Bot War – the war wages on (clearing the backlog)

One of my hobby goals for 2022 and a milestone for this project was to be able to put on a demonstration table at the Beachhead convention in Bournemouth (UK) which was held the weekend of 12th/13th February.

And I managed to do just that, even roping in a couple of mates to help me out and get a few games in whilst still enjoying the show over the 2 days.

I took with me everything I could think of to help show off this product:

• Current miniature range
• Cardboard city terrain
• Rule books (multiples of)
• Stat cards
• Perspex display cabinets
• Unpainted examples
• Empty bot war boxes
• Allllll the dice
• More dice

I also packed plenty of snacks and drinks to keep us going, copies of The Crew and Skull boardgames to help us pass time if necessary, and my Level-up game riser to give us some more space and help line of sight checks.

Over the next 2 days we ran some demo games and I got to use 2 of the factions I had completed; Trashers in an Assassination mission against Atlanticans, and Democracy Eagle’s Veterans with Special Branch assistance against COILS in a capture the city scenario.

Both of these factions were very fun to play with and we had some great cinematic moments with them.  We even levelled a city block which made me go off to buy some cast resin rubble terrain pieces to add more flavour in future games.

All in all it was a great event, I got to talk to loads of people about bot war, play some games, listen to very positive comments about my painted miniature collection, spend some money supporting local vendors, and get to chat with great folk like Moonstone Tom who was attending his first Beachhead.

Continuing with Democracy I set about tackling the Special Branch element to the faction.

The vehicles in this set represent some iconic vehicles from pop culture and 80s cartoons, and in-game bring different tactical elements and abilities that can really boost the traditional armoured ground forces of Eagles Veterans.

After a grey primer I first went in with a thinned wash of P3 Armoir wash to preshade recesses and create contrast to help plan the next stages.

Up next was vallejo model-color off-white to draw in highlights and give a brighter element for the forthcoming airbrush work to grab onto and boost vibrancy at key points

At this point each of the vehicles went in a different direction.

Unlike the tanks which had a solid cohesion in their paint scheme to match their organisation as a singular united fighting force, the Special Branch are individual specialists that have their own style and character. With this in mind I took out the airbrush and a selection of thinned inks and transparent paints to create some vibrancy.

This is weekend I started and finished the majority of the Eagles Veterans faction box and a couple of old booster packs for the Democracy faction. All that’s left are the 2 Jets that wouldn’t use the same colour scheme.

This was a real push for me, I almost never work on tanks or vehicles, but these 10mm scale armoured units were horrendously good fun and I really loved it.  This may be why I got them all done over only 2 days.

Painting camouflage was a new experience for me and this was a good tear of my airbrush skills.

Not going for any specific type of camo or real world allegiances, I just glanced through the Colours of War book for inspiration before settling on a sandy green and green grey scheme. Does this work in the desert settings, no, does this work in urban settings, no, but I don’t care as I think it looks cool!

The basecoat was a mix of Citadel Air Typhon Ash, and Vallejo Model Air German Grey which gave me a lovely and desaturated warm sandy green. This was airbrushed all over.

Next I went in with a 0.15 needle on the airbrush drawing lines of pure Model Air German Grey.

Finally I brush edge highlighted with straight Citadel Air Typhon Ash.  Using 2 colours like this really worked well and created a wonderful harmony in the overall effect.

The models were also shaded with a very thinned mix of Citadel Agrax Earthshade and Nuln oil to help create contrast against the desaturated colours.

<Coming Soon>

Trashers are finished, based, and just waiting for photos to be taken.

Will upload photos here very soon

It’s been a full-on couple of weeks since my last update, Trashers and Trashasaur are all finished and just need to be based.  As this faction is slightly more display worthy they are having my standard bot war desert bases which although they don’t necessarily look the part when fighting in a city, brings them in line with my other factions.

I have also managed to knock out a handful of objective markers, representing energy stockpiles that are used in a few of the game scenarios. These are just Bot War energy cubes, superglued to clear bases and then given a light wash of scale75 magenta ink to help enhance the colour.

I also managed to get another game in, this time I used my Atlantican force, and faced off against Valiants. The usual points limit for a game is 80, but we decided to up it to 90 to get some more variety into the lists, add some upgrades, and essentially try to test out as many special rules and abilities as we could to familiarise ourselves with them.

I also put together a close attack variant of General Duc for the Valiants called War Duc. He’s a bit of a badass and so I decided to alter his pose slightly so that instead of charging forward to attack, he is instead stood heroic and stoic, with a foot on a rock like any noble leader should these days. He will be painted up in traditional Duc colours (blue) and will go with my other General Duc that I’ve been working on to match the official Boxart colours (and not an homage to Optimus Prime)

The final part of this update signals the end of January and sets up February. This will be a very busy month and will see me demo Bot War at the Beachhead gaming show in Bournemouth in less than 2 weeks.  February is also the Bot War community painting challenge month for 2022, which means I need to paint for at least 30 minutes a day, everyday, for the whole month, and complete at least 10 models. There is also an exclusive miniature bonus up for grabs if you can complete twice that amount. I love this challenge and am in full stride already to hit this challenge hard. Sadly I won’t be making a separate project for it this year as I won’t have enough time to get all of the painting done and get prepared for Beachhead, however I will keep this project updates as I go.

It’s a lot of miniatures I’m planning on painting.

2 full factions to be exact:

The Infesters, corrupted deceivers with an insectoid theme led by The Queen and featuring a contingent of zombie Clones.

The heroic Democracy Eagle’s Veterans, an all action force fighting for freedom over land and air, supported by Max Starr’s Special Branch of Secret agents and masked crusaders who will save the day!

52 models in total!

It’s going to be a very busy month that’s for sure, and it all kicks off tomorrow.

Until next time friends……

With the first round of Bots complete I’ve decided it’s time to tackle the Trashers.

These are a very close attack faction with lots of aggressive bots that will really offer a different flavour when playing he game. The first few games I played it was mostly about guarding and controlling firing lanes, and only really pushing movement to capture objectives, so having a force that excels at closing the gap and getting in the opponents face will be fun to try out.

15x Trashers, 4x Generators, and also the Trashasaur combiner are hitting the paint queue. Stay tuned for the next exciting update….

….. Oh and this little lot is going to get cleaned up!

It’s been a few weeks, but 2022 has started off well as I’ve managed to make a decent start on the backlog.

The Turbo Edition COILS have all been painted up, with only a few touchups left to go.

These have all been finished to a tabletop level, some have had a bit more effort than the others, and to get them to the table quicker I have gone for clear bases. These are definitely gaming pieces and I have so many to get through, getting the backlog cleared as soon as possible is the priority.

I have also finished up the Valiants from both the Turbo Edition and 2nd Edition starter sets.  The only one missing so far is Ducal who is the leader of the Valiants, as such he will have a little bit more time spent on him. General Duc will lead this faction on the meantime and I have used the model to pay homage to a Valiant leader of a well known franchise close to my heart.  I have got another General Duc which I will paint in the Boxart scheme to match the rest of the Valiants. The reason I’m going for boxart is because there are so many of them (I have over 50) and each has their own colour (compared to a unified scheme as seen on the COILS), so matching the art will make it easier to find the gaming cards and remember who is who.

With this round of Bots completed I managed to rope a mate into having a couple of games. After collecting and being involved in this game from the hobby side for a few years, actually playing the game was really fun. I’m not a massive wargamer anymore, not since GW blew up the Old World and made all my old armies redundant (yes I did try Kings of war but it wasn’t the same), so getting Turbo Edition COILS vs Starter Edition Valiants in a 60 v 60 point game was great. Rules were easy to pick up, and it won’t be long before I’ve remembered all the special abilities, and then I can look into competitive list building.

Getting bored of sorting and updating spreadsheets, I’ve started to build and get some paint down on the remaining starter factions I had from the 2nd edition starter, and the recent Turbo Edition.

This will give me a decent selection of Valiants from the 2 sets and a starter force of COILS from the Turbo Edition. I already painted the Atlanticans from the starter set so it’s getting the rest of the starter box finished up at the same time I paint the Turbo Edition Valiants seemed logical to me

After some cleanup and a quick soapy rinse the resins came out lovely and were easily assembled.

They were all given a quick blast of Badger Stynelrez grey primer (to give a neutral starting position) which I then went over with Liquitex white ink that had a little MIG Ammo Ultra Matte varnish in to give it a bit more body and reduce the shine of the ink. This was then sprayed laterally and from a zenith all in varying amounts to give a stating highlight point. The COILS had a very light coat, as they will ultimately be dark grey/black, and the Valiants had more coverage as they will be more vibrant colours.

I’m not looking to achieve anything groundbreaking here, just a solid foundation that I can through colours over.