Stargave – Automatons

Of all the recent Stargrave releases, I was particularly looking forward to the Automatons, which I am happy to share with you today.

Designed by Northstar Military Figures in cooperation with Osprey Games, these half-human, half-machine creatures have so much potential, which we are going to take a closer look at. Like the other multi-part plastic kits in the Stargrave range, this one contains 20 28mm scale miniatures and has an RRP of 22 GBP.

As usual, there are four identical sprues containing five miniatures each, as well as two sprues with flat, 25 mm round bases. These are very similar to the Renedra bases and do not have a lip or raised edge.

The casting quality is good. There are prominent mould lines, but these can be cleaned up quickly and there is no mould slip. The space within the sprues has not been wasted, and there are a lot of different options per sprue.

Content of each sprue:

• 5 Bodies
• 20 Heads
• 3 tech bugs
• 19 pair of arms with various ranged and close combat weapons
• no gear like bags, ammunition and pouches

We are going to build a single sprue to show you how extensive this kit is. Unlike some of the other kits, the arms are not numbered as they do not need to be built in pairs.

We get five different bodies that look similar. These could be anything from tech slaves to half-human androids or some sort of Borg-like alien race.

As you can see, there is a wide variety of weapon options. As the Automatons have a different purpose, these weapons are designed to resemble tools such as mining or drilling equipment and have been repurposed for close combat or self-defence.

The heads feature various designs of mostly bald heads, offering a selection of sinister-looking faces and enabling you to create a range of characters, from androids to cyber-zombies.

On top of that, each sprue contains these tech-spiders that can be added to bases. You can put multiple ones on a base to create a swarm or use them in other ways.

Since you have a lot of spare parts, I wanted to see how these fit in scale. I have some old Confrontation (Proto-Necromunda) models and was looking for compatible arms - these are perfect!

I also wanted to use the automatons with my Necromunda '95 collection to bulk up my servitor or guild slave numbers, and they fit the scale very well.

It's a good-looking set, as you can see.

Conclusion

Stargrave plastic kits always offer good value, and this is probably one of the few that I am going to build entirely. I usually swap half of the sprues in each box for half of another to get a broader variety of parts, especially since you get a lot, and I mean a lot, of spares from each sprue. I don't see this one as a regular crew kit, but rather as something to create encounters with. Perhaps for single-player mode, or as NPCs for your crews to fight against. At just over a pound per model, these are extremely cheap, offering even better value than the metal miniatures in the blister.

For retro gamers like me, I can see these as a base for a penal legion or servitor squads, or, depending on how you paint them, an alien cult.

As usual, these are interchangeable with the other plastic kits in the Stargrave range, so you can build your own crew of cyborg/half-human spacefaring adventurers. There are many more possibilities if you combine them with other plastic kits in the same or a very similar scale, such as Frostgrave, Dead Man's Hand or Bolt Action.

• Production Quality: 4/5
• Design appeal: 4/5
• Options / Customization: 4/5 
• Value for money: 5/5
• Ease of Assembly: 4/5

Stargrave is a brand of North Star Figures and Osprey Games.