Roll out!

I quite like the way this bot turned out. I brought together spare parts and kit bashed this guy, changing his silhouette using plasticard.

A little extra panel work brings back a bit of detail.

The rest of my Micro machines arrived and they are a perfect scale for this scale.

The detailing is very good in fact, the equal to any wargame model.

The strange Sci-Fi designs lend themselves very well to a Cybertron setting. 

Having modelled a few bots with melee weapons, it's given me the idea to create a unit of close quarters specialists for Xenos Rampant. I think I have five bots that fit that bill.

Very nice detail on these tiny toys, I was pleasantly surprised. Nearly all these vehicles have a combat like appearance, bristling with guns and missiles, perfect for my game.

 Incoming salvo. This will make a good playing piece for the indirect fire support in the game.

Blitzwing wip.

I called this guy Sandstorm in the end because he reminded me of a Humvee. So of course, this helped to colour him too.

Micro Machines Decpticons take to the air.

I was pleased to find these F15 planes as the match the original 1980's cartoon look.

Air superiority always gave the Decpticons the edge.

Cybertronic Tank

I had the idea to look on eBay for some small space vehicles for this project, I wasn't really expecting to find much in the right scale. However, I finally found a range of Micro Machines that were called Galaxy voyagers. These are a mix of land and air vehicles, all with a futuristic spin. Well that suits this project down to the ground. There are a few tanks and aircraft that will make fantastic Cybertronic vehicle forms.

As well as being perfect shapes and designs they are also the right scale for some on the larger Bots. Wildfire here has now found a vehicular mode.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to play the transform rule in Xenos Rampant, maybe it can add to the movement rate. I thought a nice touch would be the mortar support team could be one of these tanks. He would stay in vehicle mode to lay down a barrage on to the choose area.

I imagine I won't get around to creating vehicle modes for all the characters. I imagine placing a vehicle amongst a group of Bots would just be a marker to show the group had transformed. Of course when the rest of the tanks arrive, I could use them as reference when making up Bots, so I could create the vehicles Robot form. The fun just goes on and on.

Indeed, once these vehicles are painted up, they could be Bots in their own right. Autobots and Decpticons that have chosen to adopt their warlike battle modes to fight in. A mixed unit might look quite good actually. A bit like in 'Men who would be kings' where Irregular cavalry are mixed mounted and unmounted figures.

I like the fact that these tiny vehicles are toys too, they certainly have that naive charm to them, as well as moving guns and turrets. A bonus in any game I say. The man made laser sounds are optional though.

 This childhood dream of mine to wargame a Cybertronic battle is going from strength to strength. I love the idea of turning toys into playing pieces.

Update: I thought I'd try anew technique on the bases, cutting and creating the base is always the boring bit of these Bots. However, this new way is so much quicker and still looks the part.

It's a simple job of just sticking and scoring card to create metal panelling.

These were then sprayed with purple paint.

I also found a military base toy when scanning eBay, I thought this would be good for a bit of Cybertronic scenery. A few old light fittings and some other odds and ends and we're good to go.

This was the basic toy, I took off the stickers and added some greeblies with plasticard.

Update: tank mode complete.

These little Micro machines are the perfect scale.

A toy from the films gets a repaint and joins the fight.

Autobot Re-enforcements

The new motley crew of Bots enter the war. The two small Bits transform into cassettes and eject from the large 'Wave' Bot behind.

I ended up using a head I had made for the first cassette Bot on this car torso. He ended up looking like a grizzled veteran. So I gave him some heavy weoponary. Taking a look from Kup in the TF comics, I gave him a cigar like bullet case to chew on.

I also stuck on a mean looking sword, he likes to get up close and personal.

Wildfire is born and heads off to battle. He is a large tank like construct, with a pair of mean rapid fire guns, hence his name.

 Update: 

Who would do this!? An Autobot statue shows signs of unrest, as Cybertron's peace starts to fracture.

I did a bit of an overhaul on this guy. A tiny nose and chin was added and his cigar was drilled into place. He was named Landslide in the end, quite fitting when looking at his weapons array.

This sonic Bot was given a repaint and earned the name Scramble. It seems to fit him better and evoke more of his role within the war.

I found another toy on eBay that might come in useful, it was billed as being the smallest Transformer ever. Well, it was a lot smaller than I was expecting.

It comes in at just the right size to create the cassette Bots. Rumble and Frenzy are definitely on the cards now. I just need to get the scalpel out and do some bodywork on that beatle.

Bot head

yesterday I set about making some heads for the small cassette Bots. These were based on Rumble, the Decepticon street punk. However, these turned out to be too large and looked odd.

In the end I used some heads off of some keyring bots, these were a much better size.

Today I tried out an old head on a new torso. That being one of Megatron from a latter era. The size works a lot better. One thing I really enjoyed on this build, was creating the gun. This was done by cutting up plasticard and various other plastic bits to add detail.

The Gaslands sprue has turned out to be a treasure trove of useful parts for this project. 

I kept the torso as is as it's full of great detail on the chest panels.
 

I think this colour scheme would be perfect for this  tank Autobot. The chunky pistol is not far off either.