This scheme was originally based on the cover art of Jiyi Chitsu’s Emerald for the novel Without Question by Bryan Young, and matches the description of the Ghostbird Star’s units in the novel. It’s also a good general Jade Falcon scheme that can stand in for several forces, such as Kappa Galaxy during the Clan Invasion era, or Delta Galaxy’s Dark Age scheme.
This is an XTPS (Experimental Technical Paint Scheme) which uses a few odd tricks, materials, and pretty much requires an airbrush. If you got an airbrush recently, give this a try!
Basecoat: The base-coat was created by starting with ProAcryl (abbreviated PA) Dark Plum, then airbrushing the midtones with PA Medium Grey, and highlights with a 50:50 of that grey with PA Bold Titanium White. This creates soft blends that work especially well for the Turkina’s wide flat torso, with subtly purple shadows that will help the greens pop later.
Next, the mini is lightly sprayed with an even coat of Turbodork Dark Net. This is a really useful paint, its almost completely transparent but will apply a holographic glittery look over anything you spray it on with slight green and cyan reflections. Using too much will cause a lot of oranges to come through, which is not desirable here, so just one or two light coats are appropriate. You might ask if you can brush this on– sometimes with Turbodork you can… but for an all-over coat like this, you’ll end up with unsightly streaking. Finally, hit the miniature with a gloss coat. This will help the overall effect, and we want to protect our work so far. If you mar the surface after this point, you’ll probably have to strip and start over.
For the wash I have another unusual technique, Newsh.
If you have not caught on yet, I’m big on ProAcryl. Their Newsh medium essentially lets you create your own washes using acrylics. If you want to know more I’d recommend looking up some videos, but to summarize; I add one part PA Dark Plum to five parts Newsh medium, and enough water to ensure its nice and loose. Slather the miniature in this stuff and wait about 45 seconds, then start dabbing it off with a makeup sponge or a micro-fiber cloth (No paper products!). Give it 15 minutes to draw. Voila! You have a purple oil wash in your recesses that perfectly matches your earlier shadows. If that’s all too much and you just want a traditional pin-wash, I’d go with Citadel Druchii Violet.
Go ahead and apply decals now before continuing. The rest of the mini is pretty straightforward.
Metallics / Bare Metal: Base in any black you want, then Vallejo Metal Air Silver, then Vallejo Dark Wash. I don’t bother to highlight after this step personally.
Green Trim: PA Jade to PA Green. For these kinds of gradients I just mix a little of my Green into the jade, then paint a smaller area. Keep repeating that until its just green. Stop here for the forest green Dark Age Delta Galaxy look, or edge highlight with a brighter color like PA Bright Yellow Green for a bright electric look.
Magenta Windows: Same technique as the green, but this time move from one corner of the window to another with PA Dark Plum to PA Fluorescent Purple to PA Fluorescent Pink. If you want the window to look like its glowing, base-coat with white first, and apply your colors from lightest to darkest.
Basing: This is a simple base of Vallejo Grey Pumice texture painted with our purples from before, with some of those classic Alien Neon tufts from Gamer Grass.
And that’s how Versus paints their Jade Falcon Remnants. This miniature was the first Battletech mini I took real seriously. After reading A Question of Survival by Bryan Young, I joked with him that he had tricked me thoroughly, I was expecting to go through my Battletech career staunchly on team Ghost Bear, but after joining Jiyi Chitsu and Alexis Zarnofsky of their journeys, I cannot deny…
I am Jade Falcon
Seyla, Mechwarriors
-Versus