3D printed robots (N scale)

[NXCALE]

Here a link if someone wants to try having some robots in his/her layout.

Also searching "MWO" in the same website, you will see more models.

 

I printed the one in the link and looks good, now this robot is "patrolling" the (half built) streets in my layout.

 

NX

[Cat]

Ooh, stompy robots!

The first edition of BattleTech in 1984 was Battledroids (renamed after Lucas Films' lawyers came to talk about the use of 'droid', and FASA could not afford to play lawyers with the Lucas).  Battledroids came with 1/144 Dougram mecha by Nitto/Doyusha.  Revell also released some Robotech/Macross kits.  The Dougram kits were re-released a few years ago, and I managed to snag one of these sets from HLJ to supplement my earlier collection:
https://www.hlj.com/combat-armor-dougram-collectors-box-1box-10pcs-dys00095

A large factor for us building an N gauge modular railroad now is that we can bring it to gaming conventions as well as train shows.  Really looking forward to playing Battledroids Alpha Strike in grand style!

Alpha Strike is the more recent fast-play version of BattleTech.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Cat

[gavino200]

I was hoping they'd have the ED-209. "Please put down you weapon. You have ten seconds to comply". 

[cteno4]

Your move, creep.

[gavino200]

I'd buy that for a dollar 😜

 

[cteno4]

Come quietly or there will be trouble.

[NXCALE]

7 hours ago, gavino200 said:

I was hoping they'd have the ED-209. "Please put down you weapon. You have ten seconds to comply". 

 

Hahaha, that idea came to my mind also. However, when I was looking for robots I was actually thinking more having  "construction robots" like this picture.

 

So having a "temporary" or removal part of my layout where I could have a construction or demolition area (e.g. an area where track is being replace) with some of these robots working there. I was thinking to keep the legs and torso from the robot but don't use the arms with guns. Then I could design some arms with construction claws and paint the robots on yellow and black like actual construction machines.

 

 

[Cat]

For a construction robot, you might try hunting down a 1/35 Crusher Joe Powered Suit by Nitto.  This is a suit designed for a human to wear and goes very nicely size wise with the 1/144 Dougram Mecha where the human driver sits in the head.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/nitto-23003-powered-suit--1075654

 

It also comes with a two-handed BFG cannon that just slides over the hands.  Just in case you need to defend your railway operations from kaiju or other big stompy robots.

Or if you want to hunt down the 1/144 Dougram models, a number of those can easily be built without the weaponry; just putty in the holes where the pieces would attach.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Cat

[Cat]

Oooh!  This one without the driver:
https://www.hlj.com/1-35-scale-moderoid-multi-purpose-exoframe-gray-obsolete-gsc11757

 

[chadbag]

So back in the late 80s I worked with the 11 year old boy scouts at church in Massachusetts.   For the scouting activities, we combined with another congregation's 11 year old troop and their leader was a guy named Duane Loose.  We worked together with the scouts for about a year.  

 

If you look carefully at the 1980s BattleTech source books, his name is on many of the designs.   He was involved back then trying to expand BattleTech commercially etc. and I remember him telling me about plans for amusement parks etc.   I don't know what happened and I lost track of him when I moved to go back to school.

 

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Duane_Loose

[NXCALE]

On 5/31/2020 at 1:12 AM, Cat said:

For a construction robot, you might try hunting down a 1/35 Crusher Joe Powered Suit by Nitto.  This is a suit designed for a human to wear and goes very nicely size wise with the 1/144 Dougram Mecha where the human driver sits in the head.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/nitto-23003-powered-suit--1075654

 

It also comes with a two-handed BFG cannon that just slides over the hands.  Just in case you need to defend your railway operations from kaiju or other big stompy robots.

Or if you want to hunt down the 1/144 Dougram models, a number of those can easily be built without the weaponry; just putty in the holes where the pieces would attach.

 

I will check that one.

 

On 5/31/2020 at 6:30 AM, chadbag said:

So back in the late 80s I worked with the 11 year old boy scouts at church in Massachusetts.   For the scouting activities, we combined with another congregation's 11 year old troop and their leader was a guy named Duane Loose.  We worked together with the scouts for about a year.  

 

If you look carefully at the 1980s BattleTech source books, his name is on many of the designs.   He was involved back then trying to expand BattleTech commercially etc. and I remember him telling me about plans for amusement parks etc.   I don't know what happened and I lost track of him when I moved to go back to school.

 

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Duane_Loose

 

Interesting anecdote, I like robots and board games but I didn't know about BattleTech.

Probably there was not much advertisement when released. 

[Cat]

BattleTech was a huge thing in the 80s when it first came out, and has been going strong ever since.  It rapidly shifted from the 1/144 plastic mecha to 1/285 metal castings by Ral Partha.  About 1988, FASA (the publisher) set up MechForce as an organised play format for tournaments and keeping national player rankings.  For several years I ran the North East Regional Tournaments though a local game store, we would get about 100 players from all over New England, and made great friends with the two guys who started up MechForce UK, and would travel over here from Wales to play!

The MWO mechs you linked to are tabletop designs of the mech images as seen in Mech Warrior Online, the online version which has been running for ages.

FASA went out of business at the turn of the century and the publishing has been taken over by Catalyst Games.  They ran a Kickstarter last year which brought in over $2 Million USD to get a newly designed range of plastic miniatures in production.  (Alas sthe new miniatures are subject to the gaming problem of scale creep: they are larger and bulkier than the original Ral Partha models, so I'm not getting any of them; although I did back the Kickstarter to get a bunch of fancy dice and a few other goodies.)

The 1/285 miniatures also look pretty good when played on N scale terrain.  The big stompy robots just aren't quite as big as advertised, but the smaller buildings still provide nice cover.
: 3

Classic BattleTech is a fun skirmish game, if somewhat clunky — it really shows it's 1985 design roots.  The more recent Alpha Strike is the fast-play version the game system really needed 25 years ago.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1540/battletech

Edited May 31, 2020 by Cat

[chadbag]

I was never really into BattleTech.  I would have liked to but only had time and money for one thing, and that was AD&D (and some Starfleet: Battles).  I remember hanging out at the hobby stores and looking at all the BattleTech stuff.  It was a cool time to be a teenager.  Ral Partha made a lot of good fantasy miniatures as well in the normal 25mm scale (IIRC) and they were leaps and bounds better in detail than the competition at the time.

 

 

 

 

[NXCALE]

On 6/1/2020 at 9:35 AM, chadbag said:

I was never really into BattleTech.  I would have liked to but only had time and money for one thing, and that was AD&D (and some Starfleet: Battles).  I remember hanging out at the hobby stores and looking at all the BattleTech stuff.  It was a cool time to be a teenager.  Ral Partha made a lot of good fantasy miniatures as well in the normal 25mm scale (IIRC) and they were leaps and bounds better in detail than the competition at the time.

 

Maybe as a teenager, I would've tried BattleTech (if I knew there is one). But now, I rather prefer hobbies that only depend on myself and that don't depend on other people's time like this our hobby.

 

Anyway, I quickly "prototyped" my idea to see how it looks.

 

As I mentioned no arms as I would like to replace them by construction claws or any other G.E.T. (ground engaging tool).

I also painted it as "whatever", I did paint without planning much.

 

 

Cheers,

[roadstar_na6]

It‘s also worth mentioning that HG Gundam‘s are 1/144 scale and there‘s TONS of them for less than 10 bucks 😄

My gf has a few and they‘re a fun activity to build and should work fine on a layout if you‘re into this kind of stuff.

[Cat]

Hmm, crane accessories like grip claws, clam shell buckets, etc. might work well.

For these 1/285 Heavy Construction Vehicles to use with the Ogre boardgame, I used Lego arm claws from Star Wars droids grafted onto 3D printed long barrel Karl Gerat tanks:

 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Cat

[D4789]

On 5/31/2020 at 5:54 PM, NX: said:

If you look carefully at the 1980s BattleTech source books, his name is on many of the designs.

 

 

So cool.  I pulled an old Technical Readout out of storage.  I didn’t play the table game that much but was big into the novels and computer games.  Loved to pilot the Warhammer - Especially since it was based off of a Macross design.

 

On 6/2/2020 at 3:58 PM, roadstar_na6 said:

It‘s also worth mentioning that HG Gundam‘s are 1/144 scale and there‘s TONS of them for less than 10 bucks 😄

 

 

Bandai also made a line of 1/200 (HCM Pro) Gundam completed model toys.  They were discontinued in 2009 but are still around.  They are super articulate and would work if you wanted a smaller robot.