The Return of the Sutter Dukes and the Elusive Bratt

When I started this blog, I was in the throes of painting up a Bratt gang for Confrontation. In fact the de facto leader, the Magpie Dandy, is featured in the blog's title banner. The Sutter Dukes featured in the Ferrograd Confrontation game we played at BOYL 2014 (where all the maths was calculated by the amazing mind of antipixi), but since then have languished a little neglected in their spire-shag pads.

Cowboys and Rayguns - Dracula's America...IN SPACE!!

There's something innately cool about cowboys. Perhaps it's the swagger or the lawless lifestyle. Perhaps it's the cool hats and low-slung six-shooters. Possibly it's the jangling guitars and tolling bells accompanying the tumbleweed. Or it could be the high octane jail breaks and train robberies.

Needless to say, when Osprey published their Dracula's America ruleset last year, it got lots of folks I know pretty excited. After all, what could be cooler than cowboys plus vampires.

Cowboys plus vampires IN SPACE of course!

It is not a huge leap to transpose the whole game of Dracula's America into a science fiction setting. After all there's precedence for space cowboys - just look at Firefly, 2000AD's Lawless series and, er, Bravestarr. Not to mention that Rogue Trader has a bit of a frontier tinge and Necromunda was pretty much the Wild West too. 

So you have a nice, intuitive, fast and simple set of rules, with a variety of factions available. You have a bunch of people who would like to make some space cowboys and would like to yell 'Varmint!' across a table at each other.

Dracula's America in Space (DAiS) was born.

Big Boy Techs - A Serious Arsenal Upgrade

If I think back to previous versions of Necromunda, the weapon that everybody feared was the plasma cannon. Now I quite like plasma weaponry in the new version of Necromunda too, and it just so happens that Van Saar Tech gangs have access to plasma cannons through their House list. So it would be rude not to take one, right?

I've been keeping the final Roy Eastland tech sculpt back to use as a heavy weapon ganger - with his chunky frame, shades and cigar stub, he's perfect for a cool-as-ice champion capable of blasting any opposing ganger into oblivion.

He might be thickening around his middle, but very few folks are willing to suggest that Zepto loses some weight.

Getting Technical - A Pair of New Tech Gangers

I'm coming to the close on my Tech gang. I have another half dozen Techs to paint, including some reinforcements for a new campaign that will be starting at the end of May.

The Data Kings conduct tense negotiations with Ash Waste Nomads in an abandoned settlement outside the hive.

Grogan and Fischer are a pair of basic lasgun-armed Tech gangers, built using nothing more than a pair of torsos and period plastic arms and lasguns. Why do I need more gangers with lasguns? Why haven't I used short-barrelled lasguns that match the previous gangers? Because I'll be using these Techs to represent House Van Saar. And in the recently published Gang War 3, House Van Saar get cool new lascarbines as well as lasguns. Lascarbines effectively fill the same niche as autoguns do for other houses - slightly less accurate but with a higher rate of fire than a lasgun. In order to visually distinguish between the two weapons, my long-barrelled lasguns are lasguns, and the short-barrelled ones will be lascarbines. I should have taken a comparison picture, but I forgot. I'll just have to remember to do it another time. Perhaps when I add a long-las!

The Joy of Techs* - A New Tech Gang Champion

"Boss, those Bratt fopps are the other side of the sump tanks. Better get the plasma coils warmed up!"

The new Necromunda supplement, Gang War 3, came out a few days ago, and it looks like I'll be using my Tech gang as Van Saar in a new campaign at the end of the month. Having looked at the new House list, my bolter-armed fighters can't be in the starting line-up, nor can my champion with heavy stubber. I need to supplement my existing fighters with a few new ones. I plan to make a new leader with a combi lasgun/plasma gun and a funky Van Saar energy shield and some more lasgunners. I also wanted to make a new champion with plasma gun - actually finishing a conversion I had started alongside the other plasma gunner from a few weeks back.

My new champion, Orbison, gets a matching colour scheme to the rest of the Techs - stark white overalls with plenty of bionics. Orbison is also one of the techiest Techs around - not only is he sporting bionic limbs, but he's also got a nerdy pair of bionic eyes!

Rural Tranquility - Fogou Scenery Set (Part 2)

In my last post, I showed off the forthcoming Fogou Models terrain set that I've just painted up. It's worth taking a look at the set in a bit more detail to see how I might use the set.

Besieged Space Marines defending a ruined farm from a horde of greenskins. That sounds familiar!

Rural Scrawl - Fogou Scenery Set (Part 1)

If you follow the blogs of Asslessman (Leadplague) or Curis (Ninjabread), you may have seen a few blogposts recently with some forthcoming terrain courtesy of the fabulous Fogou Models. The terrain is part of a new set from Fogou, with a Kickstarter due to go live in the next few weeks (I think the 22nd of May). The set comprises some lovely ruined buildings and walls, with loads of accessories.

I've been lucky enough to get an advance set to paint up and have been feverishly trying to finish the set over the last few weeks.

Any derelict building is the target of spray-can wielding perps!