Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Big Lad with a Big Club - Scavvy Scaly

Although scalies only became part of the scavvy gang in Necromunda, I liked the idea of including one in my Confrontation era Marauder scavvy gang. I could have used a 1990s or 2000s scaly, but I wanted one that fit the Marauder aesthetic. That meant digging out a suitable Aly or Trish sculpt. I looked at a lot of orcs, ogres & trolls, but ended up settling on the brilliant Talisman Troll sculpted by Aly. I had to modify him of course!


Grolch is regularly used by the Sumphole Boggarts to protect their miserly stash of 'valuables'.

The original sculpt is a classic Citadel fantasy figure. The club and ragged clothing fit the scavvy aesthetic nicely, but I wanted to add some sci-fi elements and lose the punky haircut.


Unmodified Talisman troll.


The conversion involved cutting away the left arm and replacing it with a nice servo claw (from an Epic Knight). I cut away the hair and sculpted some new headgear, and added a selection of pipes, cables and other tech gear.



The massive shotgun and tank are orky parts from Gorkamorka and the resin armoured hose is (I think) from a Forgeworld Ad Mech kit. The shotgun can proxy as a scatter cannon if I ever end up playing this gang in the original iteration of Necromunda.

I painted Grolch with the same colour scheme as the previous scavvies, deliberately reducing the use of the bright spot colours. Apart from his big yellow servo claw of course!



I added a little yellow smiley badge on his waistcoat :)



On reflection, I think I would have liked to have changed his footwear to boots, but it's not a deal breaker. No-one's going to be looking at his feet anyway!


Size-wise, the troll is perfect - bigger and bulkier than the human-sized figures, but not reaching ogryn-size. Just like the Necromunda scaly sculpts in fact!

17 comments:

  1. I can't help feeling like you've missed a trick here in not using the giant crossbows and ragged quiver from the Ogor Mawtribes.

    https://bitsandkits.co.uk/product/ogor-thundertusk-stonehorn-harpoon-crossbow/

    https://bitsandkits.co.uk/product/ogor-thundertusk-stonehorn-harpoon-quiver-a/

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    1. The ogors are massive compared to the troll - those pieces would have been hugely over-sized.

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  2. He's really good and with the extensive conversion work really goes with those Marauder Confrontation Scavvies! Excellent stuff.

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  3. Grey work , very atmospheric.
    Alan Tradgardland

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  4. I love the standout bright yellow/orange power claw. The first shot with all the background in place is very evocative. Great work.

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    1. Thanks very much! I enjoy setting up those scenic shots. I'm really pleased with how the claw turned out too 🙂

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  5. I think it's quite a clever work, I love how you envision your projects!

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  6. He makes for a really good looking Scaly. I think better than the standard sculpts by GW which I always thought were lazy designs.
    That yellow claw is a good choice too.

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    1. Thanks Dai. I always felt that the scalies suffered from being painted crocodilian green. If they'd had a flesh tone and perhaps grey or black scales, maybe they'd have been more appealing? But maybe not! 🤔

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    2. It's a bit of an interesting point. The green does make you think they are more non-human stock/xenos (reptilian). But maybe they are more like ogryn offshoots? Big dumb and now with great healing/regeneration that results in weird growths/scales. Simply a human type that is a bit too wide of the mark to be acceptable to the imperium.

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  7. Yeah, just because they were titled "Scalies" doesn't automatically mean they should be green to affect said "Scales". You are both correct and I feel it was a chance missed to really take advantage of an opportunity to dive deep into the human/near-human mutation side of things like daveb says.

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    1. I agree - I think the human mutant with bony growths would have been a more thematic route than croc-men! I wonder whether old-school scalies would work with a fleshy colour scheme?

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  8. Great job once more ! He now totally fits in the necromunda setting. Love the yellow claw.

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    1. Thanks! The claw is my favourite part 🙂

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