Beastlords: Robots In Plain View

 Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

Here we go with my latest set of commissioned miniatures, a set of Beastlords from Bot Wars.

For those who don't know, Bot Wars is a skirmish game in 8mm scale from Traders Galaxy. It's set in an alternate 1980's Earth, where armies heavily inspired by the tv and movies of the real 1980's battle it out. One of the main draw points of the game are the giant robots, inspir3ed by a fairly succesful toy franchise. These are resin miniatures, nearly 50mm tall* and present some unique challenges, with all the flat areas and sharp edges.
I had a mad idea to start these off with a base of Citadel Contrast paints. Why  is that a mad idea? Well,  a lot of people will argue that Contrast paints don't work over large flat areas but I thought it was worth a try to see what happened. And, whaddya know, it worked! I found working with the Contrast bases worked really well, as the pooled away from the edges leaving a natural blend that I could work over with normal highlights. It's just a matter of controlling the paint, not letting it pool too much in the wrong places then, once it's dry, laying down a smooth first layer, blended into the base colour, then built up a couple of layers of edge highlighting, being really careful to keep these as neat and tight as possible. Once all the highlights are finished, I then blended back some of the original Contrast colour, where necessary, to strengthen any of the deeper tones that needed a bit of reinforcing, before applying a controlled recess shade of Army Painter Strong Tone or Dark Tone, depending on the colour. This is blended out to form a smooth blend into the strongest shadow. It's a great way of giving more contrast to the shapes, which really helps to give the illusion of scale, especially when combined with the sharp edge highlights. The colour schemes were mostly based on the production artwork for the miniatures and I've outlined the specific colours used on each miniature below. The colour in parenthesis is the Contrast base layer.

TYRANNUS



Yellow: (Nazdreg Yellow) Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Dorn Yellow.
Orange: (Gryph-Hound Orange) Troll Slayer Orange, Fire Dragon Bright, Luggunath Orange
Red: (Flesh Tearers Red) Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Luggunath Orange.
White: (Space Wolves Grey) Ulthuan Grey, Corax White, White Scar.
Grey: (Gryph-Charger Grey) Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, Corax White.
Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Fenrisian Grey, Blue Horror.

ARKYNOR



Yellow: (Nazdreg Yellow) Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Dorn Yellow.
Green: (Warp Lightning) Warpstone Glow, Moot Green, Kreig Khaki.
Red: (Blood Angels Red) Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Luggunath Orange.
Grey: (Gryph-Charger Grey) Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, Corax White.
Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Fenrisian Grey, Blue Horror.

DACTYLOUS



Yellow: (Nazdreg Yellow) Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Dorn Yellow.
Blue: (Leviadon Blue) Kantor Blue, Aliatoc Blue, Fenrisian Grey, Blue Horror
Red: (Flesh Tearers Red) Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Luggunath Orange.
Grey: (Space Wolves Grey) Celestra Grey, Grey Seer, Ulthuan Grey
Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Fenrisian Grey, Blue Horror.

STEGAROUS



Yellow: (Nazdreg Yellow) Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Dorn Yellow.
Purple: (Leviadon Blue) Naggaroth Night, Xereus Purple, Genestealer Purple, Slaanesh Grey.
Red: (Blood Angels Red) Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Luggunath Orange.
White: (Gryph-Charger Grey) Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, Corax White.
Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Fenrisian Grey, Blue Horror.

PARASOLAR

White: (Apothecary White) Grey Seer, Corax White

Green: (Ork Flesh) Warpstone Glow, Skarsnik Green, Nurgling Green

Red: (Blood Angels Red) Evil Sunz Scarlet, Wild Rider Red, Luggunath Orange

Blue: (Ultramarines Blue) Kantor Blue, Aliatoc Blue, Hoeth Blue,

Fenrisian Grey

Yellow: (Iyanden Yellow) Averland Sunset, Flash Gitz Yellow, Dorn Yellow

Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Grey Seer

TRICEROUS

White: (Apothecary White) Grey Seer, Corax White

Grey: (Space Wolves Grey) Celestra Grey, Grey Seer

Deep Red: (Shyish Purple) Gal Vorbak Red, Word Bearers Red, Squig Orange

Red: (Blood Angels Red) Evil Sunz Scarlet, Wild Rider Red, Luggunath Orange

Light Blue: (Gryph-Charger Grey) Russ Grey, Fenrisian Grey, Grey Seer

Yellow: (Iyanden Yellow) Averland Sunset, Flash Gitz Yellow, Dorn Yellow

Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Grey Seer

BRONTOUS

White: (Apothecary White) Grey Seer, Corax White

Deep Red: (Shyish Purple) Gal Vorbak Red, Word Bearers Red, Squig Orange

Red: (Blood Angels Red) Evil Sunz Scarlet, Wild Rider Red, Luggunath Orange

Blue: (Tallassar Blue) Sotek Green, Temple Guard Blue, Fenrisian Grey

Light Blue: (Gryph-Charger Grey) Russ Grey, Fenrisian Grey, Grey Seer

Yellow: (Iyanden Yellow) Averland Sunset, Flash Gitz Yellow, Dorn Yellow

Black: (Black Templar) Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Grey Seer

So, there you have it. Seven Beastlords. I had a lot of fun with these. All in all, each one took roughly ten hours to do, and I'm fairly pleased with the results. The sculpts are clean, with just the right level of detail, and the castings are crisp and smooth, and I can highly recommend them. It won't be my last foray into the world of Botwar, either, so watch this space for some more from this range soon.

Thanks for reading!

-Stu

*which makes them around 12 metres tall in scale terms!