Wednesday 18 June 2014

12 Syntha Prosthene Marines

Introduction

Back in the day, there were 4 human factions for the VOID 1.1 Science Fiction game, as well as 1 alien race.  When the manufacturer, i-Kore, went bust, I bought heavily into 3 of the armies: the Junkers (despotic, brutal dictatorship), Viridians (fervent ecologists) and also the Syntha (technologically-boosted cyborgs).  Many people were selling off the VOID miniatures cheaply, which was great for those of us who just wanted to collect metal!  Note that these ranges are still available; they're now owned by Scotia Grendel.

Many of my figures from this period are still in blisters or shrink-wrapped.  However, recently I thought it would be useful to paint up some Prosthene Marines since my Syntha force is probably the smallest of the three armies.  No, I've no idea what "Prosthene" means.  I'm also unsure what makes these guys "marines", though I suspect strongly that the guys at i-Kore just thought it sounded cool...

Prosthene Marines

So here we have it: 12 Syntha Prosthene Marines.  These are fully-armoured, though I'd rate this as "light" protection in most sets of rules as it doesn't look especially thick.  Of course, a couple of soldiers have taken off their helmets, just to show that they are sergeants.  At least, right up to the point where a shell splinter or stray plasma bolt to the head turns them onto "ex-sergeants".

I've painted these up to "table" standard rather than my more usual "detail" level.  Mainly this is because I lost a lot of interest in the mini-project almost immediately after removing them from their blisters!  By that time they were taking up a lot of space and I have a new house rule (since January) that any model which goes on the workbench may only be removed when it is completed.  Consequently, I rushed the painting for these models a bit and skimped on some parts.

8 of the 12 marines are armed with the "pulse rifle"; a fairly standard oversized sci-fi weapon.  Arguably the background fluff makes this plausible, since these soldiers are supposed to be technologically-boosted humans with above average strength.  Make of this what you will...

If it wasn't for the rather large guns then I'd say that these models could quite easily be used in a hard sci-fi game, or even as near-future combatants.  Actually, there is another variant of the Prosthene Marines who are armed with the somewhat less bulky gauss rifles, so they'd work even better as "realistic" futuristic troopers.

The remaining quartet consists of a pair of rocket launchers and also a couple of "targeteers".  Now, having forward observation officers (FOOs) isn't in itself a particularly radical concept.  It does make a refreshing change from the normal sci-fi infantry support weapons of machine guns, rockets and maybe a flamethrower, though.

For me, the things that make the targeteers rather more interesting are that firstly they are part of the regular squad, as opposed to being a rare, attached asset from a different branch of the service, so they're very common.  Secondly, once they have "painted" a target, the massively parallel communications network in the Syntha army allows anyone or anything with smart weaponry to fire at that target immediately, whether they can see it or not, without any indirect-fire penalties.  That capability could lead to some very interesting tactics!

16 comments:

  1. I like these guys a lot and the weaponary isn't that oversized compared to a lot of other ranges. The Void background is pretty good and it was faily popular when itfirst came out from what I rememeber.
    I like the "camo" you've added to them, it reminds me of the dazzle camouflage used on WW1 ships for some strange reason and it does add a bit of sci-fi-ness to them.
    (There's nothing wrong either with having "wargame" standard troops either imo, it's all I'm capable of !)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Joe. My earlier Syntha troops were much brighter than this and looked rather too comic-book for my more mature tastes. These have been dulled-down quite a bit!

      Delete
  2. Zabadak's spot on with the 'Dazzle' comment. These look great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From memory, the camouflage was inspired by something in the Syntha source book rather than being derived from any real-world pattern.

      Delete
  3. While I never got into Void it is still good to see the figures again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that some of the VOID figures have been through several generations of sculpts. Having just looked closer at the Scotia Grendel website, these figures look nothing like the current Prosthene Marines, yet I'm totally certain that's what they are.

      Delete
  4. I must admit that these are new to me, but I love what you have done with them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Michael. I think these are the slightly older Prosthene sculpts; I prefer them over the newer (and currently available) ones.

      Delete
  5. They look great, nice paint job! I'm don't like the pulse rifles too much, but the grenade launcher/rifles in the last photo look quite nice - it's not an overdone bazooka.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mathyoo! Maybe I should paint up the gauss rifle variants as well, so that you can see the difference?

      Delete
  6. I've obviously missed Void somehow. The camo on these guys looks like a perfect fit for them.

    On a different note, have a Liebster award for your excellent blog (assuming you don't have one hidden away somewhere) :)
    http://mythostransmissions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/liebster.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, VOID is ancient history by now. I always thought that the game itself was crude and uninspiring. Some of the models were a bit weird, but others were really nice.

      As to the Liebster award, many thanks indeed for the nomination; it's greatly appreciated! However as you guessed, I have had this award before and must decline this time.

      Delete
  7. I love the paint scheme, very far from standard syntha scheme. They look less robotic and more soldier. Now, how would they fare on the table top?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too many of the original VOID schemes were only suitable for a parade ground and not for real warfare. This is my attempt to keep in the spirit of the Syntha army book whilst making them more suitable for a battlefield.

      As for tabletop performance, that would depend on the rules used and the player :-) .

      Delete
    2. Hi found you when searching for prosthene marines. Wow really nice camo job on them. Have to order som for my syntha army.

      Delete
    3. Thanks, Pedro. Be aware that the Prosthene marines currently on offer (from Scotia Grendel) are a different set of sculpts from mine. I think my figures are an older version that is probably not available any more.

      Delete