Speed Painting a BattleTech Lance: Tabletop Ready in an Evening

Batch painting four 'Mechs to a solid tabletop standard in a single evening is achievable. Here's the workflow that actually works.

The Core Principle: One Step at a Time, All Models Together

The enemy of speed is switching back and forth between steps. Every time you switch, you're cleaning a brush, finding a different colour, changing your mental mode. Batch painting eliminates that — you do one step on all four models, let them dry, then do the next step on all four. The efficiency is significant.

What to Prepare Before You Start

Set up everything before you open a paint pot. All four 'Mechs prepped and primed (do this the night before or morning of). Your colours laid out. Water pot filled. Paper towels or an old cloth ready. You want to be painting, not searching for things.

Prime all four 'Mechs in grey or white spray primer before your session. This is the one step that needs outdoor or well-ventilated space and drying time — do it earlier. If you're using Speed Paints or contrast paints, white primer is better. For traditional acrylic, grey is more forgiving.

The Workflow (Approximately 3 Hours)

Session 1: Base Coat (45 minutes)

Apply your main faction colour to all four models. Don't worry about neat edges — just get coverage on the major panels. Doing all four at once keeps your brush loaded and your colour consistent. Set aside to dry while you clean your brush.

Session 2: Secondary Colour and Details (30 minutes)

While the base coat dries, pick out any secondary colours: trim, weapons, secondary armour sections. Keep it simple — two colours max at this stage. A metallic for weapons and one contrasting trim colour is plenty.

Session 3: The Wash (15 minutes of work, 45 minutes drying)

Apply a dark wash (Nuln Oil, Army Painter Dark Tone) to all four models. Wash everything — don't pick and choose. Let it flow into recesses. Then leave them alone for at least 45 minutes. This is a good time to eat something.

Session 4: Highlights (30 minutes)

Once the wash is fully dry, drybrush raised edges with a lighter version of your base colour. Load a stiff brush, wipe off most of the paint, drag it across prominent edges. Do this on all four models before the paint dries on your brush. The effect is quick and transforms the wash results dramatically.

Session 5: Cockpits and Final Details (20 minutes)

Cockpits in a bright accent colour — blue, green, orange — makes each 'Mech look finished instantly. Pick out any other prominent details (vents, sensors, unit markings if you want them). You're done.

Speed Paints: An Alternative Approach

Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 and Citadel Contrast Paints are designed to do the base coat and wash in one step. Paint them over white primer and they shade themselves as they dry. The results are faster but slightly less controlled — good for getting 'Mechs on the table, less good if you want precise colour boundaries.

Speed Paints work particularly well on BattleTech models because the mechanical surface detail gives them plenty of recesses to pool in. A single Speed Paint coat plus cockpit detail gets you to tabletop standard in about an hour per model. Not as polished as the full process, but completely respectable.

Manage Your Expectations Wisely

An evening of batch painting gets you tabletop-quality results: recognisable faction colours, visual separation between components, enough detail to look intentional at gaming distance. It doesn't get you display-quality miniatures. That's fine. The 'Mechs are for playing, not displaying (unless you want them to be both, which is a longer project).

A painted lance beats an unpainted lance aesthetically at every game. Start with tabletop quality and improve individual models when you have more time and inclination.