The Badzone Kings – Part 1

It’s a well known fact that I’ve never met a Necromunda gang I didn’t like, and sure enough I’ve thrown in my lot with the ogryns as soon as I got my hands on them. I’ve not got around to painting anything yet but I’ve been busy kitbashing to recruit the first members of my free ogryn uprising.

In a lot of ways this is quite a basic kit, there’s only two bodies for example – one striding purposefully, one standing firm on his bionic leg – and the rest of weapons and arms are actually quite limited. It does however manage to do quite a lot with the space it’s given, and as a result it’s surprisingly versatile. Needless to say I’ve already been trying to push those boundaries even further by mixing in bits from elsewhere. A word of warning for anyone thinking of doing the same, these guys may be big by Necromundan standards but they’re not the largest ogres in Games Workshop’s catalogue by any means. Perhaps it’s the lack of decent nutrition combined with life in the cramped corridors of hive city, or perhaps it’s just to fit the bits onto the sprue. Some parts of the Imperial Guard ogryns will fit but most are a little bit too big. The Blood Bowl ogres are a better fit, although naturally lack the range of suitable weapons that might be available elsewhere. The AoS/WHFB ogres are, for the most part, disproportionately large. Dragon Ogres, Ork Nobs and Orruk Brutes all offer some interesting possibilities though, and I’m planning to explore these more in the future.

First of all, as already shown a few weeks ago, I put together this lad – built straight out of the box as I familiarised myself with the kit, with the only tweak being the inclusion of a gas-masked head from the Imperial Guard Ogryn/Bullgryn kit.

Following on I built a second ogryn, based around the same body, but swapping in a head from the Blood Bowl ogres and a club from the Imperial Guard Ogryns. Otherwise I kept him quite spare and toned down, without adding in any of the fancy gubbins that come with the kit to capture the sense of an ogre that relies on brute simplicity to get things done. I could almost imagine him hanging out with my Palanite Enforcers (whenever I get around to them!).

Having kept him quite pared-down and straightforward I decided that the next one needed to be a bit fancier so I gave him some ramshackle armour (borrowed from an Orruk Brute) complete with the spiky jawbones of some underhive monstrosity.

Finally every gang needs a leader, and so I turned my attention to kitbashing an Ogryn Overboss. Unlike the others I used the Imperial Guard Ogryn as the base model and went nuts on decorating him with scavenged odds and ends. He’s not done yet, indeed he’s still got a fair way to go before he’s finished, but who can resist a sneaky peek at what I’ve come up with so far.

Whilst his body and armour comes from the Imperial Guard kit his backpack and powerfist are from the Necromunda models, his head is from the Ogre Ironblaster (probably my all time favourite Ogre head) and his knife is from the Chaos Dragon Ogres.

He’s a big lad, not disproportionately huge in comparison to his gang-mates but big enough to make it clear who the boss is.

As usual I’ve no idea when I’ll get around to working on more of these, whenever the hobby butterfly seizes me and drags me back into the Underhive I guess. For the moment I’m going full steam ahead with the undead but it’s safe to take it as read that I’ll be getting back to these sooner or later.

The Chosen One

For a while I’ve been kicking around the idea of making some chaos chosen for Age of Sigmar/WHFB/Warcry (the latter winning out when it came to deciding what shape of base to use!). I like the idea of chosen but the current miniatures are a funny-looking bunch, not bad all-in-all, but not half as good as I remember them being from my youth either, and certainly not worth the hefty price-tag that comes with them. I’ve tried out a few ideas over the last few months and finally found something I’m fairly happy with.

He’s not a direct attempt to copy the official chosen champion but I do rather like that model so there’s a few references in there, particularly the mutated hand and arm (swiped from a very, very old, ill-conceived and horribly painted conversions, which even when I first made it – well over a decade ago, I knew was probably only fit for the bin). Here’s the official chosen champion from Games Workshop for reference.

Without any official chosen to hand it’s hard to be sure but if I recall correctly, they don’t look all that big these days. Not something that this guy can be accused of, he looks suitably imposing next to a normal chaos warrior (one who’s yet to catch the eye of the gods).

For reference his legs are from a stormcast eternals liberator, his head and axe are from the chaos knights, his torso the Khorne bloodwarriors, his shoulderpads from the bloodcrushers and his mutated arm from the chaos space marines possessed. The hideous mould-line down his arm, which I’m sure you all spotted and were repelled and disgusted by, will be dealt with ASAP (now that I’ve stopped being blind to it and it’s become glaringly and horribly obvious).

The Irondogs – Part 16

After a quiet few months it’s a very exciting time to be a Necromunda fan. I’m sitting here hopping from foot to foot waiting for my copy of House of Blades to come through the door (accompanied by some reinforcements for the Ladykillers gang and a bunch of Ogryns who’re intent on stamping out their plans onto the face of the underhive – just as soon as they can remember what they are). Plus we saw all those lovely new Orlocks – and their very good dogs – previewed at the weekend which has me itching to finally get to work on my contingent for the House of Iron.

However, before all that happens, I’ve been back to pouring over House of Chains and my eye fell upon Tess “Arc-Up” one of the Goliath special characters introduced in the book.

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Tess is described as headstrong and reckless in the extreme, scaling the outer shell of the hive barehanded as ash storms rage around her or throwing herself into the thick of gang-fights regardless of the odds. She’s a prospect, keen to join a gang of her own, yet even the craziest of Goliaths find her too mad, bad and dangerous to know to stick around with for long. So she roams from gang to gang, gaining the respect of  many a forge boss but never allowed to stay.

You’d have to be down-and-out and desperate, even by the standards of the underhive, to hang around with someone as wild as Tess, especially in the wilds of Necromunda where there’s danger aplenty without going looking for it, and stirring it up when you find it. On the other hand the Irondogs are very much desperate, not to mention the living embodiment of down-and-out, their backs against the wall and their little kingdom crumbling as foes of all kinds close in. So when Tess rocks up in their patch of course they’ll keep her around, at least for a little while…

I made my version of Tess from the Goliath forge-born prospect, with a modified storm-welder (kitbashed from a Necron warrior’s gun and a Sicarian Infiltrator’s taser goad). I like the idea that Ironhouse lies not far from Hive Primus, and so all kinds of special characters might pass through – whilst keeping it remote enough that I can do my own thing to my heart’s content. Thus Tess probably won’t be the only Goliath character to show up, not to mention the Escher characters whose identities and backstories are soon to be whisking their way through the post in my direction.

Freikstorn Strix – WIP

I’m still working away furiously on the Chaos Knight but at the moment there’s not a whole lot of progress that particularly merits showing. Instead here’s a freshly completed kitbash of another of Necromunda’s dramatis personae; Freikstorn Strix. An exile of House Van Saar Strix is a genius who, unwilling to allow his body to succumb to the cancers and radiation sickness that plagues his people, has rebuilt his bodysuit and body alike to his own specifications, adding new cybernetic components to replace his limbs and organs as they wasted away and failed. Yet machines wear out fast in the underhive and Strix must constantly search for replacements, cannibalising them from dead foes or earning creds as a bounty hunter with which to buy the components he needs.

He first appeared in the Book of Peril and as soon as I saw him I knew I wanted him to come soaring through the upper levels of Ironhouse on his winged jetpack, looking for new victims and allies amongst the tangled streets below. Just look at how imposing he is!

As of the time of writing however no model has been released for him so I was left to think up ways to kitbash my own. Inspiration struck with the release of the Adeptus Mechanicus Pteraxii, which gave me everything I needed to turn a Van Saar ganger into the legendary bounty hunter – and at a fraction of the likely price of the Forge World model.

Of course this means he now joins Gor Half-Horn and Grendl Grendlsenon the shelf of shame, the two bounty hunters I’ve already kitbashed my own versions of but have yet to paint. Probably time for me to crack on with those – just as soon as work settles down a little…

Iz Dat Da Dokk?

Let’s be honest, some miniatures are just a bit duff. Take the Bonesplitters Wardokk for instance (which used to be a Savage Orc shaman of some description). Let’s not beat about the bush, it’s past its best. In fact, it’s hard to say exactly when it’s best was…

For those unfamiliar the Wardokk is essentially an assistant shaman amongst the Bonesplitters. This faction of Orcs are lead by cabals of savage mystics, with a Wurrgog Prophet (the model for which, confusingly, used to be the special character Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet – something I still find takes a little getting used to). Each Wurrgog Prophet has a few acolytes around to assist in imposing his orders (however mad they may sound) on the recalcitrant boyz, to whip the clan up ready for battle and to perform the secret dances by which they channel the power of the greenskin god. One of these so-called Wardokks will go on to become the Wurrgog’s successor, to quote the army book, “should the Prophet fall in battle or accidentally blow himself up”.

At first I found myself wondering why GW continue to give the Wardokk miniature a place in the ranks of the Orc (or should I say Orruk) Warclans range. There’s no denying it’s letting the side down a little, when compared with some of the brilliant models that march alongside it. However after giving it some thought I came to realise that actually they made a smart move here. Keeping the Wardokk around adds another option to the range, and kitbashing your own version from the Bonesplitters set, plus a few odds and ends, is actually pretty straightforward and a lot of fun.

The key elements to capture were the skull mask (taken from the Ironjaws Brutes), the dancing pose and the bone-fetish rattle (made from bits and bobs in the savage orcs kit, rather than wire wool as the original appears to have been). The army book describes how the Wardokk will do whatever is required to get the boys in a fighting mood (surely not that hard) including, but not limited to, a quick punch in the face – something I thought the clenched fist on his free hand conveyed rather well. I might raise him up on something to make him stand out a little amongst any future boyz but otherwise I’m pretty pleased with him (although as ever I’m open to any and all feedback). In fact he was so straightforward to build that I’m now feeling tempted to make a couple more – the book does describe multiple Wardokks in each clan after all. Not sure when I’ll get around to painting him but he was great fun to make, and he’s certainly given me the itch to tackle some more green boys soon.

The Irondogs – Part 8

A lone Goliath walks into Ironhouse and calls for the sanctuary of his House-brothers. Calling himself Kutter he tells a tale of his gang’s extermination in the badlands beyond the hive after they crossed paths with a colony of ash-crust miners. Although some of his claims, such as that the miners were sheltering weird three-armed mutants and that some of his gang-mates fell under a hypnotic spell and allowed themselves to be lead away into the ruins as docile as servo-grox, sound far-fetched the Irondogs know they can ill afford to turn away any help willingly offered. The strange warrior is soon inducted into their ranks and Korak turns his brooding gaze to the wastes beyond his walls and the threats that lurk therein.

I wasn’t entirely sure about Kutter at first, and he’s been through various iterations before reaching this point, but I have to say I’m rather pleased with him now. He’s ended up with a slightly different profile to the rest of the gang, hence my decision to make him an outsider, but I think he still works. As usual however I’m open to any feedback you have.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 10

My space marines haven’t been entirely abandoned since their first appearance back in June. Admittedly they haven’t been my first priority recently either but now a couple more battle brothers have managed to sneak across the painting desk to completion.

This one was almost finished alongside the others in June but didn’t make it whilst I swithered to a complete stall over the, fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, question of what colour to paint his hair. In the end however is unfinished state annoyed me enough to make me get on with it and so he’s able to join his brothers at last.

His squad mate on the other hand I kitbashed just a few days ago and was sufficiently pleased with that I got him painted up in no time flat.

It’ll take more than these two to hold vack the enemies of the Imperium however so I’ve also been busy kitbashing some more champions and heroes for the nascent chapter. They’re not quite ready to show off yet but I’ll try to get something done this week.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 9

One more for the road! I’m going to be focussing my creative energies onto Necromunda for the next little while, barring one smaller project that I should get finished tonight, but whilst pondering all things Goliath I found myself kitbashing another space marine. Most likely he’ll end up serving as the veteran sergeant of one of the tactical squads.

As usual nothing is set in stone at this stage so if you’ve got any feedback I’m all ears.