The Final Brat? A Xenos Fusilier

Little did I imagine in 2014, when I started assembling a Confrontation Brat gang, that I would revisit the project sporadically over the next five years. But that it what has happened - I've assembled and painted an 18-strong brat pack, as well as a biker brat and the Bratmobile. The pack includes all five unreleased brats, both limited edition brats, a bunch of conversions, and, as of this week, all three of the standard release brats.

To all intents and purposes, I pretty much consider this project now complete as I have enough figures and a nice variety of weaponry for most Necromunda campaigns. I also don't have any more brats that I can chop up for the cause!

Visage, Duchess of the Sutters - New Brat Leader

Tomorrow night is the first game of our new Necromunda campaign set in the settlement of White Spider Junction. As mentioned a few weeks back, I'll be using my Brat gang, counting as House Escher.

I had intended to use Beau Rouge (the unreleased Brat leader) as my leader for this campaign, but eventually decided that his combat orientated weaponry meant he was better suited as a champion. With Beau duly demoted, I needed to make a new leader with a bit more role flexibility - that's where Visage comes in!

Visage has come to usurp Beau Rogue as the prima donna of the Sutter Dukes. Known as the Duchess of the Sutters, she is at the forefront of fashion, with teaming ribbons and silks, and accompanied by her miniscule caryatid Wailer-of-Things. 

Who Needs Understated Hairdos? More Brats

I think I've now been working on my Brat gang for over six years. At least that's what my old photos indicate! Funnily enough I've only ever played a handful of games with them, so it's high time they got an extended run on the tabletop. With a new Necromunda campaign kicking off in early September, I decided to get the Brats game-ready.

I'll be using the Brats as an Escher gang - they're a close fit stylistically and in terms of gear. After reviewing my existing models, I established a dearth of standard rifle fighters. I had plenty of combat fighters, and a pretty decent selection of special weapons, but not much in the way of a solid firebase!

The three figures above are ones that I started working on in 2013 and never got around to completing. Happily they'd just sat in a case over the last six years and were just waiting for the right opportunity!

Frills, Bows, Power Swords and Combi-Pistols - Bratt Leader

Every Confrontation gang needs an unmistakable leader - that flamboyant model with the over-sized gun or waving their powerful combat weapon. The Sutter Dukes have previously been led by the Magpie Dandy, but with an updated gang, I wanted to use the excuse and paint up my unreleased Bratt leader.

The sculpt dates from the early 1990s, along with the other unreleased Bratts, and is the pinnacle of over-ostentation. He wears a quilted split tunic over a shirt with puffed and slashed sleves. He has lace cuffs and ribbons and bows galore. He wears heeled and buckled boots, and an astonishing hairdo. In essence, he is the ultimate Bratt. The brattiest Bratt!

Beau Rouge is making a name for himself in the Sutter Dukes. Starry-eyed young fops admire his razor-sharp spire fashions and somewhat ultra-violent nature. Some even whisper into their scented cuffs that Beau has designs on usurping the Magpie Dandy! For now, Beau is content to undermine his father, the famous insterstellar merchant, Rouge Trader through his self-indulgent and reckless activities. After all, being noticed is everything.

Gold-Plated Pistols and Master-Crafted Plasma Guns - More Bratts

I'm really enjoying revisiting my Bratts and have added another pair to the group. This time round it's a flamboyant dual-pistol wielder and and a Bratt who's spent his pocket money on high-powered weaponry rather than his hairdo!

The Return of the Sutter Dukes and the Elusive Bratt

When I started this blog, I was in the throes of painting up a Bratt gang for Confrontation. In fact the de facto leader, the Magpie Dandy, is featured in the blog's title banner. The Sutter Dukes featured in the Ferrograd Confrontation game we played at BOYL 2014 (where all the maths was calculated by the amazing mind of antipixi), but since then have languished a little neglected in their spire-shag pads.

Works In Progress and Action Shots

Through extremely poor planning, I found I had no models undercoated and ready for painting last night. Instead I decided to dedicated a few hours to converting up some figures that I've been planning, ready for the next painting opportunity.

I envisaged this first pair as Imperial Agents or Arbites Detectives. They will be accompanied by a squad of Arbites in due course. They're very simple conversions from Rogue Trader era Commissars - the heads came from a pair of old Citadel Paranoia troubleshooters.



Imperial Agents

Brattish Behaviour - Painting the Giveaway Brat

In celebration of hitting my blog anniversary last month, you may remember I ran a bit of a competition to build and paint a Brat Ganger to the design of one lucky winner. Lasgunpacker was that lucky winner. His design brief for the figure was:

Lasgunpacker wrote: "As for the Brat... I think left hand chain sword right hand carrying a bag of some sort.

Colors: dark brown leather for the vest and boots, lighter leather colors for the other webbing and holster, pants and arms alternating checked harlequin colors, hair to suit your tastes."

I converted a chainsaw-wielding, bag-carrying Brat a week or two ago, and last night painted him up:

Brattish Behaviour - Converting the Giveaway Brat

Having announced yesterday that Lasgunpacker was the winner of the giveaway Brat competition, I spent some time yesterday evening thinking about the model.

The key elements of the figure's pose as specified by Lasgunpacker were:

1. Wielding a chainsword; and
2. Carrying a bag.

I knew I also wanted to do some work on the the hair and give the Brat a hairstyle I hadn't done on any of my previous Brat gangers.

I started to think about the concept behind the model, and it occurred to me that if this Brat is carrying a bag, he's likely to be on some sort of mission; perhaps he's a courier of vital messages that cannot be trusted via usual routes. With that in mind, I decided I wanted him to be a little bit meaner and not quite as overtly flamboyant as some of the Brat's I've made to date.

I rummaged around in my bitz box and pulled out a selection of likely looking parts. My first step was to remove the crest of hair above the top of the Brat's skull. I sourced a nice chainsword arm from an old Eldar Harlequin, and a bag which I think might have come from Gorkamorka muties. A pointing gloved hand from yet another Harlequin and a couple of hours of greenstuffing later, this was the result:

The Brat Courier prepares to defend his consignment (note the gloved hand looks big here due to the angle - it's OK in real life I think.

 

Manu Loat, Space Pirate / Brat Giveaway Winner

The bulk of any Guilder's force is usually made up of a rag-tag group of hired guns. Mercenaries can often boast an impressive arsenal and wide range of combat experience. Their very presence can disuade gangs from considering attacks on warehouses or transports. However hired guns have practically zero loyalty; many a Guilder has been fatally exposed when a fire-fight proves to hot for his hired muscle and they melt into the shadows to seek less risky employment.

Manu Loat is just such an individual...currently in the employ of Guilder Yakob Pento:

Manu Loat. Don't make fun of his moustache!

 

Happy Birthday Magpie and the Great Brat Giveaway

Can you believe it? Magpie and Old Lead is 12 months old today! I started the blog mainly as a focal point and repository for my hobby activities, which had been spread out across several forums. To my surprise, over the past year, the blog has become both a motivator for generating hobby content, and a gateway to other peoples’ hobbies.

Spookheads in Ferrograd - A BOYL Webcomic

 

Hooligans in the Hive - BOYL14

+++++TRANSMITTED: Necromunda (Palatine Spire)
+++++TYPE: Spire News Feed
+++++BOYL 014.M3
+++++REF: MAOL/0302995.49L
+++++SUBJECT: UNCONTROLLED GANG WARFARE

>>PROCESSING<<

>>TRANSMISSION<<

Reports confirmed of incidences of uncontrolled gang warfare breaking out in Hive Palatine. Ground car racing has destroyed exclusive upper spire 'Synth Meadows' open space. Vid-logs show alien species outside their designated sector engaged in destructive vehicle to vehicle combat with Hive Gangs and Brats.

>>Download Complete: Vehicles Involved<<

Coming to the BOYL nicely

This weekend (8/9/10 August) holds the promise of some real excitement for fans of classic Citadel models and GW games; Foundry are hosting the Oldhammer 'Bring Out Your Lead' event; for the second year since its inception. The event is likely to be a rather free and bohemian affair, with a range of games being pushed round some tables. I believe there might also be some consumption of an alcoholic beverage or two in the evenings!

Although I can't attend the entire weekend, I've been given a pass for Friday evening socialising and Sunday gaming. Earlier I pulled together everything I'm planning to bring with me - here's the pile:

Horns and Wheels - Finished Sensei Companion & Brat Car

Sadly due to a scheduling clash, it looks like I am no long participating in the Rogue Trader - 'The Quickening' game in a couple of weeks time at the Oldhammer Bring Out Your Lead weekend at Foundry. But not being able to join in the game, doesn't mean the Sensei I painted a week or so back doesn't need any companions. With my wife out last night, I broke out the paints and selected one of my top 10 miniatures of all time as my Sensei's first companion - Beast Trooper Gaxt.

 

Back in Rogue Trader, Beastmen were simply abhumans which could be used alongside human Imperial Guard, in the same way as Ogryns and Ratlings. Beast Trooper Gaxt was just one of the Imperial Guard range, armed with his autogun. My version of him is painted to match my Sensei, with a primarily dark grey scheme:

 

A subdued colour scheme with flashes of colour on the gaiters and wristband

 

The Confrontation Project - Starting to Look Pretty Big!

Over a year ago I started putting together a Brat gang. I'm not entirely sure why - there was no real reason behind it, other than the appeal of the models.

 In the intervening 12 months, the Brat gang has evolved into a fun (and flamboyant) modelling and painting project. Of course, Brats need somebody to fight, and somewhere to fight. The logical result of this realisation was to start buying up other suitable models and terrain. This morning, another shipment of models destined for a life of fighting Brats arrived. Feeling very pleased with my latest purchase, I laid out all of the WIP and unpainted models. All 65 of them...

 

 

I'm particularly enjoying pulling on less well-known ranges like Paranoia and Judge Dredd. With a bit of tweaking, some of the figures are perfect for a Confrontation setting. Here's a closer look at the WIP pile:

 

Biker Brat Painted

The Biker Brat I converted up for my Brat gang has been languishing unpainted for a couple of months. There were a couple of reasons for this: I had other stuff to work on and I was also a little intimidated by the prospect of painting him.

Anyway, last night I put brush to lead and painted him up (inbetween the odd German goal):

 

Snap! I've Got A Pair!

You might think that the right number for a group of miniatures is a squad of 5. Or perhaps it's a regiment of 30. You're wrong of course, I've recently had the realisation that the correct number is 2. This realisation only came to me through two sub-consciously created events:

Event #1
I purchased this Citadel Pilot from the classic 40k Adventurers range:

"So what's my point?", you might ask. It's a perfectly good purchase of a lovely, classic Citadel figure. No different from buying the Space Eunuch or Worldburner.

Original Art - Part 6: Rogue Trader & Confrontation by Martin McKenna

I started my collection of GW original artwork by tracking down Eldar-themed pieces, but sometimes opportunities come along which just require a broadening of horizons. Last year I made contact with Martin McKenna and was offered a wide selection of pieces, including Rogue Trader, WFRP and others besides. Martin's style is very precise, often with great attention to the expressions of the characters he's drawing. After much consideration, I decided purchase three of Martin's lovely pieces, this being the first:

 

Brattish Behaviour: Don't Mess With Jern Rembeau

Another Monday night painting session resulted in my 6th completed Brat ganger, Jern Rembeau.