Stargrave - The Talons of Solubris

I am going to make a second warband that will be able to play off against my Talons of Solubris. They will be lead by some well meaning Jedi-esque Mystic characters that put the greater good above all things. Trouble is, they decide what the greater good is via their opinion and the ethos of their religion. Which means that the Talons are criminals to their way of thinking, vengeful terrorists prolonging a lost war over the uninhabitable planet of Solubris. Who sold them this narrative? The Daktari of course.

The Daktari have faired better out of the Last War, but only by becoming vassals of the Pirates. Their own home planet of Daktar is being harvested of its resources to fuel the Pirate fleets, but the Daktari were ultimately successful in beating the Solubrians and still have a place to call home. The universe is in an apocalyptic state, so like everyone else the Daktari have next to no commerce that isn’t Pirate controlled and many of the young Daktari fighters have left home to ply their trade as mercenaries throughout the local galaxies. This is where a section of 5 Daktari (two runners, two recruits and a guy with a carbine) have joined the crew of The Chagrin with Captain Qui-Gon Jim and First Mate Kobi-Juan Aloogobi.

These will all figure in their own project as a fresh crew. This guy was just crying out to be painted and I want you to see the enemy of the Solubrians. They wear a mixture of garish coloured garments and black and brown fighting overalls and basic armour.

This guy is made from a NorthStar Cultist body and left knife hand, a Stargrave Crew right pistol arm and a carbine support left arm and a NorthStar Gnoll head. The head is meant to be placed on a sculpted neck, so I glued a piece of whittled sprue on to the neck section of the cultist body and then glued the head into that. Because the Cultists are designed for a fantasy setting, the leading foot on this mini was attached to it’s puddle tab base my a plastic textured tuft. To keep the same basing style I replaced the tuft with a bit of sprue. I figured it would look like a piece of broken ship. To give the illusion of the damage happening recently I threw down some ash type flock and some bits of Warlord Games pin markers sprue that is a lovely translucent red.

The purple arms paint is Emperor’s Children Pink with a wash of Druki Violet. The cuffs are Trollslayer Orange. The trousers are Warpstone Glow green with Deathguard Green stripes with an Athonian Camoshade wash. The whole mini was primed in Sceptre Black from the new TT Combat primer spray range and a zenith from above with Army Painter Leather Brown. I really like the pattern of the waistcoat on this mini. The whole overalls got a drybrush of Steel Legion Drab and an Agrax Earthshade wash.  The waistcoat got a coat of Darkoath Flesh Contrast Paint. The socks are Flesh tearer Red Contrast Paint with Mephiston highlights.

The face was the reason for the brown zenith to be honest. Knowing that I would need to bring the face up to a Zandri Dust and Morghast Bone colour for the patterning on the face I didn’t want to start that progression from black. The Zandri Dust was applied on the teeth, hair ruff, nose, ear tips and eyebrows and dotted on for the markings pattern. The whole face and neck got a Casandora Yellow wash, then the high areas got a highlight of Morghast Bone, as did the teeth. The tongue is a Bugman’s Glow flesh colour.