In the grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only Mad Max meets Judge Dredd, or...Adventures in the Underhive II. Assembly.

My Necromunda gang is beginning to take shape as over the course of this week the various figures have dropped onto my doormat.  Winning the 'dispatch race' yet again was East Riding Miniatures.  It really astonishes me how quickly ERM can get your order out to you!

So the first figures to arrive were the ERM 'Slicks'.  I took a bit of time to consider them as to be honest I've still not really settled on a colour scheme.  The gang will be based on the Delaque, and these chaps are sneaky shadow dweller's with the icon of a blue snake, I'm thinking a mix of chocolate brown and deep blue might work quite well.

Anyway the ERM Slicks were well cast models, very slender in profile, but with very little detail.  Their hands are also very small and relatively badly sculpted.  Oddly, they also seemed to have a powder residue, presumably left over from the moulding process (mould release agent?)  A quick wash and scrub took care of that.

I resolved to do some very basic conversions; mostly head and weapon swaps raided from my bits box.  I wanted my gang to be fairly unique.  However as these Slicks will be serving as 'Juves' I didn't want to go too mad with them.

Firstly with this chap, his right hand was very odd looking so I snipped it off and replaced it with a large sword.  

I think this was from one of the Games Workshop fantasy ranges but I'm not sure which.  Given all the spikes and skulls that needed to be cleaned off I'm guessing one of the Chaos ranges.  Anyway, I cleaned the sword down, taking all the skulls and spikes and whatnot off to make it look a bit like a large, crooked katana blade.  It's interesting to consider how slender these Slick models are...

The next Slick model also had some 'small hand' issues, and a teeny looking gun, so again a simple snip off and replacement did the trick.  

The replacement stub pistol is actually from an old plastic Orlock arm I think.  It definitely beefs this chap up a bit though!

The final slick was similarly weedy in the hand department so I spent a bit of time considering what to do with him.  Trawling the 'bits box' for inspiration I came across a pile of banners, again I think from a Chaos range.  

So I thought my gang could do with a gonfalon!  I know it's not very useful for a 'sneaky' gang and it won't have any in-game effect but I couldn't resist it, especially as the figure's pose fit so well.  The gonfalon itself is actually assembled from a couple of different fantasy banners.  I transferred the model's pistol to the other hand to complete the conversion.

The next range to arrive were Pig Iron's Kolony troops.  Following on from the precedent set by the Slicks, I decided to do a bit of conversion work.  Actually I'd always intended to change the weapons on these models anyway.

First up is the chap with the little flame thrower.  He definitely needed a boost so I snipped off the little fuel tank and the unimpressive flame tube and replaced both with a Games Workshop Imperial Guard version.

 To cover over a few of the gaps and poor conversion alignment that was visible I gave him some extra pouches.  

Also I gave him a bald head  which was from the Games Workshop Chaos Marauder range, with the silly topknot snipped off.  

I'm not actually planning to include a flamer with that starting gang but I like this little chap so much I may change my mind.

Anyway, next I switched to the backbone of the gang; the gangers with lasguns.

These weapon swaps involve, to various degrees, using Games Workshop Imperial Guard lasguns.  I snipped off a bit of the cast assault rifle, and carved out the lasgun to replace the lost part of the gun.

With this chap I took off the forward and top part of the gun, replacing it with a lasgun.  To add a bit of variety I also included a scope.

The same with this model.  You can see the rough nature of the conversion.  I rarely do this, and its not something I'm particularly good at.  Hopefully I'll be able to cover things up in the painting though.

Same with this one, although I also replaced the fore grip hand.

This one is a little simpler and involved a clean slice off the front of the gun.  I had some Pig Iron 'extra guns' hanging around from a previous purchase and took the barrel of one of those, together with a lasgun muzzle to make a long barrel variant pattern lasgun.

Lastly, this chap has very little conversion work on him.  A simple snip of the muzzle to be replaced by one from a lasgun.

That leaves the other special and heavy weapons from the Pig Iron pack.  While I'll not be likely to use these in the initial gang line-up, they'll be useful for options later on, so I've put them together.

The chap with the missile launcher isn't modified in any way.  I do rather like his pose too.  

Throughout all the Pig Iron miniatures, which are a mix of 'rebels' and 'ferals' I've avoided the 'feral' heads.  This is mainly as the Delaque gangers are supposed to be shaven-headed and the Feral heads are all rag and gas-mask covered.  

The machine gunner will likely be used as a Heavy with a heavy stubber.  

I gave him a helmet which again is a Games Workshop Chaos Marauder part (I think).  

I snipped off all the spikes and horns to make it look like it could be a Planetary Defence Force helm, perhaps captured during a raid or taken from a slain lawman.  I also liked the idea that the helmet muffles the sound of the chattering heavy weapon!

Last but not least for the Pig Iron miniatures there's a sort of sniper chap.  Again I gave him a simple head swap.  Not sure what weapon I'll use this for but he looks like he's hunkered down on a high level gantry picking off enemies below, so something long ranged I suspect.

The next figures to arrive were Hasslefree's lovely miniatures.  Bizarrely the pack also contained some sweeties!  Not sure why.

It's notable that the Harby model comes as a multi-part kit with various arm and head options (including a 'not-Hellboy' configuration).  It's also worth noting just how lovely the Hasslefree miniatures are.  

They aren't 'heroic scale', so some detailing can get a bit lost, but their quality is second to none.  Great poses, full of character, crisp, clear, clean sculpting and casting with minimal flash and no mould misalignment, they really are a joy to look at.  

  

So, first up, the Andreah model that will be my gang leader.  She's so perfect it would really be a travesty to convert her, so I just cleaned her up and stuck her on the base.

Next up was 'Brooke' who I'll be using as a Juve (obviously!)  Actually she looks to me like a particularly disturbing Psyker.  Anyway, loath as I am to defile the Hasslefree figures, I will, and with Brooke I upgraded her rather dinky fruit knife to something a little more impressive.  With this figure I'm thinking that whatever the colour scheme I go for I might have a pop at painting her with 'sheer' or 'see through' clothing.  She looks like she's dripping wet having just crawled out of a filthy sump so it seems only right.  It's not an effect I've tried to get before though so I might play it safe.

Finally there's the Harby model.  To be honest I bought this one on a whim because I liked the look of him so much so I've no idea where he'll fit in the gang roster!

From the various options, I went with the Hellboy hand and pistol.  I'll paint the hand to look like a power glove, so that may be where he finds his place.  Neither of the heads provided were bald so I decided to bring out another Chaos Marauder head.  

This chap deserved a bit of extra character though, so I sliced a nasty old scar through his face.

No sign of the Heresy models yet, but when they arrive I'll have everything so far ordered.

Next task will be to daub a bit of paint onto the bare lead.  As I said, I'm undecided as yet but its feeling like I'll be going for a chocolate brown and blue theme rather than the harsher 'black trench coat' look.