CASE-2X-M: Mod 2 Backpack Corpsman Variant WIP

The claw arms are magnetized and not only move, but are also swappable.

And as you can see from the above picture I've finished assembling a new Dog. This one is meant for Corpsmen to ride in.

I side stepped the whole Corpsman issue in Bad Dog by the simple expedient of having the company deploy from a CSN Hornet, part of a MEU. In Strike Dog and Ghost Dog my Corpsman character Keith deploys in a MARPACE power armour suit.

However, the next Tachikoma novel, Red Dogs, the story really requires the Corpsman to be part of a combat armour squad.

After talking to a real life Corpsman, you know who you are, I was informed that Corpsmen go off and do special forces stuff that makes them suited for special operations. How could I resist? So after some fiddling around with magnets I made this new Dog.

 

My thoughts behind the CASE-2X-M: Mod 2 are that it's a engineering variant optimized for medical interventions. Hence the claw arms for opening up damaged Dogs to remove their occupants.

Arms swapped over into the stowed position. And I need to unbend that gun part.

This also of course means I have the option on now building a CASE-2X-E: Mod 2 engineering variant. Oh the burden of having ideas.

But before I build that I actually have to build a CAS-1-Mod 3E Ape combat armour engineers suit, which will feature in my next Gate Walker series story: Two Moons. All fun to do. Just have to get some more parts together. I see an order with Dream Pod 9 in my future.

  

Human Operator Surrogates

 

I'm been doing some priming. It's easy to do, and doesn't hurt my wrists too much.

Back here I painted up some Dream Pod 9 GRELs to use as HOS (Human Operator Surrogates). They never quite rocked my boat for a number of reasons: they were all left-handed, with only two poses I could use. So, I decided to see if these NuCoal infantry would work as androids?

There are more poses, which floats my boat. Right handed, which is good. Just not sure if they are bulky enough?

Still noodling about whether or not they work for me. I stood them next to my super heavy tank conversion to see how they look. Seems promising.
  

ABC Warriors

 

I found that I had these figures in my stash of shame. They're all lead castings, so they were looking a little sorry for themselves as they had darkened with age. I decided that something had to be done to prevent them from deteriorating further.

 

A thorough going over with a glass fiber scratching brush cleaned them up, and in one of my rare spurts of enthusiasm I ended up priming them with mat white Humbrol enamel. My go to primer for metal miniatures.

I no longer remember who made these, and there was no identifying mark on their bases, which is not that surprising given that I doubt they were licensed replicas.

That's not really Ro-Jaws, it's a generic droid from some other range that I had hanging around.

My plan is to paint them in green and red to match the comic. But first I will need to do the black for the shadows.