UFP Starfleet Crew 01

Do you remember this photo from my Alien Base scenario of my The Ace of Spades Campaign? It shows some of the crew of The Ace of Spades being debriefed on a UFP Class XIV Fleet Cruiser, the Valarion. At the back of the photo are two UFP Starfleet officers and two BRINT agents. They were not named but in this post I want to take a closer look at some of the officer figures of the UFP Starfleet that I have, followed by a look at my BRINT personnel in my next post.
In my campaign, the United Federation of Planets, aka the UFP, are the good guys of the universe. A brief history of them can be found in this post here - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-setting-of-ace-of-spades-campaign_6.html Note that although my UFP shares the same name as the UFP from the Star Trek universe, the two organisations are different but they do share much in common.

At the far left is Admiral Gloria Yronwode (pronounced "Ironwood"), a much respected officer and a battle-hardened veteran. She is armed with a Phaser Pistol and a Light Sword, the hilt of which is just visible beneath her right hand. Her baton is purely ceremonial but could be used as a club. This figure is a conversion of a very old Citadel Imperial Guard Officer and it is rare to see a female Imperial Guard. I added her Light Sword, shoulder epaulettes, belt pouch, left arm pouch and trouser pocket.
Next in line is Captain James Caswell, commanding officer of the Valarion. He has performed exceptionally well since joining Starfleet and his promotion to Captain was thoroughly deserved. His figure is an old Grenadier Miniatures Traveller ship's officer that I converted by adding his Light Sword, Phaser Pistol in holster, belt pouch, arm pouch and trouser pocket.

The remaining two officers are Lieutenants Michael Cavanagh and Roberta Kukla. Both are young but competent officers with a promising future ahead of them. They are both armed with Phaser Pistols and I was delighted to see that the sculptor had modelled them on the iconic Star Trek Phaser Pistol design. These are also old and long out of production Grenadier Traveller ship's crew. Once again, I converted them by adding their holsters, belt pouches, sensor scanners on their belts, arm pouches and trouser pockets.
Please note that I have loads of figures for my UFP Starfleet Navy, Marines and Commandos. In time I will hopefully show them all but for now this is a start. If I wanted to run a purely military campaign it would be no problem at all. Plus, I am building up a formidable fleet of UFP starships.

Rauwoof Canines 01

One of the main alien races in FGU's Space Opera role-playing game are the Rauwoof Canines -  a race of bipedal, sentient dogs. I briefly mentioned them in my Setting of the Ace of Spades Campaign post part 2, see here - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-setting-of-ace-of-spades-campaign.html
In this post I want to show you five of my figures that I'm using to represent my Rauwoof Canines.

First up are a pair of mercenary scouts and twin brothers, Vrarg, at the far left, and Wrorf. They are both armed with Slugger Rifles. With their keen sense of smell, Rauwoofs make excellent scouts, trackers or bounty hunters. These figures are very old Citadel Miniatures, made in a time before Citadel became a part of Games Workshop. Wrorf is a conversion, as he was originally unarmed and I believe he was sold as a werewolf. I added the rifle to his back and his sensor and ammo pouches to his belt as soon as Citadel produced the armed werewolf figure, who came later. Note that I added the tail to both figures.
In the centre of the group is H4-ML37, aka Hamlet, who is a scout for the Rauwoof Marines. He is armed with a Daywide Construction GA80 Plasma Hunting Rifle and he wears Camouflaged Riot Armour, which offers him good protection without hindering his mobility. This figure is produced by Hasslefree Miniatures as part of their Sci-fi Aliens range and is HFSF118 - H4-ML37 priced at £5.00. Note that he is a two-piece casting and his right arm and gun are a separate component.

Finally, are a pair of bounty hunters, who work as a team. They are Doruargg with the sand-coloured fur and Marrok with the brown-coloured fur. Doruargg is armed with a Phaser Pistol and Marrok wields a Laser Rifle. These are very old figures produced by Grenadier Miniatures and were part of the boxed set of Traveller Aliens, where they were classed as Vargr with Pistol and Vargr with Rifle. I'm sure that fans of Traveller will recognise the name of this race of canines. Incredibly, I only just got round to painting this pair very recently when I decided I wanted to showcase my canine figures. Making these Rauwoofs instead of Vargr was not a big jump. When I dug out this box I discovered a few other figures of aliens in amongst them, including some beautifully sculpted felines, who I must get round to painting. Actually, all of the figures in that box deserve to get painted. They'd all fit in so well in my The Ace of Spades Campaign.

Rogue Stars Aliens 01

The figures I'm showcasing here were all made by North Star for the Rogue Stars sci-fi skirmish game produced by Osprey Games. I do not own Rogue Stars, nor have I ever played it or have any desire to. However, I do like the North Star range of figures, which work fine for my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I have already shown a couple of androids and other figures from this range. Here, I have four assorted aliens and a pair of Spartan assassins.

First up, at the far left is a tiny, fur-covered alien with long pointed ears and carrying a Blaster Pistol. I have no idea what race he is as Rogue Stars doesn't differentiate between their alien characters - they're just non-humans. This figure came with ROG112 - Thug and was shown sitting on the large Thug's left shoulder as either a pet, a familiar or a diminutive ally. I used the Thug figure to represent Gorrat the Ogryn star marine, who was one of the crew of the starship Murphy - see here.
The Thug and the tiny ally costs £6.00 for the pair.
The alien who is second from the right appears to be creating a fireball spell, prior to launching it. Magic isn't part of the N.E.W. system, which uses Psionics instead, but there is no reason not to include it, using the Magic rules presented in O.L.D. He is the closest to a human in terms of size but his physiology is different in a number of respects. He was part of set ROG114 - Renegades, which also contained a female human. I used the human to represent Sasha Bolotnikov, the captain of the starship Murphy (see the link above to view her). The pair of renegades cost £6.00.

That leaves two aliens and they are sold as a pair - set ROG110 - Soldiers of Fortune. The green-skinned alien second from the left is armed with a rifle, which I'm classing as an Assault Laser. He is smaller than a human, roughly Dwarf/Borian sized.
His colleague at the far right is much larger and stockier. He is heavily armed and armoured. His main weapon is a heavy Railgun and he has a pair of holstered Slugger Pistols as back up firearms. He is wearing a Basic Battlesuit, which offers SOAK:8 and is classed as heavy armour. This pair of figures also costs £6.00.

This pair of figures, sold together as set ROG101 Assassins immediately made me think of the N.E.W. alien race, the Spartans, who are clearly based on the Klingon race from Star Trek. I do like the fact that these are classed as Assassins and that they come in male and female versions.

I did name them, choosing appropriate names from the Klingon name generator from the Fantasy Names Generator website - see here - http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/star-trek-klingon-names.php#.Wx5zgYoo-Uk
The female, at the left, is J'Tarsoh Drar and the male is called K'hash G'onargh. They are armed with Blaster Pistols and two Combat Knives each. If you're looking for cheap proxy Klingon figures these will work very well, in my opinion. They cost £6.00 for the pair.

Assorted Alien Animals 02

I continue my look at assorted alien animals from my collection of 28mm scale figures. These are all very old figures and, unfortunately, they are long out of production. My figure of Vampifan is included to give you a sense of scale of these animals.

The creature to the left here is a Hercules lizard. These huge lizards (this is just a young one) are among the most dangerous predators in the galaxy. They usually hunt in packs of 1 to 6. A Hercules lizard is muscular and built low to the ground. It creeps up on its prey behind cover and the rushes it unexpectedly - from several different directions, if hunting in a group. Though their instinctive hunting tactics are impressively efficient, they are rather stupid creatures and will attack anything, regardless of how much larger or better armoured it is. A fully mature adult can grow up to 25 feet in length and weigh in the region of 3 to 5 tons!

The pusher is a large, quick carnivore, who has developed a unique and effective way to kill their prey with a minimum of danger to themselves. They hide on a ledge above a cliff or around the corner of a sheer trail. When prey approaches, the pusher simply lashes out with its long, strong arms and pushes the victim over the edge. The pusher is able to move at full speed down vertical surfaces, or even upside down, and quickly scrambles down to the dead or seriously wounded prey and devours it, hopefully before the local scavengers arrive. Pushers are cowardly, and, if their first attack fails, they will usually run away. Pushers are very advanced insectoids. They have a hard shell and many strong, thin legs, which allow them to cling securely to rock. Their arms are thick, and most of their length is usually kept inside the carapace. They are able to project their arms out with great force.
Sadly, I can't remember who produced either of these creatures. I'm sure the pusher was an AD&D monster, but what kind, I don't know.

Next up are a bunch of small critters. I don't have names or stats for any of them. I did use the yellow creatures as Thonnes in my recent Alien Base scenario, despite the fact that they don't look much like the illustration of a Thonne in the scenario book. Hey, I improvised!

These are all stuck to 20mm diameter MDF bases and you can see just how small they are when placed alongside Vampifan. These were produced by Citadel Miniatures and are incredibly old figures.

Finally are a pair of Skal Tigers, although they are more commonly known as snow tigers. They are found on arctic planets or in arctic regions and apart from their much lighter coloured skin, they share much in common with the tigers found on Earth. They are fearsome predators although big game hunters risk life and limb to either capture one or kill them for their skin.

Once again, I can't remember exactly who produced this pair, but I have a sneaking suspicion they were made by Citadel Miniatures. I could have painted them up as normal tigers, but I already have quite a few of them in my collection and the idea of painting them as snow tigers really appealed to me. The idea came to me when I saw a white tiger in captivity at Busch Gardens on a holiday to Florida, USA, in the early 1990's.

Assorted Alien Animals 01

When I ran my Alien Base scenario, I showed a few alien animals that the Npurth had captured. In this post I want to show you a few of my collection of assorted alien animals that I have amassed over the years. In all of the photos, I have included my 28mm scale figure of Vampifan to give you a sense of the animals' sizes.

At the far left is a blaze cat, typically found in the plains. The galaxy's fastest known land animal, the blaze cat is a huge bright red creature that blends in perfectly well with the red grass of its home planet. They normally run at speeds of 60 to 80 mph, and they are the only known land animal to have ever been clocked at running more than 100 mph. They hunt singly or in pairs. Blaze cats are intelligent and use tactics as well as speed in their hunting. They normally leave humans alone, but have been known to set clever ambushes for tracking human hunters. If taken very young, they can be trained, after a fashion. They do not, however, breed in captivity. This figure came from the Grenadier Miniatures Traveller Alien Animals boxed set, now long out of production.

Next up are a pair of male and female dune runners, with the male at the far right, easily identified by having a much longer mane. These are similar to the blaze cat, but are smaller and not as fast, but they can still reach speeds of 80mph. These are mainly found on desert worlds, which is where they get their name from. Their paws are much larger in relation to their size. They have much in common with cheetahs and lions from Earth. I sculpted these two figures many years ago, and I think they were the only animals I ever made.

At the far left is a bloodvark, and as its name suggests, it is a much evolved form of a bloodhound. Bloodvarks have an incredibly developed sense of smell and are often used as domestic pets. They are frequently employed by bounty hunters, detectives and game hunters. This one has a collar on it, so is clearly someone's pet. This was another figure that came from the Traveller Aliens Animals boxed set.

Second from the right is a crested jabberwock. This lizard-like reptile is noted for its brightly coloured crest which it fluffs out when angered and during the mating season to attract a mate. It is a carnivore and is considered dangerous. It has a small curved horn on he tip of its nose, which it uses to gore opponents and its jaws are filled with razor sharp teeth. The crested jabberwock is often found on planets with jungles, plains or forests. This is another Grenadier Miniatures figure from the Alien Animals boxed set.
Also from that boxed set is the bush runner. This is a small but fast paced herbivore that is usually found in large packs. They are prey to the carnivores of their home planet, which is generally the same type of planet that the crested jabberwocks are found on. Bush runners are very timid, and easily scared, but they can usually outrun any creature that chases them, although they are nowhere near as fast as the blaze cats.

Next up is an ambull, which may be familiar to players of Warhammer 40,000, as it first appeared there in the first edition of the rules. More recently, it was mentioned in the Necromunda: Gang War III supplement as the inspiration for the Luther Pattern Excavation Automata known as the Ambot. Thought to have evolved in the endless deserts of McIntyre IX in the Segmentium Solar, the ambull is now common across the galaxy. Humanity attempted to domesticate the brutes with mixed success. Ambulls are natural tunnellers with their powerful limbs ending in diamond-hard claws that enable them to dig through soft rock at a surprising speed. Their eyes see into the infrared spectrum, making impeccable use of even the faintest levels of light, and they are even able to detect heat signatures as a visual stimulus. The transport and trade in ambulls is extremely heavily controlled throughout the galaxy, due to how dangerous they are as hunters and how unsuitable to domestication they have proven, escaping from any form of captivity and wreaking havoc upon human populations in mining colonies the galaxy over. This figure was produced by Citadel Miniatures many years ago and it is also long out of production.

Finally, is the huge grathuedon covered in fur on its lower extremities and protected by thick armour plating elsewhere. Found mainly on plains worlds, the grathuedon is a herbivore but it is noted for its aggressive behaviour if angered. Not unlike the bull or rhinoceros of Earth, it attacks by charging its prey and its abnormally wide mouth that protrudes either side of its head ensures it has a good chance of striking its target. This figure came from the Traveller Alien Animals boxed set.
I'll be showing more assorted alien animals next time.