Painted Miniatures for Stargrave

 

My recent enthusiasm for Stargrave sparked me to paint some of the models produced by North Star Military Figures. I feel an affinity for North Star, partially because of their relationship with the sculptor Mark Copplestone (a Citadel alum whose work I love to paint), and also because of North Star's association with Kevin Dallimore (whose excellent how-to book helped me get back into the world of miniature painting 15 years ago. I wish it were back in print so I could recommend it to my friends).

The miniatures that North Star has produced for Stargrave are first rate. And there's a nice choice between plastic sprue sets and metal. Its a diverse range too, with cyborgs, dirty mercenaries, and mystic warriors -- and yet they all have a unified vibe. It's the vibe that really attracts me. With its character-driven sculpts, accurate 28mm scale, and seamless blend of grit & pulp, this is a range that fits in nicely with my beloved RT601 Rogue Trader adventurers.

I don't paint a lot of plastic miniatures, but I found assembling North Star's plastic sprue sets of crew, mercenaries, and troopers to be a relaxing pastime in itself. I guess that's why people like model planes. Anyway, here's the first fellow I did get around to painting...

And below is the second miniature. I love the expression of panic/aggression sculpted on his face.

I also picked up this North Star ROG113 "Big Bot" sculpted by Mike Owen. This is pure pulp goodness.

Stargrave allows you to include dogs in your crew of freebooters. So I also tracked down some 3D-printed robo-dogs on Etsy. I'm not very happy with either the sculpts or my (very plain) paintjob . But I painted them when I had been away from my brushes for a few months, and I needed a low-stakes projects. Polishing off these guys helped rebuild my confidence.

Thanks for coming by! I hope your own projects are all going well.

The Crew of the Ghost - Painted Miniatures for Imperial Assault

Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018) remains one of the few treasures to be found in the rag-and-bone shop that is Disney's Star Wars franchise.

Rebels revisited and reamplified all the treasured themes of the original trilogy without becoming mawkish or repetitive. As Graeme Virtue wrote at The Guardian, this is probably because the show borrowed so much from Firefly: "Shambolic heists, an emphasis on wisecracks and the unplanned formation of a surrogate family? Star Wars Rebels is the Firefly remake fans have been crying out for ever since Joss Whedon’s space western got cancelled." 

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It took me four or five years longer than I planned, but I've finally painted all the miniatures for the crew of the Ghost that were released by Fantasy Flight Games for Star Wars Imperial Assault.

First up is Ezra Bridger, released in 2018 as part of the 11th Wave Ally pack with Kanan Jarrus. Ezra stands out as one of the few young-adult heroes who is not altogether exasperating. Indeed, his occassional childishness is exactly what helps the other characters (especially Kanan and Hera) jell into a coherent family.

I've always had a soft spot for Kanan Jarrus, since, when we first meet him, he fits into my favourite SW roleplaying archetype: the failed Jedi. Sadly (at least for me), he seems to get his act together pretty quickly within the first season.

Sabine Wren is probably the reason I took so long to paint these figures. I was always intimidated by portraying her hand-painted armor and brightly dyed hair. She was released in 2018 as part of the 11th Wave Ally Pack with Zeb Orrelios.

No beat-up starship is complete without an oversized and occasionally gruff alien. In the case of the Ghost, this vital position is filled by Zeb Orrelios. Kudos to the sculptor for rendering the first miniature I've ever seen in the process of cracking his knuckles. Very characterful!

Faithful readers might remember seeing Chopper and Hera already (they were released in 2017 and I wrote about them later that year). But for completeness, I'm posting their pictures again. Chopper, of course, is just R2-D2 after four or five lines of Colombian toot.

Hera remains one of my favourite Star Wars paintjobs. I was very pleased with how her patterned tentacles turned out. Mmmm... lekku.

Thanks for coming by! And stay loose!