Laser Squad: “Hell’s Hoplites” – Fire Team Delta

Posted on 11/06/2024 by sho3box

Four Stargrave “Troopers” from North Star Miniatures

I love the aesthetic and modular design of the Stargrave range from North Star Miniatures. Modular design allows an almost Lego like approach to assembling figures, a very deep hole that I can easily fall down, so I assembled these guys with minimal add-ons, and entirely from the contents of the Stargrave Troopers box IIRC.

The plan is to add to this four to play both Stargrave and Five Parsecs From Home, but even with such a bright colour scheme, they are still very suitable for all sorts of other settings and games.

I won’t go into the details about the “Laser Squad” video game, and why it relates to these toy soldiers until a later date.

Thanks for looking!

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15 Responses

  1. Azazel, on 11/06/2024 at 14:31 said:

    Excellent work on this foursome. I like the subtle weathering and markings in their armour. As for Laser Squad, there’s a rich vein to mine there in both gaming directions! 👍

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 11/06/2024 at 14:39 said:

      Thanks Azazel!

      I initially wrote a huge, meandering post about Laser Squad, but decided that it was more important to get the photo posted with a few lines of text and build on that.

      I figured that there would be enough there for anyone with a general interest. As for and the OG Laser Squad fans: if you know, then you know 😀

      Liked by 1 person

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  2. Alex, on 11/06/2024 at 17:36 said:

    These are brill mate – they just need a banging 8-bit soundtrack!

    Liked by 2 people

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    • sho3box, on 13/06/2024 at 14:21 said:

      Thanks Alex!

      My Laser Squad experience was the dizzy heights of 32bit on the Amiga, so my soundtrack started with the Bomb the Bass track “Megablast” from Xenon 2 and I let the music algorithm guide me from there, down paths that I would *never* have consciously chosen.

      Has enough time passed to unironically enjoy “On a Ragga Tip” by SL2 yet? 😀

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. sho3box, on 12/06/2024 at 08:20 said:

    Thanks Alex!

    The Amiga was the first proper machine that I got, so the heady heights of 16bit audio was the deal at the time for me, but as Laser Squad was essentially a port from 8 bit machines anyway, it didn’t exactly push the hardware. Still an incredible game though.

    I’ve been listening to all sorts of ~1990 music as a result of working on these, kicking off with “Megablast” Bomb the Bass, which was the first time that I remember coming across a “real” music outfit featuring in a game. The game was Xenon 2, not Laser Squad BTW.

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  4. Allison Mackay, on 14/06/2024 at 12:15 said:

    These look good, very clean, like corporate security or something. The mix and match Stargrave kits look like they could be a hell of a drug! I see people making amazing conversions with them all the time and it looks like it’s pretty easy to generate all sorts of fun characters. Mix them with the Frostgrave kits and the sky’s the limit 😄

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. sho3box, on 14/06/2024 at 14:43 said:

    You nailed it Allison.
    It feels like having the toy soldier equivalent of about 200 Lego minifig components.

    Sure, the poses can be a little rigid sometimes because of the necessary requirements of the modularity, but (to me anyway) it gives them a sort of 80s and 90s action figure vibe that puts just the right amount of “toy” in “toy soldier”.

    I get to dress up and equip my little dolls for their adventures, and I hugely enjoy the process. At this point in my HOBBY JOURNEY ™️, I am 100% happy to take that for what it is.

    These figures are absolutely intended to double as CorpSec types in cyberpunk skirmish games BTW.

    I hesitated before committing to bright yellow space soldiers, but I’m glad that I went for the yellow look that 1990s Paul yearned for. I have plenty of darkly attired future fascist cops and soldiers already.

    Thanks again for the feedback 😀

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  6. Argentbadger, on 14/06/2024 at 16:31 said:

    Nice, straight out of the 90s!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 14/06/2024 at 20:47 said:

      Heaps of nostalgia Argentbadger, but hopefully a little bit of the things learned in the intervening decades added to knock some of the corners off 🙂

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  7. Warburton, on 14/06/2024 at 22:14 said:

    Beautiful work – looking forward to more Laser Squad!

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