Back in 2018, I was lucky enough to receive a very rare “Roberker” figure. It is an Archive Miniatures figure circa 1978. It comes from the “Star Rovers” line.
Roberker is a giant flame-throwing robot (Archive #2010). It is nearly 3½”/85mm tall, and was supposedly one of the largest robots on the market back then. Its arms end with flamethrower nozzles. Archive’s creator, Nevile Stocken, commented on FaceBook that it was his creation, and inspired by Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker novels. I wrote about it back in 2018 here and you can check it out.
I did not think I would ever see another one – but thanks to an open search on eBay, I managed to see an incomplete one that I bought in 2024.
I’ll describe how I built the model and share some finished photos and a video link.
Work in Progress Shots
It was missing an upper arm, and I knew that like the last one I built, that this would be a challenge of construction more than painting. The build would be the tough part – specially as this one was incomplete. The photo below shows the pieces I got plus the old Roberker that I had previously completed. I needed to look at it often to remember how to rebuild this one.
Of course, green stuff, paper clip wire, and polystyrene can be shaped in many ways. To rebuild the upper arm, I took polystyrene tubing, and sized up the appropriate length using the one other upper arm piece that I did have. I sculpted green stuff for a shoulder, as well as to thicken and strengthen the PS arm.
Green stuff was a big part of the project. On the new arm, I needed to let it cure, then I could drill it out for the paper clip wire pinning attachments. Meanwhile, I took some small brass collars I had and added them to the ends of the arms to better approximate nozzles. I also repaired many depressions and gaps in the old lead. Lastly, I sculpted over the body parts so that later I could have better structural integrity with this bad boy.
Once all that had cured, I drilled out pin holes for the legs, shoulders, and arms. I used a combination of Gorilla Glue and green stuff to assemble the model. First, I used glue to get an initial bond, then green stuff to firm that up.
Of course, then more curing time.
To keep the model upright, I then used two 2″ steel fender washers as a base.
I hand-primed the model with Vallejo Primers “Black” because the airbrush was on its last legs and clotting a bit.
The Createx “Wicked Aluminum” airbrush paint I had dated from 2017 – and definitely was not useable in my airbrush after 9 years. Luckily, while the name of the product had changed from “Wicked Aluminum” to “Wicked Aluminum – Medium”, the SKU was still the same (W354). The new bottle worked well. After the aluminum paint had dried, I decided that this Roberker needed differently-colored flames coming out of his head versus the previous model’s orange. A nice plasma-green seemed appropriate. Similarly, I painted the eye with a metallic yellow eye to better match the green flames. I tried to match the previous model’s base with a reddish combination of Citadel “Martian Ironearth” and “Martian Ironcrust”. Once that dried sufficiently, I shaded up the model.
I removed the figure from the poster tack-covered specimen jar. Below some comparative shots of both Roberkers.
Eye Candy
Here are some eye candy shots on a moon landscape.
And a shot of the pair:
Oh yeah, I did promise you a video!
I love the old J. Geils Band song, “Flamethrower” – which I chose as a theme here. I did see the band in 1982 at Eisenhower Hall at West Point before they broke up at the height of their success.
Inspirations and Motivations
Once again, I have to say that my inspiration to work on retro-sci fi stuff again came by way of the Combat Patrol WWIITM Retro Sci-Fi games that I ran at 4 conventions earlier this year. You can see those games at the following blog links: Cold Wars 2026, TotalCon 2026, and Huzzah 2026. They are really fun and a nice return to a genre that I really enjoyed.
Background Information on the Figure
Archive stopped producing figures in the early 1980’s and sold off its molds. According to Lost Minis Wiki:
Archive was probably run by Barbara and Nevile Stocken [1], this American company produced a wide variety of figures, many of which have been kept in production through other companies down the years. In the early 1980s they closed up and were superseded by R*kiiv.
Sculptors: Nevile Stocken, Steve Lortz
I don’t know how many Roberkers are still out there – but I have two!
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this rehab – reconstruction-resurrection project. What do you think or know about Roberker?
The comments section awaits your opinions! Join the conversation!
Finally, below are a list of some references and links that might also be of interest. I use them to refer to when I forget painting schemes that I want to replicate – like Roberker’s!
References:
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous “Old School Miniatures” blog posts, please see this page here.
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous sci-fi/retro sci-fi posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/sci-fi-retro-sci-fi-projects/
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS ROBERKER FIGURE:
- Specimen Jars
- Poster tack
- Evergreen Scale Models Plastic Tubing (1/8″), (SKU 224)
- Green stuff (kneadatite)
- Small brass collars
- Gorilla Glue
- Paper clip wire
- Makers Bolt 3/8″ x 2″ steel fender washers
- Vallejo Primers “Black”
- Createx Wicked Colors “Wicked Aluminum – Medium” (W354)
- Vallejo Model Color “Off White”
- Tamiya “Copper” (XF-6)
- Createx Candy 2o “Emerald Green” (4661)
- Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Yellow” (W302)
- Army Painter Warpaints Fanatics “Data System Glow” (effects)
- Citadel “Nihilake Oxide”
- Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
- Citadel “Martian Ironearth” (texture)
- Citadel “Martian Ironcrust” (texture)
- Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
- Vallejo Thinner
- Vallejo Flow Improver
- Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
- Vallejo “Matte Varnish”
Until next time…
