From FrederickC: Scratchbuilt Boilerplate (Altair IV) (40 points)

 

As the poet Robert Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley." The plan was to make to Altair IV by last Monday, but the engine decided to pack it in. It was probably due to those low quality fuel pellets we picked up on Arrakis. As a result, we spent a week sitting in the docks while a lot of the corroded valves were replaced. The extra costs are going to seriously cut into our profit margin for this trip. Aw, well. As my high school Physics teacher used to say, "You win a few, you lose a lot."

How I spent a month on Gethen one week.

Altair IV - the Forbidden Planet. It was visited by the United Planets starship C-57D to determine the fate of an expedition sent there 20 years ago. The theme is 'Old Robots'.

I didn't have any robot miniatures in my 'big box of shame', but I had some wooden figures from the local craft store that were designed to be painted up as nutcrackers. I also had the book 'Boilerplate - History's Mechanical Marvel', by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, and I thought I might be able to do a conversion to make an 'old robot'.

 

An image of Boilerplate from the book

My starting point

I rummaged through my boxes of collected bits and bobs that I use for building terrain features to find the right pieces to convert my nutcracker figure into an old robot. Doweling of various diameters, tubes from dry ink markers, old chopsticks, hollow plastic sucker sticks, thin copper wire, and some epoxy putty were all pressed into service. In the end, the only pieces from the original figure that were incorporated into the build were the arms and legs. The end product stands 80mm tall (pictured below standing on a hockey puck, the Canadian standard for both size and mass). If I were to do another, I would make his head a bit shorter  his helmet a bit wider, and his arms a bit longer, but I am satisfied with the final result.

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

1 x 80mm foot figures @ 15 points = 15 points(?)

Quadrant Challenge 'Altair IV' - 'Old Robots' - 20 Points

That makes 6 Outer Ring, 5 Middle Ring, and 4 Inner Ring locations of the Quadrant Challenge completed. Time to take the deep dive into the central star system.

"Send me in, Coach. I'm ready"

You've taught me something here Frederick as I'd never heard of Boilerplate before.  What a wacky steamy punky robot he is too.  I love the use of a wooden nutcracker for the starting point.  The end result looks great and I've added a few points for the scratch building.  I'll be in touch about your challenge shortly.