Bits & Pieces - Servitor Bodyguard & Warning Sign

I have a few hobby tasks I needed to complete prior to Bring Out Your Lead 2025 between 8-10 August. Mostly these are bits I want to use in a planned game of Stargrave, which should see my Muller cultists take on some mutie scum. I'm working my way through the to-do list: first up is a figure kindly given to me by Aidan of Warfactory Miniatures at Lead & Steel earlier this year.

Ulanti Top Brass - Elite Leader & Champion

It's funny how you can warm to a project over a few weeks isn't it? I really didn't enjoy painting the first Confrontation Elite gangers, but I'm closing off the project with a final pair, and they were a lot of fun to paint up. This time round it's a bit of an imposter-leader model, plus a champion with the coolest heavy weapon there is: PLASMA!

Elite gangers may not be upper-hivers, but they are definitely classy!

Ulanti Reinforcements - More Elite Gangers

In spite of not having enjoyed painting the previous batch of Elite gangers, I decided that I needed a bigger gang. So I took some of the duplicate ganger bodies and did some head swaps / repositioning to give me some more variety.

The Elite Gangers of House Ulanti

Although the Techs, Brats and Ash Waste Nomads from the Confrontation game got most of the limelight, much of the setting was about hive gangs. The few figures that were produced were split into four gangs which have become known as Dogskins, Hunters, Maniacs (or sometimes Maniax) and Elites. The Elite leader is an iconic miniature with his gnomish hood, pelisse and pit bull. I painted him back in 2015. But the other three gangers are pretty uninspiring. They don't really have a strong visual identity compared to the Hunters or the Dogskins. Maybe this was the reason they'd been in my WIP pile for several years!

However, in search of a quick post holiday project, I pulled them out, added some arms and got them painted:

The Big Lad - Sarjent Blas Gaspar

As any noble is aware, a loyal bodyguard is pretty much a pre-requisite. Yes, you certainly need a number of anonymous household troops to lay down firepower and march around noisily. Yes, you also need the slim, quiet dangerous retainer - the one with mis-matching eyes, a penchant for blades, and numerous advanced skills for removing unwanted people. But what you really need, is the kind of statement bodyguard that shows everyone who is boss. The big, heavily muscled brute who can crush skulls with his bare hands. The man-mountain who can absorb firepower without armour, and still keep on coming.

A bodyguard like Sarjent Blas Gaspar, in fact.

 

One Man And His Dog

I'm sure most other collectors have that elusive 'most wanted' figure. The one that never appears in your ebay saved searches. The one that never comes to light on trading groups. My figure was this one:

 

Photo from the Collecting Citadel Minatures Wiki

He's the Leader from the Elite Gang from the rather uncommon Confrontation range, circa 1991. Although he was available in blistered packs of hive gangers, the bulk of the Confrontation figures were quietly retired and replaced in the mid-1990s by Necromunda gangs. I particularly like the contrast of his absurd outfit with the mean muscle-dog and AK47 styled autogun.

I would guess that I spent in the region of 10 years looking for this guy on and off, and I was delighted to pick him up with a bunch of his fellow Elite gangers earlier this year.