Eisenkern Mules

Hi folks, a quickee today, I mentioned in the Eisenkern Imperial Guard article that mechanisms and devices were the strength of the Dreamforge kit. The jewel in the crown of the Eisenkern though are their luggage robots... no really:

These are the Eisenkern Mules. Luggage lugging robots designed around the same principles as the Big Dog robots being developed for the US army. They're ingeniously designed - if a little fiddly, three part legs etc. - and allow an insane level of posing. Really, really nice kits that I can heartily reccommend. You can see better pictures of the posing below. I thought about making cargo for the top but then realised just how easy it would be to make "drop in" cargos, casualties etc. for scenario specific purposes. It freed them up for multiple uses to leave them empty.

The first of the Mules I painted in a sort of military fatigue green. with bare metal everywhere else. I picked out some of the areas of the "head" to be glass covered sensor arrays. Most of the work on these was actually done with weathering. A few thin layers of thin rust and dusty enamel washes lent them a "middle of a warzone but without the presence of mind to dust self down" vibe. Other than that, some oil washes at the joins and Robert's your father's brother.

The second of the Mules I decided to go with a more "civilian" vibe. I used the sensor-ish head for this one and it felt like a warehouse cargo hauler rather than a military load lifter. Black and the ubiquitous 40k hazard stripes were given the same treatment as the military one with the weathering. The two feel very different despite much the same processes being used which pleased me (they're designed to be shared among the client's Inq28 groups).

And that is it for today. On the workbench are a pair of Inquisitorial rhinos which are looking fairly spanky and should be finished tomorrow, expect piccies!

TTFN

I don't want to set the world on fire...

Eyup folks, after a slightly frustrating day I needed a quick win, a nice simple paint job to give me that warm "I did that" feeling and restore dented mojo. Casting around my boxes I found a "Nuclear Sandlot Robot" from Brother Vinni out in Russia. That'll do me!

Given that I am a big fan of the Fallout universe and games I noted at once the remarkable similarity (cough) between the robot model and the Robco Protectron robot from the series. A lot of Brother Vinni's stuff is in this bracket and I would not be at all surprised if he isn't gently encouraged to cease and desist before too long! Get your models sooner rather than later if I were you.

It may surprise you but this model is only about 2 hours of painting. Seriously. The weathering is what does almost all of the work in this and it was done with nifty purpose-built enamel paints. To start with the whole model was painted with AP Plate Mail and then shaded down with slightly thinned Val Black Shade. Val US Dark Green was then painted on to the painted plates. I chipped the edges with a fine brush and a sponge - where I could get in to use it - using the Val US Dark Green lightened with Nurgling Green. This was followed by Val German Camo Black-brown, perfect for this, to be the dark metal chips through the paint. I added some AP Plate Mail Metal to the very edges to be the polished bare metal.

Then the fun quick weathering. AK Rust Streaks was painted over all the bright silver sections. Once dried a little I used Odourless turps to move the rust colour around until happy with it. AK Fresh Engine Oil was painted around the joints and the mechanisms at the back. Its thin enough that capillary action pulls it around the joints nicely. Finally I added AK Streaking Grime to the gaps between the panel lines and then drew it out into nice streaks with more turps.

I think he turned out alright for a couple of hours work. I've no intention of doing a huge number of these post apocalyptic types but I've got a few totally-not-Brotherhood models and a not-really-an-Eyebot that I ordered with the Protectron. Anyway, he had the desired effect, frustration and dented mojo repaired. Huzzah!

TTFN