Zona Alfa: First Crew Almost Done!

I managed to get a quick paint scheme on a couple more of the members of my Zona Alfa crew.  First up we have Potshot.

For his scheme, I decided to go with a basic olive green uniform with dark grey armor plates.  I thought about adding a camo pattern to the uniform but I really like the basic look for him.  Perhaps not the best for a sniper, but I like the end result.

Next up is the other red shirt... I mean, recruit... for the crew, Shades.

For the rest of the crew, I tried to follow more of a military appearance but I wanted to do Shades a little more civilian.  Generic dark green pants with a tan jacket, with a mishmash of colors for the improvised armor plates.  Only one left to go and the crew will be ready!  Now I just need to start figuring out some terrain.  Until next time...

Stargrave Miniatures: Exclusion Zone Crew... Assembled

Well, they aren't painted but I was able to piece together a crew using my Stargrave miniatures.  The three different sets made it easy to make them to kit them out with the appropriate gear and I'm really pleased with the result.  While these aren't your typical minis for wandering around the Zone, I've got a nice variety ready to go plus I can easily throw together some more crews if I want but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's take a look at my first crew in all their grey plastic glory.

Leading the way is Walker, a veteran of the New Southwest.  Formerly of an officer for the Institute in the New Texas Republic, Walker headed west to to seek his fortune... or maybe to just leave everything that he once knew behind.  He doesn't talk much about his time with the Institute but he was definitely well trained while he was there.

The sniper of the crew, Potshot grew up on the perimeter of the Zone and sharpened his skills picking off the random critter that would wander out.  He quickly became one of the best shots around, and quickly fell in with Ranger when he blew through town.

The least subtle of the bunch is Chatterbox, a call sign he earned for the incessant chatter of his light machine gun while on a mission.  There are even times that this has helped with stealth missions because he provides the perfect distraction while the rest of the crew slip in and out with no one being the wiser.

Doc is the man with the most original name in the bunch... and if you believe that...  Doc has known Walker for months now and become quickly became a regular in the crew.  Doc also uses the Hippocratic oath as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, as shown by the assault rifle that never leaves his side while he's in the Zone.

Shades and Jonesy are two new members that recently joined the crew.  They spend most of their downtime talking about their grand plans for all the script they will earn in the Zone... now if only they can survive until payday.

All told, these guys add up to 11K.  The remaining 1K I invested into Potshot to up his movement by 1", which offsets the penalty that he has for the sniper rifle.  The last thing to choose is their faction.  Of the six available, the only one that fits in my mind is the Independents.  Walker had ties to the Institute (aka the Scientists) and some of the other factions sound like they might be fun, but I want to try to hit more of a theme for most of those.

And there you have it!  Another group of Independents ready to seek out fortune in the Zone.  Will they even make it to their first payday?  No idea, but it was a lot of fun to piece together these guys from the Stargrave sets and I'm looking forward to getting some paint onto them.  Until next time...

Stargrave Miniatures: Troopa Numba One!

This week has been especially hectic as my daughter is heading to college, and then I'm heading out to the field so not much time for hobby this week.  That said, I was able to put together one of the troopers from the Stargrave Troopers set and I'm quite pleased with how he came out.

In this case, this mini is actually destined to head into the Zone and will be taking up the role of my leader.  In Zona Alfa, the leader is kitted out with mil-spec armor among other things so the trooper sculpt works well for it.

The sculpt is also very crisp with nice and clear details which I always prefer.  I always feel like minis with soft details just get too muddled but no worries on that here.  There was also nearly no flash or mold lines which is great because I am horrible at getting those off!  I've heard of patience, but never put much stock in it.

For those of you who might have noticed the sharp lines on his lower leg, those actually aren't mold lines.  I noticed them when I snapped these pics and grabbed by xacto scrape them off, but those are the edges of the armor on the lower leg.

The sprue also comes with a nice variety of extras as I mentioned in a previous post, but they all come together quite nicely which is a big plus!  All the fiddly bits in the world won't do you any good if you can't glue them together but I've had no worries with that so far.  On this particular mini, the backpack, the pouches below the pack, and the sidearm are all separate bits.  I was a little worried about the pouches fitting up since they have a curve to them, but they went together clean as could be!

I want to dig into the mercenaries sprue next to build a couple of hardened crew members, so hopefully I can do that soon.  I've also started working up some stats for the Zone critters that I previously posted so I'll see if I can fine tune those as well.  All of it's progress, and it's all headed in the right direction!  Until next time...

Stargrave Miniatures: So Much Plastic Goodness!

I hopped onto the Stargrave nickstarter earlier this year, but I've gotta admit that I didn't do it for the game.  I did it for the miniatures.

I was really excited when I first heard about Stargrave, and could not wait to get my grubby little mitts on it!  A sci fi game that uses mechanics similar to Frostgrave?!? Heck yeah!  Then as it got closer I heard that it didn't use mechanics similar to Frostgrave, it basically was Frostgrave reskinned which really took the wind out of my sails.  I love playing the original, but why would I pay for exactly the same game with the names swapped out?

I will admit that I haven't looked at the book since it was actually released, and maybe... hopefully... this isn't entirely true but for now I'm in no rush to get this one which I why I went with the miniatures only option on the Nickstarter.

I've had the three boxes kicking around since they were released, but it wasn't until I started looking more into Zona Alfa and Five Parsecs that I broke them open and really looked at all the little gribbly bits that are in them.  With so much sitting around unpainted or even assembled, I really want to try to make use of my current collection before rushing out to add more, and these three sets look like they might be the key!

The first of the sets is the Crew, a sprue from which is shown below.

Of the three sets, these are the most day to day.  The bodies are clothed in more everyday wear than the other sets, and the weapons are a mix of handguns, SMGs, shotguns, and some basic rifles.  There are also a number of fun bits to add some flavor; backpacks, pouches, holsters, datapads, and a few more doohickeys ta boot.  And since this isn't enough variety, there are also the heads.  There are 20 of them on each of the four sprues, with a good mix of bare heads, alien heads, and even a couple of helmets for good measure.  An added plus is that the pairs of arms are all number coded on the flat that attaches to the shoulder, making it easy to get a matching set.

While it's good to have access to your "everyman" set, it's also handy to be able to bring in the bigger guns when you need them.  For this, you'll need to get yourself some mercenaries.

Where the crewmembers have everyday clothing, the mercenaries are ready for the rough and tumble with a mix of body armors.  This is a touch that I really like because each of the five bodies on the sprue are kitted out differently to give you a variety to choose from.  Their gear is much more businesslike as well, with most of the options being a bullpup configuration assault rifle.  Of course, that's not all since no self respecting merc would miss out on a machine gun, sniper rifle, or rocket launcher.  On top of this, there are a couple of backpacks, pouches, and even grenades, not to mention a whopping 22 heads per sprue!  Since merc are a bit more concerned about protecting their melon, a good number of these heads are helmeted, plus there are even more of the alien heads so you can keep spicing things up.

Last but not least, we have the men and women of the space force of your choosing.

These minis take the armor up another notch and are pretty uniform in style across the whole sprue, which is perfect for a bunch of troopers.  Their weapons step things up as well since most of the rifles on this sprue look to be some kind of bullpup combat rifles.  On top of these, they also have some more advanced looking SMGs, a scoped rifle, and a more advanced machine gun and missile launcher for good measure.  A majority of the 19 heads are helmeted, as you would expect from a military group, but this set is also the only one of the three that includes distinctly female heads.

All told, these sets give you a ton of options individually, and if you start combining them?  The sky is the limit!  I could see some people complaining about the leg/torso body configuration since that take away one modelling option, but when you compare that to all the bits and doodads that you get it seems like a fair trade!  I also love all of the options as far as the heads since those lend themselves to giving the minis even more character.

As for future developments on this line, I could see them introducing a box of female crew and/or mercs in the future, like they did with the Frostgrave plastics but even as is, there are the female heads in the trooper box to give you some options.

Now the question is which box is the best bet of the three?  I like all of them, and I'm glad that I have all three to mix and match with, but if I only bought one it would be the mercenaries.  I think that this set is versatile enough with the bits that are in it that you could easily slot them into a modern or sci-fi setting and not be out of place.  The outfits they are wearing are aren't crazily armored or over the top sci-fi looking, and I think this set has the most well rounded selection of weapons as well.

After that, I'd say the crew box and then the troopers, but this is just because of their versatility.  The crew have a more casual look to them with good options so I can see them fitting into a number of different situations, while the troopers are just straight up military.  They are equipped with more advanced combat weapons and body armor which limits their options a bit.  It's not like you can run out to the local store and pick up a set of military armor, right?  They are still good minis though, just as I said, slightly more limited in the application.

The next step for me will be perusing though these sets so I can start assembling my stalkers for Zona Alfa and my crew for Five Parsecs.  I'm going to try to only use minis on hand for these two systems instead of adding to the unpainted pile of shame.  It's going to be tricky in some cases, but my wallet and I are excited to see how I can do!  Until next time... 

Random Updates: BrushFu, Badger Games, and Erehwon Assembled!

Last week was a big one for hobby, not because I was able to get a lot done, but because I had a lot delivered!  First off was an order I placed a while back with BrushFu Studios on Etsy.

My perusing of Etsy started in the beginning of the year, after I got Core Space.  I was looking for cyberpunk style miniatures and Etsy has a good selection of them available.  I stumbled across BrushFu Studios and liked what they had to offer but unfortunately they were taking a break at the time.  Still, my hobby was slowing down at the time anyway so I added to my cart and just let it sit there until they were back.

When they did open back up, BrushFu was right up front with the fact that they had a lot of orders to fill and to expect orders to take three weeks to ship.  I was in no rush and I really appreciated the honest about this so I went ahead and ordered.

Fast forward about two weeks and I received a shipping notification, and then the minis themselves a couple of days sooner than the USPS predicted.  I haven't had a chance to really start working on them, but I did check them all out and even gave them a wash to I can start work on them.

From what I have seen, the prints are very clean and crisp.  There are a couple of thin strands from the printing but they will be easy enough to clean up before I get to painting them.  All told, I had ordered ten minis.  Three of those came with bases attached but they threw in eight cyber bases as well which I wasn't expecting.  All in all a good shopping experience and I've already got a bunch more minis queued up in my shopping cart for my next order from BrushFu.

About the time that package showed as shipped, I started see people posting about the Stargrave Nickstarter coming in which got me wondering if might might arriving soon.  I tried to log into the Badger Games website but couldn't remember my password and the system wouldn't let me reset it.  A couple of quick emails to them, and they had it sorted out then my package of goods was sitting on my doorstep!

I don't have pictures of these sets, but I did take a quick look at each of the sprues and man are there a ton of options!  Lots of heads, weapons, and various little gribblies, plus the Nickstarter comes with a sprue of gnolls and cultists for even more options.  Looking forward to getting these into the que at some point and fleshing out my options for Core Space and Five Parsecs From Home.

Last but not least, I even managed to do a little bit of actual hobby! Ages ago I started buying miniatures for a couple of Warlords of Erehwon armies using the now defunct Runewars figures.  I'd made a bit of headway before I was called back to the home office last year, but since then it has just been in a holding pattern.  Last night I decided that I might as well at least assemble the figures that were sitting on my table in baggies and it wound up being a pretty impressive looking horde.

Of course I still need to paint them all but at least now I have a better idea just what I have which is handy.  I had been thinking about getting some more of the crossbowmen and scouts but I'm thinking this is good enough, especially since this isn't including all the spearmen I have as well.  I also did some quick math on the points and just these figures were just shy of 1000 points (minus the wizard and priest at the front, and the standard bearer and musician which don't have stats).  Adding in the leader, champion, spearmen, and rune golems to the mix and it's gotta be around 2000 points which should be more than I'll ever need... in theory anyway.  Now I just need to paint them... along with the Nickstarter...  and the printed minis...  Oh boy...  I think I better start painting again soon!  Until next time...

Stargrave: Nickstarter For The USA

Just a quick update this week.  I've been looking at the Stargrave Nickstarter but when I've looked at oversea postage lately, it's been too high for me to justify.  That's when I heard about Badger Games.

Based out of Wisconsin, they carry a number of lines from overseas such as Copplestone Castings, Fireforge, and Artizan Designs.  I've only skimmed through these and while it doesn't look like they carry everything, it at least gives those of us State side another option with a much more reasonable shipping cost.

What's really nice is they are also honoring the Nickstarter stretch goals, and it looks like the Nickstarter is going to hit every goal available!  In this case, I'm on the fence for Stargrave because of some of the things that I've heard, but the mini bundle deal?  Heck yeah!

You can get all three of the plastic sets (that's the Crew, Mercenaries, and Troopers sets), plus all of the stretch goals (currently eight metal minis, plus a gnoll sprue, three loot markers, and a d20... just because) for $69 plus $10 shipping.

The thing that has me most excited about this is the plastic minis.  How often do you find plastic system agnostic sci-fi minis?  And given the number of bits included as well, I think this will be a fun bunch of minis to mess around with.

Ultimately, I might wind up picking up Stargrave as well, but for now I'm really happy to have these.  With the buzz that I've been hearing around Five Parsecs from Home, I feel like that one is a definite buy once the pdf only release becomes available.  Add in these guys with my Core Space minis (or vice versa as well), and there are just so many options that I can't wait to explore.  Until next time...

Frostgrave: The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Kriel Songs...

One more done for my Trollblood warband as my apprentice joins the Kriel!

This is the original mini for Grissel Bloodsong from... well, a long time ago.  I really wanted my apprentice and wizard to be unique looking so either solos or warlocks were the place to look.  Unfortunately I hadn't picked up many of either for the Trollbloods which limited my options but it also help shape my warbands story.  My apprentice and wizard are both sporting massive two handed weapons... making them the perfect enchanters!

I never even dabbled with the enchanter spells when I played 1st edition but it's the perfect fit for this foray into 2nd edition.  That said, there is still one more mini left to paint...  But before I go I've got to mention Stargrave.

Slated for release next April, this takes the Frostgrave system...  INNNN TOOOO SPAAAAAAAACE!!!  Seriously though, this looks really good!  Joseph McCullough has a post about it on his blog, the Renaissance Troll, and I highly recommend checking it out.  There isn't a lot of info yet, but just from what is there I am already set to buy into this game.  There will be more information as we get closer, but at least now I have have a reason to dig out all the sci-fi minis I've got scattered about waiting to be painted.  Until next time...