Monday, 17 January 2022

From FrederickC: T'rana from Strike Team Alpha (LV426) (208 points)

Having left Noel's Comet, I am heading to Planet LV-426 with the theme of 'Aliens' in mind. I am going to do this challenge 'old school' with some Ral Partha miniatures from their Galactic Grenadiers range from the late 1970s. These figures were sculpted to go with the Strike Team Alpha rules that came out at the same time

 

Cover of the Strike Team Alpha rules

One of the three types of aliens in the rules is the T'rana, a reptilian race that makes me think of what might have happened to the genus of velociraptors had dinosaurs not gone extinct.  I have a large collection of the various human figures in the range, all of which were painted many years ago. For some reason, I never finished the T'rana. They had been primed grey, and a base of dark green had been applied to the bodies, but then they languished in a drawer for decades until now. (The Challenge Quadrant has certainly proved its worth in inspiring me to get some of the deadwood completed and ready for the tabletop)

To complete these miniatures for the Challenge, I mounted them on 1" fender washers and glued on sand and a few pebbles to blend everything together. The earlier dark green I had used wasn't working for me, so I repainted the figures using Vallejo Lime Green for the bodies and Gunship Green for the crest along the spine and tail. Gunmetal and Black were used for weapons and equipment respectively. When that was all done, they all got a treatment of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Eventually I will hit them with some matte spray when it's warm enough to use it outside. I was thinking 'Jungle' with these minis, but the bases ended up more like 'Desert'. Still I am happy to transfer these to the 'Out' basket.

"Lizards, Mr Frederico! Zillions of them!"
 


 
T'rana (Reptilian) Advancing

T'rana (Reptilian) w/Hand Weapon

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

47 x 20mm foot figures @ 4 points each = 188 points

(While they are '28mm scale', the T'rana are rather small compared to humans. Why only 47, and not 48? One must have gone missing in action during renovations on my work area.)

Quadrant Challenge 'LV426' - 'Aliens' - 20 Points

 

"On, Teb, on!"

I am old enough to remember seeing these rules, but don't recall the figures.  They certainly have a 70s old stool vibe to them and you've painted them up nicely.  Nice "scale" tones on the lizards.

12 comments:

  1. Great seeing these aliens done, Frederick. I even have a copy of these rules! I smell a Conscript game night sometime in the spring/summer.

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    1. Thanks, Dave. I have a copy of the rules as well, but I am currently unable to locate them. Somewhere in one the boxes that got shifted when we redid the flooring in my office. I am definitely up for a game, and have lots of the human protagonists.

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  2. Not even I remember these, cool job. You have had a good week

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  3. Old school lizards, what a great find (packed away I assume). Excellent paint job.

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  4. That’s a whole lot of lizardy goodness!

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  5. while I didn't know about these rules, the lizards are awesome work!

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  6. Lovely greenness, there seems to lots of greenness on this Monday. :)

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  7. Very nice. The green came out nicely

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  8. Seriously vintage, lovely to see these antique figures with life ( and green!) breathed into them.
    Cheers, MikeP

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