This 1:285 scale plastic model of a Jenner is made by “Catalyst Game Labs” and can be bought together with a Blackjack, Panther, and Wolfhound in the company’s “Battletech: Inner Sphere Striker Lance” boxed set. 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 Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze class Polish War Walker for an upcoming Weird War Two campaign utilising some homemade rules, I decided to go with a predominantly light brown palette.
As a result, the 31mm sized figure was undercoated in “Vallejo” Heavy Brown so as to better replicate the colour scheme used on the PZL P.11 fighter aircraft first introduced in 1934. It was then shaded using “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Brown and had its weaponry/air vents ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.
Having spotted that the underside of the actual aeroplane’s “high-mounted and aerodynamically clean” gull wings had been light grey, I applied a mixture of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and “Citadel” Nuln Oil to the model’s cockpit hatchway. Lastly, I took a couple of Polish Air Force checker-board pattern transfers from the 15 & 20mm Polish Insignia, WW2-Present sheets by “Decal Details” and attached them to its two armoured chest plates.
Alongside my latest submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I have also been working on the second of two (more) German Weird War Two killing machines I intend to ‘field’ as part of the Wehrmacht’s Luftwaffe forces. This Wolfhound will be repurposed as a Gotha class walker, and is destined to see some imminent tabletop action, due to it being part of the Third Reich’s opening strike against Poland in 1939…
In addition, I’ve decided to assemble and paint the 15mm plastic American Civil War (ACW) cannon by “Warlord Games” which came free with Issue 393 of the magazine "Wargames Illustrated". I’ve actually been rather enjoying picking away at some of this range’s other miniatures recently, as they’ve proved very useful in helping me determine how best to tackle “Warlord Games” new range of Napoleonic figures. Indeed, I’ve even spent an hour putting me brush-tip to a strip of British infantrymen.
However, one of the things I have been mulling over is whether to paint all the different cannon teams which come on the Napoleonic sprues as separate assemblies, or simply 'bite the bullet' and base them all together first onto the Nottingham-based manufacturer’s rectangular stands first. To this end, I’ve glued an entire four-man unit of ACW Confederates onto their base, and am slowly navigating my way around the quartet…
Great looking Jenner, Simon, painted really well as usual! I really like the look of that particular mech as it's just different. The Wolfhound looks suitably Wehrmacht and sinister too! Good luck with the cannon and the crew :-)
The "Mech's" look excellent as always mate, nice progress on the gun, though I'm not sure what that one chap behind the wheel is doing!! he seems a little close if there's any recoil from that gun!
Cheers Roger.
Great looking Polish walker. This force is shaping up to be my favourite in terms of overall look. That Wolfhound looks a great design too! Really like that.
How are you finding the artillery? Was it a good decision to paint it as one piece of are you having second thoughts?
The mech looks excellent Simon, and the other is progressing well. Surprised to see you picking up another ACW model, but if you have a lot of artillery for the Napoleonic's then it makes sense, to do a test piece.