Rogue trader Hoverbot D.I.L.D.O.

Robots, probably one of the most evocative subjects... they do everything we do far much better than we could, they're smarter, stronger, more resilient ad they speak with such awesome voices (when not simply making 'bips') that just looking at them makes you jealous not to have been born on Cybertron.

You may remember that a little while ago (well last year), I posted about robots in Rogue trader...

Hey there...

  And at that time I had built the basis for a scratchbuilt hoverbot :

Well, thanks to constant reminders from Christian B. on the Facebook Oldhammer community page, I finally took the time to finish that model that had sat half basecoated for months in front of me ion the painting range.

The basic ingredients for that build were :

Body :

- an IKEA pen

- a mk1 rhino hatch

- various tank bits

Head :

- 2 marines missile launcher backpacks

- a rhino smoke grenade launcher

- a marine missile launcher

plus maulerfiend tentacles for the arms and and autocannon (can't recall where the shoulder bot comes from)

See how the company that builds these beauties ensures you immediately know what model you're dealing with : the skull indicates this is a combat model which means it can totally ignore Asimov's rules and the lightning indicates it is a electricty powered model (as opposed to nuclear, steam, diesel or crystal powered models)

The D.I.L.D.O hoverbot ( Deep Infractor Legionnaire Dilatation Operator) is a robust model based on a reliable frame and especially equiped and programmed for scouting missions. Its role is to penetrate deep into ennemy lines to strike in the rear. Its resilience means it can withstand a lot of damage before being taken down and its data relay has been designed to analyse all data in real time to send it to headquarters, often giving the vital intel for the main frontal attack.

It is common knowledge amongst the imperial guard that placing a couple of D.I.L.D.Os in the rear of the enemy is the best way to screw him.

(the author of this blog would like to state that the name of the hoverbot was chosen by Christian B. and that all the subsequent background ùeant to fit with it is in his entire responsability)

 Painting wise, I know I first was tempted to go greyish with this one as it would have echoed the robots in Fallout or Starwars but for some reason, I wanted to test a couple of weathering techniques in the process and finally opted for yellow which would also make it slightly less military and a little more polyvalent.

I tried to use several weathering techniques like sponging and rust but I also tried the GW technical "typhus corrosion". Since I had never used it before, I decided to skip the wise part where one tries it on a spare model or on some sprue and immediately dipped my brush to apply the product on the model. The result is... interesting. Good point for me : this time I remembered to apply the decals BEFORE weathering which means they  look much better than the other way round...

Toruna Ironwind is always happy to demonstrate the quality of his products to his clients. Here you can see him teaching the controls to an ork mercenary while giving a thumbs up to the cameraman (such a pro that squat). Customer service at its best?

I thought a little comparison shot with other Rogue trader robots would help you see how he scales and how it would definitely scale in the "large" category of hoverbots ...

Next models : it's a secret but those who know me should figure out pretty easily ;), bets are open !

EDIT : Oh and thanks to Richard Legg, here's the perfect soundtrack to end this post :