and then removed it, leaving a spot to re-attach him later. This let me glue it to a wooden dowel, so that I could paint it easily without having to get around the legs of the Maelstrom.
As with my last entry, I cleaned the miniature with soap and water - and once dry, used Krylon White Primer. After curing, I started on the Maelstrom with a mix of GW Black Ink, Liquitex Flo-Aid and water to get a nice coverage wash of the entire miniature. Once dry, I sealed with GW Matte Sealer to prevent the ink from smudging or lifting later on. (I'll get to the infantryman later on.)
