Character Profile and Painting overview of Caleb, a Clan Mechwarrior of The Dark Age and his Mech Purple Rain.

This Mech and character is in tribute to a recent loss in the community

Mechwarrior Caleb

Caleb was raised on Arc Royal, a freeborn warrior of Clan Wolf-in-Exile. He took to his training well, satisfying his instructors and befriending many of his fellow cadets. His training mech of choice was an old Horned Owl(Prime) he called Purple Rain. Caleb won this mech in a novel trail of possession using a fantasy card game popular at the time. He followed orders and fought with intelligence and aggression. As he progressed he pulled ahead of his peers, rising to leadership of his cadet class, pushing and encouraging his SIBKO to greater and greater success. It was clear one day he would be a RISTAR after he graduated and took his Trail of Position.

But in his final year of training an illness struck him, an autoimmune deficiency that Clan medicine could not overcome, disqualifying him from the Warrior Caste. Caleb was hearbroken but resolute, intent of navigating this new challenge as best he could and prepared himself for testing down into a new caste. On the eve of his testing Clan Jade Falcon attacked. The Falcons struck with brutal efficiency, intent on not just defeating the Exiles but wiping them from existence. When it became clear they were targeting SIBKOs an evacuation was ordered and Caleb acted.

Caleb’s Stand

Against orders, he took to the field. Purple Rain was fast and nimble, able to evade enemy fire and weave in and out of their weapons range. His harassing attacks distracted the enemy formation and allowed his SIBKO to escape. He fought on, focusing on lighter machines and scored two Mech kills before reinforcements arrived from the Kell Hounds Mercenaries. Together they repelled the Falcons long enough to complete the evacuation and withdraw.

Caleb boarded a Kell Hound Drop ship and collapsed, succumbing to combat injuries and his own illness. Caleb and his mech were returned to the Exiles where, upon reviewing his Battle Rom recordings, was promoted to Star Commander and his sacrifice recorded in the Clan Remembrance. His Mech still serves in the Clan Touman and is among the forces deployed in the Terran Conquest and IlClan trial.

Purple Rain

Purple Rain is a plastic Horned Owl model from the Clan Striker Star Force Pack. This was a speedy paintjob I did two days before a tournament match at my FLGS. For the tournament I painted a Summoner, Vapor Eagle, Conjurer, and Dire Wolf.

I primed this model in a black and grey zenithal and dry brushed in layers of neutral grey and white. The base color of the model is Citadel Warp Lightning contrast paint. I shaded the model with a purple wash and highlighted it with a lighter green drybrush followed by an even lighter green edge highlight. For the weapon housing on the arms and center torso I used black paint and edge highlighted with green-grey. The cockpit visor is painted in brown and highlighted with orange. The cockpit and its central ‘eye’ is highlighted in red. I layered the medium laser lenses in the arms with light greens and the large laster in the torso in blue.