ruins a laser printer and learns to hand-letter.
It was precisely when our work was most firmly grounded on the book of Euclid that the uninitiated were the most positive that the ships were being painted haphazard by a group of crazy Cubists.
-Everett Warner, on his WWI warship dazzle schemes
This theme was unusual, in that there was a link provided for reference. Using the link and other resources, I was able to find a wide variety of historical "dazzle" schemes to choose from. The one below is a pattern referred to as a Type 25 Design. It's the inspiration for my piece this time.
As you can see, this is a pretty confusing pattern. The idea is not to hide the object, but rather to break up its lines so that an observer has a hard time judging distance and orientation. I looked through my selection of minis for something that had a confusing appearance and was suitably large, to retain the "warship" feel. The Vanquisher is perfect: it's a big, blocky 'Mech that is not particularly humanoid in appearance. Here's a pic of one properly assembled (from the IWM site), followed by a pic of the parts on my workbench:
I decided to modify the pose to give a more dynamic feel. Since the feet were fused to the same base plate, I started by cutting them apart. Next, I cut the legs at the knee joint so I could change the bend angle (more on this later). I also drilled out the barrels of the big guns (which are Light Gauss Rifles, by the way).
