Project Chem-Dogs: Part 3

Righty, part 3. I'm acutely aware of my attention span and the "pile of shame" concept. As such I'm going to alternate between units as much as possible, thus keeping things relatively fresh and varied. I decided to make up some of the old style Cadians I’d brought, but as mentioned, I’d build them as Catachans.

 

I suppose I should talk about the Catachan Jungle Fighters a bit. The short version is that they are Vietnam-era Americans as filtered via the Rambo and Predator movies. The actual planet Catachan is a Death World of hostile jungle, which is actively resisting human settlement and full of very hostile lifeforms, the most genteel of which is probably the Catachan Face-Eater. People from there make for good survivalists and scouts, with an indifferent attitude to danger. Its basically Space Australia, but with more trees, and fewer soap operas. The Catachans were also notable for being one of few guard regiments to get plastic kits, alongside the Cadians, and it was like that for a long time. Its just a shame that their basic troop kit was naff at the time of release, some twenty odd years ago, and against all sense is still on sale today. In terms of game mechanics, the Jungle Fighters have waxed and waned a lot; they actually had their own spin-off codex back in the day, at other times edged into being melee specialists, but right now are a Battleline unit with some minor buffs and some very limited weapon options. Its the old Tankbusta problem, GW limiting their options to exactly what's in the kit. No doubt this will remain the case until they get a Kill Team release. That said, Jungle Fighters have the advantage of being notably cheap, the benefits of the Scout rule, and a modest boost to AP in the first round of a melee. What I would use my unit for would be either objective control stuff, and/or being a discouraging response to things that try to charge my gunline.

 

So, with these chaps, I took a similar approach to squad 1 last week. That is a fairly conventional build, with rags and bags added atop, preparing the gasmask heads separately before final assembly. I went for two flamer dudes in a nod to the old lore, although as and when I do another squad of these, I'll probably do Grenade Launchers. Flamers are a weapon that make a lot of sense for a unit that's gonna get close to the enemy, but grenades are more versatile. I also opted for a more elephantine gasmask style as it was somewhat easier to drill into the heads that way. Details such as straps were GS sculpted, including an entire backpack, although a lot of their stuff was spare Ork bits and surplus lasguns. That Stargrave Mercenaries box also played a part.

 

This turned out alright, although I'm still perfecting my techniques. I think Ive got a handle on the gasmask bit, although I'm not quite there with the skin, and there’s a few minor mistakes here & there. Its good enough for now though, I just need to get more practice in with the rank and file before working on any officers. With the above squad complete-bar-drying by Sunday afternoon, I started working on some Heavy Weapons Teams too. I wasn’t able to get these completed in time for my Tuesday cut-off, but here’s a picture of them in-progress.

 

 

I’ll talk about them a bit more next week.

Plamo: More Killa Kanz, Because Reasons

OK, context. It was the days leading up the TFNation Mini-Con. I'd fumbled the travel arrangements a touch. I had booked off the day before to make travel easier, i.e. stay overnight so I could assist with setting up the Toy-Fu stall in the morning, but I'd ended up booking a cheap train ticket late in the evening. I would later regret this choice due to train difficulties. This also left me with more free time than I would usually have, and my brainworms didn't like this. It goes against the grain just to take a lazy day, so, OK, let's have a model to work on in between chores and packing the overnight bag. The question was exactly what. I'd pulled the plug on Project Sulaco that week, so I couldn't really do that. I'd already had ideas for a replacement, but I'd promised myself that would give it at least a week before trying something like that again, lest it be undercooked. Then I remembered my old plastic Killa Kans, which had been stripped but forgotten. That'll do.

 

These models were the first plastic Kanz I ever assembled, and I have fond memories of the process. It had a very GW problem of having only one of each gun, something that maybe worried me about a future 10th Ed Ork codex, they've been back and forth on that sorta thing, but even in those early days I could kitbash. Otherwise though, these have pleasingly modular, balljointed limb design, which even with a straight build you can be quite creative with. Just be mindful of the extremities like exhausts or ankles, I had to fix a few bits before and during painting, although that might just be their age.

As projects go, this was a relatively simple one, and I got the vast majority done during a leisurely 24 hour period. I decided early on to replace the ranged weapons on two of them, opting for a Rokkit Launcha and Kan Shoota in the name if variety. My brainworms however insisted I take things a bit further, resulting in two comedy hats and a set of horns. While I'm pretty sure I could have finished them all off in one day, but I was out of sand to make mud paint with, so I put that on hold. You can use bicarbonate of soda, but I've had that mix break down on a few models recently, so why risk it? I ended up getting in some modelling sand by Gale Force 9, which is pretty good, but I need to refine the mix a bit for next time. I’d also opted to use less gap filler on the bases to minimise the risk of chipping.

Job’s a good ‘un.

 

 

Project Chem-Dogs: Part 2

Having a nice selection of pristine sprues, but a waiting an order of bases, the initial week of actual work was mainly about feeling things out and recasting a few bits, before blitzing things over the weekend. The old battleforce box had examples of largely all weapons available to the guard footsloggers, although not always in abundance, hence a variety of two part moulds. There was much trial & error, but I did eventually get useful bags and "officer's weapons". I did also manage to get kinda-passable meltaguns, although the grenade launchers resisted, and I decided to kitbash them instead. Given the raw numbers of guard, you can go through a lot of weapon upgrades, so its good to have spares if you need them. What was complicating the process was that I hadn't quite decided what kind of Battleline grunts these were gonna be.

Now, I fully intend to keep this project flexible and system agnostic, but as this is a 40k thing I have to be vaguely aware of what's a legal unit. Of the current rules, I found myself torn between the classic Infantry Squad and the more specialised Death Korps of Krieg. Now, I like the Krieg. In a sort of horrors of the Western Front way, or cultural memories of trench warfare sort of way. This could easily have been Project Krieg. They are also gasmask boys, and while they are not on drugs, they are a weird death cult, so there is a certain "counts-as" argument you could make there. Eventually though, I decided against it as the DKs don't necessarily fit the style of play I want, so I went for the Infantry Squad, safe in the knowledge I could always switch later by exchanging weapon dudes.

The models I'm working on currently are the Wargames Atlantic Death Fields Cannon Fodder 02 (Females). These are part of their system agnostic sci-fi range, the company apparently specialising in low cost but seemingly good value plastics. The only complaint I have is that these don't come with bases. As to why I've chosen the female box over the slightly more numerous male box, well, at at the risk of embarrassing myself, I've painted basically no female 28mm models before, and I wanted something different. Orks are masculine in much the same manner as laughing at farts or having a football riot, so going for a squad or two of heavily armed ladies is a novelty. Hell, I think I can manage a 50/50 gender ratio with what I have so far. My only concern was accidentally going into the realm of incel cringe and fetishism, and that's not a look I want. If I wanted some of that, I'd be building Drukahri or Battle Sisters, not Guard.

As plastics go, these girls are straightforward, being fixed posed in the body, but having lots of arm and head options. I find the crouching body to be great for weapon specialists, using one as part of a Missile Launcher team, although it edges into the possibly-too-distinctive-pose problem that those marines had. There's a variety of heads, and a few more robot hands than I was expecting; an observation, not a complaint. Weapon options are however a touch thin on the ground, although I knew that going in. Its nothing a decent bits box can't handle, although I find the energy weapon a touch indistinct by itself. I added a bead to the business end. I put a squad of ten together in stages, first bodies & arms, sculpted rags on top, before preparing the gasmask heads separately. This was a process of slow and careful work, but the bulk of the painting was done in an afternoon, much quicker than expected. There's still refinements to make, but its definitely table-worthy. The skin actually came out okay for the first time ever, and I free-handed some arrows on there. Yeah, I’m not happy with the powersword arm, but its passable in a hoard army, and otherwise I’m pleased.

As for what I'm planning for those old school Cadians? Well, I'm not running them as Cadians, that would be boring. I think I'll do them Catachan scouts/speedbumps given their stockier proportions. Visual language, and all that? Call 'em the Prison Gym Bros or summat? While I don't want to run the entire army like that, lest it be too similar to Orks, there is a brief bit of fiction where they do scout stuff and burn things. So it fits.

Hopefully I’ll have something to show of them next week.

Transformers: Legacy United Rescuebots Chase is Something that Exists

 

Chase’s character model, sourced from the wiki

As I mentioned during my Medix write-up, Rescuebots is something I'm aware of but not into or knowledgeable of. It looks perfectly fine for actual children, and has its own identity, but I'm not in its target audience. And that's perfectly fine. Half of the insufferable things about Transformers comes from Hasbro thinking it has to keep people my age happy. To summarise my limited grasp of this matter: Rescuebots takes place in the so-called Aligned continuity, if shuffled into a corner, where a team of novice 'bots work in the emergency services. Chase is the policeman of the group, and is very much a letter of the law type that needed to read some Terry Pratchett. He' s not a bad lad, but a less idealised work would have him drifting into IDW Prowl territory. ACAB is a real thing, and I could go on a lengthy tangent here about how police are tools of the establishment, and how lionizing them like Rescuebots does is propaganda. Then again, if a little kid is lost, I can imagine worse outcomes then them going to the boys in blue for help, so Chase isn't bad to have in a kids show. Waffling aside, is Chase any good? Well, better than I thought he'd be.

Let's start out with the car mode, a police interceptor or muscle car. Given that it's a fairly aggressive type of vehicle, rather than a mundane patrol car, this gave me thought that this toy was a Red Alert or pretool situation. More on that later, but this is actually very faithful to Chase's altmode, just in a different art style. Of note here is the use of translucent plastic in four different shades, picking out sirens, headlights, floodlights, claw weapon, and windows. Translucent plastic is something I'm habitually suspicious of, but it is being used very effectively here, answering most detail requirements. It's a very attractive car overall, but the paint budget clearly ran out before the back-end was finished. There the transformation seams are most obvious, and this area has been cast in white to complete the illusion, but they didn't pick out the tail-lights or exhausts. Hubcaps too, but let's be honest here, a municipal police force probably would skip that detail as well. Slightly imperfect visually then, but nowt obnoxious for a modern deluxe, like exposed clip wheels. Play value isn't lacking either, as while the claw is unavoidably obvious, it does split into 3, allowing for a modular thing with the 5mm ports and floodlights. This toy has five accessories, with options for where you want them to go, and the floodlights merge seamlessly into the car. That’s just good design.

The robot form meanwhile looks the part, but has a few unusual flaws that seem to result from the prioritising of certain key aspects from the animation model. I should stress that Rescuebots never tried to be anything but cartoony in an under-5s way, with all the toys being big and simple. Show accuracy, or indeed toy accuracy, was not a major concern, but having recognisable characters was. I don't think anyone really would have expected total fidelity to the animation with this toy, it's even more obviously self-defeating than with G1, but they absolutely had to nail Chase's vibe, lest this be immediately dismissed as a headswap. And, yes, they did do that for the robot mode, the transformation works very much to facilitate his character. They put in moving headlights so they could end up as boot buckles, for heavens sake. The chest is the car roof too, no faux parts or cheating here, the conversion hitting the same broad strokes as the original, but obviously much more complex. Where things go a bit wrong is in the chest and backpack area. He's got a lot of hollowness in the torso, and two struts of car that stick out, interfering with the shoulders a bit from the back. This feels like another area where the budget ran out, as another joint somewhere could have helped tidy that up, but this entire arrangement seems to exist just so the arms can be the rear flanks of the car form. That's real commitment to the bit. While that is a flaw, and possibly a deal breaker, it's more odd than anything. Like how the wrists tilt inwards rather than swivel, and how the toes angle outwards rather than inwards. Otherwise we have a Legacy standard robot mode with a note perfect head, great colours and great accessories too. It's a different art style, so he's not as barrel-chested as the animation, but is unmistakably Chase. And I do love how his main weapon is a grabby claw, rather than a gun. It suggests that he’s a nicer sort of policeman, as opposed to a handcannon.

To cut to chase, if you'll excuse the pun, I was pleasently surprised with this toy. I was expecting a slightly phoned-in carformer designed for repaint potential, and Chase isn't that. Sure, there's plenty of characters you could make this into, Prime Cliffjumper as a leak would confirm prior to me posting this, but the designers seem to have taken this job extremely seriously. It's not perfect, but it's flaws are magnified by the contrasting strengths, noticeable mainly for all the other things that went right. This is not merely something that exists; it is something I’m glad exists.

“A bit much?”

“A bit much.”

Project Chem-Dogs: Part 1

After my cancellation of Project Sulaco, I promised myself that I'd spend a few weeks thinking before starting another. Having cycled through a few ideas and placeholder projects, I ended up revisiting my brief infatuation with Ramshackle Games Iron Brothers range of proxies for the Astra Militarum. While the Orks of 40k are my first love, I've always like the idea of a Guard army from the same setting. The underdogs, the rank, the file, the conscripts, the big tanks, and so on. This led to research into prices and models. I took it on myself to see how much the 40K AM Combat Patrol was, and how easy it would be craft my own equivalent at a lower cost. 9 pages of notes and a rummage through the bitz box later, I was confident it was doable. And that the regiment would be the Savlar Chem-Dogs.

So, whom are the Savlar Chem-Dogs? Well, they are basically what happens when you recruit a Guard regiment from a prison planet. The process is byzantine, but most worlds in The Imperium of Man are expected to provide soldiers as part of their tithe. Think taxes, but if taxes might also be paid with raw resources, war materiel, and human sacrifices. That last one is not a joke; The Emperor eats souls. These soldiers have to be equipped to a common standard due to the logistics and practicalities of the setting, but beyond that regiments can differ a lot in character and speciality. Does the Imperium acknowledge and exploit these strengths? The answer is somewhere between kinda and maybe not. The Imperial bureaucracy has been known to forget about entire planets, so you might end up with silliness like sending 2nd Desert Mongooses to New Snowdonia because the scribes don't acknowledge the difference. Regiments raised from worlds with notable martial traditions tend to be used with more thought, but sometimes you just have to send what you have. The Chem-Dogs first came to notice as part of the Third War for Armageddon, in a desperate need for troops. Reading between the lines a bit, but not really, I feel the general rank and file wasn't hugely impressed by this, as serving the Golden Throne is considered an honour, and these criminals don't deserve it. Of course, the Imperium operates penal units as routine, and your average Hive World will recruit from their incessant gang warfare problem, so its not like its unprecedented. The Chem-Dogs merely skip a few steps. And are allowed to keep whatever they take off the enemy. And take drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.

 

TVTropes calls this sort of thing "An Army of Thieves and Whores", and features an exploration of the concept. Its something that fascinates me as a fictional device, although the most extreme of real-world examples are monstrous. On the one hand, you have colourful characters, underdogs, bastards, and maybe some personal redemption. The Dirty Dozen, the Suicide Squad and such. On the other? Well, if you're at the point where you’re emptying a local prison for recruits, things probably aren't going well. Seriously, Vlad, nothing says "brutal, desperate, and incompetent" quite like using prisoners for meatwave tactics in the 21st century, but I digress. Anyway, aside from appealing to my tastes, the Chem-Dogs present me with good modelling opportunities. These never had official models in the first place, and with the kleptomania angle kitbashing is encouraged. The fact that these chaps are depicted as wearing heavy duty gasmasks with shaven heads means that I don't have to paint faces if I don't want to. Plus Wargames Atlantic has caught my attention for having some nice plastics, including some in prison jumpsuits. So, this was all looking to be pretty fun, but before spending any money on those nice plastic prisoners, I set myself another barrier first: make a prototype. As luck would have it, I would chance on an absolute bargain before the prototype was painted. Thus committing me to the project in some form… I would tell myself off for lacking discipline, if it wasn’t such a good deal. I mean, it was an old, pre-name-change, Imperial Guard Cadian Battleforce for 50 quid. Its older models, sure, but that has its advantages, and the modern combat patrol box is £95 RRP for a comparable amount of stuff. I’m pretty sure this resolved a bunch of kitbashing requirements. I also couldn't stop myself from getting some Cannon Fodder too. Anyways, the prototype.

The admittedly rough prototype is a Stargrave mercenary model with greenstuff accoutrements. I'd actually tracked down a low quality scan of the original kitbashes and their Chapter Approved rules, and used that as a jumping off point. The tricky bit was the cabling, but the tinybeads from Project Sulaco came to the rescue. It was fiddly, but once strung on a wire the effect spoke for itself. Painting then followed, where I split the difference between the original scheme, and the more recent "Orange is the New Black" trend. The idea is that the soldier is midway through replacing his prison clothes with looted items, although the base model is somewhat better armoured than the production ones will be. I’m still getting my eye-in with respects to the orange, but I think its table-worthy in a GRIMDARK sorta way. The plan going forward? I'm not going to specify to much at this stage, I don't want to set myself goalposts only to hit myself with them. In the short term, I intend to make a squad of 10, and make some decisions then. After that? a force of 500 to 750 points, with an eye towards Xenos Rampant. Wish me luck.

Oh, and before anyone comments; it has not escaped my notice that I'm going from the cheerfully brutish kleptomaniacs of the orky Deathskull clan, to the cheerful and/or high brutish kleptomaniacs of the Chemdogs.

BeastBox: BB-35 Ricochet is Something that Exists

Do I have to explain BeastBox again? Righty, mechanical beasts that compress into boxes? Very collectable? 15+ age bracket? No? Oh, click here then. OK, let’s have a quick chat about a BeastBox I got very recently. Amazon had it on a coupon. They seem to do that lot.

Ricochet feels a lot like the people whom made Mega Dio went and made a Karmakuma, but this time as a kangaroo. Remember them? See that link above. It's like Mega Dio as we've got a fairly involved transformation, a lot of techno greebling, a substantial percentage of translucent plastic, with some accessories that don't integrate into the box mode. It's a fairly recent design, so it's more complicated than say regular Dio and Jojo. It's like Karmakuma in that it's what a like to call a "mum & baby set", a tiny little chap piloting a bigger mecha in a manner that is very adorable. Turns out Ricochet is the little joey that stores in the larger one's pouch, I was wondering about that. Overall, the experience is probably closest to Mega-Dio, lacking Karmakuma's simple pleasures, but my initial impression of Ricochet was very strong. The main criticism I'm inclined to make here is how the boxing gloves friction into place, these also being the translucent plastic bits that don't store in box form. It took me a few tries to remove them at first, and I have concerns in the long term. That is however the only real criticism I have, as Ricochet is otherwise a bit of a winner.

The larger kangaroo has much visual interest, and a fair whack of articulation. Obviously it's a kangaroo, but it's more specifically a boxing kangaroo, a meme that seems to go back at least as far as 1895(!), with an early black & white short. I suppose that got started because ‘roos are bipeds whom do use their front paws when scrapping, and someone saw the potential. See also: Australia. This explains the gloves obviously, but I feel it has has a subtle influence on visual choices too. The toy is mainly an orange tone, but the use of white and blue puts me in mind of a boxer's shorts. Only here, they are also the pouch and decorative missile pods. Also of note are the wraparound shades which are in fact removable, revealing translucent eyes beneath. It's a nice bit of visual flair, although as this is another translucent area under friction, I'd advise a gentle touch. Articulation and general posability is a hair below ideal, and often a happy side effect of the conversion, but it doesn't feel like they cut corners, although I suspect they skipped on waist rotation due to the pouch complicating things. Maybe they could have put a bit of side-to-side in the tail, but otherwise I don't think there's any glaring omissions. The front paws move like T-Rex arms, three points each, ball jointed at the shoulders, for that s Mr Punch action. The legs feature 4 joints, with functioning knees, a toe joint, and ball joints at both hip and ankle. The main body has an adjustable stance and a de-facto ab crunch due to the transformation, with the head being something special. You get a double-jointed neck, an opening mouth, and posable bloody ears. It's very complete.

The little Joey is much much much much simpler by comparison, frickin' tiny, and to some extent, optional. He is adorable as he is so small, but he can only really roll into a ball to fit into the pouch. He's not actually necessary for transformation either, happy to be left in or out of his compartment, which is fine, if maybe a missed opportunity when compared to what Karmakuma did. Speaking of transformation, achieving the box form is relatively straightforward but there's a few steps to it. It's a symmetrical affair that works how'd you'd think, i.e. balling up the head and tail, with the legs largely forming a side of the box by themselves. What is surprising though is how the missile pods unfold, and how the lower legs split into two to smooth things out. That's a touch unnecessary, I felt, but otherwise I find this superior to Mega-Dio's scheme. Enough to do, but not frustrating in any way.

While I have concerns about the boxing gloves, Ricochet is a good all-rounder. If you like your transformations involved but not especially fiddly, Ricochet has that. If you like your beastbox to be nicely posable, Ricochet is that. And if you like your robot animals to be characterful and cute? Well, it's a goddamn boxing kangaroo with a baby in its pouch. If the concept appeals, consider this heartily recommended.

Gaslands: Ork Evil Sunz (AKA Idris) Team

First off, some house-keeping. I'm holding off on starting another long term project for now. I have ideas, but I don't want to rush headlong into something half-baked. If/when I do start, I'm going to be posting updates of a Wednesday, so as to better manage my time. As As I am still running far ahead on Sunday articles, Wednesday will feature overspill and such in the meantime. Or things I'd rather speak about sooner, like today's article.

This latest Gaslands exercise arose out of a realisation that my vehicle pool wasn't very varied, and it might be more fun for new players if I offered more choice. So I rummaged through my bits, worked out an Idris team roster, and decided to paint them Evil Sunz red. As this almost entirely came from pre-existing gubbins, the materials and techniques in use here get a bit varied, but nothing radically new. As a side effect, I don't think anything here is in exactly the same scale as anything else, or sometimes with itself, but hopefully nobody will notice.

The first car "Not-so-Mini" was a Matchbox toy I picked up at TFN, and the most conventional of the three. This build relied on the Instruments of Carnage sprue for its engine and one gun, while the turret is a resin orc piece by Ramshackle Games. It is also covered with a variety of scratchbuild materials; wire mesh, scrap plastic, EVA foam, and foil. I visualise this car as one sticking to the middle of the pack, shooting at people, before suddenly hitting the nitro on the final lap.

"The Buggle" is a scratchbuild buggy of the same basic design as this one from a month or so back. This one features a more elaborate rollcage and a frontend off one of a bunch of really cheap toy cars I found in a charity shop. I felt they were going to be great for buggies, but these were made of translucent plastic that was very brittle. I salvaged a useful bit, before reverting to my original design. The weapon is off the Carnage sprue, with the crew and exhausts being Ramshackle Games resin again.

Finally, "Git Rida" is mainly the plastic bike from the Carnage sprue, but made orky. The head is off a Ramshackle Games bit, with the body built up with greenstuff in an attempt to improve the proportions. I then went a bit old school, adding warbike-style twin shootas out back. It worked out fairly well, as long as you don't stare at it too closely.

This was a fairly relaxing little project, which achieved it's aims. Job's a good 'un.

Scratchbuild: Ork Gobsmasha

I started this one when I was kinda in a bad mood. Work had been stressful, I was processing a few things emotionally, I was going off Project Sulaco, and finding myself at loose end creatively. So I ended up opting to do another orky scratchbuild. I've done a great many of these, and truthfully I fear falling into a rut without realising. I've got a method for these locked in, and while the results speak for themselves, it gets samey to write about. That said, I find these fun and therapeutic in way that Project Sulaco wasn't really. So, with that in mind, the Gobsmasha.

In order to put the Gobsmasha onto context, we have to go back the earliest days of the 40k setting. You know, the 1st edition, early Epic, mostly metal rather than plastic, pre-me, sort of time period. As I've mentioned before, actual 28mm scale vehicle kits were not something GW could easily do, which is why things like jet/motorbikes and dreadnoughts were so common unit types at the time. And in many ways still are, but I digress. This isn't to say there wasn't a demand for heavy vehicles at the time, the 6mm scale Epic system was all about that, and 40k had vehicle rules from day one, but GW was a much smaller company back then, and such things were a major investment for them. It's not like you can 3D print stuff in the early 90's is it? As such both the 1st edition rulebook and subsequent White Dwarf articles featured a variety of scratchbuilds and kitbashes, even to the point of featuring plans for complete vehicles. Games Workshop absolutely would not do that today. The Gobsmasha, as featured in this link, is one such vehicle. It's one of the numerous and oft odd battlewagon-adjacent vehicles that turned up in Epic, had an obscure resin model in 28mm, but otherwise has been forgotten. it's overall vibe is typical of the super early Ork vehicle pool, sitting somewhere between a self-propelled gun and an olde timey traction engine.

 

Now, I could have gone and attempted the plans as is, but I didn't for three reasons. 1) Size creep is a thing, and I'd probably end up with something more akin to a Grot Tank or buggy than a modern Battlewagon. 2) I'm not a fan of papercraft stuff, being too clack-handed and impatient. 3) In my hubris, I felt that in between my bitzbox, my experience, and a hot glue gun, that I could free-form something better. Arrogant, I know, but those plans are 30 odd years old, I've got things they didn't, and this ain't my first barbecue. I use the word "hubris" as I ended up crafting the front wheels from 60mm bases, and the result isn't perfectly circular, something that sets off my perfectionism something fierce. It doesn't matter in the wider context, although it's a shame I wasn't able source some suitable lids for use in this project, that would have sidestepped some faff. The main body was built up from three tubes hot-glued together in a H shape, which was then layered with old toy truck panels and such. My stockpile of resin pieces from Ramshackle Games came good with a boiler and chimney piece suitable for a traction engine, while the weapons are GW plastics. Now, as a first edition thing, the Gobsmasha predates the modern orky armoury, but there's some fairly obvious equivalents to go for, i. E. heavy bolter = big shoota, a convention I've used on this and many other projects. As the Gobsmasha had a big cannon on it and two machine gun type things, this led to me me treating as a Big Trakk, like my recent Basilisk. That's not actually ideal given the size this ended up, plus it doesn't actually have trakks, but I didn't feel adding all the ancillary stuff that comes as standard on a modern Battlewagon. That would spoil the effect I was going for. Innumerable rivets later, I got to drybrushing.

Its good to be back :)

My time at the TFNation Manchester Mini-Con

OK, there’s no big project on just now, so let me talk a bit about the my experiences at the TFNation Manchester Mini-Con instead. Which happened last week.

 

 

I left on the Friday evening before the Mini-con, having opted to take a cheapo train, and staying the night at the venue hotel. This wasn't my first choice, but I’d left it too late to book the Premier Inn as the prices had shot up to parity with the venue. At that point, might as well have the expensive hotel room, right? The train journey however was a bit of a bitch, the train both being late, and breaking down at a station. I ended up arriving at the hotel at 11:45PM, which was far from ideal, and made a mental note to file a compensation claim when I got home. On the plus side, I’d actually received a room upgrade, which resulted in a room larger than my flat and featuring two separate flat-screen TVs. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but it was comfortable enough for my needs.

I awoke the next morning, or possibly later that morning, finding myself awake and not fully compos mentis at about half seven. I would have liked more sleep. Aware I was on a time limit, I dressed, packed my overnight bag, and went for the breakfast buffet. It was a good buffet. 9/10. Would make Ron Swanson happy. The hash-browns were however circular. Not bad just odd. Having attempted to start the day right, I entered the dealers room for the main reason why I was attending: to assist the Toy-Fu charity, thus seeing friends there and at the forge section. After which things get a bit blurry. The Mini-con is obviously not a huge event, and its probably not unfair to suggest that Toy-Fu was the biggest fish in that small pond. I spent much of the day working on the stall, picking a few indulgences along the way. Not as much as I was expecting too, if I’m honest. The new wave of Legacy United toys wasn’t present, which was a shame. Then, of course the wonderful thing happened: two good friends, James and Claude, gifted me with a DragonZord. It was in honour of the character I play in our collective online RPG campaign. This made my day. It made the trip. Thanks again, both of you. And thanks to everybody on the stall, and the convention in general for your company.

Things calmed down towards teatime, with clearing up going relatively smoothly. Myself and my friend Karl opted to walk to the train station thereafter, having a nerd chat in the miserable weather. He boarded his train, eventually making it home without issue, and I paused for a burger while I got my bearings. I was aware that bus replacements were running, so I’d got there early thinking that I might have to change trains or similar. As it turned out, the train I was booked on no-longer existed, fecking charming, so I rolled the dice on another train. It was packed, but I actually lucked out and ended up home an hour earlier than expected. And thus, an enjoyable if somewhat knackering 30ish hours came to a close.

 

 

So what toys did I get? Well, here’s a brief rundown.

A Matchbox Mini Cooper: Picked out from a bag of battered toys, the mini is a classic with obvious Gaslands potential.

Combiner Wars Scrounge and Cybaxx: You know, sometimes working on a stall has its upsides. This toy is very difficult to get hold of, and is an article candidate for this blog.

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers DragonZord: Is love. Just, love. I probably won’t write about this one, I don’t have the necessary experience, but I will appreciate it.

Fall of Cybertron Air Raid: I always kinda wanted this one, its from a period of interesting retools. Its also an article candidate.

Up next on Sunday: another orky thing, see you then.

Transformers: Legacy United Thundertron is Something that Exists

 

The 2012 Prime: Robots in Disguise Thundertron toy

 

While the opening salvo of Legacy United is full of interesting and refreshing choices, Thundertron is one of the more surprising. He was a curiosity in the mass market Prime toyline of 2012, a seemingly toy-first voyager with no fictional appearances. It wasn't until this year that I learned that this chap had a novel appearance and was being positioned for an antagonist role on screen, at least until Beast hunters happened. I may have to do a deeper dive into Prime and the Aligned continuity at some point. Because, much like the Holy Roman Empire, the Aligned Continuity was neither of those things. But for now let me end this paragraph with a one sentence summary of Thundertron and his appeal. He's a cat pirate robot.

 

I mean, I could just end the article there. Cat. Pirate. Robot. The appeal should be self -evident. But no, I just going to waffle on like I usually do. OK, so, the robot mode, like the toy in general, is a reinterpretation of the original Prime release rather than a 1 to 1 revamp. The difference is mainly in the shoulder pads and the type of cat he is now, but otherwise it's very faithful to the spirit of that old voyager. The robot mode is predominately blue and white, the overall form being evocative of olde worlde, age of sail clothing. Think of the cat head as a puffy shirt, the skirt armour as part of a long coat, and his head having some sorta sailor's hat built in, and you'll see where I'm coming from. The most piratey bits of him are of course, the beard, the cutlass, and, what was it? Oh yes. THE PEG LEG! Rarely has an on the job maiming been so important to a stereotype. Why hasn't he fixed this? He's a robot, spare parts must be an option, or the Lockdown Method for Self-improvement. Maybe he can't. A closer look at the sculpt reveals chips, scratches and holes which have been left unpainted and subtle. It's a good effort, gives him a bit of faded grandeur without hitting you over the head with it like Siege often did. The closer look also reveals hollow areas in each limb which is much less good. Aside from being scenes a faire, the presence of the peg leg does however prompt a discussion about posability and balance. Fortunately, they got this right; Thundertron is not appreciably more difficult to stand than any other Transformer, and there's a plan b if a joint is too loose, the spare foot/boot/dancing-shoe. Outside of combiner wars, I admit that this is fairly unusual accessory, which goes on to form a matching blue cage guard for his cutlass. Posability otherwise is acceptable but not first class for a legacy release. All major joints are represented, plus or minus a foot, including concealed waist, ball jointed skirt armour, and pretty good shoulders despite those big shoulder pads. The wrists and neck however could have had a bit more motion. 5mm port functionality is there, but with the foot ports being committed for common sense reasons. His cutlass meanwhile uses a tab to slot into his coattails, and interestingly, his right shoulder. There's a rumour going around that Thundertron is getting some kind of leader class re-release, and those slots might play into that in a Coronation Starscream sort of way, but it's unknown at time of writing. Otherwise an extremely characterful robot mode, if gappy.

Achieving his lion/fur-baby form is another point of interest, as Thundertron goes from ship's captain to a Zoids-style ship's cat. The original toy had a possibly unique transformation where the largely decorative front legs were formed from shoulder kibble, a trait the new toy also has, but with a new spin. Here the entirety of the leg is stored in each shoulder pad, granting improved articulation over the original, if not hugely spectacular posability overall. These legs also tend towards the decorative, as the instructions direct you to peg these into the main body at the elbows, but you don't have to. Leaving them unpegged allows you to make use of transformation joints for better posing. The conversion is atypical in some other ways too, the back legs taking me by surprise, but it's got the same basic problem as the robot form: gaps. The hollow areas in the legs are still a thing, with the main body looking incomplete from several angles. Thundertron doesn't have an organic beast mode, and therefore a few hinges or seams aren't a deal breaker, but this is unflattering. Otherwise, we don't see any major visual change from the robot mode, just with those pirate aspects remixed and downplayed. The wear and tear of the robot mode is even less overt here, most notable on the back, near his faction badge. It's an attractive blue and white, with gold highlights, the overall shape of it having animalistic feel. In terms of play value, we have an opening mouth, a few 5mm ports, and storage for the sword on the back. As mentioned, posability sorta depends how you approach those front legs, but otherwise have just enough to make you wish there was more. I was pleased to note during photography that it can balance on the back legs alone, but a little in the neck would have been lovely. Certainly not a bad altmode, far from it, but one that feels a touch secondary to the robot mode.

All things considered, I'd compare Thundertron to Jhiaxus in terms of overall vibe and design approach. It's a fundamentally unexpected toy of an obscure character, and a massive breath of fresh air, that does well in robot form, but less well in altmode. Thundertron is more consist in both modes, in that the beast mode actually looks like something, but the hollow parts aren't a plus. He's definitely charming as is, but if the rumoured re-release addresses that weakness? Let's just say that this toy will likely be downgraded to "Something that exists".

Project Sulaco: Part 6

So, Prometheus exists, doesn't it? Not a good film, even by the standards of trend-chasing prequels. It's got one honestly scary moment among the mediocrity, like a shiny penny in a wastepaper basket. Speaking of which…

 

So, I had now moved on to the painting of these guys, having done research on methods for painting black. This research led me to contrast paints and the concept of "slapchop" or more properly "underpainting". For this technique, instead of applying a contrast to a white undercoat, something I loathe, you apply it to an intermediate colour, usually drybrushing a grey or white over black. This removes some of the unpredictability of contrasts, here being Black Templar and Fleshtearer Red, setting a foundational tone for the colour work. Clearly, I need to learn a bit about colour theory as I ended up with a darker ruby red, but that works. As did the black; its subtle, but there's more to it than merely spraypaint. I wouldn't be opposed to using this approach again in future, although I will admit my brainworms giving me trouble for the entirety of the process, until I finally decided pull the plug.While these meet the three colour table-worthy standard, I’m not happy with how they look. It had become a chore, and given earlier difficulties, its probably for the best that I draw a line under this, and maybe come back to it with fresh eyes and/or better skills.

It seems that I don't merely dislike slogging through Ork Boyz, I dislike slogging through Space Marines too. I'm just more of a kitbash, rusty scratchbuild, drybrush robot kinda guy. A shocking revelation there. The contrast paints here, while clearly having uses, just aren’t sitting well with my paint style. I’m not having fun here, and if I’m not having fun, or happy with the end result, what’s the point? So, I’m ending things there. I’ll take a week or two to think about what happens next. I may start another long term project, perhaps one with more of the bits I find fun, I may revisit the vehicles I planned, but just now I’ll take a break.

So what have I learned here? Well, I think I’ve managed to get useful practice with sculpting, and picked up a few painting tricks. I was probably over-confident from the outset, but I wanted to try something different, and there’s no shame in that it didn’t work out. But whatever I do next, I’ll have better idea of what I can actually do, with a few extra tools in my toolbox. Its said you learn more from a fialure, and that's a positive view I'm choosing to take.

Cheers for now.