Stargrave - Rogue Trader. The Adventures of Captain Horatio Nelson

The image is work in progress with painting one of the troopers.

Last time we had an overview of the kits in general this time we will focus a little more on kits them

Crew Kit

When you think about Crew on a start ship you are talking about the unqiue members the Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones the doctor. In Startgrave this is what I though the crew kits would allow us to build. When you think of starship crew style basically it falls into one of two groups. The uniforms of say Star Trek, babylon 5, Blake 7, Battlestar. They follow an imperial navy style with smart jackets and uniformed pants. The other style is completely casual the farscape or firefly look with neat jackets, t-shirts, vests, jumpsuits etc everyone with a unique style.

If you look at the cover art of the crew set that is what you see, a guy in a t-shirt, one wearing a short jacket with t-shirt and a guy with a body vest and bare arms. What you get in the box body wise does not really provide that. They are all pretty generic in fact against the Mercs I thought at first it was the same bodies but you notice a slight change in terms of ammo packs etc. If you looking to create your firefly team this kit is going to disappoint in fact it does not really create a crew for Starcrew.

None of the models really stand out as fitting for a Captain or first mate, a dress uniform would have been nice. The puzzle is that nothing on the sprue really screams out any other crew positions either. Sure your have a spanner which can be used to present a Tekker but it seems also comically bad at least a tool kit would have been nice. As for Mystic, Robot expert, Rouge, Psionicist, nothing really in the kits for those.

The soldier table nothing really for medical, hacker, runner that stands out you have a reading a PDA device and scanner type device. So on image 3 what I tried to do going left to right is Medic, First Mate, Tekker Captain, Vetern. However do they really scream out a defined role on the battlefield ? not really in my view.

The kit itself is fine the models are easy to put together you get a good range of heads but for some reason they are all males I suspect we might see a female kit at some point. You get a few animal heads. Another slight disappoint is the lack of animal bodies even a model with lizard feet or monkey hands would have been fun. You get a good range of options in terms of weapons and like the Troopers the hands fit the guns.

However I was left disappointed with this kit it is very generic and does really match what I expected it to deliver. It is too much the same as the Mercs kit the additional spanner and scanner really does not do enough to change the models.

Mercs Kit

The crew kit was a bit of a dissapointment because it really does not do what it says on the tin. The Mercs I am going to argue is not that different to the Crew but it does deliver what it is suppose to be. The Mercs fill out the standard combat troops in your line those you know might die and need to re-hire. These are standard ex miltary guys covered in ammo pouches and nades, allowing you to build heavy weapon teams, snipers, rocket launchers etc.

This kit does deliver that and it is interesting to note that the sprue is bigger than the crew one you get a bit more stuff with this kit but the same model number. I dont think you need both Crew and Merc and if you buying one get the Merc kit.

The main reason I say get this kit is the heads are far more interesting, well amazing. Okay it might be a little over the top but I built a bear with the rocket luncher, a lizard man with the heavy machine gun and Zoidberg carrying a case. Even the human head have more character than the crew but some are the same as the trooper heads. Again slightly odd choice not to have female heads.

The weapons are a really good mix of different machine guns, pistols, sniper rifle, shotgun, heavy rocket launcher, nad launcher. Only odd aspect is no flamer and very limited close combat choices just one knife.

Once again the kit is really easy to put together. You can swap the arms and heads with all the kits to mix them up.

Trooper Kits

I was quite surpized by the this kit out of all of the kits this is the one I was least interested in. The original picutres did not really convey what the models looked like. The details seemed at little soft and event he cover art on the box seems a little generic.

The body has a good amount of detail with armoured plates over a jumpsuit, a half way house between GW imperial guard and a stormtrooper from stars wars. Enough detail and edges that should allow for contrast paint to pick up the detail. The bodies might be a bit all the same but with the troopers you want a “uniform feel” so that is fine.

The troopers kit I feel would fit into provide your crew with a couple of armoured so you would be looking at the Trooper role, Grenadier, Gunner, Armoured Trooper. Of course they can also be used as pirates, pirate trooper, pirate shock trooper or bounty hunters from the monster list. If you swap out the idea of Pirates and consider them a local defence force coming in to deal with crew or if single players and what to use them as the a local crew to fight again.

You get a good mix of heads this time some females ones, a great section of weapons but for someone reason a rocket launcher which you cannto use rather than the flamer is an odd choice. In the range of heads you got many with different version of the same helmet type and bare heads. This time they are all human no bears or lizards. You get nades, packs, pistols and knifes to attach to the models as well. Nothing really meele wise which is the same as the other kits.

Overall

All 3 kits are great what I said i the first review still stands it the above is judgement on how useful the kits are for the game. I dont think you need all 3 in fact if on a budget get the Merc kit. you can use this to build most of your squad and look to get other models to fill out rest of the squad. The crew kit really does not do anything to crew aspect but does give you more bits to play with. The Troopers kit personally I like because it gives you the armoured look and I am going to use them to build a local defence force.

I have been painting some other members of the Crew. Horatio needed some officers and as an ex-member of thge imperial fleet I figured a couple of voidsmen would come along with him. In this case the models are from Imperial Guard GW range painted in the blue and white of the imperial navy. These models will be looking to fill the Trooper class as you might expect.