This evenings presentation is a handful of robots – seventy-five percent of which are pop-culture types – to add to my recent sci-fi civilian Construction Crew. It is more of Demolition Crew at this point.
A couple of people made some good suggestions for additions to the Construction Crew that I posted pictures of last Friday. I found two other suitable miniatures while digging the suggested pair out of Monte Figuero and so got the extra two painted alongside.
+++ HEY SAL, WHERE DO YA WANT THIS PIECE OF RUSTY PIPE? +++
FR4NK-3 is from the OOP Mega Miniatures Robots range and is the only addition today that isnt a direct pop-culture reference. That said, the figure looks very vaguely like Bender from Futurama, but not a whole lot. Like most of the old Robots range, the sculpt is a little crude, but very charming. I really quite like the model.
Cl4p-TP (“Claptrap”) is the poster boy for the Borderlands series of video games. I found Borderlands to be too much of a grind for my tastes, but I played more of it than I expected purely due to the beautiful imagery and style of the visuals. Multiple Claptraps of different colours feature as shopkeeper sorts of things and story expositors in the setting, but the colour scheme above is the classic image.
+++ Hey! Over here! I’m over heeere! +++
I found this miniature homage to Claptrap in my box of unpainted robots when digging the others out the other day. As the scheme is essentially identical to the construction crews I decided to add the general purpose ‘bot to the assembly line. The figure came from the now closed Black Cat Bases and looks a little larger than I imagined a Claptrap to be, not that it really matters in this case.
The miniature isnt an exact copy of the video game character, so the paint job is pretty much an approximation too.
My first reaction to WALL-E after watching the trailer was “Really Pixar? Short Circuit all over again? Really?”
I was wrong. WALL-E is a wonderful film and he is a fantastic character. Which is why I tracked down this model from Ground Zero Games at Salute 2011.
I cleaned the little guy up, sprayed him, started painting and then left the titchy ‘bot to one side for the last four years in a grim parallel with the characters fate in the movie. Then last week somebody suggested that the figure would fit into the construction crew project and WALL-E was neglected no more.
+++ Dirrrr-ect-ive? +++
Its a cute little sculpt. Like Claptrap, the sculpt isnt an exact match for the movie character. There are a couple of areas that could have done with a bit more work – the eyes in particular are just completely flat and required some freehand to get the lenses in – but for the price and the recognisability factor everyone should have one of these.
And if you havent seen WALL-E and you have a vague interest in what goes on on this blog, then do yourself a favour and watch it.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from the lovable WALL-E is Mek-Quake: a sadistic, homicidal, peabrained, cowardly and dangerous demolition/execution robot and fan of chainsaw torture from the ABC Warriors stories from 2000AD . Mek-quake has been known to rewire his head onto different bodies from time to time, but his classic look is the bulldozer/grinder/compactor “war-dozer” appearance in the image above.
The miniature shown here represents Mek-quake wearing a different body, the body of a robot from the Termight Empire (as can be seen by the icon on the models knees, below). So technically Mek-Quake is a form of demolition robot, but is in fact not in his demolition robot form in this miniature. But its close enough for me, for this purpose.
The model was converted slightly: I added a small rectangle of plastic to the abdomen of the model to represent a screen. Mek-Quake generally has a display on the front of his body that shows the limited thoughts going through his head. Considering Mek-Quake can barely put a sentence together – think Hulk speech patterns – the screen usually gives away how he actually feels, even if he thinks that he is being crafty and duplicitous in what he says. He never is. Mek-Quake is a moron.
+++ When Mek-Quake get to new planet, he find place to help him – hrnnn – relax +++
Most often the screen displays Mek-Quakes catchphrase: “BIG JOBS” or “BIG JOB”. When Mek-Quake gets excited – usually due to the opportunity to commit extreme violence – he starts to say “Big jobs!” with increasing regularity. It made me laugh when I was a kid in the early eighties and it still makes me laugh now, so I felt that I had to add that defining feature to the model. I should probably have left enough room to paint an “S” in at the end of the “Big Jobs” on the screen, but whatever.
When I get around to painting my ABC Warriors models I will paint another Mek-Quake model in classic colours from the comic, rather than this undercover constructibot version.
More construction crew to come. I seem to have loads of miniatures suited to adding to this project, so I might as well keep going while I am on a roll.
The tell tell signs of A.I. (Abominable Intelligence) cause Inquisitor Verhoeven to become ever more suspicious of techno-heresy on Lo-Braseel. “The soulless sentience, it is the enemy of all”.
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2000AD, 2015, ABC Warriors, Construction Crew, Robot, Sci-fi, Sci-Fi Non-Combatants |
sho3box 
Excellent additions! That is a very nice paint-job in particular on Mek-Quake.
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Thanks Warburton. I am working on my OSL and weathering techniques at the moment at the moment. While not perfect, they are improving 🙂
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Marvellous, they turned out great. That’s one hell of a crew in no time at all.
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I know… he works fast! Faster than me anyway, though that really ain’t saying much. This lot are pretty remarkable both for their consistent quality, and the fact that disparate models are tied in with a common paint scheme to look like they belong together.
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There are a few shortcuts used in painting these that have speeded me up a bit. I took snaps of the painting process on this batch and I plan to put together a post with a step-by-step illustration of the process.
I have a few more that I hope to add here before I run out of steam. Thansk for the feedback No Such Agency 🙂
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Ideas for further miniatures that I can incorporate into the colour scheme/crew keep coming to me too, miniatures that I already own. Im going to keep at the Crew for a while I think. I should be able to power through another handful before enthusiasm ebbs.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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These are all excellent additions – clearly you have a large demobot, a pipe layer bot, and a couple of surveyor bots. I think that’s the main functions covered!
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It pleases me an inordinate amount to get feedback from someone who works in/alongside the industry Axiom 🙂 A nod to real life helps with getting on board conceptually with projects like this.
Thanks for the feedback!
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Very nice indeed. I need to a) get some of my new robots done and b) get more robots. They look very nice and I love the references.
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Thanks David. What new robots do you have planned? Im always on the look out for robot miniatures?
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It’s incredible how layer by layer you manage to build such an evocative personnal setting. I’m still in awe with the intelligence of your painting but in the end it’s the real consistency and th e”world” you’re creating before our eyes that wins it for me.
Did I say I love these tons ? I do.
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I will never direct a film Asslessman and even if I did I wouldnt have full creative control over wardrobe, make-up, production design, casting etc. This is as close as I get and you can bet your ass that I am going to take it seriously, even if its something as mildly comical as robot construction workers 🙂
I am confident that you are going to make it over here to get a few games in over here at some point over the next few years. Your guys will slot right in.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Nice work on these, and they add nicely to the construction/demo team.
That not-WallE is great, really need to get one for my wife, who loves such things. I believe it is sold in the 15mm range? Nice to see how it scales out with 28mm figures.
Also like the “masseuse” figure in the background. Where is it from?
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Thanks lasgunpacker.
The not WALL-E is nominally 15mm, but it is far to large to represent that character in that scale. Its pretty perfect as a 28mm WALL-E. The link to where to buy it is in the post above.
The “masseuse” is a Guild Executioner from Malifaux. Its a fairly old model now, it has likely been superseded by a plastic version.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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You really took this to another level. How you managed to integrate them all! Absolutely top notch, really!
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Thanks Suber, Im glad that you like them. There are a few more to come before I am finished with the crew.
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Great minis 🙂 I’d also recommend the Mechwarrior: Dark Age construction mechs, they would fit the theme, and hopefully they would fit the scale too.
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Those are excellent recommendations Kadmon, thanks. I will have to keep an eye out for a few of those.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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If you manage to stumble upon the miniatures from the old roborally game I’d think they’ll fit perfectly
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The old Robo Rally metal figs have long appealed. Looking at them in 2015 they are a little basic and crude though. If I could get my hands on a set without too much hassle and expense then I would, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Definitely a valid suggestion for inclusion though, thanks!
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