Search the Community

Robots of standard tabletop size: Reaper's ALF-24 (50138) and Marie, She-Bot (50246). These models are manufactured to work as humanoid assistants for general-purpose work, especially work that requires human interaction that humans don't particularly want to do. And here are a pair of smaller models: Bombshell's HLP-R and MIN-E bots. These two were created for small-quarters general purpose operations, and also for interactions with children. (Children will trust little buddies more than they will grown-up Authority Figures, was the idea.) Side note: I love that the HLP-R bot has the same feet design as the Hydra WarBot, and the fist-pump on that MIN-E bot is great. That little metal tic-tac is adorable. And here's the whole nuclear-powered family! Side note two: I would totally read this cheap paperback if I found it yellowing in a used bookstore:

This is Patrick Keith's 50246: Marie, She-Bot, famous from the old Fritz Lang movie "Metropolis," and two other robots Johnny Lauck sold adjacent to his sci fi Salvage Crew. I painted them up in less than an hour. WIP thread here.

So my husband is running a game this Saturday and he asked "Do you have any robot figures?" and I said "Ummm, let me get back to you." Happily, I had on hand a copy of Patrick Keith's 50246, "Marie She-Bot" familiar to film aficionados from Fritz Lang's seminal "Metropolis". I also had a handful of little robots from Johnny Lauck's Salvage Crew. So I glued them together and primed them and painted them very simply with metallic paints. The whole thing took less than an hour. For metallics I use the principles I learned for gilding: Everything has a color underneath it, usually a rust-red for gold and a black or grey for silver (or aluminum or palladium -- I never could bring myself to gild with something that could decay as fast as silver leaf). I originally planned to paint the Metropolis robot gold, so I primed her with Red Iron Oxide. Then I did the same with a little monkey-robot from Johnny Lauck (ignore the two little guys to the right; I didn't get further than this with them and I plan to paint them like plastic anyway, if I get to them before Saturday). Then my husband pointed out that if I painted the Metropolis robot silver she could stand in for a Moonsilver Alchemical later on. D'oh! ... Okay, so now I was going to see what silver paint looks like over brick red. For science! I washed over the two red robots with dark paint to bring out the details: Burnt Umber on the little monkeybot, as is normal for under a warm color like gold. But then I used straight Carbon Black on Maria She-Bot since she was going to be cold silver, and black generally looks cold under other colors. I notice that she looks just like the Chinese lacquer sculptures I've seen around, a point worth remembering to try some other time, perhaps. I also painted black primer on the servo on the left, another Johnny Lauck 'bot. I had to glue that one to a fender washer as it had a tendency to topple over to its left; otherwise its base had been the same size as the other Lauck robots. That's also why it appears now; its glue was setting while I was priming the others. (Once again, ignore the two on the right.) I then took my good #2 Winsor and Newton series 7 brush and drybrushed silver metallic paint onto the armed servo Lauck 'bot and Marie, She-Bot. ... I find using good brushes helps give a lot of control and evenness, even for this. This wasn't the really scrabbly kind of drybrushing anyway, more like stroking tiny amounts of unthinned paint over the high points of a countoured surface. Anyhow, you can see the different color effects based on what went under the silver paint, black on the left and brick red on the right. You can also see the detail level difference between Johnny Lauck's sculpt and Patrick Keith's. Then I did the same thing, only using gold metallic paint, to the Johnny Lauck monkey robot. I painted their bases solid black. Normally I like a base with at least a neutral grey with shadows, but I was in a hurry and the black contrasted better with their metallic shininess. I also added a few details, red eyes on the Lauck robots and a glowing yellow inside the armed Lauck bot's gun barrel (Which I see I didn't take pictures of. Need to fix that for the Show Off thread). And there you have it. Really really fast quick and dirty robot painting. Total painting time: About forty minutes. (With prep time, work time is probably an hour, or a smidgen more)

My first item is a mini my brother in law sent me, presumably to paint for him (he included no notes or instructions). It didn't come in a package and it had no markings, so I have no idea who made it. I actually struggled with it for a while, because there's a lot going on, but eventually realized that after I got the basic colours on it I could just splotch some red in there and hit it with a brown wash and it would look good and dirty. As though it had been through a battle... duurrrrr! So it's basic tabletop quality. And since he didn't pay with chocolate, which is the agreed upon price for my services, that's what he gets! ETA: Thanks to Wyvernfire I know that the body pile is from the Gamers: Hands of Fate KS and it's official name is the Mound of Dead Bards. Apparently someone didn't like their singing... Next I have my half-orc priestess conversion of the bones version of Seelah, Iconic Paladin. I cut the shield off her back, the helmet out of her arm, the scabbard from the inside of her cloak, and gave her a club. Then I tried to use some Golden brand goop to smooth out the cloak, but it didn't work very well and left a weird texture that I couldn't get rid of. Oh, and I replaced the helmet with a box of chocolates for RP reasons Anyway, I eventually just got sick of trying to make her look better and decided that sub-tabletop quality would suffice. I kind of wanted to set the cloak on fire But I love the little box of chocolates (it is Whitman's chocolates!) Speaking of conversions, here's my bionoid gal, the changed form of #143 (Spelljammer character). Underneath all the green and brown stuff is Marie, the chronoscope robot. In hindsight it probably would have been easier to get one of their sculpting dollies and make her using that.... but I didn't know they had those when I started And yes, she's very shiny, but I want her that way. Her exoskeleton is supposed to look like a beetle shell, so I figured it would be shiny. It just looks awful in pictures. Finally, here are my other two firewalls. I decided I would do a little OSL effect with them, unlike the first two. Anyway, enjoy! Comments and suggestions welcome