It's been a while since we built our studio Stargrave crews, so it was time for a new one! The inspiration came from some of our new Digital Forge releases, mainly The Brotherhood and Heavy Drop Troopers.
I knew I wanted to go for a more uniform, regimented look for the crew than my previous Space Western one, so I picked two parts to be used across all models, the T-visor helmet from the Brotherhood and the Iron Corps torsos. I needed to represent different armour types while still keeping that feel, so for the legs I chose Afterlife Republic parts - Grenadier for heavy armour and Commando for light.
Since some of these parts are not available in resin (yet), I knew I had to mix printed and cast resin, so I also had a chance to do a "bit" of digital kit bashing in Blender.
Captain and First Mate
My Captain is a Veteran, wearing Combat Armour and using a Grenade Launcher - and a massive sword! She is almost entirely a digital kit bash, with legs, arms and weapon from the Heavy Drop Troop sergeant, the torso replaced with an Iron Corps one, and the helmet under her arms swapped for a Brotherhood T-visor helmet. Her cloak is from the Brotherhood Sergeant, modified to fit the back using the Grab and Smooth tools in Blender. This was a good opportunity to use one of my favourite heads, from a Drop Troop pilot - mirrored, so it's blowing in the wind in the same direction as the cloak. She didn't have any free arms to wield her grenade launcher, so I had to get creative and make a back mounted one using the arm from the Drop Troop medic, a scaled down grenade launcher from Corporate Security - and a piece from the Light Mech builder as the socket. After printing, I realised that the model was still missing something, so I finished it off with a Regiments Top knot on the hilt of her sword.
The First Mate was definitely a more simple work, she mostly uses standard components, with the addition of a jetpack and smoke / exhaust plume from the Brotherhood. She is equipped with Light Armour, a Flamethrower and a Hand Weapon. I wanted something different for the flamethrower, so I used the targeter arm from the Female Void Suit command pack, drilled it out and added a piece from the Small Flames.
Specialists
Both of my Specialists wear heavy armour - so they use the same base parts, Brotherhood Helmets, Iron Corps torsos, Grenadier legs, Grenadier Shoulder pads & High-Tech Arms.
The Commando is armed with a custom laser carbine I kit bashed for these models - Dieselpunk Exo-lord rifle, scaled down to 75%, with a Phase muzzle & power pack added, and a filler cube for the joint to make it fit Regiments Pistol Grip arms. To represent her better stats, I added a scope on her carbine, and a Drop Trooper sword from the command sprue with the hand removed.
The Gunner is actually a sneak peek for a future release! He is equipped with a heavy Plasma Cutter held in High-Tech Man-portable Heavy weapon arms (coming to resin AND digital in September)!
Soldiers
The two Troopers were built the same way as my Commando, without the scope and the sword on the back.
The other 4 models wear Light Armour, this is represented by Commando legs and Void Suit Command arms. They are all wielding Desert Nomad pistols (resin now available in the Sci-fi Pistols set!).
The Medic has some scary looking servo arms with all sorts of useful medical implements attached to his back from the Surgical Operating Table.
The Chiseller has her trusty bolt cutters on her back and an explosive pack if something more serious is needed.
I rounded off the crew with two free Recruits, both using Brotherhood jetpacks and wrist blades from the Avian Infantry.
Building this crew was a really fun project, and I might even get around to painting them later!
That's it for now, see y'all later!
