Camping with Bugs

Two items today: Necromunda Milliasaurs and some dog tents from Renedra.

I picked up the set of dog tents from the Renedra stand at Salute along with another item.

Although I already have three feral, teepee type tents painted up I wanted to have models that represented tents that might feasibly be moved around easily, either on a models back or on the saddle (animal or vehicle).  Although the models dont take up a lot of space, they are cute little gaming props that help to create atmosphere.

The Mutie faction in Gorkamorka doesnt use forts, being more nomadic in their behaviour.  The original (stupidly named) “Digganob” supplement for (the equally stupidly named) Gorkamorka came with a set of small cardboard tents to represent the Mutie encampment, but they were lost or squished in some house move or another over the years.  These cute little plastics will be a durable and very serviceable replacement.

Painting the tents was fast.  I didnt want to spend much time on them so I painted the pegs metallic (that suits the Gorkamorka setting better than wooden pegs and stopped the models from being 100% shades of brown) and then washed the entirety of the models with GW Gryphonne Sepia, twice.  I then washed them again with GW Devlan Mud and finally painted some black ink into the door flap edges.  Very quick but perfectly ok for what the models are.

The Milliasaurs are creepy crawlies from the GW Necromunda setting.  Like my Ripper Jacks and Giant Rats, they were originally supplied as servants of Necromunda Wyrd Beastmasters, who could use them to do their amoral bidding.

I gave the Milliasaurs a quick drybrush followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Red on the chitin areas.  It gave a nice cockroach sort of look I think.  I did a tiny bit of detailing on the teeth and spines too.

They are creepy looking figures.  The guy rearing up would stand at about 150cm in real life, which would be a pretty appalling thing to find at the door of anyones tent I reckon.

Giant Rat Swarm

These guys were assembled primarily for Necromunda games back in 1998, but I didnt get around to painting them until 2009.  I finally went back to them to add just a little bit of detail and take some photos this year.

As all Electric Six fans living in the current pre-apocalyptic era know, only robots, cockroaches (and probably Lidl) will survive the upcoming Armageddon.   Before you ask, zombies dont count as “surviving”.

My own in depth research has also revealed that there is a good possibility that mutant, dog-sized rodents will live on in the undercities and eventually spill in huge swarms onto the irradiated plains above.  Probably.

In Necromunda the tribal native human “Ratskin” faction (which I will eventually get around to painting) survive in harmony with their destroyed environment.  Part of this involves their nomadic lifestyle, with the Ratskin braves following the migrating swarms through the ruined industrial landscape.

Hi-freakin-larious in other words and way too good a gaming opportunity to miss.  Cue the theme from “Rawhide”.

Denim clad Foundry punk Nancy objects to being used to demonstrate scale...

I put together the swarm from the rather cool mutant rats from Necromunda, a load of eighties giant rats from GW, a few of the plastic giant rats that were first seen in Warhammer Quest and a handful of the titchy rats that sat on the Heroquest furniture making a total of 31.

The best figures are easily the Necromunda guys visible in the first photo, although a couple of the larger metal Warhammer guys are cool too.

I have yet to get around to playing my “Rathide” cattle rustling scenario in the depth that I would like.  I did run a prototype Rathide game of “Mutants and Death Ray Guns” testing the idea with MT back in 2009 though.

More post apocalyptic rat related miniatures are available at Megaminis HERE (post apoc ratmen) and at Black Cat Bases HERE (mounted post apoc ratmen).  Those guys are on my (gigantic) shopping list…

Zombie of the Week #74: Stuart

Stuart

Another of the cool Necromunda plague zombie figures.  I have always liked these figures, despite the fact that they tend to wield weapons.

A quick paint job from over a decade ago.  Stuart has seen a lot of action and has probably been involved in 90% of the zombie figure games that I have played, which is quite a bit.

Zombie of the Week #62: Jagger

Jagger

Jagger contemplates who his next recycled meal will come from.

Pipe Wielding Corpse

Jagger is one of the first zombie figures that I ever painted.  The figure is a Necromunda zombie that I painted for a scenario around the time that I was playing Resident Evil 2 on the PS1. A fun figure that I would approach differently if I were to paint it these days but still perfectly adequate for gaming with as is.  Apart from the hand weapons (which I would rather avoid in my zombie figures) the Necromunda zombies are nice figures that are great fun to paint.

Zombie of the Week #46: Webb

Webb

Webb just ate an Escher ganger.  What little is left of the emotional centre of his brain still managed to register some disappointment as the Escher was just as tough as the Goliath that he ate last week (Toughness 3 in fact).

Club Wielding Undead Techno-Savage

Webb is one of the handful of zombie miniatures designed for the GW Necromunda game like Phelan, Jonah, Páidí and Steve.  Although (and perhaps because of the fact that) they have some sci-fi trappings that make them less versatile than generic figures, I am quite fond of them.  Nice crisp sculpts all.

Zombie of the Week #44: Phelan

Phelan

Another rotting rank and file member of the undead horde of Karloth Valois, Phelan stumbles through the ruins of a pillaged world.

Gangly Flesh Eating Corpse

Better late than never heres Phelan.

Phelan is a gangly old GW zombie from the 80′s that I painted up in 1998 (or possibly even 1997) or so.  At the time I was playing Necromunda a fair bit, as I never played much 2nd ed 40K because it was absolutely awful.

While I never played most of the cool oddball style games derscribed in the Necromunda Outlanders supplement, I did very much enjoy reading about them and thinking about playing them.  That was where I first became inspired to collect zombie figures, in order to stage a zombie incursion  in the Necromunda setting.

Phelan was one of the figures that I bought for that purpose and as such he has been used in a lot of games since.

Like all of the figures in the that stage of my ongoing zombie project, Phelan was painted to a lower standard than the other figures that I was painting at the time (my Sin-Eaters are good examples of that standard) simply because I wanted to get a reasonably large horde on the table as fast as possible.

Rat(tle) Rustlers

I played some more Mutants and Death Ray Guns in early August.  One of the basic scenarios in the game involves some post-apocalyptic cattle rustling.  Although I dont have any two headed calf figures lying around I do have a whole heap of giant rats, quite a few of whom are mutated with extra tails, scales etc.  They seemed like worthy livestock for the rather lethal and very bleak environment that the MDRG folks exist in: just the kind of place where people fight over the right to eat mutant rats.  The photos are a bit shoddy, just snaps taken as the game was underway.

Giant Mutant Rats: Post Apocalyptic Cattle

 

Post-Apocalyptic Cattle Rustlers A

Post-Apocalyptic Cattle Rustlers B

The game table was set up with four areas of terrain (some radioactive rock piles and some mutant vegetation) plus the cattle compound in the centre.  Both forces ran full tilt towards the compound in the early part of the game.

The rustlers close in on dinner.

 

Leroy and Seamus grab a rat each under direct orders from Dr Fossey. The topmost corner of the pen in the shot is where Leroy zapped the enemy assassin with a Death Ray Gun. All that remained was the echo of her dying shriek and a barbeque smell.

 

Lizzie and Fossey grab two more rats while under fire from the bounty hunter and mutant human shaman.

The game worked aout as a bit of a walkover for side A.  That said, it involved lots of laughs, helped along by the entertainingly ludicrous scenario and background.

Necromunda Zombies

Post Apocalyptic Zombie

 

Sci-Fi Zombie

 

A couple of Necromunda zombies that I painted back in the late ’90s.  A quick scheme, nothing fancy.  I like that the second guy is wearing a watch.