Thursday 2 July 2015

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 :


36 comments:

  1. That is the best thing I have seen in ages!!!!

    The paint job is awesome. Is it the same as you used for 'Big Jobs'?

    Is there a tutorial already on your blog? If not would it be too much bother to post a 'how to' or some WIP pics?

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    1. Thanks a lot mate !
      I'm afraid the "big jobs" robot is Sho3box's :
      https://sho3box.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/famous-faceplates/

      My recipe is quite different and relies entirely on the weathering to hide the very poor quality of the base yellow. It's basically 3thin layers of Iyanden yellow with then a wash of GW yellow wash everywhere plus another wash (once the first is dry) of brown in the deepest recesses) I then edhe-lighted with the base colour and another time with added bone colour to the base. the rest was just weathering with blister foam dipped in a rusty brown, adding some liberally applied washes here and there to make everything look bad and dirty.

      Hope it helps, otherwise, I'm pretty sure Paul posted about his own way of doing things (might be better to follow his technique honestly).

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    2. That is so embarrassing! I was comfused by the super cool paint jobs. Will you be bloging a 'how to make' post, as I would love to try to emulate yours for some Ork style 'Rise of the Gretchin' scenarios I want to play with Rouge Trader.

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    3. Well, I cannot complain being mistaken for such a talented folk really ! I hadn't planned on making a how to and therefore didn't take any picture but i'll keep that in mind whenever I use a similar method for a coming model and will try to explain things as clearly as I can with plenty of pics !

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    4. Thank you. That would be really appreciated

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  2. Woah - what a build and the yellow paint job is perfect.

    I can see how the enemy wouldn't like it up 'em!

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    1. Cheers, an easy one really, I understand now why weathering is all the rage nowadays, it can hide so much !

      Glad you like it ;)

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  3. Excellent paint job. The weathering is perfect!

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    1. Cheers, it might be the first time I'm happy with the sponging technique, I'll have to see if I'm able to replicate it as well in the future. Still have to figure out how to use that Typhus corrosion properly though...

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  4. Thats awsome paintjob on that cool Robbie!

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    1. Cheers, in all honesty, it's mainly cheap shortcuts that work at arms length ^^'...
      ...but it does the trick !

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  5. He's really good JB. The weathering is very well done and he just looks the part. You know, old dusty Sci-Fi, no chrome there! ;-)

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    1. Cheers, I agree, I just cannot picture such a robot in Mint state really !

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  6. Wow!!! He turned out great JB!!!

    The weathering looks good too. I'm no good with the sponge technique, always end up picking up too much paint on the sponge or applying too little, but you've nailed it, well done!

    The name & back story are "right up my alley" :) Your clever insertion of the many & varied puns into it make it all the more enjoyable to read. I reckon Rogue Trader & tongue in cheek humour are inseparable really....the game was never supposed to be taken seriously. Full marks for giving me a laugh JB :)

    Now, that last pic, with the robot, converted, what's going on there? He's awesome!!! I can see the spawn arm, the modified angle on the flamer arm & (the one that's got me a little puzzled) the "bent" leg to give him that running pose. How the hell did you do that last one JB? Did you bend it? Or did you cut it off & reattach it? Coz it looks too smooth to he been cut off. If it's bent that way, how did you bend it that far without it breaking? I really like the pose, I've never considered modifying their stance before. But now that I've seen you're conversion, they really were made in quite a boring pose. He'll be a stand out mini when he's finished :)

    So much to comment on this post JB. The enemy won't know what hit them when the D.I.L.D.O. appears at their rear to "Deep Strike" them.

    Cheers JB :)

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    1. Cheers !
      I think a bit of humour now and then really helps to emphasise the grimness of other things, I find when everything is grimdark , nothing is in the end. The balance between humour and serious things you can find in RT or 2000AD publications is really refreshing I find.
      The running robot is an attempt to salvage a robot that had been hacked to bits by its previous owner. I might have a picture of desecrated model and it wasn't looking good but some pinning and repositionning helped fix that. I'll be fielding that one amongst my chaos renegades and therefore need to give him a bit more attention.

      Glad you like the little backstory ;)

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  7. Awesome idea and awesome conversion ! Christian was definitely inspired to push you forward on this. A great inspiration and a great addition to your collection ! I am very fond of the humour this piece brings to the grim darkness of the far future, a very nice touch.

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    1. Many thanks ! Like The one said above, I really think a couple of innuendos (light or a bit heavier like this one) really brings some contrast. Overdoing it can be dreadful (I've just seen Terminator Genisys) but given we're in a gaming environment, I think we have a bit more room here as in all honesty a good game for me is one where people on both sides of the table have laughed at least once and felt their heartbeat raise before a dice roll.

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    2. "a good game for me is one where people on both sides of the table have laughed at least once and felt their heartbeat raise before a dice roll."
      A great definition and a vision totally share with you. ;)

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  8. I've never wanted a DILDO before...a first time for everything!
    Seriously cool creation JB, it's great.

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    1. Never played with one before and have to admit I quite enjoyed playing with this one...

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  9. Pretty damned funny. The figure looks great, love the scratchbuild/kitbash, nowhere near enough of that going around, even though rogue trader and the compendiums provide rules to assign points to anything you can create.
    Hover tank, hover bot, land speeder on the horizon?

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    1. Well, I've already crossed the Grav attack line and the hover bot now as you say so maybe a caterpillar vehicle could be in order who knows ?

      Thanks a lot !

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  10. Now this is a VERY cool creation JB ! I remeber seeing the bare plastic of him time ago .
    Really great!

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    1. Cheers mate ! I know he stayed in a bare plastic state for quite a while only to stay in a half basecoated state for even longer. I'm really glad this one's out of the way as he was really rewarding given the time spent !
      I hope you get some free time just for you ;)

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  11. Hahaha, absolute genius! Wonderful take on the concept and an amazing development of the idea. Top notch! (Again!)

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    1. Cheers my friend !
      A very fun build and a very fun background to wirte on top of Christian's ideas ;)

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  12. Holy! The robot looks amazing. Especially the size is impressive. Scratch building robots can be a lot of fun - as I experienced in one of my own projects lately: http://dawnofmankind.blogspot.de/2015/06/inq28-needful-things-part-1.html

    Yours is very inspiring. I to need try a bigger one in the near future too!

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    1. What I really like about your smaller ones is that they really have character and life whereas bigger robots are doomed to look a bit more chunky and impersonnal. I'll try and make smaller one myself, maybe when you'll start your bigger one ;)

      Thanks a lot !

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    2. Deal! I'll see what I can do.

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  13. Magnifique ce robot !!

    Le jaune chantier salit, ça rend vraiment bien ^^

    Dildo ? Vraiment ? Hin hin hin ^^

    Serviteur,

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    1. Merci !
      Le nom m'a été suggéré par la même personne qui m'a poussé à le finir donc la moindre des choses était de lui rendre hommage et d'adapter l'historique en fonction.
      Les grands esprits se rencontrent, je suis justement en train de bosser sur la représentation d'une certaine personne dans le cadre d'un certain concours initié sur un certain blog...
      J'en suis à un gros 50% ce qui devrait le faire pour la date limite de soumission.

      Bien à toi ;)

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    2. Je suis persuadé que ce sera CERTAINement intéressant XD

      Serviteur,

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  14. A truly fantastic paint job on the hoverbot. I love your work and will definitely be following your posts from now on. :)

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    1. Well thanks a lot, it's all illusion really, most of the effects are cheap tricks that look good from afar. I'm glad you like what I do, I definitley like what you do and am a happy new follower !

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