Astral Sailors/Troopers: WiP sci fi 28mm scale humans

[Menhir Games]

Hello!

Based on a 8 year old design/idea of bulky armored space expeditionary forces, here comes some WIP renders of the unit.

The old design was a space suit + armor, however now i have added a 2nd stage/level in between which is space suit + exoskeleton.

Level 1: space suit (it has no weapon nor accesories yet) that consist in a suit with several layers, giving balistic protection (equivalent to "NIJ 3A"), radiation protection, heat/cold protection and has air purification gadget.

This suit is used when no mayor threats are around, to explore new worlds, patrol known ones, being in reserve or just to get out of the space ship to do repairs/maintenance.

Level 2: adds the exoskeleton, to gain MUCH higher strengh, load capacity, to use heavy tools/weapons, melee combat if needed, and the structure itself gives some extra protection.

Level 3: via magnets, adds plates (10mm to 30mm thick, superior to "NIJ 4") attached to the exoskeleton frames; these plates are for heavy duty tasks, heavy combat, special missions, only reserved for the genetically improved super humans soldiers that compose the Astral Corps: the Astral Sailors.

Astral Sailors basic functional unit is composed by 7 men:  1 Sargeant, 1 engineer (also operates anti-vehicle weaponry), 3 riflemen  (1 with medical equipement), 1 corporal (Sarg. assistant, uses heavy fire weapons to support) and 1 Specialist (uses  heavy mele/ranged weapons to fight big/strong enemy units):

Next image shows the AS size: 32mm to eyes against  a normal sized human who is 28mm. He is using the basic spacesuit.


Here is the "level 2", wearing the exoskeleton; at this stage the super soldier can use the proper weapons to engage higher/stronger/moer resistant threats than average (other humans/humanoid species).



And Level 3, full armor and some weaponry: the back pack is used to storage magazines  and/or grenades (rifle man), engineer has bigger back pack to storage field mines, tools,  and energy for his plasma gun (also used to weld/repair)





Helmet is closed with the mask:



And a variant without the chest/head plates protection to be able to have more mobility to fight with the machete (could be handling a 2 handed mele weapon too)

[Wachaza]

Not a bad start.

Lose the cricket bat and change the weapons to something more conventional. Stupid to lose the total use of a hand by sticking it in a box of a weapon. The partial plate seems to use the wrong parts. Surely the chest protection would be the last bit you'd remove? It makes the anatomy look wrong.

[vodkafan]

I like very much the different layered spacesuit design and the exoskeleton but not the weapons. But if they come separately then that's great no problem. I would certainly buy some for peaceful exploration and mining purposes!

[Menhir Games]

@WACHAZA:

Hello, removing the chest was just to give an idea of the layers "thickness", but also, the armours and weapons will be all modular, meaning that the model will actually have its full arm, being able to use the "Box" weapons or other conventional grip wepaon, and alse being able to remove  breastplate, arm, fore arm legs plates.

By saying this, the level of "losing the total use of a hand" is the same in both cases, unless you can use your hand while  handling an assault rifle or plasma gun? Here the wepaons function as  small shields too, they can  be droped as if they were convencional  wepons, i guess you just assumed that the hand was like.. welded to the weapon or something?

Those 2 basic weapons are big, but are easily handed thanks to exoskeleton, and if want to drop it, you can, just as you wuld drop an assault rifle, they can be attached to the back pack

they will have other weapons with conventional grip aswell

[The_Beast]

The exoarmour might have a bit of VSF vibe, as well, with the rivets, though our lot usually want 'more.'

And, maybe, a small stack on the backpack. 

Doug

[Menhir Games]

The exoarmour might have a bit of VSF vibe, as well, with the rivets, though our lot usually want 'more.'

And, maybe, a small stack on the backpack. 

Doug

Oh yes, without rivets as a different feel, but its looks very "planar" and quite boring:



What did you meant with  stack on back pack (english not my primary language)

[Ultravanillasmurf]

A stack is foreign for chimney,, shortened from smoke stack.  ^__^.

The presence implies a steam or steam style power source (have a look at Hannah the Librarian's suit for a subtle example).

Anvil used to do a steam punk style power pack for the Exo (Steam) Lords.

Other Steam Punk back packs are available.

[Wachaza]

By saying this, the level of "losing the total use of a hand" is the same in both cases, unless you can use your hand while  handling an assault rifle or plasma gun? Here the wepaons function as  small shields too, they can  be droped as if they were convencional  wepons, i guess you just assumed that the hand was like.. welded to the weapon or something?

You can drop or sling a conventional gun easily. You can't with those sleeves as you'd need to worm your hand and forearm out. Not easy in space. As to using a plasma gun as a shield I wouldn't want a plasma breach on my hand. The "machete" has no edge and looks like a steel girder. The suits aren't bad but the weapons are a complete turn off.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

If the intention is that a ranged weapon is to be used as a "shield", it should probably have some sort of stand off shield and have a shield style form.

The assault wombles have a small shield/gyro jet pistol combo. I would suggest either a round or square style shield, possibly with a cut out if you choose square?

On the mitten guns, maybe mounting the weapon under or outside the forearm might work better than as a mitten. This would free up the hand.

[vodkafan]

I know it's only at the design stage, but are we slightly nitpicking? The weapons will be separate, that's good enough for me! These minis look like they will be highly customizable. I want to do some asteroid prospectors using these.

[Wachaza]

I know it's only at the design stage, but are we slightly nitpicking?

Yup.

Nitpicking is the way to get a product I might buy rather than one I won't. There's a nice render there but the weapons make it a non-starter.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I do not think we are nit picking, there are just some design decisions that contributors to this thread think could be finessed to improve the end product.

Some are possibly very personal viewpoints, others may meet general approval.

I do not want to say anything that would imply any IP issues. However Emily Blunt did spring to mind wielding that machete.

The machete does appear from the render to have an edge, how sharp is down to production (some of the Great Womble miniatures have very thick and blunt blade edges). What I would suggest is that the holes in the trailing part of the blade be lengthened and made deeper so the wielder can use them as grips for the other hand, one just in front of the grip, the other towards the pointy end.

By the way, is that a machete or a falchion?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falchion
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machete

[Menhir Games]

Hi!  constructive criticis are ok of course, they help build a better prodcut, i have to detect which are generally ok and which ones are jsut personal opinions, that is why i also have to answer back, then receive another from you , etc until  we get a clean result/conclusion.

Machete/flachion: yes would be more a falchion, it does have a edge, however it is meant to crush, not necesarily to cut, in that case  it would be more like a sacre (curved). i am based on "tactical machetes" aesthetic:




Chimney: the tecnology is quite "near future" based on actual  tecnology levels: will have coil gun, railgun sniper rifle, and as you see, the space suit (level 1) is fit, not bulky, showing advanced tecnology that allows to make thinner suits. THen, comes the exosuit/skeleton, and finally the plates, made of  dense polymers + balistic ceramics + titanium, meaning that  steam has no place here haha, woudl not be able to feed the energy requirments, it is more like bateries and electricity.

weapons: the rifle is meant to be used in the left hand, while in the right hand the soldier would be able to use the machete, use his grenades or have a plasma gun (or have nothing at all).The rifle, main purpose is to shoot, but its build/structure allows it to have a small use as a mini-shield, more than nothign to stop mele attacks, but ofcourse could save from some shots as well , BUT  the real shields will be used by other units, like the heavy fire weapon soldier and the specialist, those will be square shields.

What i can do with the rifle is: open its inner plate so its not all enclosed and can be more easily droped and also assembled/disasembled from the miniature itself.

The plasma gun, is meant to be used in the right hand, and not to be used as small shield/buckler, that is why is also ahs the bayonet, it act as basic weapon for the engineer, who also has other equipment as minefield, grenades, repairing tools and can be equiped with a "rail gun missile launcher", making him a unit that clearly its  main function is not melee, just.. shooting enemy vehicles , put mines, repair, and if someone gets closer, he would use the plasma as a shotgun with bayonet

Yet, i could do the same i will do with the rifle, open its inner side. The plasma bateries are on top of the gun, that is why the outter side plate would act as "mini shield".


In the other hand i did the gatling gun, it is a wip, and the pose was made "fast" (broken stretched polygons here and there ). This guy can handle a real shield in his left hand, he doesnt need 2 hands on the weapon since  , thanks to exoskeleton, he feels as if he is carrying a 5kilogrames/11pounds (the real weight would be near 50kilos-110pounds)

[vodkafan]

I do hope these get produced and released.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I think it was the second Resident Evil film that had a bad guy equipped with a cut down minigun. The actor found it a bit of a handful even firing low power blanks.

If you have the dvd it is in one of the "making of" items.

I know we are used to seeing miniguns being wielded by infantry but for a weapon of that size you might need to beef up the arm, torso and legs of the wielder.

The pose looks good, though you might want to move the gun back slightly to improve the balance. The exo-skeleton might be able to move it, but it is more efficient if the weapon is balanced.