The Crew of the SS Star Wanderer

Hello and Welcome back, 

Here is a new crew for Wild Galaxy that I have been working on for a while (real life has kept me busy this year). This is the crew of the Exploration Ship SS Star Wanderer. Exploration involves long boring missions beyond the edge of Human Space, scanning stuff. Unless you find something interesting out there which can bring great fortunes to the crew. Crews are often paid bonuses that are a percentage of the royalties or profits from the finds. Things can get really interesting (often terminally) if you stray into GELF space or some secret corporate deep space facility. It's surprising just how often that seems to happen. There are other perks for those making big finds, with explorers gaining fame or having worlds, phenomenons or systems named after them.

Captain Berk was a Naval ship captain in the Nu Terra Empire. As retirement approached Berk decided to apply to become the Captain of an exploration ship. Not only was the pay better but he gets royalties from any of the worlds he claims. Berk fancies himself as a fearless, cunning and charismatic swashbuckler with a crew that loves him. The crew regard Berk as delusional narcissist who is probably going to get them killed. Berk wears a red coat and has gold shoulder pads on his armour which he feels will impress any Alien civilisations the crew may encounter. In addition to this Berk fancies his chances of seducing the Alien ladies...yup Captian Berk is one of those Captains! 

Commander Milla Samberg is the SS Star Wanderer's Exploration mission's second in command. Commander Samberg is a very competent no nonsese kind of officer. She had the misfortune of serving under Captain Berk in the Nu Terra Navy. No, not that kind of under. He should be so lucky. There is a unspoken of incident were Berk once tried his luck and it nearly cost him dearly. The details are very sketchy and its best not to ask about it, but it doesn't take too much imagination as to what happened. Still despite the unpleasant incident Berk trusts and relies on the Commander. Samberg on the other hand has the unpleasant duty of tidying up or fixing Captain Berk's messes. She half expects to have to take command of the ship when Berk gets himself killed pulling some stupid planetside stunt.

Lieutenant Commander Hugo Crimple is the SS Star Wanderer's third in command and was also recruited from the Nu Terra Navy. This is his first time serving under Captain Berk and he now wishes that he didn't. Crimple also serves as the ship's science officer, although the ship's computer grumbles that it does most of the work.

Berk and Crimple are Alternative Armies Ion Age "Balthizar and Jerome" figures. Samberg is also an Ion Age figure (female retained Knight). These figures are large compaired to the rest of the crew which are largely old 1980's 40K Rouge Trader figures. The cast bases were amputated and figures mounted on slimmer bases. Sadly the Balthizar figure lost a leg in the process which couldn't be saved so I have sculpted another leg. The Jerome figure also lost a foot during the operation but I was able to pin and glue it back on. 

Lt Payne is the SS Star Wanderer's chief Security officer. He is also ex Nu Terra Navy who worked as a Mercenary for a short while. Lt Payne is somewhat bemused at Captain Berk's wild nature but doesn't like the fact it is costing him vital security personnel. 

Lt Payne is a Arty Severn figure by MrBigTong (from Facebook).

This pair is the SS Star Wanderer's pilot and co pilot. Although the SS Star Wanderer's computer does most of the flying both the Pilot and co pilot are needed to plot courses or for finer control such as docking or combat manouvers (despite the ship's computer's protests). One of the advantages of being a pilot or co pilot is that you rarely have to leave the ship to explore. 

Both figures are old 80s GW 40K RT figures which I have had in my collection since back in the day. 

The Security detail. These guys are there as muscle should something hostile be encountered out there and have been recruited from various Space Ports often with chequered pasts. They are regarded by Captain Berk as some what disposable. They have other thoughts about this matter. Berk has never bothered to learn any of their names, usually referring to them as "you". 

These figures are from various sources. There is a (L to R) Void/Metropolis Traid figure, an 40K RT figure (another olde one from my collection), a 40K RT pirate/adventurer (ebay find) and a GW/Citiadel Chainsaw Warrior figure (a late 80's GW bargain bin find).

The Security detail are backed up by Killbot 3000, a warbot kept in the "In case of hordes of nasties" locker. Killbot 3000 is armed with two multi lasers for cutting down large groups of hostiles. The crew only break out Killbot 3000 when things look desperate as they regard it's AI as somewhat psychotic and as potentially dangerous as any hostile horde they might face.

The figure is a AS028 Warbot 2 resin robot I got for free with an order from Alternative Armies. 

Ship's Engineer Lieutenant Crabster and Dr Tato. Lt Crabster isn't too happy that Captain Berk seems to live to try and break his ship, but like the pilots he rarely has to leave the ship. Dr Tato finds that he has his hands full dealing with the injuries the security detail usually return to the ship with and often berates Berk about his reckless attitude towards the crew. 

Both figures are old 40K RT era Adventures/Pirates. The Left one is a ebay find and the right one has been in my collection since I was young and spotty.

Hans Lipper and Lave Dister are the ship's dog's bodies. They tend to do all those jobs the rest of the crew loath and avoid. These guys are the lowest ranks on the SS Star Wanderer, they rank even lower than the service bots (they have a better union). Captain Berk never gets their names right and these guys are often deployed alongside the security detail if extra numbers are needed.

Both figures are old 40K RT adventurers/Pirates. The Left figure (Hans) is another figure from my 80s collection and the Right figure (Lave) I picked up from ebay.

I have tried to group the figures into colour codes for their functions. Blue = Engieering/medical & scientific, Red = Security (what else would they be?), Gold = Command, Orange = Pilots & Navigation and Green = General maintenance/cleaning/dogsbody/drooling alien bug fodder. Although this crew is primarily intended for my Wild Galaxy setting, it can happily be deployed for games of Stargrave (minus a few figures). I could also hand pick a few crew members for games of Alien Zoology. 

There maybe future crew additions if I stumble across suitable figures. One voice is whispering to replace the Ion Age Command figures if something catches my eye. I feel they are still a little large compaired to the rest of the crew.

Thanks for looking, stay safe out there.