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I recently got the Imex release of the Robogear starter box set.
More about the game, Pics of box, contents, etc, can be found here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14398/robogear

Awesome deal (currently buy it now for 33 bucks on ebay!) for a ton of stuff.

I immidiately sold the soldiers which, while cool, were a bit to large for the heroic 28mm, and I set asside the Hexagon terrain pieces for later use.

Here's some images (not mine) of the vehicles assembled per the instructions as a refference against my conversions.
Spider and Thunder


Wearwolf (walker) and Hurricane


There's some good stuff here, but I was unipressed with some of the designs, don't particularly like most of the firing missiles. Thus I have been messing about with the components making new designs, which I'll post my WIP's here. I'm assembling these for use in 5150, Wastelands and other 28mm sci-fi and post apoc wargames, though one of my last posts will be decidely 40k in nature....

Spider and Werewolf. These were fairly good designs in their stock form, but as mentioned I wasn't impressed with the way the vehicles were armed. Fortunately most kits either are built with more weapons than they need, some include extras and many have non firing alternatives to the firing versions

Spider.
Chassis and cockpit built as per the instructions except that I reversed the leg order on one side so as to look like it is scuttling rather than standing with legs the same on both sides.


As to the weapons, I did away with the two big firing guns. Sawing off part of the barrel from one of the real-firing rotary cannons from the hurricane kit gave me a good support base for the missiles. The joint for the missile mounts came from the hurricane also, and the missiles and mounts came from the from the Werewolf kits. Though not rotatable side-to-side, the missles can elevate and be removed.

I still need to cap four mounting holes on the cockpit and launcher assembly, but that won't be difficult.

Tomorrow, the Werewolf.

lots of fun to be had converting these i imagine

Cool idea! I will be watching your progress! Those "Thunder" fliers would make great Ork Deffkopter conversions! As a matter of fact all of these would make great "High-Tek" Ork stuff! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

There's a number of ork conversions of this stuff around. google Ork Robogear and you'll find some real jems. Here's one using the "varran" model. http://santacruzwarhammer.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-toys-into-war-buggies.html
I've got a couple of these on the way now.

As to the flyers, I've got a conversion right now that makes it into a nearly-respectable fixed wing aircraft, but you're right that they'd make great deffkopter fodder. Also a number of folks have turned the hulls of these things around and greebled them to make dredds and kans.

At some point on this thread, I'll take a pic of the robogear weapons that look like they could come strait off an ork vehicle.

Those are sweet War Buggies!

Kans and Dredds, yes I can see that easily!

Can't wait to see updates of your stuff!

And I see what you mean about the missiles...those just won't do.

Those are nice. Good work.

Day 2. Here's the Werewolf.

Another example of a model that is pretty good, but definitely needs some weapon swaps. I wasn't particularly thrilled with any of the options (see picture in first post) that come stock for the werewolf. The firing missile launcher is silly, and the Close combat arms are a bit over the top, and the gun arm options are rather puny. So I took the two guns from the spider, flipped them over, cut off the large magazine and attached them to the arms from a hurricane.


The only major difference between Hurricane and Werewolf arms is that Hurricane arms are slightly shorter which looked just a touch more balanced to me. Also, with a bit of trimming, the arms fit nicely into the lateral groove on the top (formerly bottom) of the Spider guns which not only looks pretty good, but gives a sturdier joint. I'm undecided about the top mounted guns, but as they are only push-fit and not glued at this point, I can always switch them later.


From here on out, in each of my Blog updates, I'm going to include a link to a well done Robogear conversion by someone other than me. Here's a Killer Kan that appears to be made from a T-Rex with the hull turned upside down! http://www.the-waaagh.com/forums/?showtopic=33128

Tomorrow, A flyer!

Looks great! I don't remeber if you stated it, but what are you going to count these as? They look at bit too neat and clean for Orks, maybe IG?

Can't wait to see the flyer!

I'm thinking Ad Mech...

These are definately fun. Have you done anything with the building it came with?

RSJake wrote:Looks great! I don't remeber if you stated it, but what are you going to count these as? They look at bit too neat and clean for Orks, maybe IG?

I'm going to use them in other games besides 40k. My gaming group is experimenting with different sci-fi and post-apoc rulesets to see which ones we like best so these will likely see action in 5150 and possibly Nuclear Renaissance. If I get enough mechs built, I may also try and play Mech Attack in 28mm rather than the 15mm it was designed for.

Robogear can be great for Orks, but I'm purposely trying to keep these as clean as possible.

Rochronos wrote:I'm thinking Ad Mech...

I've seen some pretty good Ad Mech based on Robogear chassis and bits. I can't find the one I was thinking of, but here's two
http://mordian7th.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html
http://gtazz.com/kataan/index.php?mod=2&blog=35

Asphalt wrote:These are definately fun. Have you done anything with the building it came with?

Thanks, I haven't done anything with the Hexagon yet. The sprues in the robogear box are the same as of one small Hexagon kit. I just traded my friend for a second small kit and I have the remainder of a large kit I purchased a few years back from the Warstore. I'm not sure if I'm going to build something big, or just save it for bits.

Here's a what I did with the first large kit.

Wow, what an awesome deal. Yeah all of that could be used for Orks. I might have to pick me up one of those sets. Thanks for the info!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Now is there anyway you could use the soldiers for some true scale stuff?

The soldiers themselves might have some use. I sold mine, but before I did, I compared them to IG. The heads, Torsos backpacks and guns are size comparable. The arms might be useable (I don't recall exactly), but the legs are dramatically larger than standard GW proportions.

Here's a comparison shot I made back in the day when Robogear first came out and I bought a single Mad Bull which you see here with legs reversed and cockpit reversed and rotated. I'll be coming back to this model in a later post.

The picture is a bit misleading because the pilot figure (due to his articulated hips) is a bit taller than the soldier figures and doesn't have a separate torso that joins at the waist like the soldiers do. Also, the plastic Orlock is notably smaller than a current plastic cadian. However it does get the point across.

Okay that doesn't look too bad. I really don't know much about True Scale marines, but I know a lot of people got to great lengths to make them. Is there such a thing as True Scale Imperial Guard? If there was, surely these guys would work for that.

True scale imperial guard are going to be the same size as regular IG, possibly smaller and less bulky if you take "true scale" literally. The reason True Scale Marines are bigger is that they should be considerably larger than IG and other figures, but the GW models have them as the same size and bulk as a plastic cadian, which is out of scale.

The best use of Robogear figs is for the weapons and body armored (carapace armor...) torsos that come with the soldier figs.

That base looks pretty wild... I found the kit and you've got me thinking....
The little tank things are just what I've been looking for.

Eilif wrote:True scale imperial guard are going to be the same size as regular IG, possibly smaller and less bulky if you take "true scale" literally. The reason True Scale Marines are bigger is that they should be considerably larger than IG and other figures, but the GW models have them as the same size and bulk as a plastic cadian, which is out of scale.

The best use of Robogear figs is for the weapons and body armored (carapace armor...) torsos that come with the soldier figs.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

That Werewolf is armed with PPCs, damnit... just add the big-ass LRM racks on the shoulders and be done with it

I've seen some other uses of robogear and wasn't too taken. However your work is making a lot more sense. Good luck with the rest of them.

Wow, you're going a considerable distance towards making those totally ridiculous models look good. The reversed cockpit on the Mad Bull is particularly good. And those hurricane missile-drum bitz would make a great basis for a Hydra conversion if you just attached a long barrel to each.

Cheers for reminding me about these I need some cheap Ork vehicles!

Thanks for all the kind words folks. I'm glad to see that you all are enjoying these kits almost as much as I.

Flinty wrote:That Werewolf is armed with PPCs, damnit... just add the big-ass LRM racks on the shoulders and be done with it

I've seen some other uses of robogear and wasn't too taken. However your work is making a lot more sense. Good luck with the rest of them.

I was thinking of Gauss cannons, but it could just as easily be PPC's

Though these are obviously not battletech specific, BT is my asthetic standard for what I like mechs to look like. I don't even play it, but I have most of the TRO's a ton of the novels and have rebased a whole bunch of mechwarrior clix for 10mm Mech Attack and Future War Commander.

So yeah, you'll see some BT influence in my work.

Savnock wrote:Wow, you're going a considerable distance towards making those totally ridiculous models look good. The reversed cockpit on the Mad Bull is particularly good. And those hurricane missile-drum bitz would make a great basis for a Hydra conversion if you just attached a long barrel to each.

Hmm I had considered making a proper minigun from the hurricane drum with small barrel ends to cover up the gaping missile hole, but I hadn't thought of making them long barreled for a Hydra. If you're thinking in terms of IG, I think you'll like what's coming late next week.

Small modification to my schedule. It will probably be Monday and not tomorrow when I have the next blog entry.

OP, how was the quality of the plastic? I ordered a robogear model (the demolisher) from Ebay a while back, took me ages to get it, and the plastic was brittle and hard, snapped easily, wouldn't carve and plastic glue barely worked on it.
It may have been a recast, it was briight pink.
What are yours like?

The plastic on mine was fine. It cut and glued easily with Testors cement. There are different releases with different colors of plastic.

The starter set from IMEX is in the colors you see and all the IMEX individual sets I've seen have been in those colors. The sets labeled Airfix and sold in UK/EU seem to come in different colors as shown by this review. http://modelstories.free.fr/histokits/Robogear_P/index.html

I'm not sure whether it's different production runs all being shipped from russia, or whether Technog (the company that owns and licenses Robogear), Airfix and Imex all have their own production runs and different plastics.

Look forward to seeing what you do with these, I've been keeping an eye out for Robogear stuff but had no real luck, I guess there's always ebay.

Thanks, I might have to give them another try, it seems many others are having good luck with them and making some great stuff. Have you seen SC Warhammer's stuff? They did some good Robogear ork vehicles.

@Mu: The one I got off ebay was as described and arrived well, but it took about seven months and they ended up having to send another set. It may have been second hand. Other than that, ebay has a good variety.

P.S: This is the one I got, it looked much the same (albeit with more flash) minus the plastic wrap and the paint pots, hence the feeling that it may have been a second-hand cast
http://modelstories.free.fr/histokits/Robogear_P/img13.jpg

Mu wrote:Look forward to seeing what you do with these, I've been keeping an eye out for Robogear stuff but had no real luck, I guess there's always ebay.

At this point, I think ebay is just about it. I don't think we'll be seeing anymore robogear in stores. All the stuff on ebay seems to be new-old-stock from when IMEX and Airfix used to make it, or it's import stuff from Russia. The "protinker" seller on ebay seems to have bought a massive amount of old stock from IMEX. It's dirt cheap, and still shouldn't be too bad after overseas shipping .

Unfortunately, he doesn't have any of the really cool new stuff from russia like the Condor, or the new soldier+building kit sets.

HadoukenAvenger wrote:Thanks, I might have to give them another try, it seems many others are having good luck with them and making some great stuff. Have you seen SC Warhammer's stuff? They did some good Robogear ork vehicles.

@Mu: The one I got off ebay was as described and arrived well, but it took about seven months and they ended up having to send another set. It may have been second hand. Other than that, ebay has a good variety.

P.S: This is the one I got, it looked much the same (albeit with more flash) minus the plastic wrap and the paint pots, hence the feeling that it may have been a second-hand cast
http://modelstories.free.fr/histokits/Robogear_P/img13.jpg

That's really wierd. It's posssilbe that it's a copy, but more likey you just got a bad cast.

Day 3. A Flyer!
The Thunder fuselage would be great for Ork's, but not so good for others, so I substituted the Hurricane fuselage.

It's 7 inches wide by 4.5 inches long.


I felt that the wings to the thunder were too short, so I cut both wings where they met the opposite engine and spliced them together. The bulby 1/4 egg section right behind the cockpit can be cut off and it leaves a nice flat surface for gluing the lengthened wings to the fuselage. The cut off section was itself cut down and glued back ontop of the wings. I've still got to fill some of the gap with putty


Landing gear is made from robogear parts with the addition of 3 wheels from a tank it on the rear and two tank bits on the front. I believe the parts are from a russian BMP. I think I may replace the rear wheels with something slightly smaller.

Origionally I wasn't going to do any landing gear, but as this plane will probably be scenery more often than an active unit, I decided it needed some.


The guns are the barrels of one of the double machine guns from the Thunder kit. The attachment points are the points at which each wing section would have originally attached to the fuselage. Without the guns it's just a wierd bulb in the wings, but with the guns it looks like it has a practical use of housing the cannons.


As always, the model as a whole has a few places in need of filing and filling, but I'm saving that untill after all the models are complete in case new ideas for conversion come.


Most of the conversions I've been making borrow parts from more than one kit, but still leave enough parts to make the original kit into something. Due to the use of two wings this kit uses the better part of two kits worth of parts. One of the Thunder fuselages can be mated to the tracks from the demolisher but you will still have an extra thunder fusleage leftover. The extra weapons are great and the large thunder fuselage can be made into scenery or be the basis for another conversion, but just know that this conversion has "double" the cost (about 16 bucks including shipping if ordered separately on ebay) of my other conversions. That said, if building from the boxed game set, proportionally, it's only about 9 bucks.

The new batch of models haven't arrived, but by Wednesday I should have the first of a few mining vehicles to show!

Oh Man! That is awesome! I was on ebay and just about to order a bunch of kits, and then I heard my wifes nagging in my head asking me why I was byuing stuff for Orks, when I still had work to do with my World Eaters...so I didn't get them...yet!

Day 4, a light mech.
Decided to postpone the mining vehicle as it looks like I may need the parts for a future conversion. In the mean time, here's my most recent mech, which also has something of a battletech look to it.


It has the Legs and arms of the werewolf and the cockpit of the Spider


This yeilds a result very similar to the Robogear model, the Locust. A model that I like, but wasn't included the American IMEX release


The guns come from Hurricane kits which you can see in the first post. Each kit only comes with one. They have had their magazines cut off and have been turned upside down.


The only construction issue was that in order to connect the cockpit hull to the legs assembly, I had to add a small spacer. The cockpits of the Locust and Spider look similar but have completely different attachment points. In the picture below, the spacer is a small toothed gear piece (cut off a Robogear missile launcher minigun) between the torso and the large toothed gear on the leg asssembly.


The package with my next batch of mechs hasn't arrived yet, so if it hasn't arrived by tomorrow, I'll post the soon-to-be disassembled mining machines.

Day 5, Mining Mech and T-rex.
First off, a stock T-rex. The T-rex is definitely the best of all the USA released Robogear mechs. It has great proportions, good greebling, an impressive cockpit and matching, r/l guns.

It has four of the standard pin weapon attachment points on each shoulder, but no attachment point for an arm.


Mouinting the weaopns on the hull looks fine, but having them on an arm like my werewolf or locust just looks more battletech. I bought two and at least one is going to be modified to have arms.


Mining Mech.

Here's the little mech that will have to give up it's arms for the T-rex conversion.


Just an extra hurricane cockpit and spider chassis. Though they have different mounting points for the cockpit, the hurricane cockpit mounting clip-peg fits right into hole for the spider's roatary missile launcher. Thus I just reversed the spider chassis and put it together.


The lasers didn't look good to me on a regualr mech, but as mining lasers they look fine. Not sure what this will become if I endup taking it appart for other conversions.

Next, a closer look at the rogogear weapons. Possible 40k uses?