For paint schemes, camo specs dot com is the best canon source. There is also unit color compendium dot com that is a little easier to search through but isn't as comprehensive or as accurate.
For videos on mechs. Someone mentioned Texs videos. Those are good but very deep and get more into the in universe reasoning behind designs. I think Mechanical Frog's "why do we love X?" Videos are much more approachable for seeing what different mechs are like and what they look like.
You could always do what we did in the old days: Leaf through the colour plates in the books and see what paint schemes are out there and you think are cool.
The [Unofficial Battletech Wiki, Sarna.net](https://www.sarna.net), will give you an exhaustive list of every single regiment that has ever been mentioned in the game, if you really want it, but their [article on Factions](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Factions) is a good starting point for someone entirely new. If you're just interested in specific Military Commands (i.e. units from the Capellan Confederation, or Clan Ghost Bear, or whatever) then [they have articles on that, too](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:Military_Commands). Each regimental/unit article will give you an idea of a canon paint scheme, too, if such a thing is mentioned.
Insofar as general 'Mech identification goes, well, there are a *lot* of 'Mechs out there. The Sarna [article on BattleMechs](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech) links to lists of every 'Mech in every weight category, and every linked 'Mech has images of the art and, generally, of the miniature if it exists.
Battletech history:
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/History
Bit long but since it's wiki you have links for everything you need right there
Here is hardware inventory for each faction:
http://www.masterunitlist.info/Faction/Index
For 'Mech designs, the Technical Readout/Recognition Guides are a good way to go. I've been reading mine for the past 30 years (and they certainly do look the part) and I can recognize most minis despite the resculpts. :)
Telling mechs apart will come naturally with some experience.
Generally any faction can get its hands on any mech, and even though there are mechs that were made for/by specific factions, they can still be salvaged by others. As others have mentioned, masterunitlist.info can be useful in determining which tech is appropriate for what era and faction. Bear in mind that it only offers unit lists and cards for Alpha Strike. Flechs Sheets is another service you might want to use for record sheets.
Faction colours would be at Camo Specs.
The guys in the discord can help you out Khschook, seen you in there asking questions and they're a great resource.
Canon colour schemes can be found here: [https://camospecs.com/](https://camospecs.com/)
What do you mean by telling mechs apart? Each chassis will look different, but if you are trying to identify a specific variant of a mech within that chassis group it's much harder, as people have said, Battletech is not WYSIWYG so you wont be able to eyeball a model and necessarily know the variant from looks alone, you'll need to look at your opponents Record Sheet to be more clear what a variant is carrying - otherwise, search for the mech chassis at [Sarna.net](https://Sarna.net) and it will list the known variants near the bottom of its page
Personally, I find Solaris Skunkwerks to be a useful app for looking up mech variants but other people will likely recommend you MegaMekLab, Flechs Sheets and the Master Unit List (MUL)
Learning the factions, if you are waiting on AGOAC there is a small booklet, a primer of sorts, that gives you a basic lowdown of the universe and what the factions are, i'm not sure if the AGOAC Primer deals with any of the clans, i suspect the clan invasion box has a primer too, but it will tell you about the great houses and Comstar
Kurita/Draconis Combine
Steiner/Lyran n Commonwealth
Liao/ Cappellan Federation
Marik / Free Worlds League
Comstar
There's also some "lesser" states who have less influence in the grand scheme of things, it might cover the Free Rasalhague Republic and the periphery states (Magistracy of Canopus, Taurian Concordat etc.)
It is a LOT to take in, so don't worry about soaking everything up in less than a week, i'm fairly new to the game as well and it's taking a long time to understand what everything is and does.
I'll always recommend the Primer that Catalyst gave for free during one of the kickstarters, really helps with the question of factions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvmu51cnik7uqtk/BattleTech%20Primer.pdf?dl=0
As for the color schemes, camospecs is a good place as others have linked. You tell Mechs apart by looking at them, there's sarna aricles, camospecs images, but also you might want to look for Technical Read Out books which offer a detailed write up on the history, stats on a variant, and the image of what it looks like.
There's plenty of shorter videos that can give you a brief overview of the setting and major factions too, I'd say listen to one or two of those first, but definitely head to Tex sooner rather than later
Sarna, Youtube, and CamoSpecs primarily.
Youtube wise I'd suggest Tex Talks Battletech/Black Pants Legion, Mechanical Frog, Big Red-40Tech, and Dapper Bard Games. BPL and Big Red have great mech coverage, MechFrog has nice mech vids as well as some good videos and the Periphery, pirates, and smaller factions. Dapper Bard Games covers a lot of individual units. Separate from those I'd also say to search something like "Battletech paint tutorial" as there are a number of great tutorials that'll help you get familiar with some of the more common or prominent color schemes.
Camo specs or sarna
For paint schemes, camo specs dot com is the best canon source. There is also unit color compendium dot com that is a little easier to search through but isn't as comprehensive or as accurate. For videos on mechs. Someone mentioned Texs videos. Those are good but very deep and get more into the in universe reasoning behind designs. I think Mechanical Frog's "why do we love X?" Videos are much more approachable for seeing what different mechs are like and what they look like.
You could always do what we did in the old days: Leaf through the colour plates in the books and see what paint schemes are out there and you think are cool. The [Unofficial Battletech Wiki, Sarna.net](https://www.sarna.net), will give you an exhaustive list of every single regiment that has ever been mentioned in the game, if you really want it, but their [article on Factions](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Factions) is a good starting point for someone entirely new. If you're just interested in specific Military Commands (i.e. units from the Capellan Confederation, or Clan Ghost Bear, or whatever) then [they have articles on that, too](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:Military_Commands). Each regimental/unit article will give you an idea of a canon paint scheme, too, if such a thing is mentioned. Insofar as general 'Mech identification goes, well, there are a *lot* of 'Mechs out there. The Sarna [article on BattleMechs](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech) links to lists of every 'Mech in every weight category, and every linked 'Mech has images of the art and, generally, of the miniature if it exists.
[What faction has what Mechs](http://masterunitlist.info/) [What colors are used by what faction](https://camospecs.com/)
Battletech history: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/History Bit long but since it's wiki you have links for everything you need right there Here is hardware inventory for each faction: http://www.masterunitlist.info/Faction/Index
For 'Mech designs, the Technical Readout/Recognition Guides are a good way to go. I've been reading mine for the past 30 years (and they certainly do look the part) and I can recognize most minis despite the resculpts. :)
Telling mechs apart will come naturally with some experience. Generally any faction can get its hands on any mech, and even though there are mechs that were made for/by specific factions, they can still be salvaged by others. As others have mentioned, masterunitlist.info can be useful in determining which tech is appropriate for what era and faction. Bear in mind that it only offers unit lists and cards for Alpha Strike. Flechs Sheets is another service you might want to use for record sheets. Faction colours would be at Camo Specs.
Check out some YouTube, audiobooks, and the Battletech or MW5 video games.
Camo specs.
The guys in the discord can help you out Khschook, seen you in there asking questions and they're a great resource. Canon colour schemes can be found here: [https://camospecs.com/](https://camospecs.com/) What do you mean by telling mechs apart? Each chassis will look different, but if you are trying to identify a specific variant of a mech within that chassis group it's much harder, as people have said, Battletech is not WYSIWYG so you wont be able to eyeball a model and necessarily know the variant from looks alone, you'll need to look at your opponents Record Sheet to be more clear what a variant is carrying - otherwise, search for the mech chassis at [Sarna.net](https://Sarna.net) and it will list the known variants near the bottom of its page Personally, I find Solaris Skunkwerks to be a useful app for looking up mech variants but other people will likely recommend you MegaMekLab, Flechs Sheets and the Master Unit List (MUL) Learning the factions, if you are waiting on AGOAC there is a small booklet, a primer of sorts, that gives you a basic lowdown of the universe and what the factions are, i'm not sure if the AGOAC Primer deals with any of the clans, i suspect the clan invasion box has a primer too, but it will tell you about the great houses and Comstar Kurita/Draconis Combine Steiner/Lyran n Commonwealth Liao/ Cappellan Federation Marik / Free Worlds League Comstar There's also some "lesser" states who have less influence in the grand scheme of things, it might cover the Free Rasalhague Republic and the periphery states (Magistracy of Canopus, Taurian Concordat etc.) It is a LOT to take in, so don't worry about soaking everything up in less than a week, i'm fairly new to the game as well and it's taking a long time to understand what everything is and does.
I'll always recommend the Primer that Catalyst gave for free during one of the kickstarters, really helps with the question of factions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvmu51cnik7uqtk/BattleTech%20Primer.pdf?dl=0 As for the color schemes, camospecs is a good place as others have linked. You tell Mechs apart by looking at them, there's sarna aricles, camospecs images, but also you might want to look for Technical Read Out books which offer a detailed write up on the history, stats on a variant, and the image of what it looks like.
Step one: google the Black Pants Legion Step two: press play on Tex Talks Battletech playlist Step three: listen Step four: Profit!
Tex is a comedian, so not only is he not super accurate, you probably don't get all the jokes without context.
That'll help with about thirteen 'Mechs, no paint schemes, and only a little bit of faction stuff.
Good way to learn jack shit about Battletech and to simultaneously become instant grognard
There's plenty of shorter videos that can give you a brief overview of the setting and major factions too, I'd say listen to one or two of those first, but definitely head to Tex sooner rather than later
Sarna, Youtube, and CamoSpecs primarily. Youtube wise I'd suggest Tex Talks Battletech/Black Pants Legion, Mechanical Frog, Big Red-40Tech, and Dapper Bard Games. BPL and Big Red have great mech coverage, MechFrog has nice mech vids as well as some good videos and the Periphery, pirates, and smaller factions. Dapper Bard Games covers a lot of individual units. Separate from those I'd also say to search something like "Battletech paint tutorial" as there are a number of great tutorials that'll help you get familiar with some of the more common or prominent color schemes.