Necromunda – Underhive Stock

I started with the hobby in the mid to late 90s in Germany, so a lot of that late Oldhammer to early Middlehammer coined my image of the hobby. Miniatures sculped by the Perry twins, Jes Goodwin and Gary Morley, artwork by Mark Gibbons and Wayne England. So it is no big surprise, that 2nd Edition 40k, Blood Bowl and of course Necromunda really appeal to me.

What is Necromunda about? It is a 28mm skirmish between the street gangs of the bigger Houses on the planet Necromunda, fighting over supply contracts, mines and facilities. And all that in the underground of a megacity (so very 2000 AD) in the Warhammer 40.000 universe. With the character / gang development it even included a narrative part, to tell the story of your own gang, with all the ups and downs that belong to it. And that narrative part is simply the cherry on top of that old school goodness.

When Necromunda was released in Germany around 96 to 98, the main boxed set was 149 DM (about 104 EUR with inflation today), would provide you with proper card board terrain with bulkheads and the rules, but the real gangs casted from metal would set you back another 60 DM (about 41,50 EUR today), without the alternate weapon options and a few more gangers - for a about 14 year old kid a bit much, especially on top of having a 40k army and a few Blood Bowl teams back then. Just out of budget.

But times changed, as an apprentice and student I had the chance to buy some models at a decent rate second hand, especially on shows like the Bitbox, hosted in the heart of german wargaming - the Ruhrgebiet - and with a lot of (former) GW employees attending.

In the original game, without the supplement and the vast added material provided via Citadel Journal and lots of other Games Workshop side gigs, there were 6 houses, covered with their gang leaders (usually 2 different poses), specialists (the guys and girl carrying the special or heavy weapon, well basically if you want somebody to bring something different than a auto- or lasgun to the battle, about 2 to 4 different poses), the gangers (about 6 to 12 different poses) and the wanna-bes, the kids (between 4 to 6 different poses). So quite a cast, and we're not even speaking about hired guns and some famous characters from the underhive. Still, not looking at the Outlanders supplement and other things you might creatively bind into the underhive.

You see, it would be easy to build 20+ miniature gangs per house, a bit much, possible yes, but not needed. So as a rough template, I went for 1 Gang Boss, around 2 Specialists, 8 Gangers and 4 Kids. With the campaign and gang development, you would normally need the side board and convert the models to resemble their gear, but I'll go for a looser wysiwyg approach. So let's take a look on 6 house gangs from the "basic" Necromunda, beginning with the two from the starter set, Orlock and Goliath.

Update 2022

Orlock, the House of Iron, rules over the majority of slag pits in the Underhive, making them the prime source for iron and pure metal. In my mind, with their denim jeans and leather jackets, have an italo-american street gang vibe, that would take care of mechanical engineering. So I thought about giving them the name Greasers, and give them italo-american names from movies like Goodfellas, Sopranos and such. So expect the gang to have names like Johnny, Paul, Silvio and so on, with the matching nick names - something you have to earn. Perfect to bring in the things that happen during the matches, or to show that a kid has grown to a full ganger.

Stock is proper, I just need another kid to complete the gang.

Update 2022: Got the missing Juve, gang is complete. Will sell off the over-stock.

As for Goliath, they are muscular beasts, incredibly strong and look like some punks on steroids. In the Necromunda lore, their house is connected to the heavy industry, with toxic fumes and harsh conditions. So steel industry, huge machines forging, casting and pressing sheets of metal into pieces and forms. The diablo 2 mercenary group of the Iron Wolves, stuck with me and I think that is a fitting name for such a gang. Along with harsh sounding names from the germanic language, like Hagen, Götz and so on. Red trousers would make for a great contrast to the blue denim of the Orlock and fit the punk theme.

I am missing the fourth kid here as well, along with further 2 to 4 gangers.

Update 2022: Got the fourth Juve, still missing an 8th ganger. Otherwise complete. Unfortunately due to the lack of different poses, I'll have doubles either way.

Update 2022

Van Saar are the techiest of the houses. In the old rulebook it is clearly stated, that their products are not more advanced, but built on a more reliable and higher quality. So quite the difference to the new edition, that covers spider suits and flying skateboards. With a house name like Van Saar, it was clear to me that they had to have dutch names. I would like to add a specialist with plasma and two gangers in random poses, as they only come with 6 different gangers.

From the paint job, I would go with the classic green of the Van Saar suits, and thus Emerald Spiders sounds like a fitting name for the gang.

Update 2022: I managed to add the plasma heavy, along with adding two further gangers. Gang complete.

House Cawdor, very obvious scottish-gaelic names for the gangers and probably Clan Marbh Ceannaideach for the gang itself (that's scot-gaelish for Dead Kennedy). I think I can use this gang, as some frateris militia with my Sisters of Battle, in times of need - or when I need more than the Redemptionist. Browns and reds, combined with a black-white checkers rim for some parts of the clothing sounds like an interesting plan.

The gang is pretty much set up, just looking for three more gangers and optional the specialist with grenade launcher.

Update 2022: Gang is complete by adding three more gangers and the ganger with grenade launcher.

Update 2022

The Delaque, the House of spies, are well known for their network to provide not only materials but intelligence. Pale skin, glasses and long coats, a certain matrix vibe for sure. Shadow Syndicate, for the gang itself and their gangs would cover something more niché, like romanian names. A few more regular "grunts" and they are good to go. As for the paint jobs, unsure if I keep it classic with the brown/grey coats or go for something more special. I think that some veins on the bald skin would look amazing - if I can pull it off.

Update 2022: Gang is complete as well, by adding the missing three gangers to go my defined full size.

At House Escher the majority of the members are women, with the few male house members degenerated weaklings. Jes Goodwin designed these, with the very punk and glam rock design. Great colour ideas for that. They share that punk esthetics with the Goliath, but they despite them the most of the other houses. I want to stay with the punk theme, I don't have a name for the gang yet (maybe Scarlett Mares or something that sounds like a punk rock band), but I think that the female gangers should have names like Sid(ney) Vicious or Bonny Rotten. Would like to add further two gangers to the crowd, then I am complete.

Update 2022: Same for House Escher, was kind a difficult as some poses are rather rare. Gang is complete.

And of course, there are the guns for hire. The underhive dwellers with some very special skill sets, some bounty hunters, some psychics and some low-life scums. The only thing missing is one of the beastmasters. I already have the beasts covered.

Update 2022: The Hired Guns got an update too with some additional poses and matching characters from that era.

That's it for the basic Necromunda, I'll do this for the Outlanders expansion and further outer areas of the planet.

Above is the stock, but what am I looking for? I have some gaps in my Necromunda collection (I have to add Pit Slaves and Scavvies, but I didn't had the chance to do a proper stock on them yet).

• House Goliath - 1 ganger (Goliath with Lasgun and Autopistol, Goliath with Autogun and Axe)

If you have these and are willing to split for trades (bulkheads, Necromunda or Middlehammer stock) / at reasonable rates, let me know.