"Astral Sailor: sci fi 28mm improved soldiers" Topic

Hello!

Based on a 8 year old design/idea of bulky armored space expeditionary forces, here comes some WIP renders of the unit.

The old design was a space suit + armor, however now i have added a 2nd stage/level in between which is space suit + exoskeleton.

Level 1: space suit (it has no weapon nor accesories yet) that consist in a suit with several layers, giving balistic protection (equivalent to "NIJ 3A"), radiation protection, heat/cold protection and has air purification gadget.

This suit is used when no mayor threats are around, to explore new worlds, patrol known ones, being in reserve or just to get out of the space ship to do repairs/maintenance.

Level 2: adds the exoskeleton, to gain MUCH higher strengh, load capacity, to use heavy tools/weapons, melee combat if needed, and the structure itself gives some extra protection.

Level 3: via magnets, adds plates (10mm to 30mm thick, superior to "NIJ 4") attached to the exoskeleton frames; these plates are for heavy duty tasks, heavy combat, special missions, only reserved for the genetically improved super humans soldiers that compose the Astral Corps: the Astral Sailors.

Astral Sailors basic functional unit is composed by 7 men: 1 Sargeant, 1 engineer (also operates anti-vehicle weaponry), 3 riflemen (1 with medical equipement), 1 corporal (Sarg. assistant, uses heavy fire weapons to support) and 1 Specialist (uses heavy mele/ranged weapons to fight big/strong enemy units):

NExt image shows the AS size: 32mm to eyes against a normal sized human who is 28mm. He is using the basic spacesuit.

Here is the "level 2", wearing the exoskeleton; at this stage the super soldier can use the proper weapons to engage higher/stronger/moer resistant threats than average (other humans/humanoid species).

And Level 3, full armor and some weaponry:

Helmet is closed with the mask:

ANd a variant without the chest/head plates protection to be able to have more mobility to fight with the machete (could be handling a 2 handed mele weapon too)

Nice.

A fast pose testing how does it "feels" the heavy gatling machine gun :o

It looks like he'll need both hands to control the gatling gun. Recoil is going to make the barrel climb, at least, and it may spiral. This pose is for carrying a heavy piece of luggage.

@Oberlindes: Yes you and others had same impression, so it had to be decreased in size, now is a mini gun "gatling"… the previous design was quite "voluptuous" not in weight (the weaposn would weight the equivalent to 5kilos thanks to the exoskeleton) but the shape an volume in ocuped …

Please take in count this is a fast posed model , meaning is has stretched polygons in articulations, it was made as a sketch to see how to place the gatling.

Now he has a bigger back pack, he carries the machete, grenades and has a feed belt :D

In the 3rd pic i added a PLACEHOLDER (not finished) shield, as this unit is meant to give heavy cover/supress, and in the worst of cases would cover the retreat of the rest of the squad, action to which a nice shield would be "handy".

I find the smaller weapon much more plausible.

The powered armor will help control the weapon, which surely has high recoil, but it still won't be as stable as a two-handed grip.

Missile launcher "railgun": no recoil, cheaper ammo, light weith= more rounds, more maximum range; perfect.

Fast posed model to get an idea of the look:

It will be easier to draw that machete if it's hilt-up.

After some days! I have been working on the parts, and have made properly posed examples:

Also, "modular weapon" to sastify those petions regarding weapons, now you can put 1, 2 or none of the side plates of the hand-weapons:

so, here are the 3 rifleman using these parts:

Hello! After some time i have finished the tactical squad of the Astral Sailors. The squads are always composed as minimum by 7 men. Four of each military units forms/create a higer unit level; this means that a platoon is made of four 7 men squads + 1Lt = 29 men, four 29 men platoons + 1Captain + 1capt assitant makes a company of 118 men and so on.

External support units as explorers, light vehicules, personal carriers etc etc are yet to be done!

While actually in the chest they have a oval plate to indicate the RANK of the soldier, i did a small OPTIONAL banner that has both a regiment insignia, and a plate to indicate the rank of the leader and unit he is leading (squad, platton, company, batallion or regiment)

The banner would be for use in open battle field/operations rather than using it on small spaces like the interior of a space ship /building