Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Star Wars Rebel Fleet Infantry Platoon Part 1: Command Team and 1st Squad


Although the Rebellion has a Special Forces Command which supplies specially trained ground forces for planet-side operations, Fleet itself provided the bulk of the Rebels' infantry right up through the Battle of Endor.  Here we see part of a Rebel Fleet Infantry Platoon as they would be seen soon after disembarking from a troop transport.



The Rebel infantry platoon I'm building follows the guidelines given for Rebel units in The Star Wars Miniature Battles Companion, though I've tweaked it here and there to suit myself/.  The finished platoon will consist of 4 8-man line squads, a 4-man command team, and a weapon section with two repeating heavy blaster teams, forty men in all.



The Companion says that 8-man squads were standard during the War of the Rebellion, though I don't know why 8. Whatever, I decided to go with that squad structure.  The book says a command team should be composed of a Lieutenant and a Sergeant Major.(?!)




I think they mean Platoon Sergeant. Well, I found suitable figures to represent the officer and platoon Sergeant, then I added a medic and a comm link guy, since an infantry platoon just doesn't look right to me without them.  Don't recall seeing any rules about medics and RTOs in the rulebook...maybe they will just be regular troopers, or perhaps I'll invent some rules for them.



Here they are.  The RTO isthe unarmed Rebel Trooper figure.  I didn't think he was good for much, having no weapon in hand, so I guess it's good that I found him some useful employment.  I wanted him to have a big bulky, annoying comm set, but didn't want to sculpt it, since I have no sculpting skills.  Instead I just made him a backpack out of green stuff and tried to make it look like there's an antenna sticking out of the top flap.



The platoon medic is not officially a member of the platoon.  She would be attached to the platoon for a specific mission, after which she would return to her own unit aboard a medical frigate.  As such she has a lot more latitude when I comes to customizing her uniform and equipment, and can get away with things the Platoon Sergeant would never let any of the others do.  As can be seen here, she has doffed her black vest, and replaced her Fleet Issue heavy blaster pistol for a high quality custom-made side arm, undoubtedly a private purchase weapon.  She has also replaced her Fleet-issue headgear with the army-issue crash-type helmet, which she claims is much less cumbersome when she is trying to work on casualties.  I wanted her to have an aid bag, so I made one out of green stuff, which looked ok, until I painted it.  I'll have to go back and touch it up sometime,  Right now, I just want to be done with the unit.




The squad troopers consist of 6 men with heavy blaster pistols and two 'specialists', one with a blaster rifle and one with what I assume is a blaster carbine,



Painting the unit has been frustrating, I'm not too keen on the way it turned out.  Painting 25mm with realistic proportions is tougher than larger, Citadel-type 'heroically proportioned' figures.



Faces don't show up as well, painting eyes becomes a lot harder, especially when figures are giving the Clint Eastwood squint, as most of these guys seem to be doing.





I'd have liked to have glossed the blast shields on their helmets, but didn't have any gloss to hand, so tried to add a highlight by blobbing some white on them.  It doesn't look too good.  Suppose I'll have to revisit them all at some point.

Oh, well, they're done.  Better luck next time?


11 comments:

  1. I think you're being very hard on yourself as they look very nice indeed. Even under the orange light you can see how well they've come out. Your daylight photo though really brings out the colours and they look stonkingly good imho. True 25mm figures can be very hard to get right and I'm in awe how you've done yours. Yours have eyes for starters... I just flesh wash my models' faces at that scale and then run :-) Great posting.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, they were kinda tough. I'd still like to go back and work on the eyes again, sometime.

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  2. Wow, Mouse, you are churning out painted figures like a man possessed! Great work on these Fleet Troopers! Next to Storm Troopers, the Fleet Troopers are my favourite rank and file guys in the Star Wars Universe. I love the shot of the platoon disembarking in the sunshine. As a side note, have you ever played Star Grunt II before? Fleet Troopers just seem to scream out Star Grunt II in my mind for some reason.

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    1. Thanks, P.W. Think I'm going to do some wookies before the storm troopers. I'm really intimidated by them. I think the armor is going to be a lot more challenging than it might appear at first. I've never played Star Grunt, but I've read a lot about it and it looks very interesting. Because the minis are 25mm, they would blend in nicely with my Star Wars guys, I think. I plan to aquire some of the Japanese Corporate troops for use as mercenaries in my Star Wars games. Just wish it was easier to find pictures of the figure lines...

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    2. Hey Mouse,

      Yeah! to seeing some wookies!

      Star Grunt II rocks! And yes, the minis are the same size as your Star Wars guys. To see more pictures of the figure line (and to see a really great Star Grunt only site) check out Kev's STAR GRUNT in 25mm blog. Really terrific and inspiring. Especially his scratch-made vehicles for Star Grunt.

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    3. Cool! Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out this very evening.

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  3. Hello Mouse - Your Rebel Troops look Fantastic - You have done a splendid job of them. 25mm is my preferred figure size and I think that they have a lot to offer as the IDEAL size. Hey- thankyou for Joining my site re: STARGRUNT in 25mm...seems I'm indebted to 'Private W' for the advertising! Regards. KEV.

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  4. Hi MOUSE _ Thanks for joining my TYRILLIAN Project site - much appreciated. It isn't Star Wars - though it is in 25mm being a sort of Colonial Fiction..and I have a long way to go with it's development. On another matter - How have You come by Your 25mm Star Wars Figures? - are they still available Commercially? Regards. KEV.

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    1. Thanks, Kev! I bought Space 1889 way back in I think 1993 or 4? I liked the concept. Thought it was a neat idea to mix up Wellsian/Burroughsian sci fi and fantasy with the colorful history of the colonial period. I felt like they never really went far enough with it. so I'm keen ot see what you're going to do with it. Really like your Star Grunt stuff so I'm sure it will be great!

      The Star Wars minis went out of production about the same time Grenadier Minis went out of business...I think that's been about twenty years ago, now. I've been slowly building my collection up over the past year by keeping an eye on ebay and bottom feeding on the cheap lots. I usually pay about $5 a pack. Noble Knight games has lots of them in stock,but you have to pay a bit more if you go that route.

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    2. Thanks MOUSE- it would be great if the Star Wars - Grenadier 25mm came back on line - they are excellent figures- thanks for the tip will look up Noble Knight to see what they have. My Colonial Sci-Fi project is proceeding - making 25mm Masters at moment. Regards. KEV.

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  5. These minis look just great - to my eye, the highlight in the helmets looks spot on.
    I'm just trying to get into Star Wars minis (inspired by the new release by Fantasy Flight Games of "Imperial Assault"), so I will check out what Noble Knight has to offer. Stupid question: these are Grenadier Star Wars, correct? It was always a mystery to me why there weren't more Star Wars miniatures out there, given the enormous popularity of the franchise. (For lack of Star Wars minis, my brother and I used to play with Galacta (aka Galacta-25) models, which were a shameless (and crude) knock-off. But that's another story...

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