Escher Gang

I haven't been working on my gang a lot lately, but I found a few photos of them that I hadn't posted. I made it to 7 finished gangers, so it really wouldn't take much to see them completely finished and ready to be fielded in all their painted glory.

Looking at them now really makes me want to work on them though - I think it's the old 90s Warhammer throwbacks like the red guns, hazard stripes and migraine bright hues! Did you spot the 2 original metal gangers in there?

I also did a piece of fiction to start the campaign:

He was now known as Bilge Master 4. It hadn’t always been that way, but an unfortunate encounter with a stray las blast had destroyed half of his cranium; melting away most of his sense with it. At that time several years in the past, he was called Korruk of Clan Goliath. His stricken body had been dragged to a doctor who had done their best to rebuild him with the only parts available. Unfortunately for poor Korruk, these parts had been hastily scavenged from the computer core of a sewage skiff and the programming was never fully wiped; leaving him with an identity crisis of sorts.

“Cleanse and sterilize!” As usual, the battle cant made little sense as the steely words left Korruk’s lips in a toneless boom.  He let fly with his stub-cannon into the darkness; lighting up the under-deck for a moment in the brilliant light of the muzzle flare. Somewhere in the distance there was a momentary sound of panic that soon grew still again.

Korruk had been patrolling the lower decks of the Brawndo production plant for several months after the Bennett Brothers had relegated him to a distant support duty. In truth, his delusions and obvious brain damage had made him a liability to the rest of his crew. For his part, it seemed that the newly self-coronated Bilge Master 4 was a lot happier wandering the tunnels aimlessly in a hallucinatory stupor.

Another noise issued forth from the darkness; it was closer this time. Bilge Master 4 cocked his weapon in readiness; just in time to see a huge rat bristle forth into the flickering halo of a wall mounted illuminator. The hideous beast skittered a few steps forward on misshapen legs. Its pudgy bulk reared up; sniffing the air as it moved. It seemed to realise that it was not alone, but it didn’t have enough time to put that knowledge into action; Korruk had already pulled the trigger. The dull, hollow bang of the weapon echoed through the maze-like structure as the rat’s body burst open in a wet puff of filthy viscera.

“Cleanse and sterilize.” Korruk repeated the words emotionlessly as he took a lumbering step towards the fresh kill. “Initiate docking protocol.” He reloaded the gun; a string of drool hanging from his mutilated lip.

……...............................................

“The plan is simple; that goon thinks he’s some kind of sewage processing plant. So all we have to do is flush.” The end of the sentence was punctuated by a wet popping noise as Tabby’s bubble gum burst. The Tabby Cats were in their den; the gang had managed to get some meagre digs in Bunk Town, but the room was packed to bursting as the Escher crew squeezed around a sector map that seemed to have been etched in crayon and splashes of hair dye.

“Care to explain that one boss?” The Juve received a quick slap to the back of her head for her audacity from one of the older gangers.

“We run around town flushing everything in sight right down on his head. He gets confused, and we slip by into Clan territory unnoticed … hurr hurr hurr.” Despite her slight stature, Tabby’s laugh was deep and goonish like a drunken Ogryn in heat. She had quite the complex about it too, and she shot a warning glare at the few who dared smirk at the simian sound she was making.

The dawn of battle would be trumpeted a few hours later by the sound of several dozen toilets ringing in unison.

Necromunda Escher Miniatures Metal Vs Plastic Comparison

With the release of the new edition of Necromunda, I thought it might be fun to compare the new figures to some of the original 90s metal figures. Going into the new set, I wanted to be able to use some of my older miniatures, but I was always concerned that the scale wouldn't fit. Obviously details and casting have come on, although I do think that a lot of the 90s Necromunda miniatures were way ahead of their time in terms of quality.

Plastic Escher in the centre, metals either side.

Scale wise, the Escher match quite closely. The new plastics are bigger, but not noticeably on the tabletop. If anything, it gives quite a natural variation in height. Detail-wise, the plastics took a lot of the elements from the metal miniatures, so they really do look quite good together and only an experienced eye is really going to be able to pick them out.

I also wanted to make this post as most of the time when you see them side by side it's a lovely new model with a really crusty old one. As I've painted these all recently, it seemed a lot fairer, as you're not swayed so much just by the paint/built quality, and can actually see what they look like painted and based next to each other.

All I can say is that I'm happy to have both in my gang!

Again, old metals either side of the plastic ganger.

Necromunda Escher Paint Scheme - Test Miniatures

I've been making some good progress on the Escher gang this week, and today I'm presenting the first finished miniatures. I actually meant to post this article when I finished the first one, but as I was a day or two late, I finished a second one! At this rate the gang will be ready to fight in no time!

For the colour scheme, I really wanted to evoke the classic look that Necromunda always had; with bright colours and patterns. I'd always fancied having a go at paining an army "2nd edition" style, so the gang was a great chance to take a trip down memory lane without having to commit to it as permanently as painting a whole army would've been (I think  have enough armies at this point too...).

It seems that the classic colours for Escher gangers tended to be yellow, so I wanted to work that in there. I've also gone with bright blue and some reds (especially on the weapons) to get that old skool primary colour mash-up going on. I've done a few areas with hazard striping too as it is classic, and not that hard really. I got a lot of practice in on the technique while I was painting my genestealer cult.

Vertical striped leg? I don't know if I'll be attempting that again soon. I do like the green hair ends though.

The old miniatures stand up pretty well considering that they're about 20 years old! I think the original game had great styling for the time, and the proportions are pretty decent. When I think back on the old mono-pose plastics that I used to collect compared to these, I really have to ask myself why I didn't buy more Necromunda at the time.

Hazardous!

The pictures could be a bit better, but I really wanted to get these up on the blog before I painted any more of them. Hopefully they'll be facing off with Ed's Goliaths soon!

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!