The Friary of Jade (and Friends)

[Brother Dallo]

Hi folks,

 

I'm currently playing in a Necromunda campaign so I thought I'd I'd record my progress here.

 

Firstly we have Hobb, my leader armed with a Long Rifle. His best moment so far is giving an Escher leader a spinal injury with a long range Long Rifle shot on his first outing. 

 

 

The gun is a Kroot rifle with the blades removed and a scope added from one of the Cawdor pistols.

 

Next we have Igor, my first Champion, who has now earned enough credits for a suspensor. The greenstuff work on his arms is a little rough, but I'm happy enough with it as I don't have a huge amount of GS experience and practice makes perfect. So far he has killed (dead) an Escher ganger.

 

 

 

My second Champion is called Mangonel. He took two Van Saar gangers OOA last game and has also got enough credits for a suspensor.

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with this conversion as it was essentially made from spare bits. The Cawdor kit comes with six hoods, but only five sets of legs. The legs came from a spare Chaos Cultist.

 

Odo was sadly killed on his second outing. He's made from a Chaos Cultist model with a Cawdor autogun and some greenstuff sleeves.

 

 

 

Ash is one of my favourite conversions and is armed with a sawn-off shotgun. H hasn't achieved a huge amount with it yet, but I have high hopes.

 

 

Moleman took an injury in combat with an Escher Juve and is now Toughness 2. 

 

 

Josiah gave a hand injury to said Juve and set many Escher gangers on fire.

 

 

Josiah is another "free" model, using a modified Leader's hood on Chaos Cultist legs.

 

Finally, for now, we have Rudiger the Juve. He spent his entire first game Seriously Injured after the first shot of the game. In his second, he missed with both of his shots (which had the Blaze trait due to tactics cards) and then proceed to take two Flesh wounds, a Serious Injury and then a Van Saar came along and kicked him in the head. He's currently in Recovery.

 

 

My next game is against Goliaths and we've already rolled our mission, so I quickly put together a Relic for my Cawdor to guard. 

 

 

I've been doing pretty well for credits, so in addition to some suspensors, I've bought a third Champion with Bolter. 

 

 

I'll let you know how these guys get on.

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

Edited November 22, 2019 by Brother Dallo

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for showing us some close ups - they look great.  And its awesome reading about their triumphs and tribulations.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Darnok]

I can only second the good Dr., great stuff! Please keep us updated on how the gang progresses.

 

Where is the head of the champion from?

Edited June 10, 2019 by Darnok

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks for the kind words gents. I have to say being in a campaign is a great way to get motivated to model and paint.

 

I’m glad you like hearing about how the Campaign is progressing. I’ll keep you in the loop.

 

Igor’s Head is cut from one of the old mono pose Chaos Cultists. All the other heads are either from the box or the Forgeworld upgrade set.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

They look great Dallo :D 

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks Reyner. For the most part, they’re a single layer of basecoat with an Agrax Earthshade wash and a bit of weathering over the top.

 

I may come back and do some highlights etc, but they’re definitely tabletop standard and as I’m likely to be painting up a model or two each week, I’m trying to cut down on painting time.

 

I think the basecoat helps. I spray them Halfords Grey all over, dust them from above with White spray and then wash it all over with Agrax. At that point, they actually look fairly interesting.

 

C&C welcome.

 

Dallo

[Dosjetka]

Solid start, Dallo. I especially like the conversion you've done!

 

I'm curious whether or not the name you got for your gang was inspired by Breaking Benjamin's song Diary of Jane? Not that it has to be, I just immediately thought of that song when I read the title. :)

[Reyner]

I've never used the Halfords primers but I might try then out next time I go cheers Dallo :) 

[Brother Dallo]

Glad someone got the reference. It’s a bit of tongue in cheek, but it’s Necromunda so I think it works. Also, they’re basically green monks. :P

 

I like the Halfords grey primer. Grey is a great compromise between a black or a white undercoat. Once you’ve sprayed them with white from above and got the Agrax wash on, they’re actually looking pretty decent. It gives them an old-timey, monochrome look. One thing to bear in mind is to make sure you get Halfords grey PLASTIC primer, not Halfords grey primer, as it’s a fairly easy mistake to make.

 

It’s cheap too.

 

Dallo

[Dr_Ruminahui]

The red on the shotgunner is quite striking - I think it might really make your models pop if you worked in a bit of spot colour into more models.  Doesn't have to all be blood (actually, better if you add some variety) - some orange trim, yellow striping, etc would all look nice.

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks for the comment. I’ve been trying to incorporate orange into all of my models, whether it be candles or eye lenses, but your comment about adding a spot colour is a good shout.

 

If I’m being honest, I added blood to Ash’s arm to distract the eye from the less than perfect sculpting and the fact that Genestealer cult hands look massive with Cawdor’s noodle like arms. I think it works. I’m sure you’ll take a second look at the photo, but if you didn’t notice at first glance, I think it’s done its job.

 

Thanks for the comment. Suggestions like that help me to up my painting game.

 

Dallo

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yep, it certainly did work.  I had thought that was GS cultist shotgun, but you have masked the size difference well.  Only when I really look at it and know that its there can I see that the hand on the grip of the shotgun is quite large compared to his upper arm.

[Elzender]

The gang is looking nice. Brother Dallo, and it is always nice to read about the fun shenanigans that happen throughout the campaign. By the way, as Chaplain Dosjetka brought up the homages topic, is Ash by any chance inspired by Ash Williams from the Evil Dead franchise? He would just need a chainsaw to complete his iconic loadout  (whether it is grafted to his arm or not is up to you).

Edited June 10, 2019 by Elzender

[Brother Dallo]

Indeed he is. Many of the names I’ve chosen are references or puns. Can anyone find any other references? I wanted to choose names that I could logically work out which model owned them in case I ever forgot which name was for which model. For example, Hobb is the one whose face mask reminds me of a goblin. Ash is the chap with a shotgun.

 

I think this level of personality is better than simply rolling on a D66 name generator.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

So is Hobb Hobgoblin Beer or Hobgoblin from Spiderman haha? Is Moleman from Incredibles?

[Brother Dallo]

I’m not quite sure which part of my mind I dredged the idea tha Hobgoblins have pointy noses from. Possibly D&D. Moleman is named from the Simpsons due to his shorter stature and thick goggles. The fact that he’s now toughness two just makes sense in my mind.

 

Dallo

[Dr_Ruminahui]

At least since 4th ed., D&D hobgolins have flat noses (see https://dmdave.com/hobgoblins-scalable-monster/, which features art from the 4th ed monster manual).

 

The Hobgoblin beer hobgoblin does have a pointy noe (a bit hard to make out, but here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/160/236/). 

 

That said, whatever works for you. :)

Edited June 11, 2019 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Gederas]

At least since 4th ed., D&D hobgolins have flat noses (see https://dmdave.com/hobgoblins-scalable-monster/, which features art from the 4th ed monster manual).

 

The Hobgoblin beer hobgoblin does have a pointy noe (a bit hard to make out, but here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/160/236/). 

 

That said, whatever works for you.

Long than that actually. Hobgoblins in D&D have had flat noses since 1st edition, and it's been consistent since then

Edited June 11, 2019 by Gederas

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm not surprised - I only spoke to what I knew. :)

[Brother Dallo]

I’ll give a proper update when I get time, but I just played my third game of the campaign against a Goliath gang and it was hands down my favourite game. Favourite moment of the match was Mangonel dropping a Frag template on top of Hobb and the three Goliaths surrounding him. I killed Hobb and cleared out the three Goliaths. Hobb then rolled a 12 on his injury chart. His faith in the Emperor clearly paid off.

 

I really like Necromunda.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

Sounds like great fun :D there's a campaign starting at my local store in August I can't wait to get proper games going!

[Ranulf]

Looking good Brother Dallo!  Always good to see a project transition from the early stages.

 

 

 

I'm curious whether or not the name you got for your gang was inspired by Breaking Benjamin's song Diary of Jane? Not that it has to be, I just immediately thought of that song when I read the title.

 

Ditto. Weird. 

 

-Ran

[Brother Dallo]

Afternoon folks,

 

I've been on a bit of a terrain binge lately. I got some cheap spray paints and finally got around to putting together the MDF crates I'd bought years ago.

 

 

I was tempted to buy one of the MDF kits for Zone Mortalis walls as I like the tiles, but they're much more visually appealing when they're in 3D. However, I was messing around with my crates and some old MDF buildings and I think I can get away with not buying the kits.

 

 

They are obviously WIP and need more paint, but I think the principle is sound and it saves me £65 for the TTCombat stuff, so I'm pretty happy. The crates are wargames tournaments if memory serves. I don't know where the boxy buildings are from as I got them 2nd hand from a guy at my old gaming club.

 

 

Here is the set up with a few walkways to make it a proper 3D table.

 

Finally, I was messing around with some spare bits of MDF as the crates come with three ends (two sealed ends and one with doors) and only need two, so I made two cubes. The first one is just a basic cube, but I got more adventurous with the second.

 

 

Looking forward to getting these painted. At the minute, our campaign is played in a guy's gaming room with one 3D 4x4 and one 2D card Zone Mortalis setup. It'd be nice to add walls to the 2D tiles before the campaign ends.

 

Speaking of the campaign, we're currently in Downtime, with our next game being a four-way Gang Moot. To keep numbers manageable, and the game length reasonable, we're only taking our leader and four random crew (as opposed to 5 + d3). With the influx of credits, I'm expecting to see three Ambots and a Berserker. The dice will decide if any turn up at our Gang Moot. If they do, I can see some hasty alliances being formed.

 

I've spent my credits on a Sheen bird (called Charlie) and Psalm-bot, my Ambot.

 

Psalm-bot is still WIP, but here's Charlie.

 

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

That's a really good alternative to the MDF walls for the ZM board - have you got any tips for starting Cawdor gang by the way? One of my friends is going to be playing them eventually and we have no idea what's good in their list. 

[Brother Dallo]

I’ve had three games with two wins and one loss against players who hadn’t played Necromunda before this campaign (like myself), so I’m working off a pretty small sample size. That said, Mangonel, my Champion with Heavy Crossbow and Suspensors has been making a bit of a name for himself. Knockback is an interesting trait, especially if you can knock people into or off terrain.

 

Cawdor have some very thematic and powerful tactics cards, which mainly revolve around setting people on fire. The Blunderbus poles are great. I’ve got two in my list and may add more. My list includes very little repetition of weapons, as I think that makes for more interesting games. Two of any gun is the most I have in my list and we’re three games in. I’d suggest avoiding the autogun polearm as it doesn’t offer much. You’d be better off with an Autogun and an axe/pistol.

 

Cawdor are generally considered to be one of the less competitive gangs out there. Compare their leaders and champions to Orlock or Escher and you’ll see what I mean. BS4+ on the Leader is pretty poor, though I try to compensate with a Long Rifle with sights, getting a +3 to hit with an Aim Action at long range, so hitting targets in light cover on a 2+. My leader doesn’t do a huge amount of heavy lifting in my list, but he’s survived every game so far (apart from the time Mangonel team killed him - he suffered no ill affects from that, rolling a 12 on the Injury chart.

 

At the end of the day Necromunda isn’t about being massively competitive, which is why I’ve just spent 90 credits on a Sheen Bird to keep my leader company while he snipes from afar instead of getting another Ganger with a blunder-pole. Have fun with it and you’ll make some great memories. I’m still glad I dropped a 5 inch template on top of my leader who was surrounded by three Goliaths in close combat. Was it the “competitive” move? Perhaps not, but it made for a good story.

 

I got a free unarmed Juve from the house favour list when playing Van Saar in Zone Mortalis. He didn’t have any weapons so he spent his game opening doors and looking through loot crates. He ended up surviving the game and finding two credits. Thus “Two Creds” was born. He won’t get any gear until he scavenges enough credits for a stub gun (or does something worthy of recognition). He took a two handed hammer to the face in my last game against Goliaths and is now toughness two, but he’s my favourite member of my crew and all the other guys know his name. When he finally finds three more credits, I have a conversion planned based upon Scabbs. Until then, he’ll rummage in boxes.

 

Dallo