Necromunda – Ash Wastes Nomads

With the initial Necromunda campaign well underway, I've been giving some further thought to the next one. Where the Dust Falls campaign is set about halfway up the hive, not too far below The Wall, the upcoming one will be set all the way down at ground level, at the Sump and near one of the outer walls. As part of the setting I'm intending to include a bit of territory outside the hive representing a portion of the exterior ash wastes, and that gave me an excuse to build some Ash Waste Nomads!


I had picked up a number of tallarn-esque torsos from Reptilian Overlords ( https://www.reptilian-overlords.com/ ) and was super pleased with the quality of the bits. I knew that I wanted to mix them with the Genestealer Cult bits mostly because motorbikes, and was really pleased with how well they went together with just a little greenstuff here and there to fill some gaps and de-cult-ify the models a touch.


One of the things I loved about the old Necromunda tules were all of the add-ons folks had done in the various magazines, including rules for vehicles in the Ash Wastes. As I was using the Jackals to make bikes, it only made sense to carry on and put together a Ridgerunner. Bodged a harpoon from the Orlock gang set which I think helps sell the aesthetic!


Figured since I was doing a Ridgerunner it only made sense to include a Goliath as well. Just a basic crew swap on this one, the cannon and gunner are separate to facilitate painting, and to allow it to be used as a more generic vehicle in scenarios as well.


And then of course things got weird. Got a bit of a wild hair to do some further vehicles and looking over the rules got me thinking it would be fun to do examples from all the various motive types (bike, wheeled, walker, tracked, skimmer and crawler), so next up is what I'm dubbing a Formicidae Ashwalker, a six-legged flatbed hauler. Using bits from an old Robogear Spider, a Sentinel, and some other miscellaneous bits from the vehicle bitsboxes, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!


I'm still debating what color scheme to go with for the Nomads, whether to do them up in drab greys, tans, and browns so they blend in with the dunes, or in bright hazard orange and yellow, to reflect them wanting to be high-viz for rescue in case of storms, ash-slides and whatnot. In the meantime I got stuck in painting the cargo piles - I tried my hand at making some tarps to partially cover the loot using some kleenex dipped in a mix of PVA glue and water, then sort of laid over and mooshed into place to dry. I have to say I'm quite happy with the result, and will definitely be doing more of them in the future!

All in all a fun start to a new project! As with most of the Necromunda stuff they're small self-contained groups, though this one is looking to be a little bigger than the usual 10-15 models a gang includes. In the future I'm going to build out further generic vehicles for various gangs to use in some of the scenarios bubbling away in the back of my mind...