Hello everyone. I've been following this site for several months now and I've finally decided to bite the bullet and post my blog. I was a GW fanatic back in the old times of 2nd edition 40k, Epic and of course, Necromunda. I drifted away from the hobby 10-15 years ago but this site (and in particular the incredible work of people like PDH, Migsula and Baiyuan) inspired me to go back to my roots and start up a gang for a Necromunda campaign. A few friends were keen to get playing again as well and I will be posting their efforts in this blog too.

So, a few months back our gaming table was polystyrene packing boxes and ladders drawn on in felt tip. Scenery was my first priority and now we have this set up, with a few more currently unpainted bits to follow soon:







I have to admit I really love making scenery, I can sometimes struggle with attention to detail but I love the overall effect. Soon we aim to have enough for a 7x4 board, which will just about allow us to play two games at once (and have a huge cityscape for some special scenarios). In the pipeline is a road system, an overpass, a couple more risers and several more buildings.

So we have just finished our first campaign, and it was really a chance to learn the rules again and practise painting and modelling as none of us had done any for at least a decade. I was running my Goliath gang the Thunder Tyrants:





Now most of these guys were painted pretty quickly and the paintjobs and conversion work doesn't really hold up to close scrutiny, but it helped me get to grips with things like greenstuff (and made me realise that Catachans and Chaos Marauders are not the most detailed of sculpts). My gang was winning, thanks almost entirely to Boris, the most lethal gang leader I can ever remember (getting a BS of 6 almost immediately with his plasma grenade launcher, as well as getting infiltrate, Ld10 and Iron Will). In the final two games the gang was finally defeated, and Boris - like all the best supervillains - met a grisly end (getting insta-gibbed by a meltagun, snake eyes on the serious injury chart).

The other star of my gang was undoubtedly Thunder Nuts, a juve with a massive axe who went on to become a ganger with a massive axe and berserker chip and an uncanny ability to make 6+ dodge saves. Generally speaking, anything he charged got obliterated by frenzied str8 attacks. He met an ignominious end to a lucky laspistol shot.



I'll try and get some better pictures of these guys soon as I have recently got a lightbox, although they look best from a distance anyway!

Now we have my current project, the gang I will be running in our next campaign starting on Thursday. This is a pitslave rebellion led by the hulking monstrosity known only as Sparkticus:



The cyborg known only as 'Sparktacus' was a rusted pile of scrap metal serving as a menial servitor, rotting in the basement of the pitslave ludo when he was found by Elita, a teenage runaway and techno. Once a champion pitfighter of renown he had sustained so much damage in his long lifetime that parts of him, including his weapons, had been offline for years and the little of his human body that remained was atrophied, his brain all but lost. But she repaired and restored him, her regrafter - an archeotech device, possibly a relic from the dark age of technology - seemed to give Sparktacus a new vitality and dead circuitry reconfigured and recalibrated. In the darkness of his helmet his eyes lit up with intelligence - but whether human or machine it is hard to say. With his weapons and body functioning and his consciousness and will returned to him, Sparktacus inspired the other slaves in the arena, leading by ruthless example and inspiring dread with his razor sharp mechanical shears. He soon seized control of the ludo and razed it to the ground, leading his gang of pitslaves out into the Underhive.



The Shadow of Death is a giant even among the gladiators of the Underhive. An albino that refused the implantation of (crowd pleasing) pitslave weaponry, instead demonstrating that he could effortlessly lift the enormous industrial mancatcher without the use of bionics. In fact, his demonstration proved so persuasive that it was decided to let him avoid the implantation procedure, especially since the techno - the only one able to carry it out - had just had his head crudely severed from his shoulders.



The hostile environment mining servitor designated AGR-1 (who would later come to be known as Agron) was originally used by a prospector team in the hazardous depths of the Sump. However, a series of accidents and mishaps led the prospector team to get suspicious that something was wrong with their apparently docile servitor. On several occasions Agron would refuse to obey orders to deactivate, or would seemingly deliberately start up his mining drill in the middle of the night before stamping determinedly into the prospector camp site, crushing tents and wrecking vehicles. After one event where the mining unit, upon completion of the days mining duties, apparently refused to stop drilling and turned his excavation equipment on five other servitors it was decided that it would be better for everyone if he was sold to the arenas.

Finally for now, this is my most recently painted miniature and it's really a pretty huge improvement over the Goliaths, the photo doesn't really show off the skintones all that well:



Mecha-Gannicus is a pitfighting champion that won his freedom in the arenas but decided to join Sparkticus' rebellion anyway. Possibly he is won over by Sparktacus' revival and enigmatic new persona and the promise of following a leader that seems destined to carve his place in history, or possibly he just wants the opportunity to be in the midst of a guaranteed bloodbath when the guilders catch up with him, having grown bored of his freedom. The only thing more unnerving than the roar of his giant chainsaws is his constant laughter - whether this is caused by the cocktail of drugs that is constantly pumped into his helmet, or the fact that he simply loves what he does, it is hard to say.

Phew OK that's it. I have hundreds more photos to put up but I will try and pace them a little. The rest of the Pitslave gang is ready and mostly painted and in the pipeline I have a Bull Gorg counts-as, a few hired guns, a Slaaneshi Chaos coven, and an (Inquisimunda) Arbite patrol. Plus I will be posting some pics of the competition - including Imperial Guard, Orlocks, Ratskins, Ratmen, Ork Freebooters and a Admech Explorator team.

Elita is a teenage runaway and a competent techno. Once she would have been happy to have been called a brat, her and her uphive friends would frequently visit the underhive to cause trouble and for the thrill of escaping from the tedium of their lives. But for Elita, the trips to the underhive were more than just an excuse to cause mischief, she was fascinated by the lives of the ganger, the scummers and the miscreants that lived there. One one brat raid she discovered a strange device, clearly ancient yet apparently far more sophisticated than any machine she had seen, even in her life in the spire. The archeotech device was able to restore machinery, mending broken circuitry and frayed wiring as if it had a mind of it's own. Elita considered this a sign and ran away from home to the underhive, where she soon gained a job at a pitslave ludo as a technician (replacing the previous one who had been accidentally decapitated). In her spare time she worked on restoring the ancient, crippled servitor she dubbed 'Sparkticus', a far greater project than she had tried before. The archeotech device seemed able to restore the servitor's broken mind as well as his broken body, and soon the man/machine she had rebuilt was carving his own destiny.

I'm not completely happy with the sculpt but I anticipate having to redo the model at some point in the campaign anyway as hopefully she will get a new weapon (currently her autogun is my gang's heaviest gun).

Nice
you should make an arena for some terrain

This is epic. The terrain is very cool, and I agree with the above, an arena would be very cool. I'm a big Necromunda fan myself, so consider me subscribed.

Welcome to Dakka

Now that is some impressive terrain. The colours you've gone for are spot on. What must make this good in game is the amount of levels and variety in the size of the levels. Jealous much....hell yeah.

Is that a ship (in the 2nd picture down)? If not it still looks freaking ace.

Where abouts are you in the UK?

The Goliath in the top pic 2nd from the right (with horse marauder head, mace and autogun/pistol) looks great. Would like a close up of him. Seriously good looking gang.

The pitslaves are off to a good start. The guy with two chainswords is ace. I like how the techno has got herself some appropriate cloths.

Looking forward to checking in to see progress.

Peter

Wow! Your table is spectacular. My group and I are still in they polystyrene and felt-tip stages, but if I could get them to go for something as cool as yours...

The goliath gang looks better than you make it out to be, and sounds like a blast to play.

Sparktacus is looking pretty sharp, but my favorite of the bunch has to be the mining servitor. Could be the hours and hours of bioshock speaking, but it resonates with me. The one thing I would suggest for him is to maybe rotate one of his arms down maybe thirty degrees to give him a little more dynamism.

Elita is looking really good too, though her shoulders may be a touch too wide. Are you running her as the gang leader? Also, good luck on getting a heavy weapon for her

Scrazza wrote:l. I'm a big Necromunda fan myself, so consider me subscribed.

DITTO

YOU NEED TO DO SOME BATTLE REPORTS THE TERRAIN
sorry about cap locks my computers a peice of %$^#


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http://privateerpress.com/files/products/32070_CastigatorPlasticWEB.jpg

this would look good maybe a lifting servitor count it as a heavy and equip it with a heavy stubber as well as a some flails

Great terrain. Looks well thought out.

The Pit Slave are fantastic as well.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments!

you should make an arena for some terrain

My Pitslave gang quite luckily rolled a Pit Fighting Arena as their territory, so now I kinda think I have to. My Slaaneshii cult rolled a drug den, talk about perfect territories.

Is that a ship (in the 2nd picture down)?

It's not, it's just a generic factory/crane thing. It has a rotating crane arm at the top and we use it to hang the prison cells from (pictured below). I'll get some more photos at some point. The colours are a bit darker than they look in some of these photos, the grey board is pretty much a match for codex grey and a lot of the colour comes from liberal use of Mig pigments. I like my underhive to be dirty and rusty.

Where abouts are you in the UK?

West Midlands

The Goliath in the top pic 2nd from the right (with horse marauder head, mace and autogun/pistol) looks great. Would like a close up of him. Seriously good looking gang.

Thanks, I'll get some better pics of the old gang soon. And one day I might repaint them a bit, my initial plan was to try and learn some techniques and to paint them in the brightest comic book super-villain colours I could think of. The thing is I really love the metal Goliaths and although some of the ones I have built are quite good I think I would rather play with the metals, they are seriously cool.

The pitslaves are off to a good start. The guy with two chainswords is ace. I like how the techno has got herself some appropriate cloths.

The pitslaves are nearly finished now, just got a retarius to convert and then they are done (except for my counts-as Bull Gorg). They have their first game on Thursday - can't wait. Although I expect they will be shot to bits as they are all far to enormous to use cover effectively. I really like female gangers and didn't want another all-male gang (couldn't think how to do a convincing female Goliath considering that is basically just an Escher). I also have plenty of female minis in my Slaanesh cult, and I suppose they are dressed appropriately as well (for Slaanesh cultists).

but if I could get them to go for something as cool as yours

My advice is to just get hefty piles of bits - broken machines (spot the blender in my stuff), toys (I use a lot of scalextric barriers and toy car bits) and then a hot glue gun and textured spray paint and weathering powders. You can make something cool really quickly and you can always go back to do it up later. Oh and make risers - simple boxes for other bits to go on top of, they are essential IMO.

Elita is looking really good too, though her shoulders may be a touch too wide. Are you running her as the gang leader? Also, good luck on getting a heavy weapon for her

She has one giant shoulder pad on her right shoulder, her actual body is much slimmer and I think it looks OK. She's just the gang's techno, Sparkticus is the chief/leader - I'm using Anthony Case's Pitslave rules as they are so full of character (in these rules I can't get a heavy weapon servitor, but I am allowed fighters with two pitslave weapons). I love all his rules generally speaking and we use lots of them (and some Inquisimunda rules). She is allowed a plasma gun, I might get her one soon but for now I just wanted more Pit Fighters.

YOU NEED TO DO SOME BATTLE REPORTS THE TERRAIN

Here's a few pics:



It's a rescue mission, and the Orlock heavy takes up position while the Orlock leader - Duke - charges into combat with the Goliath sentry.



But the sentry is Melvin, a vicious killer who has embraced his murderous nature after falling into a chemical pit. Now he wears a skull-faced ballistic mask and Duke's pet Snapjaw is too scared to attack. Even though Melvin is caught by surprise he beats down Duke... before getting obliterated in a hail of heavy stubber fire. The alarm sounds!



The Imperial Guard, allied with the Orlocks, are there to free their man as well. With the alarm blaring they decide to 'go loud', and heavy bolter fire echoes throughout the Goliath camp.



Goliath reinforcements rush on, but the Orlocks have activated the prison control console and get the captives free. The goliaths are pinned down by heavy bolter fire and can't pursue effectively.



The Goliath heavy, Pill Shovel, runs on and lets rip at the escaping prisoners, crippling the Imperial Guardsman. The Orlocks leave him to his fate and run away.

Not pictured: Thunder Nuts runs after the escaping prisoners, makes several dodge saves, several iron jaw saves and several juggernaut saves in order to charge and kill two gangers. The second one disarms his massive axe (he doesn't carry a pistol in case it distracts him from his furious purpose) and Thunder Nuts has already used up his berserker chip... but unconcerned, he puts him down with his knife. The Orlocks escape and the Guardsmen flee, but the crippled Imperial Guardsman doesn't manage to crawl away, and is left abandoned, crawling and leaving a trail of blood as the Goliaths close in on him. But somehow he Survives Against the Odds... which we decided meant he got back to his basecamp anyway, bleeding and livid with his teammates for abandoning him!

And this picture is from a later game, a shootout. Imperial Guard advance on Orlocks.

The terrain pics are getting better and better. When I have time (and the inclination to build more terrain) I may have to quiz you a bit more on some of those buildings.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good

Awesome stuff I will watch this play out !

Your terrain is awesome! I love seeing some properly built necromunda terrain, especially when there is lots of hight change.

You've done a good job of Elita, most sculptors add breast implants as standard, its good to see a more normally proportioned lady!

Looking forward to seeing some more stuff!

Aw wow! Its like opening up a classic copy of White Dwarf! Really great stuff mate!

R

I worked on my retiarius (a gladiator that uses a net and trident) conversion last night and could use some feedback. For one thing, he doesn't have a trident exactly and I am not sure if I should add a third prong. No background story yet, but here he is:







He is really going to struggle to stand in any cover!

exalted. Too awesome.

Seconded! Awesome stuff!

Your terrain is seriously jealousy inducing! Really awesome gangs as well. I think the trident (bident?) is perfect how it is.

Wow, quality stuff! Your terrain is incredible, and the models are great! I think the trident works well as is - a third prong could look great, but I don't think it's strictly necessary. The idea is sold really well as is

The trident is a good idea, but it looks fantastic as it is, so whatever you like

Thanks everyone, I think I'll stick with the bident.

Here's one more pitslave. He's not especially photogenic, the red is a nice glossy colour all-over rather than washed-out as it looks here, for example).



This is the ludo's Doctorian Training Unit. He's armed with less lethal training weaponry which is really only less lethal against giant, armoured, cyborg pitfighters rather than say, squishy Orlocks. Since leaving the ludo the pitslaves have not made equipment maintenance a priority and the Doctorian is no exception, Elita can keep their weapons and bionics functioning, but cleaning off the bloodstains is really not in the remit of a techno. And it's tricky for Doctorian to do it himself as he has wrecking balls for hands.

I'm lucky to have a bits box that's 10-15 years old that I get to raid so I have some really obscure parts to use on these guys - can anyone spot where the hands come from?

Bruticus wrote:This is the ludo's Doctorian Training Unit.

Again awesome stuff mate, what do his metal fists count as? Pit-slave hammers?

R

Yep, two hammers which gives his opponent -2 to their combat score. Not tried him in a game yet but this seems like a really nasty combo, especially as he starts with ws4.

WOW. this is a great blog. I love the conversion work that you did and the back story fluff is the best that i have seen. Keep up the good work. Seriously amazing stuff.

Wow seriously fantastic, looks like soo much fun =D

And cannon hands is great, I imagine him being sad under that helmet thinking, "Everything I touch gets crushed, cannon can't have nice things : ( "
hahaha

Good stuff. Looking forward to more!

And cannon hands is great, I imagine him being sad under that helmet thinking, "Everything I touch gets crushed, cannon can't have nice things : (

Hah yeah, I love the idea that despite their prowess in the arena, the rest of the time they are quite helpless, like big kids that cant look after themselves. Elita will look after their repairs, but I imagine there are servitors, freed slaves and menials that feed them and wash the bloodstains off.

OMG! A Terrain-builder after my own heart! Welcome! And thank you for posting this wonderful eye-candy- I will have more detailed C&C a bit later when I get some more time!

Nothing very exciting to post today but I have finished a bunch of small terrain bits - you can never have enough waist-high walls to hide behind (especially when your gang has no guns). Here's some parts that make up a little scrap yard and a water still.



Still plenty to do before the next campaign starts on Thursday but not sure I will get all this scenery done. Here's a preview of what's coming up.:



There's several Platformer/GW buildings and a 3ft long overpass to paint. By the way, if anyone has any ideas on how to build a curved on-ramp, I am all ears!

Are those cake pillars?

For the curved on-ramp, I'd cut the curve out of foamcore or pvc foam or whatever you've used for the deck, then bevel it to fit the top deck, and cut those cake pillars to the right heights.- That way the area below is stil playable too.


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Oh, and where did you get those great resin concrete dividers?

Awesome terrain! The pit slave gang is genius too, especially that net and trident guy.

Yep they are cake pillars, £1 for 8 on ebay! The resin barriers are also from ebay (I love ebay), from this shop.

I made the overpass out of wood, I think a curved on-ramp might be beyond me but I'm hoping to start using some Ash Waste vehicle rules in our games and frankly, a curved-on ramp seems essential.

The overpass is a great addition and a curved entrance would be cool, hight is so much more interesting than the flatter board I use.
How do you deal with the hight differences in game though?
Have you considered some ruined cars on the overpass or do you have them already?

p.s. how good are the ash waste rules?

That terrain is simply amazing. So jealous

The pit slaves look really cool too, eagerly awaiting battle reports

How do you deal with the hight differences in game though?
Have you considered some ruined cars on the overpass or do you have them already?

p.s. how good are the ash waste rules?

Height differences in the scenery? It makes the game much more exciting to have multiple levels, it means heavy weapons don't dominate so much because you can get underneath them or above them. I have a few vehicles to paint up as scenery/wrecks etc but the temptation is there to use the Ash Waste rules and drive them around. The Ash Waste rules are basically just the Gorkamorka rules expanded a little and change to use Necromunda terms rather than Ork terms like teef. You would be meant to start a new gang with a few vehicles but we might just add a vehicle here or there as part of a scenario or something. We already use a blend of lots of different rule sets - mainly the Anthony Case rules but also bits from the Inquisimunda rulebook and various other pdfs from around the web.

I don't know how balanced it would be to add ash waste rules on top of all the things we are using already, but Necromunda was never very balanced in the first place! As long as it's fun it gets in, and if it sucks then usually people are good about changing it. For example, in the first campaign my leader got BS6 with his plasma grenade launcher and dominated every game. As it was getting boring I started exclusively using Hallucinogen grenades instead, much more entertaining! One highlight was firing a hallucinogen grenade at a ratskin leader, missing, scattering onto a ratskin behind the leader who promptly shot the leader in the back.

Wondefull work on these guys , read this yesterday but forgot to post. Love the stories you have created for these guys and the concepts are great , Funny thing is before i saw this blog , I created a roman type general , and was looking for a thumb down/up left hand , i thought it would look cool above a pitslave arena.. then i saw your blog .. must be fate , if i finish him i would love to composite an image with two of your gladiator dudes

I created a roman type general , and was looking for a thumb down/up left hand , i thought it would look cool above a pitslave arena.. then i saw your blog .. must be fate , if i finish him i would love to composite an image with two of your gladiator dudes

I'm really going to have to build a pitfighting arena aren't I? A few rows of seating for the plebs, a box for the roman general guy, a few death traps and a hotdog vendor... I could do that...

I think it is doable- Have you ever seen the way model railroaders build up their roadbeds? THat might be a bit extreme for a game table though, It might be best just to have a simple straight incline ramp

Aye , Daves right ,build build build .. If you build it they will come ;-) thumbs up from me

don't forget the hotdog stand though ..you even could have the girl from tanith has a cheerleader . she looks kinda roman..

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1440455_99110105133_ColLastChancersMain_873x627.jpg

Nice batrep, the pics look very cool.

you even could have the girl from tanith has a cheerleader . she looks kinda roman..

She looks like a cheerleader with an agenda. Cheerleaders with guns - I think I've seen that movie. She might have made a good base model for Elita although I prefer her to wear more practical clothing. I did consider a female pitslave or two, maybe using dark eldar parts or even Lelith but I am saving sleek and elegant for my Slaanesh gang.

Absolutely hi-larious. Where do you live? Can we come and play, too? ROAD TRIP!

--B.

Absolutely hi-larious. Where do you live? Can we come and play, too?

In the UK sorry!

Here's a couple more pitslaves. I don't want to spam a thousand pics but as the gang is almost ready for their first game on Thursday I ought to get their profile shots out of the way. These two are very important members of the gang - they're my least favourites. In Necromunda it's pretty essential to have least favourites because someone is going to get shot to bits and it's best that it is them. Hopefully these two will use up all the Dead results rather than any of the ones I really care about:



They both use old Chaos warrior legs and marauder torsos, which was going to be the recipe for all my pitslaves until I discovered better looking metal models from other ranges. The plastic parts, especially the legs are just too crude. The guy on the left has a cutting torch which is a terrible weapon but in the Anthony Case rules you get one of each type of weapon for free so can't complain. I don't really have background fluff for these two because I don't really like them, which I am sure means they will become total badasses while Mecha-Gannicus (my favourite) turns out to be a massive girl.



The one with the cutting torch is Tigris and the one with the hammer is Maximus. Veterans of the pitfighting circuit they were once rivals until Maximus disobeyed an instruction to finish the defeated Tigris and spared him instead. Now they usually fight in a pair, as ordinarii. Their attack strategy consists of Maximus knocking people down with his hammer so that Tigris can bring his unwieldy cutting torch to bear, the cutting torch is a very hard to use weapon in the arena and many would question it's effectiveness, but a lot of pitslaves still use the equipment and bionics that they had while working in the mines before being sold on to the arenas.

im glad dsteingass shared this link, you have some great terrain and a very characterful gang of guys, i am subscribed and i love these guys!

oh so good.

The terrain and models are both awesome.

I'm definitely subscribing to this.

Wow! I'm stunned and speechless! This is one of the greatest necro-tables I ever seen! I like very, very much and the two gangs are simple WOW! Great Job! Want to see more! Now!

This is crazy beyond belief its like watching an apocalyptic gang film, the terrain and miniatures are spot on trying to figure out the parts you used is a game in itself

Great work and amazing dedication

You should check out Urban Mammoth's Gladiator range. Some nice minis in there, got some models of them myself.

Nice update by the way.

You should check out Urban Mammoth's Gladiator range.

Yeah I only discovered these after I had already built my gang or I might have been tempted by a couple. I am more tempted now by the quad bike for my Arbites.

Here's a couple of the gang painted up:



As you can see, The Shadow of Death is a giant, in game terms this is a real disadvantage as most cover only goes up to his knees, it's one of the main problems with Necromunda - tall characters are infinitely worse than short or crouching ones. We tend to be quite lenient about hiding and cover rulings for the bigger models but even still. I've tried to think of some advantage being a larger model could confer, like you can climb up higher obstacles or something. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Whatever happens though I think this guy will get shot to bits.



I love the Shadow's model, it's made from a Heresy Miniatures Big Boris with a couple of obscure parts thrown in (quite a few of my models use random 2nd edition Ork parts, like the mancatcher here which is actually from Zogrod Wortsnagga). Elita looks OK but as her model will likely get replaced I didn't spend too long on her. I didn't really get the greasy overalls look down quite as I wanted it.

lovin the fluff

you can come up with some rules for his larglyness. An extra strength or toughens point might do the trick, though you'll need the approval of the others. Something else, because of his height, he is able to effortlessly walk over any obstacles that doesn't reach his waist or higher.

Hope this helped.

Stunning and inspiring work. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next, very well done. Subbed and will be back soon.

These are brilliant my favourite is the diving suit servitor. Excellent work the scenery in particular is inspirational.

Shadow of Death is huge! The mix of bits works out well and come together seamlessly. I'm also quite fond of the painting, especially the cuts on his chest. The one thing, though his that there's a bit of a mold line on the underside of his pistol magazine. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...

Elita looks nice, too. The paint helps her a lot, though there's something about her that I can't put my finger on that seems off. She's really good, but that something keeps her from being great. (one thing, the kneepads are fantastic. Just noticed them, and they're great )

I have to say I have never been a fan of gladiatorial gangers ….. UNTILL NOW !!!! the 2 chain fist gladiator pose and look is fething brilliant and the rest are great as well.

These have got to be some of the most apocalyptic looking bad asses I have seen to date, plus I love working out the minis you have used like good old Boris ….. I knew I new that mini

Keep it coming I might get into Necromunda yet

Love these new guys, shadow of death is bllody huge , reminds me of thrud( lets see how hold you are now ;-)) , you really have captured that Necro feel , and such a great , idea with the pitslaves.

hows the coliseum coming.

here is that roman i was talking about



In fact I reckon you should make a pitslave competition for your arena , and invite peeps to submit photos of the contestants , could make a simple game system to see who wins , I would be up for participating

Great blog! Conversions theme is cool and authentic. The scale of scenery is epic and some photos really capture the cinematic aspect of action bringing fantasy to life

Absolutely love the gent with the hammer, and the shadow of death too - is that an ork shoota he's one-arming? Beastly! Your fluff is what really brings it all together though - such fun little stories behind them all. This is really great stuff, keep it up!

Wow... just plain... wow.

I find it amusing that I see a title involving Necromunda (one of my favs from back in the day, along with Mordheim), and grimdarkerized Spartacus (one of my favorite TV shows, RIP Bringer of Rain... ) and I happen to find Neil, Scarper, Vitruvian, and a set of others' whose blogs I follow with jealousy.

I can see why they're all here though- this stuff is top notch! I love the play on names, and knowing the characters from the show, how you've incorporated dual-wielding on Gannicus, the size on the Shadow o' Death, and the name change for Spartacus. Someone mentioned your terrain looking like a GW magazine. Holy crap...

Question- how long did it take you to acquire that terrain?? Any tips? I'm almost tempted to dedicate a table to making one as gorgeous as that! (or die trying)

Consider me subscribed, a step up from stalking since this blog came up.

-Remi

Well just got back from the start of our second campaign, mixed results so far. The first game I had was a highly successful Ambush where I was the victim, but managed to turn it around, I have a few photos to post from that game which I will do soon.

The second game was a Shootout. A shootout is not ideal when half your gang doesn't have any hands, let alone guns. It looked like it would go very badly until AGR-1 managed to get into combat and drilled his way through several guardsmen. I love the pitslave drill, if you roll a 6 to would it does d6 wounds - I can just imagine him catching some unfortunate victim with it and you know in the depths of his helmet, despite his semi-lobotomised state the barest hint of a smile plays across his features.

I'll respond properly soon but in the meanwhile here's a couple of pics of the table we played on.

that terrain is great, sounds like a fun time drilling some guardsmen!

Nothing says fun like mixing industrial power tools and one's enemies, though alcohol and explosives are a close second

Your cityscape is looking as good as ever, and a new necromunda campaign is always a good thing. How many gangs are your running?

You have a very impressive Necromunda table and I like the conversions a lot . Great work !

Elita looks nice, too. The paint helps her a lot, though there's something about her that I can't put my finger on that seems off.

Yeah I agree, the balance of the model looks wrong, too much weight in one hand and the proportions are a bit off - the Catachan legs are just too oddly proportioned to use for a female I think. I'll redo her eventually when she gets a new weapon.

In fact I reckon you should make a pitslave competition for your arena , and invite peeps to submit photos of the contestants , could make a simple game system to see who wins , I would be up for participating

Love the Roman and I love this idea as well. It would be great to figure out a way to fight 1v1 combat over the internets. The reigning champion is the (as yet unseen) pit fighter Abominus (who uses Bull Gorg's rules with a slight tweak... can't wait to show the model I'm working on for him, if you think the Shadow of Death is huge you ain't seen nothing yet). He'd gladly take on all comers in the virtual arena.

the shadow of death too - is that an ork shoota he's one-arming?

Yep it's a customised Ork gun but in game terms it's an autopistol. Not quite as fearsome as it looks! I figure at a pinch I can use it as a bolt pistol one day without having to chop up the model.

how you've incorporated dual-wielding on Gannicus, the size on the Shadow o' Death, and the name change for Spartacus

I'm obviously a huge Spartacus fan and tried to keep a few similarities between the models and the characters. Gannicus is probably my favourite character in the show so I wanted a suitable model for him, so far he has done really well in games as well, he's definitely the glass cannon of the gang at the moment.

Question- how long did it take you to acquire that terrain?? Any tips?

Well this is what the scenery looked like in late August last year:



In truth quite a lot of the current scenery looks a bit rough up close, and I haven't made it all myself, but my best tips are to buy other people's junk on ebay - lots of people clear out their scenery bits and bobs which can easily be recycled into barricades, get nice textured plasticard for flooring, use a glue gun to stick everything together, use lots of rust pigments over drybrushed metal to paint quickly and look for shortcuts whereever possible (eg. my walkways are all made from a toy car racetrack with scalextric barriers).

How many gangs are your running?

3 main players with gangs that play most weeks and 4 very occasional players. Plus 3 backup gangs for variety.

Here's a quick battle report, not the best photos. (it's OK to post these in this thread right? Mainly including it to show the painting and modelling after all).



The Imperial Guard squad receives orders to prevent the pitslave rebellion from gathering momentum and set an ambush, their main force moving in from the south while an Ogryn, his handler and a heavy flamer move in from the north.



The pitslaves steal the initiative and all rush towards the Ogryn and the heavy flamer. It's a risky strategy, but if it works they can outrange the rest of the Imperial Guard for a while and use their full force to take on just three opponents.



The heavy flamer runs out of ammo and runs away, only to be cut down by the pursuing Mecha-Gannicus. The rest of the pitslaves advance on the Ogryn who keeps a cool head despite his handler going down. The pitslave shooting can't keep the Ogryn pinned and he returns fire with his ripper gun, taking down Agron and Sparktacus... but Agron soon clambers slowly back to his feet, and Elita rushes in to repair Sparktacus.



Meanwhile the veteran Doctorian sees an opportunity and charges down a dark alleyway, catching the Imperial Guard leader unawares. The combat lasts for 3 turns with the Doctorian inflicting nothing but flesh wounds until finally the leader collapses, pulped and broken. The Doctorian catches a Juve next and looks set to bludgeon through half the Imperial Guard team.

Mecha-Gannicus gets into combat with the Ogryn but can't injure it. The other pitslaves encircle it and the Imperial Guard decide things are looking bleak and they ought to retreat quickly.

This was a fun game but I think Pitslaves start very strong and are surely going to get a harder time when their rivals can actually hit with their shooting. Also that Ogryn is a beast, we used some additional rules from Inquisimunda for him, but with no good guns I don't have the option to try and keep him pinned and have to really go and deal with him. Still, some of my guys are turning into real killers now.

how did the shadow of death do?
was he able to fit in cover or not

He got set on fire by a hand flamer and ran around burning for a few turns, by the time he got back the fight it was all over.

Bruticus wrote:He got set on fire by a hand flamer and ran around burning for a few turns, by the time he got back the fight it was all over.

lol

by the way I found this and with a couple of conversions it could easily fit in with your pitslave rebellion

I also found a good elita (just suggestions)
http://www.miniaturemarket.com/chronoscope-50016-rosie-johnson-chronotechnician.html

by the way I found this and with a couple of conversions it could easily fit in with your pitslave rebellion

Thanks although I found a model to base my next Elita conversion on earlier today, will see how it goes. I like the other dude although I don't think I need to buy any more models for my pitslaves. I've got a couple more Drudges to convert if I need more, but I have a horrible feeling my gang size will go down rather than up.

Cool
keep us in time with your campaign
thanks

Here's a couple more painted guys





Managed to take slightly better photos although it still looks a little washed out. The main thing missing is the glossy effect of the blood and the grease on the mining drill. Also I am a bit stuck when it comes to painting wires, they always look a bit plain. By the way, has anyone spotted the parts used to make the mining servitor? They are pretty random.

Love the bioshock guy!

Lovin the models

awsome!

Nice updates, I like your battle reports.

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and compliments, it's great to read and I can't wait to share some more creations with you guys. Here's the last two members of the gang as it started off:




Gnaeus is the gladiator with the shocknet and electro-bident, the latest addition to the rebellion and one of the newer slaves at the ludo. This combination of weapons is sometimes considered a relatively cowardly or dishonourable than the fan favourite, honest weapons like chainsaws and shears but Gnaeus is a relatively cowardly and dishonourable man, and this fighting style suits him fine. The net is attached to a retractable chain with a winch inside his forearm, and both the net and bident are capable of conveying a powerful electric charge. If a victim gets snared in the net, it can disconnect from the retractable chain, leaving the victim suitably stunned for Gnaeus to move into closer range and attack with the bident while they struggle to free themselves. In game terms, he counts as having a handflamer and pitslave claw.

Clixus, the Undefeated Goliath uses the more traditional buzzsaw and shield combination. Like a lot of pit slaves, Clixus' real name has been lost through years of poor record keeping on behalf of his owners, and like a pit slaves he has been given a slightly mocking nickname - a trick commonly used by pitslave owners to dehumanise them so as not to offend those with more delicate sensibilities and to make the arena a more family-orientated affair. All that is known of Clixus' origins is that he was once a Goliath (as a lot of pitslaves are, and they often wear a crest on their helmet in a nod to their former gang mohican haircuts) and that in all his time in the arena he has never been defeated in single combat. In game terms he has a buzzsaw and stubgun, and the skill Hard as Nails. Eventually he'll also get armour plates.

Like all the other members of the ludo, these two gladiators gladly joined Sparktacus' rebellion, Clixus especially serving as Sparktacus' right hand, and helping to bring the other Goliath slaves in line.

Here's the group shot:



Next on the list are a few hired guns and the Bull Gorg counts as, who is coming on quite well.

they are AMAZING, that sheild is so awsome!

Just went up another level , Now in the holy feth art department.
Stunning new additions.

Bruticus wrote:
Here's the group shot:

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo beutiful

Love the fluff (normally don't bother reading it ) the look and feel is spot on and the miniatures are a great use of pieces

The group shot is jaw-dropping. Fantastic gang! Not many people seem to do pit-slaves, so it's really great to see someone giving them the love they deserve.

Those are brilliant especially the shield which is superb what did you base it on?

Not many people seem to do pit-slaves, so it's really great to see someone giving them the love they deserve.

Cheers! Maybe people are put off by some of the dodgy official models - some of which I think look terrible (though I do like the leader model). Or maybe by the confusion over the rules, I've found various different rules for pitslaves but they tend to have servitors with heavy weapons which to my mind doesn't seem appropriate for a bunch of gladiators. Very happy with Anthony Case's rules, all his stuff is great.

the shield which is superb what did you base it on?

I wish I could say I made it myself but that model is largely unconverted, I just added a buzzsaw, helmet crest and stubgun to this guy. Cool model, had to snap it up.

So we had a chance for a couple more games today although I don't think my photos are that great so I won't post a load today.

The first scenario I got to pick thanks to Insider Information. I chose a caravan raid (of course) and I thought I had blown it early on when I forgot to throw a smoke grenade with Elita, leaving a bunch of my guys eligible to be shot by a heavy flamer. Things were looking pretty grim with three gangers down, but then I got into charge range and things took a drastic change for the better:



This gang is INSANE when they get into charge range which I suppose makes sense considering the first few turns are just watching with dread as you take shot after shot. I thought my Goliaths were a menace but when Mecha-Gannicus (who has only played 4 games mind you) gets a charge in, you are going down hard.

The Shadow of Death started proceedings and charged the Ogryn, landing one hit but crucially wounding with a 6 - his mancatcher (counts as pitslave shears) caught the Ogryn around the neck! One more 6 and it's instant death! At the last second, before The Shadow could pull on the mancatcher, snapping the Ogryn's thick neck, the Ogryn pulled the jagged, rusty weapon free over his face, leaving Impressive Scars. Mecha-Gannicus and Sparktacus both leapt into combat as well and butchered a couple of guardsmen, their hatred for anyone defending the Guilders setting their blows to deadly purpose. Gnaeus almost bit off more than he could chew when the Imperial Guard leader fought back, but he recovered and took him down, and when Agron thundered into combat with the heavy flamer, the guardsmen fled. (We have house ruled that you can flee if you only have 3 models upright!). I got a lot of creds from this game, and took two models captive.

The second game was versus some sneaky ratskins and was a great game, if a bit less dramatic. The highlight for me was Mecha-Gannicus leaping into combat with a (nerve broken) Shaman who got left with some Horrible Scars to remember his ordeal by, while Agron didn't so much leap into combat as drop directly onto the ratskin chief from above, before skewering him with his rock drill, causing 9 wounds. You don't walk away from Agron landing on you, I don't care who you are. Unfortunately my gang bottled before mopping up the last few ratlovers.

Agron has levelled up to have a toughness of 5 and two wounds, making him really as tough as he looks. Overall I am happy with the gang, though I think I am going to get Sparktacus on the limnull to try and help him with his bottle rolls. Incidentally we started using Yakromunda if you want to follow the campaign or see rosters: http://yakromunda.com/campaign/617/season-2

Man, how am I missing great new blogs all the time? Being mentioned as one of the inspirations and considering that all the usual suspects seem to frequent this blog, one would think I would have heard about it. Maybe we should start a (sticky) thread listing all the 40k skirmish p&m blogs (Inq28, I-munda, Necro etc.) here on dakka.
Anyway, back to the point: Awesome work, Bruticus! I envy you for your terrain and your pitslave crew (actually always wanted to build one myself, it's on my list for the next campaign, should the current one ever end).
Seems like you're inspiring me now!
I'll make sure to let you know when I finish my Retiarius, that I started a while back. Coincidently It's actually a mix of your retiarius and the fighter with the jackhammer and the big daddy face and I'm using the net from the de hags as well (obvious choice).

Good idea on the sticky..Or just look at what I am subscribed to Baiyuan

Maybe we should start a (sticky) thread listing all the 40k skirmish p&m blogs (Inq28, I-munda, Necro etc.) here on dakka.

This could be cool, there are some classic threads that are a bit hidden away (like the Jade Vessel thread which really ought to be stickied itself) and I am sure I haven't seen all the best ones from the archives either.

OK so I need an idea or two for our Necromunda campaign - I really want to get everyone using Hired Guns but it's hard to persuade people to spend the creds. We've got some rules for trying to get hired guns to permanently join your gang which will help, but still no-one really wants to spend 35 creds on a bounty hunter for 5-6 games when they could use those creds to buy a new heavy weapon or a bunch of new juves who would level up and potentially do exciting things. Hired guns add loads of flavour and as far as I can see they are used much more in Inquisimunda, but does anyone have any idea how to get them used more in Necromunda?

And speaking of hired guns, here's an early WIP of a bounty hunter. I started on this guy before I got the idea to make pitslaves so now he is homeless, but this was one of the first models I bought after my 10+ year break from the hobby, love this sculpt.



He's had a bit more work done on him since this photo was taken, but the idea is he is looking at a wanted poster in his hand before he brings his sniper rifle to bear.

Nice work on the bounty hunter.

There's a lot of things where Necromunda breaks down. It is just up to the groups to decide the rules they want to play with. It also breaks down when one gang is very much richer than the other, and when people refuse to play any of the 'risky' missions.

My best suggestion is to set an end date for the campaign, and then lobby for Hired Guns in the next one.

One option could be using them to level the playing field when one gang is on a far higher gang rating than the other.....In that case allowing them in at no charge might be feasible. (Gang rating difference however should be the same as the cred value of the bounty hunter so 50 or 60)

Thanks for the suggestions, but shortly after posting this I had a brainwave and I think I've cracked it. Roughly speaking we'll have a badzone locale you can visit and if you roll high you get a discount on a hired gun, and if you send your leader you get +x to your roll. Should be a good trade off.

We use lots of custom rules and modifications, the more options the better in my opinion. I really love how Inquisimunda works like an expansion pack for Necromunda (so does Ash Wastes). I like taking bits from Inquisimunda and adding them back into Necromunda - like how we use an Ogryn in one gang.

thats a nice bounty hunter, and i would love one of those stickey threads because these smaller games are where i get most of my inspiration!

Goddammit, I had almost finished a long post regarding my solutions for the hired guns dilemma, when my pc crashed, now it's all gone....
In short words:
Hired guns are full of style and the normal rules are disencouraging, give them the chance to gather XP or they are no fun at all. Don't make them part of a gang, it's a HIRED gun, you'd only contact when the gak hits the fan.
Another thing I've invented for our campaign was changing the way hired guns are being payed:


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Better be safe than sorry...

Back to where I was.
Instead of giving the hired gun a fixed amount of creds, I made them count as more models when it comes to calculating the income of the gang. A fully delevoped ogryn body guard with high toughness, ripper gun, energy hammer and carapace armor should count for about 10 models. A normal bounty hunter would be much lower. This way you don't know exactly how much he's going to cost you, the costs are moderate (if you get the model count right) and if you're lucky he won't even push you into the next income bracket. At the same time you're technically still paying for the guy, so the storytelling is unharmed. Ok if your luck is bad you might end up paying a lot, but thats the fun part. I'd say it makes people open up to hired guns.

I think I'll use some of that - I like the idea of hired guns gaining XP but I am not sure if this would make them a bit powerful after a while. I suppose you would start a Bounty Hunter off at the same starting XP as a gang leader and he would level up at the same brackets? How about Scum? The problem is that they all have advances to start with, so if they level up at the same rate as a ganger then they will always be a superior choice. Do you let people give hired guns new equipment?

In case anyone is interested, here is the rules I've got so far for hiring Hired Guns. The hiring post is a Badzone Locale (along with other ones from Anthony Case's site, and the Trading Post).

One Ganger or the Gang Leader can visit the Hiring Post
to look for available mercenaries and Hired Guns. If you
visit the Hiring Post, roll a D6 and consult the table below
to see who is looking for work. If your leader is visiting the
Hiring Post then add +2 to the dice roll.
1: No Interest - There is no-one available for work and you
may not hire any Hired Guns in the next battle.
2: The Best of a Bad Bunch - You may hire one or more
Scummers or Ratskin Scouts for the next battle
3-4: Good Reputation - You may hire any type of Hired
Gun that your gang is normally allowed or re-hire any
Hired Gun that you have previously hired. The Hired Gun
will reduce their hire fee by 5 creds if your gang won the
last battle they played
5-6: Familiar Faces - You may hire any type of Hired Gun
that your gang is normally allowed, and you may re-hire
any Hired Gun that you have previously hired for half
(rounding down) of their hire fee

I think it's a relatively elegant solution, you want to keep paying the same guy so that you don't have to send someone (or even your leader) out to go and find him again. I want to discourage people from constantly rolling up new Hired Guns to try and get an optimal one, but XP gain and cheaper fees for repeat customers ought to do that.

Is everyone rolling up new gangs lists at the same time? If so I think it's fairest to have the hired guns available at diff Gang Ratings..sort of like a reputation system, that way players can't get OP hired guns until their gang rating is at a certain level. Otherwise you'll experience the old "redemptionists with an assload of flamers" conundrum.

One problem with Hired Guns though is that they are only really powerful at the start of a campaign when say, a Bounty Hunter is like a second Leader. But later on they become pretty useless except for their extra rules like Ratskin Scouting, or to soak up bullets. I don't think any Hired Guns are OP, even at the start of a campaign. In previous campaigns no-one has wanted to take them as they are too weak for the expense so I'm trying to find ways to make them more viable. I think if they gain XP and you can rehire at a discount that ought to do it.

Well then to save the between-game cost of paying them their wage, have them just join as a regular ganger after so many turns or whenever they become end-game weak- That way they can gain XP just as well as the other gangers from that point on. Give them a buy-out option.

Wow thats a really awesome war band. i dont know the rules of munda very well so i can't chime in on making them more viable but i like the idea of a buy system after x number of battles or reduced cost both sound good to me.

..against green Juves, the hired guns should win every time statistically by-the-stats, but we all know that outfitting juves can get expensive. We'll call it the Republican Strategum, focus your hired guns on the task of killing/capturing juves for the slaver thereby bankrupting your opponent by the 3rd game


Automatically Appended Next Post:
...After all..the best way to beat an opponent is often to take his money away from him

Speaking of hired guns, here's another. This is my scummer, still a WIP and it needs some more work yet but I love this little guy. Nothing says scummer like an unkempt beard, earring, pot belly and a too small leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up.

ok thats fething awsome im not going to lie.... so how'd you make him?

He was originally going to be one of my Goliaths, and like them he is made from some Gorkamorka parts. Those old Orks that look more like humans than Orks now. He's mainly made from the warbuggy gunner (which I am amazed to discover is still the current model).

Holy crap amazing use of an old skool mini I have one in my bits box and found it the other day and thought it would make a cool biker ganger (beer belly main reason ) but you made it spot on

I will have to rethink the use of it know though no way I can compete wit that the raise collar and all great job

Exalted!,

Love this stuff, good conversions might steal an Idea or two.

Cheer's,

Bra'tac

Mr. Beerbelly is great, nice scummer style.

Like all rules in necromunda it really depends on your players. If there is this guy in your group who always takes the maximum amount of juves, doesn't give them weapons to be able to afford even more and in general just behaves like an donkey-cave on a tournament, then you have to fundamentally change some game mechanisms, as they are very open to exploitation. I just made sure I don't have such guys in my gaming group and I constantly promote/reward roleplaying ambitions over efficiency concerns. If it works out, you can focus on making the game deeper and more fun, instead of making it foolproof for gamers who don't get the concept anyway.

Damn how good is this lots of pics.

The battle pics are nice and moody, give a good sense of the underhive. Terrain only needs to look good head to table top anyway, it is there as a backdrop to the models.

The Pitslaves are ace. Best looking slaves I've seen

The scummer is brilliant, hands down brilliant.

Thanks guys, I do love that scummer, he's quite comical but I've had a soft spot for beer bellied miniatures ever since the old Cadian lieutenant. I used another potbellied Ork in my Goliath gang as a ganger that fell into a chemical pit, got disfigured and let himself go. He was useless and perpetually injured but I like everyone to have stories.

The scenery looks good for the most part, some bits are a little rough but some bits were rushed or have been damaged since. Eventually I'd like to redo a lot of it but that's not a priority at the moment.

After a very successful caravan raid I had enough creds to splash out a bit. I considered a second techno, or some sort of special weapon, but in the end I decided I'd rather have two more pitslaves and I've been working on converting two up these last few days.

lone dirty dog wrote:Holy crap amazing use of an old skool mini I have one in my bits box and found it the other day and thought it would make a cool biker ganger (beer belly main reason ) but you made it spot on

I will have to rethink the use of it know though no way I can compete wit that the raise collar and all great job

Lucky! Im a bit angry that this isnt a newer body so that I could easily get some, now i want to make something awsome with it!

Rogue Wolves wrote:

lone dirty dog wrote:Holy crap amazing use of an old skool mini I have one in my bits box and found it the other day and thought it would make a cool biker ganger (beer belly main reason ) but you made it spot on

I will have to rethink the use of it know though no way I can compete wit that the raise collar and all great job

Lucky! Im a bit angry that this isnt a newer body so that I could easily get some, now i want to make something awsome with it!

I will check incase I have a spare one mate, if I do I will send it your way (not saying I have but I might ) if I do do I send it to the weird guy in cave PO BOX ?

Gotta love that scummer , great find and great conversion.

Late response here, haven't been on-line much, the pit gang looks utterly amazing mate! 10/10...I...m-m-must...contain...jealousy! Haha

R

Really Epic stuff!

Bruticus wrote:Speaking of hired guns, here's another. This is my scummer, still a WIP and it needs some more work yet but I love this little guy. Nothing says scummer like an unkempt beard, earring, pot belly and a too small leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up.

LOL... at the too-small jacket. This guy looks great! Reminds me of Kane & Lynch: Dog Days... Guy looks over-the-hill but clearly is still a gunfighter.

-Remi

lone dirty dog wrote:

Rogue Wolves wrote:

lone dirty dog wrote:Holy crap amazing use of an old skool mini I have one in my bits box and found it the other day and thought it would make a cool biker ganger (beer belly main reason ) but you made it spot on

I will have to rethink the use of it know though no way I can compete wit that the raise collar and all great job

Lucky! Im a bit angry that this isnt a newer body so that I could easily get some, now i want to make something awsome with it!

I will check incase I have a spare one mate, if I do I will send it your way (not saying I have but I might ) if I do do I send it to the weird guy in cave PO BOX ?

lol, nah my cave got backed up again as there is no plumbing.. right now im staying with my freind, mr.fluffy, hes a cat actor (/secret catpirate) and he usually plays the evil cats in movies (and man you know i would accept that model with shear happiness )

I'd be surprised if there aren't quite a few of those Ork gunner bodies going spare, I expect most Ork players that want to use a warbuggy would convert a more up-to-date looking gunner.

So we had another game tonight, and once again my opponent picked a shootout (well, it was a mission called Broken Deal which basically starts like a shootout then becomes a gang fight with one loot counter - cool scenario). Shootouts are pretty painful when half your gang has no guns, the other half pack stub guns and your opponent has a meltagun, rippergun and heavy flamer. Once again the Imperial Guard leader got a kill with his meltagun (2+ to hit, 2+ to wound, D6 high impact wounds = lots of messy deaths). I'm beginning to hate this guy (who I have dubbed Mr. Meltavator). Amazingly, when the smoke cleared I had 2 out of 5 people people merely pinned, one of them being Agron (the bioshock/mining servitor) who is rapidly becoming a bit of a star. First he charged and destroyed Mr Meltavator before getting soaking up a whole round of fire, the ripper gun at point blank range just bouncing off him. Then the Ogryn charged, but failed to wound. Then Agron fought back, scoring one hit with his drill, rolling a 6 to wound = D6 wounds... six wounds and the Ogryn was gone! And in fact the rock drill in the face proved fatal: Agron chalks up his first kill, and to top it off he then runs off with the loot. I'm very proud of him.



Here's a sneak peak at LUG-0 though I can't get a good shot of him, I think the pose looks better in person. I realised a lot of my gang were quite stationary, hence the running shoulder barge:



LUG-0 (often simply called Lugo) was once a combat servitor but was decommissioned and sent back to Necromunda where he was destined for the mines or the arena. When Sparktacus' rebellion escaped into the Underhive one of the first things Sparkatcus did was send Agron to find more fighters for the cause. Agron immediately freed a spaceship full of servitors including Lugo, causing some friction among the other slaves who were uneasy with the amount of servitors now present in the rebellion - servitors that would communicate in their own code language and were seemingly loyal to Agron rather than Sparktacus. However, so far Agron's loyalty has been unquestionable and the extra brute strength that servitors can bring to bear is undeniably useful. Lugo is not trained as an arena fighter, but as a combat servitor he is easily reprogrammed and now fights with a traditional combination of chainsaw and buzzsaw.

wow im liking this Lugo! for the longest time i've been trying to get my group to play Necromunda, once they agreed i decided to try to push for =][=munda... now one is suggesting infinity.... i just want some kind of munda to play!

btw when in shoot outs with no guns, arrogantly say, yea well at least my models arnt stock .. that is unless they convert as much as you.

I've found that most games just involve crossing my fingers and hoping that my opponent misses/doesn't wound for the first few turns, it's really nerve wracking. I had 4 models down or out before anyone from my team had a chance to really do anything... but then someone gets into charge range and the game changes drastically.

I've never tried Infinity but although the models are cool I think you get more choice with Necromunda and you get more flavour and fluff too because 40k is immense. The game is really solid but you do need a lot of scenery. I think scenery is a major factor - if you have the time and resources to make a lot of it, then go for Necromunda for sure. If not, maybe something else. And if you can't make or store any scenery whatsoever then play Bloodbowl.

lol blood bowl is fun, but not for me.. necromunda is ideal because i love the converting envolved, and i love making scenery too.. and i understand how you feel about playing, out gw used to have Mordheim going on, well lets just say that my warband wasnt the worst, i was Reikalnd and i had maximum roster (i found an entire dead warband and sold off all their stuff) all i did was buy off (or buy as slaves as they told me) some of the warbands, and kept a constent income to them, while i sat back with my handguns raining down apon the enemy heros as i laughed to myself... the store managers dwarves i couldnt buy out, and could bairly kill enough for him to retreat.. those things are TOUGH!

Both the terrain and the gangs looks awsome!!!

Want a better pic of Lug-o. What parts did you use for the body?

That scummer is absolutely brilliant - probably my favourite miniature you've posted so far. The angle of the neck, the way he's holding the pistols, the collar and the jacket and the hair blowing the in the wind - everything about him screams attitude with a hint of Wild West gunfighter. He's so inspiring! Like the fluff for the new servitor too, and he looks like he could really put out some hurt with that pose.

As for crossing your fingers for Necromunda - I think praying to the dice gods is a big part of it! One of my favourite aspects of necro is that it's brutally random. There is no feeling safe, no matter how badass your gang becomes - the toughest ganger can be knocked from a building by a lucky shot with a stub gun, or nommed by a shadowy creature in a Scavenger game. It's painful, it's frustrating, but it's how the game is played! You play the odds, and sometimes you lose

Being a character development freak I actually prefer my fight for survival in the darkness of the underhive to be nice, warm and fluffy-cozy. Life's still a bitch, but taking some frustration out, seemed reasonable to our group.

Rogue Wolves wrote:

lone dirty dog wrote:

Rogue Wolves wrote:

lone dirty dog wrote:Holy crap amazing use of an old skool mini I have one in my bits box and found it the other day and thought it would make a cool biker ganger (beer belly main reason ) but you made it spot on

I will have to rethink the use of it know though no way I can compete wit that the raise collar and all great job

Lucky! Im a bit angry that this isnt a newer body so that I could easily get some, now i want to make something awsome with it!

I will check incase I have a spare one mate, if I do I will send it your way (not saying I have but I might ) if I do do I send it to the weird guy in cave PO BOX ?

lol, nah my cave got backed up again as there is no plumbing.. right now im staying with my freind, mr.fluffy, hes a cat actor (/secret catpirate) and he usually plays the evil cats in movies (and man you know i would accept that model with shear happiness )

Checked my spare box and I only have the other gunner with fur boots, not the same pose so sorry mate if I do come across any though I will let you know, might have one nocking around in one of the other spares boxes

no problem ldd !

Being a character development freak I actually prefer my fight for survival in the darkness of the underhive to be nice, warm and fluffy-cozy. Life's still a bitch, but taking some frustration out, seemed reasonable to our group.

Yeah same here - that's the problem with writing bios for your characters and giving them personality: you can be sure that you've just doomed them to an early grave. And it seems strange to buy a new ganger with the same gear and use the same model. Far better to use a gang of expendable, generic types: if you don't get so attached to them you can be reckless and do exciting things like leap from tall buildings or charge an overwatching heavy bolter - things it is hard to bring yourself to do with your precious, precious characters.

I didn't mention it here but Sparktacus was killed in the second game we had - a shootout, gunned down by Mr Meltavator (2+, 2+, D6 high impact) before he was able to do anything. Not a fan of shootouts sometimes! I wrote some fluff to explain it in the campaign log:

Sparktacus is destroyed by meltagun fire, the superheated weapon searing flesh and machinery alike. Gannicus and Agron take the wreckage back to Elita so she can implant the salvaged equipment onto another pitslave. Upon completion the newly modified slave's eyes light up inside the blackened and battle worn helmet that used to belong to his predecessor and as he stands, activating his newly attached weapons for the first time, he loudly proclaims 'I'm Sparkatacus!". Sparktacus' consciousness seems to be transferred along with the weapons and armour!

Great storytelling just to justify bringing him back from the dead. Others would have gone for an easy "I'll be back!". I really like your idea, would look good in a movie, that's always a good sign.

That tid bit is nice and fluffy.

Baiyuan wrote:Great storytelling just to justify bringing him back from the dead. Others would have gone for an easy "I'll be back!". I really like your idea, would look good in a movie, that's always a good sign.

^ agreed!

Of course, given his 'resurrection'...thoughts turn to Chaos, and daemonic possession. Is it truly Spartakus, or some malevolent force?

--B.

In my 'munda fluff, the entire dome was abandoned, save for an ancient hazard stripe painting servitor that keeps working and charging

Elita's archeotech regrafter is rumoured to be a relic from the Dark Age of Technology, and Sparktacus was languishing in a near-comatose state for years even before he was apparently destroyed, how could a human mind survive that? Could it be that he lives on as some sort of machine consciousness?

I know the Adeptus Mechanicus have heard these rumours and have dispatched an explorator team, a rather eccentric techno-magus is on his way to Necromunda even as we speak.

Briancj wrote:Of course, given his 'resurrection'...thoughts turn to Chaos, and daemonic possession. Is it truly Spartakus, or some malevolent force?

--B.

or possibly a pepsi commercial...

That's a really nice get around! I quite like that gangs get whittled down as you play - I like trying to give characters a fairly rich backstory and interaction with some of the others so that if they do get killed, it can still work in the narrative. For example, a gang I played with before featured two juves that were a couple, and made it through tons of fights together. When one eventually drowned though, the survivor changed the way he fought completely, becoming reckless and self-destructive. We also gave him 'hatred' for the entire gang that had caused her death. Not much, in game terms, but it added a lot of character to any battles between the two gangs - stealth scenarios or package exchanges where Coop came along tended not to go so well, for example Plus it really gives the 'veteran' feel - there are new, green gangers and there are the tough-as-nails, seen it all ones that have survived to earn their upgrades! That all gets scuppered if someone vital to the plot (like Sparktacus!) gets done in though...

Yeah that sounds like fun Scarp. We had similar stuff, I only wanted to decrease mortality not take it away altogether. When things go really bad on the tabletop we're usually having the most fun.

Deaths in Necromunda... such a difficult subject! My last Goliath gang lost about 2500 rating in 3 games after rolling a ridiculous amount of deaths. Luckily it was the last 3 games of the campaign and it was quite fitting that my villains met such a grisly end.

Thunder Nuts was always reckless in every game, charging into heavy fire with no care for personal safety, he pulled off some amazing feats because I was brave with him, Dodging heavy bolters, leaping off buildings etc. Then he died from an afterthought of a laspistol shot.

I know deaths are essential but sometimes they make you worry too much about your gangers to have fun with them and you play a bit conservatively. Juves might do cool reckless things but a 900 rating gang leader or heavy is going to end up hiding a lot. And sometimes a spree of deaths can mean the end of the gang which really puts a spanner in the works if you are running a campaign.

I think getting a medic skill (or playing as Ratskins) takes some of the stress out of it and gives you the option to take a few more risks. I'd like to think of some way to change the game to still include deaths but give the occasional get-out-of-jail-free for when you lose your leader to a 2" fall.

An 'injuries' table can help in this situation, but, really, you're at the point where there's going to be points disparity between gangs, etc.

Better to end the campaign and start fresh.

My $0.02.

Aye, I appreciate that. No one's going to take the dramatic option and leap a chasm if rolling a '1' sends you plummeting.

One thing that featured in an RPG i was reading about (I think it might have been Dark Heresy?) is 'fate points' - each character in the RP had 1-3 of them at the start of the story, and you could use them to auto-pass an action if it failed. That way, if your character ended up missing a vital shot at a critical moment in the story, luck could take over, and a ricochet still hits, or it severs a suspension cable and ends up dumping something on them instead. I loved the idea - it's the kind of Deus Ex Machina that saves heroes in action movies, and could make for some really fun and memorable story telling.

I was thinking of doing something like this for my next campaign - maybe 3 points per gang for the whole campaign? I don't think there's too much potential for abuse, and it could be the safety net that lets you take that risky, but awesome action! Just a plan, anyway

So, I'm going to be a heretic.

A better solution is to ditch Necromunda rules, and go with some OTHER set of skirmish-level rules. You know, ones that were written in the 21st century.

well there is always Inquisamunda...

Briancj - the Goliath deaths were at the end of the last campaign, luckily enough.

I think the Necromunda rules are fine (though I am interested to see the rules of say, Infinity) it's just if you get too attached to your gangers then you don't want to risk them dying - it's a human flaw not a game flaw really. It was easier back in the day while playing with those weird inflatable looking plastic Goliaths, because who was ever going to get attached to them?

Fate Points sounds pretty similar to Re-Rolls in Blood Bowl. And also quite similar to some of the Event Cards that are around in some Necromunda PDFs. The Medic skill pretty much gives you a fatepoint/reroll which takes a lot of pressure off - you might be more prepared to leap that 120ft drop if you can at least re-roll the serious injury. I was thinking of some sort of way to make a single medic reroll available to all gangs more easily. Too many medic rerolls are a bit overpowered though, it's probably the most powerful skill in the game.

I do like the Fate Point idea though, but I think in practice it might end up being a bit good - probably used to reverse a critical hand-to-hand roll or shot more than a cool leap. The element of random danger and epic fails is what makes Necromunda cool, all it really needs is a bit of balancing to help keep a campaign on track if you suffer ridiculous bad luck.

A quick-and-dirty House Rule would be to give each player at the start of a campaign a few (three?) "Get out of Jail Free" cards. These cards could be turned in to "save" a Ganger who dies.

The drawbacks:

Can only spend one at a time. Lose two Gangers? You get to choose.

The Ganger is NOT available for your next battle, spending down time recovering from their near-fatal wounds.

Simple, easy to keep track of.

Like that idea a lot brian.

I like the idea (although if it only works on saving a dead guy it may as well be a medic roll) but it's not fluffy enough for me... I mean it doesn't sound realistic enough. It would need some flavour text like 'Underhive Paramedics' or 'Emergency Adrenaline Injection' (or jumper cables for Pitslaves).

The idea reminds me of Blood Bowl where you invariably save your apothecary re-roll for when your star gutter runner trips and breaks his neck. You can also buy additional apothecary re-rolls before a game.

I'm currently writing up all the Necromunda house rules we use (I have an idea to make a sort of additional rules compendium one day). Something like this will probably make it in.


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PS. is it just random luck that my little pitslaves are on the front page?

fate points work well in the 40k rpg's we play, but i think you would need to restrict it to deaths instead of everything

I've been very busy the last couple of days finishing my overpass. It's looking good but I can't get a worthwhile photo yet, will save it for when it is on the board. I've also been playing around with the GW spray gun and it's surprisingly decent, but I am definitely buying a compressor (and a real airbrush as well). Any suggestions?

Also I need help finding a bit. I need a small plastic buzzsaw, probably an Ork part, but I can't find one. One like the Ork Nob big choppa but I ideally without the guard on it. Any ideas? (Edit - found it, cybork buzzsaw arm from Nobz set, if anyone has one to sell let me know).

I believe cadaver said he got this one (it was part of the 'pimp my wizard' contest!) from the de talos kit?



Might be a bit small for your purposes though. Hope it helps!

I've managed to get a couple of photos of my overpass, hopefully will get some shots of it on the game board on Tuesday, but for now here it is with a couple of 10+ year-old tanks that I dusted off.




I tried the citadel spray gun on it and it was fun, I decided to buy a proper airbrush/compressor though after seeing how fast the canned air gets used up.

I also stumbled upon some plastic palettes by mistake while wandering around eBay, and stuck a few boxes and things to them, now I have a load more cover to hide behind:



Not sure if I should paint the palettes as wood which I think would look best but would be odd in the underhive where wood is rare. They are from some farmyard set and were cheap, and the crates are plaster which I got in a random selection of scenery from eBay a while ago. I expect the plaster is going to chip a lot so I will coat it will a lot of pva before painting and varnish afterwards.

Still on the lookout for the cybork buzzsaw arm from the Nobz set if anyone has one. Also I need a set of current style Ogryn legs or an equal sized alternative, I was using some old style Ogryn legs for a conversion but they are too small really.

Oh and finally, I caved in and bought some Dystopian Wars Prussians because they have a Zeppelin with a runway on it's back and I am only human. Once this Necromunda scenery is done I need to make some 1:1200 island scenery which ought to be a pretty radical change of pace.

looking forward to more

Bruticus wrote:Oh and finally, I caved in and bought some Dystopian Wars Prussians because they have a Zeppelin with a runway on it's back and I am only human.

I'm tempted to .sig this.

Overpass is looking great! Really tempted to get an airbrush!

Oh MAN where did you get those cake columns?? I saw those in a Necromunda blog a long time back and have not been able to find them anywhere! I so so so want some. At least 8, b ut I'm a big fan of obsessive overkill, so I'm looking for like 20 or so. Ha.

High-quality and inspiring work as always. Your work is another example of the standard I strive to reach. There are a handful of truly amazing terrain builders on Dakka (or anywhere, really) and as far as I am concerned you are counted in those elite ranks. Really great stuff you have here, and the volume of work is staggering as well. Great anticipation to see what you come up with next!

The overpass is really cool, and should make a great addition to the rest. I'm quite charmed by the pallets and crates. They'll make fantastic cover.

I've been keeping an eye on dystopian wars. I'm tempted, but I dunno about the ruleset. The models, well. it is a runway zeppelin, so...

those pallets are nicely done, might i ask how you did it? and the underpass should be a nice addition to your terrain, sometime you should try and post up a nice pictured battle report! i know thats asking alot.. but still, with the fluff you can come up with on the fly, im sure it will be an interesting read!

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Oh MAN where did you get those cake columns?? I saw those in a Necromunda blog a long time back and have not been able to find them anywhere! I so so so want some. At least 8, b ut I'm a big fan of obsessive overkill, so I'm looking for like 20 or so. Ha.

High-quality and inspiring work as always. Your work is another example of the standard I strive to reach. There are a handful of truly amazing terrain builders on Dakka (or anywhere, really) and as far as I am concerned you are counted in those elite ranks. Really great stuff you have here, and the volume of work is staggering as well. Great anticipation to see what you come up with next!

Check ebay as I think they are cake stands like the pillars, if you shop around you can get them quite cheap, check out Hong Kong and China sellers they are the cheapest

Overpass is looking great! Really tempted to get an airbrush!

Cheers, I'm really pleased with it. Got my airbrush the other day but no time to try it out yet.

Oh MAN where did you get those cake columns?

Ebay, £1 for all 8, I get everything from ebay. I've glued on some rivets, sprayed them with textured paint, dusted them with rust and they look great for hardly any effort.

High-quality and inspiring work as always. Your work is another example of the standard I strive to reach. There are a handful of truly amazing terrain builders on Dakka (or anywhere, really) and as far as I am concerned you are counted in those elite ranks. Really great stuff you have here, and the volume of work is staggering as well. Great anticipation to see what you come up with next!

Thanks - I think you are exaggerating my skills a bit though, the truth is I am always looking for shortcuts and would never have the patience for a lot of the builds I see around which use carefully measured plasticard or foamboard constructions and I was reading your thread long before I first posted, your stuff is great and your walkways are definitely better than mine. A lot of my buildings started off as toys or ready made parts and with a bit of work they look cool. The main thing is the quantity - a LOT of scenery just looks great for Necromunda, even if some bits are a bit shabby. I do plan to revisit quite a lot of my scenery to repair damage and spruce it up a bit, looking forward to trying out the airbrush on it.

I've been keeping an eye on dystopian wars. I'm tempted, but I dunno about the ruleset. The models, well. it is a runway zeppelin, so...

I've heard good things about the rules and I am very nostalgic for Epic 40k (I got into this with the Space Marine boxed set and frustratingly I sold my collection a few years ago). I also loved Man O War and Battlefleet Gothic, but I really like the idea of playing a game that is currently being supported with new releases and isn't completely fething extortionately priced. GW should be ashamed of their current prices for Epic. I remember buying 5 Eldar Phantom Titans for a tenner, new.

those pallets are nicely done, might i ask how you did it?

I found some plastic farmyard pallets on ebay, and glued on some random plaster crates (that I got in a random selection of scenery on... ebay). Took 5 mins.

sometime you should try and post up a nice pictured battle report!

I've tried to do a few small battle reports but one problem is that when we play in the evening it gets a bit dark to shoot good pics so I mainly get ones where we have just set up the board. I will try to remember to get a full battle report's worth in the future.

Speaking of pics, here's a new selection from the other night. I've done a little post-processing to some images because I am meant to be working so I need to find other ways to distract myself.














A sniper sights down the road, guarding the guilder caravan from a ratskin raiding party. He dies almost immediately.




A ratskin brave sprints along the overpass


An Imperial Guardsman tries to stop another Ratskin brave, battling atop a rickety ladder... but gets beaten to a pulp.

The Ratskins won quite convincingly, our Imperial Guard player has not had a lot of luck recently (despite having a new Ogryn to replace the one I drilled to death).

Man, that terrain is sooo awesome! I am totally motivated to go and build my own and completely demotivated because I cannot hope to reach that level at the same time...

@ lone dirty dog- thanks for the info. Not sure why I never thought to look on eBay, saved the search and will keep checking.

KrautScientist wrote:Man, that terrain is sooo awesome! I am totally motivated to go and build my own and completely demotivated because I cannot hope to reach that level at the same time...

Sounds trite, but "just do it". Practice and failure gains experience and wisdom. My terrain is not anywhere near the standard I'm striving for, but it is leagues ahead of where I first started out. Having the right materials is a huge plus, and having references like Youtube and Dakka help point you in the right direction for technique and application.

You're probably right! Don't get me wrong, I've already got quite a bit of DIY-terrain under my belt. But I have yet to start on a terrain set I can use for Necromunda/Inquisitor. I'll probably just have a go at it, right?

OM NOM NOM NOM!!!!!
scenery so much awesome scenery

But I have yet to start on a terrain set I can use for Necromunda/Inquisitor

I was considering writing some sort of guide article to making Necro scenery with minimum effort, based on things I've discovered and mistakes I've made but I am not sure it would be saying much that isn't already fairly obvious and I don't want to come across as a know-it-all. I also realised I never posted a link to the site that inspired me more than any other: http://www.ironhands.com/necro.htm

I basically set out to make scenery in the same way: shortcuts and clever use of everyday items and toys.

Oh and I discovered something new today - Hell Dorado miniatures are too small for Necromunda really. My Ash Waste Nomad sniper conversion might still work as long as he is intended to be a 10 year old boy.

Bruticus wrote:I was considering writing some sort of guide article to making Necro scenery with minimum effort, based on things I've discovered and mistakes I've made but I am not sure it would be saying much that isn't already fairly obvious and I don't want to come across as a know-it-all.

No. No no no. Your work is SO very good that no one except the most elitist neckbeard basement dwelling momma's boy would dare say a negative word. You are amazing. Share your knowledge. If even 1 person benefits, it would be worth it. I know I would genuinely enjoy seeing the madness behind the masterpiece.

Bruticus wrote: I also realized I never posted a link to the site that inspired me more than any other: http://www.ironhands.com/necro.htm

NO WAY!!! That's the site where I first saw those cake pillars!!!! That is so wicked excellent!!! Thanks for sharing that, I was there once and had it bookmarked but I had to reformat my hd and lost my links. Gaa! I am SO happy to see that again!

Bruticus wrote: I basically set out to make scenery in the same way: shortcuts and clever use of everyday items and toys.

Perfect example why it would be awesome to do a tut or a walkthrough or whatever you choose to share your knowledge. What seems obvious to you may be a complete breakthrough for someone else.

Cheers Skalk, I might well write up a few things I've discovered when I get some time.

Meanwhile I've been assembling and magnetizing my little Prussians. I like the models, extremely crisp casting and good value for money, especially when compared to Epic 40k. I am getting increasingly nostalgic about Epic though.

I've hit a bit of a brick wall with my Bull Gorg counts-as conversion. The parts all fitted exactly as I had planned but looking at it now I think it looks too much like a giant Ork, it has the same ape-like posture. I think I have to get some larger legs in order to make his build more like a bulky Ogryn. Other than that I am pretty happy with him so far:



Quite a lot is still blu-tacked together but you get the general idea. I could use some feedback though as I've been stuck at this stage for a while now. I am even considering just making this guy into an Ork warboss and selling him.

Oh my god, that thing looks fantastic! Don't worry too much about him, he's awesome!

That said, I can understand your worrying about the model looking a little too much like an Ork.

The main problem I see with that is the lower jaw: It simply looks very orky. Maybe you should look at actual Ogre heads? They have teeth very different from those of the Ork models, so that may be worth checking out. You could also simply change the teeth on the current head, of course.

I would also change the orientation of the "hands". They look a little awkward. The right one's alright, but I would turn the left one so that the blade faces down. And perhaps you should add some bits and bobs to the model's bare skin here and there: screws, tesla coils or what have you. That would make him look more "augmented" and less like a scarred Ork.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, I agree about the jaw - I did file down his teeth, fill in the dimple and add a wider jawbone but it is still quite recognisably Orkish - I think it is the very wide mouth. I might try and fix it with greenstuff rather than an Ogre head as I really don't like the current fantasy Ogre range.

And you are right about the hands as well, I was planning to build those areas up with GS to make the chainsaws look more like implants rather than just bolted on. He has a few screws and whatnot on his back you can't see, but yeah he will be getting even more to tie him in with my other slaves.

But the legs are the main issue, if I can't get him to have a less Orky build I think I will just make him an Ork, he'd be a pretty mean looking warboss.

Hmm, maybe you're a bit oversensitive about the legs, though. The Chrono-gladiator I built for INQ28 uses 90% Ork parts, but the paintjob alone makes sure that he doesn't really look like an Ork.

It's all about the visual clues sometimes: If it's green, it's an Ork. If it's not, well, then it can't really be an Ork, can it?

I agree. Once it's painted it will have less of an Orkish vibe. Looks way cooler than a fat man with Chain saw hands

I think it's the combination of the small legs compared to the torso, the jaw, the extended arms and the hunchback - all these things are typical ape/Ork features. The skin tone ought to help but it still bugs me, I think bigger legs would really fix it, current style Ogryn legs would be ideal.

(I actually have a pitslave pretty similar to yours I made after seeing JRN's model, it didn't make the gang though, just a test model).

Shocked and subscribing!

WOW he is so Flinging cool! any kind of insite on how you went about making him would be awsome (looks like its on one of those scaven bodies?) and i agree, the only thing i think that makes him look like a baddass ork is the stubby legs, get some not so stubby and i think you will have baddass not ork!

Bruticus wrote:

good luck putting that in cover


still its a fantastic model love it

warrior lord wrote:good luck putting that in cover

That guy doesn't need any cover. That guy is the cover. DUH!

What are his replacement hands (chainsaw things) from just this looks so bad ass

It's a Isle of Blood rat ogre with chainsaws from some warmachine Khador set. OOP Ogryn legs, I think a chaos warrior shoulder pad for a helmet and a few other bits. It's a long way from finished, I need to resolve the leg issue first.

And yeah, he isn't getting any cover any time soon.

^i noticed the rat ogre, the knight pad hel,. and knight sheild ( on on chainsaw ) but hmm im going to have to try this out some time, very sweet conversion

Dood! These pics are just totally EPIC!!

WOW

Thanks for the break down I new I recognised but could not figure out from where

If I ever get a bigger flat I'm taking a leaf out of your book and building an enormous ruined city out of toys from ebay! Great looking and inexpensive sounds good.

I especially like the way you've mounted everything on boxes in a grid pattern - it immediately adds another layer of complexity to the game and makes it more interesting.

The Bull-gorg is fantastic, got more pics?

The terrian is amazing. period.

keep up the good work

The cake columns were made by "Wilton", and your best search is:

wilton lattice pillar

wilton lattice column

Good luck!

You could bulk up the legs instead of replacing them. Or you make an apron/kilt-skirt to cover them up. You could also make them look more mechanical like he lost his real legs. Final peice of advice though somewhat off topic add a rat like tail, would make him look more like an F' up mutant than an ork. hope I helped good luck

Thanks for the ideas, actually I did decide to just bulk up his current legs, currently resculpting them in greenstuff and his proportions are way better now - much more like a stocky Ogryn. I'll post more pics when he is a bit further progressed.

Bruticus have ya played any more games? I'm just wondering how your campaign is going.

Yep i had another game, although I didn't get any pictures. It was a total disaster for my gang anyway - a three player game where I ended up penned in between the other two gangs who just shot me to bits and ignored each other. Ended up with 6 down or out of action and bottled.

Luckily I didn't suffer any more deaths, so the gang is not in a bad shape - except very poor. The Shadow is up to strength 5 which is quite funny - he is more likely to wound if he doesn't use his pitslave weapon (str 4). I need to upgrade his weapon and then he will be pretty terrifying.

Elita got a BS of 5 which really means I ought to get her a decent gun, but then I also want to replace Gnaeus who died recently. I need to do another caravan raid ideally - they are the best scenarios for pitslaves by far as everyone gets hatred vs the defenders.

Unfortunately the Imperial Guard player who hosts all the games has not really won a single match and has mostly been horribly mauled and is probably not so keen on playing as he once was. It's not my fault I drilled his ogryn's face off.

In broader terms the campaign has been decent so far, but I think the fact we are using only one house gang has made it seem a bit too quirky. In the future I would rather run with a ratio of 3:1 house gangs to outlander/novelty gangs, it gives it more of a traditional Necromunda feel.

Pitslaves especially feel a bit gimmicky - they are awesome but they are one-trick ponies: close to H2H range without losing too many models and you ought to win. Another problem with this is that it encourages VERY careful play when moving the gang and it can get a bit stressful trying to hide models while just getting shot at for several turns, and it's time consuming to do properly as well. House gangs have more varied game play.

well glad to hear your gang is doing well. quirky is not so bad just makes lifer a tad more interesting thats all. well maybe you could bring back the goliaths and whoop up on some one. either way I am sure it will be awesome.

Yep I am thinking of mixing it up a bit with some games with my Goliaths, they are positively shooty by comparison. Might need to touch up the paintjob a little first. I get distracted by so many other things to do.


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This is a bit more WIP than I usually post and looks a bit rough but I think it is a big improvement to his silhouette, much bulkier and stockier:



Unfortunately it is hard to get a good photo as his hands get in the way.



This is just the foundations, I will add detail and smooth everything out now I have the bulk down. I still need to add his power plant on his back and add all the wiring for his turbo chainsaws.



I also started adding the wires and veins around his head, and beefed up his jaw, he has more of an Ogryn double chin now.

Technically this isn't Bull Gorg, but a counts-as called Abominus. He will have slightly different rules (he is a large target and has +1 toughness over Bull Gorg).

Abominus is the most notorious pitslave to ever fight in Necromunda, besides the legendary Bull Gorg himself. The slave now known as Abominus was once an Ogryn bone 'ead whose spotless (if unusually violent) career in the Necromundan Spiders regiment of the Imperial Guard was cut short after his neural implants deteriorated following a particularly vicious protracted three day fist-fight with an Ork warboss when the two opponents found themselves without weapons, the only survivors in a muddy crater on a wartorn battlefield. He was found, half dead but victorious although the sustained head trauma and damage to his implants increased his aggression to unmanageable amounts, even by Ogryn standards. Rather than let all of Abominus' experience and natural aptitude for violence go to waste, he was sold to a pitslave ludo for a record price (after word of his exploits got out), and his implants were re-wired to keep him in a semi-conscious coma until such time as he was needed for an arena fight. Moments of lucidity only come rarely to him, and as an Ogryn he was never particularly bright in the first place. His fists, broken and ruined from his fight with the Ork, were replaced with turbo-chainswords, of the sort made famous by Bull Gorg himself. His bone 'ead was refashioned into a thick metal skull that would become feared throughout Necromunda.

Despite essentially functioning as a remote activated murder machine, Abominus has earned his chainrudis (a symbolic wooden chainsaw that entitles the bearer to walk free from the arena and rejoin the general population as a free man, given to arena combatants who perform great feats, such as killing a dozen opponents, or defeating a cyber-lion) no less than four times, and each time he has instead decided to stay on as a fighter in the arena. Unable to care for himself he knows that he has no place in the world except for an arena, and he did not welcome Sparktacus' rebellion. He will grudgingly fight alongside the other pitslaves on occasion, but in between battles he is forced to skulk off into the underhive to try and distance himself from the others before his next onset of uncontrollable rage - often setting upon scavengers or other hive denizens.

THAT IS THE UUUULLLLTTTIMMMAAAATTTTEEEE KILL TEAM BOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean for gods sake man! Its Warhammer FPS lol Totally awesome. Good job!

What's Kill Team exactly? I'm quite interested in other skirmish sized games but I'm guessing it's either based on Necromunda/2nd ed. rules or uses some current edition rules which I don't have any interest in really.

Love the changes you've made to the model, Bruticus! He really doesn't look like an Ork any longer (I still think it's mostly due to the jaw ).
Also, some very nice background! Now if you'll excuse me: I think I'll have to go and build my own giant killing machine...

I think I'll have to go and build my own giant killing machine

Neil101 mentioned earlier in this thread about having some sort of game where anyone could submit a fighter for a bout against the champion. Well Abominus is the one to beat, if you build a fighter and give it a stat line/special rules compatible with Necromunda/2nd ed. I could simulate an arena battle between them (no guns means no tactics to speak of, I can't think of a way of doing it with much participation unless there is some sort of online dice rolling record keeping thing I don't know about).

Really great blog, dude! Wish i'd found it sooner, i had you exalted by the end of page one!

thats one mean looking bastard. good job man.

The GS on the legs is way better. You're on the right track I think. The Ogryn legs would have been optimal for ease of use, but this is unique and I like it a lot.

I'm jealous.

Cheers, it really looks much less orky now. Still lots of work to do on detailing, it's taking a long time as I am distracted by my tiny wee Prussians.

Wee Prussians sound good to me Also, the ogryn is starting to pull together really nicely. He started waaaay to orky for my tastes, but the GS work has sorted that out fine

Bruticus man, you're the master of these hellish half-man half-machine monstrosities...I actualy said out loud "WTF?!" when I saw him, he will look great painted-up!

R

Now that is brutal!

That model is the stuff...seriously.
Lots of diverse parts going on there, but they work together well. It's also freakin' creepy, which is a plus.

Nice.

UG

Well I've got loads done on Abominus, including most of the GS work on his legs. Just have to finish his back powerplant now, although I am not sure if he needs one. Now the model has been bulked out a bit I am not sure if any further additions will make him too big, his size will already be a huge handicap in Necromunda. Anyway, pictures to come in the next day or two I hope.

In the mean time I have got a new distraction:



A bit of a score on eBay, couldn't resist. That's 30 Leman Russ tanks and just a fraction of my new army. I figure the macro scale of Epic ought to be the perfect balance to the micro scale of Necromunda.

So now I have to paint a bunch more Necro scenery, finish my Pitslaves, finish Abominus, update my Goliaths and paint 30 zombies for a mini campaign, paint a Dystopian Wars Prussian fleet, make a naval gaming table with tropical islands... oh and then paint an Epic army or two, and a gaming table for that. Might be tricky to find time for my Slaanesh INQ28 cult and Dark Elf Bloodbowl team at this rate.

good score there bruticus, eh there is never enough time in the day for all of that awesome thats about to pour out of your workbench.

That was a great score! And If you have people to actually play Epic with, I am sickly jealous. I really tried to get my friends into it. I have no idea why they won't play. I need more gaming friends.

Yeah I think I need more gaming friends too, but for now I plan to paint up two or three of my own epic forces for other people to use and hopefully that will encourage people to play.

Epic has quite a high barrier for entry I think, the prices on the GW website are so high as to be unconscionable, eBay is a mix of bargains and ripoffs, there are loads of proxies and other 6mm ranges to discover and there are so many different sets of rules. Pretty confusing but I have always loved epic and I felt bad about selling off my huge Dark Angels army a few years back so I couldn't resist a chance to restock.

Two questions if anyone has any expert advice:

Does anyone have any tips on stripping paint from epic infantry? I tried Simple Green and it has almost no effect whatsoever. Was thinking of using Acetone free nail varnish remover and only soaking them briefly.

My airbrush compressor seems to no longer generate any pressure, the needle doesn't move at all. Only used it for 30 mins - anyone have any ideas before I send it back?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/365067.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/440174.page#4097636

There's a bunch of other threads out there but they mostly similar. US- Totally Awesome! stripper. UK- Dettol stripper

And if you post the airbrush question on Dstein's thread you'll likely get your answer quickly.

I've tried Dettol in the past with quite poor results, Simple Green is the most often recommended stripper but it does literally nothing. I think maybe very old models need something more. I might try Fairy Power Spray and nail varnish remover and see if those work.

As for the airbrush I think I have to send it back.

I hate posting without any pictures, but just a day or two more and Abominus will be finally ready.

Dettols never failed me, although ive only stripped resin with it.

Nail varnish remover works an absolute treat, only on metal models though. It melts plastic, you can get acetone free remover but i found it slightly softens the hard edges on plastic.

I would try fairy power spray too.

Finally I think I have Abominus finished (although after seeing the close up photos there are a few bits I want to tweak).













His fluff is somewhere earlier in the thread, basically he is a former Ogryn Bone 'Ead turned pit fighter, he has a remote actived chemical tank on his back which can either encourage his violent moods or sedate him to a manageable state. In gameplay terms he was originally intended to be a Bull Gorg proxy but we might use some different rules instead as I don't think he would get many games otherwise - we're thinking Ogryn bodyguard but with a few adjustments like weapons.

I'm pretty pleased with the legs, took a lot of work but now it looks how I had envisaged when I planned this guy out, stocky legs make him look much more Ogryn-like. I love the Rat Ogre torso, it even has one armoured arm like gladiators would often use, and the huge crude stitches are perfect. I did quite a lot of work to his back to remove the skaven markings, and to give him a thick Ogryn neck.

Holy. .

That guy friggin' rocks! Love the use of the plastic Rat Ogre body- the rough sutures and crude look to his armor are effin' beautiful! ... erm... trying to see if my Inq. Band can use a brute death-machine like this... soooo tempting.

And awesome review a few pages on about the pit slaves in necro. I've always wanted to use a group of them, although, mine would probably use xenos/aliens/counts-as... (because you've already taken the good idea with Sparkticus... )

-Remi

That is a great model. I always enjoy watching the conversion process from the inspiration to create something genuinely different that steps away from stock models to the finished product that has an obvious connection / tie-in to the Grimdark universe but is absolutely unique, that's what converting is all about for me and this is a great example of vision becoming reality.

And I side not that I mentioned elsewhere today... the Necromunda box set came out in October 1995. Wow. Still relevant (to us) almost 17 years later. Wonder if GW will ever release an updated version? Space Hulk has seen 3 generations, I think Necromunda deserves a nod. Maybe 2015 20th anniversary?

Anyway, back on topic, amazing work you've done here, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you paint it up. Will be back for sure.

the neck and the pants came out great on that guy. reaslly cant wait to see some paint on him then he will be a bad ass mo fo for sure.
good luck with finding some rules for him I am sure you guys will think of something awesome for the model.

Cheers for the compliments guys.

And I side not that I mentioned elsewhere today... the Necromunda box set came out in October 1995. Wow. Still relevant (to us) almost 17 years later. Wonder if GW will ever release an updated version? Space Hulk has seen 3 generations, I think Necromunda deserves a nod. Maybe 2015 20th anniversary?

That'd be great. And if ever a game could make use of the current GW practise of packaging a squad of models with all the weapon options and alternative bits, it's Necromunda. Imagine a plastic Escher boxed set with alternative arms and heads etc. But I'm guessing that'll never happen, I think besides the odd standalone boxed game they don't want to release anything that could take a bite out of their own lucrative 40k market, especially a game where you might only need to buy 10 models to play. Personally I pray for an Epic revival as well, at one time it used to outsell Fantasy and now what's left of it is basically sold at prices that DARE you to buy it.

He is absolutely jaw-dropping, Bruticus! I am absolutely going to regret typing this sentence, but besides the general shape and pose of the model, the part I find most astonishing is his trousers - the straps, buttons and leather patches look so effortlessly realistic, with so much detail in the folds and seams! It would have been so easy to just do them quickly, as they're far from the focal point of the model, but the extra effort is just testament to all the thought and detail that's gone into him. He's still got a bit of the gorilla about him, but not in a way that screams 'ork', but 'mutated, augmented bodybuilder with anger management issues' - that's what you were going for, right?

Love im.

He is badass man! I agree with everything Scarper said!

Thanks chaps!

the part I find most astonishing is his trousers

When I first had the idea for an Ogryn pitfighter I thought I wanted to make something huge, brutal and with astonishing trousers, so mission accomplished.

HAHAHA Now you can start a League of Astonishing trouser sculpters! lol

Aaaaand quoted. That really cracked me up!

He really does have astonishing trousers though, so I'm glad you could live the dream

Fantastic model, Bruticus! He was already great before, but now he's truly spectacular! Great job

Bruticus wrote:When I first had the idea for an Ogryn pitfighter I thought I wanted to make something huge, brutal and with astonishing trousers, so mission accomplished.

I read that and cracked up out loud. Was going to sig it, but Scarper beat me to it.

Just stumbled across this product: http://www.back2base-ix.com/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=70

Unfortunately the shipping costs are prohibitively expensive from Aus to the UK but the product itself is ridiculously well suited to Necromunda. You can get varying height blocks as well as ramp sections. I've said it before (maybe) and I'll say it again, the most important scenery you can have in Necro is the humble riser (urban hill, elevation changing blocks) and this board would just be perfect for that.

Dang Bruticus,

Now after our PMs back and forth (and half a day at work spent reading this!), I have a better understanding of the scope of all your projects!

Great blog, I'm a speed painter myself, but you've done some really great stuff really quickly. More food for thought!

edit: and if you find how to best strip paint of epic minis, I'd love to hear about it. I didn't have good luck with simply green either. Heard brake fluid is a possibility, but can't gather the will to work with the stuff.

@pancake if you are really careful you can use acetone free nail polish remover to get paint of. with simple green it may take a tad longer than normal depending on a few things like how thick the paint is if it has a clear coat things like that. I have been using simple green for all of my stripping projects and it came out rather well

I will be closely studying and comparing several different strippers soon and I'll let you guys know how it goes.

In other news I am also going to try stripping some models and I'll compare a few different types of paint stripper. I think Simple Green and Dettol might be too mild for the epic minis I have, they are apparently immune even after several days, I'm going to try acetone free next.

Bruticus wrote:I will be closely studying and comparing several different strippers soon and I'll let you guys know how it goes.

LOL... umm... did I miss something here? Look but don't touch, bro. I hear the bouncers get real rough if you cross the lines with the girls... Let me know how your studies go..

... ooooh... you're talking about chemicals... not... people... Simple Green has done magic for me- that, and a soft-bristle toothbrush... also heard good things about Dettol. Liquid of any kind will soften thin strips (cloth/capes) of GS, if you have any of that...

-Remi

Fairy power spray is a pretty good UK alternative to simple green - worked a treat for me when left for a few hours and scrubbed with a brush. Good for plastic and metal!

Something a bit different now, my Dystopian Wars sea board. In scenery making terms this has been like going on holiday.


First step was a turquoise/blue matt paint


Next a couple of hours spent dabbing various hues of blue and turquoise with a torn up sponge, I tried to blend the colours a lot and mix up through the hues to make it look more natural. I decided not to add any bright white breakers, I like a nice tranquil sea.


Then a coat of Liquitex Lite, a thick gloss varnish. While this is drying is dabbed it with tissue paper to give it a rippled texture.


It's still drying (takes 24 hours) and it doesn't photograph very well as it is in a room with no natural light. Really it is a bit more turquoise than this. But I am very pleased with it. Next step is some sunny island, although I don't think I can make 2mm scale palm trees.

Woah, looks great. With some large islands/hills you could play a wicked game of 40 on a shallow archipelago.

Some resources for your Dystopian wars push:


http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=244223

If you have the time or feel the need for really great water: http://www.carrierbuilders.net/articles/20050526_Realistic_Water/20050526_Realistic_Water.htm

Hmm, that does look quite good although it looks a bit painterly to me. I think the gloss effect doesn't show well in photos, my table is all covered in glossy waves too and they are probably more suitable for Dystopian as it is at 1:1200 scale and waves are going to be pretty tiny.

I am not sure I want to base my ships, basing just looks odd compared to sitting flush on the table I think, especially if a wake is painted on and yet the boat is moving backwards.
I might well use that technique around my islands though, clear silicon waves might help disguise the lip of the island base.

nice job on the water! looks great

That is a pretty slick looking board really like the colors on it.

Bit of a random tangent again, here is a nasher attack pet for my old Goliath gang. I'm dusting off those models for a new roster tomorrow.

lol thats a funny squig, i like how you tied it into your gang with the obvious mohawk

The orange on those trousers is quite astonishing as well!

Yeah my goliaths are in BRIGHT orange and green. I wanted them to be in supervillain colours from comic books, it's a classic villainous combo and meant I didn't lose them on the board. But erm, I prefer more muted tones nowadays.


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I did consider toning down their astonishing trousers a little, maybe one day.

No! I love them! I am playing with thinned Jokaero Orange through the airbrush atm..Don't change a thing!

I picked up all 4 of the new primary color glazes too, I can't wait to play with them. ANd Fuegan Orange wash


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..The sea painting on the board is AMAZING! You gonna show us how it was done??

the colors make me think convicts, and i like that

No! I love them! I am playing with thinned Jokaero Orange through the airbrush atm..Don't change a thing!

Yeah I painted the squig/nasher with some bright oranges through the airbrush, just for a bit of practise really. It ended up a bit darker than the Goliaths but looks more vivid, the Goliaths were painted very quickly and a lot of them are not really highlighted.

..The sea painting on the board is AMAZING! You gonna show us how it was done??

Thanks! To be honest there was not much to it in terms of technique, I ripped up a sponge to make it less regular and just dabbed paint onto the table until it looked right. I found that using a lot of layer and letting different shades of blue and turquoise paint mix on the sponge gave a natural look, I just kept sponging on paint until the obvious patterns and paint spots were disguised enough for my taste.

An updated Necromunda with multipart plastic kit Gangs would be too awesome for words.

At this point I would even settle for something similar to Necormunda that used existing 40K models. Just imagine squads of survivors trapped int he warp fighting each other for supplies and survivial !!

This blog seems to be all about the astonishing trousers nowadays They're nice and characterful - great to see how far your painting's come though!

The sea board is stunning.

Wow! I hadn't seen that table yet! Amazing!

For anyone interested in the results of my paint stripping experiments:

Dettol - strips OK but smells really bad and makes the paint go sticky. Not worth it.
Simple Green - surprisingly rubbish considering all the recommendations it gets elsewhere.
Acetone nail polish remover - I had tried this before and had good results, but this time it was a complete failure, even using two different brands (Sainsbury and Superdrug)
Fairy Power Spray - brilliant, strips plastic way better than anything else I have tried and stripped metal better than nail polish remover. Shock result I know, I am as stunned as you.

So erm, does anyone want to but some nail polish remover? I have an unexpected surplus.

I am not sure what has happened to Simple Green, maybe they changed the formula. I used to use it for stripping and it was awesome. My last few attempts w/ it (since I got back into this in 2009/ 2010) it has been completely ineffective (but yet somehow still manages to make the model smell like Simple Green for months afterward).

So I guess I'll have to take a look at Fairy Power Spray.

Ok. I looked. It's available online for worldwide shipping but it's expensive (mostly the shipping).

But if it works that well it's worth it to get clean miniatures for rescue / repaint.

I will be very, very sad if Simple Green changed their formula.

Make sure you are using the "concentrated" form not the "retail" form.

I used concentrated Simple Green bought maybe a year ago, but it's hard to get in the UK anyway. I was surprised it did so badly but I think there are lots of factors involved when it comes to stripping models, for example, white primer comes off plastic minis easily while black primer doesn't, and the older the model the harder it seems to strip. I've got a few more pots of models on the go at the moment but so far I've got to say that Fairy Power Spray is the way to go in the UK, and I expect it exists in the US but with a different name or something.

Acetone polish remover is really good at thinning Squadron green putty, but also shortens the working time If it sits though, it loses something and doesn't work in my experience, it has to stink to work.

You could try "Cilit Bang and the dirt is gone" I have used it with some results with plastic, although don't leave it in there to long as the plastic will go rubbery

dsteingass wrote:Acetone polish remover is really good at thinning Squadron green putty, but also shortens the working time If it sits though, it loses something and doesn't work in my experience, it has to stink to work.

As much as I hate to admit it, "Liquid Green Stuff" is already thinned-down Squadron Green, and works pretty damn well.

I'll have a real update pretty soon, I'm sat here surrounded by basically a whole other boards worth of Necromunda terrain, all of it about 70% finished (I think I started working in too large a batch this time, it's been hard going).

But in the meantime I need some help, I read a blog recently on this forum mainly about old rogue trader era Chaos renegade space marines, the very first 40k Chaos models. They were mostly painted in dark grey and brown and I think he was about to do some really old bikers. Really nice paint jobs. I made a mental note to remember the blog so I could use it for inspiration but mental notes are the worst kind of notes.

Not 100% it's the right one, but maybe Tortured-Robot's awesome chaos renegades? If not, you should get a ton of inspiration from there anyway - I was gutted when the blog sank...

It's close but it's not the one. I think maybe I saw it on another site. Shame, it was awesome.

Almost time for an update! I've got everything to about 85% done, really looking forward to having this lot finished and dumped off at my friends house so I can use my desk again to paint something nice and neat and small.

I got some scenery finished!




This is the rust texture I've been talking about, it's a textured spray paint from homebase coated with rust pigment. The spray paint softens the edges of the model making it look old and corroded. I'm a big fan.



Pretty basic piece, I have two like this now that are very similar. I got most of this stuff already built on eBay, I guess someone was selling all their Necro scenery, cost next to nothing and just needed some more detailing and repainting.




This one was done with the hairspray and salt technique, it looks OK but I should have used higher contrast colours to make it more striking from a distance. I also did a few walkways in this same style.



This is my favourite bit, lots of crates (that I think are Hirst Arts plaster moulds - picked up from eBay) on toy farm palettes. All these palettes cost about £5 in total. They look quite brightly coloured all together but will be used to add splashes of colour all over the board.



Boris, his dog and Thundernuts playing around in the Underhive, not a care in the world. Boris was the leader of my old gang and was an absolute monster with his plasma grenade launcher, infiltrate and BS6. He died a supervillain's death but I have since brought him back as a bounty hunter... supervillains always come back.

I have a couple more gigantic buildings left to finish, they are only basecoated at the moment. The plan is to have enough scenery for two simultaneous games, should be about there!

great looking scenery ,et tu.thinking of borrowing that textured rust teqnique, ;-)

good looking there man, looks really slick. i think im gonna have to nick that textured painting look for rust looks real easy and great

the terrain looks great! and yes you are correct, those are hirst arts molds as I have that exact one

Wow. Make no mistake, you are where I want to be. Anyone can collect a ton of terrain and bitz and use textured spray paint and hairspray / salt technique or all the other things I'm learning... you have figured it out completely and have made it all yours. It doesn't matter so much how you do it, or how much time you put into it, you get amazing results and it look incredible on so many levels.

Sorry if I sound "fanboy", but dude, your stuff really is that good in my opinion. You have my respect and my attention. Great stuff here.

Great use of the Platformer bitz Bruticus! Really well painted too!

LOL... maaaan... our scenery sucks compared to yours!

Awesome work! I like the rust look of 1st and 2nd pictures... and what's the 4th n 5th picture? GW, another kit, or home-made?

-Remi

Dude some more fantastic scenery. The scatter terrain is brilliant.

Really love the close ups of the goliaths...especially the chap with horned helmet.

... and what's the 4th n 5th picture? GW, another kit, or home-made?

It's another Platformer kit I believe, I got a lot of this stuff ready made (and based on MDF) on ebay for a few pounds per model. I have a gigantic Platformer building half finished here that cost under a tenner. I wouldn't say the kits are quite up to GW standards but they mix well with the old bulkheads and really I am still going for quantity over quality. I love eBay, check around for people selling off their old scenery collections, I've found so much stuff this way.

Really love the close ups of the goliaths...especially the chap with horned helmet.

That's the legendary Boris, my old leader who is making a revival as a bounty hunter in my new gang. He was the only one that got to wear a horned helmet. The Goliaths are a bit poorly painted so I haven't given them many close-ups but at the time I just needed a painted gang quickly.

Wow. Make no mistake, you are where I want to be. Anyone can collect a ton of terrain and bitz and use textured spray paint and hairspray / salt technique or all the other things I'm learning... you have figured it out completely and have made it all yours. It doesn't matter so much how you do it, or how much time you put into it, you get amazing results and it look incredible on so many levels.

Sheesh, get a room Skalk!

Anyway you will have an equally awesome pile of scenery once you have got all your stuff glued together and painted.

i think im gonna have to nick that textured painting look for rust looks real easy and great

This is the spray paint I used then washed with Mig old rust and a few spots of new rust, then some spots of metal painted back on by hand or drybrushed. Really quick and easy and probably the best looking corroded metal effect I have found. I am very tempted to try some of the other Rust-Oleum sprays, like this one which I bet would look awesome.

I just want to show you guys this blog because not only is it the coolest army ever (Lovecraft Chaos) but the rust/corrosion effect is mind blowing, trying to resist trying that for myself... some vast drained reservoir full of corroded vehicles and scrap... I get distracted so easily.

Bruticus wrote:[Sheesh, get a room Skalk!

Already have one!

lol skalk the khorn symbol on the SM!

Had a couple of games today and got some decent photos.



The Imperial Guard kill team takes up position, the heavy dominates the battlefield with his heavy bolter... but a Goliath tunnel team sneak up behind him! He decides to flee rather than try and hold them all off and tried to make the jump you see here, across to the overpass. It needs a 2+... he fails and falls 8 inches to the ground. Amazingly he picks himself up with just a flesh wound, but the tunnel team is on him and he gets eaten by the Goliath pet gnasher. Unfortunately for the Imperial Guard the gnasher is a vicious beast and it kills him dead, quite a catastrophic turn of events!



The Imperial Guard vents team take up a commanding position, ready to annihilate all the Goliaths that are running for the loot. We placed the loot on the top level of a 6 storey tower, about 20" above ground level and getting up there would be difficult enough with the heavy stubber guarding it (although a bit easier than when the heavy bolter was also alive).



But the Imperial Guard haven't accounted for Boris, once a notorious Goliath leader now back from the dead in his new calling as a bounty hunter. He charges up a ladder to dispatch the guardsmen with his chainsword and the loss of both heavies is too much for the kill team who bottle. A short but very cool game.



The scatter terrain was great, added a lot of detail and cover.

man would i love to play on that table!

I would pay money to play on a table that great.

Bruticus wrote:

... and what's the 4th n 5th picture? GW, another kit, or home-made?

It's another Platformer kit I believe, I got a lot of this stuff ready made (and based on MDF) on ebay for a few pounds per model. I have a gigantic Platformer building half finished here that cost under a tenner. I wouldn't say the kits are quite up to GW standards but they mix well with the old bulkheads and really I am still going for quantity over quality. I love eBay, check around for people selling off their old scenery collections, I've found so much stuff this way.

Hmm... prepainted stuff at a discount...? I might have to check that out... Making the scenery is not bad... but painting it... engh...

-Remi

I've been finding terrain / scenery on eBay to be distinctly lacking of late.

Hmm... prepainted stuff at a discount...? I might have to check that out... Making the scenery is not bad... but painting it... engh

Not exactly, it was assembled but painted terribly. Bright blue and green thick paint all over one bit. Luckily this doesn't matter for my purposes, I can just spray over and repaint. Basically I just bought someone's old scenery collection and rescued it, it's not built how I would have assembled it but it came with really nicely cut MDF bases and saved me a lot of hassle and glue. Ebay is full of people selling their old junk.

Some more pics - my friend is putting together a scavvy gang (hopefully I can persuade him to post some WIP photos) and they are looking so cool we thought we'd stage a couple of photos. Can't wait to have an actual game of Pitslaves vs Scavvies, a b-movie gorefest extravaganza. Chainsaws and zombies, a match made in heaven.







We can take 'em... with science!


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I've been finding terrain / scenery on eBay to be distinctly lacking of late.

The best finds are when people are clearing out all their stuff in one fell swoop, might be listed as a 'job lot' or 'collection' or something. The more stuff piled together the fewer bids it will get, and the prize finds are things like a mum clearing out her son's abandoned miniature collection. 'Some sort of plastic men (space elf??) and houses for fighting in (warhammers???), not sure, see pics' - these are great. I bought several collections of bits and junk lots that were real goldmines after taking a chance on a fuzzy photo, especially one full of maybe 5-6 packs of the GW battlefield accessory stuff for about £10. But then I am a real eBay junky.

Those are some amazing photos man! It looks like you were having fun setting the scene up and shooting them!

Nothing very exciting today, but I made some loot counters:



Is that a vintage bottle of Whitesnake or a scavvy toilet? Many men will die finding out.

Is that a vintage bottle of Whitesnake or a scavvy toilet? Many men will die finding out.

I laughed so hard at this.

Looking good all the way Bruticus. The rust effect on the buildings is amazing. The pictures of the warbands among the rubble and crating are really cool...shows me i have a long way to go.

Time for me to step up my modelling

Bruticus wrote:Is that a vintage bottle of Whitesnake or a scavvy toilet? Many men will die finding out.

Yeah, that one cracked me up as well.

Those Loot Counters are a great idea. Definitely cooler than cardboard punchouts. I'm going to remember this and try it myself when (if?) I ever get Necromunda running around here.

Some great counters there and must agree totally better than card ones any day, I have also invested in the textured spray paint from hombase after your pictures.

Well yours looked to dam good not to give it ago, just hope I got the right stuff mind

After some careful consideration I have decided to completely rip off Thenickninja's amazing road.

So I was wondering if anyone has seen any 1:43 toy cars in the UK - probably die cast mass manufactured types rather than resin or plastic model kits. Ideally a massive lot of second hand ones. Bburago do some decent ones but I can't find them for less than £3 each and ideally I want cheaper because I want a lot.

I know it sounds of obvious but have you tried E bay you could try car boot sales and flea market days, Sundays are always good for this there is usually one close by on a Sunday every where

I have a load of Hot Wheels G machines and Custom Classics in packets, but they are 1/50-ish scale and American Muscle Cars, you can pick them up loose on E bay quite cheap some times.

Hey Bruticus, great blog. Love the terrain and the gangers. I'm also after some wrecked cars to send to the underhive, so I'll be watching to see what you find! I reckon the holy grail would be a double decker London bus or a few tube carriages that I can rip the top off and have gangers running around inside.

Anyway, don't know i this is any help, but spotted it on the Pig Iron blog a while back:
http://www.pigironblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/28mm-wrecked-cars.html

Hey yeah those are pretty good. I messaged a guy on eBay who agreed to sell me a bunch of Bburago Streetfire cars at close to cost, which is ideal really. They have lots of cool Lamborghinis which look futuristic enough I hope, and they looked great on Thenickninja's road so I will just copy him I think. I'm really looking forward to smashing them to bits with a hammer and destroying them with rust.


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Oh I just want to share a discovery I made. I bought a couple of wooden cutlery trays which I plan to stand upright and put my paints in, they are perfect for this purpose and dirt cheap on eBay.

So cheap in fact that I am pretty sure they would make perfect Necro scenery - the urban hill idea. Buy 5 or 6, place over your board and bam, you've got yourself a series of corridors. Turn them face up and you could add recesses inside them. I've said it a few times but this sort of corridor is the BEST Necro scenery possible, it breaks lines of sight, adds a whole new element of strategy where you have to cover corridors with overwatch and also lets you stack things on top or place walkways between them.

I'm sure more capable people than me can fashion their own boxes but woodworking is the one thing I can't do easily.

Another question - does anyone have any idea how to make sewer/manhole covers and roadside drains? I've been looking for ages but I can't find anyone that sells the right sort of thing, Hasslefree sell a selection of etched brass manhole covers but I want a more uniform look. I think I can make my own sewer covers but not sure how to make small drains, the sort you see in the gutter at the side of a road to prevent flooding.

I am also looking for a good set of road signs and streetlights that would work for 40k. I think this ought to be easier.

Easiest source for such things is O Scale Model Railroading supplies. 1:48th scale.

Google "O scale <product>", and you'll get hits.

Here's a guy making etched manholes, for example: http://www.vectorcut.com/accessoriesO.htm

Plastruct sells O gague Manways www.plastruct.com

But GW makes a nifty PEB curbside drain culvert included in the Warhammer 40K basing set.

Personally, I'd just scratch them from PC, it seems like the easiest way.

I dont know if these are to flashy but I will post it any way http://www.pk-pro.de/index.php?page=product&info=282

BriancJ that is one cool link I will be spending more money that I don't have there

Hmm the one in the 40k basing kit looks good but I can't afford to buy 2 basing kits to get 8 drain covers! Do you think I could push mold brass etch or something so thin? I don't think I have the plasticard skills or patience to make my own but I could make one and copy it maybe.

As for manhole covers, I find it very frustrating that every company seems to sell a selection of different designs, I just want one consistent design, I think a road would look odd with every manhole cover being different. I might make my own instead, but I will certainly keep looking for O scale street accessories.

Thanks for the assistance guys.

I dont know what kind of street lighting you are looking for, but I got some cool ones of Evilbay from china

Are you looking modern type or a traditional style as for the manhole you could get a set of them bulk the bottom out with PC and then make casts.

I don't know what type of street lighting I want either, I am even a bit tempted by working streetlights but I generally don't approve of using working lights... still it might be pretty cool.

In the meanwhile I have done some work on another bit of scenery that I have had half finished for a while. It got very rusty, but this bit would serve as the stands at a pit fight, the denizens of the underhive can stand along the walkways.









It's not finished yet, still need to do a load of detailing but thought I ought to post a pic. Pleased with the rust effect here, I did the same process as before but this time I shaded it with a dark grey from my airbrush afterwards. I think it's mainly Platformer stuff, I just updetailed an item I bought on eBay. The mdf base splits in two along a nice wavy line for ease of storage, nicely done by the previous owner.

That is a master piece I can smell the blood and grease from here ……… enter the Thunder Dome

nicely done! the rust looks great, is that one of those pegasus sets?

yeah I think it is basically just a couple of Pegasus Hexagon small sets built like on the box. I got it ready made up.

That's a fantastic piece of terrain, Bruticus! And the paintjob makes it even more spectacular! I'm quite envious that you get to play on that, mate

Just realized one of the things I like the best about your terrain are the bits and pieces that are strewn about. That's what really defines the scale / atmosphere, and makes it come alive.

Nice score. I'm really not having a great time on eBay US and I've been looking daily.

Two words MORE ZOMBIES

The guy that made the scavvy gang (which are ridiculously cool) is not posting them here, nor is my brother posting his amazing Admech gang... I'm trying to persuade them but they are shy I guess.

I got a whole load of cheap 1:48 cars in the post this morning, found a seller on eBay who sold them to me at wholesale, nice of him! I think these cars are really way too small but hopefully they will look good when I have painted them and modded them a little. I'm thinking an Enforcer road block that led to an abandoned gridlock of rusted cars. Really looking forward to smashing these toys up with a sledgehammer.


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Just saw this on the GW site link - quite cool although I am a bit bored of city of death parts. I am jealous that they have roughcoat cans because as far as I can see you can't get this in the UK.

Do those road markings look right to you guys? I was thinking a white dashed line but it all looks a bit out of place in 40k.

Really looking forward to smashing these toys up with a sledgehammer.

That's a terrain amking secret you don't see every day.

Here's a question for any experienced painters - I just spent a while doing some painting, started with an airbrush basecoat, then I painted lots of thin layers using Deneb stone and Liquitex matt medium, everything was looking good, but then I put a GW sepia wash on, and the paint turned to rubber and sort of crinkled up and peeled off. What did I do wrong?

Bruticus wrote:Here's a question for any experienced painters - I just spent a while doing some painting, started with an airbrush basecoat, then I painted lots of thin layers using Deneb stone and Liquitex matt medium, everything was looking good, but then I put a GW sepia wash on, and the paint turned to rubber and sort of crinkled up and peeled off. What did I do wrong?

its the matte medium. it has a different surface tension to the deneb stone...

Sounds like the wash didn't agree with the matt medium...
Strip and do over i'm afraid...

I think it went wrong

It seemed ok until I used the wash, now I can pretty much just rub the deneb stone off with a paintbrush. Is this a common problem with matt medium? I want to keep using it as I like the results.

What was under the deneb stone? It sounds like maybe it wasn't fully cured yet, so the deneb stone didn't stick to it. Matte medium is fine to use, but I use it as a clear coat myself.

Bruticus wrote:It seemed ok until I used the wash, now I can pretty much just rub the deneb stone off with a paintbrush. Is this a common problem with matt medium? I want to keep using it as I like the results.

use Matte medium LAST. and things should be Ok. If you want somthing shiny use a gloss medium over the matte.

Can't be much help with the airbrush issues, I'm afraid. Just wanted to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing how you deal with the cars! Thought maybe this blog post might be some help - if you can't find too many cars in the right scale, seems you can get a fair few wrecked ones fairly easily with just a couple of originals! Detail's not great, but results under the cut:



I've also just nabbed a couple of Pegasus kits off eBay, inspired by your recent stuff. Can't wait for them to show up!