I recently picked up my own copy of Stargrave, and I’ve barely put it down since (in fact, the one time I did put it down, my pet rabbit seemed to take a liking to it). Stargrave is a much anticipated miniature agnostic sci-fi skirmish game. Brought to us by the creator of the legendary Frostgrave, it’s tempting to refer to it simply as “Frostgrave in space”, though I don’t think that quite does it justice. In any case, I’m not here to dive into the rules, but rather, the Stargrave minis (or miniature options, as it were).
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I mentioned that the game – just like Frostgrave – is miniature agnostic. Miniature agnostic games take the approach of “use whatever you own”, which is interpreted by many hobbyists (myself included) as “use whatever you would like to own”.
There’s actually an official range of Stargrave minis by North Star Military Figures. Here, you’ll find some nice looking soldiers and characters, and you can pick up some dice and tokens for the game whilst you’re at it, too.
For my own tastes, I was looking for an aesthetic that was slightly more “retro”. Though Rogue Trader was before my time (I came into the hobby in the early 90s) I’ve always loved the look of that game and the 40k universe as it was in those hazy days.
Stargrave Minis With a Rogue Trader (or Early 40k) Feel
I did a roundup of Oldhammer miniature companies with that classic 80s Citadel vibe a while back. A lot of these companies I hadn’t heard of before. After doing the writeup, I felt obliged to buy quite a lot of miniatures from most of them. Strictly for the purposes of research, you must understand.
Leafing through my Stargrave book, my imagination started to conjure up images of how I’d like my crews to look. As usual, these are a far cry from anything you’d buy out of GW in the year of our Emperor that is 2021. So it was time to get the long-suffering wallet out once again.
And now, here we are with a rundown of the Stargrave minis that I’ve either already bought or are on my “next to buy” list.
I made a stop on the excellent Diehard Miniatures site. In particular, their sci-fi section. Here you’ll find everything from chunky Chaos Space Reavers and Raiders, to mutant pirates and undead Orcs. There’s even a Lemmy Sci-fi Command Group Musician!
Next up, long-time readers of the blog (am I kidding myself to think that I might have any of those?) will know I’m a fan of Knightmare Miniatures. I’ve already used their range to build a Beastmen Herd, a Goblin Archer Warband, and there’s a few of them making up my Chaos Warrior Regiment, too.
When it comes to Stargrave minis, Knightmare has a lot of great options, too. Immerse yourself in their Space Raiders range and brace yourself to spend some money. Chaos and Orcs (I don’t think we’re allowed to use a K in Orc, are we?) make up the bulk of the offerings here, and they look fantastic.
My final stop – at least, for now anyway – is onwards to CP Models. CP has a wide and diverse range of miniatures at multiple scales. But it was their 28mm sci-fi range I was interested in for my Stargrave minis project.
These fit with the Stargrave ethos really well, and there are some nice nods to IPs like Mass Effect and Fallout there too.
CP’s Grey Aliens range are – and I don’t think I’ve ever used this word in my life before – adorable. Those tiny zombie aliens fill my black heart with joy, they really do.
I’m going to wrap this up now because I already feel another spending spree coming on, and that’s before my first batch of Stargrave minis has even dropped through the letterbox. As always, I’ll be posting updates of my fledgling paintwork as and when I get them finished, so be sure to subscribe to the blog to stay tuned.
Whilst you’re here, you might also be interested in my latest work too. Check out Populating a Lovecraftian Dungeon, From Battlemasters to Dungeon Masters, and Chaos, Cultists, and Blood Bowl Beastmen.