Building a Killsaurus

It all started with this image…

My goodness. That’s a thing that needs to exist in Gaslands…

I wasn’t sure at first if this ‘killsaurus’ (as I began to refer to it to myself) was the inspiration for a whole new game (giant robot battles, but the robots are dinosaurs) or a new vehicle type for Gaslands or just a cool idea for a Truckasaurus build.

As I began to work on the Gaslands: Legacy campaign for BLASTER, I realised this was just the centrepiece I wanted in my story. Toy dinosaurs plus miniguns. Winner.

Fast forward a year, and with the campaign written and handed over to Greg (BLASTER’s editor-in-chief), it was time to build the centrepiece model for myself. I pulled out two of my Gaslands bits boxes and discovered a 1:72 Apache Longbow I’d bought for playtesting Helicopters but never got around to assembling. It seemed like it could potentially be a good source of bits for the super-structure on top of the dino, as the weapons on the image above certainly look like they are mounted on helicopter wings.

I have an admission. Up until this point, I had never owned a Dremmel… that Gaslands hobby essential. I didn’t if I’d get on with it, but it seemed like cut up pieces of car and assembling them on his back would be a thing.

I have to say, I don’t love using the Dremmel. Cutting through the metal on die-cast cars takes patience, and the metal of the car gets hot, and metal shavings end up everywhere, and I was terrified of losing a finger. Handle with care!

The helicopter chassis was partially assembled, cut up a bit, and copious resin bits from Anvil Industries, Kyamsil Designs and Zinge Industries applied. I drilled some magnets into Rex’s shoulders, to allow the machinery on his back to be removed for painting and storage, and magnetised the turret and wing weapons to allow me to swap and pose them for the photography (and it made the painting easier too).

Here’s the mostly finished build:

I then added some plasticard to a few areas, and ran a ‘brain-control cable’ to Rex’s skull. Painting was a lot of rattle cans: green on top, beige underneath, (even the black stripes on the tail were just rattle can paint sprayed through torn paper).

I had a ton of fun building this guy, and he retains pride of place on my painting shelf above my desk. If you choose to make a Killsaurus of your own, I’d love to see it! Share in the Facebook group, on Reddit, on Twitter, or in the BGG forums!

Rawr!