Starting off with Craftworlds I knew I wanted some rangers. I was put off by the single sculpt squad, especially since its only available in finecast, so needed to work out an alternative that would fit my idea of rangers better. I’ve always felt that Rangers should be a bit more exodite like, with a more exotic and less uniform look.
What I came up with came from a combination of Shadow Warriors from the AoS range, Guardians and some Drukhari weapons…
As you can see I used the guardian legs, arms, heads and Shuriken base, the Shadow Warrior torso and Dark Lance barrels.
The other five worked with the same base combo but I used unhelmeted heads and Heat Lance barrels.
I plan on working on some more using something other than the Shadow Warriors, likely the Wildwood Rangers and yet more different gun barrels.
Having recently got back into playing 40k, I started work on the first part of my army, Murder Clowns! Harlequins were never a fully fledged faction when I was last playing, and that new shiny factor plus the painting opportunities sealed the deal.
I’ve been working on converting up a selection of characters, starting with a couple of Troupe Masters…
This will be my Grand Avatar, likely armed with the Storied Sword from now on. I used the Nomad Prince from the AoS range, with a few parts from a Troupe box, the torso, head, feet and blade.
Another AoS model, this time an Assassin. This was built to be a Troupe Master with the Starmist Raiment. I’ve tried to create a diamond effect on the cloak similar to the Solitaire.
I’m also working on a Shadowseer and peeking into the realm of Craftworlds. Always wanted as Wraith army…
No it’s not a Britney Spears themed gang, but it is yet another one! How did this happen? I wasn’t planning an Escher force! Damn models just lying about waiting to be built!
Inspiration struck again and I couldn’t stop building until they were finished, and as such the Hive Angels were born…
This lovely leader will serve as my Leader, the Prophet of the Angels, she who preaches the true path.
I’m counting the Drukhari blade as duel stiletto swords and still need to figure out a way to model a shotgun on there.
She’ll be backed up by her champions, the icon bearer…
And the Crusader…
Then there are all these lovely ladies to help out…
As you can see I’ve gone heavy on the wych weapons. I have a hefty amount of Druhkari bits, and I really love all thier weapons. It also fits the aesthetic I was going for perfectly.
The wings are from a few different sources, but mainly the aquilla icons from the Imperial vehicle upgrade sprue.
I’m going to pop these to the side for a bit though, lots of projects to be working on and nothing left lying about to build!
Things took a bit of a turn with my Necromunda projects. The Van Saar hangers-on are under coated and ready for paint, I even got a couple of bounty hunters prepped. But then the Underhive box arrived.
I ordered it mainly for the Zone Mortalis tiles, for playing this version of the game but also to use for backdrops for some photos. I was going to sell the rest off to recoup a bit, but a seed had been planted. ‘Why not just build a new gang? It will be good to have two.’ Said that voice in my head. All it took was a quick look at their options to cement the idea…and thus the Vatforged were born…
This is Arn, the leader, and his pet croc, alongside his twin brother Vito.
Both birthed from the same gene-vat, they were born into the Goliath way of life. Arn took to it like a fish to water, rising swiftly. Vito struggled to begin but with the help of his brother, he has fought a hard and bloody path to earn his place.
Still a bit of green stuff work to do on these to polish them off but what you see here is pretty much how they’ll look.
Next up is the rest of the gangers…
I went for a bit of a mix with these and still want to add a bit more, especially the tank tread armour as I’m especially pleased with how that looks. I’m thinking of continuing that theme to Arn, and replacing the crotch chains with treads.
But then that voice spoke up again, ‘Why not do an Escher gang as well?’. Well, I might as well…
A mysterious denizen of the Iron Maze, wherever he is seen wandering a herd of shambling Ambots is not far behind.
This one is a weird idea I had when the Ambots were first released. Originally I thought a man sized model, and may switch back to this, but the Techpriest Dominus was too tempting not to use. I wanted him to be a bit Mechanicus, a bit Xenos and a bit unknown.
I want to use him as an encounter of sorts, and a territory special rule. Who ever controls the Iron Maze has an opportunity to seek help, in the form of Ambots, from him or there will be a chance he appears in games fought on the territory. If you have any ideas for this i would love to hear them.
His first companion will be the ‘pack horse’ Ambot I already have…
But I will be adding at least one more box to add a couple of buddies and to make it more of a herd.
I also picked up this beastie…
I got it because it is a gorgeous model I want to paint but it’s also a good excuse to throw him into a few games, especially since theres a profile from the Warhammer Community page…
My wee section of the underhive is filled a little bit more with the addition of some of the galaxies finest warriors. The first of these is the Space Marine, a fallen hero of the Imperial Fists brought low by the enemies of the Imperium and swallowed up by the vast beast that is Hive Primus.
This gent will be used for a special scenario, a chance to gain the favour of one of the founding Chapters. I’ll go into more detail once I’ve actually written the thing, but I know it will be a free for all with the victor gaining an awesome reward. I’m going to finish off the model with plenty of dispatched foes from this awesome kit…
Next up is the ‘Space Marine’. This one will be the master of the Fleshworks, a combination of fighting pits, slave markets and ‘food’ production(there’s a great supply of fresh produce in the area).
The tales tell that he is a recruiter for the Imperial Fists, and the armour and mighty stature seem to back this up. The ignorance of the denizens of the underhive only help the tale to spread.
With that in mind, what do you think, should he be an imposter, an overgrown Goliath lucky enough to have found some marine armour or should there be some truth to the tale, he is in fact a recruit of the Imperial Fists. An aberration that failed the initiation process but managed to escape into the underhive? Let me know what you would do.
The Clockwork Queen and her mechanical cohort take thier place in the underhive. Another character that will be added to the campaign but one that has been more of a slow build, fluff wise and model wise. I am going to add some cogs and gears, from a bag of watch parts purchased from Ebay, to really stick home the clockwork theme but heres the base models I’ll be working from…
I’ve used the Rogue Trader from the Kill Team Rogue Trader set as the basis, although still working out what I may want to change or add.
It’s likely that the Clockwork Queen herself will be a primary antagonist and thorn in the gangs sides, backed up by a techy bodyguard of droids.
Heres the first and biggest mech…
I used the droid from Blackstone Fortress as the base, with a home made hammer, shield and shoulder mounted missile launcher.
I also used some Sicarians as a base for a couple of heavy bodyguards…
I’ll be sticking with the mechanicum models as a base for things to come, as I think they work really well for the role. I do plan on expanding this with a few smaller additions, probably ‘pilots’ for the droids. But as I say it’s still melding together in the old noggin.
It’s time to round out my hangers-on with the missing three. All I need for a full roster is a Domerunner, one more Ammo Jack and a trusty slopper!First up is the cook, an ex guardsman turned ‘gourmet’ chef.
I made a wee stove for him out of some bits, including a steaming pot made from the back of a search light for the pot and the incense sensor from a servo skull. The chef himself was made from some tank crew parts, a renegade militia arm and a combat knife.
Next up is Ammo Jack number three, plenty ‘o’ shells…
Still have a bit of work to do in blending areas together, particularly on the ammo belt. Another Valkyrie gunner body with assorted tank crew bits, as well as as many ammo belts from CSM bolters I could find.
Last up is the Domerunner…
A simple arm swap on this one converts the Genestealer Cult Sanctus. I used a Hellion arm for a cool grappling hook/axe. I am going to build up the base with more ruins, make it look as though he’s on a run now.
And that rounds out the Hangers-up giving me the full roster…
After having built 19 gangers I felt it was time to move onto the support elements of the gang, and an opportunity for some cool conversions, the hangers-on.
There’s no official models for these yet, although a few have been teased by Forge World, so the only option was to kit bash up a few or find some suitable proxies.
The most obvious model to use was the Doc from the Rogue Trader box…
She looks the part, although maybe a little too clean, and she’s generic enough to fit in with most gangs. I picked her up from Ebay, a great way to get single models from these big boxes.
My next rogue doc was much more themed around my Van Saar…
I’m really pleased with how this one came out, so much so that I’m tempted to make him into a Medicae bounty hunter.
The base model is a Van Saar ganger, with the addition of the case and ‘gun’ from the Scions command set. I added the aerial, cam, and the vials on the gun from parts in the Skitarii and Sicarian kits. He was finished off with some shoulder pads, I think from the Valkyrie gunner.
Onto the ammo jacks…
Like before I have a Van Saar specific one and something more generic.
The Van Saar one I went all out on a themed model…
I used the Genestealer Cult Nexus as the base, but changed the holographic display to a gun bench. One of the hatch sections from a rhino worked well to cover the hole, and a mix of a lasgun from the Van Saar kit, some guitar string and watch parts, provided the gun being worked on.
The man himself had a head swap for a Van Saar head, and some minor customisation to his right arm. I swapped in a bolt pistol, modified with componenets from the Forge World servo skulls, to be a tool of some sort and removed the pack below to add in a bolter.
Not sure how much being on a 40mm base will affect him in game, but I really beleive in the rule of cool.
The next ammo jack was a complete kitbash using components from a lot of different kits. The body and legs are a Valkyrie gunner, the arms from the Astra Miltarum heavy weapons team and a necron, with a dark eldar hand. The head is from a tank sprue, something Imperial Guard. His equipment and pouches are from Sicarian, Space Marine, Tau, Van Saar and other unknown kits.
Still a wee bit of greenstuff work to do on all of these to get them fully finished, then onto painting! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, I would love to hear your feedback!
Cyber Arachnids, Grapple Guns, Heavy Stubbers and more for these elite gangers. A new leader ushers in a new high-tech killteam, equipped to the nines and ready to take on the underhive. As with all my Van Saar I’m going for an energy weapon based force, no solid slugs or gun that fires them, no cc weapons other than energy shields and power weapons. This has offered up the oppertunity for some cool conversions, particularly the ‘heavy stubber’ for this force. But first lets take a look at the creepy pets that have appeared…
A combination of an Eldar component, not actually certain from which kit(let me know if you recognise it), some Forge World servo skulls and Sicarian Ruststalker hands, with each finger cut into a single peice, for legs. Thanks Hendybadger for the idea.
These were quite an easy simple conversion, just with hard to find components. Just making these 2 took up all the hands in the Sicarian kit, luckily I’ve got plenty of uses for the other bits.
Next up is a new leader for the gang, Tor Gellion now demoted to a Champion. This new leader is outfitted a little differently but still sticking to the Las/Plas theme I’m going for with the gang. Introducing Ortrex Gellion…
Featuring a Combi Plas, Power Sword and Energy Shield in the weapons department and a grav shute and scope for gear. This guy is an ideal build for me, no idea if it will work but I’m sticking to it.
The Combi-plas is from one of the Forge World weapons packs, I cut it off the hand it was supplied with to create the pose I wanted with an arm from the plastic kit. The sword is from the Admech Sicarian kit, cut off and attached to a close combat arm. The back back is made up of the top half of an Admech Skirtarii back pack, also where the ‘scope’ drone came from, and the grav chuite vanes from the Primaris Reiver kit.
I’ve made up a group of similarly outfitted gangers to go alongside him, each equipped with a selection of gear. Let’s take a look at the grapple guns…
At a glance they look like a very good option for Van Saar to make up for thier movement shortfall. I made these from the Van Saar combi melta, with the melta and las barrels removed, and the hooks from the Primaris Reiver grapple guns. I was planning on just swapping in the whole of the Reiver grapple gun, but the scale was way off…
Next up was a couple of gangers similarly outfitted…
Another long las for the squad, which I’ve gone for over the long rifle mainly because it is las, but also plentiful on a sniper is nothing to be shirked at. This was made from a thin peice of brass rod, I think about 1mm although it could have been smaller. This was drilled into the gun and the barrel. I’m still searching for a good scope to be added to these, as the ones I’ve pulled from my bits box just don’t look right.
I also threw together a melta gunner as the melta ability is crazy, especially combined with it’s high strength of 8, mega AP of -4, and 3 damage!
To finish off I needed some heavy fire support…
I really wanted a heavy stubber for my Van Saar to complete my heavy weapons choices(I’ve built a Lascannon and Plasmagun, and have a Multimelta and Radcannon on the way), but it goes against the theme, then inspiration struck, I could build a multi-laser to stand in for it! Luckily I had one in my bits box, from the Valkyrie kit, and set to modding the heavy weapon frame to accomodate it. I love how it looks and think it makes a nice proxy to keep the theme.
That’s all the building of the Van Saar done for now, next up I’m looking at some hangers-on. Rogue docs and ammo-jacks here I come!
DeathWatch Studios 