3D Printing - "Station Forge" - Tarion Assault Squad

"Station Forge" WIPs - Three Tarion Assault Troopers primed, shaded and dry-brushed

All of these models were created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer and are available as STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from "Station Forge" on "MyMiniFactory". The armoured aliens are part of a ten-figure multipart collection entitled Tarion Assault Squad which were released in December 2024, and have clearly been heartily inspired by a certain "young race of technologically-oriented beings from the Eastern Fringe" in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

This 32mm set was one of my main motivators for joining this particular creator, as I wanted to paint up a handful of different science-fiction based 'kill teams', and "Station Forge" seemed to readily scratch that itch rather quickly due to releasing "four main factions and bonus models" every month as part of their Tribe. As a result I already own a considerable amount of their other STL files, ranging from infantry, through to armoured suits and massive vehicles, so hope to get a fair few forces printed, assembled and made tabletop ready over the coming months.

"Station Forge" WIPs - A Tarion Officer assembled from the multi-piece STL collection

Producing these miniatures was also an absolute breeze due to all the bits and pieces coming pre-supported. This meant it really was just a case of picking the torsos, heads, arms and backpacks which I liked and slapping them on my build plate. The only failures I experienced were where I tucked up some of the larger hand-weapons into the centre of the plate, making it a little difficult for the resin to reach the odd support - and thus causing the part to disagreeably flatten. However, even these pieces are useable either by cutting away the spoilt parts or using them as base debris.

To begin with I thought I'd begin with a reasonably straightforward ensemble of Tarion holding what seems to be the squad's 'go to' firearm. However, I did include a couple of the other weapons released with the kit - most noticeably a long-barrelled gun which is somewhat reminiscent of the T'au Pathfinder's Rail Rifle. All of the figures went together perfectly with a dollop of super-glue here and there - even the team's leader, who 'halt stance' was created using a couple of individual arms, as opposed to the usual 'wishbone' sculpt with both hands already holding their blaster of choice.

"Station Forge" WIPs - Three (more) Tarion Assault Troopers primed, shaded and dry-brushed

The only extra detail I added was to one of the poses which was standing on a piece of terrain. For this particular individual I hooked out a plastic tyre from the NSPIoC05 - Implements of Carnage One sprue for "Gaslands" by "North Star Military Figures", and used that. Despite being a different scale to the extra-terrestrial, as it is actually designed to "customise your die-cast cars into instruments of death", the piece slotted underneath the trooper's foot perfectly.

Colour scheme wise I plan to go with a predominantly brown affair, something similar to the original T'au Sept Fire Warriors palette I recall from my youth, though not quite as ochre as that 'iconic hue which is worn across the Empire as a sort of dress uniform.' This should help me get a fairly significant-sized squad on the tabletop in a reasonable time, as well as help make the models a bit more interesting to pigment as opposed to the predominantly "Vallejo" Heavy Red or "Citadel" Sons Of Horus Green I currently seem to be working with...