The paint is barely dry on Eidolon (the last EC miniature I’m going to paint, I’ve talked a bit about that here) and I’m already itching to get on with something else. With my 40K army in the UK at the moment, that something else is my Necromunda Escher gang.
I wrote a piece about the list building (you can find that here) so I know how I’m modelling the gang but I want to do a bit more research before I start washing and cutting the plastic. I’m a big believer in armies (or gangs in this case) that look like unified groups – a common aesthetic. My ECs have it (all the same armour finish and heavy weathering, all with lots of decals) and I definitely want to apply it to my Escher ladies. But what aesthetic am I looking for exactly?
The fluff is pretty cool and very clear. Escher make heavy use of poisoned weapons (although not in my gang they don’t) and the models make significant reference to a kind of westernized pseudo Amazonian look (referencing back to poisoned arrows used by tribes in that region).
Ok, but how will that work with a backstory for my gang? Were they historically a jungle tribe which, over millennia has moved to the Underhive? Or are they historically Underhive dwellers that know how to use poison, did some Google image searches and realized they liked the look of face paint and feathers in their hair? It’s important for one big reason. Indigenous Amazonian tribespeople look like this:
(source: http://workflow.arts.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=182861&offset=10)
Not this:
(source: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Necromunda-Escher-Gang-2017)
Now, I’m not saying all Amazonian tribes look like the top pic (I realise I’m on thin ice here) but the research I’ve done tells me that they all look a lot more like that than the GW image.
Paintjobs are very subjective but I feel like the GW image doesn’t look like an Amazonian tribe but also doesn’t look like a group of people / animals that live in low light / darkness conditions (troglobites) and the very pale skin associated with them.
(source: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/animals-that-live-in-caves.html)
It kind of just looks like a group of girls from Bracknell with feathers in their hair. I want to commit. And I think how I want to commit is to paint my gang with dark skin, to represent a group that, ethnically, came from a jungle area of Necromunda before it all went to sh*t and that the Underhive has taken over their traditional areas. They’ve evolved from traditional poisoned weapons to mechanized poison (again, not in my gang but whatever) but retained a relatively authentic Amazonian aesthetic. That will give me an opportunity to get some good contrast between the colourful clothing details and the skin.
When I look back at the models I don’t think it will be easy. The models are all t*ts, teeth and high heels but I’m going to stick to some rules in my aesthetic to really reinforce the gang:
-Dark skin
-Black hair
-Face and body paint
-No animal skins. There are many instances of Escher gangs having lots of animal skins on their clothing. That doesn’t work for me; I can’t find any reference to these in Amazonian culture. What I can find, though, is some great opportunities for freehand patterns:
(source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/381117187190060151/?autologin=true)
(source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/185773553355176089/?lp=true)
I’m looking forward to getting them built and to start painting! Let me know what you think.