Marauders of the Wastes

Any dusty sci-fi setting needs some primitive marauders to come howling out of the wastes at inopportune moments. These Copplestone half-orcs looked the part, I thought.

I envisage three main uses for these fellows in our sci-fi games. 

First, they'll offer a challenge for players who want to eschew the pew-pew for some brutal hand-to-hand action. 

Second, they'll provide a consolation prize for any player who gets knocked out early from a multiplayer game ("OK, these guys turn up - you're in charge. They want to take as many heads as possible/steal some tech/destroy all technology."). Because they don't have guns, they'll represent a fair step down from the starting force, regardless of the rules we're using. 

Third, they'll act as a band of wandering monsters, which we usually include in our games to add some spice. We typically set aside x monsters with stats and then roll dx if a d6 rolled at the end of the turn comes up with a 6. 

I'm going to add some accompanying beasts with the same markings as the shields. And I have a few more on the way: some with bows, which will give them at least some ranged capability.

Speed-painted Stargrave troopers

 

These are some grunts for our sci-fi skirmish games. For speed-painting, the holy grail is a miniature that can be very quickly painted up in one or two colours with a few details added to create the illusion that more care has been taken. These fit that bill. After undercoating them black, I drybrushed them in two shades of turquoise, then slopped some black contrast paint over the guns. All that was needed then was to pick out the visors and add some markings. 

This technique depends on just ignoring differences in materials. So belts, armour, clothing and pouches all get treated the same, and hands are assumed to be gloved. But it's reasonably effective - and very quick. 

They had a suitably ruthless first outing in a game of Mutants and Death Ray Guns, in which they managed to dispatch all of their mutant and robot foes without so much as a scratch.