Meet "The Jacks."  After watching a Louis Gosset Junior movie (I think it was called "The Super") I decided I liked the black trenchcoat look with the sunglasses.  Rather than being all geeky and hi-techy like the GW Delaque gang, The Jacks actually looked like they would kick your ass.  Above is the entire gang, although not all of them were in service at once.  As the progession of Necromunda goes, young Juves eventually earn enough experience to become full-fledged gang-bangers.  So, several of the models are just that- grown up Juvies!

 

The challenge to painting a black gang is that (unlike whites, at least in the gaming world), blacks tend to have skin variations that are a lot more dynamic than whites.  So, rather than having them unrealistically the same skin tone, I experimented with different colors and blends to give each model a unique look and add variety to the gang as a whole.

 

These 4 are at the Top of the gang:  Picasso, Slade, Iceman and The Cleaner.  Picasso was the token figurehead of the gang (meaning opposing gangs were always out to get him).  Many of the derelict buildings and barriers in our Underhive had graffiti painted on by Picasso as his trademark.  This annoyed opposing gangs all the more!

 

The Iceman was technically the gang leader, although he eventually accumulated several Old Battle Wounds and half the time wouldn't show up for a battle!  One new arrival (long since forgotten his name) once challenged Iceman for leadership of the gang (in a knife fight) and, somehow, Iceman took the challenger down and retained his position at the top of the gang, albeit often in absentia.  The models are all stock GW Delaque models, although The Cleaner has a modified White Sox baseball cap on (bearly visible above his stylin' blue-rimmed shades).

 

Alot of the excitement in a gang comes from the Juvies.  These guys start out with shabby stat lines, a knife and (usually) a light stubber pistol.  You send them off to do crazy/suicidal stuff and see if they earn their keep.  My Juvies did well.  From the left:  Trixie, Huggy Bear and Spook.  Trixie is actually a modified Ral Partha model (I believe from the Cyberpunk or Wearwolf figure range) with big knife and auto pistol added.  I loved the flowered jeans with the ballet skirt.  Of the three, Spook had the roughest time- taking a headwound that made it difficult for him to keep his balance.  At the same time, his Ballistic Skill acceled so he had the stat profile perfect for a Sniper.  Thus, to keep him from falling off high buildings on a regular basis, the gang eventually ponied up a Grav Chute and a grapnel so he could get around safely. (Note the naked woman torso painted on Huggy Bear's T-shirt).  If look look closely, you can see Spook has a colorful "Miami' button-down on under his ammo belt.

 

All grown up!  From left-to-right:  Trixie and Huggy Bear.  The ganger on the right with the shotgun was a later recruit who probably came and went under different names (since I can't remember who he was).  Trixie's model is one of the Escher's converted to carry a plasma pistol.  She was painted by Josh Lyons and was an active member of his gang until he no longer had a use for the model (due to death of the ganger or a change in weaponry).  I repainted the skin to blend in with the gang while trying to preserve the rest of the paint on the model.

 

The newest additions:  You'll notice these models are not completed since the game fell off before I could get them into my ranks.  On the far left is another new Juvie model.  This one is also an old Ral Partha model with auto pistol added.  The two in the middle are converted 40K Imperial Guard models (Ice World of Valhalla).  The Cleaner had upgraded to a greande launcher and the Valhalla group had such a model.  I converted them by cutting off the hat with the winter hat and adding plastic bald heads from the Goliath sprue (which comes with the Necromunda game).  You can see by my election of another shotgun on the right that the shotgun was a weapon of choice for the gang.

 

The Jacks eventually got to be too big to fight a lot of the "average" sized gangs in our group, so I decided to spell them by starting a second gang- Redemptionists.  The KKK similarity was just too tempting to pass up as a foil to my larger gang.  Rivalries between the two would go to a whole new level!  Unfortunately, the Redemptionists never really got going.  They were an Outlander gang and the rules tended to make it difficult for Outlanders to expand as easily as "accepted" gangs.  (Granted, I could've just sucked with them but it always seemed we were out-numbered or on the run from the Law).

 

Here is a close-up of two models showing the paint scheme and the carnival masks.  The original gang color scheme is red with flames, but I liked the white cloaks (in fact, the flames weren't added until later on, since the KKK theme stuck with me for a while).  About half the gang is completed- the rest of the models were never finished since the gang didn't grow fast enough before we lost interest and moved on to other things.  Several Imperial Guard models were adopted for this gang as well, with Inquisitors taking the role as gang leaders and Heavy Weapons.

 

There were plenty of nasty things running around the Hive for our gangs to tangle with- not just each other.  I had a collection of old tyranid Genesteelers and Hybrids (see the Showcase for my Tyranid army), which always made for fun "there's a monster in the Hive" scenarios.  Bear in mind that this game hit its peak not long after the Aliens movie came out, so there was plenty of inspiration for nasty things along the narrow passages.

 

Above is a Ratskin Scout painted by Tim Murray (not sure why, since he didn't play the game).  Many gangs used a Scout to find their way around the Hive.  He is a hired mercenary.  Beside him is a Ratling Sniper (also known as a Hafling Sniper).  These too, were hired mercenaries that could show up from time to time.  Mine were most often recruited by the Adeptus Arbites (the Hive police) who occasionally ambushed one of the gangs if they remained in one place too long.