Technological Limits - The Final Tech

Hot on the heels of the pair of Marauder techs from a few weeks back is the very last tech ganger I needed to paint for a full set. 

Tech gangers sculpted by Mark Copplestone.

Tech Savvy - Marauder Tech Gangers

I'm steadily chipping away at my Confrontation collection - latest to be done are the pair of Marauder tech gangers that I should have painted at the same time as the other two, but didn't!

Max Data V2.0 - New Tech Gang Leader

One of the elements that I really enjoy about an extended Necromunda campaign is the progression of your fighters. In the campaign I've been playing in for the last few months, my Tech gang, the Data Kings have gained some really useful fighters - Osbourne who can snipe almost anyone with his plasma cannon. Fischer who's a deadeye with his hot-shot lasgun. Of course Sinclair has a strength-sapping injury, and Celerity has a badly damaged hand, but that's all part of the fun.

My Leader, Max Data, hasn't had too many progressions, but I have invested in some rather tasty gear. He now walks the underhive equipped with a las-plas combi weapon, energy shield, mesh armour, laspistol and a las projector. All this necessitated a new model to accurately represent Max Data and his gear.

Big Boy Techs - A Serious Arsenal Upgrade

If I think back to previous versions of Necromunda, the weapon that everybody feared was the plasma cannon. Now I quite like plasma weaponry in the new version of Necromunda too, and it just so happens that Van Saar Tech gangs have access to plasma cannons through their House list. So it would be rude not to take one, right?

I've been keeping the final Roy Eastland tech sculpt back to use as a heavy weapon ganger - with his chunky frame, shades and cigar stub, he's perfect for a cool-as-ice champion capable of blasting any opposing ganger into oblivion.

He might be thickening around his middle, but very few folks are willing to suggest that Zepto loses some weight.

Getting Technical - A Pair of New Tech Gangers

I'm coming to the close on my Tech gang. I have another half dozen Techs to paint, including some reinforcements for a new campaign that will be starting at the end of May.

The Data Kings conduct tense negotiations with Ash Waste Nomads in an abandoned settlement outside the hive.

Grogan and Fischer are a pair of basic lasgun-armed Tech gangers, built using nothing more than a pair of torsos and period plastic arms and lasguns. Why do I need more gangers with lasguns? Why haven't I used short-barrelled lasguns that match the previous gangers? Because I'll be using these Techs to represent House Van Saar. And in the recently published Gang War 3, House Van Saar get cool new lascarbines as well as lasguns. Lascarbines effectively fill the same niche as autoguns do for other houses - slightly less accurate but with a higher rate of fire than a lasgun. In order to visually distinguish between the two weapons, my long-barrelled lasguns are lasguns, and the short-barrelled ones will be lascarbines. I should have taken a comparison picture, but I forgot. I'll just have to remember to do it another time. Perhaps when I add a long-las!

The Joy of Techs* - A New Tech Gang Champion

"Boss, those Bratt fopps are the other side of the sump tanks. Better get the plasma coils warmed up!"

The new Necromunda supplement, Gang War 3, came out a few days ago, and it looks like I'll be using my Tech gang as Van Saar in a new campaign at the end of the month. Having looked at the new House list, my bolter-armed fighters can't be in the starting line-up, nor can my champion with heavy stubber. I need to supplement my existing fighters with a few new ones. I plan to make a new leader with a combi lasgun/plasma gun and a funky Van Saar energy shield and some more lasgunners. I also wanted to make a new champion with plasma gun - actually finishing a conversion I had started alongside the other plasma gunner from a few weeks back.

My new champion, Orbison, gets a matching colour scheme to the rest of the Techs - stark white overalls with plenty of bionics. Orbison is also one of the techiest Techs around - not only is he sporting bionic limbs, but he's also got a nerdy pair of bionic eyes!

Techs on Tour - Attending a Necromunda Tournament

Last weekend I attended the very first Necromunda tournament at Warhammer World (well, certainly the first GW-run event using the new game). This was a free event that I'd built and painted my tech gang, the Data Kings, to use at. Prior to attending, I'd had my models cleared by the events team and GW archivist, mainly because I was fully aware that the age, obscurity and conversions on some of the models might raise suspicions!

The rules for creating and using a gang in the tournament pack followed a well-established model, commonly used in Blood Bowl tournaments. We were allowed an elevated credit limit (1,250 creds) and a package of skills and stat increases that we could scatter amongst our fighters. We were also able to access trading post weapons, hired guns and hangers on. As a resurrection format event, the gang reset after each game, so there were no advancements or lasting injuries.

I sent these images into the events team to help rubber stamp use of the figures

I used the Van Saar list from the Gangs of Legend pdf:
Leader -boltgun, laspistol, trick shot
Champion - heavy stubber, stub gun, +1 ballistic skill, trick shot
Champion - plasma gun, laspistol, fast shot
Specialist - grenade launcher, laspistol, +1 ballistic skill, munitioneer
Ganger - boltgun, laspistol
Ganger - lasgun
Ganger - lasgun
Ganger - lasgun
Ganger - plasma pistol, axe, stub gun
Juve - 2 stub guns, club, sprint

The list was designed around my preferred shooty type of gang, with a couple of combat fighters just in case!

The Data Kings - Tech Gang Launched

The Data Kings look to blast their way out of an ambush by The Maniaks

I've managed to paint up another pair of Tech gangers, to take my total up to 10. This is actually sufficient for my planned gang for the Necromunda event in a few weeks time. You'll also notice that I've swapped in a couple of different figures (the other figures will still get painted, but I've altered my list a little).

The biggest change to the list is that I've swapped out a plasma gun in preference for a heavy stubber. This was predominantly driven by an idea for the conversion - I liked it so much that I fast-tracked it in favour of the still WIP plasma gunner. In order to include the heavy stubber, I had to lose a boltgun. Happily I had a nice Marauder Tech ganger with a lasgun, so he came into the starting line-up. 

Champion Durango is inadvertently a clone of Cyborg!

Tech Upgrades - a New Tech Quartet

The Data Kings secure a vital fuel dump.

I think it's fair to say that I'm really enjoying painting up these Techs. They're varied enough not to be boring, but uniform enough to not agonise over odd unique details. The differing sculpting styles are meshing together well enough too!

Over the course of the last few days I painted up a selection of four additional Techs, to give me 8 out of the 10 needed for the forthcoming event.

First up are Vobis with his plasma pistol and servo claw, and Franklin, my juve armed with a pair of stub guns. Vobis and Franklin are my concessions to minimal combat efficiency. Vobis is a ganger, technically armed with a plasma pistol and club for the event (he can't take a servo claw until the full Trading Post lists are published. He is one of my favourite Techs with that ridiculous over-sized claw!

Two Become Four - More Tech Gangers

I put some energy in yesterday evening to finish off another pair of Tech gangers for the gang I'll be using at the Necromunda event next month.

Techs are cool. They even have cool creepy pets.

This time I've painted two one-piece 'stock' models without any modification of any kind - a characterful Marauder Tech, and the Copplestone Tech leader.

Getting a Little Tech Support

It just so happens that I managed to get hold of a ticket to the Necromunda event at Warhammer World on 21 April. Whilst I could easily use an existing gang or group of figures, I decided I wanted to use the event as motivation to put together a new faction.

I happened to see some really lovely white coverall-clad plastic Tech gang conversions by sump dweller over at Yaktribe and liked the stark monochrome scheme so much, I decided to paint up some classic Techs in a similar fashion.

Techs are cool. And probably geeky.