Necromunda Batman

So finally managed to get back to painting and managed to finish the first mobile team for my Harley Quinn Escher Gang (The Harleys).  They still need the basing finishing but I have not decided yet whether they will be based as game pieces or be part of a permanent part of a diorama.  I’ve added a Phyrr Cat to the stolen Goliath truck as Harley has a pet Hyena or 2.  The colour was influenced by the striped Hyena rather than the more colourful versions normally seen with the Escher (although it does have metal teeth and the inside of the mouth is bright green – a bit of Joker influence).

Things I have learned so far – don’t spend hours painting animal print on motorcycle seats, cause you can’t see it when a mini bum is stuck to it! And only some Green Stuff World ColorShift paints are any good as is but can be mixed with flat acrylics to give a nice effect – the red on the Quad rider is ColorShift Royal Burgundy but the blue is a mix of Pinky Blue with Vallejo Prussian Blue.  On the other hand ProAcryl Mettalics are superb and the Metallic Medium works brilliantly.  I may get a few more painted before Spring Clean ends, the next model I want to attempt is a Death Maiden but in a pure monochrome style with the translucent cloth.

As I keep asking why do I make it easy for myself, what was wrong with Base/Wash/Highlight?

Until next time and I may see some of you this weekend as off to UKGE this Saturday.

I am using the resin Escher Head upgrade from Forge World  here, I find it useful to keep them on the ‘sprue’ for the most part when painting these, just trim off the little runners that connect the hair and gas masks to the resin block (more resin in the block than in the heads, so don’t throw them away they can be used for barricades).  The Ash Wastes heads remove the need to paint eyes but I have tried to keep the masks as individual as the hair styles/colours.  Throughout this project you will see I am using the Green Stuff World Colour shift paints, here they have been used on the goggle lenses on two of the heads and on the wide headband on one of the heads.

The  Colourshift paints can be seen more clearly here on the Mud Guard/Wheel Arches of the quad, Front Right and Rear Left use Royal Burgundy the Front Left and Rear Right use a weird accidental mix of two or 3 Colourshift, I wasn’t happy with the look of the Darth Blue and went to add a green one but with these paints being so thin and runny they all ran together on my wet pallet while I took a break to let the first layer dry. I actually ended up liking the resulting colour so a few more coats of this gave me a result I was happy with.  Just as a note: this paint job doesn’t have to be perfect, in the context of the ‘story’ these paints have been added to second hand vehicles that have seen better days as seen by the chipping on the original paint work.  Ash Wastes dust storms are not good for the paintwork.  The Black areas of machinery are actually a mix of Vallejo Grey Black and Pro Acryl metalic medium another amazing product.

And finally, those seats, not sure how tigers and leopards made it to 40k Necromunda so the hides must have been expensive but Escher are known for  their fur wear.  As it happens these were a lot easier to paint than I thought they would be.  This was my first attempt, so I watched a couple of YouTube videos and officially that makes me an expert I believe!  All you need is a good tip on your brush, good eyesight or magnifiers, a thinned down paint and the ability to disregard your instinct to be precise in favour of a more natural randomness.  The bike lying down in the background has a boring old brown leather seat using Reaper Saddle Brown, Rich Leather and Polished Leather to show some wear and tear.  And in the end most of this will be covered by Escher bums!

Still some work to do on the mechanical and metallic bits, probably some enamel and oil washes in key areas.  More to come.

First completed mini, the Escher Ash Wastes head didn’t fit into the neck hole of the Genestealer Cultist so had to pad it with some Green Stuff to raise the head so the arms look a bit displaced but overall I’m happy with the look of this. (The base is temporary).  Biggest issue I now have with high def photography and being able to see them blown up on a PC is you see your errors but this is something I will work on in the future as my real eyes can not see this even with magnifying lenses!

I particularly like the sparkly pink back pack giving the fun girly touch, this was done by mixing GSW Solar Anomaly with Reaper Heraldic Red.  Also my first attempt at the ‘scratchy highlight’ technique on the metal plate on the boots and the jeans pocket.

In total I reckon this mini must have taken somewhere in the region of 15 hours over about 4 sessions to paint.

Speak to you all soon.

So now the plan has been made – subject to change – time to start on the mini’s themselves.  My eyesight isn’t great so I have to wear magnifying lenses and I feed this really takes it’s toll on me so I try to split my sessions into a bit of time spent building, a bit priming and then a bit of time on the actual painting.  The first of the heads took me in the region of 2 hours to paint and used about 10 different paints.  The hair on the next 3 took close to an hour and that is without the hair ornaments and then there are the masks, one of the hardest things to do is keep them all individual – it wouldn’t do to have them all turn up wearing the same thing.  I had planned on at least base coating the vehicles but I’m also struggling a bit with the colour schemes, again I want them all to look different but be recognisable as a Gang and the ‘liberated’ Genestealer Cult vehicles need to have a coherent scheme to show that that they 2nd hand.

So planning is the first stage and I wanted this to be the Mobile Escher’s leaving their base in the Underhive out into the Ash Wastes.  The central focus will be the Goliath with Motorbikes a Quad and Cutters.  The Underhive section will be at a lower level with a ramp up to the entrance hatch, the cutters will launch from round opening with a Gantry reaching into the Underhive on the opposite side of the main entrance the plan is to have an observation platform leading from an internal Gantry.  A cliff face will fill the space on the back of the diorama, oh and all this on a one square foot board.  A few pieces have been 3d printed and the build starts next week.

So started this with a desert coloured Shanghaied Genestealer Cult Goliath, no real conversion just (wo)maned commander  – Ash Wastes head, Escher Gang body cut down and Genester Cult arms.  Harley Quinn/Joker paint job (need to add Puddin somewhere).  Anyway, wish me luck.