Trooper Mustaine

A knife fighter without peer on Necromunda, Mustaine made more than his fair share of enemies both outside and within the Death Blades. Upon recruitment into the guard, Mustaine was given a leadership role, but failed to conform to the expectations of regimental command. However his strong survival instinct and unprecedented lethality meant that he was able to avoid the ultimate penalty.
Nevertheless he has not escaped unscathed from sancture, and his wild reputation, prolific combat drug use, and sheer arrogance has resulted in him effectively being relieved of any command duties.
This fact, plus issues associated with the long term use of frenzon, slaught and other combat stimms has resulted in Mustaine withdrawing from the day to day affairs of the regiment, being rarely seen and even more rarely heard during down times. However a reputation for lethality approaching legendary status within the regiment, and having honed his ability to infiltrate and strike from the shadows to extraordinary levels, means that Mustaine remains a valuable asset on the battlefield when the Death Blades engage. 


Trooper Mustaine retains the equipment of an officer within the 9th Necromundan, complete with command chevron on his right pauldron, and company marking on his left. While he has no obvious armour on his torso, he is wearing a refractor field generator that appears to have been subject to unsanctioned modification. 
As a knife fighting specialist, Mustaine is equipped with the armament he knows and trusts. both the power sword and combat blade have been dulled to aid in stealth missions, and Mustaine is known to carry a melta bomb for when he encounters heavier targets.

While being formally assigned to F Company, in reality Mustaine has free reign to do as he wishes, and is typically seen fighting alongside Green Platoon in advance of the main force where the fighting is thickest. As Mustaine has no leadership aspirations, F Company Captain "Dirty Shank" Di'Anno is willing to let Mustaine do as he sees fit, provided it does not interfere with his plans. There appears to be some mutual respect between the two individuals, as Dirty Shank is one of the few individuals in the Death Blades that Mustaine converses with. However every day Mustaine becomes more withdrawn, and the other officers of the Regiment have been vocal in their disdain of the former officer. If Mustaine is even aware of this growing resentment is unknown, but should he choose to act there are few individuals within the regiment who could stop him.

This model is one of those models that took me by surprise. I never planned to make it, never imagined that it would even exist, and hadn't ever seen a requirement for it in the army lists that I come up with.

But I was sitting there the other day, and thought "Who would the most lethal swordsman in the Death Blades be?" which was followed with "what rules could I use to represent them?"

The answer naturally is a drug crazed knife fighter, using the eversor assasin rules of course!

So with a plan in my head, I rummaged through what bits I had available.

I had a half built, half painted officer that came with a basilisk that I bought once, so I used that as a basis for the model. The arms are plastic Cadian, with a chaos marine knife and a plastic catachan sword. Those bits were all straight forward enough.

Choosing the right head gave me some dramas. I wanted something that was an older sculpt, and tie it in with the rest of my army. My choices were fairly limited though, and the large helmets of the Rogue Trader era guardsmen looked somewhat comical on this model. I was resigned to putting on a plastic catachan head and was rummaging through my bits box when I hit the jackpot!

The head that I found is from one of the old metal Penal Trooper models. I had cut it off at some stage in it's life; I can't remember why or what for. It was painted in a rotting flesh green, so must have been on one of my traitor guardsmen at some stage.

I added it to the model, and knew the search was over. It had just the right look I was after, being an older sculpt, not some CGI nonsense, had having character and attitude in equal amounts.

All in all I'm extremely pleased with this model. I know some of the details need more polish, and that it won't win any painting awards, but it has attitude. And to me that is just what my Death Blades army is all about.