Yes, my headline is trying to avoid a cease and desist from litigation-happy lawyers from big toy companies. Bot War by Australian indie company Traders Galaxy is a game I’ve had my eye on for a year or so. I no longer remember where I first set eyes on this game, but the 1980s not-Transformers aesthetic immediately hooked me. The game and minis series is heavily inspired by the action cartoons of the 1980s all mashed up together. There’s references to Transformers, GI Joe, Dino-Riders, M.A.S.K. and more. The creator of the game has clearly had a lot of fun creating his own world by throwing all these influences together and letting them stew. After watching the game from afar for months, I saw a friend of mine join the Bot War Facebook community and I knew this was actually going to happen and we bought into the game.

Bot War is a skirmish game at 10mm scale, which is a bit of an oddity. 10mm is a scale where you expect to see massive battles take place on a small scale, but when you’ve got giant robots on each side you don’t need quite so many models. Some of the factions do indeed feature troops and vehicles at this scale and some are just robots and some are a mix of both. I have a preference for elite factions in games because it means buying and painting fewer models. This, combined with my love of dinosaurs and Transformers as a kid steered me to the dinosaur robots the Beastlords! There are seven models in total for this faction, but I started off with just these three to get a taste for the game.

First up is Tryannous, the leader of the group, obviously because he’s a t-rex! To create a sense of scale I wanted to replicate a city street. I found these rubber N-scale sidewalks intended for model train layouts at a local hobby store. They were a bit thicker than I expected so I built the base up around it with some plasticard. The Tyrannous model originally features his foot perched on a rock like a boss, but to make the basing work I cut it off with my saw and planted his foot on a patch of dirt.

Akynor is my favorite model of the trio. I really like his bulky torso, spikey back and his hefty mace. I wanted to make their weapons have a red energy glow, inspired by some comic book artwork of some other roboto dinosaur men. I used Green Stuff World red fluorescent paint and I’m really impressed! In low lighting it really does appear to glow from across the room.

Last up is Dactylous, the flier of the group. When I got these minis, I was really impressed by the casting of the resin. There was hardly any flash at all and nary a mold line. In fact the only mold lines I did find was on Tyrannous after I primed him. It’s not a big deal, and I just want to reiterate again how great these casting of these minis are.

I received my second dose of the coronavirus vaccine today, so hopefully the Beastlords will hit the table soon, battling against the evil forces of the Deceivers!