NCA – The Demolition Crew

"Sarge?"
"Yes, Gabe?"
"My rifle isn't working anymore, Sir."
"What do you mean it's not working?"
"Trigger's somehow jammed, Sir."
The Fusilier didn't see Jabel roll his eyes behind his helmet. "That's because you've been sticking this thing in the mud for eighteen hours straight, you dumb fuck. Ventura!"
The head of a female Fusilier rose out of a nearby cluster of bent and rusted metal beams that had fallen off the hull of the decomposing freighter they were hiding next to.
"Sir?"
"Take over for Gabe here. He's too stupid to keep his rifle clean, even though we've been in this god-forsaken pit for three days already. Gabe!"
The young man tried to pretend he wasn't flushing. "Yes, Sir!"
"Head back to camp Two and clean the fucking thing. And when someone shoots your head off, you let command know we need reinforcements."
After the soldier had made it around the far corner of the ship without being splattered by the Ariadnan Cateran that had pinned them down here for way too long, Jabel checked his comm. Where the fuck was that Locust, and what the fuck was taking her so fucking long?
"Sarge?"
This time, it was Ventura.
"What?"
If she pulled any more of the stupid shit the rest of this incompetent batch of idiots was tormenting him with, Jabel wasn't sure he wouldn't just shoot himself.
"You know what I've been wondering, Sarge? Why is it that whenever there's a shit-ass job on a pile-of-shit planet like this one, it's us they send? There are two hundred and fifty battalions in the NCA. 'The pride and joy of the hyperpower!' But all we get are these busted pieces of hand-me-down armor and the oldest fucking remotes in the world" – she looked at the nearby Fugazi whose yellow coat of paint was almost completely invisible under the layers of rust and dirt — "and yet they expect us to accomplish the mission anyway. If you ask me, it's a joke."
"And yet, we do." The voice had come from further to the left. A Neoterran Bolt in rusted red-yellow armor was throwing little pieces of trash at the Fugazi, which was struggling to free its half-submerged leg from a puddle of mud.
"Shut up," said Jabel. He had forgotten the guy's name, but he remembered his intense lack of sympathy for him.
"But we do!" repeated the Bolt. "We accomplish the mission. We might look like a bunch of construction workers in power armor, but we get the job done. That's why they call us the Demolition Crew. We demolish everything in our path. Isn't that right, Sir?"
Jabel surpressed the urge to throw the guy over the edge of the trench. "What's your name, soldier?"
"Zephyr, Sir."
"And how long have you been with this platoon?"
"I filled in for Juarez, Sir. Arrived yesterday. And damn proud to be here. Folks in my previous squad talked a lot about this crew. Said it was a special honor."
"Well, you must be the stupidest fucking Bolt of all the stupid fucking Bolts I've ever met if you didn't realize your squad was taking the biggest fucking piss out of you, not-Juarez. What actually happened is that you've hit the bottom of the barrel, son. Try feeling honored about that. And just to be clear, the only thing we have accomplished on this mission is not getting every single soldier's head blown off by a bunch of claymore-wielding wankers. Which is basically true for every other mission. Count yourself lucky if you get off this planet with your ballsack attached."
Jabel noticed that some of the brackish water he was standing in had managed to find a chink in his leg armor. Now it was slowly soaking into the soft padding around his foot. He cursed loudly.
"And to answer your question, Ventura, we're here because we're the only ones no one will miss when we diw. You know how every army has a top brass? Well, it also has a bottom brass. And that's us. All of us are here because we fucked up in some way that made it impossible to keep us on the posters, yet just a little too competent to completely throw us away. And if not-Juarez hasn't realized that yet, I don't know how his brain is even functional enough to hold his rifle. Fact is, we're cheap. We're ugly. Most of all, we're deniable. When High Command needs to get a job done they don't want to draw attention to, they send us. We don't even look like NCA in these ridiculous clown suits. Yeah, they call us the Demolition Crew to make it sound less bad, but do you wanna know the real reason we got that name? It's because – "
He was interrupted by a sharp whistle over his head. Instinctively, he ducked and grabbed the edge of the leaning metal wall next to him. Boosted by the remaining power in the boots of his Swiss Guard's armor, he swung himself around the corner into the darkness inside the rusted hull. A millisecond later, the world around him became muffled. A deluge of mud and water, including half an arm that looked like Ventura's, splashed through the gap in the wall next to him. After about twenty seconds, the ringing in his ears subsided.
Jabel peaked outside. Only the yellow stabilizer rods of the Fugazi peaked out of a fresh mound of mud the size of truck. There was a crater next it, created, as he concluded, by the grenade that had landed in the exact spot the three of them had just stood in.
He unlocked his weapon and retreated further back into the wreckage.The real reason, he concluded his unfinished sentence in his mind, we're called the Demolition Crew is because it's so easily to demolish us. Seriously, where the hell is that Locust?



Welcome to my new project: THE DEMOLITION CREW

Since for the time being, I am done with my Nomads, I am finally ready to start with NCA. The little fluff piece you just read might give you an idea of what I have in mind for this army. Basically, I want to take the shiniest flagship army of PanO and turn them into the dirtiest, most busted-up shitbags of the Sphere.

I got the idea from a paintjob by Giraldez for Wyrd miniatures as well as a youtube tutorial on weathering from Squidmar and decided to combine that with my wish to try out a few speedpainting techniques on the Icestorm PanO half I got for cheap from a friend. The decision for NCA was made when I took a look at the Uhlan and decided I just needed that model in my life, shitty profile notwithstanding.

With that in mind (and being exhausted from painting Nomads for so long) I set myself a new goal: To paint the whole Sectorial in one month.

To make things perfect, the #opathome painting challenge just came around, which coincided neatly (although a little bit tightly) with completing my Nomads. So, for the last two weeks I managed to paint the first 13 models in a total of 20 hours, which I'm quite happy with.



These are obviously not on par with my other stuff, but since that wasn't the goal anyway, I'm happy with them. I wanted to see how much a simple color scheme, a flashy weathering effect and consistent basing would be able to pull off. Tell me what you think!

The process

First, I decided I didn't want more than 30 miniatures for the Sectorial. That meant some minis would have to double for more than one profile, and some things I wanted to proxy. Here's what that's gonna look like as far as I planned it:


In words:

• Akalis and Kamau from Icestorm will be my two Auxiliar.
• Female Fusilier will double as Trauma Doc as well as Bipandra.
• Comm Tech HVT will be my Machinist.
• Locust will also be a Hexa (mostly, actually).
• Swiss Guard will also be an Aquila.
• Uhlan will also be a Squalo (I'm planning on some magnet shenanigans to be able to switch him from a 40mm to a 55mm base).
• Peacemaker will also be a Bulleteer (mostly, actually, as well).
• Karkata will do Palbot, Crabbot and maybe even Devabot jobs (although he's not S2, so might have to rethink that if I ever do play a Devabot).
• O12 Alpha will be my Richard Quinn.
• Patsy Garnett will be Uma Sørensen, Shona Carano or a second Orc if I ever need one.
• Corporate Executive HVT will also be my third CSU Unit.
• Coldfront Yadu will be my Deva.
• No Black Friars planned so far since I don't think I'll ever really play them.

This is what that resulted in during assembling the first batch:



(I only realized after that group shot that my Mulebot/Traktor Mul conversion had turned out too small for such a big base and was better used as a Clipper Dronbot than a second Mulebot. That's why she's on a 40mm base in the following pictures.)

As for the painting process:



1. Tape stuff that you want to be stripey with Tamiya tape.
2. Basecoat everything with GW Rhinox Hide.
3. Take a batch of no more than 5 minis each and spray them with chipping medium.
4. Do simple airbrush of your main color, including gradients (in my case, orange+yellow for the yellows, dark red+red for the reds).
5. Go at it with brushes to create the chipping effect.
6. Drench everything in an oil color wash mix of brown and black.
7. Wait 20 minutes, then rub away most of the oil color again to get a super greasy, grimy, dirty look.
8. Let everything dry, then continue with detail work.

Detail work consisted only of:

• Some very sloppy and quick shading and highlighting with Contrast Colors and a few acrylics
• Spraying the lights in with some titanium white and Vallejo Escorpena Green
• Slapping some AK Interactive puddle liquid mixed with a drop of Vallejo Khaki on the bases

I made pictures of each minit, but since this post is already quite long, I'm putting them in a spoiler;

Spoiler: Single Minis

Sniper Bolt (SR is the Marksman Rifle from the Locust)


Combi/Paramedic Bolt (Combi is from the female Fusilier)


Spitfire Bolt (Spitfire is the HMG from the Kamau)


Fusilier/Trauma Doc/Bipandra (Pistol/Nanopulser is 3D-printed, Med-Gun is from the Bolt paramedic)


Machinist


Palbot/Crabbot/Devabot


Locust (Combi is from the female Bolt)


Orc


Swiss Guard/Aquila Guard (Pistol is from the male Chasseur)


Dronbot 1 (Mulebot / Traktor Mul kitbash)


Dronbots 2&3

 

Small update: Second Mulebot/Traktor Mul conversion is ready to go:



Also, I had the biggest scare the other day when I decided to assemble my Uhlan. I had spent months finding one and got very lucky to finally obtain a box with both Uhlan and Tik and managed to make back the money I spent on it by selling the Tik. I was just starting to attach the legs when I noticed that I didn't see his right arm anywhere. Started to look around my whole apartment — it was gone.


Starting to get really worried, I texted the guy in the UK who I had sold the Tik to, in the flimsy hope (and dread of my own stupidity) that I had managed to pack the Uhlan arm with the Tik parts.
Long story short: He actually had it. Which means I'm really stupid, but also really lucky. The arm is on its way back to me, and should it survive the trip across the channel, my Uhlan will be two armed yet. Boy oh boy...

PostScript: I love the comradery in hobby communities like these. He sent it back no questions asked, even though we're complete strangers apart from that one transaction. Honestly, these kind of stories make me love this hobby even more.

 

Second batch is ready to go



I'm also done assembling. Did a few more minor conversions/arm swaps/weapon swaps:



Patsy needed a sword to believably turn into Shona Carano, Alpha needed a marksman rifle in order to become Richard Quinn, and the Akalis had given her combi to the Kamau so he could become an Auxilia, so he got the Bolt's combi to... also become an Auxilia.

 

Well, here you go :)

How did you know? :P

Also, my two Auxilia. All five of them got done in one afternoon. I'm really starting to like this process:

 

Thanks. And the next batch:

Mulebot (my favorite so far)


Last two Fusiliers:


Last Bolt:


Which puts me already at 60 percent done and pretty much a functional Sectorial in three weeks:



The only thing that's missing to play the majority of lists is a couple CSUs. Those will be next.

 

Beneath the bottom of the barrel then? :P

Thanks! Yeah, wanted to try out something completely different from my Nomads paint style. And grimedark it is! :D

Those are from the Ariadnan Traktor Muls :) Steal away!

Unfortunately my initial goal of finishing them in one month will have to be stretched to two months, because I'm on vacation for three weeks now. The rest will be done in August, hopefully just in time before Crimson Stone arrives.

 

Thanks!

I'm back from my vacation with three CSU Units. These well-dressed ladies did not know what they were getting into when they accepted this job. Literally.



This is the first time I tried my hand at a sheer effect. Suffice to say, if you want it to look good from up close, you can't do it quickly. I still did it quickly, so it doesn't look that good from up close XD It's enough for tabletop standard though.

One other thing I only noticed when I started painting is that the ltd. ed. CSU Unit is the exact same model as the VIP Executive HVT, just 3D-modeled and therefore much larger. Maybe that's common knowledge to everyone else, but I found it funny. It's the same outfit, same hair, and same suitcase. Which, lore-wise, means that that innocent looking CEO lady from the Dire Foes pack is actually an undercover mercenary.

Therefore, I felt no qualms forcing her to give up the charade and officially join the ranks of my CSU force ;)