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 Necromunda - a January Rank & File update (Skavvies)

 "[W]hat I saw in her face was not the ignorant suffering of an animal. She knew well enough [...] how dreadful a destiny it was to be kneeling there in the bitter cold, on the slimy stones of a slum backyard, poking a stick up a foul drain-pipe."
    - The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell

'ullo, chum

First gang out of the 'hive: Smilin' Jack and the Bitter Dregs.

MODEL LIST

Skavvy Boss: shotgun, sword, autopistol, frag grenade (173 creds) 

2 x Skavvies: autogun (41 creds each)

4 x Skavvies: stub gun, pick/knife/axe/club (33 creds each)

Skavvy: shotgun (41 creds)

Skavvy: blunderbuss, spikes mutation (62 creds)

Skavvy: stub gun, claw mutation (38 creds)

Skavvy: stub gun, autopistol, extra arm mutation (55 creds)

Scaly: spear gun, discus (181 creds)

Scaly: scatter cannon (200 creds).

TOTAL: 964 credits

Thirteen cannibals from the sump - enough for a decent starting gang, with some leftover creds for backup pistols hidden in pouches or to lure in some plague zombies.

just some lads

regular lads

The regular core gangers. I tried to go for a fairly minimalist colour scheme, heavy on washes and grime. Initially I was trying to mimic the inimitable axiom's Ian Miller-inspired skavvy colour scheme. Strong on iron greys, with spot colours of muted orange and shocking yellow. I also spent some time staring at Asslessman's lads, who also have the yellow touch.

every family's got one

so this family has three big deal

As always happens, I think I strayed from the original brief and fell into regular habits, but I did try to keep to a fairly limited palette. Oh, and the pale skin colour is from the always-brilliant Wilhelm.

that way

techno wotsits

These are hard to find painted images of online! The Leadpile has a few in his fantastic gang - although where he sculpted his arms, I just used some from Victoria Miniatures I had lying around. (The laspistols count-as stub guns because they're in such poor condition. It's fine.)

These sculpts were released around the time of Confrontation, although they first appeared in White Dwarf in May 1989. You can see them and their comrades on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki here.

they do watercolours

easy now, fuzzy little man-peach

Yeah, love a good abhuman. These guys didn't turn out quite like I intended (their scales were meant to be darker) but by the time I realised my error, I didn't want to work harder. They're fun sculpts to paint, even if they have the same legs.

this sword was passed to me from my father's father

a lil' freehand chequer just for you

i lied about the sword. now give me your stuff

Finally we have the boss. I might have gone overboard on staining his guns.

The name of the gang just clean popped into my head while preparing the miniatures, but I think it works.

Interior illustration for Necromunda, p.295
Artist uncredited. © Games Workshop, 1997

Coming up for February: Pit Slaves Free men