Red Tribe Identification Guide

Hi!

Just a quick update! Theres lots of work going on behind the scenes at the moment both with rules and more importantly, the visuals for the Red Tribe. Although not quite finished yet, they give a general idea as to what the Red Tribe will be looking like and the final sculpts should match them quite closely

The Red Tribe inhabits the areas surrounding the Arid Rustlands and are obsessive builders and tinkerers. With large settlements based in the Rusted Mesa and Anvil Mesa, they have begun expanding south into the Arid Rustlands in search of rich patches of scrap and rare components. 

As with most of the tribes, they can be broken down into four broad categories, Leaders, Basic, Special and Big Guy.

Leaders

The driving force behind the Red Tribe, these are the masters of the Forges that sit in the centre of any Red Tribe settlement, the Reds leaders are talented engineers, smiths and masters of the art of invention.

Vulcan

The Vulcan is generally the leader of any expedition, just as they are the head honchos in the forges. They are barrel chested and have hugely powerful arms, which they put to good effect while wielding their forge hammers. 

Tinker

The Tinker is an expert in fixing just about anything and bodging together weapons and equipment from whatever they have to hand 

Basic Robots

The vast majority of the Red Tribe is made up of the lowly Forgebot, a low class robot who spend much of their time working in the forges or acting as bearers on expeditions, likewise the more specialist warrior classes of Forge Guard and Lancer are still fairly common sights amongst most expeditions or loafing around settlements looking tough.

Forgebot

The core of any Red Tribe force is the lowly Forgebot. Armed with not much more than a hammer and occasionally a scrap pistol and their wits, they usually operate the forges and blacksmithing around the settlement but also take part in expeditions. Like all Reds they are obsessive tinkerers so will often have unique additions to their casings, weaponry or even accoutrements, be it cool looking goggles or custom gauges.

Forge Guard

Forge Guard are a slightly more advanced model of robot that stands slightly larger than Forgebots. They are heavily armoured and wield all manner of interesting weapons, be it spears or firepikes. They are not the most fast moving of robots but rely on their armour to defend them as they trundle forward.

Lancer

Lancers are a kind of knight of the Red Tribes, they are bulky bodied but slim limbed with wheels built into their heels that allow them to move with surprising speed. Their heads are fashioned to look like a stylized knights helm and they are armed with powerful lances and crushing hammers for close up work. Some specialize in ranged firefights and are armed with long guns but are very rare and seen as rather unsporting by their brethren.

Special Robots

Some robots have more specialised uses than their kin and as such a niche place within the Tribe and any expedition.

Thunderchief

The Thunderchief is the Red Tribes specialist at ranged combat. Built with a sturdy frame and rotund belly, these portly robots are armed with a pair of arm cannon, which it uses to fire volleys of red hot shot quite a distance. 

Fireking

These are the assault robots of the Red Tribe and are totally unhinged and obsessed pyromaniacs. They scuttle forward with a fuel tank strapped to their backs and wielding a heavy flamethrower, which has an unfortunate habit of exploding spectacularly whenever hit making them as much of a hazard to their own side as to the enemy.

Big Guys

Big Guys get their name for the fact that they are so much bigger than the other robots in their tribe. They are the heavy hitters and capable of taking considerable amounts of damage.

Forgesmith

The Forgesmith is a massive robot armed with a pair of heavy hammers. He usually spends his time in the forges around the Scrapyard but from time to time will venture out if hired by a particularly enterprising chief. He's badly battered and chipped and has riveted and welded extra protection to his frame to make him even tougher.  

Warpath

The Warpath is a rather feisty big guy with a pair of crushing fists which he is mor Ethan happy to put to use. His real strength comes from having a pair of fuel tanks mounted on his back. From these a set of fuel lines attach direct to his power plant giving him a tremendous burst of speed allowing him to hurtle around at quite a pace. He can also blast fuel out nozzles on his forearms which effectively provide him with a pair of built in flamethrowers.

Hopefully this will give some insight into what the Reds are going to look like. I still need to sort out lots more stuff but thought I would share what I have done thus far as a bit of a thank you for all the support I've been getting!

All the best!

Stirrings from the Scrapyard

Hi!

Well its been an interesting few weeks here. Theres been some really encouraging feedback on Rusty Robots thus far and its high time I kicked things up a few gears and got myself moving on turning my somewhat vague idea into a reality.

Its been over three years since the first Rusty Robot rolled off the production line and things have changed quite a lot since then!

King Raam

King Raam stands over 14 inches tall and is made from all manner of bits and bobs and was created as part of a university project. From this initial idea spawned a number of variations, firstly in size then in style and colour.

 Wartorn Planter

Demobot

Most of these robots found a new home with clients after being exhibited in such exciting places as Aardman, Comicon London and even my old University but the more I made, the more I began to think about what a world inhabited by them would be like and over the coming years I have spent quite a bit of time off and on developing ideas, sketches and assorted gubbins for the little fellows but its only been in the last few months that things have really begun to progress.

Firstly I have decided to drop the scale to roughly 30mm, allowing me to indulge in both my job as a sculptor and hobby as a wargamer to begin work on creating a host of robots to play around with. 

Red Tribe Test Pieces

As already mentioned, the feedback from these pieces has been really heartening but they are only rough test sculpts to get me started. I am slowly building robots for each of the six great tribes that inhabit The Scrapyard and am planning on casting and even selling them once I have them all done!

This is quite a big task, very much more than I had imagined, especially as I also have a full time job these days but I have really enjoyed working on them and people seem to respond well to them too which is great. 

Unlike so many of the figures companies out there, I don't use a piece of computer software to digitally sculpt them, instead relying on traditional techniques which I strongly believe results in a sculpt with far more character and personality than the perfection of CG. 

The plan is to get a checklist of robots completed and ready to go over the coming months and I am also hoping to have a ruleset to go with them so people can have fun playing games and campaigns of metallic destruction featuring the sculpts too! 

Heres a list of what I need to sculpt for the release to give you an idea of the mammoth task I have set myself:

Red Tribe

Vulcan 

Forgebot x2

Fireking

Blue Tribe

Cap'n

Buccaneers x2

Davy Jones

Yellow Tribe

Ambassador

Toxbot x2

Sludge Stalker

Green Tribe

Forest King

Tribesbot x2

Ironwood

Black Tribe

Head Honcho

Minions x2 (DONE!)

Brute

White Tribe

Aeronaut

Groundpounder x2

Lightning Bolt

This will be the initial release for each of the tribes and will feature one leader model, two basic robots and a specialist which should be enough to get folks going with. There is, however, background and rough designs for two more basic designs, two more specialists, two big guys and another leader choice for each tribe, not to mention lots of other bits and bobs but my current target is to get the first 24 sculpts done by June, and get the moulds made and casting underway soon after. 

I also need to get a literal ton of background, artwork and assorted bits and bobs put together too but will try to keep things ticking over here with regular updates too and hope to bring news of a ruleset in the works soon too!

As you can see, I have lots to do but if anyone has any suggestions of robot types, tribes or anything else they would like to see, please feel free to drop us a line and I shall see what I can come up with!

All the best!

Black Tribe Sculpts

Hi!

Heres a couple of preview shots of the Black Tribe Minions and Bullies I've sculpted:

 Bullies

Minions

The Bullies stand 40mm tall while the Minions stand 30mm tall. Theres still a few bits and bobs to be done such as adding more rivets to the arms and weapons and the Bullies still need more arm options (there will eventually be a choice between guns, saws and brawling fists) but I thought folk might like to see how they are developing!

All the best!

And So It Begins!

Hi!

Well I have spent the start of the year working rather heavily on Rusty Robots and the concepts are slowly coming together for the tribes, the setting and the general look which has been great fun.

Heres some initial sketches of the entrance to a Red tribe forge:

 Enter the Convoy!

Next up heres something of a more nautical nature, a Blue tribe pirate ship at anchor:

Shiver Me Timbers!

Sadly I havent had chance to finish either yet but hope to over the next few weeks so fingers crossed!

What I have spent a lot of time doing has been re-writing much of the setting and the tribes to be a bit more unique and different from each other. I have introduced common shapes and themes for each as can be seen with the Black Tribe stuff I previewed earlier and now each of the tribes have their own distinct look and their background is proving to be most entertaining to write!

For example the Greens have turned from being simply tree infested robots to savages with a penchant for gold and defending their forest home and have taken to building highly decorated stepped pyramids amongst the trees.

As already mentioned the Black Tribe have had a lot of attention over the last month or so and are getting to the point when I will be able to post some pictures of the completed sculpts which are awaiting casting!

At present I have got 4 Minions, 3 Crawlers and 2 Bullies almost complete and the final designs for an Evil Overlord, Brutes, Scrap Stalkers, the Terrorizor and the Occulus amongst others but more on them later!

The plan is to finish construction of all the Black Tribe robots and start casting them and if folks like them enough, move onto the Reds, Blues, Greens, Yellows and Whites too along with a host of other bits and bobs. Handily I will be doing the mould making and casting them in resin which will save on expenses and hope to have the first rolling off the production lines by late April or early May.

Out of interest would people prefer the chance to get the basic robots from each Tribe first and then expand on them or to get the whole shebang in one go for each tribe?

What I can do is concentrate on getting one basic, one special and one leader model sorted out for each of the tribes and then move onto the more eclectic stuff!

 Gunbots and Scutters

Punks and More Gunbots

As you can see I have a bit of an obsession so theres literally hundreds if not thousands of designs to choose from and develop and I will try to get something random or new posted up on the blog here every day or so, be it for one of the tribes specifically or a random robot one may encounter in the Scrapyard or even some scenic shots of the locations to be found there!

I am also hoping to be able to put some sort of guide together consisting of some more finished designs and sculpts which will showcase the range as it goes!

Its all a bit of a sandbox sort of thing at the moment and I am doing it for the sheer fun of it but if enough folks like the little fellows, who's to know where it will go!

All the best!

Black Tribe Concepts

Hi!

Heres some new concepts, this time of the Black Tribes main goons, the Marauders!

Marauders!

For the most part, the Black tribe consists of rusty Marauders, a horde of poorly constructed and spiky villains. Armed with a variety of primitive weapons, they are still a force to be reckoned with and the other tribes take great pleasure in beating them up whenever possible on general principle.

Black Tribe Raiders

Hi!

Well the new year has been and gone and things are starting to heat up in the Scrapyard!

From the Southern Badlands groups of Black Tribe marauders have been sneaking north into the Arid Rustlands and the Red Tribes territory to pinch valuable scrap. 

Thus far the most common robot encountered is the Crawler:

Black Tribe Crawler

The Crawler is a fairly basic robot, incapable of doing much more than sneaking around through scrap but in large numbers they can be rather unpleasant, especially as they defend themselves by discharging a powerful electric shock which is usually enough to discourage attackers.

I am actually midway through building a trio of these little fellows which I will be casting up for sale if anyones interested.

Over the coming week or so I hope to add more artwork and updates on the Black Tribe as well as pictures of some completed sculpts!

All the best!

An Update You Say?!

Hi!

Well its been some time since I promised a fairly major update to the blog and on the surface of it, all I've done is delete most of the posts!

Despite my apparent tardiness, I have been beavering away with sculpting up the test pieces for the Reds. Sadly they are off in an exhibition in Bristol at the moment so I cant even show them here (I finished painting them literally the evening before I had to get them in!)

The good news is that they have been receiving some very promising feedback from various animation and even miniatures industry types and I have been urged to do something with my robot project so I am going to do just that!

The problem has been the lack of workspace and too many other commissions and general overload on my resources so I have decided that I need to bite the bullet and do something about it. As of December I will not be accepting any more commissions. I am sorry about that but they are just too time consuming at present. I have also got myself a full time job to help pay the bills and my evenings and weekends will be spent drawing, painting, sculpting, writing and generally getting Rusty Robots off the ground.

Now the next step is to decide whether to develop a ruleset first or simply sculpt the figures, get them into production and let the rules develop at some point down the road. As there are just so many rules out there at present I am leaning heavily towards the latter option as it will give folks the opportunity to collect and paint robots while using whatever rules they like.

I do have a ruleset under development but its still at very early stages at present but needless to say I want it to be good and more importantly be fun to play and not take itself too seriously which all takes time!

Therefore I am aiming to get a Kickstarter campaign going by the end of the year so I can get the initial releases available so people can see whats in store and develop the rules as I go!

The first tribes I will be working on are the Reds and the Blues as each has a very unique aesthetic and style of their own which should make for an interesting visual look and differing style of play. Along side this I will be constructing some suitable scenery and boards for each of the five regions of the Scrapyard so keep your eyes peeled!

For more information on each of the tribes, please feel free to take a peek at the TRIBES page of this blog!

All the best!