But Fowler, there isn’t a Necromunda release this Saturday. Dear reader… every model is a Necromunda model. Many thanks to Games Workshop for sending us an early Blood Bowl Gnomes kit for review.
When I saw the first previews for the new Blood Bowl Gnomes team, it was obvious what I had to do. A peek at the models made it clear that you end up with a spare goose and badger when you build the team. How do you Necromunda-up a goose? Or a badger? Cybernetic eyes, baby. In both cases, I cut up guard heads with what was (or looked like) a bit of ocular cyberware. One of these was sourced from a head in the new Cadian Castellan kit, the other came from the new Cadian upgrade kit.
For each, I did a bit of carving and hollowing to make a space for the cyber bits. Liberal amounts of sprue goo were applied to blend the eyepieces in to the model.
Grapplehonk
What is a Grapplehonk? The most horrifying creature in the underhive! Leaders and champions in Necromunda can take pets called “Exotic Beasts”. One of these beasts is called the Grapplehawk. It can grab on to opposing gangers, automatically hitting with subsequent attacks and preventing fighters from using weapons when making reaction attacks. Why not use a goose as a base for a custom Grapplehawk conversion?
The paintjob on this guy is simple:
- Prime black, white zenithal. Drybrush Two Thin Coats White Star
- Gryph-Hound Orange on the beak and feet. Highlighted with Troll Slayer Orange and Fire Dragon Bright
- The tongue was basecoated with Army Painter Air Pixie Pink, washed with Carroburg Crimson, and highlighted with Pixie Pink and Pixie Pink mixed with a little bit of white.
- Claws were basecoated with Grey Seer and basecoated with Skeleton Horde contrast. Highlighted with just little dots of Grey Seer.
- The had was basecoated with Wyldwood contrast, highlighted with baneblade brown, and washed with thinned Agrax Earthshade.
- Eyes were basecoated with Stormfiend contrast and highlighted with Army Painter Ionic Blue.
- The beautiful plumage and… sock were washed with Soulblight Grey and drybrushed again with White Star.
- Metals were basecoated with Army Painter Gunmetal Grey, washed with AP Dark Tone, and drybrushed with Necron Compound. After a spritz of Ammo by Mig Ultra Matte varnish, I painted the lens with Spiritstone Red technical paint.
Cyber-Badger
The Cyber-badger is likely to perform double duty in my Necro gangs. He’s perfectly capable of being a Cyber-Mastiff (standard-issue, hardcase, or hacked varieties) or a Giant Rat. My campaigns tend to feature discounted rats, and they are quite helpful – providing either a 5+ save against environmental effects, or allowing you to sacrifice the rat to ignore an instance of environmental damage completely.
I kept the paintjob on the badger simple as well:
- Primed black, zenithal white, drybrush White Star.
- The general markings on this guy were trying to make a fade – whiter on the face, fading to grey in the midsection, and black in the extremities.
- Basecoated the black markings from the nose to the ears, as well as the limbs with Black Templar contrast
- Basecoated the midsection with Basilicanum Grey contrast
- Washed the lighter areas with Soulblight Grey contrast
- Claws were basecoated with Skeleton Horde contrast
- Gums were washed with Blood Angels Red contrast, teeth were washed with Soulblight Grey
- Drybrushed White Star all over the model. Build it up slowly
- The eyes were basecoated with Stormfiend contrast
- At this point I added a dab of Black Templar between the jaws to give it some depth.
- The ocular device was basecoated with AP Gunmetal, washed with Dark Tone, drybrushed with Necron compound, and the lens was painted with Spiritstone Red.
The basing for both has a quick scheme:
- Army Painter Gunmetal on low areas
- AP True Copper on higher areas
- Golden High Flow Acrylic Teal on some details
- Wash with AP Dark Tone all over
- If you are doing hazard stripes, be lazy. Paint black and grey seer lines that you are happy with, and put Imperial Fists Yellow contrast over just the light grey.
- Drybrush all over with Necron Compound. I typically clean up the black stripes on the hazards just a little bit
- Wash metallics and teal with AP Strong Tone
- Black base rim – if you want to be quick and lazy, use black airbrush primer
Consider this a commitment from the Necromunday team – a promise that we will do our best to swipe models from other systems and underhive-them-up. Got any ideas for upcoming models we should crack into? Drop us a line! Contact@Goonhammer.com.
