Five Parsecs From Home Crew

I spent an enjoyable half an hour or so yesterday rolling up a crew for Five Parsecs From Home, after which I realised that my plan to use 15mm figures probably wasn't going to work. I went for a five man crew and ended up with three humans, a bot and a K'Erin, the background, motivation and class all working out to be really compatible, which was great. However, although I managed to sort out some suitable figures in 15mm, this left me without any other figure options except for heavily armed and armoured military types. 

Instead, I've decided to use 28mm figures, for which there are plenty available including a few in the lead pile. These are all Copplestone figures including two versions of the 'road warrior', a not terminator and a Future Wars trooper, who will inevitably end up being nicknamed 'shorty' or some such. It's as good start and only leaves the K'Erin figure to track down or convert, for which I might get a Copplestone Hunter Alien or use one of my son's left over Tau. 

To provide the opposition, I'm going to go cheap and cheerful, so ordered three single sprues of the Stargrave crew, mercenaries and troopers from the Sprue Shop. They do a really convenient bundle deal of one of each sprue for fifteen quid, which fills all the gaps I need as far a humans and humanoid aliens are concerned. I'm not keen on the figures but you can't argue with the price tag and I'm sure that some selective combinations of head, arms and weapons will produce some good results.

Five Parsecs from Home Star Ship

I have finished modifying the toy Starlink Lance model and have given it an overall black undercoat, ready for painting as a second hand scout or ex-military patrol ship for my Five Parsecs From Home 15mm crew. In the end, I didn't add any more bits to the basic model and just inverted the engine pods and wing things after removing the electronic bits, then filled in the screw holes and sanded them down. I think it looks pretty good and will be a useful terrain feature or objective in some of the games. This time, I have put an old 15mm Laserburn merchant baron and his mercenary bodyguard in the photo, just so you can get a sense of the scale.

Starlink Spaceship for 5PFH

I spotted this Starlink toy space fighter in the local toy shop at the weekend and thought it might work as a ship for my Five Parsecs From Home crew if I tweaked it a bit. I took off the electronic plug in bits, as it is designed for a computer game, then screwed the wings back together again and glued them on upside down. I'll need to fill in the screw holes, add a ramp to the front of the fuselage below the cockpit and add some more detailing bits, but I think it will work with my 15mm figures (there's one in the photo for scale). It's not perfect but for a fiver it's more than good enough for a bit of terrain once resprayed then repainted in a worn out, weathered 'piece of junk' paint scheme.

Five Parsecs from Home Figures

After some googling about in search of suitable 15mm figure ranges for Five Parsecs from Home, I've decided to get most of the figures I need from the Critical Mass range via Ral Partha Europe. I would have preferred to use Khurasan figures but, as they're in the US the customs and postage would be prohibitive, so Critical Mass it is. I'll hunt around in other ranges including GZG and Alternative Armies for bits and bobs to fill any gaps, but the Critical Mass figures will do for most things including Humans, Ferals, K'erin, Engineers, Assault Bots and Precursors, give or take a few minor discrepancies. I've ordered a pretty good selection of figures from across the range, with an eye to some individual figures that I can form into a six strong crew. It's another project for the summer holidays or, if I can't squeeze it in, later in the year.

Five Parsecs First Impressions

I've been skimming through the Five Parsecs from Home rule book today, as it arrived yesterday in the post, and first impressions are really good. I haven't really got my head around the system yet but it seems pretty straightforward and I expect that, after a couple of games, it will flow along quite easily. The detailed bit is in the crew creation and progression mechanisms beyond the actual skirmish combat, which is the key to the narrative campaign focus of the game. The book itself is a handy not quite A5 size and is very well laid out, illustrated and organised, which makes the twenty five quid price tag easier to swallow (although I got mine for slightly less). I'm now on the hunt for 15mm figures to use for the characters and opposition, with GZG as the first option, supplemented by whatever else I can find!

Five Parsecs from Home

I made one of those 'ooh, shiny!' impulse purchases at the weekend, when Northstar were offering the new, ever so shiny hardback edition of Five Parsecs From Home at a discount. I like Nordic Weasel rules but never really considered this solo, RPG sci-fi campaign focussed system as an option. I sounds really intriguing and I was suckered into ordering a copy by the thought of a narrative 'kitchen table' campaign of my own, using 15mm GZG or Laserburn figures to keep it affordable. Who knows, it might even happen?