Discrimination is not a word widely used in the Federation dictionary as everyone has a right to serve a term of service to obtain citizenship if they should so wish. Those who are fit and able enough to serve their term within the Mobile Infantry do so regardless of whether they are male or female as in the eyes of the MI they are equally capable.

Thankfully, it is very easy to represent a mix of both sexes in the MI as Mongoose have thoughtfully included a range of female cap trooper models in their product line recognising the significance of mixed sex units in the context of the Starship Troopers canon. The female cap troopers come in a boxed set of eight metal miniatures, which include a trooper with a Triple Thudd Grenade Launcher and Morita Snipers rifle in addition to the regular troopers.

Dividing the troopers up couldn’t have been simpler as with the sixteen cap troopers in the boxed set I had enough to simply divide them all into three full mixed squads, or four smaller squads if I wanted to make the most out of my special weapons.

Painting Female Cap Troopers.

There is very little to add here beyond what I covered in my section on painting Cap Troopers in general as I changed little with painting the female troopers. To help define their armour a little more I went one shade of highlight lighter along the chest armour, helmet and shoulder padding, but other than that the female troopers have been painted in exactly the same way as their male counterparts.

I did make one minor change to one of the models however as I felt the pose for the model I selected as Bravo Squad’s sergeant was a little too similar to that of one of the other female troopers I was going to be using. I got around this by adding a medkit pack to the other trooper model to pick her out as having the field medic skill. The pack was a field radio from a GW Catachan, which I clipped the radio aerial off and replaced with a short handle made from brass rod.

Troopers ‘On the Bounce’

For the final two cap troopers for my initial 2000 points force, I decided to mix and match a few parts to create a couple of different poses; the first running and the second with his leg planted on a rock outcrop.  The great thing about conversions like this is they can be achieved with virtually no wastage to parts consisting of the two halves of the kneeling figure and a single set of legs from a standing figure. The first thing I did was split the upright legs straight down the centre with a fine blade modelling saw. The two halves were then combined with each of the kneeling figures lower legs to create a running pose and a raised leg pose. I then completed the two troopers by assembling two upper torsos, one with the weapon lowered for the running trooper and the other raised for the stationary trooper. A few extra bits of kit to bulk them out more (Did I happen to mention I like to see lots of webbing on my troopers?) and both were ready to be mounted onto their bases.

For the rocks I used Woodland Scenics Lightweight Hydrocal and rock outcrop moulds to cast a few  sections of low rock. Normally on figure bases I simply use a piece of real rock, however in this instance I specifically wanted a low profile to the pieces so I cast them instead in plaster, plus I needed a few larger pieces also to match for my Marauder NCO’s base. These were stuck down in place using a contact bonding PVA glue and the figures pinned in place using small lengths of brass rod. With the troopers secure on the bases I then added the rest of the base texture and set about undercoating them ready for painting.

The centre model is that of the forces NCO and is taken straight from the Heroes of the Federation boxed set with no conversion.

Next Up: Third Platoon NCO. Do you want to know more?