Old Traveller Miniatures by Grenadier

[DalyDR]

I recently found my box of "Alien Mercenaries" made by Grenadier for the game "Traveller" and thought that after 30-some years of sitting around they deserved to have paint put on them.  I'm pretty happy with the way they came out, and think that these are nicely sculpted miniatures which can hold their own with much more recent offerings.


A K'kree with a "laser rifle" attached to a backpack with a hose of some sort.




Ael Yael with a long barreled gun.  I'm astounded that the super-thin piece at the end of his weapon survived all these years without breaking off and getting lost.




A second K'kree.




Aslan with a pistol.  I think the way the pistol came out is my favorite thing about this guy, though I also like his backpack.  The second Aslan figure from the box is still AWOL.  Hoping it will turn up some day.  I like these versions of Aslan much better than some later models issued by other companies.




A Hiver.  Couldn't think of how to paint this one up at first.  I went with a pink and magenta color scheme for the body, and hated it, too garish.  Ended up with this instead, which works well enough for me.




The Virushi!  Maybe my favorite from the box.  Not sure what to do with him in a game though, his device looks to be some sort of weird calculator as opposed to any kind of weapon.




I have the Droyne (minus one set of wings) and Vargr figures as well.  I'm not sure I'll bother painting the Vargr, the dogs/wolves-in-space doesn't vibe with me.

Hope to get all these guys on the table soon for a game, and think I might add to their group with some of the newer Rogue Stars / Stargrave aliens I've seen.

[Inkpaduta]

They look excellent. Great to paint the older classic miniatures.

[majorsmith]

Never seen these before, but they are rather nice, lovely painting too

[has.been]

I too have some of those. You've done a good job on them.
As to The Virushi! May I suggest the ships Science Officer?
The analytical approach of Spock joined to a Rhino!

I'm not sure I'll bother painting the Vargr, the dogs/wolves-in-space doesn't vibe with me.

have a read of Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter's 'The Long Mars'
series. Dey got Dogs.

[jetengine]

Are these still available somewhere? Kinda want one of those Canine-Centaurs.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

The Virushi!  Maybe my favorite from the box.  Not sure what to do with him in a game though, his device looks to be some sort of weird calculator as opposed to any kind of weapon.

Cripes, really?  Adding a slung weapon would be effortless, but not having one opens up so many possibilities.

Drone/robot operator.  Artillery FO.  Comms and E-war specialist. 

Medic, it can evac multiple mere human casualties at once with even calling for a stretcher.  Bonus points if you paint all the "red cross" equivalent symbols from the Sector General novels on its horn or something.

Stargrave hacker/codebreaker on steroids, or an officer with the Robotics Expert or Tekker background. 

Civilian VIP, aka mobile scenario objective.  Too big and oddly shaped for any available vehicular transport so you have to walk it to safety.  Could be anything - corporate exec, politician, leader of the local Church of the Bob, xeno-archeologist Indiana Jones wanna-be who keeps running into trouble, etc.

Local guide with translator gadget, keep it alive and nearby or risk falling prey to native flora and fauna.  Imagine what the predators must be like to have forced that thing's ancestors evolve intelligence and tool use to survive. 

Embedded media personnel with holo-recorder/editing rig because the brass wants some footage from the front to help morale at home.  If you're mercs, it's from PR and they want some material for a "mercs at work" commercial they're making.  Try not to die messily on camera.  "We can fix it in post!"

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Are these still available somewhere? Kinda want one of those Canine-Centaurs.

Long gone AFAIK - if anyone has the molds yet it'd likely be Mirliton.  They were produced under license and were very hard to get in the UK due to Games' Workshop (who had a license for 15mm Traveller) objections to competition (in 25mm scale) from Grenadier.  Even back then they were still kind of dicks.

If you want to torment yourself with what you missed:

http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Traveller_%28Grenadier%29

The alien animals are the ones I really regret not buying when I had the chance.

[DalyDR]

Drone/robot operator.  Artillery FO.  Comms and E-war

I like that thought.  He's too big (and slow probably) to be on the very front line anyway.

I've got the Hiver marked for the civilian VIP role.

[has.been]

If you want to torment yourself with what you missed:

 http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Traveller_(Grenadier)

Just leads to a blank page.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Just leads to a blank page.

Worked for me the first time.  Try again, I updated and that one seems to work through LAF.

[Redshank]

I am quite new to wargames/miniatures, but I love a bit of Traveller.

Are the RAFM minis not the old 15mm Traveller ranges? At least some of them - Droyne, Aslan, Vargr and various humans.

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0

Darkest Star do some not-Zhodani and not-Vargr as well...

https://www.darkeststargames.com/dark-star-15mm-sci-fi.html

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I am quite new to wargames/miniatures, but I love a bit of Traveller.

Are the RAFM minis not the old 15mm Traveller ranges? At least some of them - Droyne, Aslan, Vargr and various humans.

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0

I'm pretty sure those are the old 15mm figs produced under license by Games Workshop back in the days.  No longer referenced by their old Traveller names, since that license is long gone.

http://solegends.com/cittrav/index.htm

Darkest Star do some not-Zhodani and not-Vargr as well...

https://www.darkeststargames.com/dark-star-15mm-sci-fi.html

The garrhul certainly are nice not-vargr, although the kif, ventauran and feds are based on the Denizen 25mm figs - and the kif are from CJ Cherry's novels, of course.  They ventauran and feds work fine for Traveller too, of course.

[Ham Solo]

Just remember those old Citadel 15mm are true15mm, making them a bit smaller than some modern '15mm' due to scale creep. I still love them.

[DalyDR]

Next project with this old collection:





One complete box set and a bunch of singles picked up years ago.  Going to start from scratch, need to strip the old red paint and model railroad flocking off first.

[Earther]

I'm not sure I'll bother painting the Vargr, the dogs/wolves-in-space doesn't vibe with me.

Please sell them to me, instead!  I adore the Vargr!

I believe Mirliton do indeed still have the moulds and were planning a kickstarter to get them back into production, but (IIRC) Mongoose put a stop to it. A crying shame really, I alone would've bought quite a few… (I used to have all four sets, but had to sell them on some years ago. Wishing I hadn't done that now.)