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.
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| 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.
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.
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