Scaling Up Spacefarers - 28mm Star Lane Space Pirate Girl

In my view, Citadel's Spacefarers range was one of the best selections of science fiction adventuring types that any company has produced. It included over 50 different figures including merchants, troopers, droids and space pirates. They had great poses and interesting gear. But they are useless for my games which are firmly set in 28mm Rogue Trader scale, because for all their charm, Spacefarers are teeny 25mm figures.

Spacefarers page from the 1981 Citadel catalogue (image from Stuff of Legends)

I've already had one attempt at upscaling the Interplanetary Merchant with a figure I sculpted from scratch. I wanted to try my hand at converting one of my other favourite figures from the range - the S17 'Star Lane Space Pirate Girl with Laser Pistol'.

Star Lane Space Pirate Girl painted by Greblord. More images over at: http://greblord-littlemen.blogspot.com/2016/03/citadel-25mm-spacefarers-s17-star-lane.html

Star Lane Space Pirate Girl painted by Greblord. More images over at: http://greblord-littlemen.blogspot.com/2016/03/citadel-25mm-spacefarers-s17-star-lane.html

Missiles and Extra Eyes - More Mutie Cultists!

I think I'm pretty much on the home straight with my mutie cultists. I probably won't make any more for a little while, unless of course I earn lots of Necromunda campaign creds and need to add new recruits!

I've made two more cultists anticipating being able to buy more fighters and gear - another combat cultist, and a disciple armed with a missile launcher.

One Shot, One Kill - Long Ranged Cult Disciple

When I originally planned my Necromunda chaos cult, I knew I wanted a disciple (champion) with a heavy stubber. It was later suggested to me that a disciple with a long rifle would be fun. A high quality ranged shooter in Necromunda is always a useful thing, and a long rifle has pretty fun stats - S4 like a boltgun, positive to hit modifiers at long range (and the maximum range is long - 48"!). Not to mention the knockback ability which can hurl targets into other models, walls, or even off gantries.

It just so happened that back in 2015 when I was making some completely unrelated chaos cultists in pink, I had criminally decapitated a Jes Goodwin skaven champion with a jezail. He had sat unpainted in a pile for over three years, so I took the opportunity to look at him a second time.

Face to Face with the Cult

One thing lacking from the Benevolent Brothers was any form of close-quarters fighters. I decided to rectify that with three new additions - Maddox, Snyke and Frenk.

All three are armed exclusively with melee weapons and pistols to take things up close and personal! I am still working out whether Maddox (the lady with the big chainsword) will be a champion with a chainglaive or a ganger with a chainsword. I'm settled on Snyke with his hand flamer and Frenk though.

Arming the Brothers - Chaos Cult Shooters

Members of the Benevolent Brotherhood keep a wary watch as Demagogue Jakob carries out doorstep conversions.

With my new Necromunda campaign kicking off next week, I am busily finishing off the last few fighters I need to complete my starting roster. I've made the decision to sacrifice reliability in favour of bodies, so my cultists are by and large going to be unarmoured and equipped with unreliable reclaimed auto-weapons - pretty fitting for underhive muties I think.

Speaker of The Word - Chaos Cult Demagogue

Every Necromundan Chaos Cult is led by a Demogogue - that forceful and charismatic (or possibly underhand and scheming) personality that persuades, coerces or tricks people into following them. The Benevolent Brothers are no different, being led by the monk-like Jakob, brother to Wilhelm the witch.

Jakob walks the mutie slums barefoot, dispensing food to the hungry and blessings to those with bruised souls. The Cult of the Benevolent Brothers supports the oppressed mutie population, and in turn muties offer the Brothers their loyalty, their ferocity and their lives in pursuit of mutant rights.

I built Jakob many months ago from a selection of parts which resulted in a pretty unusual figure with a look of a holy man. I knew that in game terms I wanted him to carry a grenade launcher, but I didn't want to ruin the simple look of the figure, so I decided to give Jakob a servant (Wretch) to carry his equipment for him (possibly there is some irony that a cult leader dedicated to mutant rights is happy to have a slave-like figure attending him).

Mobile Firepower - Eldar Scout Walker and Spotter

With the deadline of completing my Eldar scout kill team for the Old World Sprint Challenge looming, I figured it was high time to get on and finish the final two figures required. I needed to bring in one last Scout to meet the minimum requirement of 10 figures, as well as a "support element", which could be anything relevant to the unit - a Dreadnought, transport, heavy weapon or similar.