Last week I made a blogpost about 1980’s Playmobil space robots and how cool they were. I kinda teased a custom painted robot, mainly because it was already half made. For month I would say, half painted and put aside on my never-ending pile of things to complete.

Paint, clay and a cloudy weekend

Back when I started this collection and small obsession, I stumbled upon a Playmobil toy photographer (I can’t find him anymore, I’ll update this post eventually) who had five or six of the can-bots in a scenery, and one of them was of a nice metallic green. Turns out it was a (very well made) custom paint of a regular robot. Obviously I had to try myself.

By the Magic of buying two Robotitrons for cheap on vinted, I started customizing mine. My plan was to have it dark green and gold. However, after base-coating all the pieces and painting the shell green, I put this project aside for months. Until now, I guess!

What sparked the reboot of this project was two things: a small squared piece of wood and a block of fimo-like clay that I got during big sales in a close hobby shop. I wanted to try my hand on clay for a while now without really getting along with it. I even bought a ton of tools and accessories, but never really used them.

I ended up reworking a bith the craters, as they were too steep to my taste.

Details, and more isn’t better

Unfortunately (for this blog, good for me) I was too deep into this project to take pictures of the work in progress. I count on your imagination to fill the gaps.

Robot

I ended up painting over my green robot instead of removing the paint already applied on my previous attempt. And that was a great decision, the the dark green barely leaks through the newly applied dark blue, giving a nice depth. I stayed with the initial colors of the 3318 blue bot, but repainting everything. It ended up giving a more tangible and less toy-like appearance, which I really enjoy.

I added a bit of weathering, ripped one of its arms (no vintage robot harmed during the making of this Diorama, only a 2019’s Robotitron) and did some additional painting on some “technical” details.

Lunar scene

As the saying goes: the best is the enemy of the good.

I wanted to add too much things to the scene, and ended up kind of ruining it. Paint, glue, stones and dust made my scene looking not much like a lunar surface but more like a random dusty spot.

The final touch (I must admit I’m a bit proud of this one) was to add flour to my flooring, before permanently gluing it using clear varnish.

Finished model

Lore:

In late 1985, the last astronauts of the Playmospace program left the lunar surface, taking with them all the samples and data collected in this 5-years long space program. This model 3318 space companion unit was part of the last relief crew landing and was never fully activated.

When it was time to pack everything up into the shuttle, this 3318 was considered non necessary and as such was left behind, untouched and unmonitored.

Two decades later, a solar storm accidentally activated its circuits. Alone and cut off from terrestrial radio frequencies, this unit spent another decade wandering across the Moon’s surface, searching for its lunar base, that was long gone. During this time it lost a wheel and broke its left arm. It then inevitably fell short on battery, becoming, once again, an inanimated piece of equipment in a hostile world.

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