These were the first of the robots I painted up. At first, I thought I wanted a very weathered look, reminiscent of machines put together from parts found in a scrapyard. To that end, I painted these in a less polished style, and deliberately painted on spots of wear and tear. In the end, I wasn't completely satisfied with how weathered they looked. Then, when I painted the next unit, I found I liked a cleaner style much better. I don't think I'll go back and re-paint these, as they're not different enough from the other clusters to really stand out from the rest. Lots of work, for little return.
This is the largest cluster, at eight droids. These are mostly small machines, with two slightly beefier models as well. I tried to balance each cluster, thinking ahead to fighting small skirmishes between the clusters, without worrying about specific game statistics of anything like "point value." So this cluster has numbers, others have fewer, larger machines. Others have specific themes that tie them together.
I've done my best to identify where all the parts came from, in case you want to have a go at recreating any of these models. But really, my bits box is deep and full of pieces collected over many years. As you'll see, I used bits cut from MechWarrior clix figures extensively. These are still available very cheaply.
A - This little guy is the "shield" droid for the cluster. Each cluster has one of more of these bots, featuring a shield projector dome (the red ball on top of the droid). These are made by gluing the smallest sized "googly eye" from the craft store onto the bot in an appropriate place. In game terms, these droids will project a protective field within which other bots can take shelter from enemy fire. The legs from this droid are from a claw hand, taken from a MechWarrior clix mech. The torso is a section from the arm of another mech.
B - The chassis from this droid comes from a mech jump jet. Wheels are from a MechWarrior towed gun of some kind. The turret comes from a small MechWarrior tank or armored car.
C - Another walker, with legs from another claw hand. The torso is an upside-down heavy weapon mount from a large mech. The head is a small box from my bits box - probably from one of the 1/35 plastic models I built years ago.
D - Legs from a MicroMachines Star Wars IG-88 droid, cut off at the knee. Torso is a mech joint. Head is another of those boxes. The gun is from a MechWarrior tank turret. One thing I love about MechWarrior figures: they tend to be just bristling with guns. I like my mechs and vehicles armed more realistically, which means I can trim off half the guns and use them for other projects.
E - Armored monowheel. The torso and wheel comes from a the saw arm of a MW AgroMech. I trimmed off the saw teeth, leaving a nice wheel in a boxy chassis. A small double-gunned turret from a MW tank finished this one off.
F - I had a string of what looked like land mines, or maybe round ammo drums, from a large scale Spawn action figure. Each "mine" is a thin tapered disk, with four "feet" around the wide end. As you'll see, I used these as the bases for several of my droids. These figures will suffer from low mobility. Most are bulky enough to justify heavy armor, to make up for their lack of speed. Torso is a MW ConstructionMech wrist joint. Weapon is another extra turret weapon from a tank.
G - The early MW MiningMechs had tracked feet. I've used these feet as tracked chassis on a few mechs. The head is on the bits on sides of the cockpit and backs of the arms on a MW Spider mech. Two small boxy bits were added and two small guns trimmed from MW vehicles were added to the chassis
H - I can't remember where the wheels/chassis piece came from. Could be part of a MW towed artillery piece of some kind, or one of the small infantry vehicles (e.g. trike, etc.). The head is from that IG-88 MicroMachine I lopped the legs off of for droid D (above). The claw on the front is a tow hitch from a larger scale tank model.
Hopefully you aren't bored to death already. I'm going to go into similar detail for the rest of the droids too, so strap yourself in...
Note: links out to Troll and Toad are used here only because they offer decent images of the MechWarrior figures. I have no relationship to that company, not have I bought from them. Not to say I wouldn't, but I haven't yet.
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