A Core Space Crew For Stargrave

It’s been quite a while since my last look at Stargrave as I’ve been busy with other games. I haven’t even played a game of Stargrave yet, so time to fix that and press on.

Recently I’ve been looking at what terrain I have and how it will work with Stargrave. As well as Core Space I have a fare amount of gothic style terrain for Warhammer 40k but ideally I’d rather not have every game of Stargrave looking like 40k or Kill Team.

This is a 3×3 table. I’m quite happy with this setup. I don’t think it looks at all like a 40k and it’ll provide plenty of cover during firefights.

This experiment was soon after I received 32 black plastic aquarium gravel filters to be used as flooring to see how it would look with some terrain. The idea to used gravel filters was shared on the Stargrave Facebook group by other player and within 5 minutes of seeing this I’d ordered some for myself.

It was a quick and basic setup but looks good.

What is apparent is that I’m lacking buildings. While I have a lot of gothic ruins I don’t really have solid science fiction buildings. I’ve spent some time looking at mdf kits and will probably go with something from Serissa-Precision.

I do have  the Starship Scenery Terrain Crate on order with should provide me an assortment of consoles and containers, to be used for objectives.

I’m also looking at Infinity Terrain from Microart Studios for additional scatter which doesn’t look too expensive.

My use for the Purge for the unwanted attention table. Im pretty sure I’ll probably need more than what I have, especially the Devastators. I know the Purge Expansion is available to buy which would double what I have here apart from the Collectors which is only available as part of another expansion. I’ll wait until I’ve got a few games under my belt first before I make any decisions.

He’s from the Shootout at Zed’s expansion and as a chiseler he’ll have a +6 at “unlocking” physical loot boxes.  Probably more useful than having either 2 runners or 2 recruits.

With that I’m going to take a break from painting Core Space for now and move over to a few other projects I’ve got going on. I’ve certainly not finished as I’d at least like to get the rest of the Core Space models I have painted, to be used in either game. Then there are the many alien creatures to source and paint., then possibly a second crew, then….

Painting these purge seems quite similar to painting skeletons. I went with the colour scheme from the Core Space art.

There are two different tables in Stargrave for random npc’s which can turn up during a game and attack the players. So far I haven’t given much thought to the creature table but there is an unwanted attention table with which pirates and other such types can show up due to all of the noise the crews will be making as they fight over the scenario.

For this I’ll use the Purge miniatures.

The Purge Harvesters will be Pirate Troopers, and the Purge Devastators will be Pirate Shock Troopers.

The rest will follow as shown in the table below.

I wasn’t happy with the black washes on the bases. I intended that the floor would be dirty and industrial. I preprinted them with a smooth coat of grey which I think is much neater and doesn’t distract from the miniature.

Gerry mentioned my lack of a Chiseler in my starting crew and he has a point. With a 6+ to unlocking physical loot it’s a distinct advantage. I had a look through my remaining Core Space models and found Treva from the Shootout at Zed’s expansion. He’s carrying a large tool or wrench of some sort and a case of tools, perfect.

The other models are the single Purge assassin I’ll be using as a bounty Hunter and the Purge Gatherer’s from the Purge Outbreak expansion which I’ll be using as ruffians.

Oh and a big thanks for the Golden Button which was a nice surprise – https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/xlbs-painting-mojo-overdrive/

That’s all 10 of my starting crew finished. Next up I’ll start painting the Purge, then I’ll go back and finish the rest of the models in the main Core Space boxed set so I can play Core Space fully painted.

My Captain and his First Mate.

I’ve worked out the crew as well but I want to get more miniatures painted before post the roster.

It looks like I can use the Purge models for the pirates as I have enough different types. I guess I’ll be painting those models as well.

Three more models painted. From left to right we have Arianna (recruit), Beck (recruit) and Tirgarde (First Mate). The names are those from Core Space and the titles in brackets are those from Stargrave (provisionally until I get the rulebook).

The details on these models aren’t as crisp as wargaming miniatures but I find the miniatures look great once painted up. I’m looking forward to using them with Core Space as well as Stargrave.

I did find that they are a bit of a sod to remove the mould line from as they are made from a softer plastic. Scraping won’t work very well, you have to slice with a sharp knife otherwise there are loads of jagged edges and loose bits.

For me he’s painted up quite well. These models a just a little smaller than I’m used to so some of the details are quite small.
I’m in two minds about the basing. For now I’ve gone with an oily blue grey to match the gaming surface. Maybe later when I’m feeling brave I’ll rebase the models to transparent acrylic bases.
For now I’ll clean up the others, undercoat them and start to paint them.

Stargrave will be released at the end of April and I’ve been thinking of what models to use for it as it’s a miniature agnostic game. I’ve been playing and collecting models for Frostgrave for around a year and I’ve bought quite a lot of models for it, but for Stargrave I want to try a different approach and use what I already have.

Last year I picked up the excellent Core Space from Battle Systems, along with several supplements. I also went all in with their recent Core Space First Born Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/battlesystems/core-space-first-born/description

That meant I already have a fair few suitable models to form my Stargrave Crew, with a lot more coming later in the year with the Kickstarter. I can even use the Purge models as pirates and raiders for Stargrave.

But, how do I prepare a crew if Stargrave isn’t out yet. Good news, they released a small Crew Creation pdf preview from the rulebook. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KRo_r2qhgihU7rrakf9IE2slBAFFPadT/view

Reading through this pdf I selected 10 miniatures to form my initial crew. This may change when I get the actual book and I understand more of what the different soldier classes mean and how their equipment works but it’s a start.

I chose the model of Roykirk for my Captain as he looks older and more experienced. I’m going to paint him first and on his own to see how easier or difficult it is to work with these miniatures. As you can see I’ve already cleaned him up and undercoated him.