…to raise a ganger… Or, for that matter, an Inquisitor.
The game of Necromunda is set upon a hive world, with almost the entirety of the human population crammed into cities far larger and more crowded, not to mention more violent and squalid, and anything found on Earth today. The setting may have a great deal in common with post-apocalyptic fiction with its planetwide irradiated deserts and domes full of crumbling machinery but it is in the massively overcrowded metropolises that the vast majority of people live – and by extension that’s where all the action happens. As a result I’ve been keen to create some hapless civilians with which to populate my stretch of the Underhive – downtrodden unfortunates just trying to go about their business when the bullets start flying once again.
Officially most of the people on a hive world live where they work, in the huge manufactorums, with block after block of habs crowded up against grumbling, fume belching engines. The Underhive itself, and the crawl spaces, waste domes and labyrinthine sprawl of decaying shafts and tunnels that lies hidden within and around the walls of these factories, should be relatively sparsely populated – but on a world as overcrowded as Necromunda even that will still undoubtedly equate to a vast number of people. Even if those who find their way into these liminal spaces are only a fraction of a percent of the hive’s population there will still be plenty of them. What’s more, people gather only where there’s something worth gathering for, a useful resource or a meeting of tunnels or trade-routes – something which in turn will attract gangers looking to seize whatever it is for themselves, or deny it to their rivals. Indeed, although I was first drawn to this project as a spin-off from my Necromunda gangs it soon occurred to me that wherever one goes in the Imperium, a few generic civilians would go a long way, and thus this would tie in nicely to any and all of my Inq28 plans as well.
The first of these civilians are now ready, coming in the form of these three monkish characters courtesy of the first Black Crab Kickstarter. One of the greatest strengths of the Inq28 scene has been the encouragement of, and reliance upon, converted models – many of which have been startlingly creative and evocative. It’s rare to find something which suits the aesthetic from the word go so when I spotted these I just had to snap them up.
Of course I really must get on with building up more of my Underhive terrain collection so that they have somewhere to live (not to mention all the muties, Inquisitors, cultists, gangers, scum and whatever else I think of).
Needless to say these three won’t be populating the hives and back allies of the Imperium alone, plenty of other civvies are on their way – so watch this space.
July 22nd, 2019 at 8:01 am
Cracking job mate, these guys look spot on! I’m guessing they like bones then? 😉
I think I’ll need to be cracking on with some civvies once I’m done with Wolf Time – I did a bunch a while ago, and it is good fun
July 22nd, 2019 at 10:20 am
This is the 41st Millennium – everyone likes bones! (Fair enough it’s mostly skulls but there must be the odd fringe sect for whom the shin is the seat of the soul).
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun coming up with ideas for civvies, you can let loose a lot more than with almost any other project. The only serious challenge is finding hands that aren’t holding a weapon.
July 22nd, 2019 at 11:47 am
So learn to sculpt hands already!! 🙂
July 22nd, 2019 at 12:43 pm
You make it sound so simple 😆
July 22nd, 2019 at 8:41 am
Excellent paint job mate, although I would have expected no less. I really like the touch of blue (metalic?), provides a great highlight.
July 22nd, 2019 at 10:25 am
Thank you! Yeah, the touch of blue gave me a moment of feeling smug – thought I would give it a try and it worked out better than I’d hoped. It’s actually one of the new GW Contrast paints that everyone’s been going on about recently – Akhelian Green (although there’s some debate over whether its strictly speaking a green or a blue – it looks blue to me anyway!). Because some of the paints are designed to be slightly transparent they work really well over metal.
July 22nd, 2019 at 10:16 pm
Hard to tell if it’s blue and green is at least not as bad as not being able to tell if it’s blue and white or black and gold! 😉
July 22nd, 2019 at 9:27 pm
Yeah, bolting a reliquary to your head is pretty grimdark! And hey, something’s gotta be done with all the rest of the bones. Given how many skulls are around, that’s a lot of other bones we aren’t seeing 😉
They came out great, and look like they’ll fit right in with Necromunda or INQ28 stuff.
July 24th, 2019 at 6:23 am
Aye, in the stakes of religious one-uppmanship bolting a reliquary straight to your head is hard to beat! What’s a man supposed to do if the Emperor doesn’t take notice of that!
I always thought the rest of the bones were what gave corpse-starch it’s crunch and unique flavour 😉
Glad you like them, got a lot of stuff from the second kickstarter as well so will have to tackle that too as soon as it arrives.
July 24th, 2019 at 3:38 pm
They probably are ground to make “bread” in classic fee fi fo fum style, yeah 😉
July 22nd, 2019 at 11:28 pm
These are great sculpts. I think I saw them on Instagram a while ago. I love the hunched over chap with the large bone haha. Nice simple but effective colour palette mate. Your world is really taking shape and your words transport me to it. Well done sir
July 24th, 2019 at 6:25 am
Aye, there’s a man with a great big bone. He’s got a big thumb as well for that matter…
Glad you like them mate, I really need to get some more building done.
July 24th, 2019 at 1:11 pm
Hehe 👍🏼
July 23rd, 2019 at 8:32 am
These are really cool! The hands are a bit big and goofy, but i guess it’s understandable as they seem to be traditionally sculpted. Anyways, they seem perfect for those Space Marine groupies that populate John Blanche’s paintings. Shame that they’re not available anymore..
July 24th, 2019 at 6:36 am
Aye, there are a few imperfections in there but as you say, these were traditionally sculpted, rather than having the benefits of all modern digital wizardry so I’ll forgive them a lot that I might not on a professionally produced GW model.
Yeah, it’s a really pity they were only available through the kickstarter. You could add them as an extra on the second kickstarter but it would be nice if they set up a store for the Black Crab range, hopefully the success of the two campaigns have them thinking along those lines now.
July 26th, 2019 at 6:23 pm
Nice job mate. They are pretty cool sculpts and capture Black Crabs art perfectly. I found the castings of these really good and I have to agree that there’s no converting needed as they just shout ” Grim Dark ” as they are. I’ll be using the contrast range to paint mine and trying out some blending on those wonderful looking tattered robes.
July 26th, 2019 at 8:09 pm
Yeah, I was very impressed with the quality of them overall. Looking forward to getting the models from the second kickstarter now.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with Contrast, I’ll be interested to see how you apply it to your distinctive style. I’m still working out how to tie it in to my painting, although so far I think it’s a very promising tool. Mind you, I’ve found (and heard from others) that it tends to dry glossy if it’s very hot when you use it so I’ll not be getting any more practice in with it until this weather settles down a bit! 😀
July 26th, 2019 at 8:41 pm
I missed the second kickstarter 😦 They are a great addition to the range of paints. Haven’t noticed that they dry too glossy though but they do need a damn good shake! I’ve put ball bearings in mine. Especially the white.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:09 pm
Gutted! 😕 I won’t make things worse by going on about how good the new models are then!
Could be I’ve not been shaking them properly, that does feel a bit too much like serious exertion in this heat! Good thinking re the ball bearings, might be wise and do the same thing.
July 26th, 2019 at 9:18 pm
Maybe I can convince him to sell me some anyway. 😊
July 26th, 2019 at 10:20 pm
When the first, visceral reaction I have to seeing the first picture of the first model scroll up my screen is “oh, COOL!” then you know you’re on the right track!
July 28th, 2019 at 7:35 am
Cheers! 😀 Well, that was pretty much exactly my reaction when I first saw them so I’m glad I captured that.
August 6th, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Awsome minis!! Perfect for necromunda. Looking forward to see your work!!
August 6th, 2019 at 10:39 pm
Thank you very much Professor – always good to see another hiver around 🙂