“The Adder Is Capable Of Carrying A Relatively Heavy Weapons Payload…”

“…That can surprise an unsuspecting enemy, even at extreme ranges.”

This 1:285 scale pre-built plastic model of an Adder is produced by “Catalyst Game Labs” and can be found together with an Executioner, Timber Wolf, Nova, and Grendel in the company’s “Battletech: Clan Invasion” boxed set. All the pre-assembled miniatures in this “supplement to the BattleTech: A Game of Armoured Combat box” come with an assortment of Alpha Strike cards depicting various colour schemes. But as I plan to use this particular sculpt as a Sopwith class British War Walker for an upcoming Weird War Two campaign using some homemade rules, I decided to go with a predominantly light brown palette.

“Codenamed Puma by Inner Sphere forces who first engaged it”, the 33mm tall figure was initially given a double undercoat of “Vallejo” Earth and shaded in “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade. It was then dry-brushed using (more) “Vallejo” Earth with a softly-bristled make-up blusher brush, and had its rather prominent cockpit’s windows ‘picked out’ with a dab of “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

"We shall fight on the beaches."

Originally, my plan for this machine’s colour scheme was to somewhat match that of the two Shadow Cat models I have previously painted as Hawker class British War Walkers. So with that in mind I started to apply a layer of “Vallejo” Heavy Green to the light Clan OmniMech’s legs. However, I soon gave up on this idea as I simply didn’t like the overall look of the contrasting colours in that area, and frankly was finding it devilishly hard to get my brush-tip underneath the squat-looking sculpt’s blocky carapace.

In the end I therefore settled upon simply ‘picking out’ a couple of the Adder’s much more prominently-placed armour plates with a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Green and “Citadel” Biel-Tan Green. Before applying some “Vallejo” Gunmetal, and later a splattering of “Citadel” Nuln Oil, to the model’s pair of Extended Range (ER) Particle Projector Cannons, some air vents, shoulder-joints, ankle-joints and knee-joints. In addition, I repainted the figure’s nose cone, having felt the “Vallejo” Heavy Red I had initially decided upon made the war machine look too much like Rudolph the Reindeer.

"We shall go on to the end."

Lastly, I dug out three of the smallest Union Flag transfers I could find within my assortment of “Decal Details” and placed them upon the three (Ferro-Fibrous) armour plates I had previously pigmented green. This really made the red, white and blue of the national colours stand out, and gave the small-sized mech a distinctly patriotic feel.

Alongside my latest addition to my ever-growing “Battletech” collection I have also finished the largest (and final) "Bolt Action" Shell Hole produced by “Warlord Games” for this month’s Season Of Scenery Challenge. This dual-crater was super-glued onto an 80mm “Citadel” round base and given an Abaddon Black undercoat, a rough layer of Doombull Brown, a highlight of Rakarth Flesh and finally, a splash Agrax Earthshade wash.