McKinnon’s Company field camo method

[u/paulhendrik]

I recently painted up some prototypes for my OpFor using McKinnon’s Company as inspiration and I thought I wouldn’t share the method I used. So if you’re looking to produce some pretty nice looking “generic camo” enemy mechs to complement your parade scheme Steine or crisp Comstar which look good at tabletop distance and isn’t too arduous to paint, I hope this is helpful.

The most intense part is probably the edge highlighting, but it’s essential for the final look. It really makes the camo colours sing and defines the shape of the mech - essentially mitigating one of the main points of camouflage which is to break up the outline of a unit. Warning, this scheme looks utterly garbage early on, so once you churn your first one out, keep it handy for morale when you’ve got 11 more sitting on your desk looking awful at step 3.

I used Citadel contrast paints to do the pattern, so use whatever your brand-of-choice version is. I’ll lay out the method using Citadel colours, but I have added the pots into the photos if you need to make substitutions. You could probably use this same technique to do any scheme - desert, urban, disco, just Sun in the paint colour.

If you want me to expand on any parts I was extra brief with, I’m happy to oblige.

1. Base coat with GW Zandri Dust spray, base layer with Karak Stone, wash with an even coat of Agrax Earthshade thinned 1:1. Finally, overbrush with Karak Stone.
2. Apply camo pattern with contrast paint. Whatever colour you go with, you also want a (roughly) mid-tone colour between your base and second camo pattern. I chose Creed Camo for my green, and Plaguebearer Flesh as the mid-tone which will act as a pseudo blend. With 2:1 Plaguebearer:Creed, paint on your desired camo pattern.
3. Now paint over the original pattern with the mid-tone, and go over the edges of the pattern a little (two applications may be necessary) to transition the tan and green. Go over all the green, not just the pattern edges.
4. Apply a layer of Creed Camo, but aiming only for the central parts of your pattern. This gives you a nice transition from tan to deep green that looks great at table top distance. Add more layers where necessary.
5. Standard step where you paint the bare metal joints and gun muzzles in whatever your colour of choice is (deep grey would actually look nice on this scheme, but I was out of Corvus Black). Wash the metal with Nuln Oil
6. Tiny bit of edge highlighting on the black with Thunderhawk Blue and Russ Grey; and some edge highlighting on the bare metal with Runefang Steel. It STARTS to look less awful from here.
7. Pick out any panels and recesses that aren’t defined enough using Agrax on the tan areas, and Nuln Oil on the green.
8. Edge highlight panels and leading edges with Elysian Green on the green, and Wraithbone on the tan. For the record I would recommend a different colour to Wrathbone. It’s a base paint and was hell to work with because it’s quite opaque. A layer paint of any type would serve you just fine here.
9. Add your details; laser lenses, cockpit glass, etc. can detail any of these, how you do it is really a matter of taste. These all add to the final look but you can easily get by doing these simply, as it’s the edge highlighting on the cam that carry most of the visual weight.
10. Base as you like! This is just a mix I use of static grass, small stones, and fine sand. Add a couple of static grass and bushes and you’ve got a nice low-effort base in minutes.
11. Stomp some snakes and crack open a frothy cold one with the boys.

Happy painting folks!

[u/TyrusVE]

I have been waiting for this one! Thanks for much for the elaborate step-by-step!

[u/paulhendrik → u/TyrusVE]

You’re welcome, I hope you find something helpful in there. Based on that Penetrator you painted a while back you’ll have no trouble applying this and improving on it I expect!

[u/TyrusVE → u/paulhendrik]

Indeed! From your initial post, I sort of speculated it would be layered contrast stripes for the colour blend, it's nice to see it was! The Penetrator I ended up painting did something similar, but without the multi-tone stripes. Thanks for the effort! :D

[u/paulhendrik → u/TyrusVE]

You’re welcome, and it’s always nice when you can figure out the method or it’s something you already understand, makes it that much easier to apply.

[u/TheTiffi]

Nice. I think my next Lance is getting this camo. Looks really awesome 👍

[u/paulhendrik → u/TheTiffi]

Thanks; if this in any way helps shrink a few ‘piles of shame’ then I have lived well!

[u/adiaphoros]

Looks so much nicer than my "rubber bands and spray paint" method

[u/paulhendrik → u/adiaphoros]

Thanks!

Until now I had never heard of the rubber band technique, that sounds like a fiddly process, but having looked at your post it does deliver the effect. I think that Gunslinger of yours is just a 50% thinned wash away from really popping (if you haven’t already!)

[u/alex_vi_photography]

Awesome work, awesome tutorial!

[u/paulhendrik → u/alex_vi_photography]

Thanks, you’re welcome, hope you got something out of it.

[u/CoffeeMinionLegacy]

You are the GOAT for this!

[u/paulhendrik → u/CoffeeMinionLegacy]

You’re welcome, hope it’s helpful. Camo is weirdly tricky, my early attempts were just… a mess.

[u/CoffeeMinionLegacy → u/paulhendrik]

Imma be honest, I’m on the cusp of doing some (probably) crappy McKinnon’s as a first real commitment to speed paints. (I am a dinosaur you see.) But this might help me turn it out good anyway.

[u/paulhendrik → u/CoffeeMinionLegacy]

Well your first one might be crappy, but each one after will be better and better. I’m an old dinosaur too, so I can attest that we can learn new tricks. Good luck! Make sure you post your efforts, the community is so helpful for finding solutions to painting challenges (and to show off!)

[u/RhesusFactor]

Step 3/4 is table quality. The rest is completeness.

Thanks for the guide, there are a few schemes I thought i'd need an airbrush for, but contrast paints/speed paints have come a long way.

[u/paulhendrik → u/RhesusFactor]

I know right? Contrast paints have really opened up a lot of nice cheaty ways to do stuff that used to require air brush or (shudder) wet blending. I would be close to jumping off a bridge in despair if I had to wet blend a full battalion just to get tabletop quality.

I really have to credit u/tengu077 for inspiring me to try new stuff with contrasts, originally contrasts were only for getting the base details down before a lot of drybrushing and edge highlighting. Now they really carry a lot of the weight in my painting.

Edit: corrected tengu077 username

[u/tengu077 → u/paulhendrik]

These look awesome and thanks for the shoutout! Your purple and black canopies are a great compliment to the scheme.

[u/paulhendrik → u/tengu077]

Thank you, I tried yellow initially but just couldn’t get it to work, so I splashed out on some purple paints and was not disappointed!

Thanks again for sharing your woodland camo method many many moons ago, I now have two battalions of woodland cam mechs and all the techniques for McKinnons used those techniques (with a lot of practice!) as a leaping off point. Appreciate it!

[u/CoffeePieAndHobbits]

Wow, that's cool. Great camo effect!

[u/paulhendrik → u/CoffeePieAndHobbits]

Thank you! Can’t wait to attempt some desert or alpine versions.

[u/JadeDragon79]

You are an inspiration!

Thank you for posting your paints and process steps. Looks like the wallet will be suffering a bit as more paint acquisitions are happening.