I know I’ve been promising that my next ventures into the Underhive would be to get my Orlocks up and running but you know what, I lied! I lied because I’m a filthy scummer – just like these down-and-out ne’er-do-wells!
I’m quite enjoying the scum kit, it’s great for capturing the richness of life on Necromunda outside the six major houses. By adding these new recruits to the scummers I painted a few years ago I’ve got the early beginnings of another gang, ready to go their own way and make a life for themselves downhive. More will undoubtedly follow but next time we go to Necromunda it’s going to be Orlocks – I promise!
Convert or Die 
August 15th, 2022 at 8:30 am
Nice work on those scum, and you’re right it’s a great kit
August 16th, 2022 at 8:00 am
Cheers! Aye, it’s a very versatile kit I think – you could use it for all kinds of people living in/around the Imperium; civilian miners, pirates, Inquisitorial henchmen, penal legionaries – the list goes on!
August 15th, 2022 at 6:14 pm
Very nice, I think these models and your great paint job is more fitting to Necromonda than some of the flashy newer stuff GW is bringing out.
August 16th, 2022 at 8:52 am
Thank you very much! Yeah, I have very mixed feelings about the new stuff they’ve been bringing to Necromunda lately (in fact I might even end up writing a “Scum’s Thoughts about it – assuming this scummer can actually get his thoughts in some kind of order!). I think Necromunda has always walked a fine line between being this intensely gritty, down-to-earth, slice-of-life that really digs into the story of the very lowest of the low, and on the other hand being this extremely OTT, B-movie, almost comic-bookesque setting about punks fighting cops fighting aliens and everything is very big and flashy and silly. Part of why it got away with it for so long, and why I think so many fans are experiencing growing pains with it right now, is that for most of it’s history all we had to work with in terms of models belonged to the former, and the latter existed almost entirely in our imaginations. Your gang and my gang might be fighting over a filthy stretch of tunnel today but we can dream that someday my leader will be possessed by a daemon and your leader will have to be brought back from the dead to stop them and they can fight it out one last time, racing on hoverbikes up the side of the spire itself. It was fine to dream those things because they fitted into the setting and so of course it’s awesome to have the models available to bring that to life. However I think it’s also key to remember that 99.99% of gangers never make it to the flying hoverbikes stage, they die in the dark with a stub gun in their hand and a curse on their lips, never to be remembered or spoken of again. Except they don’t have to any more because I can go to the real-life shop with my real-life money and buy as many hoverbikes as I feel like and so everyone does (as is their right – I know I’m probably going to). Now a gaming group might say “in keeping with the spirit of Necromunda the hoverbikes and their ilk are not allowed, except in a few special scenarios from time to time” which I think would be spot on for capturing what Necromunda is “really” like, but I think the average person wouldn’t like that; having bought and painted their new hoverbikes they want to get them on the table and enjoy them (again, very understandable). So most people will have hoverbikes in their gangs now and as we look around at what other players and gaming groups are getting up to we see the wider world of Necromunda changing from gangers fighting gangers to undead punk-chicks on a hoverbikes fighting flying bio-mechanical octopuses. If the game continues to be popular (and I really hope it does) then GW will continue to pour new models into it, and much as I’d like to see more new gangs (scavies, pit fighters, etc) in the main that’s going to mean more kits for the big six houses, each more OTT than the last, and the experience of playing Necromunda will move further and further away from what we used to know. Again these new kits will almost certainly fit in with what Necromunda *can* be, but not if everyone is doing it – and of course because real-world people want to play with their real-world toys everyone *will* be doing it. So yeah, you can’t stop progress and I feel both happy and unhappy about that.
August 16th, 2022 at 5:24 pm
I must say I’m really surprised by your response, not because I disagree with it but because I think it explains to me how I actually feel about the setting, but I was never really able to put my finger on it in my own head.
I think this came from me playing the original with my brother while young and it having this amazing nostalgia for me, but we where very much playing at the bottom end of the scale, where you did not turn you nose up at a Stub gun.
So seeing the new flying jet bikes is cool and it fits but really I just want so grubby gangers with dyed hair and a rust knife!
I think this might be why I’ve never really got into the new set, I have the Goliath and Escher starter box, paint 3 Goliaths (and their Corc) and 1 Escher, and I keep meaning to go back to it but never get around to, and I think the above could really be why.
Anyway thanks for your thoughts great to hear!
August 15th, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Always best to do what you fancy doing mate and these look great. 🙂
August 16th, 2022 at 8:32 pm
Thank you! Yeah, that’s always been my attitude – I get more done (and to a better standard) painting the things I’m excited about than trying to force myself. Sometimes it’s necessary of course. I did intend to work on the Orlocks but I’ve been stalling on them for a while. However funnily enough painting these rapscallions was just the pallet cleanser I needed, the Orlocks are now back on the desk and progress has been made at last!
August 15th, 2022 at 11:20 pm
These are some weedy looking gits to be sure! Its good to see you painting some Necromunda stuff and I saw somewhere there are Escher speeder bikes coming out which is exciting. They look pretty cool to this Star Wars fan anyway 😀
August 16th, 2022 at 9:27 pm
“When I first met him, your father was already a great pilot”.
Aye, it’s nice to be back in the hive – it’s been too long. Those Escher bikes are gorgeous aren’t they? As miniatures I think they’re really, really nice – I’ll be surprised if they don’t find their way into my collection as soon as they’re available. 😉 As for what they mean for Necromunda, and the general direction of the game as a whole, I’m not sure I can put it better than I already have to Eloth above – suffice to say my feelings are complicated. Anyway, glad you like the scummers, expect to see a few more of them sooner or later.
August 16th, 2022 at 5:54 am
Great work on these scummers. A shame that GW so quickly dropped them to 4 in an overpriced box since they offer(ed) such a diverse set of models to paint and add colour to Necromunda *or even genestealer/ chaos cults, etc…
August 16th, 2022 at 9:41 pm
Cheers! Aye, I thought they might pull a stunt like that after the Ogryns but they were still a lot quicker about it than I would have liked. They’re so useful for so many 40k/Imperium characters, and although they’re perfect for Necromunda they’re a lot less specific to that world than the models for the big six houses are, they’d fit in nicely with Imperial Guard, Inq28 and all kinds of civilians, void pirates etc. Oh and they’re everything the chaos cultists kit *should* have been (i.e. modular and easy to combine and kitbash). Hadn’t thought about using the for GSC but now you’ve put the idea in my head I reckon one of my spares might well join my gang of baldy xeno’s lovers. So yeah, GW were fools not to keep the original set available, probably some money-man’s idea of a clever wheeze to squeeze more cash from us mugs. Still a lovely kit though.
August 17th, 2022 at 2:03 pm
Yeah, it really doesn’t make much sense, does it? Turning it from an easy “squad” for someone to buy into a …well, it’s not really anything in the set’s current form now, is it? The not-so-stealth price increase from breaking the set up didn’t help, either!
August 16th, 2022 at 7:37 am
Lookin’ good mate, these wee scamps have got loads of character!
August 16th, 2022 at 9:30 pm
Down-and-out lovable-rapscallions to a man, and jam-packed with personality! (Actually now I think about it that describes the crowd that comments on here too..!). Glad you like them, they were great to paint – more will be along as soon as I can shoe-horn them onto the desk.
August 16th, 2022 at 8:14 pm
These look nasty! 🙂 Brilliant!
August 16th, 2022 at 8:29 pm
Haha – cheers! I suspect none of them are very nice people! 😀
August 17th, 2022 at 11:50 pm
Love them and they look like they could be used in quite a few games. So, is there like a Scum gang? Or are these ones you can add-on to an existing gang?
August 22nd, 2022 at 7:37 pm
Cheers! Yeah, I reckon there’s a lot of mileage in them. I like models that can be used in a number of settings or games and these would do the job as luckless mooks in all kinds of situations.
As for Necromunda the answer is both; you can either add some scum to one of the other gangs as some cheap hired help or you can run an all scum gang (same with the slave ogryns).
August 18th, 2022 at 11:19 pm
I really like the Hive Scum kit – I just finished working through a batch and they mix quite nicely with the Catachan Command kit for some extra variety.
August 22nd, 2022 at 8:29 pm
Mixing them with the Catachans is a good idea, I’ve been using Catachan heads on my Orlocks.
August 28th, 2022 at 4:44 am
I love these chaps
August 28th, 2022 at 8:07 am
Cheers dude!