Project Sulaco: Part 1

OK, time to introduce a new project then.

 

This one arises from several assorted shelved or abandoned ideas, the most recent of which being custom spacemarines. Before I decided to work on Project Tankbustas, I'd considered converting loyalist marines into traitor marines with green stuff, horns, tentacles, icons and so on. It looked fun as a change of place from Orks and scrap metal, but the costs of doing so was prohibitive. You would have thought, even with inflation, you'd be tripping over cheap beakies on the secondary market, but no. Going further back, you may recall my dalliance with Xenos Rampant and my attempts at human scifi infantry and vehicles. That had progressed to point where I was trying to nail human skin tones, unsuccessfully, but then 40k 10th edition happened so I got distracted. When Project Tankbustas was nearing completion, I was very aware that I need something to do lest my brainworms act up, remembered the Stargrave models I had unbuilt. One thought led to another, and this lead to Project Sulaco, a numerically small force for my Orks to fight in Xenos Rampant games. Something I could introduce people to the game with, practice sculpting with, and hopefully perfect a method for skin at the same time.

What are these gonna look like though? Well, obviously like Beakies, the idea of genetically engineered soldier in powered armour is a fairly common concept. See also the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout franchise. Or the Terrans from Starcraft. Or the Hero’s Duty game from Wreck-it Ralph. Or the Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers. But mainly the novel and cartoon series for that last one. You know, macho warrior types walking around wearing/somewhere-inside a large amount of metal, often with fascist leanings. The ur-example as far as old people like myself are concerned though is the 1986 film Aliens, and its Colonial Marines. These were allegorical to the Vietnam war to an extent, but have since become the baseline against any scifi soldier will be measured. Hence this projects name, and overall vibe. A tribute to the film, a thematic reference, rather than a 1:1 recreation.

 

Stage 1: Prototyping. The modification of at least one Stargrave miniature into a powered armour style via greenstuff and kitbash work. Also begins the search for satisfactory method of achieving human skin tones, and a colour scheme. I may spend several weeks on this bit, I have some diverse ideas, but not a strong mental image.

Stage 2: Rank & file. The creation of two squads of five marines, or two units of Elite Infantry in XR terms. This may include the recasting of custom bits, but we'll see. Assuming stage 1 is successful, this might be more time-consuming than actually difficult, but I don't want to rush it. Probably two weeks.

Stage 3: Sentry Guns. Yeah, these are the automated guns from the Special Edition of Aliens. I expect this a brief affair, possibly run alongside stage 4. Although I haven’t quite decided if I want these to be fixed weapons or mobile drones. Definitely Mechanoid Support Infantry in XR terms. Probably a week, or run concurrently with stage 4.

Stage 4: The APC. Yep also a direct lift from Aliens. I'm unsure the extent to which this would be a scratchbuild or kitbash, but I'm thinking blocky passenger vehicle, which is also the army commander. Remember that bit where LT Gorman watched everything go wrong via the marines' personal cameras? Yeah that, but hopefully working as doctrine intended. In XR terms, this would be a Transport Vehicle with Transport(10) and Line-breaker. I've sourced a few vehicles already, plus some tracks, so I'll see how I feel on the day.

Stage 5: The Powerloader. As mentioned, this is going to be more of tribute than a direct adaptation, but I do want have a clearly civilian/industrial mech piloted by a woman. Out of deference to Ripley, I'm going to have to source some female heads for the operator from somewhere, and I'm not doing the "boob-plate" thing. Rules wise, it would be a Softskin Civilian Walker. Physically? A Killa Kan but much neater. There is a Stargrave version of the concept that exists, but I want to make my own.

This should be fun.