STAR LADIES
Northstarfigures.com £20
North Star have recently released
Stargrave Crew II which is a densely packed set of four identical sprues featuring women to serve on board your space ship. In 28mm, obviously...
Aimed at adding to your tough, independent crew pursuing their mission amongst the stars, reassigning ownership of technology and money to... well other more deserving people (ie: your crew!) they are dressed in light gear and look to be a no-messin’ bunch of girls. They really do remind me of the crew of the Nostromo in terms of clothing and general vibe: very much (as they were described at the time of the original Alien film)‘space truckers’.
What do you get in the set? Each sprue has five torsos (all standing), 21 heads (including at least eight that are definitely non-human), and arms with, for the greater part, the weapons included. These are mostly pistols and carbine types (with the odd shot-gun: “any of these are good for home defence...”) but there’s also an excellent selection of other items that includes at least one knife (with spares to stick on) plus all sorts of boxes and packs (along with a walky-talky, ammo pouches and more). Really, this is a pretty comprehensive set and the models go together well, however even more variety can be achieved by mixing in components from other Stargrave female boxed sets – in fact most of the other
Stargrave sets can still donate bits.
I really like the accessories on this sprue: everything from spanners to extra tool-belt components: all just really useful stuff.
Highly recommended (and a good price). resin kits and can be bought (mostly) as a five person squad (note the gender nonspecific terminology) but they can also be assembled from individual components. Plus there’s extras and a General.
Starting with the latter, a tenner buys a lantern jawed, three star chap in a helmet and with alternative right arms (for saluting or holding a pair of binos) and with a cane in the other. He’s very‘Patton’ and he’d look great on a command base, in the back of a jeep, or poking out of the hatch of a vehicle.
The other two packs (£16 each) comprise D-Day American Combat Squads, each with advancing poses and armed to the teeth with Thompsons. One pack are males and the other are female, although they are a little hard to tell apart. They are all in helmets and some wear a‘bandanna’ (or similar) covering their faces, and both sets are sporting some sort of chest plate and – yes – I know that chest armour was technically available (especially if you were a pilot) but not like this...
However, what these would be excellent for is a game like Dust or Konflikt ’47 (or maybe Captain America: they do a figure for that too). Detail is top notch and there are lots of extra (historical) gun options to buy (Garands and the Stinger improvised machine gun) along with sapper equipment and more. Bases are extra (40p a pop) and detail – though slightly over the top – is easy to paint. Intriguing.