Brigade Models

We meet four more members of Pioneer Station’s crew today.

Madiwa Aquino is a senior member of the station’s command crew, and is often seen, clipboard in hand, checking on something or someone. She’s primarily responsible for making sure that the station’s supply of coffee is kept topped up. Anna Carrillo is a senior scientist on the geology team – in this case, she’s off to track down some supplies in the darkest recesses of the cargo hold. The lights there are on the fritz, hence the big torch – she’ll be having a word with Helen about the maintenance team’s priorities when she gets back.

Harker Spitz and Francois DeBoer are on the maintenance crew. They’re about to investigate what’s making the banging noise down in the reactor module, so as per protocol they’re suited up in case of a radiation leak. Harker has brought a blaster rifle – the station has a colony of rats that smuggled themselves aboard in a supply shipment years ago and have somehow managed to thrive in the bowels of the facility. He likes to take potshots at them ‘to keep in practice’, which makes Francois nervy when he does it near anything sensitive.

Francois and Harker

SF28-200 – Station Crew (8 figures) – £25.00
SF28-205 – Madiwa Aquino – £4.00
SF28-206 – Anna Carrillo – £4.00
SF28-207 – Harker Spitz – £4.00
SF28-208 – Francois DeBoer – £4.00

Spacestations are generally classified by a standard naming system – the name of the system that they occupy, followed by Roman numerals indicating the planet they orbit (if any). If more than one station orbits a planet, this is suffixed by a Greek letter (thus satisfying both schools of classicists !). For example – Perseus-II-Beta, or Sirius-IV-Kappa. The stations generally adopt a more familiar name for day-to-day use which can range from straightforward (‘Mars Central’) to the more prosaic (‘Heaven’s Gate’).

The station designated Gliese-III-Alpha is known by its crew as Pioneer station. No-one else much cares what it’s called, as it is a remote research station studying the four uninhabitable planets of the Gliese-876 system. It spends much of the time looking for exploitable minerals on the two rocky planets, or useful gases in the upper atmospheres of Gliese 876b and 876c, the two gas giants.

It’s generally a quiet life onboard the Pioneer. Roughly half of the small crew are scientists, concentrating on their research, while the others are dedicated to keeping the station running – maintenance, admin, medical and so on. Many have dual roles – a couple of the research team have rudimentary training as physicians and form the station’s medical department, while the maintenance team also double up as the logistics crew when the supply shuttle makes its monthly rendezvous.

Today we’re introducing some of the station’s crew as our first venture into 28mm SF figures. As with the station itself, these are all 3D prints sculpted by David Sheff. We are offering them in two scales – 32mm heroic scale, or slightly smaller 28mm versions which will match better with ranges such as Stargrave. Prices for the two sizes are the same since the difference in the amount of resin used is negligible.

The first four comprise two members of the research team – Michael Straight is a geologist, while Dr Whitman is a chemist studying the atmospheres of 876b and 876c, also doubling as the senior medic on the station.

Helen Shackleton is the shift leader of maintenance crew A and an expert on the station’s life support system. Bullneck Thompson is a member of her team, particularly valued when heavy lifting is required.

SF28-201 – Michael Straight – £4.00
SF28-202 – Dr W Whitman – £4.00
SF28-203 – Helen Shackleton – £4.00
SF28-204 – Barry “Bullneck” Thompson – £4.00

Every space station needs a medical centre to keep the crew in tip-top shape. It’s too expensive to keep a full-time doctor on the payroll, so members of the crew with basic medical training are aided by state of the art diagnostic beds.

The diagnostic equipment is built into a quadrant-shaped unit so that the beds can be arranged as a four berth island, two can be placed back to back against a wall or a single bed can sit in a corner. There are two in the Medical Centre pack, and you can buy extras.

The set also includes equipment trollies, a gurney and mobile crash cart and, for the times when the beds can’t cope, a pair of bodybags.

SF28-730 – Medical Centre – £18.00
SF28-731 – Diagnostic Bed – £6.75
SF28-732 – Medical Trollies – £2.00
SF28-733 – Gurney – £3.00
SF28-734 – Crash Cart – £2.00
SF28-735 – Body Bags – £2.50

Models designed by David Sheff, produced under licence. Background image by Handiwork Games.