Quarantine 37 – Stargrave

Drone.
Bought the first couple of bait price Imperium magazines from the news agent over the last few months. Knew I wasn’t about to start a Necron 40K army, but was hoping there would be potential for those models for Stargrave. This was the first one that seemed immediately transferable as an Encounter Table addition.

I used a mix of Vallejo Military Green, Vallejo Gunmetal Grey and Vallejo Silver to get some interesting colours over a black primer. The red sensors was a silver base with a couple of layers of ghost tint from Minitaire Fresh Blood airbrush paint dabbed on with a brush.

The Gaunch is described as a bulging-eyed, flesh eaters with pigment changing skin. I chose to kitbash a couple of Gaunch from Mantic Games Ghoul bodies and the big eyed crewman head on a Stargrave Crew Box sprue. I needed to snip off the metal nails sticking out on the original ghoul body and limbs, but otherwise it was a simple head swap solution.

The model was primed Black and zenithed in Halfords Grey primer. I did struggle to convey the pigment changing skin. I figured that how he is creeping across the Vallejo Grey Green bulkhead there would need to be a touch of green on the legs, but transitioning quickly from metal Vallejo Gunmetal Grey flooring to my Sci-Fi grid basing that there would be a dark metallic sheen to the legs too. I used a watered down coat of Vallejo Military Green for the clothing. I used Vallejo Light Grey for the highlights on the head and fingers. I figured that if he is making that lunge from the dark, that his upper body would suddenly become quite lightly coloured to fit in with the well lit corridor walls, to create even more delay in his prey’s reactions as they try to focus on what is moving towards them. I used Nulin Oil to help draw it all together as a paint job and then highlighted the clothing with a Military Green and Light Grey mix and back over the head with Light Grey. I dappled down occasional dots of Gun Metal on the skin to try and show some skin-like imperfections and think it has helped improve the final look.

Could have done more grime and chipping but realised that as the power in the galaxy after the Last War these guys would be better fed, prepared and equipped than anyone else. But they are pirates so there’s a trade off. If I make more I will add more alien heads because I am sure they recruit from everywhere given that if you want power, protection and money these are the only serious players in the galaxy.

“Hägar the ‘Onourable” (a pirate trooper) sounds like a nice guy but honour amongst thieves is not only rare, but also frowned upon. He once gave quarter in a boarding action when the Captain strictly said no prisoners to be taken. … Now he has a rope tied into his mouth every boarding action, more symbolically than an actual gag, to make sure he remembers to never offers quarter again.

I had thought the rope was just part of a dreadlock style twist to his mustache. It was only after painting it all orange and noticing it continuing behind his head that it was a rope. Then I corrected the paint job and came up with the story to fit the model.

I think this scheme is maybe a bit clean still, but don’t think this will bog me down too badly. Mostly keeping to the Halfords red primer as the core colour was my aim, so I didn’t spend too long on them and potentially them hardly ever rolling up in the encounter table and showing up.

I started with a Reikland Fleshshade over everything to give me some definition to spot all the details.

The under armour was hit with Wyldwood Contrast.

There was Typhus Corrosion, Trollslayer Orange and Stormhost Silver rust on the pauldrons then aged with some Nulin Oil.

Most of the armour got a Mephiston Red highlight with occasional Stormhost Silver chipping.

The hat is Caliban Green with Deathguard Green and Caliban mix highlights.

Bugman’s Glow for the skin.

Vallejo German Grey on the shoes and gun with Nulin Oil wash.

The blue on the gun and the connection lights on the armour is Macragge Blue.

The gun got a mix of Vallejo Gunmetal Grey and Stormhost Silver highlights.

Runelord Brass on the chest and logo and edge of the pauldrons, with Retributor Armour Gold on the belt buckle.

The pouches on the back are in Steel Legion Drab and Deathguard Green with a Nulin Oil wash.

The door lip is Deathguard Green with black and Averland Sunset yellow hazard markings.

Pirate troopers and shock troopers. WiP.

I used hobby chain attached to GW container eagle-head stacking corner pieces as heavy duty boarding hooks on the bases. The idea being that we are seeing them step over a bulk head / door lip and are negotiating the heavy boarding chain between their legs and entering your game as a very unwelcome guest.

The troopers are Gates of Antares bodies with just a GW pirate / empire head swap.
The shock troopers have similar bit box head swaps onto the push fit Primaris minis.

After getting ideas on Facebook, how best to cover the 40k back pack hole,  I went with a Tanks The WW2 Skirmish Game Valentine tank hatch. A Les Grognards back pack and a Frostgrave Soldiers 2 backpack. Also, just for WYSIWYG, the Troopers got a knife each from a Ghost Archipelago crew sprue.

Two bits of twisted sprue and a gap in my normal Stargrave basing and I have two Bileworms. These were left over from when I have dragged sprue over a candle to get thin pieces for bow strings and aerials and things. I used a pin vice to create a mouth. In the rule book they were described as featureless and spitting worms. I had wanted to use gel type glue and run a bead from the base to the mouth and something similar from the uplifted deck to the flanks. When I couldn’t find my UHU glue I found some dried Citadel paint lid scraps that were thin enough and tapered enough to look like drool. Then I found a scrap of wool that when pasted with Nurgle’s Rot Tech Paint and PVA glue could look like slime well enough for me. I used a mottled mix of Bugman’s Glow, Deathguard Green, Emperor’s Children Pink, Druki Violet and some Blood for the Blood God dabs to do the skin. I suggested worm like bands with some horizontal lines. Though as it is meant to be a boneless creature that squeezes through gaps rather than burrowing… I didn’t feel the need to dwell on a refined earthworm look.

Didn’t take long and it’s an easy tick on the bestiary table, so I am happy with the result.

I have had a bag of bits and bobs that I thought would make passable sci-fi terrain some day. I delved in and got some rattle cans out and started on some pieces.

There are furniture coasters that I stacked up four high and glued to become some kind of power unit. Didn’t even prime it, just brushed on some silver as weathering.

There are some IKEA right angle brackets. They seem well suited to act as partitions or walls for a small space.

There is a Virgin TV remote battery cover that got chewed on by my dog years ago. I kept it because of the odd shape and the corrugated texture. I sprayed it sliver with black scorch marks and I think it looks like a piece of space shuttle that got blown up, but is worth a lot in scrap value.

I wanted to get some height and wanted to get some of the same floor texture in the terrain that I have used for almost all the models. I will take better pictures of that once happy with it, but I used some sprue as a frame and intend to make a platform capable of resting at a higher.level.

I will get some more done and then photograph them soon.

I realized that I have very little in the way of an encounter table bad guys to spice up two player games etc.

So I made some Ruffians. These are basic ganger types, criminal folk with no great fighting skill or equipment, but they have a blaster and a compunction to use it.

Betty was fun because rather than “waste” all my Crew bodies on such things I wanted to use some Frostgrave female models, because I don’t have a ton of use for them and they aren’t my favourite sculpts. I used a bits box head, but I don’t know where it comes from. I think it hides the manly features well enough and I gave her grey hair to use age as an excuse to be less than attractive woman. I imagine her to be a hard nosed matriarch type like Patience in Firefly. The Stargrave Crew hands do look big, but the Frostgrave female sprue hands didn’t look like they would easily convert to take the girth of a sci-fi pistol.

Oni has a bits box fantasy right arm that had an axe, so I snipped in the required blaster instead. The ring on the cuff does suggest a recent escape from incarceration which is fun. The head is another bits box gem of unknown origin. The left arm looks like it was from a GW empire kit of some kind. Ruffians are meant to have no armour, but this gave him the desperate Mad Max style I was hoping for. I like the pose of it all together on the Stargrave Crew body. To me it looks like he’s cocking an ear to what’s happening up ahead and stiffening his arm straight to indicate to any ruffians behind him to hang back whilst he listens.

Uno is a Stargrave Crew body with NorthStar Gnoll arms and a Stargrave blaster. Bits box head might be a Goliath Necromunda head, but I am not 100% sure. I cut off the right hand and glued the blaster in place with part of the original cuff. That looked odd, as though one arm was longer than the other. Rather than snip it and correct it I thought the elbow looked slightly odd in shape and the gap between the forearm wrap and the wrist band looked open to being painted a metal colour to give him a back alley cyber arm repair / enhancement. The silver bands on his neck also suggest something cybernetic which I liked.

I used a black primer with a drybrushed on zenith using Wraithbone to start. The painting was mostly Contrast paint on Oni and Uno, with some Emperor’s Children and Bugman’s Glow mix on the skirt of Betty and her Macragge Blue and ermine overcoat. The leather was mostly Steel Legion Drab (because the zenith was light and black for most of the model) covered with Snakebite Leather Contrast. The skin started with Darkoath Flesh and got Bugman’s Glow highlights and Kislev Flesh here and there. The Aggaros Dunes paint over the shirts of Uno and Oni came out really well as a dirty brown colour. Vallejo Military Green used thinly to tint the zenith on the dark trousers of Uno looks great I think.

These are my first GW terrain pieces built and painted. I plan to use home crafted bits as well as some Infinity card buildings to fill out my initial battle mats. Eventually I will join in on the craze of making a ship / shuttle for my crew. I know that Joe McCullough loves to stretch you into some bespoke hobby to get some missions played and I don’t doubt this will be the case this time too.

I used Halfords red primer and Cryptek Armourshade and Agrax Earthshade and Stormhost Silver to weather and dry brush the main areas and picked out some details with Runelord Brass. Not my best work but looking for speed and tabletop ready standard right now.

The Poxwalkers were designed to be mutated and at a ridiculous level of toxicity and diseased corruption. The Stargrave Plague Zombies as far as I can tell are just meant to be basic undead zombies in space. I will still be using the poxwalkers for this expansion because it will cut down my start up time for my solo campaign dramatically. Having to kitbash and paint a dozen space zombies would be a lovely chore to undertake, but a speed bump to getting started for definite.

I will be using my painted Poxwalker collection for the Plague Zombies, but needed some shooty Soldier Zombies too. A work mate shared a fist full of bits box parts with me and they figure heavily in these kit bashes.
Not sure where any of the heads come from, but the arms are nurgle Plaguebearer demon arms. The bodies and carbine arms are from the Stargrave Crew Box.

I needed to make them quite mutated because I know they would be next to poxwalkers on the table together. Always being the left arm being mutated is just dictated by the parts I had and my lack of spare sci-fi carbines. I drilled holes into the minis to show they aught to be dead or at least wounded.  Instead he is crying out for brains… And ammo.

The camouflage pattern was cheeky. It was made simply to take full advantage of the black and grey zenith I started them out with. The light grey bits got some Vallejo German Grey and the black parts got some Grey Seer patterns.

In my poxwalkers collection I actually found some armed with carbines. If I get a battle where more than 3 soldier zombies are required I can always fall back on these.

I realized I still needed loot tokens to fight over. I got three metal tokens in the Nickstarter I backed to get the box and rules when Stargrave launched. Grenades, container and “data slate on case” are what came first. I could have just gone 2d at that stage to add more card tokens, but I had some bits box ideas and threw myself into making those.

The Japanese gun was just an effort to clear up a sprue left over from a Bolt Action project. With the Star Wars film series basing blaster weapons on WW2 classic weapons I don’t apologize for my modification.

The Red topped corpse holding the data slate was just a fun take on how best to use leftover data arms from the Crew Box set. Poor old Jim died a fiery death but he clearly thought that data tablet was worth keeping from the blaze even at the last breath.

Poor old Jim was kitbashed from a bits box Mantic Ghoul torso and a Crew Box data tablet arm and head.