Necromunda Repainted: Ratskins and Scum

I loved the idea of the hired scum in Necromunda. A basic scummer with dual pistols went down very well for me long term with my Orlocks and a pit slave with some nasty weapons also chopped a fair few Van Saar heads off. I always thought the Bounty Hunter was a bit over the top but the Ratskin Scout was not a bad gamble every now and then.

These were largely sitting around in my Necromunda gang box for a while, most of them unpainted all that time. I have finally added to them in the latest round of redoing my Necromunda models and they look a bit better than their previous plan white undercoat.

Necromunda Repainted: All varnished up

Now strange as it might seem in all my years of playing and painting I have NEVER varnished a model!

Partly it was because I never really painted any good before so it was not worth it and partly it was because of an element of cowardice in terms of potentially messing up the model. Well this time round I thought I would give it a go.

I read up on a fair few forums about the best varnish to use. Most people seem to suggest a gloss finish for hardness and then a matt one to taste if you don't like it all shiny. However a few more modern posts sung the praises of satin varnish, a kind of halfway house.

There were horror stories a plenty about using spray on varnish, warnings about humidity, bad examples of particular brands that ruined paint jobs etc. I found a few posts from quality painters that said Vallejo did a nice set of varnish that you can brush on. I prefer brush on myself as although I have an air compressor I have not used it in real anger painting wise, just for base coating, and I did not like the idea of doing it outside in the British weather (I do not have anywhere suitable in the house).

They also made mention of the difference between acrylic and polyurethene varnish, with the latter being much sturdier and better. So I stuck with what I love (Vallejo) and ordered a bottle of the poly varnish from Element Games.

I did varnish one of the juves (see below) first and waited 24 hours and it held up well. No discolouring or misting problems. When the varnish goes on it does appear a bit milky in places and I was worried about it pooling whilst using a brush, but in the end it worked out well I think.

Yes it does have a slight shiny finish but I think I will let it be for the time being and see how it goes. I believe I can always come back and put a layer of matt on it to tone it down. In the meantime I have also discovered that the local Range offers a wide, well, range of varnish that is high quality artist stuff at a price that is cheaper than you can get on the net! So next time I might pop in there for a bit of quality Winsor and Newton stuff.

Necromunda Repainted: Based and basics done

Right. I know the minis still need work. I know the highlights are awful. I know the lighting is poor and there is some dust to blow off. But do you know what? I am quite pleased. From a distance (arms length) they look a whole better than they did 20 years ago!

Necromunda Repainted: Post Wash and some highlights

Right. So I like the thick dirty wash I gave them... gives them a nice dull overall look. Was very tempted to leave them there. But this time I tried a few (very dodgy) edge highlights. I am not looking for a Golden Demon finish, I just want something that is not too sore on the eyes from a few feet away.

I know the photos are washed out, still experimenting with everything, but they have to look a bit better than the originals from 20 years ago.

My aim now is to add a few highlights, a few more of the washed down base colours to tone some of those highlights down, then maybe varnish them (which I have NEVER done before... I was going to use Vallejo Polyurethane Satin). Then take them off their slotta bases and start to try and fit them on the finished scenic bases.

This is all just me easing back into things and slowly, one tiny step at a time, improving my technique. All comments welcomes, especially those that point out where I can improve!

Necromunda Repainted: Pre wash

Right... so I think I am at the stage where the base colours are reasonably neat and ready to go, along with a fair few spot colours.

They will be getting a liberal coating of the sepia wash from Vallejo (from their large dipping pot but brushed on) and I will see how they dry tomorrow before I do the rest of them (the heavy still has a backpack to finish off as well).

Then I will have a look at maybe doing some edge highlighting and a few other touch ups to finish them off. Then the main bit that worries me, getting them off that base and slotta bit to go onto the already painted scenic bases I have done.

Necromunda Repainted: How many base colours?

So this time round with the repaint I am aiming to have them a little neater (hey... I still cannot paint to save my life but I can do a better job than I did before). I am intending to have more than just a few main block of colours.

I am looking to bring out some of the detail of the models with multiple tiny little spot colours. They will be getting a very liberal sepia wash which may well cover up a lot of what I am messing about with but hopefully something will still show through.

So the aim is to tidy up the main colours. Then give it a good old wash. Then do some edge highlighting and see how they look then.

Along the way I need to attend to the bases as well. The Ratskins and Scum I undercoated at the same time will be painted up in a different batch as they will be using quite different colour sets.

Whilst tidying up my model cupboard I also found a lot of Junker I-Kore (I think that is what they are) which have sparked the interest of following through the Necromunda theme with a massive load of Enforcers!

Necromunda Repainted: Flesh wash and base colours

Once the flesh colour has dried I like to give it a good drenching in Flesh Wash. I am still using an ancient bottle of GW Flesh Wash.

Once this is dried I like to start to build up the main colours. I normally paint in large batches. This time round I have around 15 gangers and about 10 ratskins/scum/bounty hunters etc on the go. I normally just choose a colour that takes my fancy from the paint box, measure out some on my palette (I use Vallejo mainly with the dropper bottles), add a drop of water and go to town.

With the repainting of this gang, instead of having them all in a 'uniform', I want them to be more realistically dressed. I would prefer them this time to have some unifying colours (I have gone for various shades of blue) but still have a good deal of variation in themselves. I think I want them more like they dressed themselves in whatever they had to hand rather than have some uniform dress handed out from the central gang store. They still have the same colour tabard hanging down but this time I do not want all their scarves to be the same colour.

I am also going for something a bit different with the weapons. I have several hundred Imperial Guard with red lasguns. This time I want the gang to be more varied but I want the best weapons to be a dark green. I can imagine these were 'borrowed' from some PDF or IG store somewhere.

I am also going to have many tiny spot covers in tiny different parts of the detail. A lot of this might be obscured in the heavy sepia wash later on but I want there to be some variety in the colours in play here.

My painting skills are very limited and I am still learning. I think rather than blending really well I will stick with various colours, heavy wash, edge highlighting and then go from there.

Necromunda Repainted : Flesh Undercoat

I normally start with the fleshy areas... they are typically a bit fiddly to get to later and my aim is not brilliant at the best of times. I have gone for a Vallejo Model Colour of Dark Flesh this time.

I dunno. I normally use Dwarf Flesh. This Dark Flesh looks pretty light to me. I will have to see what it comes up like once I give it a flesh wash.

Necromunda - Repainted - Bases

So I have painted up the resin bases and they have come out ok. I am not the best painter in the world but I did mean to go for a muted dirty, muddy looking base and that is pretty much what I got.

They were undercoated with cheap acryclic paint. I then did several base coats of various colours (I mainly use Vallejo paints, Game and Model color, I like their Tinny Tin colour in particular for metallics). These were then washed (I have a large tub of dipping formula sepia wash from Vallejo that I cracked open for this purpose. It seems to be pretty much the same stuff as in their dropper bottles, which I use a lot, but works out a LOT cheaper).

I tried several layers of different colour browns. I also tried different colours for drybrushing (various greys and blacks for the stone, silvers for the metal pieces and grey for the edges of the bricks).

The lighting is not brilliant but whilst dirty and muddy you can see different shades, as well as the odd spot colour (the bases have various metal gubbins embedded in the mud here and there). I am quite happy with them and I have ordered another 10 as I realised when base coating the miniatures that I have more than 20 Necromunda people in my gang box. I think I will probably paint up some of the hired guns and ratskins first before I decide on the colour scheme for my Orlocks.

Imperial Guard - Platoons and Command

So I have a lot of infanty. A Lot. I have been collecting IG since the days of 2nd Edition. Many of them are the original box set models you got (I loved those boxes. Each one with a different 'regiment', sergeant, special weapon and heavy weapon. I seem to recall they were decent value for money too).

Some of them are the plastic sets. Both the original Catachan plastic set (which I think receives too much poor press. It was and is a good kit. Yes the sculpts make them all look a bit too Rambo ish and their armour seems to be mainly big muscles, but hey, that is what the Catachans were all about!).

You may be able to tell from the painting styles that some were done way back, 20 odd years ago. Painting in big blobs, straight from the bottle, with little or no consideration for the details on the models. The better painted ones are the ones done in the last few years, when I had more inclination to do it as a hobby of painting rather than getting them on the tabletop as fast as possible.

Most of them are GW models. There are the occasional non-GW ones such as the casualties and a couple of the command models (can you spot which ones?).

Some of the models are ancient. There is one I use as an assassin that goes back a fair way, before 2nd Ed. The original stormtrooper plastic models I just love and I wish I had picked up more of the metal versions back then. The Frateris Militia models make an excellent basic guard model in my opinion and can be swapped out for militia, PDF, conscripts, Penal Legion or Necromunda.

I believe I have a couple more Ogryns lurking in one of my tank boxes and I must get out all the heavy weapons one day and match them up with the loaders.