The folks at the Icarus Project have given us an exclusive look at their Alliance Trooper models that will be part of the Kickstarter for their Sci-Fi which launches on September 7th 2015. Find out more about the models and the decisions that went into creating them below...

Ooh Rah!

Kicking things off we'll have a look at the three man squad that you'll be getting as part of the Kickstarter. These will be soldiers that will appear in your Starter Box for the Alliance offering you a choice of different weapons including the light machine gun and assault rifle.

There are also plans for there to be additional options down the line including the likes of a sniper rifle. I think that has most of the mainstay weapons covered for a squad of foot troops right?

We also saw artwork of Female Troopers early in the development process so it would be good to see if the guys behind the project can work on those models post haste!

Components

So how do these models break down? Well, we talked to Anthony from Icarus Miniatures about these models and how he went about choosing their weapon choices mentioned above and their poses...

Anthony: For the weapons, I had decided on what I wanted the Alliance starter set to include quite a long time ago. I knew that I wanted the bulk of the box to be troopers armed with assault rifles, and then get an LMG and sniper in there too.

For the poses, we started out by using the concept art. Hokunin (one of our artists) has done a wonderful job on the troopers, so it made sense to use the poses he had done. For the third trooper, I went with a sort of “at ease” pose mainly because it will be useful in a variety of diorama situations!

We had originally planned to have both arms as separate pieces on the troopers. But because their choice of equipment options is fairly limited, I decided to go for fewer pieces, which makes the whole casting process a little easier.

When we come to the Galactic Marines, who have far more choice when it comes to equipment, they will have two separate arms and be much more customizable.

I like that they're going for ball joints to attach the arms and heads as that works so much better than flat surfaces. The opportunity for Icarus to then provide additional weapon packs down the line which include easy arm and head swaps for various weapon choices means they could easily add to this range.

If you're wondering on the scale of these models then thankfully we've got a handy reference for you...

The models are effectively 35mm scale but will fit in alongside many 28mm ranges as you can see above.

Alliance Training

Now we've seen the models what about their background in the game? Anthony gave us some additional information this too...

Anthony: The troopers are the workhorse of the Alliance. When you’re maintaining a territory that’s billions of miles across, you need a lot of bodies to make sure your borders are defended. Alliance law requires each Alliance world to maintain a standing army to repel invasion, but also has a quota that each world must send a percentage of their population each year to be trained and do a tour of duty.

Some worlds will meet the quota with volunteers, but a lot of them have to enforce conscription.

While the troopers don’t receive the same level of training as marines go through, they are still a skilled and disciplined fighting force. They get broken into fire teams that include a team leader and a heavy weapon specialist.

They can handle most battlefield situations, but will need to call on the Marines or the Drop Troopers for harder targets.

If you'd like to find out more about the Icarus Project then you can head over to their website and check out the Blog which features a lot of background on the various factions in the game. There is even a bit more on the Alliance Troopers themselves so you can be clued up on their history in the field.

Don't forget that in addition to these models the rules for the Icarus Project are currently Free To Download so you can give the game a go ahead of the Kickstarter release.

What do you think of the miniatures?