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The starter set contained a bunch of models, most of which were also available separately. |
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Some of the separate Robogear kits were actually quite good. This was not one of them. |
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The starter set contained a bunch of models, most of which were also available separately. |
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Some of the separate Robogear kits were actually quite good. This was not one of them. |
It's been a while since my previous post, but, for once, that's not for lack of effort. I've been furiously working away in the background, trying to get through some of the (many) remaining units for my Ork Armoured Brigade.
I finished these little walking Zippos this week, a unit of ten Burna Boys. They're made up of a cross section of models from some of the various releases since the revamp of the Ork range for 3rd edition WH40K, circa 20 years ago.
So, you're an Ork warboss, and you've got to get a squad of boys from one side of the battlefield to the other, as fast as you possibly can. Unfortunately, as much as they all like running, charging, shouting, getting into close combat, and generally behaving in an aggressive and belligerent manner, those little legs of theirs just aren't going to get them there quick enough.
Enter the first of my trukks*.
Ugly, brutal and mean, my Ork meganob squad is comprised of a handful of the old metal figures from circa 2000, alongside the then-Ghazghkull-Thraka-model. They were most likely designed by Brian Nelson as part of his original revamp of the Ork range. At the time, I vaguely remember thinking these juggernorks were some of the chunkiest metal infantry miniatures I had ever handled. In fact, seeing as their slightly larger, contemporary replacements are now cast in plastic, they still might be.
"Why float around da sky on poxy rotors when we can tear it in half wiv jets and frusters and stuff?"
This, or at least a question a bit like it, was what I imagine the warboss in my Ork armoured brigade asked his meks at some point after tasking them to come up "wiv a way of 'urting fings from abbuv".
I also imagine it preceded a point where several brave* Ork test pilots were accidentally retired or sent to the doks for snazzy, but much-needed Cybork "upgrades".
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Plus the mek-bashing of a bunch of flying 'splodey things, before I could even start |
The noise is deafening. Engines revving way past their limits. Ignited fuel spitting sparks from armoured exhausts. Vehicles straining and shaking like caged animals. Twin-linked big shootas firing test volleys at anything not quick enough to take cover. Throaty guffaws and maniacal chittering every time a hapless critter is vaporised by a stream of high caliber slugs. Mud thrown up in great geysers, mixing with thick fumes from dirty oil, tinged with the smell of cordite and sweat. A heavy musk, hanging in the air like a starting flag, ready to wave.
At the time of writing there's some speculation about the forthcoming game, but not many hard facts. As far as I can tell it looks set to introduce something like the Road Warrior aesthetic of the Mad Max films into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. And not for the first time either. Games Workshop has gone down this route before. Previous instances of the company riffing on George Miller's post-apocalyptic Australian action film series have produced the games Dark Future, Gorkamorka and Speed Freeks.
These three games all have various crossover points with what I imagine the new Necromunda expansion to be, but Dark Future, released in the late 80s, was the only one that focussed on human gangs – even if the models were in a slightly different scale to everything else. Coming in at roughly 20mm tall, the miniatures were way bigger than 6mm Epic scale, yet smaller than the 28-32mm of most of GW's other games.* But that didn't stop them being brilliant. Here are a few pages from White Dwarf around the time.
The game bonded a kind of sports car, go-faster aesthetic with the darker Mad Max look and feel, and the results ended up being occasionally grimdark, and occasionally colourful, and occasionally somehow both.
This started me thinking about what I call the Star Wars paint-job. It's the colour schemes we find throughout the Star Wars franchise, where vehicles are painted in predominantly flat, neutral colour tones: greys, creams etc, with a single, brighter, accent colour injected for detailing. And then the whole thing is beaten up, battered, and generally made to look as if it's seen better days. Luke's X-Wing in the original movie is a classic example, and it felt like an interesting direction in which to take a couple of ground vehicles.
The car below is a Marrua Gaucho from Antenociti's Workshop. It's a solid chunk of resin, and I've talked about the pre-paint clean-up here. I've decided this is going to be an escort runner; a fast set of wheels used to accompany a slower moving vehicle, providing extra tactical options, and additional manpower.