Plamo: The Armageddon Kommand Krew (kinda)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. After a vehicle, now for some HQ type guys.

OK, an explanation. This isn't the Kommand Krew just yet. But it will be. These models will be released separately from the Armageddon box, under that name. Which is great if you missed out, and it's a convenient way to get some character models. On the other hand, it does mean you're  locked into three specific models, with no equipment options, and you may not want all of them. Personally, these three were something I wanted, but there's one you'd obviously want over the others, the Painboy. If you're running a lot of Boyz, you probably will be wanting several of these to gain the desirable Feel No Pain rule. The other two are maybe more niche. Returning from Legends with a new name, the Bannernob seems to be competing with the Painboy for a support slot. He likewise significantly buffs the durability of the unit he joins, just differently, and has a lot of OC. The Bigboss meanwhile is something that's been missing for maybe 8 whole editions, possibly longer than many players have been alive, a lesser Warboss comparable to a Primaris Lieutenant. There used to be grades of Warboss, and this provides an inexpensive alternative.

Now, as models these are a mixed bag, if pretty. The fundamental downsides of fixed pose GW infantry are very much on show here. Admittedly nice to look at, the sculpts seem hostile to customisation, while  being so individual that fielding multiples would look odd. The Painboy was particularly irritating here, with that outlandish overarm pose, that delicate cable, and I managed to break the Grot Orderly. These all peg into the bases, and the force required caused me to snap his foot off at the ankle. I fixed this, and added a shoulder pad to the Painboy. He's kinda scrawny otherwise, with a peg leg and an ill-defined power klaw equivalent. He's the problem child of the set. The Bigboss was a touch more conventional, accepting a headswap and a new bosspole with minimal difficulty. The new head is off an old metal nob, and doesn't perfectly match the proportions or pose, but works well enough. He doesn't look flashy, and I i wonder if he's due more weapon options later, but he does look like a Warboss in waiting. Maybe he's born with it, maybe it's the tactical rock. The Bannernob almost got a headswap too, but the bandoleer complicated matters. I actually ended up removing details here instead, taking off the topknot and tassels for a simpler look. Sometimes less is more. He also has an even bigger tactical rock than the Bigboss, which would be problematic to replace as his toecaps are cast in the same piece. Also, due to a typo, my Bannernob is now called BannerBOB.

 

Painting was interrupted by real life issues and the resulting exhaustion, and was done in the same style as the rest of this project. I don't want to get into the specifics, but I've been very distracted. The main issue here was the banner, which would require either transfers or some serious free handing. There's a few glyphs sculpted in, but otherwise it's clan agnostic. That's good, otherwise I would probably discarded it, but it was a challenge requiring further research. I eventually settled for a white fabric for the purposes of contrast, where I lucked out with a pre-existing paint on the first try. It's a dirty off-white, not a good bright white, but works well enough for my style. I tend attempted a freehand logo, and some transfers, to mixed success on both. That said, all of these are fine as gaming pieces, really coming good towards the wash stage.

  

In other news, further details about the new Boyz kit came to light while I was working on these, prompting a rewrite of this paragraph. Things seem to have gone a bit kill team, with a lot more unit options, and special rules. In addition to the shoota thing, a Boyz mob will now routinely feature an ammo runt, and multiple ranged weapon upgrades, without sacrificing their choppas. This obviously makes the Armageddon Boyz less desirable, and notably increases the modernization work required for my existing units. As my bitzbox is huge, and my boneyard significant, so I'm pretty sure I've got this covered. But my concerns about dull, busy work have been more than justified. Gonna need to pace myself, especially with the real life situation being uncertain just now.

Up next: Maybe Intercessors as a change of pace? 

Transformers: Collaborative Gigawatt is Something That Exists

Hmm, a thought occurs. Do young people actually care about the Back to the Future films? How much actually needs to be said here? I mean, it was basically everywhere in the 80's, and the VHS boom, but nobody seems to have tried to reboot it yet, or add another cinematic sequel. Thank god. I think the last time it was relevant though when reality caught up to the space year 2015, which had been the future seen in the second film. So, let's keep to the big picture stuff. The Back to the Future trilogy was an extremely popular movie series, that did much to popularise time travel as a narrative device. If you're doing baby's first time travel episode, you're probably touching the same points BTTF did. Or just doing a Terminator pastiche. It's also one of those stories that seems deeply nostalgic for America of the 1950's as opposed to the more interesting decades on either side of that, and is also very-very 80's. Probably more 80's than Transformers is as a brand. A collaboration in the form of this toy perhaps isn't a shock, then. But I do wonder what the licensing deal was like...

Righty, Gigawatt is the second of the modern run of transformers crossovers, parent, or at least an uncle, to those rather pleasing Hot Wheels releases. This example I have here is from the later re-release for the 40th anniversary, and possibly the less desirable one. The originals had a supposedly limited run of 1985, heh, and there’s some packaging differences I can't be arsed to get into. It's a nice retro styled box BTW, just wanted to say that somewhere. Said box also presents the toy in vehicle mode, which is quite obviously where most of the effort went. It's an almost perfect representation of the DMC DeLorean time machine as it is seen in the first and second films, depending on where you put the accessories and what you do with the wheels. There is a noticeable absence of the DeLorean logo, maybe a shame there, but more pressing is the case of visible head syndrome. Otherwise it's pretty much perfect, and I don't feel like putting the films on to double check. It's got the numberplate and everything, with lots of paint. Rather than simply a replica however, there's play features beyond rolling wheels, folding wheels in fact, for the future tech flight mode. The wheels like to pop off a lot, but there's a useful port for a figure stand there.There's also a plugin "Mr Fusion", and a bumpercar type pole for recreating the climax of the first film. The gull wing doors are present too. Meanwhile, the gun for the robot mode unobtrusively plugs in behind the front lights. So, in so far as deluxe sized cars circa 2020 go, this is rather nice, although we shouldn't forget the crossover premium at play here, and so this cost rather more than a deluxe.

 

With the transformation we discover the meaningful weaknesses of the toy though. Gigawatt is a retool of the aggressively overused Siege Sideswipe mould, and if you didn't know that going in, the transformation would probably give it away. There are new steps added to the process, involving the front wheels and chest plate, but these seem to have added problems. As mentioned, those wheels like to pop off a lot, and the chest was so stiff at first I thought I was doing something wrong. Paint chipping and wear is reportedly an issue for that area too. Otherwise the retooling isn't actually bad, and mould degradation isn't a factor, but it has implications for the robot mode. 

Said robot mode has both character and the fundamentals, in a black and gray colour scheme. It's got a very wide chest, with a flux capacitor front and center, providing much visual interest. The head sculpt seems to be wearing Doc Brown's goggles, but the face isn’t him. If anything, it's like a deeply forgettable comics character called Wrung. It is here where the Sideswipe comparisons become unavoidable, as an awful lot is used unchanged, and often cast in a different plastic from the newer vehicle bits. A vast majority of the arms, the upper legs, pelvis and the slots for Sideswipe's shoulder launcher are all here and immediately recognisable. I would dearly love to know the practicalities of all this. Is it the case that they just reused a CAD file? Or does the Sideswipe mould have a distinct runner/sprue for the robot bits? And/or was there a lot of Sideswipe going into landfill? I wanna know the numbers!

The net effect of all this is that Gigawatt looks very generic and low key in robot mode. Yes, there's the chest plate, which makes him super-wide, but ignore that and you've got a gray and black robot who could be absolutely anyone. The black eats what detail there is, and there's a set of unpainted flux capacitors on the knees. Maybe we could have had some blue in here? Marty McFly liked his denim. On the plus side, there's a very solid set of play features, with a lot of 5mm ports and blast effect compatibility. He's got a pretty good gun, which you can plug the Mr Fusion bit into in two places. You can also use that as a "watch" in an undocumented feature. The door wings also have 5mm ports, and are a good place to stow that pole. Articulation is decent, if loosing a bit in the knees. Generally a good robot mode.

 

Gigawatt is a pleasing prop replica crafted atop a good deluxe. A deluxe that has been used far too often, yes. A deluxe that hasn’t changed that much in robot mode, yes. But it was a fundamentally good deluxe, that has new accessories, and has been made quite pretty. The value proposition is where it runs in to problems. These are generally quite expensive, and as there’s been 16 (and counting) uses of this mould, alternatives are plentiful. I however got this for £15 new, and was quite happy with it :)

Plamo: Ork Wartrakk (the Armageddon one)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Having done some grots as a warm-up, I moved on to the Kult of Speed.

Possibly the most nostalgic thing in the very nostalgic Armageddon box, the Wartrakk goes right back to 1st edition,  the original being cast in lead. It's one of those units that existed, at least partially, due to technical limitations of the time. Plastic moulding wasn't quite there yet, and a two seater half-track was about as big a vehicle they could cast in metal. Eventually, they got done in plastic for Gorkamorka, although these aged like milk, and we were stuck with them for donkey's years. The Ork fondness for kitbashing was largely mandatory. These were retired in favour for the Orktober buggies, so it's a surprise to see the unit back. Ruleswise it's surprisingly simple too, much more minimalist than say a Megatrakk Scrapjet. Where it is like an Orktober buggy though is it's crew. Said crew don't have any alternative heads or such, so doing three of this would get boring real quick.

As a model it's a fairly basic thing, a single runner segmented into three, and its the simplest of the vehicles in the Armageddon box set.  This obviously means it goes together quickly, but probably you're best off painting it in segments before final assembly. The driver is very much an integral part of affairs, although the gunner/rokkits may be left unglued for ease of transport, but I would decide against that later on. The complication here is that the orks simply have a lot of detail that just has to be done prior to final assembly, otherwise you can’t get a brush in there. The modularity and pushfit nature of the kit bodes well for future conversions though; if you can replace the gunner you're golden. He’s built like a nob BTW, maybe that’s a nod to the original version? I opted to head-swap the driver, and trimmed some extraneous bits off the gunner, and gave him a jerry can, to personalise this a touch. I will admit that some of these charges will driven by glue mishaps or gaps beings revealed at spraypaint stage. I'm still getting used to the pushfit style and I dislike the absence of simple, standardised connections. Your mileage may vary on that one though. I'd also make the observation that the Wartrakk has a notably hollow chassis, and seems to rely on it's connections to it's base for structural purposes. Just maybe file those pegs a bit? As getting this onto the base was a bit of a struggle.

I then undercoated and painted the kit in four segments. Thinking about it, this sort of thing would have annoyed me so much more in the past. So either I am doing better, or this is just less annoying than the Kustom Boosta-blasta or the (current/old?) warbikes. That’s not to say it wasn’t without its challenges,  and I ended up gluing the gunner into place. Despite my best efforts, painting had shifted a few tolerances, but nothing insurmountable. A good little kit, mind you. I’m happy with how it all turned out.

Up next: some character guys, but maybe something else first...

Plamo: Ork Gretchin (the Armageddon ones)

And now for an installment of Project Legs Eleven. As I work my way through the Armageddon box, I start with the smallest models to ease into things.

Worked into the Boyz sprue around the edges, these feature 5 main bodies, and 6 head/weapon pieces to personalise them. Each body can take two different combinations, which as far as pushfit monopose models go is quite acceptable. One segment even features what looks likes the star of the Grot Rebellion, which pleased me immensely. I did however lightly kitbash them anyway for the sake if variety and pride. Assembly was largely stress free, although you do have to be mindful of tiny gaps occurring between pieces, which caught me in a few places. Trim the pegs, and use the special plastic glue to melt things together. Comparisons to the Gretchin kit I've written about previously are kinda of a wash. There's an obvious technological improvement, but we're comparing pushfit to a "proper" release so it adds up to a sidegrade. Painting was largely an exercise remembering how to do this, trying not to melt in the June Heatwave, and not feeling happy with them until the inkwash stage. The details can be a bit fine as well as being small, and my old eyes had to squint. I also tried out some, heh, Armageddon dust, for the bases, as I'd picked it in a painting set and wanted to give it a go. Things are rough around the edges, but as a warm up this was quite useful. I did manage to do the eyes on most of them. I wonder what's going on with the runtherd there though…

As these are fairly simple models that were done as a shakedown, to find out if any paints had ran out, I don't have much more to say. So I'm gonna pivot to talk about the Summer Preview that happened as I was working on them.  It seems the Codex might be sooner than I expected, and we're seeing something of a paradigm shift with how units are equipped. Boyz have received a glow up on in pretty much all fronts; better stats, more weapon choices, with instances of (limited) Lethal Hits and Cleave being plentiful. This makes them a lot more offensive, and makes me wonder about their eventual unit costs. That said, giving the Shoota family of guns Lethal Hits against squishy targets was probably the minimum to make them functional. Orks will consistently find their opponents in cover and thus hit on a 6, and the probabilities just get depressing from there; upwards of 1/36 odds to wound a beakie and you'd need to do it twice. Lethal Hits would at least mean it feels like you are doing something each time, skipping a dice roll. Rokkits meanwhile have been totally reworked, and kombi-weapons have distinct stats again. I will be very interested to know how all this is priced and what you can actually have in each mob.

In related news, despite my earlier statement that I likely wouldn't need to make any more Trukks, GW has remade the trukk too. It's got more guns and more melee stuff, looking more like a mini-battlewagon. I don't thing I urgently need to replace my existing trukks, the size is about the same and I can just say it's a "counts as". But if I did? Oh. Woe is me. I'll have to scratchbuild a bunch of Ork vehicles. I am forced to do one of my absolute favourite things. How sad.

 

Up next: summat bigger.