The landing pad is being finished, so for now you'll have to slake your thirst for quality content by going somewhere else checking out this quartet of robotic chums.
If there's one thing a sci-fi setting needs it's robots, unless you're talking about the movie I, Robot, which only needs to be fired into the sun. So I dug these chaps out of storage and painted them up as a break from doing the landing pad, which will get its second post soon.
We kick off with the GGW3000 Dance Bot by Robot Townies. I think I got this one at the same time as Dr Zoidberg back in 2019, and Christ what a crap sculpt it is. It didn't so much have flash lines as the whole mould was misaligned, leaving its front and back pretty much in separate universes. So it was chucked into storage (actually almost chucked in the bin until common sense prevailed for once) and I dug it out last week.
I had no idea it's a dance bot so I painted it to look like a maintenance droid, and given its resemblance to Wall-E I went for dirty yellow and renamed it Will-E.
After a lot of filing and sanding Will-E was given a quick prime with Black and then painted Filthy Brown all over. I washed him with Agrax Earthshade and then overbrushed with Averland Sunset and Yellow Ochre before dabbing it with Dry Rust. Er... and that's it, apart from a couple of areas of Black and the fact I just realised I didn't paint his eye lens. Oops. Despite my initial annoyance at the shitty state of the model I do like it a lot more now, although I've never ordered anything from Armorcast since.
This pair is by Reaper and is simply called "Androids (2)", so I guess the Reaper marketing department earned their money that day. I named the one on the left Automatic Translator, or Autran, and the right one Valid Information Checker 2.0, or VIC-20, or just Vic, after the first computer I owned.
Autran is obviously inspired by the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis crossed with a touch of C-3PO. She was painted first, with black primer and a Mahogany Brown basecoat. Her metallic shades are courtesy of Tinny Tin, Seraphim Sepia and more Tinny Tin mixed with Silver.
I did her eyes Averland Sunset and Yriel Yellow as a nod to Threepio.
VIC-20 was painted Deep Sea Blue over Black primer, and then given a top coat of Gunmetal Blue, which is a metallic shade I've used more in the last couple of weeks than I have since I bought it in 2019. I mixed in some Silver for the highlights, and his eyes are Troll Slayer Orange.
L4Ri (or "Larry"), as I've named him, is an Etsy buy because if you're going to go broke you may as well go broke doing something you love.
After gluing his top half to his legs, he was primed with Neutral Grey and then painted Iron Warriors all over. I gave him a wash with Nuln Oil and then a light drybrush with Plate Metal.
I hunted around for a suitable green and decided on Sybarite Green, one of Citadel's layer paints that I picked up last year simply because I liked it. After painting it over parts of Larry's body I washed it with Nuln Oil to tie it in with the silver areas, then highlighted it by adding some White. The blowtorch on his left arm was painted Brass.
I painted the entire base with Iron Warriors and then hit the container on the right with some Plate Metal, Averland Sunset and Moon Dust. The jerry can was painted Olive Grey.
As I said, the landing pad is probably 98% done and will be up soon, so stay tuned!
An apology
The headline for this post is SHIT. Sorry about that, usually I can come up with something more descriptive but it's 93 degrees outside and my brain packed up about an hour ago. The part of me that used to write headlines for a living is disgusted.
Great quartet of Robots Matt, not talking about the sculpts themselves, as I find some seriously lacking, but your painting of them mate, you've truly elevated them, and given them purpose. The heat can make anything difficult ! LOL and there isn't a single paper that hasn't had a really bad headline at some point ! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave! I think Larry is the best model by far, which is odd given it's a 3D print sold on Etsy and not one made by a large manufacturer. Will-E looks better than he deserves given how piss-poor the sculpt was, and the two Reaper robots are nothing spectacular but do the job.
DeleteNice work, Matt! :-) I like them all! I've had my share of badly cast minis and vehicles that have nearly gone in the bin but which got a last minute reprieve! How 'bout changing the title to "These Are The Droids You're Looking For"!
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell did I spend 25 years designing pages and writing headlines when I could have just got you to do it, John? LOL! That would have been the perfect headline if only I'd thought of it :-)
DeleteThe Dancebot by Robot Townies is Claptrap from the Borderlands video game - my goodness I've played that a few times and subsequently rescued the ruddy robot a fair few time too. LOL!!! Great work on all of them, Matt. They look excellent, and as a former VIC-20 owner I highly approve of your blue paint scheme in particular :-)
ReplyDeleteCheers, Simon! I had no idea about the influence on the Dance Bot's look, I've heard of Borderlands but never played it. Nice to meet a fellow former VIC-20 owner :-)
DeleteA fabulous ensemble. I have a couple of these somewhere in the 'will it ever happen?' pile, but now I know where to come when I need inspiration to paint them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael! I appreciate that!
DeleteDefinetly a fab four and great use of colurs to make them all individual masterpieces. The dance bot, imho as definetly worth all the work you must have put in and id 'works' as a maintenacnce droid or similar. I approve of the pair of androids, as I've disliked robots that look humanoid.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe, the dance bot took a ton of work to make the sculpt usable but it was worth it once he was painted.
DeleteI like them, the paintjobs are not too over the top, but still really well done, as you say Larry is the nicest, but Will-E dose have a certain charm to him (mind you I really like the Power Droids from Star Wars, and they are just two KanBan boxes stuck together with a pair of legs!).
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed in you having a Vic-20! what sort of Welshman does that! I was a Dragon 32 man myself, built in the land of your fathers! (it's still in my loft somewhaere).
Cheers Roger.
I think the Dragon 32 came out after the VIC-20, so I'm in the clear there, Roger! LOL!
DeleteSounds like you're not a fan of the movie I, Robot? If so, I've found a new buddy, haha! I love old SciFi movies and robots, so these are once again right up my alley. My fave is Will-E (also love the movie!). Too bad he was such a pain, but I think he turned out great. The Vic-20 was also my first computer. Unfortunately, we didn't have the tape drive to store our programs on...so after I entered the Tank game in, fixed the error messages, we would play for an hour and then have to shut it off and lose it!
ReplyDeleteYou're not wrong, Faust, I loathe the modern version of I, Robot. Such awesome stories turned into an absolute dogshit movie. Nice to see another VIC-20 owner :-) I had the tape drive and played a Space Invaders ripoff called Arcadia.
DeleteGlad to know that I'm not alone on that one. So many people I've talked to said it was a good movie, and I had to wonder if we actually watched the same thing! Yea, if I had the tape drive I might have actually got interested in programming earlier.
Delete"Thank the Maker" is an alternative, Star Wars inspired headline for this post. It might be a bit self-serving though in this case ;) You have to have droids in the Sci-Fi setting so its great to see these. I think you did a great job elevating the sculpts and I like the interesting color choices as well.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'm curious about is if you have considered getting some resin Sci-Fi themed bases. While they can be a bit harder to fasten minis to, I think it might give you even cooler looking results with the droids standing on metal grating or whatever Sci-Fi inspired surface you want. Just a thought!
Nice headline, Jeff, I'll be nicking it if I need it LOL! I have looked into bases, and there a few styles I like that I might pick up. One ironic thing is that the minis I get from Etsy have pretty cool integral bases but after asking a couple of sellers, it turns out they aren't sold separately. It's a shame as they look good and would probably be pretty cheap.
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