Using other miniatures for traveller...

[Trent]

Ok, so there is a dearth of official traveller miniatures, like none at all I can find. So how about using other miniatures for traveler?

If you can find them, there are miniatures for a game called "infinity" by a company called "Corvus belli" that would absolutely rock as traveller miniatures. Check out the "Panoceania machinist" and tell me you wouldn't like him as your ship's engineer. There's some medics and hackers that would be great too, as well as a lot of armed figures that would look OK in traveller, I.E. they have a hard SF look to them.

While most warhammer 40k figs would look obscene and ridiculous in traveller, there are a few that could work. The kroot might make good generic primitive alien miniatures.

Likewise the tau might make outstanding generic advanced alien miniatures. Their stealth suit miniatures would make great warbots or extremely large power armor/mini mechs, and their crisis suits might be useful given their fairly hard SF look. Likewise their drone miniatures would look reasonable in traveller as remote controller/autonomous perimeter monitor robots.

The tau also have some insectoid allies that might make high tech homebrew alien figs.

Void 1.1 has, if you can find it, some minis suitable as traveller figures, mostly armed combat figs.

I've heard warzone and some similar games have traveller useable figs. Anyone want to look them up?

 

[Madarin Dude]

looking at the Corvus beli stuff looks like some quality there. http://www.corvusbelli.com/en/02_tiendainf.asp?IDNOTICIA=98

 

[the angle]

Some of the pre-painted Star Wars miniatures are excellent for Traveller. You need to focus on the humans, obviously, and avoid the guys in robes with lightsabers, but there's a nice assortment of humans in flight suits, armor, and civvies. There are even some that do a passable impersonation of Zhodani in battledress. The best way to get what you want is to hit ebay and cherry pick the individual figures.

Steve

 

[Spinward Scout]

Likewise the tau might make outstanding generic advanced alien miniatures. Their stealth suit miniatures would make great warbots or extremely large power armor/mini mechs, and their crisis suits might be useful given their fairly hard SF look. Likewise their drone miniatures would look reasonable in traveller as remote controller/autonomous perimeter monitor robots.

The Tau also have some cool looking GraVehicles that would work great with Traveller.

 

[Trent]

The tau insectoid allies are called the vespid, I'm trying to snag a few as they look like cool generic aliens.

As to the star wars line you could use some for some homebrew aliens if you want.

 

[Maladominus]

Some of the pre-painted Star Wars miniatures are excellent for Traveller. You need to focus on the humans, obviously, and avoid the guys in robes with lightsabers, but there's a nice assortment of humans in flight suits, armor, and civvies. There are even some that do a passable impersonation of Zhodani in battledress. The best way to get what you want is to hit ebay and cherry pick the individual figures.

Steve

Good suggestion there. Most of the generic Rebel vests and jackets will be suitable for any typical Traveller starship adventurer. I would avoid the ones wearing the orange Rebel helmets with the Rebellion logo tho.


Third Imperium Starport Authority: "Sir, your pilot's helmet... that orange logo, what planetary government is that from?"


Traveller: "Oh, that. Well, it's the symbol of the Rebellion."


Third Imperium Starport Authority: "Errr.... the Rebellion? And who exactly are the Rebels fighting against?"


Traveller: "Well, everyone knows the Rebellion is fighting The Evil Empire!"


Third Imperium Starport Authority: "Are you calling the Third Imperium an 'evil empire', sir? Please realize that this conversation is being recorded."


Traveller: "Uhh... well... no... that's not what I meant to say...."


Third Imperium Starport Authority: "Marines! Marines!! Come over quick!! Arrest this man! I believe we have a Solomani terrorist/agitator on hand!!"

 

[Trent]

Then the guys sues the official for abuse of force and false arrest and makes a megacred.

One big issue with miniatures for traveller is that you can gets all sorts of military/armed combatant figs, but traveller has lots of non combatant roles in it, like, I think for example that traveller was one of the first games to make "journalist" a character type.

Finding minis for non combat charcters can be a challenge, and again I recommend the infinity panoceania figures for this as they make some nice machinist, hacker and medic figs.

 

[Maladominus]

Then the guys sues the official for abuse of force and false arrest and makes a megacred.

Don't be silly. Frivolous lawsuits don't exist IMTU. Lawyers became extinct shortly after the Rule of Man.

 

[Trent]

Another good thing about using other company miniatures in traveller is that it can help you come up with new stuff.

Get a miniature of a tau vespid, say, and look at it. Try to imagine it's stats in traveller, and the stats for it's gun. Just doing that might make you think of something new, some new race, new planet of origin, etc.

It can lead to a new campaign, just like that.

 

[Rraurgrimm]

Our GM decided to switch to miniatures for tactical ground combat simulation recently. Now I have to find some miniature that depicts an Aslan/fteirle... I thought finding some cat-like creature that does not look all too sexed up would pose not that difficult. Seems I erred. :/

But well - perhaps a friend of mine can modify the Daktari from Corvus Belli.

 

[Maladominus]

If enough people whine..... Mongoose might eventually listen. (about making minis)

They are a not-so-small company with a sizable war chest. And quite obvious that they have the means to crank out like 2 or 3 MongTrav supplements every month (that's what it looks like from recent releases at Amazon and NobleKnights).

In fact, without even looking... I'm fairly sure this idea (of new Traveller minis) has already been suggested once, or twice, or 750 times, on the Mongoose Traveller forums themselves. I'd be surprised if no one has brought this up yet in those forums.

So get to it. Add your voice. If enough people whine... they might eventually listen and crank out a line of Naked Zhodani Telepath Commando Babes pewter miniatures in the near future. Or whatever it is your heart desires.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

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

Arn't these the old Alsan, Vargr and Droyne minitures?

Regards,

Ewan

 

[JustinInOz]

Eureka

Dont forget the 300 and 100 clubs at Eureka miniatures.

They already have quite a few pre orders for "Aslan" and "Zhodani".

Once they get a critical mass, they will have artists sculpt them and then they will create molds.

the link is here: http://eurekamin.com.au/custom.php

I have ordered a platoon of each.

 

[Maladominus]

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

Arn't these the old Alsan, Vargr and Droyne minitures?

Regards,

Ewan

15mm?? They look like the old 15mm Martian Metals miniatures line that was OFFICIALLY sanctioned for Traveller back in the Good Old Days, when MWM was still El Generalissimo at GDW. I remember them being advertised in the JTAS and various magazines at the time.

 

[sabredog]

Another good thing about using other company miniatures in traveller is that it can help you come up with new stuff.

Get a miniature of a tau vespid, say, and look at it. Try to imagine it's stats in traveller, and the stats for it's gun. Just doing that might make you think of something new, some new race, new planet of origin, etc.

It can lead to a new campaign, just like that.

These guys were some long forgotten line of minis I bought in '77 to use as my evil alien empire when I first developed my Traveller universe (no OTU then!). The one in blue is wearing reflec on his armor, the other some kind of combat, but they didn't really get that until Mercenary showed up (thankfully soon). I developed their stats and all from these two minis so they carry their powerguns (adapted from the early Hammers Slammers stories I read then) and are bigger than people.

I really wish I bought more, but back in those days my income was spread pretty thin after all those orcs and elves for D&D, and all the wargames I was playing (little tanks and Napoleonic cavalry bite deep into a paper route income).

And we were still just figuring out all we could do with D&D, and scratching our heads about this Traveller game so I was on "wait and see" mode to see how many players I could lure away from elves n' orcs and giving Trav a chance.

These are some Imperium Marines from the old Grenadier sets for Traveller that showed up a lot later (the side of the box says 1983). I got all of them, but all I have left after many moves are 3 marines, a couple of PC's, and a Crested Jabberwock.

I painted them to match my Terran Confederation to fight the evil Askorrian Empire.

This shot shows the relative sizes between the minis which actually work out to scale IMTU between Askorrians and humans.

 

[the angle]

I have a dozen or so of those lizardy guys. They're from Archive Miniatures, I believe. Never used 'em in Traveller but they made several appearances in Gamma World.

Steve

 

[sabredog]

Really? Wow, another door to my forgotten childhood is battered down!

Most excellent, I don't supposed you would part with any of them?

 

[the angle]

Even though they haven't been used for years, I admit to still having a certain sentimental attachment to them, along with all the other lumpish figures from that era. Besides which, I've just recently started a Metamorphosis Alpha game, which means there's a good chance they'll come out of the box again at some point. Sorry.

Steve

 

[sabredog]

That's ok, I feel the same way about mine - which is why I still have them even though I haven't used them since I was a kid.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Denizen do some great 25mm figs, including civilians and guys in Zhodani combat armour.

http://www.denizenminiatures.co.uk/