From the painting desk #82 – Colonial…mercs?
April 3, 2026Life carries on here in Norway (until the end of this month), and I’ve managed to get some more painting done. As the city is now very much quieting down for Easter holidays, today is a great day for a new blog post!
Work on Containment continues, and I’m still painting minis for use with the game. The game features different mercenary crews – sorry, private security contractors – which gives me a great opportunity to paint up more futuristic soldier types. I know I have a fair bunch already, but what can I say, I’m pretty much always up for more scifi military minis. Enter these printable colonial marines by Velrock Art Miniatures:
The minis have exactly what is needed for the game, with the different specialist roles represented (support, medic, sniper, comms/tech), one of them even touting a shotgun which is a weapon option in the game.
Years and years ago I painted up a ton of colonial marines as part of my various Aliens projects, and there’s even a painting tutorial I made sixteen years ago (and which has held up surprisingly well). However, because of that, I wanted to paint these up in a different colour scheme, something that was less “national military” and more “mercenary company”. Here’s what I settled on:
I feel like the rust red and khaki complement each other nicely and really help these minis look like they are not colonial marines, even despite the very recognisable weapons. I think I was inspired by an old 40k Imperial Guard colour scheme from way back! The lovely red was done using the great Rust and abandoned set from AK. I went with minimal small detail for easily readable minis. The sniper had their shoulder lamp snap off in transit (and impossible to glue back due to the tiny surface), but then again I figured it would not be needed anyway for that line of work. For the medic, I did add some bright splashes of colour for the gloves and the medkit and while they do stick out, I don’t think it’s too excessive. I also gave a touch of Jacques Cousteau for scanner guy’s hat.
Unusually for me, I’m showing off these minis with unfinished bases as I wanted to post about them but they won’t be based until a month from now when I get back home – while I did bring my paints and brushes, lugging over tubs of basing sand was where I drew the line!
Dawn of the Lead 
They do look quite nice in that color scheme. Impressive bit of painting on the road! I think you’ve nailed that private military company look perfectly. Bravo!
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Thanks for the kind words! In all honesty I hauled 120+ bottles of paint with me, so it’s not as if I’m operating in field conditions 😀
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Nicely done, Mikko! 🙂 I really like that colour scheme!
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Thanks John! There is something that I really like about it as well – a few years back I tried painting some Imperial Guard using the scheme but it just didn’t seem to work, but with these ones it’s a great fit.
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That is a sweet color scheme. I like the little splashes of green.
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Thank you! After painting most of them, I felt like adding something really bright for some extra pop 😊
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Oooh, lovely job mate! That colour scheme absolutely rocks ✊
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Cheers Alex!
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