Genteel Brutality; the Mohock Blades, a Bratt Gang

[FlamingDeth]

These are pretty inspired, but there are two things that bother me a little. First, mold lines on Pongo, especially the pistol arm. The second is the green stuff shoulder join on Chebs. It might be the angle or something but it looks like the arm is coming out of the middle of the rib cage with where it's at. I know you're limited by the great sword models posing, maybe tilt the torso or something? Hard to say.

[EdT]

Thanks all! I'm pleased so far how I've been able to keep to a distinct style without it looking too obviously kitbashed. There will be Leader, a ganger and a heavy soon.

 

 

These are pretty inspired, but there are two things that bother me a little. First, mold lines on Pongo, especially the pistol arm. The second is the green stuff shoulder join on Chebs. It might be the angle or something but it looks like the arm is coming out of the middle of the rib cage with where it's at. I know you're limited by the great sword models posing, maybe tilt the torso or something? Hard to say.

 

Good spot on the mold-line- thanks! There are always some that get away... On the shoulder join, I've looked at it a lot and I'm afraid I can't see this on the model- but I see what you mean on the photo. Because the sleeve is quite puffy there's a bit of drooping cloth that gives the impression of being the main body of the sleeve- underneath the greenstuff 'cuff' the arm joins at the shoulder. So it should be ok.

 

Now, on to the update. I haven't had much time to work on the gang the last week or so, but this afternoon I was able to get some paint on the scenic base. My goal with this is to have a huge amount of variation in texture and colour, with the underlying theme being decrepitude; rust and dirt mostly, against which the white of the Blades will really stand out.

To get the first bit I'd already put down some rubble and so on; now I added some agrellan earth and typhus corrosion in various places to add that extra bit of patina. Once that dried, I sprayed everything black.

Once that was done, I painted the road fairly sinmply with some drybrushing, and then used some masking tape to give me the road markings. I tied it all together with a wash; a lot of weathering will go on there later on too.

Then, I spent a very pleasant hour adding the first layer of rust on the decking and wall. I did this by getting some brown, red, ochre and black paint on a pallette and mixing various rusty tones from them, before stippling or sponging the resulting shades on. I wanted a lot of variation, so I took my time and added lots of layers. Here's what it currently looks like...



Obviously there's a lot of work to do but I'm pleased with the results so far. A lot of this will end up concealed beneath other layers by the time I'm finished; I want to distinguish the various areas by using differing amounts of metallics and/or peeling paint, making liberal use of chipping and crackle mediums. After that I'll weather the hell out of everything so it's absolutely filthy. I want this sort of thing, basically... 

More soon!

[EdT]

So, an update today- although a slightly unexpected one.

I haven't had too much time to spend on the Mohock Blades in the last few weeks as work has been a bit busy. I have made some progress though over the weekend, albeit from a slightly different angle. In the past few weeks I've been thinking that it would be interesting to show the society the Bratts are hailing (and escaping) from, as a way of giving colour to how they present themselves in the Underhive. And what this means, I think, is that to accompany the Blades I want to model Lord Catallus himself, plus a small personal retinue. Isn't project creep a wonderful thing...

I want the retinue to use some of the same visual cues as the Blades, but in a very different way- the goal is to highlight Brattish rebellion but also show how their costume choices and sensibilities are more rooted in their own upbringing then perhaps they realise. For me the inspiration is again cinematic; if the Blades are heavily influenced by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Lord Catallus and co will be owe a similar debt to Jodorowsky's abortive version of Dune and the 2000s Dune miniseries all, of course, filtered through a grimdark lens. So, here's the first member of that little group; he's a member of the House Catallus Spireguard.



He's based off one of the wonderful Forgeworld WHFB Empire Command models; I really like how removing the banner completely changes the model. It's such a shame that they never did a full range of Resin Empire models as they really are absolutely beautiful and have a huge amount of character to them.

There will be more soon in this vein; but this doesn't mean that the Blades are forgotten. There will be another ganger and a heavy in the very near future, as well as (I hope) the Blades' leader...

Oh, and while I'm still here- I made some progress on the base. Still a lot to do, but most of the metallics are on, I've also painted the concrete kerb on the side of the road, and a few other bits here and there.



At the moment it's still just one big pile of rust, but I hope that when the peeling paint goes on, I pick out some of the details and add the grimy weathering/mold/water stains, it'll really pop. I'm pleased with how it's gradually coming together. Now if only I can get that crackle medium to work...

[Dagoth Ur]

Such amazing stuff! :) Also, amazing Spireguard, I've had something similar planned for a while now, nice to see a proof of concept!

[DaBoiKyknos]

Couldn´t get my self to read all the text, but I´m definitly going to follow this!

[Studio Silvernale]

All this is missing is some Running Man references =D

[Marius Perdo]

Looks great.

[Sandlemad]

Spireguard looks wonderful, those cavalry halberds are great and sadly underused for 40k stuff.

[reckoning]

Spireguard looks wonderful, those cavalry halberds are great and sadly underused for 40k stuff.

This. Awesome work!

[Noserenda]

Such gorgeous and distinctive work, so glad to see you back frater, your logs are always so amazing to follow!

[MithrilForge]

Well am i ever so glad i found this,what a great piece of story and models and Necromunda Love 

I hate your gang but only in the flavour of playing the game   not at all in the sense of their rubbish or badly done,i hate them in the sense of their flippant disregard of the poorer souls of the hive and their sense of entitlement and nihilist behaviour. 

In game i'd like to run at them with a gang of incorruptible Arbites or a Van saar gang working in conjunction with The "Necromunda Health Organization" 

all jokes aside, this is an awesome project and i follow with enthusiasm!

 

cheers, Mithril

[ShotgunFacelift]

Fantastic conversion work with chebs and the "half" man servant.

[EdT]

Delighted as ever that people are enjoying this project as much as I am. Here's more as promised...

I've made a bit of progress on several parts of the project. The first thing, irritatingly, I don't have a picture for yet. That's Aloysius, the homonculus; I've reworked him to improve the way he is holding his tray, as well as replacing his head. Photos soon.

The next is the next member of Lord Catallus' retinue; it's his personal Chaplain. The sculpt is one of the lovely Brugelburg range; I didn't want to do too much to him as I think the costume is fun enough in itself. He will be accompanied by a little Homonculus eventually.




I've also been working on the scenic base for the gang. The peeling paint has now gone on; weirdly the new crackle glaze I got didn't actually crackle, but it worked wonderfully as a chipping medium, so I improvised. I'm pleased with the result. I've also started picking out the details in the debris. Obviously a lot of weathering still to come but it's definitely getting there...



More soon.

[DaBoiKyknos]

Ouh, there are quite nice things to be found!  I like the Arnolfinis and Dürer´s Peasants best!

[EdT]

Some more progress to show today. Firstly a photo of the redone Aloysius. I've sorted out the hand and given him a new head, which I think is more in keeping with the slightly deformed one in the artwork which inspired him. This did mean that I had to lose the rebreather, but I figured it was preferable to do that than conceal his rather vacant expression.



And then more good news- I think the Blades' base is now finished! Here are some photos...



I'm very pleased how it turned out. The next step for me is painting Aloysius as a test model and giving some thought to how I want to base the companion retinue of Lord Catallus; got some good concepts there which I will share shortly.

[MithrilForge]

great stuff, but the Blades base link is not working for me... 

i had to actually search you out on Deviantart ! to see the base 

it looks great, the manhole cover(if you could call that huge wheeled lid that) looks very weathered and rusted! any chance of close ups of that ?...

You were right to go with White,the limo gives a really nice contrast to the setting, the whole piece has a Shadowrun kinda feel to it, in a very good way.

 

I do very much look fwd to the gang getting done.

 

Cheers, Mithril

Edited November 9, 2017 by mithrilforge

[EdT]

@mithrilforge- Thanks- very pleased with how it turned out. Nice that the picture seems to be hosting properly now too. I will get some photos of the hatch cover when the light is better.

Now, I have some progress to show. Sometimes you can worry away at something for ages and not get anywhere, then it all suddenly falls into place. I've been grinding my teeth at my inability to finish some of the half-done Blades for a couple of weeks- then today I literally spent 20 minutes fiddling with them and I entirely finished one of the gangers and have another one 95% done with only a final greenstuff application to do.

So here's the fourth member of the Mohock Blades- The Honourable Tarquin Iohannes Jolyon Catallus-Molyneux, AKA "Sticky". Sticky is Vellocet's cousin and acts as the gang's driver. I've modelled him to be leaning against their car. He's armed with a pepperpot autopistol and Jedward-style hair that marks him out as a "Fright Knight", one of the more irritating Bratt subcultures (according to the Confrontation background, they shriek. A lot.).



It's not the best photo because the lighting is a bit iffy, but hopefully you get the idea.

He will have a friend very soon. In the meantime, after about five iterations I've finally got a weapon for my Heavy that I'm happy with! This priceless bit of archeotech has been dredged from the very bottom of the House Catallus weapons cabinet. God knows what it does, but it will doubtless be interesting to find out...

[EdT]

Hi all,

A lot of progress to show this time around. Sometimes the muse just comes upon you; I've been able to solve quite a few of the little modelling problems that had left various members of the gang tantalisingly close to completion, and a few things I'd been puzzling over that miraculously came together without much effort on my part.

So, firstly, the gun I showed off in the last post. It's actually now safely in the hands of "Quim", the Gang's Heavy (or is it now 'specialist'?) but I still have some greenstuffing to do there, so it won't be on display just yet. After looking at it, I decided that it was a bit too long and unweildy, even as an esoteric archaeotech weapon. I also realised that by cutting the very end of the gun's barrel off and hollowing out the end emitter bit, I could make it look a little like some sort of archaic plasma weapon. So this is the final version of the weapon...  



With the heavy 99% done, there are only three more members of the Mohock Blades left to go; the leader, Vellocet, who is 90% complete, the Juve, Cuz, who is currently a disembodied head, and a Ganger. This chap is the Oswald Vitellius Japheth D'Arquebus,  AKA "Ozzy".



Ozzy is one of the more showy-offy members of the gang, and affects quite a piratical look with his rapier and las-lock pistol. His pose is a little odd on a slottabase, but that's because when he goes on the scenic base his feet will be at a little bit of an angle.

So that's the kids- what about the grown-ups? I've been making a lot of progress on Lord Catallus' retinue as well. Part of that is in terms of the base, which I have spent a lot of time planning out and have started- though no photos yet. I want this to be very much a companion piece to the underhive base, but very much the other side of the same coin. So it'll be a similar size, have a similar colourscheme but otherwise quite different- tall where the underhive base is flat (they are spyrers after all), grand and monumental where the other base is squalid and cluttered…

So what’s the concept? While the underhive base was a based around a roadway, the Spyre base will be based around the entrance steps to a grand ballroom in the upper levels of the Palatine Hive. Lord Catallus and his retinue will be posing for a pict, just like the Mohock Blades, but this one will be a bit more formal; being able to place different models on different levels on the stairway will display them better and also suggest an element of social stratification. The inspiration is very much the Imperial throne room from David Lynch's Dune...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djTUJjqeQws/U6Dv0T8wy_I/AAAAAAAAA10/nkT1oRJd3LY/s1600/throne+room.jpg

I'll elaborate on my concept later on when the base is more done, but for the time being here is the first complete-ish element of it; a servitor, who I have named "Bill". He and "Ben" will introduce new arrivals; Bill is basically a trumpet with a set of lungs attached, while Ben will announce everyone who enters (if they're important enough).



The symbol of House Catallus is not given anywhere in the background, so I needed to come up with something. Because it already features on a few of the retinue models so far, I've decided that a heraldic sun (a sun with a human face) is a good choice, and that's something I've tried to carry through on the others. So in this case the servitors have the house symbol for a head. Following this theme is the next model from the retinue, a chirpy little homonculus icon-bearer who I've reused from an older project with a little modification. The Confrontation artwork has a lot of homonculi, so I figure they work quite well in the servant roles and will have a few others.



There's a final retinue member to show off. This is the Honourable Lord Eckbert Balliol, Constable of the Catallus Spireguard and Head of House Security.
 


My concept for this guy is that he used to be a pretty successful and feared Gang Leader himself, until an Imperial Navy impressment party caught up with him and forcibly began what turned into a highly successful career as a Naval Armsman. Hopefully he looks sufficiently badarse and grizzled. His weapon is based on a 16th century combination wheel-lock pistol and mace which I thought was quite fun; this one incorporates an energy weapon in the end, should he get tired of smacking people around.  

So that's it for the time being! Hope you've enjoyed them- more soon...

[Vairocanum]

Wow some brilliant conversions, that gun looks so cool! Ozzy looks cool, but Eckbert definitely looks coolest to me. Looking forward to seeing more!

[EdT]

Well more you shall have! As I mentioned in my last post I had a very productive couple of modelling sessions and all of a sudden a whole load of half-complete models suddenly resolved themselves, so here are two more members of the gang. This leaves only one member of the Mohock Blades unbuilt- Cuz, the Juve, who is currently experiencing some scaling and proportionality issues.

So, on with the new members of the Blades. The first is the Heavy. This is the Honourable Trajan Gustavus Naesby-Cottingham, AKA "Quim". Quim is Vellocet, the gang leader's, boyfriend; he's one of the fancier members of the group and is armed with an antique plasma fusil borrowed from the House Catallus vaults. His foot position is a bit odd on a normal slotta, but when attached to the scenic base he'll be resting on a bit of scenery.



Quim has been a difficult model to put together; he's been through about six or seven iterations and I have a couple of half-built versions lying around that I couldn't make work. It was only really when I realised that he could be holding his weapon 'at rest' that the whole thing coalesced;

The next new member of the Blades is the leader, Vellocet, properly known as The Exalted Lady Araminta Tanit Xanthippe Alicia Dominica Catallus. She is the great-granddaughter of Lord Cattalus himself, and is something of a favourite of his; if she continues to do well during her excursions into the underhive, she will eventually find a range of other opportunities within the House.



Vellocet is a mash-up of a plastic Commisar and Inquisitor Fairfax's brilliant high-heeled boots. I particularly like her hand cannon, which is the combination of a Mechanicus serpentia and a Wrack's club. I see it as being a Howdah Gun kept for off-world safaris and designed to bring down large game.

This isn't the only version of Vellocet I am doing, by the way; she will also feature in Lord Cattalus' retinue, but in full formal dress rather than gang wear. The contrast should hopefully be interesting.

That's it for now; next up, some progress on the scenic spire base.

[sockwithaticket]

 

 

This is amazing.

[FlamingDeth]

Quim is my favorite so far, I like everything about him. Vellocet has something about her head that seems off that I can't put my finger on but I have a feeling that's one that will pull together more when painted.

[EdT]

Really appreciate the feedback everyone, as ever- thanks!

So, on to the next bit of the project; the scenic base for Lord Catallus' retinue. As I mentioned before, the concept is basically a flight of stairs leading into a grand ballroom; as it's in the Spire, I want it to be grand, oppressive and very slightly decrepit, although obviously not to the same extent as the grubby underhive.

I started in exactly the same way as with the underhive base; an identical hunk of round MDF with sharpie marks on. I then needed to build up the staircase; to do this I bought some fairly cheap foamcore board. Just as with the underhive board, I wanted to add some depth so the first layer more or less covers the entire base, with some cut-out servitor niches. Then I added a series of layers. I alternated foamcore and plasticard, with the plasticard layers being a few mm larger to give each step a sort of 'lip'. I'm not used to plasticard construction and the whole thing was very time-consuming, not to mention rather painful when I somehow ended up with a modelling knife a couple of centimetres deep in the skin between my thumb and forefinger...

Eventually I ended up with something that approximated the shape I needed- I figured I could sand down the backside of the staircase when it's all together. I then needed to add some detail. This mostly involved scoring panel lines into the plasticard to show where the stone of the main stair gives way to a metal covering. I also added some strips of textured styrene to the vertical parts of the stair. This will tie the staircase into the back wall when that goes in.

When I was happy with the overall look and had made sure everything aligned properly, I stuck the layers on top of each other. The entire back half of the base will have a wall on it, but the plasticard that it'll be constructed from hasn't turned up yet, so instead I then started on the doorway. The core of this is a cut-down door from the Sanctum Imperialis set. I also added some details liberated from the inside of a Coronus Grav-Carrier. So here's how all that evolved...



There's still loads to do of course! The next step is to sand the plasticard/foamcore layers to fit the curve of the mdf base; when that's done I can add the back wall and start detailing. This wil involve a massive representation of the House Catallus symbol, lots more textured plasticard and a decoration element shamelessly nicked from David Lynch's Dune; a motif of angular stalagmite formations which should basically have the room look like it's being slowly being taken over by a profusion of organ pipes. My plan is to use square styrene piping to make these formations.

Anyhow, watch this space...

[DeathbyWes]

Really appreciate the feedback everyone, as ever- thanks!

 

So, on to the next bit of the project; the scenic base for Lord Catallus' retinue. As I mentioned before, the concept is basically a flight of stairs leading into a grand ballroom; as it's in the Spire, I want it to be grand, oppressive and very slightly decrepit, although obviously not to the same extent as the grubby underhive.

 

I started in exactly the same way as with the underhive base; an identical hunk of round MDF with sharpie marks on. I then needed to build up the staircase; to do this I bought some fairly cheap foamcore board. Just as with the underhive board, I wanted to add some depth so the first layer more or less covers the entire base, with some cut-out servitor niches. Then I added a series of layers. I alternated foamcore and plasticard, with the plasticard layers being a few mm larger to give each step a sort of 'lip'. I'm not used to plasticard construction and the whole thing was very time-consuming, not to mention rather painful when I somehow ended up with a modelling knife a couple of centimetres deep in the skin between my thumb and forefinger...

 

Eventually I ended up with something that approximated the shape I needed- I figured I could sand down the backside of the staircase when it's all together. I then needed to add some detail. This mostly involved scoring panel lines into the plasticard to show where the stone of the main stair gives way to a metal covering. I also added some strips of textured styrene to the vertical parts of the stair. This will tie the staircase into the back wall when that goes in.

 

When I was happy with the overall look and had made sure everything aligned properly, I stuck the layers on top of each other. The entire back half of the base will have a wall on it, but the plasticard that it'll be constructed from hasn't turned up yet, so instead I then started on the doorway. The core of this is a cut-down door from the Sanctum Imperialis set. I also added some details liberated from the inside of a Coronus Grav-Carrier. So here's how all that evolved...

 

 

There's still loads to do of course! The next step is to sand the plasticard/foamcore layers to fit the curve of the mdf base; when that's done I can add the back wall and start detailing. This wil involve a massive representation of the House Catallus symbol, lots more textured plasticard and a decoration element shamelessly nicked from David Lynch's Dune; a motif of angular stalagmite formations which should basically have the room look like it's being slowly being taken over by a profusion of organ pipes. My plan is to use square styrene piping to make these formations.

 

Anyhow, watch this space...

Very clever with the steps !!!  Awesome thread, looking forward to seeing more.

 

-W

[Markus_]

Fantastic converting, and very true to the artwork.