Bullshott's Remote Control Ramblings - NEW CREW FIGURES

[Bullshott]

Searching for lockdown distractions, I came across Mammoth miniatures' thread on this board, in which he came up with the concept of survivors in mechanical walkers roaming the surface of the wasted planet Ramble in search of old technology and sources of food. The concept of the walkers was cheap remote control Hexbug toys. I was hooked and had to give it a go.

Mammoth miniatures' original thread is here:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124462.0

Page 1 - photos: walker Centaur
Page 1 - photos: cargo seer and Centaur crew
Page 1 - video link: walker moving
Page 1 - photo: new crew figures

This is my first build, the walker Centaur, home to a family of rust miners scavenging old tech.





The upper body is removable to access the battery compartment, as the remote control Hexbug toy still works.

This build was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to walking it across a wargames table when we are allowed out to play after lockdown and restrictions end.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Beautiful stuff mate - Im really excited to see what you come up with next

[clanmac]

That's great fun - love it.

[Elk101]

Nifty looking build.

[Bullshott]

Rust miner crews on Ramble often take on passengers to assist in salvaging old tech and as extra protection. The crew of the Centaur are accompanied by a cargo seer, a wandering holy man of the cult of the Ancients, said to be able to divine the location of buried ancient tech. They have also taken on a hired gun to give them a bit of much needed extra firepower.

The cargo seer


The full crew: Pa Bolshot with his sons Bo and Luc, together with the cargo seer and a hired gun

[Macrossmartin]

Marvellous, Bullshott, and both the walker and its crew look just right.

How well does the walker move with all that stuff on top?

[Bullshott]

Marvellous, Bullshott, and both the walker and its crew look just right.

How well does the walker move with all that stuff on top?

Good question.

In order to fit the top section I had to remove a fair amount of plastic (weight) from the top of the spider body. I kept the weight down on the materials I added. Almost everything I fitted is plastic and the upper body is hollow.

The whole upper section removes to access the battery compartment. On the front of the walker body is a circular hole so that the sensor on the spider body can detect the signal from the controller. Below the circular hole is a rectangular hole with a protrusion - this is an extension glued onto the power switch on the walker body. The main problem in the build was to ensure that the sensor could 'see' the infra-red signal from the controller. It's a bit direction sensitive, so I'll make make a bigger aperture on the next one.

The useful hint I had from Mammoth miniatures (see his thread that inspired this build) was that, once I had sprayed primer on the spider body (with suitable masking over exposed electrical connections, the power switch and the sensor (which conveniently glows red when body rotation is activated on the controller)) I immediately removed the masking on the switch and sensor and walked the spider about for a couple of minutes, so that none of the parts stuck. I did this again when I applied a coat of varnish to the finished model.

[Bullshott]

As evidence that the finished walker does indeed move, have a look here:

https://www.facebook.com/steampunkengineer/videos/10215963341109908

[Bullshott]

I've started my second walker crew with a couple of scavengers. Figures are Lead Adventure Miniatures.

[Chairface]

Great minis, lovely work