November and December 2021 Modeling

Extra days off and things to do on those days means more stressful hobby months than was envisioned at the beginning.  Lots of converting and terrain building done but nothing finished in November besides five space marines and a monster. 

Ash heaps were a lot of work but worth it in the end.  I learned the basics from The Game Smith's sand ruins video.  I did tweak it by using Wyloch's construction sand technique for basing instead of the dollar store sand but that's the only variation.

Finally got through the ash heaps and related terrain piece for the Yaktribe Competition 40 that had a due date of December 23, 2021.  No interest in painting figures while I was working to finish the terrain.  Learning about what it takes to finish a terrain project at least makes me feel better about all of the unfinished terrain in my collection.  It's soooo much work especially if you're learning techniques as you go.

November 2021 WIP

 A rare sighting in my hobby life this morning...the bottom of a pot of GW paint.  Probably only the second or third pot I've ever actually finished in almost thirty years of hobbying.  Only painted consistently the last ten months so the math probably checks out.  A good deal of paint dried in the lid and top of the pot but a majority of the Lead Belcher made it onto gun barrels, servo arms, etc.

Working on some conversions and porting over a D&D miniature as an underhive beast. Left to right:

• Trying to turn a Reaper ork into Rattus Tatterskin. Basic pose is there. Need to find a good heavy stubber and add lots of rats, candles, face mask, etc.

• Making a Reaper necromancer into a twin chain axe murderpriest for a Cawdor/Redemptionist gang. Darn Sump City Radio always given me ideas.

• D&D Brain Collector seems like a good Underhive or sump beast. More thought and paint needed as always.

• A mix of Reaper Bones and Hasslefree barbarians for use as a Ratskins gang. Can't decide if I should try using chaos helot gang rules or come up with something else to base the conversions on.

October 2021 Modeling

Managed to finish 25 models in October:

• 8 scrunts/skrunts to bring my total to 23.
• 5 hive scum
• 12 Last Chancers

Up to 23 scrunts now.  Time to buy more skitarii heads for
another set of conversions when the mood strikes.

Five hive scum that were originally intended as members of an IG killteam for the 2018 release.  Hive militia, factorum worker and a gunslinger with the rare correct number of empty holsters.

Last Chancers with conversions for everyone but whichever member was armed with an lasgun and pistol(Grease Monkey, I think)  Used a autogun/pistol armed metal Escher model instead.  Need to find my White Dwarf Annual with their rules.

September 2021 Modeling and WIP

September Completed Model List:

I completed 15 models and some counters to represent hidden traps including 2 sprung blade cages for an Escher gang.

• 5 random models
• 10 battle psykers
• 6 hidden trap counters and 2 blade cages

The month was busy and the it was hard to find much enthusiasm to paint models. The Yaktribe Finish Your Stuff Challenge for 2021 wrapped up in September and now I'll have to try and keep the momentum up without an external motivator. Hopefully the habit has set in and I'll keep doing.

I've been converting some models the past few months but nothing really coherent or finished yet.

Counts as Arachni-rig for my Mechanicus themed Van Saar gang.

Beastmen gang counting as Goliath.

Slave ogryn with a grenade lobbing skrunt nestled in the explosives supply.  He'll have to be written up as a bounty hunter or special character since I tried to model (or imply) every explosive available to slave ogryns on the model.

August 2021 Modeling

 August Completed Model List:

I completed 20 models and 5 pieces of scatter terrain in August.

• 5 converted BFG ships for my Ad Mech fleet

• 5 bolter armed combat automata

• 6 arco flagellants converted from ghouls

• 3 hired scum

• 1 Reaper crocodile

• 5 pieces of scatter fencing/walls

  
  

  
  
  
  

July 2021 Modeling

 July 2021 Completed Model List:

I completed 32 models, 2 characters and two terrain pieces in July.

• 10 Pulp minis

• 4 Reaper Bones models - gorillas and wolves

• 6 of the Statuesque Miniatures Left At the Bottom of the Garden doll models

• 10 Mechanicus cultists

• 5 Ratlings

• 4 Slave Ogryns and a dome runner for my Van Saar gang

• 2 Mutants and a crate

I wrote up brief bios for a couple of the miniatures:

• Heronomous Waffler:

"It's 'Waffler...Heronomous Waffler.'"

The long time interrogator to Inquisitor Bluhaard, Heronomous has labored earnestly to protect the citizens of the Imperium from an ever growing list of threats both real and imagined. Attired still in the courtly style of his home world of Borndowne he diligently works to maintain his current anti-psyker weapons whilst eagerly seeking new equipment and tools to deal with any psychic threat his team of acolytes encounters.

• Nettie Potts:

Nettie works the fine line between fixer and breaker as a student of the conduit, the duct and the exhaust vent.  Her favorite moments are when she’s been hired to fix a situation of her creation.  The child of a maintenance worker and a left for dead, death cult assassin Nettie is most at home in the cramped confines of what passes for the nerves and arteries of the underhive.  The mirrors started out as a distraction from her real means of access for most of her jobs but have become a bit of a calling card.  More theater prop than marvel of technology or eldritch device, the mirrors have even begun to appear in local graffiti and the hand drawn comics that pass for local newspapers in the local domes.

June 2021 Modeling

June hobby work completed. 

• 10 Pulp minisOne Copplestone Castings archaeologist
• Four Dervishes from West Wind Miniatures
• Two Book Golems from Black Cat Bases
• One Professor Felicity Poppington from Statuesque Miniatures
• Two Reaper Bones monsters
• 30 Steel Legion
• Veteran squad with grenade launchers
• Veteran squad with plasma guns
• Squad #3 for 1st Platoon
• Necromunda modeling:Astropath/Navigator and psychic familiar
• 1 Jawa Skrunts/Scrunts
• 2 Adeptus Mechanicus agents
• Terrain
• 3 crate piles for Pulp Alley
• 2 40K objective markers
• 2 resin bunker entrances

May 2021 Modeling

My May 2021 hobby output. 

I completed 21 models, two vehicles for my Steel Legion, and some more scatter terrain including two Cawdor Bone Shrines and four Thermic Plasma Regulators.

• 6 Pulp minis
• Four Copplestone Castings archaeologists
• Captain Wolf and Minerva from Pulp Alley
• Necromunda modeling:5 Underhive citizens/wyrds
• 10 Skrunts/Scrunts
• 2 characters - Nina van der Grimm and Enginseer Acroropho Meaculpa
• Terrain
• 4 Thermic Plasma Regulators
• 2 Cawdor Bone Shrines
• Pile of skulls and bones from Armorcast
• 2 objective markers

April 2021 Modeling

 April was a solid month of finishing off models again despite a busier month of work and other activities. 26 models painted and based with most of them being partially painted when the month started.

I'm enjoying painting and the progression of the figures over the course of the month.  Clear basing the pulp figures is the most nerve wracking since they are all metal and require removal of their integrated base.

March 2021 Modeling

March was a productive month for completing the paint jobs on a number of models.  Almost all had some degree of paint on them at the beginning of the month but they're done now and based so that's something.  No terrain this month.

42 models for 40K, Necromunda and Pulp Alley. 

Xenos Inquisitor Barrica Bloadh. Name generated from Realm of Plastic Inquisitor Name Generator

Underhive fauna, three hive scum and void born pilot on the left for Necromunda.

Two kids for Pulp Alley games, six Ministorum priests, an Ad Mech Van Saar gang lookout and Barrica hiding in the back.

Gaming Stranger Things - Part 2

 

It looks like the models from Hasslefree and Crooked Dice should get along scale wise. Future purchases of Haz-mat suited models and some scientists from one or the other will help add to the lab team.

My FLGS is tracking down a copy of the Stranger Things D&D starter set to get the two Demigorgon miniatures.  There are 3D printing options but I haven't mustered the energy to find a place that will print any 3D desired minis and bits for me so I'll start with the only semi-official miniatures I'm aware of.

Finding models for the almost all of the main cast members from seasons 1 and 2 continues to look like it will be an exercise is counts as approximations.  Any suggestions or links to conversions by other hobbyists would be appreciated if known about.

Terrain should be pretty straight forward with the main obstacles being cost, storage and follow through on my part.  A terrain piece every few months is probably the right approach and it may be the place for me to finally try the buy and fully model including paint path before getting the next piece.  Downtown Hawkins buildings and businesses should be usable for urban pulp gaming as well if I keep signage and other details swappable.  

Finally, I have purchased the 2nd edition Pulp Alley rules and the Solo card deck.  I need to read through those and then try out a couple of the scenarios after drawing up leagues for some of the characters and people in the setting.

Mechanicus Van Saar - Starting Gang Done

 

The starting gang for my Mechanicus counts as Van Saar gang is done.  One leader, two champions, three gangers and one neotek per my earlier post in January.  No real backstory or history written for them at this point.  Just a group of Mechanicus that I imagine are running a bit of a dual mission of searching for archeotech deep in the underhive while doing their bit to defend the interests of the magos masters.

Neoteks and gangers are stock skitarii models while the champions and leaders are Anvil Industries Burning Rose torsos on GW High Elf warrior legs.  The Skitarii arms fit pretty well onto the torsos with no conversion at all needed for the leader with the plasma gun.  An arc rifle was converted into the grav gun while a radium pistol was turned into a las pistol to pair with the other champions plasma pistol.  The Neotek does have one of the excellent Heresy Miniatures pistols that's starting gang life as a laspistol but is chunky enough that it could pass for other pistols types if an upgrade occurs.  All the models have void power plant backpacks from Anvil Industries.

Neotek on his grav cutter.

Gangers with las rifles.

Plasma gun leader, grav gun champion and dual pistol champion.

I even managed to finish a longer ago started ogryn conversion to serve as their first ogryn servitor and to convert a Reaper Bones spider into a cyber-arachnid for when a champion or the leader adds one to their profile.

All in all I'm really happy that I actually built and painted a starting gang in less than two months given my past track record of mostly buying with a fair bit of building and converting but not much else.  I need to work on the next gang and some terrain so I can then start playing some simple scenarios or even just rules testing.  I'd also like to try using the Pulp Alley rules for some games set in the underhive but I'll need to get their 2nd edition rule book to learn more about how that might work.

Gaming Stranger Things

I'm finally getting around to watching Stranger Things and I've really enjoyed the first two seasons.  Nostalgia overload and the end of innocence all rolled up into one.

Besides the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set it appears no one has licensed official Stranger Things 25 or 28mm models for tabletop skirmish games so any gaming in Hawkins and the Upside Down would need to be done with proxy models for whomever is involved.  This kind of post about 15mm post apocalypse gaming does make me wonder if I should explore the smaller scale since it would mean a more affordable approach that would allow for doing a version of downtown Hawkins or the lab surrounded by woods and the edge of the subdivision on one tabletop.

Kids on Bikes seems to be the obvious rpg set of rules for gaming Stranger Things while I think Pulp Alley would be good if you wanted to play out scenes from the show in a tabletop skirmish approach.  I need to get their 2nd edition rules to see if I can create the main characters.

I've spent several hours Google searching vehicle models and images from the show and hobby company sites trying to find decent proxies.  Models and terrain appear to be the easiest to proxy while scale vehicles of the right make and model will probably prove impossible.  1/48 or 1/56 scale models likely don't exist and I'll have to see how motivated I am to try and track down even something that visually comes close.  I've started a list of links for modeling and I'll add to it as I get time to search and track down more models.

Models:

• Main characters
• Hopper
• Will
• Mike
• Lucas
• Dustin
• Eleven
• Joyce
• Jonathan
• Steve
• Max
• Billy
• Hawkins Police
• Powell
• Callahan
• Florence
• Foundry Street Cops
• Foundry Shotgun Cops
• Hawkins Lab
• Government Agents
• Foundry Lovemore Detective Agency
• Season 1 lab woman - Hasslefree Miniatures Winter Morgan
• Hazmat Suited Troops and staff - Hasslefree Hazmat Suit models
• Scientists
• Monsters
• Demidogs
• Demigorgon

Vehicles:

• 1980 Chevy K5 Blazer
• Hawkins Police car
• Dodge
• Hawkins Power and Light
• Box service vehicle proxy
• Transit van
• Joyce's Pinto
• Jonathan's car

Terrain:

• TTCombat's City Streets range has some buildings that would fit right into Hawkins with none too veiled naming for some of them.
• Sarissa Precision has 28mm Retail, Retro, End of the World and possibly even City Block models that would work well with models for Harper's trailer, the bus in the junk yard and others.
• Crooked Dice has a Secret Base set of terrain along with lots of mdf computer stations, cc tv cameras and other details that could make the lab based scenarios look really good.

There are lots of locales that could be built for scenarios in Hawkins and part of the modeling challenge would be coming up with enough to game in/on without needing a warehouse to store all of the specific tiles, buildings, etc.  It's part of the appeal of brainstorming a modeling project like this and also the main reason why I never get far with them since there is potentially so much to do.  Hobbying in Hawkins could be a good way of taking a break from Necromunda and other modeling projects so it's worth exploring.  Plus, it will support my goal of buying from smaller hobby companies since modern models are not a space dominated by Games Workshop and other larger companies.  I'll have to see where it takes me.

Mechanicus Van Saar Gang Progress

Work on the starting seven for the Van Saar gang has progressed over the course of January.  All seven are now built and primed with base coats down on almost all the models.  I should be able to finish their painting in the next week or so and then move onto modeling some additions to the core gang. I have the one cyber-arachnid done so far.

I managed to paint ten models in January which is pretty good for me.  Eight underhive civilians, an Escher clan chymist and my Khimerix brute counts as for an Escher gang.

Finally, I made some progress on the terrain tile to accompany the propagandist I'm doing for the Yak Comp #37.  Need to finish construction and get to work on painting it.

 

Van Saar Starting Gang List

When you don't play a game but you build models from it you can do as you please when it comes to equipping and converting them since all you've got to go by is what looks good to you.  When you then decide to transition to potentially playing the game well now you've got to play by the rules, which means learning the rules and learning how those rules may turn a cool looking model into a waste of time and credits destined to die and boost your opponent's campaign prospects.

After a bit of reading in forums and websites about starting gang lists I decided to go with Genghis Cohen's Serious Business Van Saar list.  A basic, solid list with recommendations for upgrades if they live that long and theoretically a list that even if I turn out to be a savant at playing Necromunda shouldn't earn me jeers and disgust when it appears on the table.

The concept for the gang was to use Mechanicus models instead of the actual Van Saar since I have a lot of Mechanicus models/bits and I've never really connected with the Van Saar gang aesthetics either in the original Necromunda or the 2018 version.

The List:

1. Prime (Trick Shot): Plasma Gun, Mesh Armor, Bodyglove (245)

2. Augmek (Gunfighter): Plasma Pistol, Laspistol, Mesh Armor, Bodyglove (180)

3. Augmek (Hip Shooting): Grav Gun, Mesh Armor, Bodyglove (245)

4. Tek (Specialist): Lasgun, Mech Armor, Body Glove (90)

5. Tek: Lasgun, Bodyglove (75)

6. Tek: Lasgun, Bodyglove (75)

7. Neotek: Laspistol, Photon Flash Grenades, Bodyglove (90)

I hope this will be a project that has a lot of potential for both expanding the gang as it changes through a campaign as well as affording modeling opportunities for cool looking converted models that have little to no place in an actual game like the lascannon leader or an archeotek with a spider rig, an energy shield, plasma pistol and cyberteknika to improve their chances in close combat.  That model would be a few hundred credits to still not be the best close combat model in a given game so enjoy the modeling and maybe running them in one off games will be their destiny but that's okay.

Four of the seven are shown below.  Trying to differentiate leader and champions by giving them non-ranger bodies including Anvil Industries torsos and backpacks.  Need to figure out how to do the hoverboard for the neotek.