First unit of Squats complete...

As I had hoped, I managed to complete the first unit of Squats this weekend. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, and I look forward to start my second box to bulk the unit out a bit. As the Squats are a Necromunda gang and not a complete army I will not have that many boxes of figures, but at the moment I am thinking of having three. I think that will give me enough Squats to play games with them (two would probably be enough for that, but three will give me the chance to add some variation). But there are not that much variation to add since there is only one box to choose from in the range, so more than three boxes might be an overkill. But things can change as the game evolves and if we get new boxes more units will be added for sure.

The Squats are painted with a quite simple paint scheme but I think it worked out nice. I got the idea from White Dwarf Magazine where one of the players participating in a series where different kill teams fight each other used the green and gray color scheme on his Astra Militarum Kill team and I liked it so much I wanted to try it. But where he has painted, washed and layered, I have gone for paint, wash and drybrush.

The base colors are Mechanicus Standard Grey for their suits and Deathworld Forrest for their armor. A few of the Squats are wearing coats, and they are painted Death Corps Drab to make them look heavier than the suits. This was also done partly because I wanted to see how it looked as my Krieg Guardsmen will have this color on their coats and legs. Then the coats and suits were drybrushed with Dawnstone dry paint, and the armor with Straken green layer paint. Between the base color and the drybrush I washed the models with Nuln Oil.

The skin is painted the same way I paint my Gargants for AoS now, with Bugmans Glow as the base and then a wash with Guilliman Flesh. If they showed more skin I would have tried to do some drybrushing or layering with Bugmans Glow but I think it looked ok with just the wash so I left it there and used Averland sunset on all their facialhair.

Kneepads and boots were painted with Abaddon Black, and the gloves with Thondia Brown. I used that brown for all the other leather parts as well. For the belt buckles and the big head on the front of their suits I used Runelord Brass as I felt miners wouldn't have shining gold details on their suits.

All the metallic parts on the weapons, tools and suits were painted quite traditionally with Leadbelcher, and then washed with Nuln Oil.

I used Retributor armour for the visible amunition on one magazine and for a portion of the head of the club for the leader, and also as the base color for the lenses they all wear. And while we talk about the lenses, they were afterwards given a wash with Blood Angels Red contrast paint. This was done after I got a tip from an employee at Warhammer Oslo when I aked him for advice for  lens color. I was originally thinking the lenses should be black but shiny, but decided to give the red a try and I liked it a lot. So I will use this for my Leagues of Votan as well.

The weapon casings were painted Lupercal Green and for the small screens on the arms of a few of the Squats I used a slightly darker green that I don't remember the name of. But for the next batch I plan to use a green contrast paint that makes the scereens look like they are turned on instead.

On the back of the helmets I painted a stripe of Khorne Red just to add some color, because I feel that a little color might be a smart thing when you work in a mine. But I decided to use this color as I didn't want something that took all the attention away from other parts of the model as I feel something very bright might so. Also if I end up with another Squat gang in the future, then I could use the same colors and just change the stripe on the helmet to tell them apart.

The bases were coated with Armageddon Dune and Armageddon Dust, some only with dust and some with a mix. Then I washed with Agrax Earthshade before drybrushing with Morghast Bone. Then the rims were given two thin coats of Thondia Brown.

So after all this presentation, lets have a look at the finished models...

Here are the first two. There was four figures on each sprue and two sprues in the box, so these are the same model with different heads and arms. These are the ones with heay coats.

I really like handguns, so I made two more Squats with pistols, and I plan to make some more in the next batches.

These two have the "standard" weapon for the Squats, and for the next batch I will make the maximum number I can with these. They are not the best looking weapons, but being the standard I feel there should be most of these in a gang.

I really love the big gun on the left, and I will make more of this in the next boxes. The one of the right seems like a modification of the standard weapon that also looks quite cool.

Finally I added this picture just to show off the arms on the suits a little better. I like how the drybrush really got the arm design to stand out.

I like the way these colors turned out, so I have decided to use the same colors on my Leagues of Votan army.  After all they are both "space dwarfs" and even though the Leagues don't like to be called Squats they are related and some sort of kin. So maybe sometime in the future we will get some rules allowing them to be used together on the battlefield.