HOME | DD

Description
Back in 2010, I made a small Taurian Guards force , made mainly with miniatures that my LGS couldn't sell. Recently, I decided to expand on that force, and to compare how much I've improved. Truth is, not by much. I just dumped way more hours into it.

This time, on the other side of the world, I was using mainly acrylic paints by Tamiya as that's what's accessible. Those paints have much weaker pigmentation than miniatures paints, but still better pigmentation than most craft paints which were used on the first batch. For these, they were first primed using Tamiya metal primer, and then sprayed with a base-coat of brown spray paint. I tried to apply a zenithal coat of Tamiya XF68 Nato brown and XF52 Flat earth to the top of each miniature using an air brush, but it wasn't especially noticeable. I blocked in all areas to be red with Mr. Hobby Acrysion N33 Russet, and areas to be gold with Tamiya X34 metallic brown. Metal sections were painted in Tamiya X10 Gunmetal. The whole miniatures were then given a Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash. Brown areas were given 3-tone edge highlights in XF52 Flat Earth, XF68 Nato brown, and if the last edge highlight was too strong, X9 Brown mixed with X21 flat base to remove the gloss. Red areas were first edge highlighted using a mix of the aforementioned Russet mixed with Tamiya XF3 Flat Yellow to make an orange highlight, a second highlight of XF7 flat red, and finally, the rest of the red areas were blocked in with N33 Russet, especially to hide any pooling from the wash. Over the metallic brown, I blocked in the center of panels with Tamiya X12 Gold Leaf (I actually regret not mixing in a little of the metallic brown, as the gold leaf was much brighter than the gold I'd used from Reaper a decade ago.) I went back over the metal sections with Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminum for edge highlights, then XF56 Metallic Grey for areas that needed cleaning up and smoother gradation from the silver. Cockpits again I based with Tamiya X1 Black, and tried to paint using Tamiya X6 Orange, but I'm not very happy with the colors it gave me. Besides the poor pigmentation, it was more of a fruit orange than a pumpkin orange I'd originally used, so the cockpits actually turned out worse on these ones than the ones from a decade ago.

The Taurian Guard and Taurian Concordat logos were hand-painted onto the miniatures, while additional decals were added. I didn't have the same Square white number decals from those years ago, so I made do with some of Gundam decals I had lying around, and some stencil decals from Fighting Pirannha Graphics I had for a future project. Tamiya X14 Sky Blue was used for PPC lensing, and Tamiya XF7 Flat Red were used for laser lensing. Basing was very simple, as my first batch were based using a fistful of sand from a public playground. The closest I could do was a light colored flocking with light grey gravel. Not impressive but close enough that it won't clash with the old minis.

All units are painted per the Camospecs / Field Manual instructions: The Taurian Guard paint their machines brown with red and gold accents.

I had hoped to have a Brahma in this force as it's one of the production mechs for the Concordat, but it turned out that no miniature for it was ever produced. In a rush to beat the pewter price jump I opted to add a Talos , which while is very Taurian, is also too much of a unicorn having been out of production since before the fall of the star league. I was already playing the unicorn card with the Toro. At the very least, three out of four of the vees are produced in Taurian space, with the Po being mass manufactured by the Capellans also for export after the 4th succession war, so as a former Trinity Alliance state, made sense to have it to fill the roster. Similarly, the Asterion Battle Armor were a product of the Trinity alliance, and one of the few suits the Concordat produced. Unfortunately I don't have any troop carriers or omnimechs for those suits, so they'll have to be used in defensive roles.

Mechs (Left to right): Marshal, Talos, Hawk Wolf, Toro.
Tanks (Left to right): Vedette Medium Tank, J. Edgar Hovertank, Hunter Light Tank, Po Heavy Tank
Battle Armor: Asterion Medium BA (Trinity BA)

Description
Back in 2010, I made a small Taurian Guards force , made mainly with miniatures that my LGS couldn't sell. Recently, I decided to expand on that force, and to compare how much I've improved. Truth is, not by much. I just dumped way more hours into it.

This time, on the other side of the world, I was using mainly acrylic paints by Tamiya as that's what's accessible. Those paints have much weaker pigmentation than miniatures paints, but still better pigmentation than most craft paints which were used on the first batch. For these, they were first primed using Tamiya metal primer, and then sprayed with a base-coat of brown spray paint. I tried to apply a zenithal coat of Tamiya XF68 Nato brown and XF52 Flat earth to the top of each miniature using an air brush, but it wasn't especially noticeable. I blocked in all areas to be red with Mr. Hobby Acrysion N33 Russet, and areas to be gold with Tamiya X34 metallic brown. Metal sections were painted in Tamiya X10 Gunmetal. The whole miniatures were then given a Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash. Brown areas were given 3-tone edge highlights in XF52 Flat Earth, XF68 Nato brown, and if the last edge highlight was too strong, X9 Brown mixed with X21 flat base to remove the gloss. Red areas were first edge highlighted using a mix of the aforementioned Russet mixed with Tamiya XF3 Flat Yellow to make an orange highlight, a second highlight of XF7 flat red, and finally, the rest of the red areas were blocked in with N33 Russet, especially to hide any pooling from the wash. Over the metallic brown, I blocked in the center of panels with Tamiya X12 Gold Leaf (I actually regret not mixing in a little of the metallic brown, as the gold leaf was much brighter than the gold I'd used from Reaper a decade ago.) I went back over the metal sections with Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminum for edge highlights, then XF56 Metallic Grey for areas that needed cleaning up and smoother gradation from the silver. Cockpits again I based with Tamiya X1 Black, and tried to paint using Tamiya X6 Orange, but I'm not very happy with the colors it gave me. Besides the poor pigmentation, it was more of a fruit orange than a pumpkin orange I'd originally used, so the cockpits actually turned out worse on these ones than the ones from a decade ago.

The Taurian Guard and Taurian Concordat logos were hand-painted onto the miniatures, while additional decals were added. I didn't have the same Square white number decals from those years ago, so I made do with some of Gundam decals I had lying around, and some stencil decals from Fighting Pirannha Graphics I had for a future project. Tamiya X14 Sky Blue was used for PPC lensing, and Tamiya XF7 Flat Red were used for laser lensing. Basing was very simple, as my first batch were based using a fistful of sand from a public playground. The closest I could do was a light colored flocking with light grey gravel. Not impressive but close enough that it won't clash with the old minis.

All units are painted per the Camospecs / Field Manual instructions: The Taurian Guard paint their machines brown with red and gold accents.

I had hoped to have a Brahma in this force as it's one of the production mechs for the Concordat, but it turned out that no miniature for it was ever produced. In a rush to beat the pewter price jump I opted to add a Talos , which while is very Taurian, is also too much of a unicorn having been out of production since before the fall of the star league. I was already playing the unicorn card with the Toro. At the very least, three out of four of the vees are produced in Taurian space, with the Po being mass manufactured by the Capellans also for export after the 4th succession war, so as a former Trinity Alliance state, made sense to have it to fill the roster. Similarly, the Asterion Battle Armor were a product of the Trinity alliance, and one of the few suits the Concordat produced. Unfortunately I don't have any troop carriers or omnimechs for those suits, so they'll have to be used in defensive roles.

Mechs (Left to right): Marshal, Talos, Hawk Wolf, Toro.
Tanks (Left to right): Vedette Medium Tank, J. Edgar Hovertank, Hunter Light Tank, Po Heavy Tank
Battle Armor: Asterion Medium BA (Trinity BA)