Comrade's Wargames

If you know me, then you know that I’m a sucker for the fantastic 28mm sci-fi figures from Pig Iron Productions. Over the years I’ve collected skirmish squads and warbands from most of their figure lines, including the gritty, weaponed-up Heavy Infantry, to the bizarre, rag-wrapped Kolony Ferals, to the greatcoat-and-gasmask troopers from the Kolony Militia series. I am, in short, a Pig Iron aficionado.

Earlier this month I finally got around to completing my newest acquisitions: the System Scavengers. They’re sort of a mix of near-future commandos and sci-fi shock troops, with ramshackle armor, enclosed helmets and lots of packs and pouches. I snatched up a 10-man squad of these guys back shortly after the Brexit announcement, when the British pound was weak against the dollar. Then they sat (as new acquisitions often do) in my project box while I focused on other stuff (namely, building my nascent Night Lords 40k army).

Now that my 40k setting is humming along, I wanted an excuse to paint up these System Scavengers. So they’ll be introduced as part of an Imperial Guard detachment that is taking part in the exploration of Caluphel Prime (the main planet in my homebrew 40k setting).

In addition to simply loving these figures, I was also enamored by the yellow and gray paint job in the official Pig Iron studio photos. So (in a rare moment of artistic license) I decided to try to emulate it.

In retrospect I think my yellow was a bit more ochre than the Pig Iron studio photos, but I’m still happy with the result. It’s a bolder paint scheme than I probably would have attempted without some inspiration.

The four-legged mobile support weapon is a repurposed Mechwarrior model. I gave him a new head to bring the figure more in line with his 28mm buddies on the battlefield.

These guys will hit the table soon in a game of Grimdark Future (the next iteration of One Page 40k). Stay tuned!