Necromunda House

I am rather pleased with this house I made for Necromunda. Having finished my ruined factory zone I thought I might make some terrain for a Necromunda settlement. I started with this house for a scavenger. I was inspired by an old Rhino I had sitting on my desk waiting for paint. 

As I was building it a back story emerged in my brain (the result of too much polystyrene cement fumes I expect) of the scavenger who lives here. He is a devout man, which explains the shrine and the eagle above the door. He found the Imperial Fist Rhino and built his house around it...it has expanded over the years. He even has a boiler and a balcony/patio area to relax. 

I genuinely think this is one of the best things I have ever made. 

Necromunda Vehicles

I have been working on Necromunda terrain, and figures, since Lockdown, and I am making some great progress and beginning to master some new techniques when it comes to painting and modeling. 

These are a selection of vehicles I have made for Necromunda. A converted half-track Chimera, a converted GSC Goliath truck and a ganger riding a bike (made from a converted Orc bike)

I picture them working  for the guilds, shifting goods from one hive settlement to the next. Dangerous work, but potentially very profitable. 

I just need to paint the base on the biler...I haven't decided how to finish it yet. 

Gaslands Cars

I picked up a couple of sprues of Gaslands accessories from Northstar and a box of Hot Wheels cars to try them out on. I really enjoyed modeling and painting these bad boys, but I can't see me ever playing the game as I don't have much time to game any more. I have decided to sell them on ebay...so if you know someone who would like them for Christmas...

I have lots more cars and lots more bits on the accessories sprues so you can expect to see some more in the future. 

Scum and Villainy: Mother Agnes

Mother Agnes is a wretched figure, typical of one of the countless billions of human refugees who fled the destruction of their home-world, Earth, during the Slythian War. She can be found living rough in a spaceport in the rim, eking a living by begging and steeling. Most travellers in the spaceport walk past the pitiful old woman without even registering her existence, which is a mistake, because the wiser traveller knows that Mother Agnes sees and hears many things, and is more than happy to divulge what she knows for a few creds or a shot of rum. 

Scum and Villainy: Halson Nax and Crew

Work continues apace on the 15mm zombies for my mini-hammer Vampire Counts army, but in the mean time here is a post of some figures I slapped some paint on last week. I painted these for my Scum and Villainy range. This is an ongoing and occasionally-added-to collection of Sci-Fi figures that I paint purely for fun. As with my Frostgrave collection, the Scum and Villainy collection features figures from many different manufactures and games: basically anything that I think fits with my image of my Sci-Fi setting. I haven't really got any hard and fast rules for what I can include in the collection, but if it helps you can imagine it as something of a cross between the inhabitant of Mos Eisley and the cast of Serenity. 

 Halson Nax is a well known face in the outer rim, where is plies his trade as a salvage on board his ship, Scuttlebucket. He has a reputation for taking risks in pursuit of the prize, savaging valuables from wrecks that even other salvages think are too dangerous to tackle. According to rumour he took the bejewelled Star-crown of Assislis from the wreck of the Assisli battle cruiser Fireheart just moments before the vessel was crushed in a black hole. Whether this is true or not remains a subject of much debate in the drinking holes of the rim, but what is certain is that the Empress of the Assisli has places a sizeable bounty on Nax and his ship.  

Nax is the only human crewman of the Scuttlebucket, and is assisted in his endeavours by a host of droids, many of which he has previously salvaged from wrecks. Droids have advantages over living crewmen because they use less life support, don't ask for a share of the profits and, perhaps most importantly, they are both expandable and easily replaceable. 

Yell-Oh-One is a standard Mechdroid, although he is a somewhat out-dated model. He has been serving on the Scuttlebucket for longer that any of the other droids and Nax tends to treat him as a favoured pet.

Nax uses Chompers to access parts of wrecks to dangerous for other droids. The use of Chompers has been outlawed in many civilised parts of the galaxy following the incident on board The Excelsior, but out in the rim such regulations are not enforced.

 Banquo is the latest droid to be added to Nax's crew. It is an old Lillian battle bot Nax 'rescued' from a Slythian pirate. Its heavy armour and EMP shielding makes it useful in the hazardous environment often found when exploring  wrecks, and Nax has retooled it to carry a quad-las cutting tool in place of it's usual weaponry, which makes more useful as a salvager, but still deadly at short range. 

Dropzone Commander: Test Model

This is my first model for Dropzone Commander. It is a Falcon drop-ship carrying two Bear APC's. I was a bit disappointed when I started putting the models together that the APCs don't actually fit into the drop-ship, as I had imagined they would. I decided to experiment with magnets, and bought a bunch of tiny but very strong magnets from the West Midlands Military show. I have never worked with magnets before, and I have been very satisfied with the results. I now have a drop-ship that can carry its payload and Bear APCs that can detach and go off to fight the Scourge.

In order to fit the magnets I drilled out a small hole into the top of the Bear's hull and super-glued the magnet it. I glued a second magnet to the under side of the Falcon- I didn't drill this one in as the plastic is too thin, and you can't see it anyway. I then sprayed and painted the models as normal.

The magnets hold the Bears very firmly in place, and they detach with a satisfying tug. There are a few problems that I will need to address. Firstly the paint is chipping off. I think I might add a coat of varnish over the magnet, then paint over it again- I think this will help reduce the chipping. Secondly the other configuration of the Falcon Dropship carries three smaller tanks in a line, but that means that the 'Widget'  where the Falcons clear flying base fits into the body of the Falcon is directly where one of the tank sits. I think I might have to make a new flight stand with two sticks and two widgets so that they can fit around the vehicals and still be stable- this is a bit more complicated but not insurmountable. Luckily Hawk Games do sell the flying bases and the widgets so it should be OK to experiment a bit. The third problem with the Falcon is that when it is carrying the three smaller tanks their guns can only be fixed lying flat to the hull, which looses something of their coolness when deployed, as they don't look like they are ready for a fight. I haven't got a solution to that one yet. 

I like the new clear cockpit canopy on the Falcon

Scum and Villainy: Landspeeder

Joe the Soleman has a bargain for the scum and the villains who live the space-port.  One vintage Landspeeder, one careful owner, who had to hastily leave the planet for reasons best not explored in too much detail. 

I bought this from Disney shop in Birmingham, it was on sale from £7 to just £3.50, which is a real bargain. I am still not sure what I am going to do with it, bit I think it needs a base to make it look like it's hovering. The weathering/distressed look is exactly how it comes in the box, which is great. The jet repair hatch opens and closes too. If you are quick you should get one as they had quite a few on the shelf. 

Last weekend saw another evening of gaming at The Earlswood Wargamers. It was a bit of an eclectic mix of games, to suit all tastes, form War of Spanish succession in 28mm, to 10mm Napoleonic and an even smaller scale Star Trek game. I played in the Napoleonic game,as the Prussian/Russians against Vlad's French. Little Al was referee, and supplied all the figures. 

Dave, the talented painter who did the Dead Man's Hand stuff turned his hands to Star Trek. Not happy with the somewhat under par paint scheme on the Start Trek pre-paints he has set about repainting them. So far he has painted two Klingon War Birds. They look awesome.

War Bird De-cloaking off the Port Bow!

The Napoleonic game used Grand Manner as a rules set, and pitched two large forces against each other in a bit to control two villages. The Prussian reserve force (made up of sub-standard troops and raw militias) had to hold until relieved. It was our first go with the rules, and they suited the scale very well, although they proved a bit slow and so we never got to fight the battle to a satisfactory conclusion, which was a shame. Next time, if we use the same rules, then I think we need less figures on the boards so we can get more achieved. That said the massed ranks of the infantry marching into battle look amazing. 

Russian and French Skirmishers class in the village. 

The French try to flush the Prussian Landwehr out of the village

The Russians get ready to take the charge

The Heavy Cavalry Clash

Massed Ranks! Now that is war!

 I couldn't tell you much about the WSS game, except it looks very lovely!