Stargrave Crew - Rogue Trader retinue

 

Hey all, so after a little summer break I managed to get a few things out of the workshop, some I can't show yet and some I just finished and need to get out of my system like this Stargrave band !

Now Stargrave has been out for a little time now and despite it being the game many of my friends and I awaited, I've found myself lacking deadlines and games prospects to fully dive into production.
I could obviously pick from the several bands I've painted over the years but you know how it goes, one needs something a little fresh and fancy !
With that in mind, I knew pretty much from the start (actually from before even getting the rulebook) I would want to make a band out of the most classic sculpts from the Rogue Trader era. There's a little modern intruder of course but he really seemed to be made for that band.

That's the sort of stuff I'm talking about !

If you're familiar with Stargrave or even just Frostgraven, you'll know that the chief of the band is the first and most significant choice you can make when building a band and I knew immediately I wanted the only official Rogue Trader from the era to be that guy, he has some sort of light saber which makes him extremely cool and  compelling.

The sculpt itself might not be up to the promise though, it's often patchy and unrefined, nearly frustrating at times but it still is rewarding and so characterful.
My first idea was to give him the imperial assassin as a first mate, the master/apprentice bond is obvious between the two. Some of my friends even suggested the Rogue Trader might be an oversculpt of the assassin and although I'm not 100 certain it is, I can definitely see why anyone would believe that. Anyway, here you have Garth Nestor Poirot.

In gaming terms, I think the Mystic background is an absolute no brainer sinc it gives him jedi like powers, including the void blade which is essentially a light saber. The assassin will still be her captain's apprentice or perhaps hidden daughter, who knows ?

Now some very iconic models too with the first navigator ever and the ratling cook. After painting the band, I realised there wouldn't be any entry in the retinue charts that could fully do the navigator proud so I've finally decided to make him the actual first mate and give him a psyionist background that will enable him to use annoying powers to support his captain.

I immediately pictured the ratling cook as a gross and vulgar character fiwing his team mates by shoving chicken drusticks up their mouth or applying vinegar and bacon fat on the open wounds to heal them. that's why I went heavy handedly on the dirt and messy look.

Now of course I want an array of talents for this new band to try and see which I like most so I have a chiseler and hacker to help me recover loot. The chiseler is a former workshop mechanic who used to overcharge clients coming for a simple check up of their shuttle so he had to take his talents elsewhere.
The hacker is a former IT technician whose greatest achievement resides in successfully making people turning their device off and on again and 90% of his hacking feats come from the fact most people use 1234 or 0000 as passwords...

Now a couple of more serious looking individuals here, the Rogue Stars robot gunslinger felt like too good a model to leave out really and I wanted the crew to look a little varied. Next to it is the infamous Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau (really, if you've never checked Rogue Trader, please do, you'll thank me later). Clouseau is yet another iconic but atrocious sculpts of that era. You have so many issues to fox with painting...

Fun fact : it took me to get midway through painting the robot to realise there was a hole in his cape and a missing rifle...

Last of all, completing the 10 head count are probably the finest and most pleasant sculpts of the bunch with a rogue trooper traitor general and the bandit form the adventurer range, their matching pants make them look like a weird pair, I suspect they complement each other nicely into being the worst duo you can encounter !

I'm not exactly sure how the whole crew will be counted as but I have the main roles and I'll fit the best I can with what credits I have left, the main thing is the rule of cool first plus the rules are good enough to accomodate pretty much anything.
I'm really chuffed to have these done for many reasons, first I felt guilty of still not having any band painted for the game and also I was getting frustrated with the sculpts and their flaws, combined with paintjobs started in summer with all that means in terms of chalky finish and rough blends.
Aaaanyway, I'm pretty motivated and with work back on a routine that should help me get a few more things done soon enough. I have many villains/critters in line and two bands of a different style in mind so definitely getting warmed up for more Stargrave !

Happy hobby you all !