Time for the last of this year’s Fembruary models, and yes I know we’re well into March now but I did paint her back in February, it’s just taken me until now to post her. In fact I’ve been working on this model, on and off, since since not long after she was released (without going and checking I’m going to guess 2018). I made a concentrated effort to get her fully painted in Fembruary of 2020, tried again in 2021, returned to her in 2022 and noticed the other week that she was 99% done and I should stop mucking about.
This is Belladonna, a special character for Necromunda who can be hired as a bounty hunter to join your gang. With any model painted in fits and starts over such a long period there’s bound to be things I’m not entirely happy with about the end result and that’s certainly the case here. That said I’m happy enough to call her finished, and having the deadline of the end of February certainly stopped me from messing around any further – and potentially messing her up in the process.
Her story is one of the great revenge narratives of blood-soaked Necromunda. Once a noble of House Esher, and a skilled assassin in her own right, she was married into one of the noble houses in an astute political move intended to win the Eshers much power. To her own surprise she fell in love with her new husband only for him to be assassinated at their wedding when one of the gifts turned out to contain a starved and ferocious alien predator. Belladonna survived, barely, losing an arm and a leg in the process (well they do say a fancy wedding costs arm and leg these days…). She did however manage to kill the xenos beast armed only with a shoe, ramming one stiletto-heel through its eye and into its brain. Now she stalks the underhive on the trail of whoever arranged her husband’s murder. She is not, of course, to be confused with Mad Donna, Necromunda’s most infamous trouble maker (and a character who really deserves a nice, new plastic model – hint hint GW!).
Convert or Die 
March 6th, 2023 at 10:28 am
Excellent work Wudu, and must feel good to get her finished, I’ve still got to finish the original model she was based on, one day ! LOL
March 6th, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Thank you! Aye, always good to get a long-standing “painter’s block” project out of the way. Ah now that is an old classic! One for next Fembruary perhaps? 🙂
March 6th, 2023 at 6:04 pm
Great looking mini! She would make an excellent looking leader model too. Sorry it took so long to her done. That’s the weird thing about partially painted minis though, trying to get that inspiration to get them over the finish line is challenging. I think you did some really nice work on her though and glad you were able to get her done! 🙂
March 18th, 2023 at 7:26 pm
Cheers! Aye, I can’t quite put my finger on the cause because it’s generally not a lack of enthusiasm, but I’ve had a ludicrous number of models fall through the cracks and end up sitting almost completed for years. Still, they make for easy wins when I do rediscover them which is always nice!
I can definitely see Belladonna as a gang leader, she’d look the part commanding the Eschers but it would be cool to put together a gang of misfits and outcasts that she’s gathered together to help her in her hunt for justice. Another project for “some day”.
March 6th, 2023 at 6:26 pm
Very nicely done! 🙂 Bet it takes her ages to do her hair mind you! 😉
March 20th, 2023 at 10:20 pm
Cheers! Must take her forever mustn’t it? Longer even than it takes me to paint miniatures… or reply to comments…
March 20th, 2023 at 10:47 pm
Haha, brilliant! 🙂 You have got other priorities though – hope you’re all well!
March 6th, 2023 at 9:22 pm
Lovely job on her mate, cool mini & backstory – kinda Kill Bill in Spaaaace!!
March 6th, 2023 at 10:15 pm
Cheers mate! It is very Kill Bill in space isn’t it, I was tempted to paint her all in yellow but in the end I refrained!
March 7th, 2023 at 6:52 pm
Just beautiful!
March 7th, 2023 at 6:55 pm
Thank you 😊
March 8th, 2023 at 12:01 am
That is a good backstory and as John says, that coif must really take some doing! I really like sculpts like this in Necromunda and when you start painting these, I do get the idea that maybe I should join in on the fun 🙂
March 20th, 2023 at 10:21 pm
Thank you! You know, I know I’ve said this many times but you really should join us hive world gangers someday. As a display painter there are loads of cool and unusual characters to stretch your skills on. And given your love of Fallout I reckon a post- apocalyptic skirmish setting would be your cup of tea, and the two settings are different enough that I don’t think you’d find one to be a repetition of the other.
March 20th, 2023 at 11:15 pm
You must work for the Necromunda Sales Dept., mate! 😀 Everything you said is true. I will be ordering from Forge World more often this year (which shouldn’t be hard because I only bought one thing from them previously) and so I wouldn’t be surprised if a Necromunda mini makes its way into my cart 🙂
March 21st, 2023 at 5:24 pm
Haha – it’s true, I can’t deny it, I do enjoy a bit of Necromunda! However, in the interest of fairness, it’s certainly not above criticism in my view. The rules are in a terrible state, the way those rules are sold and presented is all over the place, the prices of the Forge World side are outrageous – in fact like anyone who loves a game or a franchise I bet I could talk for hours about how much I hate it! I’d say that these days being a Necromunda fan is great, but being a hard-core Necromunda fan is a thankless and gruelling task at best. For me, my love of the game really returned when I started tearing up the rulebook (figuratively speaking) and going my own way like an arse-kicking, devil-may-care road warrior. Of course I still aim to lure you into giving it a shot, I’d love to see what you do with some of these models and if you really get into it then we can both moan about it together!
March 21st, 2023 at 10:44 pm
Necromunda seems a bit daunting to get into. It almost has too many releases at this point. It also seems like the kind of game where you HAVE to have at least two people who are willing to commit to a campaign as well so that means it probably won’t be a game that I pick up to play.
If GW made more single miniatures for Necromunda, I probably would have gotten one by now. With those being made by FW that has enabled procrastination on my part. Its the same thing with the Death Korps of Krieg. I’d love to paint one but haven’t because FW made them up until recently. Excuses, excuses!
March 24th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
I completely agree. I’m lucky in that I got into Necromunda shortly after the re-release in 2017 (dipped a toe in back in the very early 2000’s but never really got into it back then). I’m not sure I’d try it if I came across it today, as you say it’s hard to know where to begin, and that would be a shame because I really do love it.
Part of the trouble, I think, is that it tries to be both a fast-paced, slightly silly skirmish game and a sprawling RPG in which your gang is the character. There’s no reason why it couldn’t be both, it’s just that I find it too often tries to be one when it should be the other. It could, and should, be really straightforward to get into; you pick up the core rules, the “House Of…” book for your chosen faction and a box of gangers and you’re good to go. Then if you want to bring in crime syndicates you buy the book for that, if you want to add vehicles and play in the ash wastes you buy a book for that (one book for all the rules, not 3 and counting as it is currently…) and so on. Keep the core game nice and simple and then add on lots of expansions that can easily be bolted on as people see fit. Instead it’s easy to end up feeling like you need a library because things are scattered all over.
I’d agree also that Necromunda is at its best with a small and enthusiastic group with a shared vision and a desire to have fun above all else, preferably centred around a dedicated GM. That said you can, and I do, love ‘munda as a solo gamer but it’s not the same. I like being able to tear up the things I don’t like and do my own thing but ultimately once you get into the gaming/story telling side of things this is a social hobby and these days I think we need more of that not less.
March 24th, 2023 at 8:29 pm
It is really jaw-dropping how many books GW has released for the game. The scope is impressive but at the same time, it probably causes people analysis paralysis and collector’s OCD all at once.
I was at Adepticon this morning and I looked for GW’s booth (in the hopes that FW would be there). I could not find it after two passes and gave up. I’d already spent quite a bit of quid on other things but I may try again on Sunday. If they have something Necromunda that tickles my fancy, I’ll pick it up!
March 9th, 2023 at 6:41 pm
Awesome stuff again mate,.and a nice subtle palette for her as well. A real shame that GW jacked up their FW prices to match the rest of their stuff or I’d have a whole lot of these models. (I have a UK “source” for regular stuff which is why I’m still willing to pick things up, but can’t get FW since it’s direct only…
I’ll have to find a 3D printed alternative for her one day – but please do keep ’em coming in the meantime!
March 20th, 2023 at 10:22 pm
Cheers mate! I know, FW stuff was expensive enough, even here the prices are silly and the way they’ve ramped them up recently is crazy. Plus I’m pretty sure they just draw them out of a hat, with no rhyme or reason to them. At least with GW’s stuff you can predict in advance roughly how much it’s likely to cost even if it is liable to be a bit painful on the wallet, but FW is all over the place. I’ve got quite a few Necromunda models from them but recently it’s all become a bit too rich for my blood, like you I’m now keeping my eyes open for 3d printed alternative and planning a bit of good old kitbashing.
March 9th, 2023 at 6:49 pm
Terrific painting. I’m glad that you explained that she isn’t Mad Donna as I was somehow expecting that… despite the fairly large clue of the different name!
March 20th, 2023 at 10:22 pm
Cheers! Aye, it’s a bit confusing isn’t it – they may have different(-ish) names but it’s still two Donna’s in the one setting. I saw an interview with one of the designers who said they wanted to come up with fresh characters for the game rather than just bringing back characters from the previous edition, and it wasn’t until after the models had been released that they spotted there were two Donna’s (not to mention Yolanda Scorn, another new character for this edition and no relation to Yolanda “Outland Annie” from the previous edition! Someone should buy them a book of names…).
March 12th, 2023 at 5:25 pm
Excellent paint job. One of my favorite FW Necromunda models released. It is far too niche but I’d have preferred a model of Belladonna in her wedding finery to the Lady Haera Helmawr model previewed a while back.
March 20th, 2023 at 10:24 pm
Thank you! Niche it may be but I’m with you there. I can’t quite make up my mind about Haera Helmawr. I’m glad she exists and although I know the model isn’t to everyone’s taste but I quite like her. However I’m never entirely sure about special characters in Necromunda at all, it’s a big place and part of the fun is people creating their own stories. That goes double for the nobility, she’s the (potential) heir to the entire planet, what’s she doing scrapping with a bunch of downhive lowlifes? It’s like seeing Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin getting into a punch up with some lads outside your local pub. Mind you I’m not sure I’m happy with “moving the setting forward” anyway. It’s a setting for us to play with, not a story to be told. Give us more background please – I can’t get enough of that – but leave the next chapter in the narrative to the individual players. My gangers don’t know or care what’s happening in other parts of the hive let alone the wider Imperium. Hell, they probably think Lord Helmawr *is* the Emperor. Until Abaddon turns up and bombs the hive flat what does it really matter to us which Helmawr sits on the throne?
March 15th, 2023 at 2:20 am
Great paint job. Looks really cool.
March 20th, 2023 at 10:25 pm
Thank you very much!