goblinpaladin's Necromunda - a February Rank & File update (Pit Slaves & Terrain)

  "You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!"

    -  The Barber, The Great Dictator

the power of bullying

So, I had finished this month's gang very early in February so that I could build a healthy buffer for March and April. The number of models I have planned for the next few gangs is pretty considerable, after all. But then some friends of mine started bullying me about painting lots of models for ten thousand different projects but not any of the terrain I kept talking about. Well... it turns out that bullying can work sometimes. Don't tell HR.

This gang is part of my vaguely Logan's World/Hellreach desert setting, so the terrain can count toward this month as well.

we will never be enslaved again

So, first up: A second gang of outlanders ready to fight the power! Helreach United Miners, Fabricators, Haulers Local Θ-26/20.

MODEL LIST

Pit Slave Chief: mace (hammer), chainsaw, shotgun, frag grenades (225 creds) 

Techno: plasma gun (160 creds)

Pit Slave: plasma pistol, buzz saw (110 creds)

Pit Slave: plasma pistol, hammer (105 creds)

Pit Slave: bolt pistol, chainsaw (105 creds)

Pit Slave: bolt pistol, claw (95 creds)

Pit Slave: laspistol, shears (90 creds)

Pit Slave: laspistol, claw (90 creds)

Pit Slave: autopistol, hammer (95 creds)

Pit Slave: stub gun, rock drill (85 creds) 

TOTAL: 1,160 credits 

Only a small gang, I know, but I don't feel guilty any more, with all those terrain pieces! These guys had a clear scheme in my mind, which definitely helped for speed. I was able to get through them fast even though I experimented with a variety of skin tones.

Pit Slaves with plasma pistols

A later sculpt, dating from around the time the gang rules came out in White Dwarf 224, he provides a bit of extra kick with the plasma pistol. I didn't want to make them both token Black guys, so I gave one Caucasian skin tones and dyed-green dreadlocks. We've all met that guy.

Pit Slaves with bolt pistols

The Black skin tones on this fellow and the one above are from this random tutorial I found, if you're wondering. Both Caucasian fellows were done with the boring old Rakarth Flesh > Reikland Fleshade > highlights. Boring but easy!

wow this photo sucks. sorry.

Pit Slaves with laspistols

Mr Snips was painted using Mengel Miniatures's 'Medium Skin' tutorial. Not thrilled with it, but it's fine. The chap with the claw was base coloured with the Guilliman Flesh contrast over white, then highlighted normally. Gave him pink hair because pink hair rules.

Pit Slave with stub gun & Pit Slave with autopistol

The man with the drill (not that one) was painted with this tutorial from Tale of Painters, but really, most of these techniques are quite similar at my skill level. The chap with the hammer was painted with a 'ruddy skin' technique from Pinman again, although my version turned out a lot browner than expected (which is cool).

Pit Slave Techno

Love the Techno sculpt. Again, part of the soft reboot for the White Dwarf 224 gang. #224 was one of my first White Dwarfs (my collection was apparently burgled from my father's house in the mid-2010s) so I've been wanting to paint one for a long time. I tried out the Mengel Miniatures 'pale skin' from that same Instagram tutorial.

he does look like he listens to techno

Regrettably, my copy had a badly damaged shoulder. I mangled some green stuff to rebuild it, but my sculpting skills are limited to horrible blurry Nurgle monsters, so it doesn't look quite right. I like to think it looks like he has an artificial shoulder with plasticised skin covering it. I considered adding some metal chips to look like it's wearing away, but decided against it.

Pit Slave Chief

Unlike the Techno I've never really liked the Chief sculpt. I love the minimal amount of flesh left to him and the design of his robot arm, but I don't like the blank helm or the silly top knot. (Don't get me wrong: I love silly top knots; it's just out of place here).

I had planned to freehand a skull on the helmet. When I mentioned this to some friends of mine, one very correctly insisted that I should make it a hazard stripe skull. Brilliant. It reinforces the industrial hell themes, it adds colour, it draws the eye back to the face. How'd I do?

The Chief's skin is painted the same bloodless pale technique from Wilhelm that I used on the Skavvies last month, although it came up a bit warmer here. Might not have thinned the final glaze enough, but it still makes him look drained and corpse-like. Perfect for a creature now far more steel than man.

These were a cracking set of miniatures to paint. The wear-and-tear on their weapons made me sometimes feel like I was doing two-sculpts-for-one-result, but I'm sure that when I get to the mutie cavalry I'll remember what that is actually like and never complain again.

scrap piles, scrap barricades, and a shop sign

A reasonable pile of scatter terrain, I think:

MODEL LIST

7 x junk piles, one in 4 parts (Crooked Dice)

3 x sheet metal barricades (Crooked Dice)

Sign (Crooked Dice)

These are all from Crooked Dice, part of their excellent post-apocalyptic range. Just scatter terrain to add a ramshackle or post-apocalyptic sense to an urban environment or some sort of scrap mining region in, say, Gorkamorka. Could probably be used to give a sense of a hasty defence for pirates or victims of Imperial over-reach in larger games.

I tried to ground these a little in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. For instance, this pile includes a discarded safe made of unpainted ceramite; it's stronger than steel.

Another piece with a tiny bit of 40K-ness added, with a Roman numeral transfer. Technically it's from some ancient Ultramarines sheet, but I don't think this piece looks like it comes from the Astartes!

Some of these photos are blurry, but you get the idea.

These were so fun and relaxing to paint. Just chucked on Andor and let myself feel the flow of rustin' up some metal and getting different shades of steel. (Shades of Steel is a good band name.)

The bottom sign has 'No Creds. Barter. Or Cash', but then I overweathered the damn thing and you can only read it at certain angles. Similarly, the H20 was painted orange to contrast with the blue, forgetting that orange paint and orange rust look real similar. Still works, though.

Well, this has been a surprisingly productive month. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a job application that I've been meaning to write all week.

Cover to Inferno! No. 8, Sep 1998
Artist: Karl Kopinski. © Games Workshop, 1998

Coming up for March: The House of Escher. Probably. I'm getting sick of yellow...

goblinpaladin's Gang Warfare - an Introduction

   Not all men are content to serve in the timeless fashion: a small minority dream of better things. Some crave wealth, power, or simply to escape from bludgeoning poverty.
    - "The Hives of Necromunda," from Necromunda, Rick Priestly et al. 1997.

been carryin' this book around a long time

Another solar cycle is ended; the world of our fathers spins back into place. Again begins another of the cycle of torment known to mouldering archivists as Old World Army Challenge. Once more, the Great Overlord (Him Who Dwells in the Ice, the Autarch, the Spire-King, &c) has shifted the rules. Now we can delve into the terrible mysteries of the Specialist Games - just so long as they meet the old and challenge portions of the tournament's title.

an Escher juve to gift to the Overlord

in his favourite colours, no less!

still don't do eyes

This one-off adjustment to the rules comes at a great time for me. It's been simply ages since I've actually played a proper pitched battle of any kind, but I have been working on a variety of skirmishy folk and civilians, with the vague intention of playing Necromunda/Gorkamorka or a hybrid thereof. Also, ever since I started to get into Oldhammer, I've gradually been accumulating a great many mid-90s Necromunda figures. The combination of these pressures is starting to become quite intense. And now, the chance to paint them and relieve that pressure! Hooray!

another Overlord gift;
a fell necromancer* to oversee the Field of Bones

but the Challenge is a chain
(Diehard Miniatures)

Of course, as soon as I announced this project, my fellows (particularly Tom) gently pressured me into adding even more miniatures to it. I've delayed writing this intro post in the hopes that the additions will arrive in time. If they don't make it for the pre-tourney photoshoot, expect surprises not on this list.

gonna gut you, cleanskin

We'll start with a gang already cleaned and (mostly) based, although I'd never gotten around to actually starting work. Convenient, now.

Figure total: 13

we are all Σ4R-TAC-U5

I'll aim to get the Pit Slaves done in February. There are fewer of them, and I already have a plan in mind. (It'll be a shame to strip that fellow on the right, but his scheme is completely wrong.)

Figure total: 10

more like twenty stilettos through yer eye

I'm really excited about these! A couple of uncommon Guard and space punk models in this pile that I may take out for a future rag-tag Guard project, but for now let's try and be inclusive.

Figure total: 20

the words of the prophets are written on the 'hive walls

The gang I wanted very badly as a teen. This is most of the range, missing only the power axe leader and the lascannon heavy.

Figure total: 15

money. money is good.

In the absence of a clear 'leader month' category, I'm going to do this motley group of mercenaries and special characters. I've hit ten, thanks to a couple of eBay purchases, so I don't feel as guilty about it as I did when I started drafting this post.

Figure total: 11

do not go into the plains of black glass, past the rad hills.
death waits there.

I'll need to clean these and do some minor conversion work on some. Basing them properly is also going to be a challenge. But on the other hand, Muties are incredibly cool. Not technically Necromunda, sure, but Gorkamorka worked on the same ruleset, so.

Figure total: 11 (mounted)

fethin' outlanders

I had one Ratskin. He was going to be a mercenary scout. And then Tom donated me two more, and I found some for reasonable prices online, and now I have a whole other gang to paint. 

I didn't even own any Spyrers. That Tom!!!

Figure total: 10 - but waiting on more...

Alright. That comes to a lot more than six months work, so we'll see what we manage to get through...

Dust Falls
Artist not credited. © Games Workshop.

*looks a bit like zerotwentythree, don't you think? suspicious...