"Once A Machine Achieves Sentience... Humanity Becomes Obsolete."

"Androids are thinking machines that bear some resemblance to the Ancients."

These eight 28mm multi-part pewter robots are made by “Reaper Miniatures” and come from two blisters of their “Chronoscope” Code 50097 Cyber-Reavers (4). Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi and released on September 7^th 2009, these ‘Not-Terminators’ were actually rather fiddly to glue together, as the majority of their “futuristic laser pistols” come on a separate metal sprue and actually don’t attach all that well to the figures’ main torsos.

In addition, some of the joints such as the wrists, proved rather fragile and brittle, so I ended up assembling the automatons into some quite sedentary positions in order to ensure the limbs had more contact with the rest of the models. When I did try a more ‘outlandish’ pose I pinned the appropriate arm in place. But found this process so time-consuming and damaging to the sculpt that I only did it a couple of times for my own sanity’s sake.

"Most are... military machines that have developed artificial intelligence."

 All the models were painted the same way and initially given an undercoat of “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey. Each robot was then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey. I then dabbed “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade into some of the joints in order to represent some wear and tear, and then dry-brushed the entire miniature with “Citadel” Ironbreaker.

As I wanted these machines to represent the berserk androids which roam the post-apocalyptic landscape of “Gamma World”, I thought they should look a bit battered and rusty, so ‘spotted’ each model with some watered-down “Vallejo” Copper. I then applied some more Strong Tone Quickshade to each of these areas and dry-brushed them with “Citadel” Ironbreaker so they blended in a bit better.

"Defective robots."

Finally, as I wanted to break up the all-metallic look to the wandering military machines, I painted their weapons pure “Citadel” Abaddon Black, and ‘picked out’ their eyes with a combination of “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion  and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.

Having finished these androids I have not only started painting up another eight Cyber-Reavers, but started work on a few more inhabitants of "Gamma World" including Jeeves the Clockwork Robot, Sherlock Holmes and some Brain Eaters. The "thinking machine" and great detective have actually been sat gathering dust in one of my drawers for a considerable time, although I did try and give them 'a lick of the brush' back in March 2015 when I applied some layers to their basing. 

"Reaper Miniatures" WIPs - Just some basic undercoats, initial layers and dry-brushing for now

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has however re-energised my enthusiasm for the sculpts so I have re-done their basing and started painting them from scratch. I plan to have Holmes wearing a black suit with a light brown cape and deerstalker. Whilst Jeeves will be painted alongside more of his automaton brothers so I can apply the same techniques to his figure as I do theirs. The "Bones" Brain Eaters will have predominantly green (gamma-irradiated) legs with (hopefully) pinkish brain tissue...