Necromunda Ratskin Renegades

Necromunda is one of those games that's very special to me.  It was the first official Games Workshop games I owned back in the 90's when it ended up under my Christmas Tree right after it was released.  It was one of those games you could just get a handful of mini's and play on your coffee table.  For a young 13 year old with not a lot of money, this was perfect for me.  My friends and I each had gangs (I think I was rocking Van Saar, poorly painted) and I remember setting up the cardstock terrain and having massive 3-4 man battles and just laughing the afternoon and evenings away playing this silly game.  Needless to say, I have a lot of nostalgia for this game in particular.

Fast foward 20 years.  I had seen there was a yearly Necromunda Tournament at Adepticon.  I had told myself year after year that I would paint up a gang and give it a go for the wide eyed 13 year old Dave in me.  Well, as per usual other projects ended up popping up and Necromunda kind of got pushed to the back of the que.  I have been collecting the miniatures since I got back into the hobby, but I hadn't actually painted anything from Necromunda.  I own a good portion of the gangs now, and one that always stuck out for me were the Ratskin Renegades.  I love the aesthetics of the models, and I found it hilarious that in a world of plasma guns and rocket launchers, these guys bring muskets and hand crossbows to the party and can actually hold they're own.

So last October, after the first day of Operation Sting we usually go out to dinner as a group.  Well I ended up sitting at a table with the guy who runs the Necromunda tournament at Adepticon, Jeremy.  We got to talking and the topic of Necromunda came up.  I believe I convoyed my nostalgia for the game, and mentioned that I had purchased a box of ratskin at the previous Adepticon.  He mentioned that nobody ever brings Ratskins to his tournament.  The wheels start turning in my head, and suddenly an idea pops into my head.  I have been putting off painting any Necromunda gang for so long because I didn't have a reason to paint them.  "Challenge accepted" I say.  I now had my reason to paint these guys.

A few weeks go by, and the following is what I managed to crank out.....

The Ratskin Renegades, all 11 of them

The Gang Leader

The Shaman, my favorite model out of the bunch

3 Gangers, 2 with Lasguns, 1 with Shotgun

2 Gangers, 1 with Autogun, 1 with Musket

3 Ratskin Braves, various weapons

Ratskin Totem Warrior, one of the late Fanatic casts

I went a little picture heavy on this one because I really wanted to show them off.  One of the biggest problems I had painting these guys was finding decent reference material, especially for the Totem Warrior.  Sure, people have posted pictures of these guys before.  To be quite frank though, most examples I found were awful or you really couldn't see the models good enough.  It was a rare sight indeed when I found ratskins painted to a high standard that you could actually see.  I figure this way, my pictures will end up out there and hopefully someone down the line won't have the same problem I had.  I tried to go for more of a traditional GW look with these guys, adding my own flavor in here and there.  I used Micro Art's junk bases as I felt it adds for a more interesting look.  I originally planned on doing the traditional Necromunda hazard stripes around the base, but it doesn't look good on the round lip bases.  The top part is smaller than the bottom, so it ends up like a weird 60's swirl.  I really like how these models turned out.

 If you read my recent post on Adepticon, you'll know these guys did quite well at Adepticon winning me a 2nd place "Best General" coin.  They took me a lot longer to paint then I initially anticipated.  I only have 11 here, but my collection of Ratskin models is nearly complete.  My plan is to paint the rest of them up this year, including "The Caller" and "Brakar".  With that being said, I intend on playing in the Necromunda tournament next year as well.  To challenge myself, I want to bring a new gang next year.  Hopefully this is the challenge I need to paint a new gang every year going forth until I've painted every gang.

Sorry for the long text walls here.  I'm just very nostalgic about Necromunda and I had to set this post up correctly.  I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures.  Feel free to ask any questions if you have any about painting these guys, even if it's years from now.