“The Warhawk Was Powered By A Massive 340 XL Engine…”

“…That gave it a top speed of 64.8 km/h and mounted thirteen and a half tons of Ferro-Fibrous armour.”

This 1:285 scale pre-built plastic model of a Warhawk is produced by “Catalyst Game Labs” and can be found in the “BattleTech: Clan Fire Star” along with a Kit Fox, Cougar, Fire Moth, and Nova Cat. All the pre-assembled miniatures also come with an assortment of MechWarrior pilot and Alpha Strike cards depicting various colour schemes. But as I plan to use this particular sculpt as a Bloch class French War Walker for an upcoming Weird War Two campaign using some homemade rules, I decided to go with a predominantly pale blue palette.

“Introduced by Clan Smoke Jaguar in 2999”, the 43mm tall figure was initially given a double undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and shaded in “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade. It was then dry-brushed using (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey with a softly-bristled make-up blusher brush, and had its cockpit windows ‘picked out’ with the odd dab of “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

"Ground Zero Games" WIPs - These Xenomorphs have been primed, based-coated and dry-brushed

I also applied a base layer of “Citadel” Abaddon Black to the Warhawk’s four Extended Range Particle Projector Cannons and LRM-10 Launcher, as well as numerous vents and the odd piece of armour plating. These areas were all later treated to a lick of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and a generous splash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Finally, I stuck some French roundels by “Decal Details” to the mech’s front legs, the Tricolore to the machine’s upper carapace and the name “Boiurgueil” to its hull. These transfers actually took quite a few attempts as I found that they started to disintegrate very quickly in the water if I waited too long for them to detach themselves from their paper.

"Reaper Miniatures" WIPs - Natalia, Female Secret Agent is just having her details 'picked out'.

In addition to my latest Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry I have been progressing twenty 15mm scale metal Xenomorphs by “Ground Zero Games”. These are the last of the alien figures I purchased from the company’s Stargrunt Infantry range last year, and have been based on the small, medium and large Flames of War bases produced by “Battlefront Miniatures” to represent different sized packs of Xenomorph XX121.

Lastly, I've managed to get my hands on the 28mm model Natalia, Female Secret Agent by “Reaper Miniatures”. I spotted this striking not-Black Widow figure on Planetmut’s excellent blog “PM Painting”, and thought it would make an excellent proxy for the actress Scarlett Johansson, so the Academy Award nominee could join my other adventurers in their exploits on Gamma World…