Sci-Fi Construction Crew

Posted on 27/03/2015 by sho3box

ConstructionCrew1 Who builds all of those miniature future utopian/dystopian/pre-apocalyptic buildings?  These rapidly painted guys, that’s who.

ConstructionCrew2

Construction Workers from Wargames Foundry. Note the astro-pickaxe and nano-jackhammer. These are not modern figs, oh no. Sci-fi through and through. Authentically futuristic, like a Doctor Who film set.

Im working on a lot of urban sci-fi terrain at the moment.  While there will be some ruined areas in the terrain, the intention is to represent a functioning city on the table rather than a war zone.  For that impression to be vaguely plausible, some civilian models must be part of the project.

Spacelords Ships Crew

“Of course its fine to wear eyeliner to work, its the future isn’t it?”   Ships Crew from the EM4 Spacelords range.

Civilians make interesting models for progressing narrative heavy games.  They add to the theme and are fun offbeat side projects, so its pleasant to engage in them from time to time.

Construcibots J4Y, C33 and B. The big guys are from Mongoose/Warlords Judge Dredd range and B is from the OOP MegaMinis robots range.

This construction crew is made up from models from Wargames Foundry (Street Violence range), Mongoose Publishing/Warlord Games (Judge Dredd Miniatures Game range), EM4 (Spacelords range) and Mega Miniatures (Robots range, OOP).

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“Jeez Judge, o’ course I aint seen no Ambull.  I gots a schedule ta keep an’ all, but y’think I seen an Ambull Im sticking around this gruddam place?  No drokkin’ way!”

The painting on these figures is more rapid and a little rougher than on my protagonist figures: I tend to treat models like this a little more like I do terrain pieces.  I get a different sort of satisfaction from painting models in this fashion for bystander roles than I do my regular models: its about turnover rather than individual brilliance.

Meg-Way Entrance S13-05.  Days without incident: 1.

I enjoyed rapidly painting this bright colour scheme.  I might continue it through some other suitable miniatures at a future point.  I have plans to add a Foreman to the group at some point soon, which looks like it will actually happen. Special thanks to axiom from Magpie and Old Lead for helpful artistic input.

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28 Responses

  1. Captain Crooks, on 27/03/2015 at 21:22 said:

    You need to source a sci-fi forklift now. Looks just like a regular forklift but with added SCIENCE. These guys turned out perfectly for their role; easily recogniseable, functional and attractively painted. Kudos! I’m jello of your yellow.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 27/03/2015 at 21:34 said:

      I have been looking at some of the kits in the mancave in ways that make them uncomfortable since I started this. I need a bipedal bulldozer, a big drill on legs with a man hardwired into it, that sort of thing, you know the deal.

      Thanks for the feedback Captain!

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  2. axiom, on 27/03/2015 at 21:33 said:

    Absolutely nailed these guys cheetor…they’re pretty darn nicely painted to my eyes. The constructibots are my favourites, although with their large hammers they look more like demobots to me. Lovely visor beacons 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 27/03/2015 at 23:06 said:

      Yeah, demobots makes more sense, but Constructibots is a joke Transformers reference so I felt obliged to included it. Maybe the tool works like Fix-it Felixs hammer.

      The beacons were your idea and the models immediately benefited from it. It was the extra element that made them look “real”, whatever that means in this context 🙂 Thanks!

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  3. Azazel, on 27/03/2015 at 22:03 said:

    Great work! They certainly look the part!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 27/03/2015 at 23:13 said:

      Thanks Azazel. I think that something about the look of the group just feels “right” and despite the absurd robots with hammer etc, its somehow believable. Well, a bit believable anyway 🙂

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Like

      Reply
  4. Chico the Overlord of Bacon IV, on 27/03/2015 at 23:00 said:

    Good job all round on those 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 27/03/2015 at 23:15 said:

      Thanks Chico!

      You and I have a similar interest in where the 40k universe and the Dredd world collide, like Necromunda for example. The construction crew is right slap bang on that line I think.

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Like

      Reply
  5. Paul Ward, on 28/03/2015 at 00:46 said:

    Excellent. Well sourced miniatures and your paint pulls them together into a team. Now you could do with some of those temporary traffic lights that are always red.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 28/03/2015 at 15:06 said:

      Thats a good idea Paul. Maybe a robot with a traffic light for a head, thats something that I could manage Im sure.

      I am a fan of tying disparate miniatures together with a paint scheme, it adds a lot to my enjoyment of the process. If I dont sweat the details too much I find it a pretty easy, organic process.

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Like

      Reply
  6. head head, on 28/03/2015 at 00:58 said:

    I like the drains with the tentacles & zombie crawling out of them, great terrain pieces. Those “kit” eyes on the Constructibots look ace! Could you give a mini tutorial on it? Oh, and the highlighting on the pick really makes it pop.

    Your painting is top shelf, as per usual 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 28/03/2015 at 15:22 said:

      The drains with the zombie and the tentacles were prepared as spawn points for zombie games back in 2010. They seemed an appropriate way to add some theme to the images. Little pieces like that add a lot to games I find and are well worth spending a little time on.

      The large robot visors were simple. They were painted as follows:

      1. Black all over
      2. Paint a circle of orange on the chosen part of the visor.
      3. Paint a line of the same orange above and below the circle (representing refraction)
      4. Paint a smaller circle of a brighter orange in the middle of the original circle.
      5. Paint a shorter line of the same orange above and below the circle in the same orange, centred on the circle
      6. Repeat steps 5 and 6 with a bright orange or yellow and a correspondingly smaller circle and shorter lines
      7. Paint a small dot of white in the centre of the circle.
      8. Gloss varnish

      A couple of notes:

      An OSL effect could have been applied around the lights, but because the models were painted with a zenithal coloured spray I was concerned that if I made an error I wouldnt be able to repaint the gradient properly. So I didnt risk it and I didnt use OSL.

      If you wanted to make the visor look more like KITTs sensor then only paint the lines travelling in one direction away from the circle. You could fade the orange from the circle in that direction too which would give the impression of the image left of the retina from moving light.

      Thanks for the feedback!

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  7. David Ackerman, on 28/03/2015 at 02:34 said:

    Nicely done. Glad to see some Spacelords joining your troop and the robots are darn fun. (And my friend reading over my shoulder loves the fellow in the manhole. Which is a neat touch.) Looking forward to the bipedal bulldozer. Have you encountered the plastic sentinels converted into construction equipment? That might be a good place to start. Well done all around.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 28/03/2015 at 15:28 said:

      Thank you David. I hope to include more Spacelords as the year progresses. I like their retro charm a lot.

      The manhole guy is intended to sit on the underside of the manhole cover that I sat in the other base. I think that the manhole is intended to be flipped over to represent a hole and the worker is placed on top of it. I decided to put the manhole directly into the recess in a Mantic base. I propped the guy climbing guy up slightly and sat him in the hole on a similar base, which leaves a satisfying recess behind him.

      I have seen a converted industrial sentinel walker somewhere. The plan that I have will likely included Robogear kit parts being used in a very similar fashion. Great minds etc 🙂

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Like

      Reply
  8. No Such Agency, on 28/03/2015 at 02:42 said:

    Love the yellow! What a great “squad”, they have so much personality even if they are slightly less than pure “hard sci-fi” in character. After all, realism is boring and in the future we may just 3-D print all our buildings. Snoozeball! And yes, the scanner eyes on the constructibots are top notch. How DO you do it, sir?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 28/03/2015 at 15:54 said:

      Thanks No Such Agency.

      I see these sorts of projects as cyphers, metaphors to some extent. Regardless of how human structures are manufactured at some undetermined point in the future, these guys represent something to do with the process. The players can see that they are a construction crew at a glance and the models are amusing to look at. I try not to let things like that get in the way of the story, if you see what I mean.

      But hard sci-fi these certainly are not 🙂

      See above for details of how I painted the scanner eyes/beacons.

      Thank you for the feedback as always 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  9. 40kterminatus, on 28/03/2015 at 06:08 said:

    The 2 big robot looking hulks remind me of Gort from the original film,The Day the earth stood still. Very nice paint job sir😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 28/03/2015 at 15:56 said:

      Yeah, there is a quite a bit of Gort in the big ‘bots. Painting them gunmetal would increase that vibe quite a bit of course, but these guys were destined for more mundane careers than trans-galactic diplomatic bodyguard. Thats a great movie, the remake was very disappointing.

      Thanks for the kind works 40kterminatus 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  10. Suber, on 30/03/2015 at 09:51 said:

    Those are great, seriously 🙂 It’s amazing how much depth you can add to a project by making figs as these come into it. Truly lovely!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. mrsaturdays, on 30/03/2015 at 11:16 said:

    I’m really loving these guys. As both something to enliven an urban table, and the great paint job they’ve been given. The robots are wonderful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 30/03/2015 at 11:19 said:

      Thanks, they are fun to work on. Four more robots to come, three of which are -hrrrnnrrgh – pop-culture references. I should be finished them by tomorrow evening.

      BIG JOBS!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  13. Mikko, on 02/05/2015 at 11:33 said:

    Love this project! Really nice colour scheme and a great idea. I like the idea that even far future needs its blue collar workers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 02/05/2015 at 12:19 said:

      Thanks Mikko. I have added a few more members to the crew since, with a few more in the pipeline. They can be seen via the “Construction Crew” tag.

      I take a lot of my toy soldier cues from Futurama and Judge Dredd, both settings that prioritise predicting the future lower than generating entertaining premises for stories. The crew owe a little to an undercover Judge story in the “Low Life” strip and a little more to Sal from Futurama.

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