Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Painting Vintage Star Frontiers Minis.

Having played Star Frontiers in the early 1990s, I have a soft spot for this forgotten game from TSR back when that company was the galactic center of the gaming universe. I found some of the miniatures a few years back and thought that it would be fun to paint them up. Unfortunately the boxes that I found had severe cases of lead rot and most of the minis were unusable. Luckily my buddy Dave, who also ran our SF sessions in the 90s, had some beautifully clean castings so I at least got to paint a few of them.
Lead rot can be caused by acids from cardboard leeching out and causing moisture in the air surrounding a mini to begin the rot. Shrink wrapping causes this to be even worse. Be wary of shrink wrapped boxes on Ebay and keep you minis in plastic that has good airflow. Don't let this happen to your vintage minis.

 So far I've finished five minis. 3 Dralasites, 1 Vrusk in spacesuit, and the newest, a human in spacesuit with jet-pack. I now working on a Sathar in spacesuit, then a Yazirian. I'm also thinking about sculpting some of my own minis to add to the collection. 

 I really enjoyed Star Frontiers and was greatly disappointed by Alternity which promised to be SF's sequel in spirit if not actuality. But luckily I still have some of these fun minis and all of the original rules and modules for SF are available online. Might be time for another Star Frontiers campaign. And this time I'm not playing a Humma medic.
The amoeboid Dralasites are one of my favorite races.

They both seem to be pointing their pistols for shooting birds.

A Vrusk in spacesuit and "Doorknob" pistol.

Because ringed planets mean SCIENTIFICTION!
And finally a human! Spacesuit and jet pack. I really dig the guns on the shoulders.

Notice base sculpted to show blast effect.
A bit heavy on the ratio of Dralasites but still a solid party.
A cool Wiki site about the various races:
http://starfrontiers.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Playable_Character_Races

 Lost Minis wiki with all of the Star Frontiers minis:
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Star_Frontiers_(TSR)
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4 comments:

  1. ChrisSeptember 24, 2014 at 9:10 AM

    Dear Mr. Beast,

    If you haven't thrown those figures away yet, try soaking them in vinegar for awhile. I did that with a bunch of mine, and then cleaned them with a toothbrush--it worked like a charm.

    Best regards,

    Chris Johnson

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simon Quinton September 24, 2014 at 1:50 PM

    Very fun looking figures and nice paint jobs!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 24, 2014 at 11:45 PM

    I've this game almost as much as I loved Gamma World. I bought it and some of the squids guys at Gen Con when it came out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 24, 2014 at 12:39 AM

    My gaming group played Star Frontiers to death. We blew through all the modules and simply ran out of ideas after that. Best Sci Fi game I ever played.
    I have 4 boxes of figs, 2 sets have been painted and are in the gaming box awaiting action. I will check the other two boxes and see if they are shrink wrapped. If so, off it comes.

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