Tag: Agribot

Archive Miniatures Star Rovers game and miniature range had a lot of very fun figures, many of which I have painted and discussed in past entries in this blog.  A couple of the line that caught my eye were “Long Gone Jones” (Archive #2211), a space dwarf, and “Agribot S1L1” (Archive #2204).  Both were sculpted and put into production around 1977.  I’m not exactly sure of the name derivations, but methinks there was some degree of Archive humor there based on the late 70’s – and I leave it to you readers to make your own guess!

I had previously acquired one Long Gone Jones (let’s call him LGJ) miniature on eBay, but had not found any others.  However, Michael Thomas at classicminiatures.net (who produced the Robot Peacekeepers I previously described here) also had the molds for these figures.  So I placed the order from him, and got ten LGJ’s to add to my original one in addition to three Agribots.  I thought I would now have enough to build a squad for sci-fi games using Combat Patrol™ .

Each LGJ is in power armor, has a jet pack, and is armed with an automatic weapon coming out of his right arm.  The Agribots look like they have a hovering mechanism, and are armed with what looks like a machine gun.

For the unit’s organization, I decided to have a LGJ squad leader with a dedicated Agribot as the squad headquarters.  He would lead the squad’s two Space Dwarf Assault teams (A and B).  Each team would have its own LGJ team leader, 4 LGJ troopers, and an Agribot.  I’ll probably treat the LGJ weapons as analogues to sub-machine guns, and the Agribots as mobile medium machine guns.  This made a total of 14 figures for the squad.  I was thinking about the organization of Soviet Machine Pistol squads in WWII as inspiration.  My numbers aren’t exactly the same, but we are talking about Space Dwarves here!  To round out the end of June, I finished off the Space Dwarf Assault Squad.

 

First, I cleaned and washed the group.  Then I filed off the mold lines and flash on the figures.  After this, I mounted them on ¾” steel washers with Gorilla glue, and affixed the washers to poster tack on top of specimen bottles.  I primed the squad white with Vallejo “White Surface Primer” with my Iwata Eclipse airbrush, and let that harden.

I wanted to give these figures a totally retro sci-fi look – so I again used the Createx paints to airbrush even more colors (added Pearl Blue, Pearl Lime Green, and Pearl Green) onto the squad than I had done with the Robot Peacekeepers.  I figured the dwarves would want more individuality!  For ease of play on the tabletop, I did plan to similarly color coordinate the lenses on the LGJ’s and the Agribots with Vallejo Mecha Color fluorescent paints.  On the optics/lenses, the squad leader and his Agribot would get Vallejo Game Air “Fluorescent Red”, Team A got Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”, and Team B got Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”.  These would take multiple light thin coats to get the desired effects.  And of course with so much metallics, I needed to use a lot of Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss”.  I list the paints and materials I used at the end of the blog for those interested.

My plan for varnishing the group and the bases was to initially apply an airbrush coat of Vallejo “Gloss Varnish” before working on the bases.  The bases would then get a treatment of Citadel “Astrogranite Debris”.  I like it better than “Astrogranite” – it sets up better for dry brushing later.  Once that was dry, I washed it with “Nuln Oil”, let that dry, and then dry brushed the bases with Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”.  To give the bases a nice lunar look, I added Citadel “Gulliman Blue” glaze and let that dry.  Lastly, I gave the entire squad a second coat of Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish” for protection and to dull the shines down to an acceptable level.

I think you’ll see below on the finished figures the difference that the matte varnish adds, while preserving the metallic look of the power armor that I was attempting to capture.

I am pleased with the final product – and I can see them being on one side or the other of many future tabletop conflicts.  Whoever is paying them the most of course!  That’s the nice part of not needing a Codex!  I do think that they are colorful enough, but power armor covers them nicely.

I hope that you enjoyed looking at this – and this was my most productive month ever in terms of painting – 57 figures in total (3 units) for “Junit”, a community painting challenge run so very well by our Aussie friend Azazel.  If you’re reading this and are not familiar with his blog, it’s well worth the look.

I always read your comments and feedback – and as the goal of this blog to entertain and bemuse you – let me know if I did (or did not).  So let me know your thoughts – and as always, thanks for looking!

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, WASHES, AND FLOCKING USED:

1. Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
2. Createx “Pearl Red”
3. Createx “Pearl Copper”
4. Createx “Pearl Tangerine”
5. Createx “Pearl Plum”
6. Createx “Pearl Lime Green”
7. Createx “Pearl Green”
8. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
9. Vallejo “”Airbrush Thinner”
10. Createx “4012 High Performance Reducer”
11. Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss” (wash)
12. Citadel “Ceramite White”
13. Vallejo “Black Grey”
14. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
15. Vallejo Model Air “Copper”
16. Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”
17. Vallejo Model Air “Black (metallic)”
18. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
19. Vallejo Game Air “Fluorescent Red”
20. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
21. Vallejo Mecha Color “Magenta Fluorescent”
22. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
23. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
24. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
25. Citadel “Gulliman Blue” (glaze)
26. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”

Thanks again!