Plamo: Stargrave Automatons

At time of writing, I’m between major modeling projects. And that will probably remain the case until either 40K 11th edition, or I discover something fun, whatever happens first.  But I did get these in late January, and wanted to briefly talk about them, once I got around to it...

OK, so the inspiration for these as models is obviously a melange of Borg and Adeptus Mechanicus, spiced with the Strogg from Quake and the 1999 Jamie Lee Curtis film Virus. Like so many Stargrave kits, there's innumerable head and weapon options, with the ratio of melee to guns being more choppy than the norm. There is however some bigger guns in there too,  like a recognisable flamer and heavy bolter-alike. The heads meanwhile  tend to straddle the cyborg/zombie line, although there are some necron-adjacent scarabs that seem rather interesting.  In many ways its a kitbasher’s dream. One observation I would make however is that these models sometimes have bare feet, and a tattered look on the fabric. This leads to ye olde fixed pose problem, whereby a supposedly unique model with individual battle damage gets repeated in a squad. I mean, how many guys with one robot leg, but no shoes, would you expect to see? It's not an actual problem, but if you're wanting to make, say, military cyborgs, you're probably better off not using the bodies here. However, I'd go so far as to say that making a Servitor Killteam is very possible, and that may indeed become something I try.

 

As I was feeling out this kit, I built two sets of five. The first set was mainly melee, attempting a Borg colour scheme, while the second was shooty in admec red, or orange as it turned out. The colour schemes were experimental, and due to a paint drying out, I had to improvise a bit with the flesh tones. These were painted by dry brushing the fabric first, followed by basecoats for skin and metals, trying to keep an optimised order of application. Secondary colours and such followed, then an inkwash, and finishing touches. The bare feet presented some challenges to basing, so I kept that, um, basic.

 

 
Perhaps not my best work, but a fine distraction. I don’t know if I’ll do any more, but I’m happy to have the leftovers in the bitz box.

 

Kitbash: Catachan Command Squad

Right, here we go: Scavengers part 2.

The Catachan Command Squad is an interesting one, and I'm honestly surprised it exists. Well, it exists technically. Its a direct order type of affair; its not something you can just get off the shelf. If/when GW gets around to revamping the Catachan range, I fully expect it to be pulled or otherwise rebuilt from the ground up. This is because said unit its not really "box-locked" as such, its datasheet being very flexible with respects to weapons and equipment, if not as flexible as the dearly-departed Infantry Command Squad. Context however is everything, as the basic Jungle Fighter squad has no real weapon options to speak of, and this is the way to get them. Plus a capital O order, the Assault keyword, and a Medpack. And maybe some other stuff. As I alluded to in a previous post, there's mixed views how best to equip them, and if they are strictly speaking necessary. I ended up splitting the difference between what I had spare and what I was likely to do tactically with them: hence a meltagun, plasmagun, sniper rifle, and finally the Medpack. The Officer got the usual fist & plasma combo, and hopefully he'll get use out of both. I imagined this unit as a plug-in for a squad of 20, fielded aggressively, but independently of the rest of my force.

These were mainly a scavenger sprue again, but with weaponry from the Grognards Command sprue and the Cannon Fodder sprue. Adapting the heavy weapons from the latter caused some problems due to how the upper handle connects, causing some late modifications. The paint scheme was basically the same as the other lads, if slightly more detailed to help them stand out by comparison. The mask lenses were done with GW Contrast Talassar Blue rather than my usual Soulstone method due to a paint spillage, although the effect is pretty close, so that worked out. My cheap wall filler paste had largely dried out, so I resorted to green stuff as a basing material. I must get a proper replacement.

Overall, I absolutely could have rolled this into the original Scavengers article, but this benefits from being its own thing. Turned out OK.

 

Kitbash: Stargrave Scavengers (Northstar)

 

This project started from boredom and a frustrating weekend, just after I finished those Chimera proxies. Real life progress had stalled, and I'd spent a few months doing various non-40k things, which was okay, if not especially deep. Nor were the IFVs, if I'm honest. So, after the local nerd shops failed to offer fresh distractions, I decided on some infantry. But what infantry? Krieg is still worthwhile even after points increases, but I'd done that fairly recently, Cadians still boring if competent, but I was leaning towards Catachans as a mini-project. Also, I’d found the following in the old 4th ed codex, which presented an argument that the modern Catachan template was a better fit than I thought. Old school Savlar Chem-Dogs got a deployment rule, a melee rule that was rather lukewarm, and liked flamers. That certainly sounds like the 10th edition Jungle Fighters unit, even if the whole "on drugs" aspect and weapon options are things that Krieg does better.

Now, my initial inclination was to get a box of the male Cannon Fodder sprues from Wargames Atlantic. You get 30 lasgun dudes for less than 10 GW Cadians, and that's a very tempting value proposition even if you have buy bases separately and kitbash some weapons. However, my research indicated they were very similar to my preferred female versions with fewer options, so decided against it, if only for variety. This led me back to Stargrave in general, and the male Scavengers sprues in particular. These actually line up with the original Savlar look a bit more than the Orange is the New Black vibe I adopted. Longcoats, laden down with stuff, mismatched kit, and so on. Its not a complete match, but this would not be a straight-build anyway. Two things clinched it. 1) The sprues had mêlée weapons I could easily give the sarges, and 2) I still had a silly amount of Cannon Fodder lasergun arms spare which would replace the projectile weapons which otherwise didn't fit my style. So, one box of Scavengers, 20 models, and if that worked out, maybe a command squad?

 

As a kit, the scavengers have a somewhat unexpectedly supernatural angle. There's parts to make zombies, and some hooded heads which have a strong cultist vibe, with the latter bit putting me in mind of the KKK. Its fairly versatile selection of bits however, and there's any number of AdMech, Necromunda, Chaos or Genestealer adjacent projects you could make here. However, by it's very nature its not a uniform bunch of guys. This is where the kitbashing comes in, and the aforementioned Cannon Fodder arms. The arms needed a bit of finagling, and the addition of green stuff mods to compensate for proportional differences. These are meant to suggest shoulder pads, but it was a mixed success at best. The heads, often sourced from the bitzbox, were modified with greenstuff gasmasks. There wasn't as many backpacks as I would have liked on the sprue, but I had plenty of cannon fodder ones. The flamers were also kitbashed by mixing Bulldog flamethrowers with GW parts. Vox units were made from offcuts, cable ties, and paper clips.

For painting, I decided to mainly browns and in batches of 10. I started with the lasguns to feel things out, favouring Vallejo English Uniform, German Grey, and Gunmetal over a Trench Brown spray. For several of these, a resemblance to characters from Fallout: New Vegas became apparent, especially with the use of GW Skrag Brown in places. The basic technique here is the same as most of my infantry, just swapping orange for brown. I still need to refine the colour choices here, but Agrax Earthshade saved the day. I must remember to trust the process...

 

These turned out all right, as a last minute, free-form, keep-me-sane-ish project. There’s a few imperfections, but they clearly tableworthy. The plan now is do a command squad as their own article, benefitting from lessons learned. After that? Dunno, there might be something in this squad+command format...

Kitbash: Heavy Weapon Teams

OK, let me tell you how this blog works currently. I normally like to run a buffer of 4 weeks, alternating topics where possible. Circa October, this was looking more like 6 weeks, as I prepared to wind things down over December, my busy period at work. I mention this because A) it means I have a lot of inertia, and B) I don't try to be topical any more. That's why don’t see me writing much about GW's periodic Balance Dataslates, as I’m just not nimble enough to match a newscycle. With today's subject though, I have to acknowledge such things.

Heavy Weapon Teams are something I enthusiastically built when starting my Chem-Dogs, but slowly went off as I learned more and the rules changed. Running these in dedicated units of three was manifestly unwise, as not only were they priority targets, they had the durability of wet cardboard. The only time that worked was as mortar units, but that ploy lost some utility when the rules for indirect fire got overhauled. Most of my heavy weapons were then shuffled into regular infantry squads, not necessarily because this made for a brilliant ranged unit, but because it gave the infantry options and made killing the guns harder. Over time, this tactic became less of a mainstay for me as I experimented with other battleline units and enjoyed tanks. I still had a stockpile of guns awaiting assembly and/or kitbash, but no real inclination to use them. Then the October Dataslate and points changes landed, and this changed the equation. A squad of three guns was now 50 points, and its hard for anything to be cheaper than that in 40k currently. You can just throw them into the list, and as long they do their job adequately or otherwise add an element you lack, its worth it. That’s how I use my Scion units currently; bare-bones and disposable to do secondary mission objectives. So, I decided to build a few out of what I had spare. No rush, and even if the forthcoming codex changed how they worked, GW was unlikely to retire a unit with a kit they made for 9th edition and was still actively selling. The worst case outcome would be that I would have more options. And bar the bases, it was money I'd already spent.

 

This build was mainly a combination of three different kits, the old school plastic heavy weapons, the Cannon Fodder kit, and the Stargrave Mercenaries. Its basically the same job as those Cadians I did recently, just with kitbashed carriages for the guns, often featuring wheels off toy cars. In the name of simplicity, I went for pre-existing helmeted heads, but I still did green stuff rags and tarpaulins. The crew were painted separately before affixing them on to the bases, the colours slightly remixed. I was kind of burnt-out on infantry and had a few things on my mind, trying to stop myself from buying more models without finishing some others first, when there’s a new codex around the effing corner, so it took a while to get motivated, but once I got going the process was fairly quick.

The weapon selection here was dictated mainly by what I liked the look of versus what spares I had. This meant five lascannons and a heavy bolter, to be combined with existing models to make two anti-tank, and one anti-infantry squad. The rational here was to pair the lascannons with something scary to force dilemmas on people, while the heavy bolters could make good use of the unit's overwatch bonus. I did consider more mortars and missile launchers, but I'm not hugely into either, and I'm holding onto my spare autocannons for now. Actual gameplay performance? Well… in the first game, one died horribly without acheiving much but blocking, and the other over-performed against a land raider. The second saw them sniping the odd Custodes.

So, maybe there's something in it?

Kitbash: Stargrave Mercenaries

Now, a sprue I've used an awful lot in my Chem-Dog army is the Stargrave Mercenaries kit. My original Chem-Dog prototype was one of those models, and various stowage and gubbins have been sprinkled through my builds since. Had I not found that Cannon Fodder box, it could very well have been that I built my army around them. I recently acquired another box cheaply, a benefit as I was refitting my infantry, and it followed that an article about them was overdue.

 

So, a brief review. The Stargrave Mercenaries kit is made by Northstar Military Figures, a company which seems to be a kind of low key awesome. While Stargrave is thier sci-fi system, they also do historical, and they do a lot of rules/miniature agnostic stuff, offering support of Gaslands and Xenos Rampant. Their sprues tend to be a kitbasher's joy, if possibly lacking in flair. The Mercenaries were talking about today, for example, have a very varied selection of weapons and armour styles, something of real benefit to theft/looting style of the Chem-Dogs. The overall style tends towards Cyberpunk, maybe? The downside is that they lack a compelling melee option for the sarge, and tend towards a realistic 28mm scale rather than a heroic one, so some kitbashing is unavoidable to make them fit 40K conventrions. If you're making human sci-fi infantry though, getting a box of these is highly recommended as a bits resource. And if the style of this one doesn’t appeal, Northstar do a bunch, and a lot of female coded models too.

With these, I decided to continue the recent trend, and do them up as a battleline unit I hadn't previously fielded: Cadian Shock Troops. Yes, I know this is dumb when I've used actual Cadians for Catachans, but I was always a contrarian. The justification for this is while these models seem better equipped than the Cannon Fodder I mainly field, they don't strike me as elite. More like a slightly more professional unit that got first dibs on some better kit. Following on from that, I decided to use leftover Cannon Fodder arms and backpacks to help them fit my theme, but I kept these as male coded. At least so far as the term applies to gaskmask wearing soldiers at 28mm scale, but you know what I mean. I've done a lot of girls lately, lets have a few boys in the interest of balance. Mechanically, Shock Troops function like a less cool middle ground between stock infantry and Death Korps, having less options than either, but have what is known as a "sticky objectives" ability. I see these chaps as having convictions for armed robbery, call 'em The Payday Squad.

 

These were modelled and painted in my usual manner, although I did make one Innovation. I sculpted gasmasks onto the heads while still on the sprue. I was going for a less bulky, more practical style than my usual, and this was a nice convenience. Actual painting was however delayed due to a head cold, and when I returned I was surprised at the rate they moved forward. I don't think I’m a good painter, I know I’m not a good painter, but I am an efficient one, and having done a hundred or so of these soldiers in various forms? Well, perfectionism gets worn away, and optimizations are found. So, here's my technique for speed painting some penal legion plebs.


1) Basecoat with Color Forge Trench Brown spraypaint.
2) Drybrush your guns and obvious metal bits with a gunmetal. I mixed my own here, aiming for darkish tones, but your preferred metallic grey is probably fine.
3) Pick out the boots, backpacks, and gasmasks in Vallejo German Grey. This is a near black which suits military garments. Pick out the occasional additional element like the odd helmet too.
4) Pick out the rags, and the occasional fabric detail, in Vallejo English Uniform.
5) Now apply a drybrush of Vallejo Hot Orange to what remains, I.e the main body. How hard you go at this stage will dictate how bright it will be. Avoid flesh areas.
6) With the main colours done, now go in add a few little details. I.e. a silver to pick out cutting edges, a gold for contrasting on the guns, a brown or yellow for haircuts, and your preferred method for lenses.
7) Tidy it all up.
8) Now start on the flesh areas; apply some watered-down Armypainter Tanned flesh.
9) Once dry, apply some watered-down GW Kislev Flesh, trying to keep to raised areas, and let that dry.
10) Wash the entire model with GW Agrax Earthshade.

 

Done, right? Well, there's the bases. I tend to come at that at the start of and the end of the process.
A) Before spray-painting, but after the model was attached, texture the base. I normally use a very thin coating of poundshop gap/filler paste, but better options exist. You don’t need a lot, just enough to remove the smooth finish of the base and add imperfections.
B) With the model largely painted, now use a paint like GW Stirland Mud on the base. You can mix your own, I do, or use another brand, we're basically looking for a brown texture paint with sand in it.
C) Once that dries, drybrush it with GW Zandri Dust. Maybe pick out areas like the knees at the same time to suggest dirt and wear.
D) Apply some flock to the base if you have it. I used some 6mm tufts here.
E) Finally, paint the rim of the base with Vallejo Black.

OK, perhaps not my best or most interesting work, but hopefully tableworthy, and of use to you. Cheers.