Last Painter Standing II: The Tessen Project
(or, how to go down in a ball of flame)
By William "sounguru" Burt
I would like to start out by thanking Bill, IWM, and all of the readers of TMP. This contest to me is a fantastic chance to paint one of my favorite subjects: mechs. I would like to think all of those that voted for me in the prelim rounds of this contest. I was surprised and awed by some of the entries that didn't make it to the finals, and to be chosen is a real honor. Okay, enough of the sucking up - let's get started.
I'm going to skip the whole assembly and mold-line removal for sake of keeping this to a reasonable size. I will start by saying that I chose do no modifications, except for a few dents in this mini.
One of the things I like to do is come up with a little story to help me keep my goal in mind, before starting. So after 2 dunks in the stripper, here is what I came up with:
After the creation of the Republic of the Sphere, Devlin Stone's ideas for peace seemed to be working. The Inner Sphere had finally achieved a peace that it had not known for 100's of years. One way this was achieved was to destroy, mothball - or in some cases, hide - the most powerful weapons of war - the Mechs.
When the HPG network collapsed, there was a rush to find and reactivate these awesome weapons of war. War had once again come to the Inner Sphere. Kelly Johnson's planet was under attack by a rogue merc unit, and something had to be done. Many had heard of the great Tessen that was still standing on the plains south of the city - a final monument to the end of war. The Tessen had been standing there for years... so long, that the elements had begun to take their toll on the mighty beast. All of the paint had long since faded away and the mech was in bad shape, but if it could be reactivated, then Johnson could begin the hunt for the pirates that had attacked his world and extract some payback. The hunt began on the rain-soaked junkyard south of the city.
This was my train of thought as I painted up my first-round entry. It gave me the chance to try an all-metallic paint scheme.
Also, to let you all know, the mech was shot against a green screen and then had the background removed to make it easier to see the colors. The only other adjustments were sizing, sharpening and brightness to help you see the details. The finals are shot on a black-fade background that, if anyone would like to know my secret background trick, just drop me a line (it is real cheap and easy). These had no adjustments to the brightness, to show the true colors of the finished piece.