BattleTech Paint Schemes - Recipes & the Pots to Buy

BattleTech miniatures are a joy to paint: big flat armour panels, strong silhouettes, and factions with genuinely canonical colour identities that have been stable for decades. This guide covers the classic scheme for each Great House of the Inner Sphere, for Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf, for ComStar, and for the two mercenary commands with the best-documented colours - and each section names the specific pots, links each one to its own page so you can see who stocks it and for how much, and links into the scheme generator with the faction colour pre-loaded for a full cross-brand recipe in one click.

A note before you start: in BattleTech lore, colours vary by regiment and lance, not just by House, and the canon is genuinely contested. The best faction-level reference, Camo Specs Online, gives green as the iconic Federated Suns colour and red as the iconic Draconis Combine one - the reverse of the parade schemes most people picture. Catalyst's own official BattleTech Paint Starter agrees with it: the five Speedpaints in the box are named Davion Green, Kurita Red, Steiner Blue, Marik Purple and Liao Green.

So this guide leads with the recognisable parade identity for each faction - the version everyone associates with it - and then names the canon alternative with its source, because both are real and you should choose knowingly rather than find out later.

The four pots that do most of the work

Whatever faction you pick, a 'Mech is a machine with panel lines, actuators and weapon barrels, and the same handful of pots does that job on all of them: a black to prime and cut panel lines in, a dark wash for the recesses, a gunmetal for joints and barrels, and an off-white or white for markings and missile tips.

Buy those once and every scheme below becomes a two-or-three-pot decision rather than a shopping trip.

House Davion - Federated Suns

Davion's parade identity is red and white: a strong mid-red hull with crisp white panels and the sunburst-and-sword insignia. It is a parade scheme at heart, so clean lines matter more than weathering - masking or careful edging between the red and white does most of the work. Generate the Davion recipe or open the Davion scheme lander for the full base-to-highlight ladder.

The parade recipe (our match): base Flat Red, wash the recesses with Nuln Oil, re-layer the panels, edge with Evil Sunz Scarlet; white panels go Corax White then White Scar on the edges only.

The canon alternative - and it is well evidenced. Camo Specs' Federated Suns colour page puts it plainly: Davion is best known for green, specifically "Davion green" as used by the Crucis Lancers, with dark green favoured by the Syrtis Fusiliers and the Capellan March units. The red-white-and-blue striping you may be picturing belongs to the Davion Brigade of Guards specifically. The pots Camo Specs names for Davion green are Castellan Green and Loren Forest, with Caliban Green or US Dark Green for the darker March version. Catalyst's own 3rd Crucis Lancers tutorial is a parade scheme of Davion green with yellow highlights.

House Kurita - Draconis Combine

The Combine's best-known look is near-black charcoal with red accents and the dragon insignia - the most sinister of the House schemes. Dark hulls live or die on edge work, so a cold grey edge highlight along panel lines keeps the 'Mech from becoming a silhouette. Generate the Kurita recipe or open the Kurita scheme lander.

The charcoal recipe (sourced). This is the one place the community has published a complete pot ladder for the grey Combine look, and it belongs to the Ryuken regiments, whose canonical scheme is dark grey accented with a second colour: base Eshin Grey with accent panels in Evil Sunz Scarlet, wash everything with Nuln Oil, re-layer the raised panels in both, then highlight the grey with Dawnstone and the red with Squig Orange.

The canon alternative. Camo Specs is unambiguous that the iconic Combine colour is red - a red 'Mech reads as Kurita instantly - with "any shade of grey" as the other House primary. The purest expression is the Sword of Light, the Combine's premier force, which fields flat red with no secondary colour at all, in the field and on parade. For that, one pot does it: Carmine Red or Evil Sunz Scarlet, shaded into the panel lines and left alone.

House Steiner - Lyran Commonwealth

Steiner wears a solid military blue with white accents and the mailed-fist insignia, and here the sources agree with each other and with Catalyst: blue is the Lyran colour, sometimes just called "Steiner blue". It is probably the most forgiving House scheme for a first 'Mech: basecoat, wash, re-layer the panels, one white detail pass, done. Generate the Steiner recipe or open the Steiner scheme lander.

The recipe (sourced pots, our ladder). Camo Specs names Teclis Blue and Lothern Blue for Steiner blue, Ice Blue for the pale blue variants and Fenrisian Grey for the blue-greys. Build it as Macragge Blue base, Nuln Oil in the recesses, Teclis Blue on the panels, Lothern Blue or Fenrisian Grey on the edges, White Scar for the fist and the stripe.

The unit detail worth painting. Lyran Guard equipment is blue with white applied as a broad vertical stripe across part of the right torso, arm and leg; the 10th Lyran Guards add silver piping to mark elite status, and their insignia - a skeletal warrior against a lightning strike - goes on the right leg. Catalyst's own step-by-step for that 'Mech is the only official BattleTech recipe published as a pot list, and it is not a Citadel one: Anthracite Grey and Pastel Blue from AK's 3rd Gen acrylics, Vallejo Sick Green and Pale Sand, and a titanium white. Note that the official guide paints the silver piping as a non-metallic metal rather than reaching for a metallic pot.

House Marik - Free Worlds League

Marik's regal purple with pale eagle heraldry is the most distinctive colour in the Inner Sphere - nobody else fields purple 'Mechs. Shade it towards blue-black rather than brown to keep the purple clean, and let the pale eagle and panel lines supply the contrast. Generate the Marik recipe or open the Marik scheme lander.

The detail nobody writes up: the Marik Militia, the largest single part of the League military, carries red accents on the right side of the 'Mech and blue accents on the left. It is canonical, it is instantly readable on the table, and it turns a one-colour scheme into a three-colour one for the cost of two pots.

The recipe (sourced). Base Xereus Purple, right-side accents Wazdakka Red, left-side accents Teclis Blue, wash the lot with Nuln Oil, re-layer the raised panels in all three, then edge the purple with Genestealer Purple. Camo Specs also lists Violet and Hexed Lichen as League purples if you want the base darker; Druchii Violet is the shade to use if you would rather not go near black.

House Liao - Capellan Confederation

Liao paints in green, and the green-and-dark-red pairing reads instantly on the table. Generate the Liao recipe or open the Liao scheme lander.

Two corrections to what you will read elsewhere, ours included until this update. Camo Specs describes Liao green as mid-to-light - forest, kelly or jade - rather than the deep military green a Capellan force is often painted in; and it names the Confederation's second colour as red, tending to maroon and burgundy, not gold. Gold trim is a very common painter's choice on Capellan 'Mechs and it looks excellent, but no source we can find makes it canon, so treat it as taste rather than heraldry.

The recipe (sourced pots, our ladder). Base Warboss Green for the kelly-green reading or Caliban Green for a darker force, wash with Biel-Tan Green, re-layer, edge with Warpstone Glow, and put the accent panels in Khorne Red or Burnt Red. The muted base takes weathering well if you prefer campaign-worn to parade-fresh. The unit to steal from is McCarron's Armored Cavalry: an armoured knight with a red plume over a green field.

Clan Jade Falcon

The best-known Clan scheme, and the one to paint if you want a Clan force that is recognisable across the table: bright green hulls with sharp falcon-yellow crests and flashes. Canonically this is Delta Galaxy - bright green with yellow highlights - and the insignia is a diving white falcon over a shadowed blue world. Keep the green clean and let the yellow do the shouting. Generate the Jade Falcon recipe or open the Jade Falcon scheme lander.

The recipe (sourced, three steps). Prime grey, base Warboss Green with the accent panels in Yriel Yellow, wash with Nuln Oil, re-layer the raised panels in both, then edge with Skarsnik Green and Flash Gitz Yellow. If you airbrush, the Epsilon Galaxy route is Emerald Forest over a dark green, drybrushed up through Rainforest and Electric Lime on the uppermost surfaces.

Two variants worth a line if you want a second Star that still reads as Falcon: Omega Galaxy puts a metallic emerald over a steel finish on the lower halves, and the Fleet Assets use a dark falcon green with lighter green and bronze highlights.

Clan Wolf

Clan Wolf is the Clan people ask for after Jade Falcon, and it is the one place where the sources genuinely split.

• Grey is the catch-all. Camo Specs: when not using a designated scheme, Wolf units paint their equipment in flat greys, and "Clan Wolf Grey" is described as an all-around utilitarian scheme used by all Wolf Galaxies. Old sourcebooks and fiction simply have Wolf 'Mechs grey.
• Green is Gamma Galaxy - a green scheme fading to brown at the feet - and it is the scheme Catalyst chose for the tutorial in its own Clan Wolf faction guide, which is the closest thing to an official endorsement of a single Wolf look. Post-ilClan, Gamma has moved to an orange-dominant tiger camo with optional white accents for veterans.

Either is defensible. Grey is the easier paint job and the safer answer for a first Star. Generate the Clan Wolf recipe.

The recipe (sourced, and unusually complete). The Army Painter's own BattleTech Academy build lands on grey with desert-tan panels, and every step is named. The grey ladder: base Deep Grey, wash the whole model with Strong Tone, edge highlight Uniform Grey, then corner dots of Ash Grey.

The tan panels and the markings: base Desert Yellow, edge Burnt Turf, corner-dot Barren Dune; hazard stripes and warning markings in Fiendish Yellow with Matt Black, and the Wolf insignia, triangles and lines in Pure Red.

For the plainer utilitarian grey, Camo Specs' own how-to is simpler still: a light sea grey base, a black wash over the whole model, and a drybrush of base-plus-white on the raised surfaces, with gunmetal joints and a black cockpit. If you want a second Star that still reads as Wolf, the Keshiks are all documented: Grey Keshik in mottled greys, Green Keshik in the colours of Terra's grey wolf with light grey accents, Red Keshik blending dark grey into red-brown, Blue Keshik with a tan lower half under a blue-grey upper.

ComStar

ComStar is the white faction, and the story behind it is better than the scheme: in 2979 Precentor Takami ordered his fighters painted stark white so nothing could be traced back to ComStar, and that order became the standard parade scheme for ComStar's military once it was publicly unveiled. Generate the ComStar recipe.

Say the honest thing about it, though. Field Manual: ComStar has the Com Guards painting their vehicles white for official occasions and using appropriate camouflage in combat. White is a parade scheme, not a battlefield one - so an all-white Level II is canon, and so is a mottled green-grey one. The gold you may be picturing is documented on ComStar's robes and regalia; we can find no source putting brass or gold trim on the armour, so if you paint it - and it looks good - paint it as a nod rather than as heraldry.

The recipe (sourced, three steps). Do not go pure white: on a 6mm 'Mech it reads as bare primer. Prime light grey, wash the whole model with Apothecary White, then drybrush Ulthuan Grey onto the raised surfaces. If you would rather build it up, Grey Seer base into Corax White panels with White Scar on the edges alone gets you there with more control.

Mercenaries: Kell Hounds and Wolf's Dragoons

Mercenary commands are the best-served part of BattleTech's colour canon, because they are named units rather than whole nations - and two of them have colours specific enough to paint straight from the sourcebook.

Kell Hounds

Field Manual: Mercenaries (revised) states it outright: black and red are the official colours of the Kell Hounds. The formal insignia is a black hound's head on an inverted red triangle, worn on the left torso; the 1st Regiment adds a black leash and broken spiked collar, the 2nd a black hound in mid-leap half-framed by a red star. Layout is not fixed - most art gives them a red torso with black limbs and occasional red limb accents.

If you have read that Kell Hounds are grey, that is a technique, not a disagreement: painters reach for a grey-toned black so a small model stays readable. Generate the Kell Hounds recipe.

The recipe (sourced, and it is a contrast job rather than a ladder). Prime black, zenithal-spray Uniform Grey from above, then let contrast paints do the work: Basilicanum Grey over the dark areas and Flesh Tearers Red over the red ones. Drybrush Praxeti White on the hard edges, put Warpstone Glow in the cockpit for the glow, and base with Agrax Earthshade over a texture paste.

Wolf's Dragoons

Worth being careful here: Wolf's Dragoons has nothing to do with Clan Wolf's colours, and it is not the dark green scheme it is often described as. Camo Specs has the Dragoons preferring bold colours that emphasise their presence, with 'Mechs typically painted in solid single colours - red, gold or black favoured. Each regiment gets its own:

• Alpha - solid rust-red trimmed in black
• Beta - emerald green
• Gamma - midnight blue
• Delta - dusty grey
• Epsilon - solid tan
• Wolf Spider Battalion - black with blood-red trim
• Zeta Battalion - black, and after Terra, white striping with red highlights

That makes the Dragoons the easiest force on this page to paint fast and the easiest to distinguish at a glance: one pot per regiment, black trim, done. Generate the Dragoons Alpha recipe.

Two more commands are worth knowing even though nobody has published a pot list for them. The Gray Death Legion has always painted grey, usually grey-on-grey camouflage, and marks battalions with a coloured circle on the lower right leg - yellow for 1st, green for 2nd, blue for 3rd, red for the command lance. The Eridani Light Horse kept their original SLDF olive drab, with a prancing brown horse on a yellow disc, and added a black border to the insignia to mark their mourning after the Star League fell.

Weapon tips, cockpits and the details that sell a 'Mech

BattleTech has two signature detail conventions, and both are cheap to do.

The weapon-tip colour code is used across every faction: PPC ports blue, pulse lasers green, standard and ER lasers red, missile tips plain white, muzzles black. Catalyst's own paint set ships a pot called PPC Blue, which tells you how established the convention is.

Cockpit jewelling - a concentric fade inside the canopy - is the technique BattleTech painters are known for, and it is what Catalyst's own official guide spends its pages on. Two sourced ladders, both painted as rings from the outside in: the warm one runs Hot Orange into Bloody Red into Gory Red; the cool one runs Imperial Blue into Magic Blue into Electric Blue, finished with a dot of white at the brightest point.

Lances, regiments and your own variant

Half the fun of BattleTech painting culture is variation. A common approach is to keep the House colour as the body and change one element per lance - a coloured torso, a striped leg, a different insignia position - so the force reads as one regiment with visible sub-units. The generator makes this easy: add a secondary colour to any recipe, or nudge the mood controls for a darker campaign version of the parade scheme, and every variant stays shareable as a URL. Our BattleTech scheme hub collects every faction lander in one place.

And when you want the actual regiment rather than the House, go to the source. Camo Specs Online is the direct descendant of FASA's Camo Specs sourcebook: thousands of photographed miniatures organised regiment by regiment, each scheme cited to the sourcebook page that established it. It is where the specifics in this guide come from, and it will tell you things no faction-level page can - that the 10th Lyran Guards add silver piping, that the Ryuken paint dark grey rather than red, that Wolf's Dragoons Gamma is midnight blue. Catalyst also publishes free faction painting guides in the same lineage, currently covering Clan Smoke Jaguar, Clan Jade Falcon, House Davion, House Steiner, House Kurita and Clan Wolf. Read them for the regiment; come back here for the pots.

Painting 'Mechs well

The techniques are the same as any armoured miniature, applied to bigger panels:

• Washes into the panel lines and joints give an instant mechanical read - on 'Mechs a controlled recess wash looks better than an all-over dip.
• Edge highlighting along armour edges is what makes a 6mm-scale machine pop at arm's length.
• Drybrushing handles dust on lower legs and feet if you want a campaign finish - keep it below the knee actuators, like mud on a tank's running gear.

Metallics are rarer in official BattleTech recipes than you might expect: Catalyst's paint set carries exactly one, and the official Steiner guide paints its silver piping as a non-metallic metal instead. A gunmetal for joints and barrels and a black for muzzles will cover almost everything.

Pick your faction above, open the recipe, and you will have paints in hand for a full lance by the weekend.

Painting a different game? The same scheme-to-pots treatment exists for Star Wars: Legion, Star Wars: Shatterpoint and Lord of the Rings.