Necropolis Nobles on Kickstarter

I don’t often promote kickstarters here, mostly because by the time I become aware of them it’s about six months after funding closed and I’ve missed out. This one however is one that I’ve had several enquires about from readers so more than merits me paying attention and giving a mention. In the past I’ve posted a few models from Black Crab, including these three weird looking characters…

… and this raggedy man.

I also have several more which I’m aiming to get painted… sooner or later. They make perfect civilians, particularly for the grubbier corners of the various Warhammer settings and would make fine additions to Mordheim or Cursed City, whilst being generic enough to sneak into a sci-fi setting like Necromunda. I’ve had several people ask me where I got them from but unfortunately the Black Crab range has only been available via their kickstarter campaigns. Right now however they’re having another campaign, this time to fund the creation of a beggar king and his court.

What’s more this means the older models are available once again. If you’re reading this right at the moment I hit publish then you have about four days to get your order in. If on the other hand you’re reading this several years in the future, well I tried to warn you!

Data-Scrivener

I’ve had this model for a long time, at least five or six years but possibly longer. I’ve been meaning to get him painted up as part of my underhive civilians collection (not to mention the fact that any Inq28 collection that doesn’t include him is really missing a trick) but what finally pushed me into action was spotting the Data-Scrivener in the House of Artifice book. Each gang in Necromunda can now take a range of hangers-on; these being the servants/assistants/allies of the gang who live in their hideout and enjoy the protection of the gang, but don’t generally get their hands dirty with any actual fighting.

Data-Scriveners are the futuristic hackers who specialise in stealing data from the hive’s ancient cogitators and manipulating them to suit their purposes. There are pretty strict rules about misusing technology in the Imperium but down in the underhive rules are there to be broken. The Van Saar, being tech-wizards to put the finest modern nerds to shame, have a habit of “liberating” whatever they feel like from the cogitator cores which regulate all the systems required to support life in the hive, and then using it against their enemies.

Because I want to include him as a hanger on to my Van Saar I went for a colour scheme that tied in fairly closely with the rest of the gang.

That said I didn’t to make him look so much like a Van Saar that I couldn’t use him in other roles, he’d still make a fine addition to an Inquisitor’s retinue, an Imperial Guard command post or the citizens going about their business in the hive depths. Hopefully he could even join another gang as their Data-Scrivener without looking too out of place.

Of course, having been in my possession for ages without seeing a lick of paint, he’ll be another contribution to the Neglected But Not Forgotten challenge being run by Ann’s Immaterium.

A Princess Of Mars

This is one of the first models I planned to tackle for Fembruary and so it makes sense, in the topsy-turvy way I go about my hobbying, that she’s one of the very last to be completed. Back when Lady Olynder, the Mortarch of Grief, was first released I worried that she’d be a difficult creature to paint and commented that I felt like I was the only person on earth who didn’t really like her. To be honest there were plenty of moments whilst actually painting her which didn’t help to change my mind. Much like the Khinerai I painted earlier in the month the whole model is prone to moving around every time a brush touches it and despite my attempts to anchor her a bit more solidly both she and her handmaidens pushed my patience to the limit at times.

That said however I still enjoyed painting her a great deal, even if she did make me grind my teeth and swear more than usual, and I’m happy with the end result so all’s well that ends well. Rather than paint her as the Queen of the Nighthaunt I used her as the basis from which to convert a tech-priestess for my nascent Adeptus Mechanicus collection.

With a conversion of this type there’s always a temptation to keep adding things but to me the simplicity of the original Lady Olynder is one of its great strengths and I wanted to strike a balance between maintaining that whilst adding just enough to tie her into a futuristic rather than fantasy setting and make it clear that here we have a representative of the Martian priesthood rather than an ambulatory bedsheet. For those who’re unfamiliar with the base model I used here’s the studio version from Games Workshop as a comparison.

As well as the Princess herself I had a lot of fun with the two little handmaidens. Strange though it may be to say I think there’s something quite cute about these two, and they offered an opportunity to play up the technological aspects without detracting from the simplicity of the core figure.

Finally here we have her, ready to command the soldiers of the Red Planet in their unending search for lost technology.

And there we have it, another model that could so easily have been left unfinished get’s pushed over the finish line for Fembruary. That’s not all either, tomorrow – once I’ve added a few finishing touches – we’ll see another agent of House Escher.

2020 – For Anyone Who Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up

Well, that was 2020 was it? The year which shall henceforth be referred to with the tagline “If you like dramatic global upheavals you’ll love this!”. Honestly I wonder how the script writers for 2021 can ever hope to top it. Well done on making it to the end by the way, assuming of course that there’s anyone else out there and this message from my lonely bunker isn’t going out to a world stripped bare, echoing across weed-choked streets, rusted vehicles and piles of corpses with startlingly clean bums. 

I started the year with a picture of a Noise Marine and the bombastic declaration “Alright 2020, let’s get this party started!”. With retrospect I should probably have said something more like “Is it safe to come out?” to which the answer would of course have been a firm “no”. 

Still, it was a good year for fans of painting miniatures, with many of us achieving a guru-like status as we taught our friends and communities how it’s actually very easy to remain indoors for weeks at a time. With huge piles of plastic, lead and resin stashed around our homes we were ready to do the right thing, socially isolating with the vigour and aplomb of true heroes. Frankly I’m disappointed that my efforts in the public good have not been recognised by inclusion in the New Year’s Honours list, although of course if the Queen is reading this it’s never too late to pick up the phone. Alternatively erecting a statue of me would be entirely appropriate, especially as there are a lot of empty plinths around these days. 

The pandemic which raged throughout the year played merry hell with miniatures’ releases but we still saw some very cool new stuff all the same, starting with the long awaited return of the Sisters of Battle. For as long as I’ve been a hobbyist (and we’re talking a loooong time now) people have been saying “But when will the Sisters of Battle get new models” to which Games Workshop have replied “Meh… I dunno – someday maybe?” Finally however sense was seen, and the armies of the Adepta Sororitas marched. After such a long wait, and a considerable build up, GW managed to sneak them out of their warehouses and into the hands of hobbyists with the apocalypse already close at hand. Were they worth the wait? Damn right they were!

I’ll admit that the Sisters aren’t one of my favourite armies, and that I watched this release with detached interest rather than avid fanaticism, but there’s no denying these are gorgeous models. Could there be a small army of them in my future? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted.

We also saw the launch of Warhammer 40k’s Ninth edition in July, bringing with it a wave of new releases for both Space Marines (as ever!) and Necrons. These latter have been inveigling themselves into my heart for pretty much the entirety of my hobby career so it was probably inevitable that this was the moment when I took the plunge and fell under the spell of our new mechanical overlords. Plus, with centrepiece models like the C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon how could I resist?

Rumour has it that I found one of these underneath the Christmas tree this year…

The new edition was spearheaded by the launch of the Indomitus boxset. On the whole Indomitus lead to a lot of mixed feelings – on the one hand the models were fantastic, on the other it sold out in less than 15 minutes and many fans (yours truly included) weren’t able to secure a copy before they were all snapped up by scalpers to be resold on ebay. Note to self; spend 2021 convincing Games Workshop that I count as some kind of “influencer” and should be sent plenty of free models… Obviously such rapid sales of the set must have caused delight amongst GW shareholders but it left something of a bad taste amongst fans. Luckily those shadowy overlords in Nottingham aren’t entirely daft and what looked set to be a spectacularly public own-goal was transformed at the last moment, rebounding off the bar at the final moment to the delight of the crowd. The set was rereleased via the “Made to Order” service, leaving those cheeky chappies on ebay with egg on their faces. In the end even I was able to get my grubby paws on a copy. Of course I’ve not actually painted very much of it yet but to be fair it took until a few weeks ago for it to actually reach me so I’ve not had a great deal of time. Expect to see my Space Marines reinforced, and perhaps even growing into a proper army at last sometime in the coming months. To begin with however I’m going to opening up the stasis tombs and ordering the machine legions of my dynasty to march forth and reconquer the stars. I’ve already spent a lot of time tinkering around trying to come up with a suitable colour scheme (probably to the frustration of my readers, as I bounced excitedly from one idea to the next). I think I’ve made up my mind though so hopefully real progress will be made soon.

Over in Age of Sigmar two new armies emerged, sneaking their way to release between one lockdown and another. As a fan of both Chaos and Destruction (the AoS Grand Alliances not the global events!) I must confess I was drawn to the mighty Mega Gargants and even wrote a piece on the subject. However somewhat surprisingly it was the Lumineth Realmlords, successors to the High Elves of Ulthuan from the WHFB era that ended up on my painting desk. So far I’ve only finished one of them but I’m highly tempted to put together a Warcry warband of these snooty gits in the near future.  Indeed despite my long standing affiliation with the grubbier and more evil side of fantasy I painted two high elves this year, one from the days of WHFB and one of the new Lumineth. Don’t worry, I don’t think it’ll become a habit!

And just to keep things balanced I countered these supercilious swines with a couple of old-fashioned, down-to-earth dwarves. I keep promising that someday I’ll paint a whole army of them…

Necromunda started the year with a bit of a bang, launching the House of Chains – a book dedicated to exploring House Goliath as never before. After that things became a little messy, with Covid shaking up the release schedule, but by the end House of Blades (Escher), House of Iron (Orlock) and House of Artifice (Van Saar) arrived – with the postman dropping off this little lot just before Christmas.

 Indeed with four more books in hand I’m starting to build up a nice little Necromundan library.

When I wasn’t reading about the gangs of Hive City I found time to paint them instead, with a Cawdor crusade joining the Goliaths, Eschers, Van Saar, Genestealer Cults and Chaos Helots already active in the underhive.

That said my other gangs aren’t as far forward as I would have liked – something to work on in 2021.

On the other hand I did manage to assemble a small mob of civilians with which to populate Hive City’s roughest districts…

…And a clan of muties to come crawling up out of the badzones during the downshifts to gobble up unwary workers.

After a quiet start 2020 also proved to be a big year for Blood Bowl. Not only was there a new edition launched, and a nice new boxset to go with it, plus four new teams (including the two in the box) but, in even bigger news, I finally got around to painting my Orc team.

Did I stop there? Did I hell! After claiming that a human team would be following along (and they will – you just have to be patient) I instead started working on a couple of elves for an Elven Union team. Expect to see more of them at some point in 2021.

Oh and I painted a very old undead player who after years lost in someone’s garage has now risen to shamble forth once more.

Best of all though, just before the end of the year I painted that hero of the sporting arena, Akhorne the squirrel.

However when it comes to skirmish games the biggest news round my house this year was far and away Warcry. Over the course of the year I put together warbands of the Iron Golem…

… the savage Untamed Beasts…

… the spooky ghosts of the Nighthaunt…

… the ghoulish Flesh-Eater Courts…

… the rascally Gloomspite Gits…

… barbaric Orcs…

…and some big fat ogres.

Continuing the fantasy theme but pushing into even stranger territory I painted up a set of the weird and wonderful forest dwellers created by Ana from Gardens of Hecate.

And I even dipped a toe into Lord of the Rings and painted up a few orcs to serve the dark lord of Mordor.

Although fantasy rather than sci-fi seems to have dominated my output this year I certainly haven’t forgotten about the 41st Millennium (as the aforementioned Necrons go to prove). Indeed the biggest project I tackled all year belongs firmly to the Dark Millennium and the twisted warlords who rampage out of the Eye of Terror. That’s right, I finally finished my Chaos Knight!

Nor was that the only thing I tackled for the forces of the Chaos space marines and their various allies. The global pandemic may have put me off painting very much from the forces of Nurgle but it didn’t stop me from completing my 40-strong mob of poxwalkers. Each of these plague zombies is unique – and if you’re curious to see how I converted them to achieve that there’s a showcase you can pour over here.

Against such threats the defence of the Imperium remains a little thin on the ground, although I did get around to painting up a few soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus at long last. There will be more in 2021 (I promise!).

In terms of getting miniatures painted then I didn’t have a bad year all told. By my tally I painted 161 models (although I’m writing this with a few days to go so I might manage to add a couple more to that before the bells, in fact I might even have done it before this is published). In terms of output that’s a bit of a step down compared to the last couple of years (2019 ended with 250 miniatures finished, and 2018 with 277. Mind you a lot of those were Skaven and Night Goblins, and exactly none of them were Chaos Knights…). This year however was the first year in which, as well as keeping a monthly tally of models painted I also started keeping a record of how many I bought (the penny finally dropping that if I’m going to collect data I ought to make it meaningful). I think I’ll keep the latter number to myself as it’s embarrassingly high. Let’s just say it’s a little higher than the number I painted and leave it at that – despite my love of Slaanesh, boasting about excess isn’t really my style. In 2021 I’m going to try to rein this in a little, to buy a lot less and to concentrate on painting the models I already own. I make no promises that temptation won’t get the better of me sometimes but at the end of the day I don’t have the cash to squander on models that never get assembled let alone painted so a bit more restraint is going to be in order.

Beyond that however I’m not going to set myself any hobby goals for 2021, I tried that in 2019 and the results were pretty hit and miss! I do however have lots of schemes I’d like to tackle (more Warcry warbands of course, more Necromunda, a second Blood Bowl team and a whole dynasty of Necrons for starters). Before any of that happens however I just need to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year, and all the best for 2021. Oh and if Grandfather Nurgle comes anywhere near you tell the poxy git to get lost – we’ve seen quite enough of his sort this year!

It Takes A Village – Part 4

Now don’t get over-excited, I’ve not managed to convert and paint up even more 40k civilians over the last few days (although I do have a few WIPs waiting for paint, and more ideas than I can shake a servo-skull at knocking around inside my brain and demanding attention). However when I went to pack away the latest additions, the butcher and the lady of purchasable affections, I realised that I’ve managed to complete a fair number of them now. Maybe not enough for a village quite yet, and certainly not the entire population of Hive City, but perhaps enough for an underhive holestead and certainly enough to justify a group shot (I know it looks tiny but give it a click and you’ll get a proper view).

As we hurtled wildly towards the end of 2020 life beyond our hobby is keeping me busy enough that I suspect I won’t manage many more posts before the New Year. That said I do have some Blood Bowl players near to completion so all being well you should at least see those pop up in the next few days.

It Takes A Village – Part 3

Today it’s time for two more civilians to join the populace of the underhive. First up, a butcher. If you fancy a rat on a stick for dinner and can’t afford to buy from the local Corpse Grinders (or they’ve degenerated into a cannibal cult) then this is the chap to visit.

I cannot for the life of me work out what the base miniature I used here is so please, anyone who recognises it pop a comment in the box below and I’ll credit whoever sells it (assuming it’s still on sale these days). To begin with he just looked like an ordinary butcher but a headswap for one from Anvil Industries and a backpack from one of GW’s Kharadron Overlords soon sorted him out.

EDIT: Thanks to caseyrog I now know I got this guy from Syr Hobbs Wargames and before I started chopping him up he looked like this:

Secondly, where hardship and deprivation is endemic the world’s oldest profession is bound to appear. Some people try to glamorise prostitution – and certainly this lady looks a bit more glamorous than most of my other underhive residents (in a grubby, Inq28 kind of way of course!). Suffice to say that my intention was not to play to that kind of disingenuous nonsense which likes to pretend that, despite the fact that the vast majority of women who find themselves in prostitution are extremely poor and the subjects of extortion, violence and abuse, that somehow it’s all terribly jolly, liberated and sophisticated. It isn’t, they’re tossers, moving on!

On the other hand Necromunda is a game and the real world is quite grim and serious enough without making the things we do for enjoyment into exercises in handwringing bleakness. The aim is to have a little fun and not take everything too seriously so glamorous prostitute it is!

This time I did manage to find a picture of the unconverted model (alongside a couple of blokes who I don’t own but have the potential to be underhive citizens themselves perhaps).

She’s from Reaper’s range of plastic miniatures and, having heard a lot of people complain about those plastics I went into this project knowing it might turn into a fight. Well they weren’t wrong – Reaper plastics may be cheap but it seems you get what you pay for! I’d been considering getting a few more of their townspeople and the range of options (and yes, the wonderful “it’s like the last couple of decades of inflation never happened” prices) were a big part of the appeal. I might yet, but if I do I’ll be a lot more choosy and only from the metal range – which again is a shame because plastic is normally easier to convert than metal, and converting these is central to tying them into the underhive setting. The plastic  though was just too unpleasant to work with, paint didn’t stick to it easily and gluing on additional components or adding greenstuff took every scrap of hobby cunning I could muster to stop them just falling straight back off again. And yes, I tried things like cleaning it (don’t knock it – it works for resin), lighting incense, chanting ominously, all the usual tricks basically. I do have a couple of other Reaper plastic models I got at the same time (and for the same project) – I may or may not ever do anything with them now. Ho hum – at least they were cheap!

Anyway, I didn’t mean to end up moaning there, I’m still damn pleased with the end result on both of these. Again I’ve got lots more ideas for underhive dwellers and other citizens of the Imperium that I’d like to get around to so as soon as I do, I will!

Muties – Part 4

I reckon my mutie tribe could really use a bit of muscle, after all swarms of little gribbly dudes are all very well but mutants come in all shapes and sizes. Time for a big ugly to join up with the little uglies!

This chap comes from Mad Puppet Miniatures, who’s line of post-apocalyptic models would generally fit in well in Necromunda. Being mostly lumpen flesh his face tends to get a little lost against the background of the hump and although I did try to highlight the face up a little it hasn’t entirely worked enough to make it stand out in photographs. However as I write this it occurs to me that adding a red or purple wash to the hump might be a fine solution so I may well return to him at a later stage and try that out. Alternative suggestions are more than welcome however. For now though I’m calling him done. Oh and for those eagle-eyed readers currently peering at the pictures, he is indeed carrying a teddy bear.

He’s not ridiculously massive in comparison to the other mutants, just big enough to add a variety of sizes to the group.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago I’ve got a few more mutants knocking around which I’ll be adding to the gang at some point, as usual “watch this space”.

Muties – Part 3

Time to return to the very dankest depths of the Underhive today as we go in search of those most downtrodden of all Imperial residents – the foul and degenerate and/or unjustly maligned muties. As with the previous sets these were all based on the goblins from Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings range, with the addition of various odds and ends from the bits box and a little bit of greenstuff. I didn’t go into any of these with a set plan, I just dug around in the leftover bits I had available and saw what I could come up with. Before we begin here’s a reminder, for anyone unfamiliar with the stock LotR goblins kit, what it was that I was working with.

And here’s the latest additions.

And here’s the three new recruits together.

With these three complete the mutie tribe is finally starting to look the way I want it to, a disparate clan of mismatched little monsters, individually weak but swarming from the shadows to prey upon the unwary (as usual just click on the picture to see a bigger version).

Needless to say this won’t be the last time we see these, I’ve still got a few more Goblin Town residents waiting for me to decide what to turn them into – and then there are a few more beasties that might well tie into this project nicely. Watch this space!

It Takes A Village – Part 2

The problem with the Underhive is some people seem to think it’s a place to go for a nice day out. You’ve got gangs running around shooting the place up, Inquisitors strutting about like they own the place, xenos lurking in the shadows and don’t get me started on the Chaos cults! And what none of them seem to get is that some people are here to do a day’s work. They seem to think the corroded pipes, pools of toxic gunk and ominous piles of skulls just happen by magic…

You may recall that long, long ago (back in July of last year) I started working on a project to assemble some hard-done-by civilians to populate the grim depths of the Necromundan underhive – not to mention any Inq28 goings on. Necromunda is now blessed with several scenarios that feature hapless hive inhabitants and yet my population of civilians still remained rather paltry, I’ve had plenty of ideas but none of them have made it to completion. However with the lockdown ongoing I found myself looking for things to paint and my eye fell on these three workmen who’ve been waiting for attention for quite some time. Once again I’ll be counting these towards the “Paint The Crap You Already Own!” challenge being run by Ann’s Immaterium, as all three have been knocking around for quite some time and getting them finished makes it feel as though this project has finally started to achieve something.

The other reason I decided to tackle them was to explore what I hoped would be a new and easier way to paint orange. I really like the look of my genestealer cultists in their orange overalls but there’s no avoiding the fact that it’s been a lot of hard work to paint and that keeps putting me off from tackling any more. These however came together in no time flat using the recipe of an undercoat of Jokaero Orange, a coat of Gryph-Hound Orange Contrast Paint, a quick highlight with Jokaero Orange and a final highlight with Fire Dragon Bright.

The models originate from the mechanics in the CP Miniatures range, a real goldmine for a project like this, with the addition of heads from Anvil Industry and various Games Workshop gubbins. Here’s a picture of the unconverted models courtesy of the CP Miniatures website.

Whilst I was working on them I spotted this little servo-drone which has been waiting for attention for even longer – I assembled him back in 2017 when I was working on the Chapel project and he’s sat unloved ever since. I’ve never been entirely sure what to do with him, he’s kitbashed entirely out of odds and ends and he never felt quite finished to me, as though something was missing that, if I could only identify it, would make the model complete. Whatever it might be I still can’t quite put my finger on it and I was about to dump him back into the box of shame when it occurred to me that he might work well as a robotic assistant to my underhive work crew.

Here’s the whole crew ready for an honest day’s toil (no working from home for them unfortunately!). Hopefully they’ll make it through their shift without being shot by accident in a turf war or the ongoing battle for the Emperor’s soul…

Gun Of A Preacher Man

I decided to use the lockdown to sort through some boxes and stumbled on this crazy old preacher. He dates back to several years before the start of this blog and may well be my very first dip into the weird world of Inq28. He’s not perfect by any means but I think he holds up fairly well even now. Quite why I decided to paint his robes in a natty blue of course is anyone’s guess!

I’ve often seen other bloggers use a glimpse into their past hobby endeavours to mark milestones, something I generally intend to do and then forget all about until the moment has passed. However a week or so ago I made my 600th post here – surely an opportunity for this old man to get his moment in the sun. Plus, he’s a man for the times. Global pandemic eh? Look at him, he’s not going to take Nurgle’s bullshit!