Stargrave 005 - Favela

My Stargrave project continues at pace, and I’ve taken a break from building and painting miniatures to get some terrain together. The Stargrave setting has the idea that a vast central interplanetary authority has collapsed, and so it’s sort of a post-apocalyptic environment. Or perhaps more like a post-Roman setting where people are living in the ruins of a lost civilisation.

I find it useful to keep this in mind when I’m building the miniatures for the coteries, gangs, and crews that I’ve been building and doubly so when thinking about the environment they will be fighting over. I don’t envisage an environment of bright, shiny, new structures, but rather a ramshackle place, with generators held together with multiple jury rigged repairs, structures bolted together from scrap, or crumbling ruins barnacled with later add-ons.

It’s a dangerous universe out there so I figured folk would congregate in close-packed shanty towns and tight-knit communities for easy defence and mutual support. Stargrave, as a skirmish wargame, also has the core conceit that conflict is everywhere, and therefore the effects of battle will be evident in the landscape, with ruins and wreckage surrounding the dwellings of most folk. In fact, it’s possible that many soldiers simply settled on the battlefields that ended society, and their descendants now live in those places. 

So, this got me thinking of something like the brightly coloured Brazilian favelas, and this is where my ideas for buildings settled. The human spirit will always seek colour and light and joy, even in the most desperate of situations.

These buildings will be scratch-bashed from household junk and model bits and off cuts. I recently moved house and in doing so, acquired a large amount of polystyrene. Most of this I threw out of course, but the more interesting shapes made it into a pile of “useful modelling material”. Armed with this, a newly acquired hot wire cutter, some PVA glue and a selection of carboard cartons otherwise destined for the recycling bin, I set about building some dwellings.

One of the advantages of building “ramshackle” is that its far easier than making something that looks nice and new. At least I find it easier.

I started by cutting these interesting “L-shaped” polystyrene blocks into rough buildings sized to be simple structures against the 28mm minis.

I then set about randomly sticking on bits of card, making higgledy-piggledy walls, and some dodgy doors. The ploystyrene block helped in giving a core stable structure that I could stick random bits of card to. 

As I needed to do this in small stages to let the PVA glue dry, I got very bored doing this! When I’m working on a project like this I like to push through and get things done quickly.  All this hanging about wait for stuff to dry has been really trying on my patience and I’m concerned that I’ll lose interest before finishing. 

So, half way through I switch streams and while only some are finished I get stuck into the painting on what I have done. And…er…I forgot to take photos of the work-in-progress stages. But I sprayed them black, and then give them an overspray of a dull metal paint that I happen to have lying about. I don’t have an airbrush (yet), so all my spraying uses rattlecans.

Once dry, I then set about putting on some random colours, layers of washes, and finished up with a liberal daub of Dirty Down Rust. My thinking was that these buildings are mostly tin or iron constructions, but really I just wanted to use more of the amazing DD Rust!

This process was relatively quick, compared to the tortuously slow construction, and its crude and slapdash, but I think the final result is fine for a Stargrave board. they can be laid out in a "compound", or to make winding alleyways, or even stacked on top of each ther for a bit of height (I could do with a lot more for this, If I want a full settlement board).

I’ll finish the rest of the buildings, and then look at getting some wreckage, oil drums, and similar scatter terrain sorted too. I feel like a generator, and other utilities like water tanks would suit the setting. Maybe a rusty sci-fi Torii gate might be good too.

But I may switch streams to a different project for a while. “A change is as good as a break” as they say…and Warband Romans need finishing off.

Stargrave 001

Stargrave 002 - Capran Prospectors

Stargrave 003 - Stragglers

Stargrave 004 - Exterminate!

Stargrave 004 - Exterminate!

While I'm prepping for the "big terrain build", I thought I'd take a look in one of the lead mountain boxes. there's probably some bits knocking about that I could add to the Stargrave cast of characters.

Well now...what's this? "Eldar" eh? Maybe there's something in here that might be useful.

OK, lets spread this our then and see what's what.

Turns out Eldar was right and the box is filled mainly with older Games Workshop Eldar bits, as well as a few figures still in their blister packs. Shall I open these? Maybe in the future, but not for Stargrave. These excellent Jez Goodwin sculpts are so iconic they will bring too much "GW" style into the game that i'd like to avoid. There are some plastic bits in there that might get used, but these packs will go back onto the pile for a future decision.

However, this is interesting...some fairly crude plastic Daleks (do I need to say these are from Dr Who? Sure everyone recognises them, right?) I think these came off the front of a magazine a year or two back. They are badly constructed, presumably intended as throwaway kids toys, but on close inspection they are also badly put together.

So, Stargrave robots then? Actually, I recently pruchased a new "technical" paint called Dirty Down Rust, and I've been looking for something to try it out on. These look perfect for a trial, as if they don't work out I can just ditch them.

With a quick undercoat and a metallic basecoat on I embarked on the rust trial. I'm unsure exactly how to go about this, so I figure and all over daub will probaby do it. After five minutes or so, the paint dries and...WOW! Just wow. This paint is an absolute game changer.

I hastily did the rest of the crew, and now have ten very rusty Daleks, ahem, Stargrave combat robots. I'm not sure what else I need to do to these so a light drybrush of gunmetal to bring out the highlights and these are basically done. I'll paint their little glass eyestalks but that's about it I think.

Bask in the glory of this amazng paint!

The Stargrave collection grows, but again I'm unsure what I'll use these as. there's ten though so they could be a whole robot crew! Maybe I'll paint some colour markings on over the rust, bit it feels like I should've done that before i painted the rust on.

Stargrave 001

Stargrave 002 - Capran Prospectors

Stargrave 003 - Stragglers

Stargrave 003 - Stragglers

 Following the Capran Prospectors, I have a few straggler figures to finish off.

First up is this eastern maiden figure. I forget where I got her from. Anyway, I painted her in a mix of a sort of jade blue and red. This figure will make a decent "mystic" type captain or first mate.

This chap is a Heresy Miniatures character and I have another one similar to him done with the first cadre of Stargrave figures. To make him a bit different I figured blue skin would look good.  A simple "Star Trek alien" approach to make something look a bit outlandish.

This one is an interesting one, being an old Games Workshop Tyranid model. Its wierd and a bit goofy, but makes for a good alien type. It'll find use as some sort of random monster I guess. I had no idea what colour to paint it, but my wife said "do it brown and green". I think she was right!

Next up, a wonderful Hasslefree miniature in the form of this excessively armed American police officer type. Given his clear and iconic appearance, I decided simply to paint him as a police officer in stereotyped blue uniform. Turned out OK it think, and with this uniform he'll be easily transferrable to a "modern" wargame, if I ever do something like that in the future.

And next to him a WWII Russian soldier armed with a PPSh SMG. This is a rogue figure I found, left over from my WWII Russians for Bolt Action. I considered painting his uniform yellow or orange, but I kind of went onto autopilot and he came out pretty close to his historical uniform.

And then there's this plastic bat. No idea where its from, but it clearly needed purple fur.

Next for Stargrave I'm planning to make some junk scratchbashed terrain, but I'm waiting for a hot wire cutter to be delivered (after trying to cut polystyrene with a knife resulted in destroyed polystyrene, and a room full of little white bits). In the meantime, I turned my attention to making some Loot tokens for Stargrave, and I came across a small bag of these things...

I've no idea what they are, or who the manufacturer is. I've had this for years, and its one of those bits of detritus you get in ebay job lots that I'd normally just throw away.  For some reason, these have always survived this pruning process, and now I know why!  they were waiting for Stargrave to be published and for me to get interested in it. 

So I rebased them and game them a quick repaint (30 mins including drying time for the blue wash). I'm not sure what they'll be, but i guess they are little trundle-bots or hover-bots. there's 10 of them so they could be used as a crew! But I think they're more likely to find use as robot "ruffians", drones or somesuch. At least they've found a use now though.

So, another group of figures for Stargrave finished.

Stargrave 001

Stargrave 002 - Capran Prospectors

Stargrave 002 - Capran Prospectors

I started my Stargrave journey with a fairly random selection of figures, mainly to get the creative juices flowing, and flowing they are.

Chatting with my friend who prompted this dive into Stargrave (rules I picked up on release but filed under "unlikely to get to play"), we talked around the idea that building figures for actual crew rosters may be a better approach. 

So I went away, looked at some of my figure/kitbash options and came up with an idea of the crew.  It's a nascent idea at the moment, and probably doesn't need to be much more than this to feed in some narrative ideas, but I may develop it further if needed.

Oh, and before i begin, some bonus random miniatures that I'll be adding.

So...onto the crew.

Capran Prospectors

This is a crew of Hircusian aliens, a strange humanoid race who originated on the mountain world of Hircu.

The crew is employed by the Capran Industrial Conglomeration (CIC), a powerful commercial entity that maintains a mix of primary and heavy industries, commercial production, and exploratory resource extraction. The CIC employs small prospector crews to search of salvage, information, lost technology, and new commercial oppoertunities. Many of these crews "go rogue", or are employed on on a contracted piece-rate basis, pursuing their own interests in the guise of the CIC. 

This crew, led by Captain Afron, is a technical prospecting crew is on a constant search for scavenged technology. Afron and his friends occasionally kick back lesser findings to CIC (mainly to meet the minimum terms of their contract), but otherwise they're on a mission to enrich themselves.

The Crew

Commanders

• Captain Afron - Tekker
• Powers: Antigravity Projection, Data knock, Drone, Heal, Investments
• Gear: Light armour, Carbine, Knife, Grenades, Deck & Picks
• First Mate Breeda - Robotics expert
• Powers: Create robot, Drone, Repair robot, Target designation
• Gear: Light armour, Carbine, Knife, Deck & Picks

Specialists

• Billeah - Casecracker
• Dajed - Codebreaker
• "Boomer" Buk - Grenadier

Soldiers

• Kurman - Medic
• "Heavy" Buzz  - Trooper
• Willo - Recruit
• Gradow - Recruit
• H1-RCU-5 "Old Yellow" - Runner (Robot)

I started with some figure sprues that I got from inclusion with the Wargames Illustrated magazine, in this case a Warlord Games British 1880's Colonial soldier frame, and a late WWII British soldiers frame. I used the base bodies from those sprues, and placed some old Games Workshop beastman heads on them.

Already I like them, and it seems to be a simple and effective way to make some "near human" aliens.

Next, I need some weapons. Now I could use the weapons on the sprues, but these are identifiably historical, and also scaled for that style of figure. So I go looking through the bits box, and find a bunch of Games workshop Imperial Guard Cadian weapons. 

In a similar way, these are clearly identifiable as their source style, so I'll shave off some of the icons, and make some judicious snips to try to make these look a bit more generic and "alien".

And with that done, I imagine these are some form of advanced mechanical weapon. Actually, you know what? These are "Birkelam Micro-dynamic Gauss Blasters". Yeah, that's what they are.

And the bulk of the force is done. I just need to create a robot for the runner character and two drones.

When it comes to the colour palette, I want to go with some outlandish skin colour and I think a nice green will work here.  I also want them to look "industrial" in nature so some form of industrial type uniform seems appropriate. This puts me in mind of light colours like yellow or white, but I think I'll go with a sort of dirty beige for the coveralls. These two colours are quite close on the colour wheel though so I'll need a contrasting colour for the fittings and equipment. Maybe a blue, purple, or pink. Hmm...to be decided?

Edit 1: The crew is finished!

I added the robot to the crew, and due to the powers I intend to give the Captain and First mate, I've also bits-bashed a couple of drones together. I give the whole lot a zenithal prime spray (this seems to be my standard technique now), and get stuck in to the painting.

And now, the final result. For the crew I went with a baige/canvas colour for the uniforms, with various browns and greys for the equipment. I painted the guns with a Games Workshop paint called "tin bitz". I'm not sure about the final finish (close up is quite sparkly!) but its done now.  I stuck with bright green skin and I like the effect.

The Capran Prospectors assembled for scavanger missions.

I'll go through the crew one at a time. Clearly in the collapsed future of Stargrave, the camera technology gets a bit fuzzy from time to time. Its definitely not my poor photography skills...

Captain Afron, a tekker and veteran salvage scavenger. He carries the standard Capran-issued Birkelam Micro-dynamic Gauss Blaster, and wears a command communications and survey rig. His status as captain and leader is expressed by his orange pauldron, marked with the command icon.

First mate Breeda is an expert in robotics and spends most of his time keeping the crew's robots and drones operational. He wears the sub-command yellow pauldron.

Kurman is the crew's medic who carries an full medical field kit and a Birkelam MdG pistol. He wears the red pauldron of the Capran science and medical division.

Buk (called "boomer" by the crew because of his deep basso voice) is the grenadier for the crew. His explosives launcher is used to breach installations and starship hulls for salvage and exploration, and of course comes in handy during battle, to lay down smoke or take out enemies foolish enough to group together. He wears the icon of an explosives-trained engineer.

"Heavy" Buzz served in the Capran Asset Security division and is a combat specialist. He wears a Scarab F-3 armour field projector array (in game, "heavy armour").

Billeah is a skills casecracker, able to pick mechanical locks and break into physical security. He wears his "lucky" pauldron, that miraculously stopped a .50 calibre round at close range.

Dajed brings codebreaking skills to the team. He carries data-hacking micro-tools and a standard blaster, and wears the CIC IT/OT specialist icon on his pauldron.

Willo and Gradow are the younger recruits in the crew. Still to prove themselves they fight with blades and Birkelam MdG pistols.

The captain and first mate carry drone control modules and can bring in CR-19 combat scout drones to an engagement or mission where required. These flying machines are equipped with manipulator arms, and Basel TS-3 energy blasters (in game pistols). I gave them an array of blue glassy sensor lenses, and I imaging the "head" can rotate 360 degrees.

I bits-bashed these together from mostly Games Workshop space marine bits (I forget which kits these came from). I think they worked out OK. Of course I based them on the iconic probe droids from Star Wars.

H1-RCU-5 "Old Yellow" is the crew's venerable robot. Fast moving and configurable, in battle they equip Old Yellow with a four-barrelled Teremki 5mm Kinetic machinegun and a combat blade (in game, pistol and knife). Back on the ship, Old Yellow is typically reconfigures with load-lifter arms for cargo duties. Most of the crew are very fond of the robot, whose personality sub-routines put them in mind of a faithful and playful Ur-hound. 

This is kit-bashed from bits I had lying around, and is based mainly on the body of a Games Workshop T'au XV-25 Stealth Battlesuit.

There we go, another Stargrave crew finished. 

I think, up next I'll put some simple Stargrave terrain together, perhaps something "shanty town" style. Not sure yet, but we're planning a "real live" game in a couple of weeks so I have a bit of time to get something done.

Stargrave 001

Stargrave 003 - Stragglers

Stargrave 004 - Exterminate!

Stargrave 005 - Favela