"Just when I thought I was out..."

"...they pull me back in!'

This week I've turned my attention to finishing something off that I've finished off twice before.

My Orlocks for Necromunda.

Back in the late nineties I had the plastic models in the starter set, supplemented by the original metal gang box, and subsequently supported them with a Heavy with a flamer and a couple of models from other manufacturers to stand in as extra Juves.

They were one of the very few projects that I painted to completion at the time.

Fast forward more than a few years and I made a few alterations to the gang such as removing the unofficial models to be used in other projects, changing their bases and repainting their bandanas purple (from the original pale green) to enable them to be used as the Purple Dragons gang as opponents for my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project.

Fast forward again and I rebased back to regular bases for a return to the Underhive and added a couple of Juves from eBay and a couple of plastic models (my originals disappeared somewhere down the years) to boost their numbers to more effective levels.

And so we reach the present day.

Another set of four metal models that I did not already own have found their way into my possession and I've been inspired to add them to the crew at last, bringing a good deal more long ranged firepower to the fray.

As ever, metal miniatures from. The nineties are packed with character, detail and a few questionable choices - I never did understand GW giving minis basic weapons, pistols and close combat weapons. It's almost as if the miniatures were designed without the game designers being consulted.

I have a similar job to do with some Goliaths, but I'm not sure that will be completed immediately.

Acquired: 15

Painted: 83

Lead Mountain: 694

It's Scum To This

Whilst I've been making a brief visit to Necromunda, I decided to increase my in game options by painting up two Underhive Scum that habe made their way back into my possession after many years spent selling their services to my friends.

In case you didn't know, Underhive Scum are Hired Guns that can be recruited into gangs at a cost. The advantage of them is that they bring in expertise as they start with upgrades and skills and so can be quite deadly.

On the other hand, in addition to their fairly hefty price tag, those abilities and skills are randomly rolled and they don't gain experience, and so never improve.

Scummers come armed with pistol weapons, such as the two bolt pistols above, and clearly lean into a western gunfighter theme.

As such for this model, I leaned into the muted colours and earthy tones of someone who travels from places to place, with the exception of a red neckerchief for a dash of vibrancy.

In general, he was done with contrast paints and there's no getting round how much I wish these had been a thing when I was first collecting.

The coat took a bit of dry-brushing followed by a wash. There are parts that I didn't get quite right and have come out a touch blotchy. However, to my eyes it gives the effect of standing and marks on well-worn clothing, so I'm happy.

The second model has the slightly odd combination of a bolt pistol and a hand flamer, leading to the possibility that he gets shooting skills he can't really use due to the fact that the flamer automatically hits.

When it came to painting, I initially went for a more military vibe, but as I began highlighting the green it started to look more like piping. Combined with the pointy beard, this lends him an almost Elizabethan look, which I like.

All in all, I'm really pleased with these two and I'm looking forward to finding space for them in my gangs and then regretting the decision when I roll badly for their abilities and they become a significant drain on my finances.

Ah, fun times in the Underhive...

Acquired: -61

Painted: 348

Lead Mountain: 654

Green Troops

When the latest batch of old miniatures were returned to me after twenty five years in storage, they included a few bits and pieces to go with projects I thought I'd completed.

Namely a couple of Braves for my Necromunda Ratskins and a single Gorkamorka Ork.

As I've been focusing on quick wins, they pushed their way to the front of the queue.

The Ratskins were done exactly like the rest of the gang which I won't repeat here, but there's nothing too exciting to talk about.

The only real points of interest is that I gave them yellow hair ties to give me a way of telling the Brave with the musket apart from the other one with exactly the same pose. Also, I previously didn't have a blunderbuss armed model in the gang, however, I'm.not entirely sure how effective a 'move-or-fire' close assault weapon will work out.

The Ratskins did actually get their first run out recently against Matt's Orlocks. I have to admit, I was somewhat worried that my inexperienced gang armed with black powder weapons were going up against a gang that has already fought three or four times in our ad hoc campaign.

I was especially worried when we rolled up the 'Hunters' scenario, meaning that my gang would be spilt up and Matt's whole gang (the Tunnel Snakes - named for the Fallout reference) would be bearing down on just a single solitary Ratskins, whilst the others were forced to stand back and watch until the shoot out (execution) was over.

The poor soul selected for this suicide mission was one armed with a shotgun, which turned out to be fortuitous as I managed to get the drop on them and fire the first shot...a scatter shell.

Some how, the blast not only took out it's intended target, the Tunnel Snakes' heavy, but also punch a hole in the tightly packed Orlocks.

It should be noted that this formation had been somewhat forced on Matt by the terrain and the deployment rules.

To add insult to injury, Matt's entire gang's shooting only managed to knock the Ratskins down, and he was able crawl away to safety.

When the rest of the Ratskins opened up from cover, the Orlocks were thrown into disarray and put onto the back foot for pretty much the whole game. They perpetually has three or four gang members down and we're making bottle tests from about the third turn.

The leader of the Tunnel Snakes did manage to launch a counter attack by himself, partly through daring and bravery, but mainly due to his terrifying meltagun.

He took out three or four Ratskins by himself, before being ganged up on and defeated by the Ratskin Chief.

The rest of the Ratskins slowly tightened the net on the Orlocks, constantly peppering them with shots, whittling down their numbers and reducing the Tunnel Snakes' ability to provide meaningful answering fire.

Pinned down in a kill box, the Orlocks tried to withstand the barrage of fire, but really started to have trouble when the Ratskins Shaman got in range with his Ghost Walk ability (represented by the token below).

It turns out that there was a touch of cheating from me on this front, as I was getting the rules for this wrong. I still think the outcome would have been the same if I'd got this correct, but realising my mistake did take the shine off.

The Orlocks eventually bottled out, but not before both sides had been bloodied. In the post-game sequence injury was piled upon insult when a couple of the Orlocks died of their wounds.

For my part, the Ratskins came out largely unscathed, with plenty of experience earned. I was even able to move my hideout from a useless wasteland to a clean water hole. All in all, a good first outing.

I also painted an Ork this week. It is Orktober after all.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 346
Lead Mountain: 656

The Worst of the Worst

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know that I have periods of extreme enthusiasm for specific projects followed by long, sometimes very long, fallow periods.

Therefore, when I made the decision to jump aboard the Badab War project train, I was caught between wanting to do things properly in terms of the Tale of 4 Gamers challenge, but also wanting to strike whilst the iron was hot in terms of harnessing my enthusiasm.

My answer to this conundrum was these guys...

I can hear what you are thinking: how do very old Necromunda Goliaths (oh my God, are those the horrific plastic ones?) fit into a Space Marine Chapter?

Well, it's like this. The Tyrant's Legion is an army formation from the Imperial Armour: The Badab War books which combines Astral Claws Space Marines with regular human troops. Most of these are clearly intended to be Imperial Guard...sorry, 'Astra Militarum' models, however there are also Renegade Marauder Squad. These represent the scum, pirates, xenos and heretics the Astral Claws allied with out of desperation, and one of the suggestions for using these on the tabletop is Necromunda models.

Obviously I could, and still might, just use my Orlocks and Ratskins, however, I was looking for something to paint and all I had available was these guys: the plastic Goliaths from the original release of Necromunda.

They are famously bad models. No necks, weird musculature, massive hands and arms that reach down to their knees (this is particularly bad with the posable pistol arms). Combined with this, the plasma gun conversion is a really rough one I did over twenty years ago when my standards were much lower.

The four metal models are marginally better in terms of proportions and detail, but actually have more weird musculature happening. Unlike most models in the old Necromunda range, these guys don't hold up, and the less said about the chainsaw hat, the better.

They were not fun to paint either as there's not really anything to work with on the plastics. I tried contrast paint for the skin, but it didn't sit right, so they've ended up with more cartoonish skin.

As ever, I set about trying include some racial diversity, but that has backfired as well. I need to probably work harder in layering the skin on these guys, but I don't think I care enough about a unit that is going to be used as cannon fodder.

In short, I'm less than proud of how they came out.

The blue accents on all the models are to tie them into the wider Astral Claws theme, but also gives them coherency as a Necromunda gang.

In terms of basing, I've gone for Astrogranite technical paint, drybrushed lighter grey and washed with Drakenhof Nightshade. This gives a generic rubble vibe whilst also giving some colour for the mainly silver Space Marines to contrast with.

There's a reason I originally plumped for the Orlocks in the Necromunda starter box, but it is good to get paint on these guys. I'm not sure I'll personally use them as a gang, but they do mean I have a second basic gang without additional rules to lend out if necessary.

Also, I have these guys ready to bring into my Tyrant's Legion later down the line of the Badab War project. What stats I will use I'm keeping to myself for now.

Acquired: -71

Painted: 295

Lead Mountain: 681

Rats Get Everywhere

It's a myth that you're never more than 6 feet away from a rat, however, when it comes to fantasy, sci-fi and other fictional settings, it doesn't take too much digging to unearth the telltale signs of verminous creatures scurrying around the foul underbelly of whatever world you inhabit.

Whether you're looking for something to bullseye in your T-16 on Tatooine; need a new general for the mutants on Third Earth; or just clearing out the innkeeper's cellar at 1st level, there are always rats, rat-men, ratkin, were-rats or sundry other variants lurking in the shadows.

Obviously, Skaven are the poster-boys of rat-related villains in fantasy settings, and those of you with adequately functioning memories may remember that I made a rather rash commitment to paint up my long neglected Skaven contingent.

Technically, I said I would paint them up for Warhammer: The Old World, but after all the work I've done so far on three other armies that feels like something that would be surplus to requirements.

Therefore I've started to look for other ways to use my small band of Skaven (admittedly this is over 50 models) across other games...

...such as Necromunda.

I know, you're probably thinking, "there are no Skaven in Necromunda," and you'd be right. But there are Giant Rats, and there are Wyrd Beastmasters who can be hired by gangs.

Therefore this pack master and three rats might just find their way into the Underhive if we ever get round to actually playing that campaign again.

I also used these four miniatures as test models for future painting, trying to find a quick and effective way of producing decent looking miniatures using mainly contrast paints, and I think I've found a process I'm happy with.

Also, with Skaven being the newest poster boys for Age of Sigmar, the I may switch my 'paint an army' focus in that direction and finally get round to trying the game out (if I can find someone to play).

I was also pleased to find that there are rats lurking in the recesses of the Fallout setting, mainly because it gives me a chance to use up some of my many Giant Rats, and some of the happily Fallout: Wasteland Warfare sized bases that I have picked up (I think from Wizkids D&D miniatures), but also add to the number and variety of Wasteland creatures that are available for narrative gaming purposes.

Initially I had intended to paint them as Rad Rats from the Nuka-World add-on for Fallout 4. However, Rad Rats are hairless and white and that just didn't work on the furred miniatures I had available.

Apparently, in case you are interested in such things, there are some more game accurate Rat Rats available in one of the STL bundles Modiphius provide for the game.

Therefore I changed focus to the Giant Rats that appear in Fallout: New Vegas (which I haven't played). They are also largely hairless, but by playing with contrast paints and drybrushing I think I've got reasonably close to making my rats approximately right.

I'm not amazingly happy with these two bases, but I am pleased that I've been able to use bits and pieces to add some visual interest to what are essentially beige models on a beige base.

In game I will probably initially use the stat cards for Radroach Swarms, however, with the newer fast-play game Fallout Factions being set in Nuka-World, I wouldn't be surprised to see Rad Rats get statted up soon.

In other news I sold a big bundle of miniatures (mainly 5th edition Bretonnians and Lizardmen) that I wouldn't use. Despite the fuss about Warhammer: The Old World, they didn't make that much money, probably because both of these armies have newer (and arguably much better) miniatures readily available.

However, this does mean that there are some real inroads into the Lead Mountain for the first time this year.

Acquired: -107
Painted: 261
Lead Mountain: 683

Going Downhive

After so long spent plodding through tidying my armies for Warhammer: The Old World, I fancied a bit of a palette cleanser. More specifically I was keen to paint something from scratch and finally make some inroads into the Lead Mountain.

Therefore, with a Necromunda campaign (the original version, not that new-fangled thing) being mooted in our group, I turned my attention to a group of models that have sat unpainted for over 25 years: the Ratskin Renegades.

The Ratskins are absent from the current incarnation of the game, probably because Games Workshop are a much more globally aware company than they were in the nineties and returning to this somewhat ham-fisted reference to the western tropes of Necromunda could probably lay them open to more than a few accusations of cultural appropriation and insensitivity.

These Native Necromundans are the tribal remnants of the original inhabitants of the underhive, fiercely guard their spiritual sites, raid settlements, wear bone totems and even have warriors called 'Braves'. Although not ostensibly presented as 'bad guys', clothing them in the hides of Giant Rats really wouldn't help GW's PR department, especially as the internet just won't let them forget the sins of their past... for example, the Pygmies...

To put it bluntly, I don't expect these guys to return to Necromunda any time soon.

However, I do not have a shared price to worry about and lazy 'it was a different time' 90s stereotypes aside, these are really lovely miniatures. There's a real joy to be had painting older metal sculpts from this period as there is a charm and character to the models that I find to be missing from GW's more modern, cad-designed and (in theory) better plastic miniatures.

When it can to painting I adopted an approach of using contrast paints as a base coat and then applying dry brushes, washes and highlights.. this has allowed me to get a wider variety of different browns on the models than I would had achieved previously.

I've gone with yellow as a spot colour for the gang mainly because I'd bought some Nazdreg Yellow contrast paint and wanted to experiment with using it as a yellow base. It's been highlighted with Averland Sunset and I can confirm that it works and will be an approach I'll use again.

When it came to basing, I used AK Terrains Muddy Ground. I have recently been enjoying using Stirland Mud, but it's a bit pricey if you're going to use a lot of it, and with the AK Terrains texture pastes you get significantly more for your money. In case you are wondering, the Muddy Ground has more green in it than Stirland Mud, but fundamentally that achieve the same effect.

I've topped that off with pools of Nurgle's Rot technical paint, as the Ratskins inhabit the gooey end of the Underhive, and it provides a nice contrast to all the brown.

Whilst I was in a Necromunda frame of mind I also took the opportunity to rebase my old Orlock gang, The Core, ready for the campaign. They had previously been moved onto 30mm bevelled bases, and so they've returned to the classic 25mm round bases to allow more of them to be blown up by a grenade whilst clustered behind some barrels.

Once rebased it was time for The Core to take on Matt's Orlocks, the Tunnel Snakes (apparently these are named after the tutorial mission in Fallout 3) in what would become known as the 'battle of the bandanas'; an attempt to prove once and for all that purple is a better sartorial choice than orange.

Two very similarly armed crews lined up for this gang fight and, as is traditional, hugged whatever cover they could find.

I had a narrow advantage in terms of longer ranged weapons, but Matt had a swarm of Juves ready to get up close and personal.

Look at how many of my gang can cower behind that bulkhead now that they're on smaller bases.

This group were tasked with getting up close on one flank, whilst my lasguns and autoguns held off the Juves on the other.

My Heavy Stubber, Drake (the gang is derivatively named after the colonial marines from Aliens), was positioned at a vantage point and sprayed bullets at anything that appeared. He didn't achieve a great deal, but I think the Tunnel Snakes took longer to engage whilst they were hiding from him.

Conversely, Matt's Heavy Bolter only managed one shot before running out of ammo. However, he did take Crowe, my Lasgun guy, out of the game.

The main part of the battle was my close assault team taking on Matt's terrifying (he has a Melta Gun) leader and two other gangers, and we both took advantage of whatever cover we could find.

Fortunately for me, Flamers and Shotguns ignore cover and so I was able to gain an advantage and down several of the opposing gang, however Matt passed his bottle checks and, despite being set on fire, his leader stayed in the fight.

Hudson did manage to get in close with the Tunnel Snake ganger with a shotgun to administer a coup de gras. The obligatory war cry of, "game over, man, game over!" was issued.

Matt had sought to bring reinforcements into the fight and covering fire began to spray down from above, repeatedly pinning Frost (Flamer) and Hudson, but failing to take them out of the fight.

Although he'd been flamed twice and survived, the real turning point was Matt's leader needing to stop, drop and roll, allowing my Juve, Spunkmeyer, to rush in and raise his status in the gang immensely by capturing the enemy boss.

Although the battle was by no means one-sided, this meant that when my leader, Apone, finally wone the ranged duel he'd been having, Matt's bottle check was taken on a lower value and therefore failed, giving victory to The Core.

Purple bandanas are best!

Somewhat appropriately for an 'in-house' fight, nobody was killed. An amicable prisoner exchange resulted in everyone back where they should be and me getting a Grapnel Gun for my trouble. Hicks (Shotgun) lost a point of Initiative but most of the gang gained advances. Spunkmeyer got three and is almost a fully fledged ganger.

This was a reminder of just how much of an enjoyable game Necromunda has always been. I've never played the newer version, but I've never felt the need to switch up, as the original always delivers.

Acquired: 10 
Painted: 228
Lead Mountain: 837

The Gang’s All Here

In the spirit of finishing things off, I’ve taken the opportunity to add to my Necromunda Orlocks for the first time in around twenty years.

The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, I had a brief flurry of nostalgic excitement about the release of the new Necromunda just before Christmas, until I found out that fundamentally the rules hadn’t changed massively, you could only get the full rules if you bought the big box (which includes two gangs of fiddly sprues) and you also needed to buy supplements to play the campaign - this is Cheaphammer after all!

Secondly, in a former gaming life I’d beefed up my Orlocks with a handful of Grenadier models that have now been repurposed into different projects over the years, and so my gang were a little short handed should we start a campaign.

Therefore, I took to eBay and secured a couple of Juves without needing to remortgage, and a healthy dose of begging netted me a couple of the original plastic hangers from Matt.

They’ve all been painted and based to fit in with the rest of the crew, obviously, who had a spruce up last year to serve as the Purple Dragons in my games of 7TV with the Turtles. I’m not sure these guys will see service in that way not that I’ve painted the Foot Clan, but there’s always an option.

However, you may remember that a few months ago, Matt and I began a fledgling Necromunda campaign. We were hoping to tempt Pete, who had Spyrers (filth) and possibly Wes, into the fray, but we’ve not really pushed that yet.

The two plastic gangers are packed with nostalgia for me. A friend and I bought the original box between us when we we sharing a house. He took the Goliaths and I had the Orlocks. We pretty soon moved onto the metal models, and although he moved on to the Delaques, I stuck with the Orlocks (although I did have a brief flurry with the Ratskins).

They’re certainly a bit dated now, but they are perfectly serviceable (more than can be said of the Goliaths) and fit in well with the rest of the gang.

The Lasgun is a bit big and some of their features are a bit cartoonish, but overall, I like them, even if the design of the Orlocks is a bit soft rock.

The addition of two more juves fixes an issue that I’ve had in Necromunda for a looong time. Namely the fact that I always had to recruit gangers rather than juves due to lack of models.

Although out of print models, and particularly Necromunda models, can get expensive, I didn’t spend more than a few quid on either of them. There doesn’t seem to be the demand for Orlocks that there is for the likes of the Escher models. Sometimes it’s good to be vanilla.

All in all, I’m pleased to get these done and off the table. I’m now ready if we do pick up the campaign, no matter how long that takes.