Ok first up, lets start with the primary color. This will be what we cover through most of the tutorial. Figure one is a picture of the paints and the primed model. For the majority of the primary color we will be using the following three paints: GW Codex Gray, GW Chaos Black, and Vallejo Light Turquoise. As you can see the model has been primed white. I like working from white since it tends to help give a bit more vibrant color and helps with the contrast when using washes. Of course, most of that will be lost on this model since we won't really be using any washes.

For the first coat of paint we will be mixing four parts Codex Gray to two parts Black and one part Turquoise. This will form our underlying color. Go ahead and completely coat the model with this. Make sure it goes one evenly although it's not going to completely mess up the model if it doesn't coat some of the edges of panels completely. If you do this right your model should be a dark blue-gray like in the image on the left in Figure two. You should let this completely dry before moving on to the next step or you will run the risk of messing up the undercoat. The next step is a simple wash of black. Make this pretty thin since you want it to run into the panels and give a bit of rudimentary shading. This isn't a fine wash so just slop it on and let gravity clear any excess. Again, wait for the model to completely dry before moving on to step four. If all goes well you should end up with the darker version of the undercoat like on the right image in Figure two. It's hard to see but there is a bit of shading now as well as a darker overall color.

Now we will start in on the actual shading of the mech. This will be done over the course of several coats of paint. The first will be a mix of four parts Codex Gray and one part each of Black and Turquoise. Basically you should end up with a slightly lighter version of your original color. What we are going to do with this is blend it into the model to start creating shading. To do this you need to find out where light would hit parts of the model and create lighter areas. You can do this by putting the model directly under a light so that it is lit from the top. This should show you what areas will be brighter and can be a useful guide for how to highlight the mech. Now take your paint mix and try to hit those areas. You won't see a whole lot of difference right now but your mech should look similar to Figure three.

From this point on we will be working to bring up that hightlight in a way that creates a sense of depth and shading on the model. This means that areas like the inside of the legs or the side of the gauss rifle that are close to the body won't get much more paint than they have at this stage. This isn't a problem and should enhance the look of the finished model. You may notice some of the contrast as we progress. The next stage is to mix four parts Codex Gray with one part or less of Turquoise. Don't do this all at once. Instead put a drop of Turquoise off to the side and mix it in bit by bit. We don't want a lot of color coming into the gray, just enough to give it some tone. As we continue highlighting we will be using less and less Turquoise so we end up with a more gray tone overall. This layer should follow much of what you did in the previous layer but cover less area than the previous. If you find that some area are too contrasted you can blend in some of this layer further to correct it. You should be able to better see the shading after this step. The end result should be similar to figure four.

The final layer of highligting we will do on the gray is a sharp highlight layer. However before we apply that we need to fix the panel lines and prep the metal areas for painting. To do this use straight black and a very fine brush. I use a 10/0 for this part and any freehand. For metal areas I decided on the front of the gauss, the spherical bits on the shoulders, the laser barrels on the arm, and areas like joints and the bits on the backpack. Once you've got all the panels line you can go back in with the final highlight layer. This will be a mix of white with a touch of Turquoise. I do mean a touch. You won't need much at all to give your white just a hint of color for this layer. Basically you back in and hit the outside edge of panels that would catch the light to give them some depth. You don't need to paint the entire line, just enough to show how the edge pops. The result should be similar to the model in Figure six.

At this stage we will be ready to do the metals. I won't go into much detail here since the process is really just three steps. First, paint the areas you marked off in the last step like the joints and weapons using a darker metal. I use GW Boltgun for this. Once that's dry, give it a good coat of Delvan Mud wash and let it dry completely. Depending on how thick this went on either blend back in some of the boltgun to create shading. The final step is to add in a bit of bright metal for highlights and to finish shaping the areas. For this I use GW Mithril. It's a very bright, almost white metallic paint so anything similar should work well here. I like this since it gives good contrast and really makes edges pop. See Figure seven for a look at the result.

At this point, the mech should be looking pretty good and some of you might be tempted to just put on some decals and call it done. However, there is still a good bit of work to go. Right now it's still a pretty bland color scheme so we need to break it up with a secondary color. Luckily, the Roku color scheme has red accents so we will start by blocking in the red. I used GW Dark Flesh for this since it provides a nice rich red without looking gaudy. We'll pick out a few areas here and there like the bottom of the shoulder armor and the ring that goes around the lower leg. I also picked out a panel in the middle of the chest since I felt there still wasn't enough red on it. At this stage, just get a nice solid coat. We'll be highlighting and fixing the blacklining next. See Figure eight for more details.

Once the red is blocked in two more things will need to be done. First, using GW Vomit Brown, hightlight the edges of the panels you've painted red. You can do both sharp highlights and blending to brighten the panels slightly as light falls on them. You'll be able to see this mostly on the panel in the center of the chest. Once you've done this make a thin wash of Dark Flesh and carefully paint it over the vomit brown. It will probably need several coats before much shows up but if you do it right it will tint the vomit brown into a very nice rich red highlight. Once you've got this where you want it, go back with some more vomit and add a few touches for sharp highlights. You'll probably also need to redo black lining and maybe even blend a bit of black over some areas of the Dark Flesh to bump contrast. Again, you can see this on the center torso plate. When you are done, you should have something similar to Figure nine.

As you can see the mech is very close to being finished at this point. I'll not detail the steps for the freehand and cockpit as that will vary based on individual taste and if you decide to use decals. For my part, I decided on a darker green for the cockpit and some hazard striping around the lower part of the backpack and to the side of the missile tubes. This is mainly just to add a bit of color splash and interest. At this point you can weather it as you see fit and base the model to match the rest of your force. Since basing varies with each modeler, I'll leave that to you. When you're done you might have something that looks like the mech in Figure ten.

As far as the tutorial goes, that's it. I hope you find this helpful and if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message.