Big Dog

So here we have the second go at the CMG Protolene Ayame mecha. My original paint scheme was a lot of subtle airbrushing that aimed to make the suit look like a wolf's pelt or some kind of wild animal. Frankly, it sucked. It just looked like random splodges of greys and browns all over the place.

However, after using the nifty metallic paint that you have to polish up in the Secret Wedding Project I thought that it might make a nice metallic texture for the mecha.

The base coat is the Humbrol Brushed Aluminium that was polished (carefully - the resin is quite delicate) with a toothbrush. I then washed it with GW badab black to age it a bit. Over the top are a couple of Tamiya greys - Field Grey and Sea Grey I think. I then touched up the claws and "toes"with some GW Bolt Gun. Based using brown ballast, flock, Silfor tufts and a cork boulder, as usual.

I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I actually bought one of the Hunter and one of the Predator variants and swapped the arms, so each has a gun arm and a claw arm. I also have a newer Ayame Khan Scout variant with a pair of Gatling cannons which looks very mean.

I am slightly on the horns of a dilemma, though, as the rest of my Protolene forces are painted in very bold colours, partly because I figure the canine Protolene might be colour blind and also because I intend them to be a band of space pirates, so they are showing their "fierce face" by choosing to ignore camo. The Ayame, on the other hand, is quite subdued. It's not varnished yet, so I could go back and add some bolder colours, or maybe some kind of snarly shark mouth to it....

Nevertheless, I really like the Ayame's, they remind me of the Games Workshop Tau battle suits, especially the more recent versions. Combined with the GZG mini drones and the maybe the CMG Praesentia vehicles or perhaps the Khurasan Pelagic Dominate they could make good proxies for a 15mm Tau army.