I remembered playing Command and Conquer (Red Alert) when it came out and also, a little bit on its subsequent sequel. However, as much as I want to remember, I could not recall the Tesla Trooper. All I could remember was tweaking the rules.ini file for the Attack Dog to have laser shooting from its eyes. And that was a long time ago.
Border Models
In just in the last few years, Border Models, who did the very impressive 1/32 Lancaster aircraft, diversified a little with some Command & Conquer licensing and came up with some very interesting model kits. The reception was quite OK. I remember seeing their first model which was the Apocalypse Tank BC-001, followed by the amazing transforming Grizzly Battle Tank BC-002. Then in 2024, they kinda remastered the Apocalpse Tank as Ver 2.0 BC-003, this time with lighting. And by the third quarter of 2024, the Kirov Airship BC-004 was introduced. Border Models then started off 2025 with the 1/12th scale Tesla Trooper BA-001, currently which will be my first model for the year and is on the pre-order list with WHM (World Hobby Miniatures). The model should be arriving slightly after Chinese New Year 2025 and is about RM102.00 (USD conversion here).
The Tesla Trooper
(Image courtesy of https://cnc.fandom.com)
(Image courtesy of https://cnc.fandom.com)
The Tesla Trooper made its appearance in the second C&C game, Red Alert 2. Although this slow moving unit is relatively cheap to create, they can absorb reasonable amounts of small arms fire, but they can be easily defeated by overwhelming it with large number of enemy units. Or bigger Tanks. On the plus side, Tesla Troopers can charge and Boost (friendly to them) Tesla Coils’s effective range.
Tesla Trooper BA-001 by Border Models
Initially, I was never interested in Border Models’s C&C range of kits but when World Hobby Minitures did a pre-order of the Tesla Tooper, I was curious about the Kit. It was during this that the more research I did, the more interested I became. Or to be honest, the possibility of lighting the Tesla Arm although the kit already has a lighting option, which can be activated via a magnet.
And if you compare with the concept art above, the model is very close to the concept.
Not much is known about this model but after scouring the Internet, this 16.5cm tall snap-tite model comes with 3 pairs of hands and two heads. Plus, let me repeat this again, it has a lighting option that uses 3x LR521 tiny batteries, which are 5.2 mm diameter x 2.1 mm height.
