Robot Legion for Pulp Sci-Fi Game

    I love the Retro Raygun line from Hydra Miniatures, including these five from the 'Robot Legion'

Now that Advance the Colors 2026 is over, I'm cranking projects out! As part of that, I continue to work on my "next year's" project of a Pulp Sci-Fi game set in a City in the Clouds. The third of six planned forces for the game are from Hydra Miniatures' Robot Legion figure line. I bought these a few years back, and have been looking for an excuse to paint them up. Part of Hydra's "Retro Raygun" line, they have that 1950s aesthetic that really makes them stand out. They'll work great on my game above the surface of gas giant...um, however I manage to pull that terrain board off!

    Tall, angular, & fearsome - the Robot Legion are the dread enforcers of....Who? Haven't decided!

I picked out five of the large 28mm (32mm?) figures -- three troopers, a heavy weapons specialist, and a leader figure. My favorite is undoubtedly the leader figure, with the single eye in the center of his head, radio antenna backpack, and upraised pistol-type weapon. All of them are incredibly cool. The power plant on the back of the heavy weapons robot is very retro looking, and all of their weapons have a very 50's "Buck Rogers" vibe.

    These are two great poses -- a single-eyed leader figure & powered up heavy weapons trooper

I tried to play off of that as best I could with the color scheme. Unlike the earlier Robot Legion figure I'd painted up for my Star Wars skirmish campaign, these robots had a dark look to them. I brushed prime the entire figure in Iron Wind Steel, an almost black metallic that I often use as a base coat for metallic objects. I decided not to do the usual Liquitext brush prime. I was worried about covering all those white spots in the recesses. I guess I could have bought a bottle of their black Gesso, but didn't think about that until afterwards. Come to think of it, that might be a good investment for miniatures that are going to be black or dark colored.

    I had fun painting these robots, & have wanted to field in a game since first seeing them years ago

I highlighted the dark steel color with a brush on dab of Pewter here and there for the parts that light might be shining off. Also, I wanted the accent color on these to be a metallic red craft paint that is one of my favorite tones I picked up at the local hobby store. It is an almost burgundy red and I love using it on terrain and minis. I pretty much followed the pattern of what would be colored metallic that I'd done with the earlier Robot Legion figure, using the red instead of the lighter metallic turquoise. I decided a copper accent would accentuate the red even more, so went with that on various rivets and other spots. 

The weapons were also painted similarly, with a Brown metallic handle (what might be the wood stock on firearms), and red gold and copper accents. The glowing tips of the weapons were painted in a metallic pink to match the eyes on the robots. The leader and heavy weapons trooper were the only robots that had equipment other than their weapons. The leader has what appears to be a radio while the heavy weapons trooper has some sort of backpack that likely powers his weapon. I was actually surprised how quickly these figures painted up. The most time consuming part was the metallic red -- there were lots of spots to paint up. Otherwise, the figures had little extraneous equipment. Plus, there were only five of them -- not one of my usual batches of 6-8 figures!

    Robot Legion squad searches a spaceship for their prey, ready to identify & eliminate them!

I finished the robots off with a black vehicle wash, which I think has a good effect on metallics. Finally, I pulled them off of the cardboard bases I'd glued them onto when I trimmed them off of their metal bases they were cast on. I touched up their feet and then they were ready to epoxy onto their clear bases. Once the epoxy dried, I brushed on clear gloss from Vallejo. It seemed only a few days of work from priming to finishing, but another Pulp Sci-Fi faction is complete!

What else is on my painting desk? I have those five Viet Cong emerging from spider holes that have their base coat completed, but no other figures ready to go, currently. Instead, I'm going to work more on the 3-D printed mangrove trees that I need for a particular Surviving 'Nam scenario. Doubtless, I imagine that I will slot in another batch of figures soon, and get them cleaned and based up. Not sure what they will be yet, though! In the meantime, you'll notice that I am only 10 miniatures away from evening up my Painted vs. Acquired. So, whatever I do decide to get ready to be painted next will be the batch that puts me over the top! Finally -- it took till late October, but I finally caught up!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 234
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 224

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 22
• Terrain painted in 2026: 39

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 50
• Scatter painted in 2026: 75