Tuesday 6 November 2018

Arming the Brothers - Chaos Cult Shooters

Members of the Benevolent Brotherhood keep a wary watch as Demagogue Jakob carries out doorstep conversions.

With my new Necromunda campaign kicking off next week, I am busily finishing off the last few fighters I need to complete my starting roster. I've made the decision to sacrifice reliability in favour of bodies, so my cultists are by and large going to be unarmoured and equipped with unreliable reclaimed auto-weapons - pretty fitting for underhive muties I think.





The latest two additions to the cult are both armed with ranged weapons - a long rifle (for sniping away at range) and an autogun.

I know, I should have stripped all the parts before starting the conversion.

Brother Snyke has been cobbled together from another Gorkamorka mutie torso and a pair of legs from a Rogue Trader assassin. I replaced the barrel of his gun with a plastic one from the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii rangers, before tying everything together with a few greenstuff additions at his waist.


I'm pretty pleased with the final look - he's a pretty unusual character!

The second ganger is a really interesting figure, and one I've been looking to put to suitable use for a little while. The figure was actually sculpted by John Blanche and featured in the 'Eavy Metal pages of White Dwarf 121 in 1989. Whether it was the result of an idle afternoon, or intended as a concept figure for Confrontation, I don't know. He's pretty striking though!


For a long time I was unware that this figure had been cast up, but a few copies have reached the open market over the last couple of years, and I was very pleased to be able to track one down.


As a sculpt, the figure is clearly pretty naïve - it's pretty flat and two-dimensional and the face is rather grotesquely proportioned. But it's a million times better than my first sculpt! I suspect that the gun is a dolly part from the 2000AD range used on a number of the perps and muties.

Nonetheless, it was a fun model to paint, and he screams 1980s with his headband and biker jacket. I'm really pleased to have him in my collection and to use him in a mutie cult. After all, his over-sized facial features are almost certainly evidence of some mild mutation!


Next up I'll be finishing off a couple more cultists armed with some close quarters weaponry.

28 comments:

  1. Lovely and so nice to see that piece if collection painted !

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    1. Not that I'm completist or anything, but he does sit happily alongside my other Confrontation figures!

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  2. Wow, that is a definite classic!!! Good job tracking that one down!

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    1. It's a stone cold oddity and curio really. Pretty striking looking as well!

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  3. Pretty nice! I had never seen the Blanche guy before, quite a discovery!

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    1. It's always a great to discover a figure you didn't know existed!

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  4. Love them! Mutie sniper is a stand out because his non-human proportions make him a bit comical... at least until he snipes you!

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    1. Thanks! I do like a bit of grotesque in my figures :)

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  5. Wasn't aware JB had sculpted back then. Pretty cool and very fitting for your gang. Lovely work here mate. Those muties are just making for some great characters.

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    1. From what he's said, he only ever sculpted two figures - this one and an elephant man for Asgard pre-Citadel. Glad you like them!

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  6. I like that conversion. There's something about hunched figures that really ups the character.

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    1. Thanks! Hunched oddities are right in my interest area :)

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  7. I didn't realise how much I'd been enjoying following the completion of this gang until I saw that there was a new update this morning and it really perked up my mood!

    Also I have to thank you for showing the back of the Blanche sculpted mini, as obscure as it might sound, because that WD image is the only thing that most people have had to go on for years now, and even though I had no idea about the skull on the back of his jacket, that knowledge comforts me greatly.

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    1. Great to hear you're enjoying the gang!

      Seeing the rear of minis often reveals lots of hidden details. We're so used to just seeing the front angle, and it's a shame to miss out on the other side. It's a pretty in-your-face skull he's sporting too!

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    2. Yeah, I'm always working through my own Necromunda related gangs and terrain, so it's really helpful and inspiring to be able to stop by here and see what you're doing in the same vein - I tend to go for the same desaturated style of colours as well, so it often helps me to visualise where I could go with my stuff.

      I also appreciate the "in progress" shots of the conversions, being able to go "ah, I see" when a component looks familiar and then it's identified in the text below!

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    3. I've always loved seeing other peoples' unpainted builds - glad you find them useful / interesting :)

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  8. There's great character in these two fellows. I'm fairly jealous of the Blanche ganger. He's in a perfect home here though.

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    1. He'll certainly be cherished here, but I can think of a dozen other homes where he'd be equally loved!

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  9. Utter treat seeing a casting of that ultra rare casting painted. Lovely work. Your lead mountain must be truly towering if you can aford to cut up a rarity such as a (gasp) Rogue Trader Assassin!

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    1. There can't be too many painted examples kicking around I guess!

      As for the assassin, it was a duplicate from a job lot where the previous owner had removed the sword. Perfectly acceptable conversion fodder!

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  10. JB mini hey? Amazing and frustrating all at the same time that it was only his first go at sculpting a mini.....gifted bastard isn't he?

    A great addition to your gang Jon :)

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    1. It's fun to imagine what kind of figures we might have had if John had continued sculpting. How good might they have been after he'd sculpted a couple of hundred?!

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  11. That last dude is awesome! Even without the backstory, he looks great as some sort of mutie cultist with the mis-proportioned and scarred face, and the biker/greaser style he's got going on there.

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    1. Thanks! Odd faces and greaser biker fashion are exactly what the fashionable mutie sports these days!

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  12. Interesting figure. I think he does fit in well with the rest of your gang.

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    1. Thanks Sean! Perfect home for him I reckon.

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  13. Absolutely cracking work, especially on that John Blanche fellow ... superb.

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