As I find myself writing a truly massive post about my last Necromunda campaign, I find myself looking at the monstrosities that I unfortunately helped create. Much like a certain Doctor seeing his creature rampaging through the local town and deciding it might be best to get ahead of the bad press and get his version of events out there.

I am, of course, talking about The Blobbies that you may have seen online after Mr Dreadquill posted about them on BlueSky (and then Instagram nicked it).

For those not in the know, Mr Blobby is a horrifying entity beloved part of 1990s entertainment, appearing on Noel’s House Party during its 9 seasons from 1991 to 1998. There is something inherently terrifying comedic about him, from his appearance (including the staring eyes), ridiclous way of speaking and the habit to fall over and smash things. So when my Corporate Regular Opponent (who helps keep me sane at work) found a set of Mr Blobby STLs available online, he quickly asked me to print some for him, with no particular plan in mind. And me being me, I agreed and then never got around to printing them. This continued for a little while until the topic of Necromunda came up. And a plan was formed.

The Corporate Regular Opponent decided this would be the introduction to Necromunda, and he wanted a suitably whimsical gang to match his personality and play style. The Mr Blobby STLs were dug out, the gang decided upon and sketched out (Goliaths were chosen and my Former Housemate selected the list) and then it just became a matter of how to turn those ideas into models to be 3D printed, while also making them suitably armed and equipped.

Initially, the idea was to look at the weapons included in the blobby set, but none of them really fit for Necromunda. One key element of a skirmish game, such as our trip into the underhive, is some level of WYSIWYG – I don’t hold it as key as some people, but it’s handy to know that one person’s big hammer is different from someone else’s. Additionally, they also looked a little bit weedy, not really fitting for the 40k style – half the fun of putting Mr Blobby into a game of Necromunda is giving him a boltgun after all. Luckily, a few people are making Necromunda-inspired STL figures, and Print Minis have their Fleshforged gang as stand-ins for Goliaths (with both a core set and a female expansion).

Now it was time to jump into Blender and get to work. The first step was to make sure the Blobbies were the right scale (both to match against GW’s Necromunda figures and make sure they are to scale with the Flesh Forged who would be giving them guns. The next step was to prepare the weapons – this meant the careful application of a cutting cube (an object used with the subtraction tool in Blender to remove unnecessary bits of a model) to trim away the hands and then re-attach a pistol grip. Luckily, there was an exposed pistol grip on the female expansion set that was perfect. Although not perfectly matching the original designs, they worked out perfectly for the next stage – rigging the Blobby hands to properly grip the guns. The end goal didn’t have to be perfect, but flexing the fingers just enough for them to fully connect and keep the new guns and axes in place.

After a few evenings of messing around (and plenty of swearing at Blender), I managed to assemble the full gang. The list from my Former Housemate included a good mix of Goliath fun, such as the muscular Stimmer and a weird mix of guns. I also tried my best to make up a set of poses that weren’t just standing there. However, once you start assembling the arms onto them, you realise the same thing that the poor performer who had to wear the suit did – the blobby form is not designed for action, with the rotund body and short arms limiting the ability to do such useful poses for wargaming figures as “aiming” or “using a stock”. Even attempting action melee poses was tricky, especially with trying to grip a weapon across the body. So instead, I went for a few other poses, weapons held aloft to make it clear what’s being used.

To pick out a few of my favourites:

• The Stimmer was a challenge – not just to make sure it was the right size (Stimmers are a big, biologically enhanced freaks after all), but he also needed to look unique. We had originally talked about making his spots larger and more physical, but in the end, we went with the simple approach – increase the size, add two big spheres for the biceps, two big axes, done.
• I am notorious for using less obvious figures for the gang leader, and so I was keen to make sure that this gang it would be clear who would be in charge. For this one, we gave the leader the mowhawk off a regular Fleshforged ganger. Best not to think too much about where he got it from.
• Yes, that Blobby is racking a double-barreled shotgun. Yes, it makes no sense. Is it funny? Yes.
• With the grenade launcher blobby, I really liked the end result of him covering his face in embarrassment, a common occurrence with the actual Mr Blobby. It made sense for a grenade launcher user, as those weapons are blast templates and so have a chance to cause shennighans.
• My favourite model has to be the blobby with the boltgun and stub pistol. He is such a joyous figure, looking like he’s having too much fun.

Once all the figures were assembled and signed off by the Corporate Regular Opponent, I got them printed on the Saturn and passed them over to him to work his magic.

And I do mean magic. The Corporate Regular Opponent did a really good job on these guys, even during the early previews of him frantically painting them ready for the first weekend. He nailed the shade of pink, complete with the yellow dots. For the weapons, there was an original discussion about realistic stolen gear vs colourful. In the end, I loved how he went for the Nerf look, bright colours making them look like big chunky plastic and foam.

It’s the eyes, though. The eyes are a window to the soul, and dear god, the blank staring eyes of the painted Blobbies perfectly match the souless look of the original suit.

Which meant when I actually saw them on the tabletop, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. There is something gloriously gleeful about them – the pink and colourful weapons against the grime of the scenery, the fixed grin as they slowly amble towards you before doing some serious damage. You can almost hear the whispered “blobby blobby blobby” echoing through the hive.

Chilling.

Now, after an unfortunate ritual that occurred during the first weekend, the Blobbies would soon need reinforcement with a horrifying spawn replacing the Juve in his gang. For this one, the Corporate Regular Opponent decided to learn Blender (as he’d previously used 3ds Max in his day job). After much screaming and complaining, he sent me the file to print. Quite frankly, it was a horrifying file to open. I ended up printing two (one slightly enlarged) and crossed myself after peeling it off the build plate.

Yeah errr, that’s concerning. Chaos truly works in terrifying ways. He merged several of the Blobby bodies together (the different leg poses forming a writhing mass) with one oversized Blobby head on top. I do love that he also added a little collar over the gap, before marking it with the sigils of Tzeentch, the god that his gang had chosen to follow. I’ll talk more about it’s action in-game in my larger recap post, but lets just say it was a well-loved member of the gang.

With the Blobbies finished and the campaign over (more on that coming soon with my own results), the Blobbies have (luckily) disappeared into the underhive and so don’t haunt me any further. It was a really fun project – a chance to learn Blender, play around with existing models and have fun posing models which are different from purely a human man.

However, with talk already discussing an Ash Wastes campaign coming soon, perhaps the Blobbies will return to Necromunda. Perhaps we shall see more Blobbies, with dust goggles and a wider variety of headgear to hang off the side of ramshackle vehicles. Perhaps… Or perhaps we shall learn the true depth of the horror waiting behind those blank, glassy eyes…

I’ll see you later for a proper update on my own Necromunda time.

Liked it? Take a second to support Michael Charge on Patreon!