A3 Series Scout and Sentinel Droids

[Hiremas Alkerith]

The A3 series droids were a failure in every way. They were slow, heavy, easily lost balance, they had an extremely unintelligent processor, and their sensors were basic as fuck. They were the first droids to be conscripted into the army, and in the case of the Alkerians, the last. They were manufactured by a third party company, and Alkerith hated them (He was advised by his generals that they were the best thing since the cocktail shaker). After a few missions, most of the survivors were scrapped and the A3's were quickly replaced by the more successful A5 series. The A5's were way ahead of their time, boasting improved sensors, an advanced processor and stronger legs (though they still retained their stubby length), but the Alkerians never bought them.

Anyway, enough of the backstory. I made one of these way way back when, and came up with some backstory for it (That model was A3-08) and decided the other day that it would be fun to actually make them a part of my army, or just have them there for fun. So, I whipped up a couple of "original" models, just to show you what I'd imagined them to look like when they were first produced. AKA ugly as hell, and pretty impractical. Enjoy...


From left to right, Luxury Sentinel droid, Battle damaged A3-08 and a standard A3 series scout and sentil droid (SSD)

A3 SSD

The A3 SSD was the standard A3 series droid, and was deployed on four missions before retirement. They were armed with two blasters, which they could point in certain directions to aim. They had a red power indicator mounted on their chest plate, and extremely short legs.


A view from the side shows their narrow optical sensor mounted on the "head" of the droid, and just how bulky it was.


And finally a rear shot shows that the A3 SSD was not designed for it's looks. Turned out it wasn't very good at fighting either.

A3-08

A3-08 was just another droid sent out on the first mission. He (it) was quickly torn down as it was attacked from the sides. It's wreck lay there for many years, until "shelly" came across it, and decided to repair it. He stripped down it's battle damaged armour, and reinforced it with a tough coating of durable but light armour. He also gave it a new sensor with a much wider range of vision, and improved the motors in the legs. Then, he uploaded an advanced AI into the droid, and A3-08 was born.


As you can see, while his frame is discoloured, it is far lighter and more durable than it's former self. That has also improved his balance, and the discolouring could potentially act as camouflage.


His back is the most interesting of the lot, just because of the "rust" giving it some colour other than a bland grey.

LUXURY SENTINEL DROID

This sentinel droid was more lavishly decorated than other droids, but only from the front. This particular model was designed as a bodyguard to Alkerith. He hated it, and since he felt he didn't need a bodyguard (Being immortal) it was taken out of service and put in a museum. The luxury sentinel droids had modified arms so they could operate a variety of weapons and even shake hands and carry important items. They had a yellow power light and were coated in white and gold plating. They also had an exotic audio sensor mounted next to their optical sensor, which was modified for improved recognition and had x-ray potential.


A shot from the side shows the modified sensor suite and the gold "sleeves" on the arms.


One of many things that Alkerith hated about these droids was that they were very lavish on the front, but completely bare on the back. He felt there was some kind of symbolism in that, and led him to dislike the droids to a supernatural extent.


An example of the versatility of the luxury sentinel droids.

So there we go, those are the droids. I've left a poll up top, as I thought if you wanted to see more of them, I could even implement some (A5 series) droids into my own army. If you wanted, I could also post a tutorial on how to make these things (I don't know why you'd ever want to make one, they're ugly as anything) as they're pretty simple to put together.

[Duerer]

These are cute. These remind me of that one robot Brikguy build with a few spare parts from a SW tank.

[Hiremas Alkerith]

Thanks! They remind me of GONK droids from star wars now that I look at them

[motorhead fan]

That is exactly what I was thinking Duerer, it is sad that he didn't make them into an actual army though, it could have been cool.

[Hiremas Alkerith]

Since the votes so far seem in favour of me making more, while I'm not making them en masse yet (Waiting for the poll to close) I've decided to make another version. Like the others, it's ugly, blocky and impractical.
By the way, does anyone want a tutorial on how to make these things?

[motorhead fan]

Yeah, sure! I'm always looking for cheap ways to make other peoples factions so I have more things to fight!

[Hiremas Alkerith]

OK... Sorry for the delay!
This is just a quick how-to on the basic variant of A3 SSD. The good thing with these droids is you can swap out just about any part for another part, make them taller or shorter, give them different or more sensors, change the arms, attachments, add jetpacks, make them bulkier, less bulky, anything goes.

Here's an overview of the parts you might want to use. As I said, literally anything goes with these things.



STEP 1:
Stick a 2x2 onto your 3x2 like so:



STEP 2: Clip a clip onto that:



STEP 3: Now flip it over, and get a couple of other clips ready, and then stick them on:





STEP 3: Fill up the gaps on the back with some 1x2s:



STEP 4: Then put some 1x3s on the back to smooth things out:





STEP 5: Now put some 1x2s on the front:





STEP 6: Now put one of those modified plates on:



And stick it's head on (It's one of those things you put the hooks into here, but it can be anything you want)



STEP 7: Add its legs:



STEP 8: Start adding some details onto the front. Once again, these can be whatever you want.





STEP 9:Then add the guns and power light:



STEP 10: Finally, just stick a sensor on!



So there we go, you've seen some variants, so you can guess they can be anything you want. They're quick and easy to make, and the parts are fairly easy to find, and the best thing is they're really versatile. Hope you enjoy, and once again I'm sorry for the delay!!

[Darthnox129]

I see why they were so ineffective. That yellow 2x2 plate and the modified plate with clip are not true Ablogical Binding Substance, but a foul Cloan Brand! The droids are made using inferior and unstable materials, could this be the start of a new invasion of the NegaBlokTrix?

But seriously these are a nice design for a low-cost support unit. I might add a few to my force as well, with some modifications of course.

Particularly, I'd like to see the advanced A5 variant.