Space Truckers - Araneus Reclamation Co.

[Doghouse]

I've been bashing my head against a wall of late trying to come up with something that holds my attention long enough that I can get an army together and start playing games again but with the thought of tenth on the horizon I've been reluctant to commit my time to something that may or may not work with the new edition. So I decided to start small, really small in fact.

One of the great appeals to me of 40k as a sandbox setting is that while the greater battles are at the forefront with mighty heroes and villains clashing on the cosmic level there is also room for the mundane. I love the idea of people locked into their daily existences going about their day oblivious to the vast majority god level events that shape the greater universe. I love the language, the colloquial terminology such as Lho sticks, Amasac or Corpse Starch, all the little roleplay elements much in the style of the original Rogue Trader had. With the success of Necromunda, Killteam and me playing far too much Darktide of late I think this is the ideal time for me to delve into and explore this idea.

I just wanted to do something simple, a nice little mundane project that I could play with that I could create to fit into as many of the main GW systems as possible on the off chance I ever get to use them. So the idea is that  I want to create a small force that can be used in both Necromunda and Kill Team and at a stretch 40k. And so the Araneus Reclamation Company was born.

 

Araneus Reclamation.

Araneus Reclamation is a small but barely profitable freelance company operating within reach of Necromunda under charter. Under ancient law the small group has permission to ply their trade established countless generations ago, a business handed down through the centuries from parent to the eldest child within the once noble family of Vertren. Currently the company operates under the leadership of Adir Vertren. Adir had never set her sights on running the family business as this would fall to her older brother Erasmus but found herself as Captain after his untimely death at the hands of Delaque gangers.

So the idea is that her crew run archeotech salvage jobs or small jobs for the nobility of Necromunda that might otherwise need to be dealt with through less official channels. Most of their time is spent either in the ash wastes hunting for lost tech, dealing with troublesome ash waste gangs or running space salvage onboard wrecks or delivering cargo within the system, legally or otherwise. Very much an unintentional Firefly kind of deal as they operate off of a dilapidated old freighter that may or may not be warp capable depending on whether they ever get around to fixing the Gellar Field generator. 

 

Adir Vertren

First and foremost I am using the Navis Breachers from Kill Team as the basis of the crew. I am not really a huge fan of the base models but the the Endurant and the Gunner models have fantastic environmental suits which will form the basis of the crew. The way I see it is at some point in the distant past they received the Navy suits as payment or salvaged them and they have been handed down over the generations with their true origin having been long forgotten.

The main point though is that these are idea for all manner of harsh environments so are ideal to represent what I am going for here being good for space, the underhive or ash wastes.

 

 

 

While the main inspiration behind this little group is Necromunda using the Outcasts Gang rules the second important reason for going with these is that if I am careful I can make the loadout similar enough to the Kill Team and then be able to use them in both Kill Team and 40k as Navy Breachers.

 

The Explorator Vehicle

The thing that really got me into this idea was that Necromunda now has simple vehicle design rules so much like a lot of people I expect when they first saw the Votann Land Fortress thought to themselves now that an ideal explorer vehicle if I ever saw one. So the idea I running with is to turn this into a Heavy Vehicle with Mining Laser and Heavy Stubber mount and explain it as just being salvaged and operated by a Squat prospector that has joined the company. I'll be adding all manner of salvage to the hull and changing things up a bit but for the most part leaving the weapons normal so that I can still use it in 40k if I so wish. I'm planning on around ten models so this one can carry six so I will probably make a Sagitaur as a medium vehicle to carry the rest. I like the idea that these vehicles are mobile home from homes so while be expected to carry all their gear when off ship on jobs.

 

[Valkia the Bloody]

Great idea!

I am curious what more you will come up with!

[Marshal Rohr]

Nothing better than a Doghouse project to start the new year.

[Doghouse]

Valkia the Bloody: Well hopefully you'll find it interesting and it'll be something a bit different. :)

 

Marshal Rohr: Thanks mate :)

 

Well a bit more done which is good because I am itching to  get to the painting now despite being some way off. The Land Fortress is coming along at a steady pace and should be built fully by tomorrow then I can look at 'waste landing' it up. It's a lot smaller than I had anticipated and I was toying around with building some sort of accommodation on top for an Ogryn servitor, I quite like the idea of adding servitors to it in general to be honest. I was considering replacing the glass to save painting the cockpit interior but to be honest I think the squat/Votann driver adds to the character.

 

 

The crew is coming along fairly well at the moment with this little production line I have going now. Realistically it'd be better to have them all with helmets on but as this is more for Necromunda I want to be able to make each model a little more distinct given that I only have two base body poses to work with. Fortunately there are lots of heads to play around with and I'll be adding their helmets to rigging on their packs or waists to show they still have the option. One guy in the bottom right will be a stock Endurant with the boarding shield and heavy shotgun which gives me the option to add a Gunner with a special weapon and have a team I can still use in 40k and Kill Team.

I quite like the idea of one of Adir's regular clients being an Inquisitor or an Interrogator who gets them to do dirty work on the side in a similar way that the rejects get sent in with Darktide.

   

 

The lastly just a quick picture showing the arm stub with the subtle red arrow I have to remove on each of the Endurant bodies. The Gunner ones are easier because they have no arm pieces attached to the torso but the pose is a bit more awkward to work with because they are bracing with the special weapon that they should be carrying. I'll do some closer pictures later but you should be able to see where I have done some rough green stuff work to fill the top of the shoulder on Adir, this is because the standard breacher's arms have no shoulder because they slot under the pad. I am still a bit tempted to add an Aeldari ranger as a sniper but that can wait for now. In the meantime I am going to be raiding my bits box for Kreig bits.

 

[Doghouse]

As I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment I've decided to go whole hog on the Land Fortress and swapped out the turret on top for one of the ad mech turrets with a servitor built in. I'll probably remove all the AI elements and instead maybe have the second crew model as a mad tech priest. So the premise will be they found the Land Fortress as wreckage and managed to patch it up to make it serviceable by forcing Imperial tech such as servitors into it to replace the Votann bits that no longer functioned. I'm picturing the Squat Prospector trying to pass himself off as a Votann Pioneer but doesn't really fully understand the tech but is bluffing his way through to get off world while the tech priest is a fumed addicted former member of some fringe cult that is down on his luck and needs the work. So you have this dynamic of both claiming to know what they are doing but neither are fully sure or fully in their right minds. Adir probably realises this but beggars can't be choosers and she has to make do with what she can get. So this hopefully will be a mishmash of Imperial and Votann tech.

 

 

 

Obviously this means the gloves are coming off with this model as it'll be purely for Necromunda so I may add a gantry to the back portion and will cover the top in stowage and supplies.

 

 

[Zebulon]

Absolutely love this! Wish I had come up with the idea myself… I am sure that you will continue to do it great justice.

[Doghouse]

Thanks, it is actually quite fun so far and I am really looking forward to fleshing out the characters especially. 

 

So just for those that may not play Necromunda I wanted to just quickly give a brief overview of why adding vehicles is really good for conversions and modelling. I assumed it was just the gang specific bikes and things currently being released by GW and initially was kind of 'meh boring stock models' as I didn't realise that you could design your own. The following just an overview from the perspective of someone like myself who is more interested from a conversion perspective, for images and more rules details you can check out YouTube reviews of Book of the Outlands or buy the book.

 

Purchasing a Vehicle

In Necromunda you get 1000 credits to form your gang, if you want to run vehicles you get an additional 400 credits. These 400 credits have to be spent on vehicles but the initial 1000 points can be spent on vehicles and/or gangers. I'm assuming this means you could use the Genestealer Cults biker models and go full on Biker Mice from Mars but don't quote me on that! 

 

Crew

Crew isn't massively relevant to conversions unless you have an opened topped vehicle but you still have to pick a starting type which in the book are Orlok Riders, Scum Racers and Guild of Coin Haulier.  I could be wrong but I don't think these can disembark and are considered part of the model rather than separate gangers.

 

Vehicle Template

So first of all you have four vehicle templates:

 

Light Vehicle - These are basically quad and bike sized models, lightly armoured and fast and normally can have a single weapon.

Medium Vehicle - These are typically Ridgerunner sized vehicles (Genestealer Cult Ridgerunner and Rockgrinder vehicles have official rules as well just as a quick note). They can have a single weapon.

Heavy Vehicle - These are the larger creations and can have two weapons.

Walker: These are single weapon light walkers such as the Sentinel. There are no rules for heavy, medium or light Walkers as they are a separate category of their own. At 2 hull points they sit between the Light and Medium templates so probably around Sentinel or Dreadnought size.

 

Upgrades 

Each of the vehicle types in addition to weapons can have a number of upgrades to give you further ideas for conversions and gameplay. 

 

These are the Heavy Vehicle upgrade Slots for example:

 

Body  Drive  Engine 

   4         3        2 

 

Body upgrades are Crash cage, Escape Hatches, Extra armour, Rams and Transport beds.

Drive upgrades are All-wheel steering, Emergency rake and Tyre Claws.

Engine Upgrades are Easy turnover, Nitro burners and Smoke vents.

 

Locomotion

Vehicles are either Wheeled or Tracked. Tracks remove one point of movement but give you terrain bonuses. Walkers are the exception to this and have their own special rules.

 

Weapons

Each vehicle has a number of hardpoints for mounting weapons, these are important for conversions as it determines what you can stick on your vehicle. These have to be either crew or passenger operated and have a fixed fire arc, so forward facing, left side, right side and rear. You can purchase additional facings for 15 creds each so you can make turrets.

Each hardpoint can have one basic, special or heavy weapon with basic being autogun or lasgun, special being grenade launcher or Long Las and Heavy being Harpoon Launcher, Heavy Stubber or Mining Laser. Each hardpoint can only have one weapon.

 

Wargear 

Then you have wargear, these are items that range from Body spikes and Boarding ramps to Mine Layers and Booby-trapped fuel tanks.

 

Jury-rigged

The one penalty you do suffer making your own vehicle is that it is made from parts that are not designed to go together so repairs cost double.

 

Stock Models

If you don't fancy designing your own there are rules for the Orlok Outriders, Genestealer Cult Ridgerunner (which is an Imperial design that can be taken by any gang except Ash Wasters like all vehicles), the Wolf Quad, the Genestealer Cult Rockgrinder and the Cargo=8 Ridgehauler and trailers.

 

There are other aspects such as specific gang trading posts and stuff but for our purposes what I have noted here should be enough to allow you to decide if you wanted to make your own or not.

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Doghouse

[Doghouse]

Well the Kill Team idea isn't really working out as it's a bit limiting for loadouts which isn't really that fun so I'm just going to focus on Necromunda. I've used parts from the Hive Scum box for the weapons and at the moment I'm just cutting and chopping before reworking the upper arms and adding the green stuff. After that I'll start adding details before painting. I prefer ranged combat over melee but will try and make a few with close combat weapons.

 

 

 

The Hive Scum boxed set is ok, nothing outstanding or amazing but just ok. I've chopped the torso off one of the four models that you get in the box and I am making her into an Orlok Juve for an Orlok gang I have. The left arm is just temporary while I rework the shoulder to fit.

 

 

[Brother Carpenter]

The land train and stealer bikers remind me of a very bad sf movie called battletruck i once saw.

Love the idea and great execution of it.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Brother Carpenter

[Doghouse]

Thanks 

 

I have never heard of that film but I am rushing off to find it now!  

 

I keep thinking of Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone for some reason.

 

[Doghouse]

Just another quick update which kind of came to me that might be fun. Building a Medicae station on the side of the Fortress. It's all very WIP and stuck in with blue-tac while I work a few bits out but a nice start and a completely bonkers idea that is very 40k. It is set into the side of the vehicle so I will add some sort of covering to protect it when in battle. We're not complete monsters here in the Imperium... I will add the power cell and bits along with the arms and cables as I go.

 

[Slave to Darkness]

Space Truckers you say? Will Charles Dance be showing his face?

[Gamiel]

4 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

Space Truckers you say? Will Charles Dance be showing his face?

Was wondering the same thing myself 

[Doghouse]

I must admit it's been years since I watched that so had completely forgotten he was in it. Having rewatched a clip of him you probably couldn't ask for a more 40k looking character!  

[Doghouse]

So another quick update and more shenanigans with altering the models even further. The Hive Scum weapon hands felt a bit too bit so I used some Krieg parts which fitted perfectly as do the genestealer cult autoguns which I will also be using. I've started adding some gubbins as well.

 

It's incredibly tempting to make enough of these for a couple of guard squads to accompany a Rogue Trader but fortunately the bits are hard to come by for the bodies so I should stay on track. 

 

 

[Doghouse]

Not had much time to do much today but determined to make some progress I've started on the first close combat ganger, she's armed with an auto pistol and chainsword. I'm just working on building the basics for now on the group and adding weapons before I go back and clean up areas and add more details.

I have a fun idea for a waste lander guide that might be interesting but waiting on the parts before I can get started.

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

"Well hello there."

 

Ok so I accidently made Obi-Wan Kenobi...

 

Originally my plan was to create an old man that lives out in the Ash Wastes that has some how either got hold of the gear from a dead Ash Waste Nomad (which would be incredibly unlikely because they don't leave their dead behind) or made his own and is cosplaying claiming to have extremely valuable local knowledge. The idea would be that he was basically a charlatan ex-upper Hiver who now claims to be an expert on the Nomads having been accepted by them as one of their own hiring himself out as a guide to various gangs. Ultimately he ends up getting them killed most times as he has no idea what he is talking about and accidently leads them into sacred grounds and the like getting them all killed.

 

I'm just starting the GS work and will probably give him long straggly hair and make him look a little more unkempt.

 

 

 

 

Having said that I am very tempted to make him into an Ash Wastes Wyrd, a psychic old wizard that roams the wasteland and build a second gang around him. Maybe a Don Quixote style character and his retinue of misfits and odd balls.

 

 

  

 

 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Maybe a couple of ambot companions in gold and white/blue?

[Doghouse]

I have always considered something like that actually but basically taking the designs and "servitoring" them. So R2 would be a torso with a cyclopean eye with legs where the arms would be.   Many years ago I did some stormtrooper conversions with space marines of the Sons of Vadar chapter but never got around to taking it any further but put a lot of thought into stuff like that. After reading the vehicle design rules a bit more there is an option to replace tracks with anti-grav to turn it into a skimmer so Tatooine land speeders would be possible and AT-RTs could be made with the walker rules. 

 

The Ambot in weathered 501st colours would really look nice though.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

That's a nightmare fuel R2... you gotta do it!

[Doghouse]

Yeah I'll give it a bash once I have the parts I have in mind for it! 

 

"Right turn Clyde!"

 

I'm still playing around with stuff at the moment and reading the rules but have done a little bit more on the Land Fortress. Nothing too exciting as I've mainly been dry fitting bits to see what sticks but the main upgrade I want to make is adding a Jokaero which is one of my all time favourite xenos races. As it stands I like the idea of the Squat and the Jokaero arguing all the time with the mad techpriest running around in the background. The have absolutely no effect on game play but I feel it will give the vehicle a lot more character.

 

 

Another thing I want to do, whether it's for this gang or another is a Don Quixote style aged Freeblade which is possible by giving a walker a second weapon hardpoint. You can't really give it close combat weapons so I'll probably have a couple of mining lasers on it, maybe swap out one for a harpoon gun. Maybe lots of fake pageantry and torn banners. 

I need to change the thermal gun thing and cover it in enough gear that it looks like he can survive in the wilderness, might make a squire on foot something along the lines of Scabs from Kal Jericho and Scabs.

 

 

 

I'm currently going through a ton of bits at the moment but have found lots of gang sprues I forgot I had so those will help. Luckily the Navy Breachers, Kreig, Cadian, Genestealer Cultist and Enforcers all have tons of parts that are interchangeable thanks to the hands all being the same size. 

 

[Doghouse]

Bit more progress, I'm going for the idea that the Jokaero is doing some battlefield upgrades. Given their nature chances are it's either constructing a new cannon or randomly installing air conditioning made from various bits it's salvaged from the interior. I may add the techpriest emerging screaming at it after waking up to find a semi vital system has been dismantled on a whim.

 

[Valkia the Bloody]

That Jokaero is an awesome idea!

[Doghouse]

Thanks 

 

I thought it'd be an interesting addition. As yet there are not any official rules for including Jokaero but I am such a bit fan of them I thought this would be an ideal way to incorporate one without the need for house rules and proxying while adding some distinction and character to the vehicle itself. Sometimes it is very easy to get stuck working inside the box of working within rules with unit composition and wysiwyg but because it is such a large model the land fortress makes an ideal basis for a mini diorama.

 

The weekend has finally arrived and with it comes some very welcome free time to crack on with this little force of misfits. I am at the point where I desperately want to paint these but I have to be a patient a little longer and make sure I am not rushing the builds. I'm still getting to grips with the way the weapons and wargear works in Necronmunda I also have the wonderful challenge of trying to distinguish each model from the next given that they are based on the same two Navy Breacher models, being the Gunner and Endurant. I don't know if anyone remembers the days when I used to take the likes of snapfix Assault on Black Reach marines and try to make them more individual but this is an aspect of the hobby I genuinely love where I am almost hindering myself by limiting my starting options and instead relying on my creative side to make it work.

 

So to get the ball rolling a bit more done on Adir. I still need to do more GS work but I have added an Enforcers bolter that is maglocked to her air tanks and a retractable maul to her belt. I'm currently looking through my bits box and pinching bits from the likes of the more modern kits such as Krieg and Cadian.

 

 

For the big rig I've dug out an old OOP Medicae Servitor that came with one of the many objective marker and I am working on blending it into the hull. I have a very distinct impression for the painting of the big rig in mine and want to make the hull look extremely corroded and weathered which should be really fun to do.

 

 

One last thing I have stumbled across is that in White Dwarf rules were published for waste land enforcers. So the absolutely awesome idea is that Enforcers are set up with a Precinct in the waste lands and then left to it with next to no support. This is an amazing concept to me and ripe for so much conversion work so I am going to dig out a Tarox kit I have somewhere to make a meatwagon and make a second gang. This is so 2000ad Judge Dredd in concept that I have to do it, if I can get hold of a Bastion I may even got as far as to make a precinct.

[One-eye]

Really love what you're doing here Doghouse. Amazing imagination, as usual.

I feel you when I am trying to repose every single marine I have to avoid same positions (I look at you Indomitus assault marines), but you're next level !