Tuesday 5 December 2017

The Rise of House Morlaque - a New Necromunda / Old Confrontation Gang

Hive gangs battle it out for supremacy.

The release of the new incarnation of Necromunda has got me all excited. Not least because the background in the rulebook feels like a director's cut of all of the great content from Confrontation, married with that of mid-1990s Necromunda. There are great swathes of text from the Confrontation-era White Dwarfs lovingly reproduced and spliced with later canon. We now see again that Necromunda is a planet, with different locations and shifting political power, rather than the trials of a few gangs within a single hive spire.

I confess too, that I'm pretty pleased with the rules tweaks which have taken away some of the tiresome elements from the mid-1990s incarnation, and added in modern gaming approaches.

I'm not the only one who's excited about the new game. My gaming group is due to start a new Necromunda campaign in the New Year - we already have nearly 20 folks signed up, which demonstrates quite how excited people are. In preparation for the new campaign, I've made a start on a new gang. I say new gang, but typically it's an old gang - this time I'm working on the Hunter gang from Confrontation.

If you're not familiar with the Hunters, they were a set of 4 models from Citadel's short-lived Hive Gangs release which was designed to support the Confrontation rules.



The Hunters comprise 3 gangers (requiring plastic arms and weapons) and a single-piece leader. Asslessman over at Leadplague has done a nice evidence-based summary of the design of the Hunters from the Confrontation White Dwarfs. Check it out. I'll just reiterate the assertion that the Hunters are a middle-class Hive Gang who use bones as trophies.


John Blanche concept sketch from WD131.

The models themselves are a weird combination of Voodoo Amish, complete with lots of bones and chinbeards. There's also a familial relationship to the later Necromunda House Delaque figures, with the bald heads and goggles and glasses.


I've imagined that the Hunters are part of House Morlaque - a subservient House to House Delaque - not powerful or strong enough to rank as one of the six major Houses (yet).

The Skallytong Boys of House Morlaque are notorious among the mid-level citizens of Acropolis Hive. House Morlaque are lackeys to House Delaque - in the view of many Delaques, Morlaques are inclined to over-ostentation and brashness. They lack many of the furtive skills that are so highly prized by House Delaque, but what they lack in subtlety, they make up in other ways. The Skallytong Boys have developed an approach to gang warfare that they describe as 'hoodoo'. They will snatch sleeping rivals from their cribs and replace them with a grisly warning made of skulls. They wear the ribcages and femurs of enemies despatched in a gunfight. They hunt down lone civilians in extended chases through the Underhive, never revealing themselves, but pointing the way with macabre signposts fabricated from human finger bones. Many a powerful member of House Delaque has sought to use the Skallytong Boys as terror troops, while the Delaques themselves carry out more secretive work.

The gang will be assembled from classic Hunter figures, with converted additions. Here's a selection of the figures I've been working on:


The first two additions to the Skallytong Boys are ganger Braxton and juve Amon. Braxton is one of the original Hunters with a head swap. His arms are from the plastic bare arms sprue which accompanied the hive gangers, with sculpted sleeves. His gun is a metal Rogue Trader autogun, and I've given him a ribcage shoulder pad and a couple of bones dangling from his belt (both of these are from the Toad King Castings skull and bones sheet kindly donated to the cause by cheetor).


Amon is a conversion from a Gorkamorka Digga (also donated by cheetor!).

I trimmed down the fur around his boots and sculpted the knee skull, jerkin, beard and goggles. He also got some bones from the Toad King Castings bone sheet.


I wanted these guys to have a darkly sinister look, so went for a dark pinky purple as the primary colour, combined with pale skin and bone.



I'm pretty pleased how this pair turned out and I can't wait to make a start on the rest!

26 comments:

  1. I am so excited by this gang. PLEASE HURRY UP.

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    1. Doing my best! Still quite a bit of work on them to come :)

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  2. Spectacular! Can't wait to see more of 'em - Newcromunda is a solid update to the old system, seems to carry forward a ton of the old flavor and fluff as well as adding in some modern skirmish game touches that I really like.

    It's got me digging out all my old 90's era models as well, a few old Confrontation models will be getting a dip and repaint over the next few weeks/months!

    Keep up the great work!

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    1. I'm wholly with you on NuCromunda. Can't wait to see what old figures get dug out as a result :)

      Glad you like these lads!

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  3. There's something really great about seeing these largely forgotten miniatures brought to life by a talented painter and then added to with such innovative conversions.

    I only remember the Confrontation miniatures as one of those throwbacks that were still in the blue Citadel catalogue, one of those pages you always ignored in favour of Space Marines, and then looked back on in later years, wishing you'd had the foresight to get hold of them while you still could.

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    1. Thanks very much Carmine. There are so many good models that disappeared into obscurity - it's fun bringing back into the spotlight :)

      I'm like you - it's only in recent times that I've really tracked these guys down. Before then it was all about the Eldar for me!

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    2. Seeing stuff like this and on other blogs (like Curis's over at Ninjabread) are actually what got me started painting again about a month ago after an almost ten year hiatus.

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    3. My own painting break, which was about 5 or so years, came as a result of not wanting to paint lots of armies. I've really enjoyed painting small groups of characterful models - it keeps my interest levels up.

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  4. Brilliantly executed conversions with a neat and tight back ground. What more could you want? It's inspiring Stuff. Like Assless said, get them painted!

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    1. Thanks! I'm enjoying delving into the sinister side of Confrontation. There are some pretty messed up folks in the Hives!

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  5. Inspiring resurrections and background looking forward to the rest painted up.

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    1. Thanks John. Hopefully the rest will live up to these two.

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  6. Wow, looking great so far, particularly that Digga conversion.

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    1. Thanks! It helped that the Digga was a nice nude sculpt to begin with - I was able just to clothe him!

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  7. Nice conversions, cool background; looking forward to more!

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    1. Thanks Kym. Certainly will be more to come!

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  8. A rekindled interest in Necromunda by you means more eye candy for us! :)

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  9. What d'you think the middle-class professions in the Underhive are? The equivalent of today's management consultants and architects?

    Cracking work. I was staring at the Digga conversion trying to place him in the Necromunda range for a while.

    Can't wait to see how the rest of the gang turn out.

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    1. Middle-class Necromundans probably have fondue evenings and wear slacks and sports jackets on a weekend.

      I'm looking forward to a full dinner party of Morlaques too :)

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  10. An excellent blog, thanks for sharing.
    I am having a clear out of my Rogue Trader figures, would you be interested in them.
    Will Harley.

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    1. Thanks for the offer Will. Do you frequent the Oldhammer Trading page or Lead Adventure Forum? Perhaps we could converse by those?

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    2. Sorry I have not got back to you sooner but Crimbo and New Year have kept me busy.
      Sadly I am not on either forum, thought I am on http://www.thewargameswebsite.com/
      As Will Harley.

      Again wonderful photo's on your blog and thanks for sharing.

      Happy New Year and happy gaming,
      Will.

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  11. Wow, first time I've seen these figs painted up and they look amazing. Confrontation is something I'd love to revisit as I didn't get to play more than maybe twice back when I was a kid.

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    1. There is a real paucity of painted Confrontation figures out there. In time I hope to paint them all. The game itself is probably too granular for my taste. I'd much rather play Necromunda :)

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  12. I have just joined the Old hammer trading place.
    See your there.

    Happy gaming,
    Will Harley

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