Beadbots

 Hi!

Just a quick update this morning before we head out for the day!

I've had these guys built for a while and finally got chance to paint them recently (annoyingly there's actually three of them but the cat has knocked one down the back of my painting stand and I can't seem to find it!).

Made from wooden beads, cocktail sticks and EVA foam, they've actually turned out quite nicely and would do for everything from mecha in 6/10mm to heavy power armour and dreadnoughts in 15mm or even normal warbots in 28mm.

I'm not too pleased with the bases if I'm honest and may yet rebase them with something a bit more substantial but they were the only ones I had to hand!

I've got a fourth, larger mech finished and just needing basing as well as a couple of rivals for these guys made from different shaped beads and plan on introducing them into my AK47 Republic sci-fi shenanigans at some point.

I rather enjoyed making them, apart from the fact that I had to use copious amounts of superglue to keep them together as the wooden beads seem to soak it up like nobody's business! 

All the best!

Steampowered Infantry

Hi!

I've just finished a squad of steampowered infantry for my ongoing VSF/Steampunk/Weird West project!

1st Texan Ironclad Infantry 

Constructed from plastic gubbins with some wire and putty to make rifles and a bit of cotton for their smokestacks, I'm quite pleased with how they have turned out and they will make a good addition to my no longer fledgeling force!

Ironclad Infantry are the marvel of the age with their miniaturised boilers allowing them full mobility for a full thirty minutes before needing stoking again, their thick iron plate making them nigh invulnerable to small arms fire and allowing the brave crewman to wade into the thick of the action before unleashing a barrage of lead from his heavy shotgun.

Scale Shot

I imagine these little chaps clanking forward towards their enemy, occasionally exploding spectacularly but I do love a steampunk suit, no matter how unsuited to actual combat it may be!

My next task will be to add some more contraptions for my Texans to field so watch this space!

Homicidal Pepperpots Tutorial

Hi!

Last week I made myself some Dalek proxies in 15mm scale and I've been asked to put together a step by step guide on how to make the angry little fellows so here goes!

EXTERMINATE!

Supplies

To make the proxy Daleks, you will need a selection of plasticard (cardboard will do at a pinch!) of different thicknesses, some plastic rod and some plastic embellishments (I picked these up from The Range in their craft section for about £2.99 and they are dead handy).

Building The Daleks

The first step is to cut some pieces of the plastic rod (mine is 7mm thick) to 10mm lengths and then fasten on a piece of 2mm thick plasticard to it. This gives the backpack/rear of the armour. Next add some smaller sections of plasticard to the sides. I used slightly thinner plasticard for this and cut it to 7mm sections. 

Next add a smaller piece of plasticard in front of that (the right hand of the pic). 

Next use a small piece of thicker plasticard to the front of the robots body and the basic shape is done. The next steps were to add some extra panelling to the rear of the armour to add some more detail. Finally peel off one of the larger embellishments and glue it on and the Dalek is starting to take shape!

Once the head is in place, peel off two small dome embellishments and stick them on the sides of the head giving the flashy communication lights. A third dome is reversed and glued in place to give the eye stalk and then a small piece of wire to give the laser gun/cattleprod/deathray. On the other side, I added a small piece of thin plastic rod to make the basis of it's manipulator arm.

As I already had six basic Daleks, I wanted to add some commanders and heavy weapons to my fledgling force so I gave two the normal manipulator arms by using another of the small domes reversed and glued in place while the remaining two became heavy weapon Daleks by gluing a small dome in the centre of their casing and fastening on a small piece of thin plastic rod!

While not perfect representations of the Daleks, they do the job. If I had endless patience I would add all the little domes on their casing to give a more classic Dalek look but as they are now, they will do and they make handy additions to my other projects, be they Imperial Extermination droids or Ghoulani Enslaver bots!

It took me about an hour to make four of them and cost about £1 worth of materials and if you do an assembly line approach rather than stopping to take pictures, it takes even less time and I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. Hopefully I'll get the remaining four painted this week and will showcase my fledgling force then.

In other news, I've been furiously painting my way through my 15mm gubbins and have got a load more cowboys done as well as the first four members of my salvage crew and will post some pics up in the coming week!

In the meantime, All the best!

Imperial Battleship Spotted Above Farpoint!

Hi!

Following on from my Imperial lander from last week, I felt the need to crack out the cardboard once again and build something a bit different in the form of an Imperial warship!

The Dauntless, Imperial Tyrant Class Cruiser

Governor General van Dorn has been supplied with a small fleet to aid in the pacification of the Farpoint sector and the flagship of the fleet is the Dauntless, an Imperial Tyrant Class Cruiser under the command of Admiral Ludo Sterne.

The Dauntless has seen quite a bit of action in the last century and bears quite a few scars from its previous deployment against the Eldar raider fleet of the Serpent Brotherhood. Despite the scarred appearance, the Dauntless is a powerful force to be reckoned with in the sector.

Armed with a powerful broadside and destructive Nova Cannon, the Dauntless should be more than a match for most of the pirate flotillas that have plagued the sector in the last few years but rumours of a traitorous Rebellion warship in the region has the admiral keeping his crew battle drilled and ready for any engagement.

Constructed from a mixture of foamcore, cardboard and some plasticard, I must admit it was quite a long term sculpt but I am rather pleased with how it turned out. While it doesn't sport the gothic elements of the traditional sculpts, it didn't cost me anything and was quite fun to build.

I hope to add a few smaller escort and merchant vessels to the mix which will hopefully give me a small flotilla to play some skirmishes using Battlefleet Gothic.

Now I have a battleship to pootle about the sector, I think I will also have to procure a complement of naval types to add some interesting scenarios for 15mm scale skirmishes too and may have to represent the curmudgeonly Admiral Ludo Sterne too!

In my version of The Imperium, technology has moved on a bit from the dark ages and the ships are more bulky armoured boxes with guns than flying cathedrals as I wouldn't know where to start with building such a monstrosity!

I doubt I will be playing any vast fleet action style games (and if I was I would have made the ship scale considerably smaller!) but I can imagine half a dozen ships of varying sizes blowing each other up in the aether above a frontier world!

I've got the crazy idea of sculpting some tiny fighters and landers as well as other small ships too so watch this space!

All the best!