Doc Ock is alive and well - and living in the under hive

I've been adding to my necromunda collection lately, including more eschers, and a delaque gang.

The eschers are all bare metal, and will be painted when I feel the inspiration, but that will have to wait as I plan to get a set of bases from Iron Halo and refit all my Eschers to that set.

The Delaques were a sight to behold. For a gang that is supposed to be sneaky, and hide in the shadows, they stood out a bit. They looked more like hippies with tie-dyed overcoats, and guns. Soon to be stripped, and repainted when the urge takes me.

I've also acquired a couple of  hired guns for my collection, in the form of two scummers, and a second beastmaster Wyrd.

On to the subject of the title. With the small necromunda kick happening I finally got around to building my Spyrer patriarch. It changed a bit from my initial plan as I looked over what I had ready, and made a few observations. A pair of  catachan lasguns had their stocks removed before being added to pipes, and the powerclaws were made from offcuts from a space marine backpack, and the talons from a set of lightning claws

As you can see, the figure came out looking a bit like Doctor Octopus, hence the title. It still requires some work with greenstuff to fill in some gaps and sculpt on a few extra details

Random Conversion

Ideas for conversions can come at the strangest time. I've been mulling over entering TAG's Bloodbowl league for over month, trying to decide which of my teams I'm going to use. I'm an accomplished player with lizardmen, but I don't like the new rules for the stunty skill, which now limits the effectiveness of my skinks.

I finally decided that I would take my Orc team into it, with the intention of rupturing the opposition with brute force, rather than winning through skill. Two weeks after deciding on the orcs, and idea came to me in the shower. Why not include a model of the teams coach. I thought a bit about what an Orc Bloodbowl coach should have, and decided that a whip to encourage the team would be appropriate. Being cheap when it comes to things like that, I knew I had some old hero quest Orcs around (bought cheap off trade me), and old wire is in abundance around the house.


After work the following day, I hunted out the figures, found the wire, and got to work. I decided to make three.One for myself, and two for the other Orc players in the league. The biggest issue is that the three original figures all stood in identical poses, regardless of weapon. (two with mace, one with an axe.)


The first one I made, I removed the weapon hand, and reduced the mace to just the wooden handle. The shaft of the handle was drilled out with my pin vice. Approximately 5 cm of multi strand wire was stripped, and the wire twisted at one end, then super glued into the hole. After giving the glue time to set, I cemented the hand back on the orc's arm at ninety degrees to the original position, with the wire whip behind the orc. The loose strands of the wire were spread out, and angled down, so the coach appears to be ready to bring the whip forward to lash one his players.


The second coach used the same method, except I took the entire arm off, and repositioned it in front of the orc. This orc now looks like he is holding the whip in front of himself, possibly as a threat to one of his players.


The third coach took a little more work, as I wanted a different pose again. I removed the arm, and then the hand. The arm was then glued back on, with a rotation of about forty five degrees forward of the original. The hand (with new whip completed) was glued on at ninety degrees to its original position. The strands of the whip were than placed so it appears the coach is actually in the act of flogging a player (or a fan; lets face it, he is an orc).

What to do with leftover pieces from old kits

I recently found a pair of tow ropes from a Tamyia kit I built years ago, and started thinking about what I was going to do with them. 24 hours later, the idea took shape in my mind, with the tow ropes being used as a loose rail for a hastily built bridge between two platforms for necromunda. As I was at work at the time, I couldn't do much about it, but when I got home, I found the pieces I needed - a sheet of plastic flooring cut into strips, 2 pillars from GW's cityfight sprues, and a tow rope from a GW Rhino sprue.

The first step was to cut a length of plasticard that was the full length of the bridge. The cable from the Rhino was next, just the shackles were kept. I then glued the three strips of pastic flooring in place, with spacers to prop the ends up, after leaving sufficient space to slide the bridge over the card platforms of my necromunda terrain. The cityfight pillars were added in the corners of one side, with the shackles wedged in position and glued.

The smaller shackles on the tamiya tow ropes were carefully cut at the peak of the shackle, and first the two were carefully joined together, followed by even more care easing the remaining ends over the larger shackles on the posts. The safety cable has not been glued to the shackles, and still swings free, even after painting. a day later I realised that I needed something to make it look like it had been put together hastily, with materials lying around. After a bit of thought, I decided to use the hubs I had left over from Space Marine bike squadrons.

I haven't tested it in a game yet, and when I do, I'll need to work out some rules for it, as I consider it to an unstable structure as far as the game goes.