Tuesday 12 September 2017

Necromunda Escher Gang - The Build



I'd like to say that I've had these sitting around for the last 20 years waiting for the new edition of Necromunda. Unfortunately, that dubious honour goes to some guy that I bought them off of on eBay. I was fortunate enough to get a decent deal though, as with the announcement of the new version of what most people had assumed was a long dead game the prices have skyrocketed.

I was involved in the hobby in the 90s when Necromunda was a thing, but as a penniless kidd, I couldn't afford to play more than one game, which at the time was Warhammer Fantasy. Still, I've always had fond memories of Necromunda, so I was excited to hear about the new version of the game. I do have a few Necromunda figures in my collection, but no actual gangs as they were mostly bitts I bought from the old mail order system because I liked them - like the old Ash Wastes gang sniper. Good times.

Rather than my usual backing, I'm using an old video cassette. I wanted to use something as old as the miniatures!


Anyway, I got to talking to my brother (Ed from the BERSERKERBLADE blog) and we talked about splitting the new box game for Christmas; which should be cool. To add an extra level of fun, we thought we would try and get a head start by scrounging together a few old models, or building a few new ones, so that hopefully we'll have a small force ready to deploy on the day.

I know that Ed will be converting some Goliaths using some chunky Bloodbound warriors (I've given him some cool bits to work with, so I'll be excited to see what he comes up with). Unfortunately, finding modern analogues for Escher gangers was a lot harder, and after a bit of searching I decided to stick with the originals.






Today, I'm presenting the first wave of posts about this project. I've got the miniatures together and ready for paint. In the end, I had to do a few conversions in order to repair some damage; such as the chainsword that I added in place of a missing sword blade or the shotgun ganger that I had 2 of, so I've swapped it for a lasgun and modified the head.. It still seems strange that in the original game they used to encourage conversion as your characters developed. With fully metal models and separate sprues of guns, you have to wonder what kind of maniac would even attempt it!

Paint-wise, I'm looking to combine some modern and traditional techniques; with plenty of hazard stripes, cheques, black flames and patterns. We'll see how that goes, but if I can, I'll try to put some tutorials together to help people with their own projects. If I'm feeling brave, I might even try my hand at some tattoos. After all, it isn't really Necromunda without a few bright colours and some throwback styling!

5 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Escher for me were the iconic gang of Necromunda, something different, all animal print and bright hair dyes.

    As for who was foolish enough to do conversions with those old models, I was one of them - and the scale with most of their stuff was way off - I added a marine chainsword to an Orlock ganger and it looked like he was wielding some kind of massive eviscerator!

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    1. A brave man indeed, although I hate to think what horrible conversions I was making in the 90s! - I don't think I was worried about scale at all. I had a Saurus Warrior with a Tyranid bonesword glued on that I used to use as a special character - Croqq or something... it was absolutely hideous.

      I'm hoping to post the first painted example up later this week as I've already started work on it. Those old styles are hard though; it isn't so much the patterns as it is the bright clashing colours!

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  2. The Orlock and Goliath plastics were quite limited in pose, but I think I'll be painting up my Delaques to start, Matrix styled black coats and shades! I'm wondering whether the Noble kid Spyrers will make a show again? Looking forward to building a few gangs, manageable with only a 'Squad' each...

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  3. Looking great man! Can't wait to see them facing off against my Goliaths!

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  4. Fantastic that Necro is returning, I too have an all metal Escher gang, most of which have some form of conversion, about 22 gangers in total plus about 10 unpainted for future builds. I remember the rules stating that if it wasn't represented on the model then you couldn't use it, Delaque used to get away with murder, because they could all fit lascannons up their jackets. Can't wait to see what the new edition plays like, but you got to love 1st edition still.

    My Escher are on Dakka Dakka, Cujomojo.

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