Another Beadbot enters the Fray

Hello and Welcome back,

I started this beadbot last year for the Bangarang game. It was stalled for some time after the spray primer went strange giving the model a strange grainy effect. 

I can only surmise that maybe there was some bicarbonate soda still on the model. In future I will have to spend more time cleaning a model before primingit. After some time trying to scrape and sand the primer off, it got close to being ready for a repaint. 

Some of the dodgy primer remained so I decided that this bot would now be a bit ccorroded. Some of the details were lost during the clean up, mostly rivets. The missing rivets had holes drilled to make it look like they had fallen out.

My plan was always to paint this bot in a style similar to the Wigan Warriors Rugby league kit. It was to be the beginning of my plan to paint a few more Beadbots in other sports teams paint schemes. All I need to do is build more. That said I have 2 beadbots and a scrapbot, so I think that's enough for a game of Bangarang. 

Thanks for reading and take care out there.

Bangarang Terrain.

Hello and Welcome Back, 

As regular visitors to my blog will know, I recently got into building Beadbots with the intention of playing the Bangarang game. As well as the Beadbots the game requires some stackable terrain and bridges for the bots to fight around. 

The terrain is required is 4 off 2 x 2 x 2 inch stacks, and 4 off 2 x 4 x 2 inch stacks with 2 bridges. I started off building stacks from junk in the bits box to reflect the background of the Gutterlands (the setting for the Bangarang game). Halfway through, I got the idea to build shacks as they would have more versatility. 

Again the shacks are built from junk laying about. There is a bit of recycling cards I was using to punch rivets out of. The sharp eyed amoung you will notice that the stacks aren't exactly the same sizes. It's because I was junk building and to my mind such structures wouldn't be exact. Thankfully the slight size differences don't interfere with the stackablity of the models. 

Paint was started with quick rattle can primer. They then got a coat of watered down textured paint for the grot factor. After a quick coat of brown acrylic craft paint, they got some orange rust spots and washes. Then a metallic dry brush to highlight parts and make details pop. At this point I picked out the coloured panels to break up the paint scheme. A couple of brown and orange washes then tied the models together. Then it was the fun part. detailing, graffiti and posters. 

These stackable models make for interesting picture backdrop for figures, especially as you can mix them up to keep the background interesting (check out my recent figure posts as the terrain is in the background). As well as the Bangarang these models will be used for my Mad Dan’s Scrapyard setting. That said I suspect the shacks will creep onto many other tables too. 

I enjoyed making these models and I am thinking of making more in the near future. 

Thanks for looking. 

Junkbot Ratta

Hello and Welcome Back, 

I thought it was about time to build a Junkbot for the Bangarang game. As its a junkbot I used a bit cut off a Mantic cargo/canister as the body/torso. 

The rest of it is made from all manner of beads. As this is a Junkbot it only has one eye, the Bangarang fluff sayes that these bots are built by the poorer members of the Gutterlands. Apparently the amount of eyes a bot has is a indication of wealth. I discovered some tiny rhinestones for decorating finger nails which were cheap (£3 for 500) on ebay and make for great rivets. 

As this bot is not just a Bangarang machine but it will be the bodyguard of the resident/owner/foaming at the mouth crazy loon who runs Mad Dan’s Scrapyard, a few days march North of Last City this bot has been well armed (more fluff and figures about Mad Dan to follow soon). Ratta sports twin bolters (storm bolters?), a power sword and some funky looking plasma weapon. That should be enough to change the minds of anyone trying to steal Mad Dan’s junk. I chose a rusty and bits of matt black as a paint job.

Some WIP pictures of this bot. 

Thanks you for looking and take care out there. 

Beadbot and the Bangarang

Welcome back, 

No, the post title isnt the name of a fancy band! 

A few weeks back I was sent the link to the Gutterlands website https://www.thegutterlands.com/ which is a bunch of background fluff around the models by the Billmakesstuff YouTube channel. The trash bash nature of Bill's models has really inspired me, and is the reason why there have been a few trashbash terrain posts of late. For me making models from stuff destined for landfill has always been a very rewarding aspect of the hobby. I blame the old 40K RT rule book model making section and possibly watching Blue Peter as a kid. 

I digress, inspired by Bill's models I had to try my hand at building Beadbots and picked up the Bangarang rules by Apocrypha_Now. Bangarang is a game to battle Beatbots in a Arena on the world known as the Tapu (also the Gutterlands). 

So what is a Beadbot? It is a robust style of generic robot that looks like they are built from beads, mainly because the tabletop model is built from beads. Part of thier popularity is the ease of repair and interchangeability of parts. AIs are easily swapped between bots. Bangarang rules also include rules for Scrapbots, Biobots and fancy uppers bots (rich folks' bots). 

Introducing Beadbot 01Buggi22. 

This is my first Beadbot following the basic instructions in the Bangarang rules. Some bits box delving found some extra bits such as 40k shoulder pads as hip joint covers. The weapons and back gubbins also came from the bits box. The colour scheme was chosen to appeal to my wife and I hope we can get some Bangarang games in future. I have found building the beadbot very therapeutic and there are more planned. Not just for the Bangarang.

Bangarang in the Wild Galaxy 

Robots of all styles are common across human space. As Beadbots are cheap and robust they are quite common. Scrapbots can be found too, usually on frontier worlds or in service in poorer communities. 

I quite fancy the idea of making a couple of beadbots as loaders in Spaceports (Dockerbots?). Bangarang arenas are common in frontier worlds where older Beadbots and Junkbots are pitted against each other for entertainment purposes of the masses.

Bangarang on Mattblackgod’s World

Beadbots still exist on Mattblackgod’s World but they are now symbols of wealth. Those factions lucky enough to own a functioning and surviving Beadbot would not risk damaging it in the Arena. Those few that do are usually showing off how wealthy they are, that they can happily wreck a functioning beadbot (which is the MBW equivalent of burning a million dollars). Junkbots are more common and often feature in the Bangrang in Last City’s Mars Arena. Meatyones occasionally feature too, captured mutated lumps of flesh dragged from deep in the wastelands. Uppers bots do not feature on MBW.

The fun of Bangarang has had me thinking of making all manner of Bots with different utilities for various factions in both the Wild Galaxy and Mattblackgod’s World. A Nth gen faction (robots) could also be created for Zone Raiders. Using similar beads keeps things in line with that faction's motif of all descending from the blueprint of a single ancestor bot. As a plus all this gets down on the contents of the bits boxes. 

I will also need to build some terrain for the Bangarang. It need 4 off 2x2x2 inch cubes, 4 off 2x4x4 inch cuboids and 2 off 8 inch bridges. These will have a junk look to them. My thinking is that I will also be able to use them as terrain for Mad Dan's Scrapyard (a future Last City location) and Zone Raiders. 

Thanks for looking, take care out there.