N-Scale Robotech

[paulson games]

I love stupid personal quests, the more insane and irrational it is the better. At least when it comes to modelling and collecting gaming crap.

Robotech was what first drew me into the world of big giant robots, from there I transistioned to Battletech and onto various minis games. I used to watch the show back when I was a kid and even Transformer and stuff like Gundam couldn't come close to touching the awesomeness of Robotech.

Now as an adult I cringe when I rewatch the show as there's a distinct god-awfulness to much of the story and the animation but compared to the stuff that was on at the time it was pure gold and the mech designs are still at the top of my list for all time favorites. (despite teh horridness of the show)

As you probably know I've gotten hooked on wanting to build larger N-Scale mech models, something that worked it's way into my brain as a result of cruising the battletech forums. While I was googling for info on various models I saw a pair of posts on the The Miniatures Page forum .





Somebody had rounded up a bunch of the 1/200 scale Robotech Models and run some games with them. That was like a huge explosion going off in my head and launched my current crazy modelling crusade.

I already had a most of the models and figured it'd make an awesome table project to use at next years Adepticon. I've spent the last two months scrounging around on ebay and looking for the remaining models I need, finding a few but more often and cursing a lot at the lack of their avilability.

With hours and hours of searching and hunting somewhere along the way I learned a heck of a lot about the history of some of the older Robotech and Battletech models which I posted up here: http://www.mechdudesblog.blogspot.com/

Be forewarned it's really long and wanders all over the place.

Anyways here's some of the stuff I pulled off ebay and through some trades, all of these kits were originally mastered in 1983 so they are old as dirt, there's been a re-release of most of the kits in 2001 but they are all out of print which has made finding them difficult. For as old as they are the quality is not bad and they look decidely better when painted. Some of the kits I had to do a double take on when I saw the pics on the game reports, the bare models can look decidely ugly at times but when painted they are infinately more appealing especially since it all pre-dates even 1st edition rouge trader 40k.

These are all going to need some work, they are a combination of snap together kits that also are held in place with small screws in the back of the torso. Later on I'll disassemble them and glue them so the gaps aren't so horrid.













I also have this guy, who's HUGE even at 1/200 he's about 10 inches tall and about a foot long so he towers over all the other mechs which are about 3 inches in height. He's not built yet, he'll probably be the last one as I plan on taking my time with that model.







As I'm planning on using them for a game I have multiple copies of most of those model, the only models I'm missing at this point are the Zentraedi Officer Pod aka Glaug and the Light Missile Regult Tactical pod, both of which are like finding the holy grail nowdays. I'd managed to find the pods I posted above last week which were newly listed on a buy it now auction. I landed them through dumb luck and I was doing a total happy dance as I'd found them less than 10 minutes after they were listed.

What then made me into a sad panda was that the seller had listed both the officer pod and small missle pod at the same time and somebody had beaten me to them, so close.... so very close...


I know it's a very long shot but if anyone spots them in a hobby shop in some remote corner of the world I will be happy to throw mad amounts of money at you if you can land a copy. There's several differant companies that make them but it's all the same kit, just differant cover art. I dont' care what maker it is so long as it's 1/200 scale.

I'm also on the look out for any of the Zentraedi pods as I'm going to need around 20 of them. I suspect I'll be casting them given that it's taken me 3 months just to find 4 copies.

(There's 1/144 scle ones and 1/100 which are fairly common, the 1/200 scale are the tough ones to get ahold of)


Here's pics of the two most common boxes for each kit. The white versions are the newest release which actually have two models per box. There's also a Plastic Battletech Kit which has black box design, the Officer Pod is called a Marauder under Battletech naming. (exactly the same model)

[paulson games]

Today I feel like a very big idiot.

About six months back I was cleaning out a bunch of old models and junk in the garage. There were a bunch of Gundam models and some old Robotech ones, including a Zentraedi officers pod which I'd built the better part of 20 years ago. I loaned it to a friend who was going to use it as a reference to build a 3D model from. Not a problem as I wasn't in need of any of these mdoels.

Now I was pretty sure that I'd bought a 1/100 scale model as it wasn't one of the screw together kits and I don't remember if it's Bandai or Amai. Anyways I knew it was lots bigger than my battletech minis so whatever.

My buddy still hasn't even started on the 3D model so I decided to go get it back. One the ride back home I kept looking at it like no f'ing way.... maybe it's 1/144 maybe 1/200 it was really hard to tell. I get home put it next to the other figures and wouldn't you know it's the same f'ing scale I've been going crazy trying to find for three months.... I think I need to go apply for a new liscense that'll let me start driving the short bus. GRRRR

Oh well a major hurdle in the Robotech quest is now out of the way, hopefully it'll clean up without any issues, I think I used Polly's S acryillic on it so it'll strip ok. If it's testors enamel paint I'm kinda screwed. All of it is hand painted, no decals.

Since it's not a screw together kit I do wonder if the model was billed as a 1/100 but is mis-scaled?

Today I also found two giant 1/72 scale "Leader-One" go bots models which are actually Robotech Alpha fighters from the Mospeda arc. They were lurking buried under stuff in the far corner of the garage which hasn't seen light of day in probably twelve years.

[mangozac]

[Vaaish]

That's a pretty awesome collection you've got going. Glad you found the model you were looking for. from the sound of it, it was going to be difficult one to get your hands on.

[paulson games]

I realized recently I had a problem when I'd fallen under the theory that it's all ok to splurge on as much stuff as I wanted so long as it's cheaper than buying a new GW army.

The fail point of that logic is that I could probably buy a cheap used car for what a GW army would run.


All total I currently have 34 models and 8 more coming in the mail. I'm into the project about $350 when I factor in all the shipping charges and the monster. The veritechs are dirt cheap and run about $5 each, the majority of the price is the destroids, but even those aren't much more than $10-$15 each.

I'll still need to cast up a bunch of zentraedi pods which will probably push it to the $400 mark, and then whatever the table itself runs. I want to make it one heck of a table for Adepticon so it's worth the trade off in advertising and personal enjoyment.


I started tinkering with one of the models tonight to try and get it out of the "At Attention" pose the veritechs come in. This is all minor stuff like turning the forearms outwards and rotating the hands back inwards. Breaking the leg apart at the knee to give it a slight walking stance, the knee detail will be repaired with greenstuff. The hands are horrid and I'll likely be resculpting some from scratch that I can cast up for the other models as well.

Modifed suit in grey original model in tan.

[paulson games]

I started on repose #2

[mangozac]

The repose looks way better!

[paulson games]

As these are fairly close to N-Scale I did some digging through differant railroad scale buildings and came up with some generalized themes for stuff I can pick up. The various mecha are 1/200scale while the buildings are roughly 1/160 or 1/150 scale I suppose using 1/144 mecha would be slightly more accurate but I already have the models.

I figure if I devote my entire monthly game budget over teh next couple month I can spend about $150 a month towards this project, I'll just have to use a lot of self control which is a bit hard but possible. As I have about seven months to get this done it'd give me a rough budget of about $900 for the table which would allow for a healthy amount of terrain. Most of the building sell for between $10_$20 with the largerest ones being in the $50-$60 range but they easily cover the space of two smaller buildings.

Strangely enough I can't seem to find many modern buildings with a US look all of the US styled stuff is modern deco and dates around the 1930 and 40s.

For options these are what I could find a good range of buildings for

Japanese village somewhat modern with traditional style buildings
Modern Japanese Town
Modern Apartment/housing blocks
Modern Japanese Urban city buildings
Construction Yards
Light Industrial
Warhouses
Stockyard
Oil/Chemical Plant
Port
Fishing village
Railyard

The table is going to be 6x8 feet so there's room to mix terrain I just want it to have a natural feel so it'll need some planning.

Here's some pics of the various groups

[Barn]

Just get one of everything?

I'm torn between the image of a peaceful Japanese fishing village being torn apart by giant robots, and an industrial type scene myself.

I can find a decent picture of either town, but 2 real life ones remind me a lot of what I mean.

If it were my table, I would do an ocean edge along probably one of the small edges, with grass etc covering most of the boards.

I'd then get place-able terrain to make the following tables:




When you arrive in Devonport via sea (overnight from Melbourne) Its pretty impressive. you can see the town, and a massive mountain range looming in the background.

I'd translate that onto a board by: Small fishing port on the ocean, with a nice spread the rural style houses nearby. Think Cherry trees in blossom, last samurai style. Behind that I'd probably do some rocky outcrops with bonzai type trees on them, think Karate Kid 2





Portland is basically a deep-sea port with an Aluminium Smelter attached.

Using the same table, i'd add some decent port facilities, with things like those shipping crates above. I'd then place a fair bit of the construction/refinery type stuff you have above, to give a nice table with plenty of things to hide behind.

I think both version would contrast each other nicley, and look great on the same table

[paulson games]

I finished blocking out the knees on both veritechs. Went back and adjusted the legs on the grey one a bit so he has a wider stance, not a big change though. I'm using epoxie sculpt on this stuff as I have it onhand and also wanted some practice with it. There's a few aras that'll need crack filling with greenstuff and these two will be ready for paint.

I'm finding it fairly difficult to work with the epoxy sculpt, it has some cool properties when it's hardened up but at the moment I can barely even get basic shapes formed and I can forget about adding in any significant detail. I might be trying to push things whiles it's too wet I dunno. So it means more experimenting as I've seen some really awesome work done with this stuff.

Once it sets up it cuts and files really crisply and makes nice sharp edges which are great for doing mechnical details or flat areas. The knees on the bown mech came out really sharp.

[mangozac]

I like Barn's suggestions for the table. Some kind of port is the way to go, with lots of containers, cranes and industrial looking bits around.

[paulson games]

The destroid squads are all pieced together, I'll be going back and giving them a nice clean up later patching the screw holes and modifying poses etc but I wanted to get them together in order to test out the basic game rules over the weekend. Likewise I'm going to rush assemble a few more veritechs for the game as well. Being snap and screw together kits makes them pretty easy to pop together and then disassmble later if needed.

I also started preparing one of the veritech bodies for casting so I've been closing up all the holes and filling the parts with epoxy so they don't don't implode when put under pressure. Primary reason for casting is due a shortage in having the correct heads I needed as one of the main varriants isn't made in a kit this size, fortunately the only differing piece on that variant is the head which is the same as the one on the armored valkyrie so I'll be able to do head swaps with some resin casts.




I also started assembling the Monster which took up the better portion of my evening. The kit was made in 1985 so it's ancient and the kit tollerances suffer pretty bad compaired to more modern stuff. There's virtually no guide pins on the kit and between the older production issues and the fact it's been siiting in a box for 25+ years a number of the parts were a bit warped. There are some pretty serious mold lines that will need to be addressed. The whole model is going to need a lot more work but it's at least roughed together. (Some of the pieces aren't glued yet so I can disassemble it for painting and clean up)

I still love it as absolutely towers over the other mechs.

[paulson games]

The madness continues...

Began reposing two more members of the skull squadron (joints still need patching) these will be for Max Sterling and Ben Dixon. A lot of the toys & models feature Max's veritech as the 1J version (2 head lasers), but for the majority of the series he flies a 1A model (1 head laser), although tweaked internally with the blue custom paint job it still has the 1A head so that what I decided to go with.





This is the squad so far, it's missing VF-1J mechs for Rick Hunter and Miriya Sterling which are on the to do list after I finished the newest pair. It'll be used as a 5 man wing but I'll be doing a couple extra 1A bownie grunts for lower level games as skull squadron is jammed full of ace pilots which gets a bit unbalancing.




Skull Squadron Fighters:



Skull Squadron Gerwalk/Guardians:


All of the various fighters and gerwalks have the apropriate heads which required some swaps between differant models as all of the fighters originally had 1J heads and the Gerwalks only had 1A heads. The battroid versions are lacking 1J heads which I'm grabbing from the armored valkyrie model and casting so that I'll have enough for the final two mechs. I suppose it's a bit more effort than I need but I want everything to look in line with the series.


Armored Valkryies:




I have each version of the super Valkyrie fighter/gerwalk/battroid but it's currently unbuilt and I will be casting two extra copies of it so that I can run a squad of three for a high points game. Not a high priority at the moment as I'm planning on mostly basic level game play for the time being.



Here's the assorted Zentraedi so far. I have an extra scout pod and officers pod that aren't pictured. Unfortunately this is only about 1/3rd of the required force size for a larger game and I've already spent months tracking down this handful of mechs, so I'll be having to cast a bunch of them.




For the most part I am finished with the model collecting, I have about a half dozen unassembled veritechs in case i want to do a second squad. I may still pick up another couple destroids if they pop up but i should have enough to cover most games.

I'm just about done modifying the rules set and once I get some art and graphics finished up I'll put everything into a nice PDF file for download.

The next major phase is tons and tons of gap filling :ugh:

[mangozac]

[paulson games]

I'm starting to get the rules together to put into a PDF, tinkering with a few layout ideas to try and get something slick put together graphically so it doesn't look so bland. (I've asked Seb for help on this as he's a graphic genius)

I'm not sure if I should do it in greyscale tones or go for full color. Any suggestions on the format are most welcome












Here's sample shots showing the filler work that has to be done to each model before it gets primed.

All the holes got patched with epoxy sculpt which has a ceramic like feel once cured and takes to scraping and sanding really well. With most situations it's quickly replacing greenstuff as the working properties are way better, it softens with water and also sets up faster.

There's a total of 6 screw holes on each model plus a number of the models feature a dent on top of the head and huge gaps along the laser dome.









This last pic shows the upgrade in base size, not quite as noticable head on but definately noticeable from the side as the leg posistions can be spaced wider. (Old 50mm base on the right, new 60mm base on the right.) I've also put in an order to Privateer Press for a couple of their giant 120mm battle engine bases so that I can put the MacII Monsters on them. Even at a whopping 4 inches across it barely fits them.