From Barks: Starship Troopers Brain Bug (Sci-fi)(40 points)

I wasn't a fan initially of Starship Troopers (1997) as I felt it veered wildly from the tone of Heinlein's 1959 novel, but I grew to appreciate it as satire. (I can't embed the appropriate brain bug video due to age restrictions, but here.)

This miniature is an absolute pain* and has been an albatross around my neck for at least fifteen years. The brain bug is five solid hunks of metal which don't remotely fit together. Mine is more Milliput than metal. It is carried by an entourage of chariot bugs. There is no clean fit of them to the brain bug, and I used two-part epoxy to try and get them to fit. The epoxy wasn't well mixed and turned into this frustrating tacky mess that has followed me on multiple house moves.

Picture from a keen eBay seller. Look at the flashing...

As I've found previously, however, AHPC theme rounds to the rescue! A bit of impetus has seen this bug finished. I was able to strip the tacky epoxy and used a MDF base to keep the chariot bugs in place. I drilled out a few holes in the bottom of the brain bug for pinning with nails into the base. Painting was the easiest part, using Army Painter Speedpaints Crusader Skin, Pallid Bone, Slaughter Red, and Grim Black.

Chariot bugs. Note the nails for pinning.

Gloss to the eyes

Anvil Digital Forge troopers for scale.

1x big fat smart bug and 6x small bugs (20 points)

Sci-Fi set (20 points)

*The authoritative Goonhammer history of SST says "... anyone who has assembled the brain bug is truly a hero of the federation."

I'm not sure how to score this, so I'll follow your lead and assign it 20 points as a monster including the smaller bugs on its base. I enjoyed the original Starship Troopers movie, though not enough to bother with the sequels. I had heard that there was a minis game based on the film/books, but I don't recall ever having seen figures for it before. If they all had as much flash it would go some way to explaining why the game died off. 

From BrettM: Heavy Starship Troopers Klendathu (45 Points)

First submission of the Challenge is finally here. Always seem to push to the limit due to holidays and catching up. 

So recently started looking at this old Starship Troopers game. I wanted to start painting some figures for it and had these guys sitting around.

So went with a gray pattern as in the movie and figured these would be more of the "heavy weapons" guys 

Still searching for some figures for normal infantry. Will have to fire up the resin printer for most of this if I keep going with it. Really like the helmets how they are half open. Painted the helmets separately and then glued on after finished with their faces. 

First submission at 5 models at 5 points each for 25 plus 20 for Klendathu.

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Welcome back to the Challenge Brett!

These troopers look brilliant (and a perfect choice for Klendathu). I'm curious, are they 3D prints, or are they from the game? I quite like their angular, plate armour, which your two-tone grey accentuates very nicely. I also think the red alien ground really make pop. Great work! 

- Curt

From PeteF: Horde of Fiends - Klendathu's Finest (40points)

"This Place Crawls, Sir!"

These gribbley horrors are the second unit in my Nightstalkers Army. Each stand will reference a movie that has some horror or phobic element.  The idea is that people can try and guess all the movies in the army.

The miniatures are from the discontinued Starship Troopers Miniatures game by Mongoose publishing. It's a shame this game is out of print as the minis are rather good - although quite big. I was lucky enough to pick up the whole starter game (which contains another 20 of the warrior bugs) on EBay this week - still in shrink wrap so I'm not sure if I'll open it or do the right thing and resell it because I don't need more minis.

I got the basic idea for colours from clips of the movie - the carapaces were originally black, which I had drybrushed with some light grey highlights. I didn't like how this looked so I washed it over with contrast shyish purple - which gave the dark bits a nice purpley sheen and mauve tinted the grey highlights. I was happy that it came out a little glossy - like an ant's body.

"Their evolution stretches over millions of years."

The smaller bugs are "firefries" and featured in a Starship Troopers spinoff, not the original movie. The models were very basic metal casts - they are somewhat rare. Their colour scheme is from an online wiki. Kings of War "large cavalry hordes" are supposed to be 6 to a 150mmx100mm base - by using a couple of the smaller bugs I managed to squeeze five in. If I had the dismembered body of a mobile infantryman I'd add it to the base.

"Oh, come on, it's just a bug!"

Starship Troopers is a great movie - based on a great book. Although noteworthy for attractive actors meeting their ends with spectacular violence it also does a good job of portraying a brutal militaristic society in a way that may leave a small part of you hoping the bugs win.

Kings of War welcomes proxied units so these bugs stand in nicely for fiends, a type of heavy cavalry. The 3 arachnid warriors are about 60mm tall - the bodies are 65mm long including the mandibles. The 2 firefries are around the size of a 28mm horse. Say 10 points for each big bug and 5 for each small one for a total of 40?

“Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part...and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.”

Pete, these are fantatic. You have really nailed the colours and they look suitably nasty. The scoring is about right

Martin