Automatons

[Bullshott]

I'm putting together a small 'Grand Turk' force for use against my VSF Brits (and my soon-to-be-started Russians). The core troops will be Warrior/Over the Wire's Turks from the England Invaded range. For technology I wanted to give them something different, so I'm using steam automatons (humanoid automatons in various sizes with smokey oil-fired steam engines and lots of brasswork and spikes).

So far I have a couple of converted Mage Knight figures and am in the middle of reworking a Warmachine mercenary 'Mule' warjack, but I'm undecided as to whether or not to replace its gun. This has made me wonder what you guys use for automatons and what ranged weapons you arm them with.

[Westfalia Chris]

Welcome to the Honorable Society of Mentally Challenged Scientists, dear Sir!

I LOVE automatons. I´ve got a posse for LotoW games, and hope to expand it somehow. I also have a converted Mage Knight as a "supermaton", and five Deadlands/GRW Automatons as the original creations, as well as a sixty-foot spider:



For more images, please visit my Wild West gallery:

http://www.dminis.com/scratchbuilder_christian/images.html?galleryId=671&from=The+Old+West

(third row from the top)

I´d still like to build some "brain in the jar"-type cyborgs, though.

As you can see, my automatons use Gatling guns to the most, except for the supermaton, which has a fire siphon instead. Rules-wise, I tend to downgrade the Gatlings, since FIVE of them in a single force are pretty badass, and my prime concern is ALWAYS the "good game". As well as that, my automatons have rather primitive punchcard brains and are thus limited to slower and fewer actions than the average human. Buzzsaws and wicked blades are favourites, too.

[Bullshott]

Chris
I like your large automaton - thats the style I'm looking for with my creations. I agree with your choice of weapons - lots of close combat weapons and rapid fire/area effect ranged weapons that you don't need much of a brian to hit someone with!

Your spider is awesome. I especially like cockpit detail - its nice to see that someone else likes taking time for such details (have a look at the Bullshott patent Steam Howdah in my displaced miniatures gallery)

[Westfalia Chris]

Those miniatures rock! My favourite must certainly be the Kriegswagen, the Orkdredd works very well as a german robot - and the Man-o-War samurai - pure genius! Excellent painting, as well. The interior of the Steam Howdah is lovely, as well, but I prefer multi-legged apparati for larger victorian contraptions.

In case you didn´t check out the other ones, I´ve got some more contraptions in my Victoriana Gallery, namely two steam tanks and various martian war machines.

[Malamute]

You could try these clockwork soldiers from Parroom Station:

http://www.displacedminiatures.com/Malamute/images.html?galleryId=1813&from=Professor+Hardlove+and+his+mechanical+wonders

[Bullshott]

I probably use the Paroom Station clockwork soldiers to support my Russians at a later date. At the moment I am still looking for ideas for automatons to compliment my middle-eastern 'Grand Turk' force.

But for my Japanese army I must get one of these...

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/254974/

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2006/nov/254974b.jpg

[Westfalia Chris]

Weeell, I voiced my opinion on that talking, walking toiled on TMP, but if you like it, and add a truely victorian color scheme to it, it might still look good.