Sunday, February 8, 2026

'Toy Story' from Paul O'G - Astronauts and Cosmonauts!

I grew up with my Dad explaining the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo missions and tales of him watching the moon walk (he still has the newspapers). In the middle of the night in April 1981 he roused me from bed to watch the very first Space Shuttle mission with Columbia, so I've been a space nut ever since too! I also had a 6 Million Dollar Man action figure - because, well, Steve Austin was an Astronaut! So this Toy Story theme round (and its Buzz Lightyear linkage) was the perfect excuse to build the Moon Walkers of my childhood imaginings, and here they are:

My game mat didn't arrive in time, so I made an AI background to put my figs in context

To be honest this has been a project I have long wanted to do, so this entry was just the excuse encouragement and push in the right direction I needed, and I had a ball with them.

The Right Stuff! Team USA

The models are 32mm scale Astronauts & Cosmonauts by Black Site Studios for their game Lunar. These are the new (2025) plastic models and very nice they are too (the old ones were resin). Decals are from District Miniatures, and the flags and logos really finish these guys off beautifully with splashes of colour. Each model is equipped and painted a little differently so all are unique.

Roscosmos Cosmonauts: Heroes of the CCCP!

Notably, this game is not a full blown Lunar War context and more a Cold War skirmish on the moon. Accordingly, guns are rare and most weapons are improvised but no less deadly in a vacuum. I particularly like Comrade Vasily's enthusiasm for "re-educating" Western Imperialists with velocity infused moon rocks!

Vasily cleverly redefines the phrase "We will bury you!".
Comrade Commissar is proud of him.

Between work trips I ran short of time to get to the cratered moon crater and lander. Regardless, I'm pretty happy how these guys turned out!

And finally, to verify my Space Geek credentials, today I'm visiting ARTEMIS II at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral! 

Pity today's launch got delayed but it was great to see her standing proudly at the LaunchPad 39B
Safe travels to the Moon ARTEMIS II!

So thats 10 x 32mm figs (70 points) plus the Bonus for a 120 points in total

Maybe I need to paint the next Lads in these colours!

1 comment:

  1. Great work on these Astronauts Paul, I've only played Lunar the once and recall having a good time of it.

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