Thursday 21 June 2018

“They Have A New Type Of Robot.”

"Quarks. You will set up the drilling site in accordance with the instructions of..."
This 27mm-tall "pewter" model of a Quark is produced by “Warlord Games” and forms part of the Nottingham-based company’s five-miniature strong "The Dominators" boxed set. Designed as an “attempt at creating a merchandise property” similar to the Daleks, the rectangular robots were “portrayed by children” and made their debut on “Doctor Who” in the August 1968 BBC television story "The Dominators".

“Cuboid in shape with a sphere on top”, the servitor was primed using some "Vallejo" Black Surface Primer, treated to a double coat of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and washed with Nuln Oil. It was then dry-brushed with (more) Ironbreaker before having the internal areas around its folding arms, retractable claws and pole-like legs, darkened using a splash of additional Nuln Oil.
70mm x 70mm x 42mm MDF WIPs - The MDF box/building has been painted "Citadel" Ironbreaker
In order to try and replicate the more popular palette choice found from the reference material I used, I ‘picked out’ the tiny rectangular areas beneath the bipedal machine’s sensory hemisphere with a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. I had actually been strongly tempted to simply leave these parts alone and keep them ‘metallic silver’, but in the end liked the ‘official’ “Warlord Games” paint-job so much that I later returned to these areas and ‘highlighted’ them with an extra dab of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and (even more) “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

The actual sensors used for “detecting changes in heat, light and motion” were initially ‘outlined’ with some thinned-down Black and then layered with “Vallejo” Bluegrey and a splash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil. I subsequently lightly dry-brushed these tiny nodules with some “Vallejo” Bluegrey and Dead White.
100mm x 100mm x 60mm MDF WIPs - The second MDF box/building has been built and embellished
The Quark’s directional crystal beam transmitters gave me a moment’s pause, as I’ve previously read that “the spore spikes were red along with the rim attaching them all.” However, no-one seemed to have ever pigmented the robots in such a fashion, and all the photographs of the costumes I could find seemingly showed them to be white in colour. As a result I simply repeated the aforementioned process I used to paint the miniature’s sensory hemisphere.

Alongside completing the first of my three Quark figures, I've also spent some additional time working on the MDF boxes I recently bought from Tepic2000 on "Ebay", and plan to ‘transform’ into a Cyber-City to use with the "Warlord Games" rule-set "Doctor Who: Exterminate". "N-FX Game Design Studio" have very kindly sent me even more of their 3D decals to try out, and as a result I have not only begun washing the smallest of my planned buildings with some “Citadel” Nuln Oil, but assembled a slightly larger 100mm x 100mm x 60mm box and applied a number vents, electronic interfaces and metallic panels to it…

22 comments:

  1. Nice work on the Quark I am not familiar with this one if I am honest he looks cool though :)

    The terrain is coming along nicely in its new scheme.

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    1. Thanks Simon. The Quark was a little fiddly tbh, as he is dinky, and those sensor areas are therefore uber tiny. The buildings are great fun, and a nice change of pace from minis :-)

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  2. I am not a fan of that robot design at all. Nothing wrong with the painting, just the design of the robot! The head and the body seem at odds with each other.

    The buildings on the other hand are looking very good in all respects.

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    1. Cheers Clint. From my understanding of early "Doctor Who" lore, the Quarks were destined for greatness and to rival the Daleks. But failed pretty miserably to capture the public's imagination (perhaps because of the same reason you dislike them) and have only more recently gained in popularity - arguably due to their nostalgic value.

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  3. Nicely painted Quark, even though I'm not that big a fan of him. However, I am far more excited about your sci-fi scenery project. Those 3D transfers look very impressive. I like them a lot.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. Obviously I haven't paid for the 3D decals myself, but I definitely would now I know how good they work - and "N-FX Game Design Studio" have just added even more to their range :-)

      Thoroughly recommended and hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have produced a fairly straightforward but interesting-looking tabletop which stores itself and looks rather good. Fingers crossed ;-)

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  4. Roll on the battle report where the Daleks exterminate the Quarks.
    ...I'm also guessing that those Quarks would have trouble negotiating stairs, too! :D

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    1. Well the Quarks are undoubtedly ponderous robots Roy, but they can trudge up and down mountainous terrain - which is one up on the Daleks ;-)

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  5. The quark design is a product of 1968, a cardboard box by the look of it. The buildings are looking very good.

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    1. Thanks Phil. Cardboard was indeed the key component of the day in classic "Doctor Who" :-)

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  6. Great stuff Simon, funny to think now that at the time the BBC were hoping that the quarks would be the next "Daleks", never did happen, I guess lightning only strikes once! smashing paintwork on them, they really aren't very threatening robots are they!

    Those building are looking better and better, super idea, using the foam decals.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Straightforward stuff tbh, but a bit fiddly. I'm pleased the box/buildings are going down so well, as I have fair few more to come :-)

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  7. The Quarks look very awkward in design. I can see why I'd not even heard of them until I saw you post the models! :)

    Simple buildings that look the part with the simple addition of decals. Very nicely done mate.

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    1. Thanks Dai. Straightforward stuff, but I’m hoping they’ll all look good on the tabletop once finished :-)

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  8. Good job on the Quark, really like that. After reading the blog had to go back and look at the pictures again to appreciate the work done on it. I am interested to see how the terrain turns out as the wips look very good indeed. It looks like it will fit right in with the cybermen.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I was hoping the Quarks would be silly, simple paint-jobs, but no such luck unfortunately. Patience is the watchword with them imho. The buildings are cracking on though, and I’m hoping to have the first finished over the weekend for a posting next week :-)

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  9. I seem to recall the Quarks becoming somewhat of a 'joke' villain in the comics, fighting giant wasps and the like. Whilst definitely an iconic design, they're are better designed robots out there. I'm still waiting for someone to produce the robots from "The Black Hole" movie - I want V.I.N.Cent!

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    1. I'd definitely buy into anything based upon "The Black Hole", Jez, one of my all-time fave films. Surprised "Disney" haven't rebooted that as a TV series or some such; albeit I suppose it'd be in direct competition with "Star Wars" these days...

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  10. The BBC props deartment must have been on a tight budget when they came up with that!
    I don't know the model at all (of course)but I'm pretty sure it'll be a good representation of the actual thing and I reckon you're paint-job is spot on too, it does look good.
    Sci-fi matryoshka houses coming along nicely too.

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    1. Thanks very much indeed, Joe. Hoping to have both a couple more Quarks and at least one building finished by this time next week :-)

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  11. The Quark and the buildings are looking great Simon

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