The Scavvy Plan

When I was but a wee nip my grandparents used to refer to the Rubbish Lorry (Garbage truck/Dustcart/Refuse collection vehicle) as the 'Scaffie Cart' and the people that worked on it and did similar jobs keeping the world clean (street sweepers, rubbish dump workers) as 'Scaffies'. Obviously being kids, this word was used as an insult at school, anybody that was a bit scruffy or dirty got called a 'Scaf' or 'Scaffie (insert swear word of your choice). It always amused me therefore that 'Scavvies' (ostensibly a derivative of Scavengers) should appear in the warhammer world and refer to scruffy, smelly, bottom dwellers.

Scavvies first appeared in the background to that long forgotten game 'Confrontation'. Below you can see John Blanche's sketches for these undercity lowlifes.


And above you can see the 3 official figures that were released. I kind of wish I'd bought them now.

Why am I wasting your time chatting about rubbish and Scavvies? Well... I have a plan.

One of the great things about Blogger is that you can see where people are coming to your blog from. This often leads to other peoples blogs and search engines but sometimes you see strange names and decide to follow the link and see where it goes. The best of these links are where someone has linked to your blog in a forum that you never knew existed, sometimes they are Spanish (hello Suber and friends) and sometimes it's a whole new community like happened this week. Yaktribe are just such a forum who are dedicated to promoting Necromunda, Gorkamorka and Mordheim. I had a little poke about and signed up. They are a lovely bunch of people. It was this little injection of enthusiasm that has made me come up with a new project. Yep, a new project. And I've got a deadline!

At the end of January my lovely wife is taking the boys to visit her mum and dad for a week. This leaves me with lots of time for toy soldiering. So I've wasted no time in arranging for my two oldest skumgrods to wing their way down for a weekend of shits and giggles. I've been trying to think of a theme for a central game to play and the visit to Yaktribe was the inspiration I needed, all I needed to do was combine Gorkamorka with Necromunda with a bit of RT thrown in for good measure.

Think Mad Max 2. A isolated outpost is attacked by a band of psychotic scavvies/muties mounted on ramshackle buggies. The defenders are desperately defending their homes with the help of some off world support from some kind of visitor (Rogue Trader perhaps?)
So this means I need to convert (obviously) and paint a load of figures. I've got a mix of scavvies and diggas and a couple of other random figures and these will make up my band of desperadoes. I've bought a couple of 1/48 armoured cars that'll be converted into jallopies alongside the 'Death Taxi' that I built for BOYL.
I've also got 5 mutie steeds but they need riders so i'll convert these as well and add these to the raiders threatening the settlement (if i've got time!). The nice thing is, if I get this all finished I'll end up with a gang for necromunda and a couple of gangs for gorkamorka!

But more of that in future posts.


Back to Scavvies!

When the Confrontation background was recycled for Necromunda, Scavvies were not one of the original gangs but were later included in the 'Outlanders' supplement. They even made the cover!
Which is weird. Cos if Confrontation had been published then this image, that appeared on a White Dwarf cover, was likely to have been the cover.
They look quite scavvy-ish don't they. Popular subject for glamourous cover shots?

The miniatures that were released to go along with the supplement were a nice little bunch.


Here you can find A Scaly, some Scavvies, The Boss and some zombies. The range is larger, most figures have at least two variants plus there were several mutie figures as well.
There was a second set that was released for the 2nd Edition of the game. Again all the troop types are present but they have separate arms and weapons.

So far, so accessable. Now, this wouldn't be a blog about citadel if things were that easy. The confrontation figures are hard enough to get a hold of but there are nearly as many 'unreleased' scavvies. I'm not an expert on such matters and I must give credit where it's due to the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki and of course Stuff of legends but have a gander at the figures that never quite made it.

First of all there were the Scavvies made by Marauder for Confrontation. These gangs were only ever released at Gamesday in the states and occasionally appear for sale.

Another officailly releaed figure that seems to be a pain in the arse to find is King Redwart, a character figure from the Outlander book.

And then there is the holy grail of Scavvy Land. This is a set of unreleased Scavvies sculpted by Jes Goodwin. They are nearest in style to the original confrontation figs and are as rare as hen teeth but christ I would love to have a set.

And Finally, The Scavvy King.
(all pics from the CCM wiki)

And just because I found it, here is a pic of some of them painted just to make even more depressed.
(By Darkstar - Coolminiornot)


 Why oh why did this range not get and official release? They are fucking gorgeous figures! Oh the miniature gods are so fickle and cruel!



Comments

  1. I had the Scavvy boxed set - the Scaly is one figure that I have lost and lament (the Delaque boxed set still hurts my heart)

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    1. I've managed to get me a scaly on fleabay without paying silly prices so lets see how he turns out.

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  2. I love that issue of White Dwarf too, but for other reason-reasons...........................

    Sound slike a cool project, I'll happily replay your scenario with you at some point too.

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    1. Well, the plan was for me to set up games during the week for OGRE's as well. The wife just needs to decide exactly which days she's going down (i know the weekend she's just not sure of either side) but stay tuned for further instructions!

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    2. Sadly me no attendee BOYL this year due to life commitments (bloody weddings!!!!!). Am happy to play it any other tine for though

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  3. Good planning Colin... I married a local girl. Her parents live in the same municipality. My wife and kids never buggers off for a whole week. You're a blessed man!

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    1. I live 371 miles from the town I was brought up in which is 421 miles from where the wife grew up which is 151 miles from where we live. The chances of us ever meeting were fairly slim. Luckily her desk was right next to mine at work :)

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  4. I'm 100% with you on this one, Using that time for a quick challenge is going to be cool ! wish I had a week fo rme too !
    I know it's awful to never get our hands on these JG beauties, I just don't get why they bothered redoing some for necromunda when they could have just released those... I just don't get it, good thing is, you have the power to create unique models yourself, you've already done it with the techs !
    This looks like a project We'll have a lot pof pleasure to follow mate !

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    1. Time (and baby feeding) may be a limiting factor on the complexity of any conversions but I'm going to at least try and convert some of the figures to be unique. Lets see how I get on.

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  5. Oh I used to have a load of the old Confrontation gangers. No idea what happened to them though, sorry :(

    I also don't remember that 2nd edition Scavvie box... those are some great looking figures!

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    1. If only you stumbled across a full range of confrontation figures in the middle of the night and sent them all to me!

      I did buy a gang at the time and I've still got them but I just wish I'd bought the scavvies :(

      I actually prefer the first set of scavvies to the second but there is a flavour for everyone.

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  6. Excellent idea for a project. Scavvies are one of my all-time favourite archetypes in the 40k universe - what's not to like about desperate dregs of society, dressed in rags?! The unreleased Jes Goodwin figures are the pinacle of what scavvies should look like in my view - ragged, brutal, frightening. The Necromunda figures are either a touch too comedic (earlier ones) or not quite as elegant (later ones) - it's a real shame they were never released.

    For completeness, Ian Miller's scavvy concepts add another, more uncomfortable twist to the pool of scavvy ideas - perhaps you could try and go for something in that area of general spikiness? (http://www.magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/original-art-part-7-ian-millers-scavvy.html)

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    1. I remember seeing those on your blog, they are some gorgeous illustrations. I don't think I'll get near that level of creepiness with the time (and skills) I've got but they are something to aspire too but while we're swapping links these have a bit of that vibe about them http://frothersunite.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=45655&hilit=scavvies
      (warning! Someone has converted some of the Marauder Scavvies!)

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  7. I somehow avoided owning any Scavvies model for years despite having most of the other Necromunda stuff but then ended up picking up loads of them over the last twelve months. I have none of the US Games Day guys though.

    I am hoping to paint the lot up quickly at some point, almost like painting a horde of zombie models, so I will be watching how you do it for sure Colin. You tend to get very good results very quickly, so I reckon that this project will suit you rather well. I will be taking notes :)

    Its a great subject, good luck with it.

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  8. Looking forward to this one too. Scavvies have been awesome since the beginning, and I've been a fan of every release since (less so of the more recent one, but it still has a certain charm). I've got a few of the confrontation scavvies, and a few more of the necromunda ones, but I'd give my firstborn to get my hands on the unreleased beauties. Of course, I don't actually have a firstborn yet, but I would make one for just that purpose.

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  9. I used to own all three of the Confrontation Scavvies and a handful more from the Confrontation range. Amazing sculpts, just a shame they were supplied with the original and very boring (then) Imperial Guard plastic arms sprue, which didn't match up to their lovely sculpting at all.

    Good luck with this project. With the new Mad Max film coming out, there'll soon be more inspiration too.

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  10. Wooow, what a project you are embracing! I'm loving it, loads of charm and a whole new world of conversions ahead! Really looking forward to see what comes out of here!!

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  11. Appreciate this is an old blog post but still, actually feel better after seeing it as now know not crazy over not imagining other decent Scavvy figures one has seen in the past and everyone looking at you and asking if you mean the clownish ones from Necromunda..

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    1. No a prob mate, you comment wherever you like. Yep the older scavvies are lovely mini's, the unreleased ones are some of the best representations of them I reckon. Oh for a lovely benefactor to trip over a pile of them in the street!

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