Stargrave – The Talons of Solubris

I used the same paints as my other Solubrians but with some Green Cammo Contrast lines on the face. Because when I think commando I think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. (The pictures don’t show off the Cammo strips so well.)

The crew has gotten quite big. Gathering all the aspirational and contingency options for my force in one shot is more than my photo booth can take.

I have already started on my second crew to face off against my Talons of Solubris in another project.

I might try and create a shuttle craft as this seems to be all the rage in the Stargrave Facebook group, but otherwise this project is concluded.

If and when I get a game going I will probably use my new project to do a battle report.

Thanks for all the likes and The Golden Button a few months ago.

Painted in the same style as my Solubrian runner the mini was primed grey and hit mostly with Wyldwood Contrast paint, with Deathguard Green, Vallejo light grey and turquoise Contrast paint for the obligatory tartan / plaid.

The slouch hat and the same Gates of Antares type body as my other runner helps unifying the runners and tie her to the rest of the crew

The head is from the NorthStar Soldiers 2 box and the hat is from the Perry ACW sprue I picked up. The knife is from a NorthStar cultist sprue I believe.

I have probably built these minis when there’s a lesser chance of ever using them, but the kitbashing went to the full use of my little Les Grognards sprue and gives a nice conclusion to the project. I have one more runner that seemed like a good option and I was able to double check my WYSIWYG compliance and added a hand weapon to my Commando. The knife requirement on this trooper is at the end of his carbine.

I went with an Ultramarine blue Contrast Paint undercoat on the trousers with a heavy highlight of Macragge Blue. The rest is the same colours as my other models in the series.

A Gates of Antares body with a Wargames Atlantic Les Grognards head, arms and gun. (Knife and container from unknown source from the bits box)

The paint job is very similar to the Commando paint scheme with the Deathguard Green primer doing a lot of the work. I am happy with the freehand screaming eagle symbol.

The gun is mostly Runelord Brass with Stormhost silver highlights and a Retributor Armour and Runelord mix on the coils over the barrel.

The pose seems to take away some of the heft of the gun, but sci-fi solutions queue up to explain away this. “The gun is a sci-fi light alloy”, “The coils over the barrel have anti-grav tech to reduce recoil and for ease of carrying.” etc.

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.