The Shire and everything after: Stargrave 001

Stargrave 001

In a galaxy torn apart by the Last War, vast pirate fleets roam from system to system, robbing, extorting, and enslaving. Amidst this chaos, thousands of independent operators - smugglers, relic hunters, freedom fighters, and mercenaries - roam the dead stars in small ships, scratching out a living any way they can.

In Stargrave, players take on the role of one of these independent operators, choosing from a range of backgrounds each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and associated powers. Next, players must hire a crew for their ship, recruiting a lieutenant with a unique skill-set and a handful of soldiers, mechanics, hackers, and other specialists. Some captains may even recruit strange alien lifeforms with abilities no humanoid could ever possess.

Once the players' crews are assembled, they are ready to dive into a campaign. Over a series of games, their crews will have the chance to carry out a variety of missions - recovering lost technology, stealing data, freeing slaves, and fighting back against the pirate fleets. In time, as the crews gain experience, they will become more powerful and hire more talented specialists. The more they grow, however, the more likely it is that a pirate fleet will take note of their activities and come after them!

Stargrave

As our societies drop all Covid related restrictions, and people "return to normal", among my gaming friends we've so far stayed away from meeting in real life for games. As it turns out, a rolling series of Covid infections among us has made that a wise decision! But throughout the pandemic we've maintained gaming online, using Board Game Arena for board games, and Roll20 VTT for wargames. Both have served us very well for the last couple of years.

However, we're now looking seriously at returning to the table. Our local club has its "main meeting" on Thursday evenings, but to avoid a crowed room, we're thinking about returning on another night.

The upshot is, that chatting during our last online session we came around to the issues of what we'll do and when. For "what" we talked about giving Stargrave a go. I probably have enough random sci fi figures to use, but I became enthused and so I'm going to get stuck into getting some figures together for this sci fi skirmish game.

So I broke out an "assorted" box of unused figures to make a start.

It turned out I had a good few figures just in that box, and I know I have more elsewhere, but this will make a good start. The first miniatures that caught my eye were these two "not-Mandalorian" figures I bought a while back from GrimSkull.

They are a kind of fantasy version of Din Djarin and Grogu from the Mandalorian TV series, adding a few skulls and other flourishes, so aren't a fully faithful rendition of the source characters. That said they are incredible sculpts with amazingly clean casting. Being resin they needed a wash and were then prepped to add to my first batch.

Next up, I dug these out. I bought these years ago from Brigade Games. They are called "Immortal Battalion [PLP592]". They are super little miniatures and will work well in Stargrave I think. Not sure what I want to do with them yet, so I picked out one to paint up. I think I may do these as a full squad, perhaps as some sort of "Corporate strike team".

Over the years, I've bought a fair few figures from the excellent range offered by Hasslefree, and I still have a few unmade, including this version of Alyx. I figured I wanted her armed with a carbine, and I have some leftover sprues from the excellent Pig Iron range. With the addition of a palstic Naopleonic sword, I gave Alyx a makeshift sci fi style katana.

So the first four models for Stargrave are ready for paint.

Bumbling about I also found these three little beasties. I think they're Games Workshop figures, perhaps something from the Tyranid range? Anyway, they'll do for Stargrave "guard dogs".

I picked out a couple more figures that for some reason the images corrupted for. One I think is an old GW Steel Legion figure, and the other...I'm not sure were I got it from, but it looks suitable rogue-like.

I also found this wierd see-through robot think, lacking a head! So I glued a Games Workshop jetpack onto it to form a sort of head, just to see how it works out when painted. You've got to have robots in a sci fi game right?

The final first set of 10 (+ bonus robot) is ready and primed with a zenithal highlight. Oh, and whilst delving in the pile, I found a wicker man I bought for my wife years ago (and forgot about). She saw it and fell in love with it (she loves those disturbing 1970's horror films and is a big fan of The Wicker Man). So, I added it to the table for this paint run.

...and...no WIP shots, mostly because I got consumed in finishing the miniatures! These took a bit longer to paint than usual, as I'm not painting for bulk here and can take a bit more time to make each one look a bit better. And here's the final first batch.

Here's the Din Djarin figure. I painted it in the colour scheme from early in the show before he acquires the full Beskar armour suit. In the reference shots, I though his armour looked red, but I think it was more maroon/brown.

The reference photo I used.

Anyway, I toned the dark red down with a few different washes. this is a lovely figure and I'm happy with the end result.

Onto Grogu, who is surely the star of the show!

I love this little fellow, both in the show and here in miniature form. His little floating egg-pod thing here is rendered with a stash of ammunition, and with wierd looking metal teeth, but its still a lovely version of the character. Its a relatively simple paint job, with a limited palatte, but of course there's the issue of painting white. I've avoided white colour schemes for years, but recently acquired a pot of AK Interactive Intense White paint. It's a game changer and if you're planning to paint a white model, you need this paint.

With Alyx, I decided to go with a bit of a cyberpunk style, so I gave her pink hair.

For the Immortal Battalion miniature, I decided to go with a simple military style colour scheme of tan and brown. I like how it turned out, so I think I'll certainly be making these into a squad.

Here's the two "filler" troops and wierdly as well as losing the WIP shots of them, for some reason, this one's image is "squished". Not sure what the camera was doing, but clearly its machine spirit could sense my dissatisfacion with these two miniatures. I think these will find use as Stargrave "wandering encounters".

Here's the "rogue" character. I went with a very simple colour palette, with a dark overcoat and blue jeans.

What to do with the "guard dogs"? Well, they're brain bugs so obviously paint them pink! While painting I was thinking they'd be somehow linked to the Alyx figure. Maybe these are her pets? Maybe whe's a mystic with a cerebral link to these floating brains? Not sure yet.

And finally, the bonus robot figure. As it turns out, aside from Din Djarin and Grogu, this is my favourite figure from the first batch! It was a throwaway experiment with a random paint colour but I love how it turned out!