Wednesday, 29 October 2025

"Often Favouring Rugged And Ugly Looking Equipment..."

 "...The Soviets have shown themselves to be excellent Lunar inhabitants."

This 32mm Soviet Cosmonaut is produced by "Black Site Studios" for their "Lunar" skirmish game, and was created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 5 3D Printer. The STL (Standard Triangle Language) file comes as part of the company's Two-Player Digital Starter Set and was actually upscaled a little bit due to the sculpt appearing somewhat smaller than the cast resin Russian astronauts I already own.

The Cosmonaut was super-glued onto a "Citadel" 30mm circular stand and primed in "Two Thin Coats" Sanguine Scarlet. It was then covered in "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson, dry-brushed with (more) "Two Thin Coats" Sanguine Scarlet and had his face-plate initially layered with some "Citadel" Abaddon Black.  This helmet visor was subsequently treated to a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Gold and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

"Black Site Studios" WIPs - These three NASA Astronauts have had their basic work finished

Lastly, the figure's small geology hammer and large briefcase were given a lick of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. The metal attaché case was later given a careful dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Gunmetal to help bring out some of its finer details. I'm not entirely sure what could be contained in such a carryall - as this piece of equipment appears to be unique to the digital product, and there's no card for it in the Lunar Core Game I bought in July 2021. As a result I probably use the model to represent a Soviet Doctor with all their medical equipment locked away safely inside.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have also been working on more of my NASA reinforcements as well, as I'd ideally like each opposing side to consist of eight or so miniatures. These particular astronauts are all 3D printed from the Two-Player Digital Starter Set too, although a couple of them have been quite heavily converted using pieces taken from my "Lunar" bitz box. Of particular note I spotted that I now owned an STL for a more advanced-looking American space suit, which will now be worn by the faction's overall commander - reducing the cast resin character I've previously pigmented down to a Junior Officer.

"Trench Stench" WIPs - These Dirt Knights have been primed, shaded and dry-brushed

In addition, I've rather suddenly found myself being absolutely bowled over by the digital sculpts of "Trench Stench", who rather delightfully "make Trench Crusade compatible miniatures." To begin with I've produced a five-man strong squad of their free to download Dirt Knight STL. Admittedly, whilst the product does carry the "Trench Crusade" tagline it doesn't seem to be a specific unit for the "skirmish-scale tabletop miniatures game set in a horrifying alternate timeline of WW1." However, the quintet could easily be used to represent a band of Crusader Knights - especially as the lore claims that "there are thousands of different crusader Orders from across Christendom."

As a result I have simply 'mirrored' the odd single-pose sculpt to provide the warband with a little variety, and aim to give them a fairly straightforward rusty armour look, with drab brown leather garments to tie in with their Dirt Knight title. In the near future I also plan to give them a Mechanised Gunslinger Lieutenant as a leader, having been sent this STL file as another freebie...

2 comments:

  1. Great work on another Cosmonaut Simon, and the NASA ones are progressing nicely. Don't know much about the different factions for Trench Crusade, other than the odd bit I've seen on different blogs.

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  2. Lovely stuff. The knight is pretty great mini!

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