Transformers: Age of the Primes Megatronus The Fallen

 Happy Halloween!

The Fallen’s first appearance, Transformers: War Within: The Dark Ages #1

The Transformers brand has a pantheon. It's a complex topic that sort of congealed from disparate sources over decades. Transformers are people after all, and people have religion. And given that this is pop sci-fi, it's very easy for your average Cybertronian to eventually meet one of their gods, given that a lifespan of a million years plus is not uncommon. Thus, we have The Thirteen Primes, a mélange of Hellenistic, Norse, and obviously Christian influences applied to giant robots. Megatronus The Fallen is one such demigod, and if you have a command of the English language, you probably don't need me to explicitly say that he's a fallen angel. My interest in The Fallen is an entirely superficial one. I've not really engaged with any of his wildly divergent fictional appearances, and I find the whole Thirteen thing to be something in need of a champion. It's a concept that Hasbro and lore nerds seem to want to make happen, rather than actual creative types. That said, The Fallen as originally depicted is an idea so pitch perfect stupid, so juvenile, so edgelord, so heavy metal album cover, that it loops back around to awesome again. He's an evil satanic furnace robot that is perpetually on fire, and is also the inspiration for the Decepticon badge. He's what Tarn so desperately wishes he was, and could easily have been. Bludgeon tells him to tone it down. Unicron considered a restraining order, before making him a herald. I can't help but love that, and it is so nice that the designers prioritised that version. Not exclusively so, as the accessories evoke other iterations, but it's been a few waves since since we've had something purpose built to be a comic-first character.

Let's talk about the tank mode. It was, after all, the main point of discussion here, but more for what it could be than what it was. People thought that it foreshadowed a leader class Megatron, Fallen here having a transformation scheme obviously inspired by the Siege Megatron toy. As it would turn out this was not the case, The Fallen reportedly having been designed without concessions for future remoulding. Which is unusual, and I expect some form of reuse somehow. Anyway, Fallen does have issues in this mode, such as Visible Head Syndrome and a general gappy-ness of construction. I can't say its a good tank for those reasons. That said, it kinda works as a vehicle mode for a mythological demi-god in dark tones, and it does have its positives. This has a presence, even without the gorgeous flame effect bits. It is not nice. It is the stuff of nightmares, electric guitars, and vehicular homicide. The turret turns without looking odd. Good, too many toys get that wrong, although the gun is feeling in need of another securing tab. There's a secondary missile pod and smoke dischargers on there too. Good, a nice little detail. There's a lot of 5mm port functionality too, the flame effect parts plug in that way. Good, although the spear just kinda straps to one side like he is moving house. And while it is indeed based of the Siege Megatron transformation scheme, it's been refined and expanded for a leader class pricepoint. Good, it's nice hand candy, although the chest plate likes to detach. Is it a great tank mode? No, that's not something you honestly claim, but it's definitely in the realm of good enough for something that absolutely is not trying to be a disguise. Or making a rod for its own back, SS86 Megs, I'm looking at you.

Putting it into robot mode reveals an almost perfect translation/interpretation of Dreamwave era comic art.  Which, of course, I love in a deeply superficial way. There's some oddities and nitpicks though. The feet for example are oddly hollow for transformation purposes, so it's like he's on tiptoe. There is also the use of rubbery plastic for his spear, and I'm honestly not as into it as I want to be. It's stupid, and functional, but not quite stupid enough to be amazing. What greatly excused these complaints however, was posability. Now, with articulation having been standardised and generally pretty good since Siege, you might wonder what it takes for something to be noticeably posable? Especially when the robot in question is already built like a brick shithouse?  The answer turns out to be butterfly joints in the shoulders, opening hands, and solid fundamentals. It makes the toy surprisingly expressive, and my first attempt to pose the toy is what made it all click for me. Above and beyond the significant edgelord vibes, it was finding a sassy striding super villain pose almost immediately. Like Skeletor if he was on fire and also a robot. The Fallen would probably do well in that franchise, now I think if it. So he moves about as good as he looks, and looks good. No new colours appear, but he remains so striking in that juvenile-fan-art-original-character-do-not-steal sense. The head is perfect, with a sneering faceplate, atop a powerful looking body. Elements of the tank mode are there, but rather downplayed as more of the tracks end up concealed in the chest than with other tankformers. As robot modes go, there's much to like.

Megatronus The Fallen is very much the perfect version of what it's trying to be. What is, is fairly stupid, but it commits. The robot form was clearly the focus of efforts here, but when they have done so well with it, it's very hard to begrudge. The tank mode may be a bit of a hot mess, but it's a long way from being a dumpster fire. If you like the look, congratulations. 

Here's some more glamour shots.

Gunpla: The RGM-86R GM III (HG)

Oh crap, I have explain Double Zeta. What have I done?

OK, Double Zeta (ZZ) was the third Gundam TV series and an immediate sequel to Zeta. Zeta had gotten exceptionally bleak, and Double Zeta was something of a pendulum swing towards the other extreme. I don't think that's immediately a bad thing, although I've not heard much that makes me want to watch it. ZZ, in my limited understanding, seems to be a regression to older tropes, with many shenanigans in the first half, only for Tomino to take it seriously again in the second half, after the Char's Counterattack film was greenlit. The military realism seems to have faded with this one, and I have some deeply undiplomatic things to say about Neo Zeon, both in the general and the specific, but I digress. While not unpopular, ZZ doesn't the get the same reverence as the preceding two series. None of the above is me saying it's a bad show, but it is a hard sell. It does have some memorably excessive mecha in it though, see the eponymous Gundam for example, so there is that.

The GM III is of course, by some margin, less immediately interesting than the entire Neo Zeon fleet and whatever Judau's bunch happened to be fielding at the time. With the Titans gone, Federation arms development seems to have stalled a wee bit, and basically everything with a monoeye has either been retired or absorbed into the various Zeon spin-offs. A casual glance at the animation roster implies that the GM III is the only machine the Feds got to mass production during the ZZ period, and is arguably the only thing the Feds actually made during that period. I am not joking. Ancillary media like the famous Gundam Sentinel adds a few, but, yeah. The main thing the Federation did was upgrade the GM II to III. My research indicates this was mainly a refit situation too, new build machines ending up with a slightly different name. I have two opinions about this. 1) If you're doing military realism, it makes sense to incremental improvements to platforms for any number of practical/boring/sensible/logistical reasons. 2) As mentioned, ZZ really isn't doing military realism, and the GM II was outdated at the start of last season, so it doesn't reflect well on the Feddies. 

 

I'm put in mind of the term "bomb truck". This can refer to an older generation of jet fighter, one that has aged out of frontline roles, and now operates as an ordnance carrier. That's what the GM III looks like to me. It's a skinny frame whose engines have been enlarged, but now mainly carries missiles. Said missiles are however in hardpoints, so you can remove them, and go for a more melee focused machine if that's what you want. 

As a kit, the GM III invites comparison with the Nemo, and that Origin GM. It's from 2011, so it's a polycaps build with 7(?!) hands, and some waterslide decals. Joint design seems fairly modern, and was actually a touch closer to the Origin version than I expected. As it's an older kit it uses stickers marked with kanji, and, as you may recall, stickers are my recurrent bugbear of gunpla design. While largely inoffensive, or easily avoided with paint, there's a teal trim you have to sticker, as well as yet more of the red lined thrusters common to older designs. As a side note: Gundam Unicorn updated the colour scheme and removed some of this inconvenience, but other than a P Bandai release that's not something you can easily take advantage of. It would possibly be an airbrush job at that point. Furthermore, even with the stickers, there's areas like the missile pods and the inside of the shield that needs some dark grey. All in all: this makes for an acceptable mid-tier kit, with some ignorable flaws, but enough to annoy a perfectionist or GM III stan. I'm not so much the former these days, and I'm not sure the latter exists, so I'm fine with it. I did find that the parts fit wasn’t great in a couple of places, but maybe that’s just bad luck.

I did a basic weathering job on this one, picking out some bits with paint, and some with stickers. I’m not happy with the leg thrusters, this plastic did not like paint, but hopefully it doesn’t look that bad on the photos.

Orktober: Kommandos

Righty, the actual Orktober Project.

Much like Stormboyz, Kommandos are another old unit, historically having some overlap with regular Ork Boyz, if having a few tricks. Kommandos are amongst the most parodic of Orky concepts, as their job is a stealthy one, and Orks are to stealth what a a punch in the face is to diplomacy. There's at least one in-universe account of soldiers being executed because Kommandos happened, and the officer didn't believe them. I suppose it works because of the contrast and misdirection; Orks tend to be very obvious, so you don't see the sneaky ones. If you go looking, you can find some absolutely spectacular kitbashed examples, and I even did some in high-vis jackets because it was funny. While lacking in good models for years, Kommandos got revamped for the Kill Team skirmish game, and this seems to have been a great success. I mean, there's even an ork sniper model now, a walking oxymoron if ever there was one. Plus they turn up a lot in merch. I would make the observation though that it also made them very fiddly by Ork standards, with at least six specialist roles and two decorative models. They also recently got the option to split squads, which looks really useful, but doesn't make them less complicated.

As a kit, the modern Kommandos exist as three densely packed sprues, some bases, a transfer sheet, and an honestly mandatory instruction booklet. I don't like the design philosophy here, which is all about fixed poses and excessive detail. Orks are a horde army, let me personalise, and don't waste my time with bells & whistles. There's no modularity as such, each model going together a bit differently so kitbashing between is discouraged, but a majority do have alternate heads and weapons. Some a lot more useful than others. While I'm complaining, I'd like to mention the ever-present mould lines, and that complex bits like the Breacha ram fought back. On the plus side, there's no shortage of character and creativity here. I just wouldn't try to build three sets at once.

I ended up using the alternative heads where possible, omitting the occasional greebly, filing off the Blood Axe iconography, and adding some green stuff work in places. I found pacing myself with these to be rather difficult, trying to paint them over the month, and aiming for posting on the 26th. And like the Stormboyz, the amount of little things to do was a slog that I struggled to get motivated for. But I needn’t have worried, my obsessive nature had these ready for an ink wash on the 12th. The colour scheme was something I went back and forth on, and eventually gravitating to a mostly camo green, with occasional blue details as these are Deathskulls. While this probably makes them look more like the actual military than my actual armydudesmen, additional flairs crept in like mismatched browns,  yellow tan, and Looney Tunes dynamite. I’m going to justify this by pretending that the lads had heard of camouflage, but didn’t quite get the concept. The fabrics are mostly sensible colours, but not in this combination, and I ended up having to go back and change some of these later on.

As tends to happen whenever I try new infantry in a new way, these went through a prolonged “oh these are gonna suck, they suck”, before entering “hey, maybe these are OK”, and ending in “oh that effect looks nice”. Ink washes tend to smooth out my limitations as a painter, while Citadel technicals and contrasts add highlights. I do like how the Soulstone Blue goggles pop against the drab green, and how the blood effect paint works against dull metal.  The flame on the benefitted from Iyanden Yellow; I’m very pleased with how well that turned out. I need to get better with eyes however, I had trouble with the squig.


While rough around the edges, these  turned out OK. I may talk about them again when/if I get to field them in battle. But, damn, I need another project now.

Orktober: Stormboyz

Here we go, some Orktober content. Although possibly not the Orktober content. I'm trying to get that done before the end of the month.

Stormboyz are a very old ork unit, not the oldest, but definitely something that was there when Space Orcs became proper actual fungus football hooligan GW Orks, and never really left. These were the orky equivalent to Space Marine jumppack units, Orks that wanted to get stuck in faster by flying. This was useful, although these were a close relative of the basic Ork Boy, functioning the same in many ways, just erratically airborne. Much like the Shokk Attack Gun, they were much more random in ages past, having a mishap chart due to the inherent dangers of a rokkit pack, not least of which being that Mekboyz find the accidents funny. Playing into that was the old lore that Stormboyz were teenage Orks that were doing the teenage thing of rebelling against thier society by forming organised groups, dressing alike, and marching in formation. Doesn't that remind you of something? Initial gameplay experiences suggest these work best as disposable deep strike assets in 10th Ed, adding more pressure on your foe.

I got these models sufficiently long ago that I don't remember how I got them. Probably eBay. These were assembled by their original owner, with the main thing I did being bigger bases and some minor tweaking. Way back when: I remember trying to heavily kitbash boss nobs for these, but it didn't work out. For this project, I ended up just adding power klaws to models instead, tooling for two squads of five, and made sure everyone had a unique head. Also some gap filling, and pennies to balance the bases a touch. One observation I would make here is that these models are very individualistic and busy. Mainly they stay on the good side of characterful, but these don't have the regimented look of older lore. Possibly there's hints of pilot suits in there, bomber jackets, goggles etc., but it's all over the shop. And that adds to the painting time, especially with all the "tactical rocks" which are being used to suggest flight. But at least they don't look as much like fucking Nazis, which is a plus. 

 

I think these turned out okay. My main difficulty was getting started again after stopping for a week. Basing these and doing touch-ups was a bit of a slog.

 

3D Print: Not-Engineerseer and Not-Bullgryns

 

Shortly before my re-acquaintance with Orks, I put in an order for some 3d print models. Part of that was due to me having some time off and needing a project, but also some frustration with how my Guard had played recently. As it would happen, these models would turn up later than I wanted, and by the time they did, I was feeling better about Guard, 40k, and life in general. Which was nice. They say a change is as good as a rest, but apparently not good as doing both. And the blog was well-stocked with buffer material too. So I'm rolling both into one article, as they come from pretty much the same headspace and were painted at the same time.

So, Enginseers and Bullgryns? Very much at the opposite ends of the brains/brawn spectrum, but with some key similarities. Bullgryns are the melee version of Ogryns, known for being damage sponges. They aren't bad at bludgeoning, but the absorb hits like Terminator armour, with invulnerable saves, damage reduction, and feel no pain. Techpriest Enginseers are basically magic repairmen seconded from the Adeptus Mechanicus. They have the sort of equipment and rules you'd expect, and an ability to tap a Rogal Dorn and grant it an invulnerable save. The similarities of these two units are A) they are popular in the tournament scene, as B) they represent an almost unreal amount of no-sell brickwall to a foe. As I, C) don't play in tournaments or especially like the guard armies they feature, I'd resisted fielding either. Then I went, "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.". I've done largely everything else with Guard as it was.

The actual models I have here are pretty good, inexpensive, nice resin prints with fairly modest prepwork needed, although I wouldn’t spot some imperfections until the photography stage. What would happen though is that the Bullgryns ended up being far more of a project than the Enginseer was. After some initial uncertainty, I decided to try the same police theme as my Scions, modifying the iconography and painting them to look more like a British Bobby. The base models here were <deep breath> “Valour Korps - Adrian - Abhuman Squad” by The Makers Cult. Which were generally quite nice models if one suffering from a slightly miscast foot. As the name implies, these featured winged V symbols I wasn't fond of, and I eventually filed them off and covered the scars with green stuff. This prompted various attempts to chip and rough up the armour parts. Printing artifacts weren't really an issue, but smooth flat panels aren't ideal for my painting style. Especially one where the units purpose is to take hits. I tried two tone blue scheme to mixed success. Scaling up my human infantry techniques to suit a model four times the size made things a bit weird. Easier in some respects, but I clearly need to work on my flesh tones. I did the armour plates like a tank, and that worked well. As so often happens, I didn’t like these until the end of the painting process, but they look fairly good as an end product.

With the Enginseer I have much less to say. This was a “Franz The Motormeister” by Mariesminis, and was the nicer of the two prints on first impression, but that preference changed with painting. The details on this one are a bit soft, and it feels maybe a bit fragile. I found picking out the details a bit tricky, and the end result is like an ambulatory red robe with a servoarm. Which is fine for gaming purposes, but not something I'm totally happy with. I don’t paint red that often, I need more practice.

 

Generally these turned out alright. Not great in the case of the techpriest, but even then, OK as learning experiences go.