Robot Blood Bowl !

Don't despair coaches!

Pushy players pestering for more pitch time?  Wannabe Stars showboating for the crowd instead of following your plays?  Or maybe you're just tired of players who can't take a boot to the face or chainsaw to the gut but you just can't stomach the smell of zombie?

Have no fear, there's a new solution to ease your woes!

Robot Blood Bowl Players!

Come on down to Scowl Worthleston and his Robot Dog Oil-Spot 's * Robot Emporium!

We'll set you up with a team for a fraction of the high gold prices those fragile meat sack players demand.
Commit to a baker's dozen and we'll throw in a free programmer's manual with time-tested plays like:

* Drive Shaft
* Down Shift
* Assembly Line
and many more.

We also offer maintenance and Baron Sheib paintjobs painting any robot any color for Fifty-nine-ninety-five.

So Come On Down!

* (wonder how many will get that reference)

..........................................

Finished another Blood Bowl team awhile back, and now that the client is back from vacation and seen & approved the team I can show it to all of you.

The team began with the client's concept of a Gnome & Robot team for an Ogre team: Robot Ogres & Gnome snotlings.  But not Red Capped Garden Gnomes.. Steampunk gnomes.  After a lot of searching and some suggestions, none of them really fit what he was after, so I suggested a gnome tinker's team, with all robots: Big & Small. he liked it, I liked it. Just had to find the robots.  Here's what we have:

(click pictures for larger)

ROBOGRES:

An Ogre team can have up to 6 Ogres! So the team of course needs 6! 

All of these are made from the same Privateer Press model, which because it sports a spear & shield is very static.  So I tried to make a variety of poses, with a couple more static, and a few with more movement.  

No Pose too dynamic and crazy though, I wanted to keep the feeling of heavy plodding weight, even when running. Their 'train cow-catcher' face grill seems especially appropriate now.
I'm happy with the differences in poses. 

BOTLINGS:

These are *small*. Just right for strength 1 snotlings.  These are 15mm robots from Khurusan.  

I did a bit of converting: got rid of their wrist guns, sculpted shoulder pads and a couple got poses for running.  It'd be quite easy to use these in 15mm sci-fi skirmish games..heck, the big robots could be used in sci-fi skirmish as well. 

BASES: 

These bases had a lot of thought put into them. 

One of the problems with an Ogre team is that with 6 Ogres with 40mm bases it can get very tight on the board which has 29mm squares! They start pushing neighbors over lines and it can be a real mess. 

So the large minis are on 35mm round bases (just big enough) and the little ones are 22mm round bases. 

This means a small and a big can be next to each other and still fit in the space of 2 squares.  

COACH:

From Reaper.  He seemed just right to coach this team.

TOKENS:

Re-Roll tokens are the square piles of parts: Something went wrong?  the robot likely needs a repair: slap some spare parts and try again!

Because the Robots are so large and placing them down on the pitch when knocked prone or stunned would be a problem, the team has 4 Privateer Press wreck markers: 2 for prone (their eye-lights are still on) 2 for stunned (no eye lights lit).

I am coming to the opinion that every team should have a Star Player or two ready to play on the team to consider the team 'complete'. If in a league, you may well need them!  In a tournament, some encourage them or have such large team value allowed that you can find space for them and it can make a big change to how the team plays, adding a lot of life to playing the team time & again. 

The Ogre team can have 3 different Ogre Stars: Mulg, Bertha, and Brick & Grotty.  The last is actually 2 players for 1: an Ogre & his Goblin buddy. The nice thing about Robots is they could be any Ogre.. even a female, so the team just needs 1 Robot star and it could be any of the 3 as long as there is a goblin-robot too.  So that's what we did.. just needed an even bigger and more dangerous looking robot...

ROBOT STARS:

He's so large he almost couldn't contain himself on the base.  

This robot just screams 'blood bowl' to me.. all those spikes... just imagine having to saddle up to the line opposite this guy and told "don't let him through!"  Yikes!  Time to Retire! 

  

Goblin Star. 

Kind of makes me want to build a whole goblin-robot team!  Hmmm...

And a line-up to see size differences:

The Whole Team:  (click for larger)

The team now joins the others in the Hall of Fame, tab at the top of the blog. 

I really enjoyed painting this team. I had a lot of fun working with metallics, keeping true colors to a minimum.. just a bit of near-white and green other than the ground. And of course the converting is always fun.  I get attached to a lot of teams I make for clients, but this one I especially love.  

Just something about robots. They'll be having fun tearing up the pitch in Austria...wish I could have gone with them.. lucky robots.

I have an idea what their fight song could be... 

Enjoy!

Letting Loose the Lynx: Panzer II's completed for Frau Tottenkinder

The Panzer II Luchs tanks, 'Lynx' are finished.

I really like the look of these light tanks.  I think they'd even make nice 'city breaker' tanks for 15mm scale!

I got a chance to play them and the Stalking Tiger on Friday... and just like in elementary school, where when a kid has brand new shoes everyone steps on the shoes to get them dirty chanting 'new shoes!' my vehicles got smashed.  Tiger Walker: first shot of the game it got popped by a sherman. Then the first Lynx also was destroyed before it got to do anything.  The 2nd fired at the offending sherman, but with both tanks having moved, reduced the chance to hit so much it wasn't surprising it went foul, then it too was destroyed.  Yikes. Not a good first night for the Ahnenerbe Armor!  -Forgot to bring my camera, so no battle pictures I'm afraid.

Baby bear did get some revenge though-managed to get to the sherman and two-paw throw it onto a hill, reducing it to rubble and squishing a couple enemy in the process.  I'll take what victories I can get.

I don't want to bury the contest...

The contest has started!  Ends Oct 27th.  Go  HERE  for the announcement and the link to enter.

I'll just be waiting till it's time to pick the winner. 

Totenkinder Heavy Machine Gun Troops: Dust Refit & 15mm Use

Here is a shot of some of the first mundane troops for Frau Totenkinder's forces.  Being an extremely elite force, the militant force of the Ahnenerbe, the human troops are going to be very well equipped.  So rather than have 3 man squads for heavy machine guns, I've opted to use the Heavy Ranger Attack Squad from Dust Tactics, and say the armor gives them 3 wounds: so the same amount of shots & damage sustainable as a HMG squad.  These models are supposed to be for the allies in Dust, but that's ok by me.  They're great looking minis and painted up fast... which with the limited hobby time I have, suited me just fine.

I won't be using any rocket booster effects as we don't have such rules, but they looked good with them on, so I didn't remove them.. who knows what use they'll have in the future for other armies & game systems.

Speaking of, I am thinking they'd make nice 15mm walkers!  I got the 'Lunar Nazi' bug awhile back, and think these might be just right for that project.  Here's how they scale with a 15mm mini:

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more!

BLA: Assembly of the Greystoke

Professor Maximilian Poireau realized that while Europe was putting effort into the advancement of the tank, such a vehicle would be of little use in the mountainous jungle terrain of the Congo.
Guides assured him the only way to get deeper into the interior and up the mountains was to walk.
Therefore the solution was simple.

A walking machine was required to get to the locations they needed for exploration and to defend the Great Apes from poachers.  And thus the Greystoke was envisioned.

When the BLA takes the fight to Europe, these machines should prove quite valuable as a weapon of war.




I made this from a R.A.T. from West Wind Productions.
I didn't do much converting as you can probably tell.
The hull has an exposed cockpit with a driver. The driver is fine, (though it didn't seem to fit without a lot of clipping of his arms) but I decided to make a closed cockpit for a few reasons:
1. Versatility: now I can use this in the BLA, or for my Quar, or as a 15mm sci-fi vehicle.
2. I just like how it looks better this way.

Overall, I love this model.  The design is fun with just the right balance of menace & quirky for my tastes.
The only problem is the construction design.  This was very annoying to assemble.  Not recommended for people who are not comfortable with pinning. The holes for where the leg pieces are supposed to slot into were half-filled from casting errors, and even when excess metal was removed, the hull is so heavy it creates far too much drag on the leg joints: sturdy pinning is required.  Similarly the hull attaches by a flush contact with the plate at the end of the 'body piston'. If it was plastic or resin it might be enough to glue it, but not a solid chunk of metal. I sunk two pins all the way through the connector plate, so they'd look like bolts on the back end.  The cockpit roll-bar was also very badly mangled when I got it, but managed to get it to the right shape. The metal seems a bit soft: thin parts like the arms seem to bend quite easily. It will take some gentle care to keep those arms from someday breaking.  So I mounted it on a 60mm metal base.

Even with the assembly issues, I'm very happy with this unique model.

Here it is with a BLA soldier for scale:


And here it is next to a 15mm mini.


With the closed cockpit it works well either way, maybe only a difference of 1 crew or 2.
For 15mm I plan on using it for my as-yet-to-be-started British Lunar Marines as a Churchill S17 to face the Nazis on the Moon for the sci-fi pulp setting.

A to Z: Robots

I can not even imagine what it would be like to not like robots.

They are Robots.

End of explanation.


So of course it is fun to build robots!
This then is a tutorial on how to convert a robot, actually two robots, that I built for my VSF Quar army.

The rules we're using for the campaign allow for both regular clockwork infantry as well as heavy infantry automatons. I had an idea for the heavies, and in making them discovered I had the left-overs that would work as light infantry too! Bonus!

This is what I started with: two different types of Mage Knight steam golems: 8 each.

The ones on the left have a more cute & pulpy look to them, but I wanted them to have legs: they're far too top heavy. I like the legs of the ones on the right, so I'd just swap them.

This is the type of set-up that is the stuff of C3P0's nightmares.

Blurry picture of our victi...volunteers for enhancement.

Cut!     He didn't feel a thing.

Cut the legs off the other fellow, and get a paperclip for his hip replacement surgery, a.k.a. 'pinning'.
Note: after I built them I decided I wanted those nobby bits off the knees & toes.  It was possible, but it'd have been a lot easier to do at this stage.

Drill into the body & the top of legs, sink the pin, glue and pose into a walking stance.
The walking pose is already much more dynamic than either of the other two robots, so I'm already pleased.

Some variety in poses here.  I added an antennae to the side of the head.

These 4 were given guns from the 40k Ork sprue. I figured some variety would be nice:
some with guns, some without, so unarmed ones could be used as labor-bots in city/outpost scenario gaming.

I even think they'd work in 15mm.  Quite an imposing fellow in this scale, but I think it works, what do you think?

At this point I went back and looked at these left over parts.... look how cute! Like he's smiling at me...
clearly he wants to be made into something useful too...

Be cautious... it is healthy to see this object and think it looks like it is smiling at you.. it's when a lamp or the wall starts smiling at you that you might want to seek help.

Add a gun and a simple exhaust stack and fill in the hole, and I now have an equal number of clockwork light infantry amd they'd work in 15mm scale too!

I haven't had much time for personal painting lately- they're still in a half-painted state:

8 of each are at this stage: just need some clean-up, details like eyes and bases painted.

A Word of Warning:  
While robots are seemingly helpful tools, and some are even cute, they do maintain a sinister agenda...

Watch this important instructional video for more information: it could save your life.

A to Z: Moon: Theater of Battle: WWWIII

The year was 2018. That was the year of the invasion from Outer Space.
But not by Aliens.
By Nazis.


I became aware of this movie-in-the-works, IRON SKY, last year.
If you haven't heard of it, I've included the two trailers below.
It looks awesome.

Not just a great movie idea with a sleek film noir vibe, I instantly started thinking about how to game this setting.
A friend of mine got into the idea too.

Some assumptions were obvious:
1. 15mm sci-fi
2. Skirmish platoon sized battles with a handful of vehicles: Gruntz would be ideal for this.
3. I'd be tempted to get the Lunar landscape gaming mat from Hotz ArtWorks


My friend called dibs on the Nazis. For them, we're thinking Rebel Minis' Titan Marines:

Although Eureka has some great SciFi Germans too:



That leaves their opponents.. what will I chose? I didn't know at first, until Khurusan came out with these:

Perfect! These will be the British Royal Lunar Marines.
Support them with some GZG Bulldog Rover APCs and some of those 6 wheeled tanks.

Some great pulp sci-fi battles on Earth or strike back against the Lunar Nazis on the Moon!

Not sure when I'll have time to start this project, but it is fun to plan.

Here are the previews of the movie, and check out the website for Iron Sky.

A to Z: Kaamados APC by CMG: Build It & Review

Today I'm building the Kaamados APC by Critical Mass Games.

I ordered one of these to try it out. I chose the one with the Slug Cannons. Not for any reason of strength in game, or anything like that, I just thought it was the coolest looking of the guns.  Best reason I know.

You can find the Build It & Review of the Kaamados Armored car in the entries from March.
I had hoped the armored car could be used as a light/fast apc, but really it was a bit too small for that.
I wasn't bothered since it's an amazing model and I'll happily use it as a light attack vehicle.
So I ordered one of the APCs to try it out.

I'll be honest: I ordered only one because I had my doubts how much I'd like it.  It's got a bit of a wash basin look to it, and I was on the fence for whether I thought it was charming in a retro-functionality way, or if I'd not like it.

Well, let's build it and find out:.

This is the bag, right out of the shipping box:

Right on the package: This is NOT A TOY.  If your romantic-other teases you about playing with Toys you should keep the package and educate them.

Take the items out of the bag:

First impression: Nice.  Very clean and crisp casting.  I really do love resin for models like this.

The hull is in one piece. The bottom has that look of  'poured resin was placed here', but it's the bottom, and flat, so it's a non-issue.

The tabs on the wheels terminate along a tire ridge, so be careful when removing it so that you don't take off too much or you'll lose a tire ridge.

The gun barrels have a slight hole down the barrel.  I drilled mine further, which was easy and safe to do since the barrel already had an indentation in it to guide the drill.  It isn't necessary to do it, I just like a deeper gun barrel hole if possible, and 20 seconds to drill is worth my time.

Keep in mind all the safety precautions of working with Resin.  Go back to the Armored Car Review or elsewhere online for tips if you are uncertain.

Here are the pieces after they are cleaned up:

It took very little time to do this.

There were 2 pieces with slight bubbles.  One gun barrel had a small bubble revealed when filing the mold line and one tire had a couple small bubbles.  You can see how small they were by the green stuff: very minor and no big deal at all.

The wheels do not attach as easily or securely as the wheels on the Armoured Car.  I had to widen the hole with a blade just a bit on a couple of the axle holes in the hull.  Not a big deal, but not as trouble free of a design to assemble as the Armoured Car in that respect. Still, compared to many models it's definitely easy to assemble.

Here it is fully assembled:

Total Build time from bag to assembled (minus wash & dry time): less than 20 minutes.

I haven't glued in the turret.  I'll probably not glue it, so it can turn and I may replace it with other items for versatility.

It measures: 65 cm long, 40 cm wide and 35 cm high to the top of the hull, 45 cm high to the top of the turret.

Here it is with my intended occupant for it: a GZG Mercenary, a.k.a. a Mangalore.

The APC has access hatches on all four sides.

L to R: CMG Kaamados Armoured Car, CMG Kaamados APC, GZG Bulldog.

I'm very glad I gave this model a try.  I've jumped off the fence and planted firmly in the "I love it" yard.

The footprint of the Kaamados APC is nearly identical to the GZG Bulldog, yet overall it gives an impression of being much bigger & more bulky.  In my mind this makes it ideal for my Mangalores, and a good fit for any  'tough & sturdy' race or one using retro/pulp style technology, and makes a nice contrast to the GZG Bulldog.  They should look nice facing against each other on the same battlefield.

Overall I definately recommend the model if you like the design or feel you are on the fence, like I was.
Sometimes I like a model far more once I see it in person, and this is one of those cases.  Its boxy design, rugged & detailed wheels and very nice turret has won me over.  I'm sure I'll be getting more in the future.

Rating: 
Casting: 9/10
Cleverness of Design: 9/10
Aesthetics: 10/10