Necromunda - Goliath gang painted!

Quick hit this evening - Got a little more brush time in over the last few days and finished up the Sump City Gym Membership Collections Department!

Pretty happy with how they turned out, and though the Goliaths are way down on my list of favorite gangs, I have to admit the new edition's sculpts are truly excellent. In general they're a bit more subdued color-wise than the Escher's punk aesthetic, but I did have some fun with a couple neon mohawks, and the Luchador mask on the guy on the far left! I rather like the hazard stripes for the front 90 arc, and plan to do the same on the Eschers.

I took a page from one of my favorite MST3K episodes for their names:

Leader - Bulk VanderHuge
Champion - Blast Thickneck
Gangers - Gristle McThornbody, Hack Blowfist, Trunk Slamchest, Slab Bulkhead, Stump Chunkman, Bold Bigflank, Slate Fistcrunch, and Fridge Largemeat!

I feel each activation will have to be accompanied by a WWE-announcer-style voiceover - "And now, charging into battle, it's Bullllllllk VanderHuuuuuuuuge! "

Necromunda - Eschers and others on display!

Managed to get my mitts on the new Necromunda on Friday and couldn't help but dive right in! After a good day of gluing my fingers together and a fair chunk of brush time the newest iteration of the Eschers were ready for their close up, and some old faces got taken off the shelves for a bit of fresh air!

The Militia of Eth Ridge (har!) is the first time I've actually done any Eschers - When we played years ago several other of the group played them so I never gave 'em a try. The new plastic set is really fantastic and I rather enjoyed building them, fiddly as they may be! Stuck fairly close to the 'default' paint scheme on them, and tried my hand at some zebra stripes and leopard spots here and there. The front 90 degree facing is important in the new Necromunda, so I marked out the bases in white, though in retrospect I think I'm going to turn it into black and yellow hazard stripes.

While I was putting the models into a tray to run down to the GW shop, I figured I ought to dig out what Necromuna models remained in the depths of the Closet of Doom, and uncovered my House gang of choice - House Delaque. The Cobalt Snakes were never a particularly effective gang, but over time there sure were a lot of 'em! Really interested to see what the new iteration of their models will look like!

My other favored gang from back in the day was Hunt Team Phi Sigma Rho, a group of Spyrers comprising one each of Orrus, Malcador, Yeld and Jakara. I'm really hoping that GW will continue on beyond the 'original six' and delve into the models and rules from the Outlanders supplement, including the Spyre Hunters, Ratskins, Scavvies and of course The Redemption!

I held on to a couple special characters and follow-on gangs from the Outlanders book and Necromunda magazines, including Bull Gorg, pit fighter extrordinairre, and Kal Jerico the most badass bounty hunter in the Underhive. ...At least that what he'll tell ya! Rather pleased with how this particular pic turned out, with the inestimable Jerico menaced by the beast while the guilder and his cronies look on and jeer from the stands!

Speaking of, one of my very favorite 'gangs' were the guilders, with my particular band led by the portly-but-surprisingly-dangerous Count DeMonay and his pack of henchmen, cronies, bodyguards and hired guns. I initially didn't hold out much hope that we'll see the Guilders, but they're mentioned in surprising detail right in the main rulebook alongside the house gangs, so perhaps Count DeMonay may see the table again earlier than expected!

Last but not least, the Arbites of Precinct 13 ("Unlucky for some"). I really hope we'll see these guys walking the beat again at some point in the future as well. With as well done as the new Escher and Goliath (and as of today Orlock) models have been I am super jazzed to see what else they come out with!

Got a chance to play the basic game yesterday (to come to grips with the main rules before adding on all the Gang War campaign expansion stuff) and I gotta say I REALLY enjoyed it. The lineage of the 1st edition game shines through, with a few tweaks to the old rules and a few new additions that all added to the experience in.my opinion. I really dig the small update to the flesh wound/serious injury method and the bottling out process, and the gangs definitely feel more differentiated from the outset than they did in 1st edition. Used to be it was really only after a few games that your gangs started for show their house flavor. The tactics cards added a nice extra bit of spice without being overpowered (at least the ones we drew), and while I was initially down on the ZM tiles (I much prefer the 3d terrain of old) it was actually rather fun to rumble in the tunnels for our learner games.

I will say that to me the Eschers were definitely the standouts of the two. Far more customizable than the Goliaths, though I understand why that's the case - with all the exposed musculature they had to make the arms fit on the Goliaths in a very specific way to look good. I found it amusing as well that the Goliaths are actually showing more skin than the Eschers, and am rather happy that the girls aren't hyper-sexualized. They are feminine without being cheesecake which to me is quite welcome.

As of now I'm giving it a 9/10 - nostalgia filters in place for me of course as Necromunda was always my favorite specialist game, and I'm appy to report that my fears that they would mess it up were unfounded. This is more or less exactly what I hoped the reboot would be, a loving adaptation of the old system and not a complete rewrite from the ground up. Good stuff!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Falkus Kibre built

Quick hit today - Over the weekend I managed to get signed up for the Heresy events at Adepticon 2018 I was hoping for, which was good news! Reading through the mission briefs it appears that I needed to build a Delegatus model in keeping with the force as for the most part I will not be able to use either Abaddon or Maloghurst due to the army creation restrictions.

A Delegatus allows for the use of Rites of War at lower point levels, which will be key to be able to keep certain models I'd built for the army in the Troops category, and I thought the leader of the Justaerin would be a good choice to take a crack at. Enter my take on Falkus Kibre - Based on the terminator captain from the Betrayal at Calth box set, with some bespoke SoH shoulder pads, and helmet with the topknot favored by the legion. Added a little extra bling along the top of the armor to get another spike in there, being one of the defining characteristics of the Justaerin warplate. Armed with a combi-melta and a chainfist, he'll fit in well with the rest of the Justaerin in the force so far!

I also recently picked up a trio of Anvillus Dreadclaws off of ebay, and they're getting a little TLC at the moment - pics to come!

Necromunda - More Bulkheads!

Few more strips of the "solid" style bulkheads given a little extra detail! For the most part the "skeletal" style bulkheads just got the oily metal treatment but there's tons of room to play with on these:

Did a couple strips with blood spatter - A dark reddish brown was stippled on, then some Blood for the Blood God was drizzled in. Another strip got some graffiti - Cracked open some old Judge Dredd comics for some cheeky hive curse words.

The last couple strips got some propaganda posters and handbills glued in place - I'm concerned they're not going to stick too well so will be coming back at them tomorrow to give 'em another pass of PVA and another sealant pass to hopefully nail them in place.

Necromunda - Bulk(head)ing up

Ah, Necromunda, how I've missed you! I have been cautiously optimistic about the upcoming release of the updated Necromunda and while there are a few things that I find disappointing (the rules for only two of the six original house gangs being included at release being the big one), overall I'm rather liking what I'm seeing! As I recently finished off one army and made great strides on another, and with the new plastics hopefully in hand and then on the painting desk in another week or so, I didn't want to undertake a massive new project. So something Necromunda-themed it is!

Rooting around in the darker depths Closet of Doom I uncovered the old, old cache marked "Necromunda Terrain", and after blowing the dust off of it unpacked it to see what treasures lurked within. I was immediately buried under a tidal wave of the old plastic bulkheads - over 150 of 'em in point of fact! I didn't have the space to lay them all out of photos, but over the last couple days I was able to get them primered in batches and have started dabbling in various weathering and whatnot. Tried some greasy oils, some rusty patching and some dripping verdigris/slime, to varying degrees of success. Has been a hoot experimenting though! Going to do some graffiti and perhaps some posters on some of them as well - There's plenty to mess with. Really glad to hear that the Gang War book includes rules for 3D terrain, while the Zone Mortalis aspect of the sounds fun to me one of the best parts of the game was the claustrophobic blasted hivescape terrain!

40k Genestealer Cult - Brotherhood of the Argent Spiral Complete!

Managed to sneak by the GW shop after work this afternoon and got a couple army pics taken!

When I think 'horde army' I generally think of the Orks, but Emperor save me if the Genestealer cult doesn't do horde as well! Since the models are generally painted and placed into battlefoam trays and shelved in the Closet of Doom I honestly had no conception of how many there actually were in the end, models just kept coming out of the trays and spreading out across the table!

Overall, I have to say that despite the fact that there was a year-long hiatus between when the army began and ended, it was definitely a blast to both build and paint! I've been doing a lot of monotone and subdued marines of late, so the brightly contrasting colors were quite refreshing! I'm really happy with the skintones in particular, with the purestrains being very purple, and lightening up to near-human tones throughout the generations.

Couple more semi-closeups, which mostly go to highlight that I'm not a particularly steady-handed photographer. While they are a riot of colors I think that they hang together well - hard to go wrong with blue and yellow as strong contrasting colors, and the little splashes of red and the white armor pop as well.

Of course you gotta have a little spreadsheet porn - It's deeply satisfying to turn the last boxes green! The force underwent a lot of changes from the beginning of the project to the end - notably an entire edition change, so there was a shuffle to make it 8th-compatible. In the end it worked out as a fairly full Battalion detachment, and a Vanguard detachment mostly consisting of purestrain 'stealers, and a Leman Russ, because why wouldn't you? On the up side the army has already been earmarked for sale, which means there's some incoming funds for future projects!

Now to ponder what to put in front of the painting servitor next. With Necromunda right around the corner I don't necessarily want to commit to anything major. Just something bite-sized to pass the time until release weekend and getting my mitts on the new plastics! Hmmm...

40k Genestealer Cult - A tidal wave of cultists...

When last we left the action, the skintones made it on to all of the models and I was figuring out the appropriate way to parcel them out into smaller batches. Then things went horribly, horribly wrong...

After getting the first 16 models' yellow basecoats on, I figured since I already had them laid out it couldn't hurt to just press on and do them all. I'd parcel them out after that and press on...

Well, maybe just finish off the yellow highlights and lay on the white basecoat for the armor, since theyll both need to get a hit of Seraphim Sepia at the same time anyway...

A wash step? Better do them all at once so they match, would hate to get the wrong level of shading on sub-batches after all.

At this point the madness had settled in and I figured heck, since I've gotten this far I may as well press on. The remaining stuff to be done is all little detail that won't take too long per model, right?

Raced the weather today to try and get them all done in time to catch the warm part of the day and get them sealed. It was a closely-run race, but once I got done the temps had started to fall for the day. Rather than risk crashing and burning at the finish line by a potentially frosty finish on the sealant step, I called it a win as-is and will come back to seal 'em once it's a little warmer! All told the progress shown in these pics took place over about 12 hours over the last 6 days (with 8 of those over the past weekend). Felt good to get them all done, and while this is truly a stupid number to do at one time, the models themselves are so interesting and full of detail and variance it wasn't quite as horrible an experience as I'd feared. I probably won't tackle a batch this big any time soon but was interesting to set a high-water mark for me!

Hoping to get them taken over to the local GW in the next couple days to get a family photo of the whole Cult of the Argent Spiral...

40k Genestealer Cult - How many is too many to batch paint?

Quick hit this morning - After what I felt was a very productive run with the Sons of Horus, I thought I'd take a little breather and work on another project for a bit. I had started a Genestealer Cult army a while back that had sort of stalled out and as some of my fellow blogger buddies over at Confessions of a 40k Addict and St Andrews Wargaming have been doing such cool work on their own cults recently I pulled down the remaining minis to see what needed to be done, and got stuck in over the weekend!

Forty-six. Forty-six at once is TOO MANY. The painting servitor's cogitator nearly melted down from the repetition of doing all the skin tones on the remaining models, and in order to keep it functioning further work on the project will be broken down in to two somewhat-smaller batches. I'll be doing the 3rd generation hybrids as one batch of 17 and have laid in the chitin on them, after which they'll be taken to completion before I assault the final batch of 4th generation cultists. There's 29 of them, may the Emperor have mercy on me...

On the up side, once they're done the whole bloody army will be complete and I can get 'em up on the auction block! ...Which will hopefully be enough to pay for the therapy painting all of them will require me to undergo. Heh.

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Armies on Parade family photo!

I recently finished off the last of the models I had assembled and figured a family photo of what's been painted up so far was in order. Packed everything up and popped over to the local GW to put them in the Armies on Parade lineup and snapped a few pics!

There's actually quite a few of 'em once I got 'em all laid out! Fairly infantry heavy so far, but I find it's good to crank out a mess of infantry and leave the big toys for later. Still plan on adding more to the force, and there's quite a bit still awaiting assembly, but we're looking at about 3500 points complete already!

Couple off-angle shots as well - Pretty happy with how the greens turned out across the force, and I'm rather enjoying the various spot colors here and there, the hot oranges pop nicely against the cooler tones of the armor.

Updated the painting chart and really pleased with how it's coming along! Still a few things on the ol' wish list to order up from Forge World once the new rulebook drops, and a couple models still awaiting assembly in the Closet of Doom. However, I'm thinking I might switch gears for a bit and work on a different project for a little while to recharge the batteries after all this green!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Reaver attack squad complete!

After a longer-than-expected stretch of home repair that put the hobby loft out of commission for quite a few days, I was finally able to get the painting servitor plugged back into its socket and fired it up!

First up was to finish off the Reaver Attack Squad for the Sons of Horus. I really enjoyed building and painting this unit, and look forward to seeing how they perform on the tabletop - They certainly aren't cheap points-wise though, with everyone toting a power sword or power fist, they weigh in at 375 points!

As much as I like the resin chainaxes they come with by default, they're rather thin and bendy and I feared much breakage. Instead I rooted through the leftover bits from all the Betrayal at Calth boxes I've picked up and had enough plastic Mk.IV power swords to kit out the unit. Should be far more robust when it comes to transporting 'em!

Really pleased with the MaxMini jump packs, I think they suit the aesthetic really well and give the models a rather brutal look. Doesn't hurt that it gives them the Bulky rule, and therefore means they each count as two models when it comes time to figure their Merciless Fighters attacks. At initiative step 1 any surviving model with a power sword gets additional attacks - hard to go wrong there!

Once they were done I couldn't help but press on with the first of the trio of Land Raiders. Laid in the initial black and green and have started the edge-highlighting process. Still a ways to go of course but liking how it's coming along so far!