I'm currently playing a few more games that I usually get to, so thought I'd take a little time to make some nicer terrain. I'm working my way up to making some buildings with plasticard and bulkheads, a la dsteingass (though obviously with considerably less skill!). I'm still working on gangs, so don't worry, the QA will still be very slowly forming up. Mark and Andy, if you're reading, hope you like what your seeing!
A couple of weeks ago, I saw someone had made some really cool skip / dumpster type things on Eastern Fringe. I now can't find the post for the life of me, which is annoying, as I'd really like to credit the guy for an ace idea. That aside, here's my own skip, and a little more junkyard terrain Hope you like it!
Terrible what some people throw away...
As always, I love any feedback, great or terrible. So please hit me with what you think!
@Rogue - Thanks, man! I'm planning on knocking together some buildings eventually - shanty-town-esque corrugated iron shacks and some bigger buildings using the necro bulkheads. I'm pretty new to terrain work though, so I'm easing into it with some smaller items
@Skalk - I wouldn't worry, I'm sure it'll be rescued by one of the wastelanders and riveted to the edge of a ramshackle hut in no time.
Thanks! They’re really simple actually, and made pretty much how you’d expect. Plus they’re basically free! I cut tiny squares from a real bin bag (you can still use them if you cut it from the top!), then kept any ‘modelling trash’ I made for a few days – things like offcuts of plasticard, shavings from drilling or mould-lining, or bits of sprue. Finally, a little variety of bits goes into each bag with some PVA glue to keep it together and allow you to mould the bag. Then you wire it shut with copper wire. Done! I think they fit my theme pretty well
Today’s update is a bit more on track, as people tend not to be too interested in terrain anyway. Mainly updates on guys you’ve met before! First up is Lodge, who’s now ready for paint. That strap was an absolute, throw-the-model-out-the-window bitch to glue down, and I have no idea why. Glad it’s out the way now though.
Latchkey / Caleb is done too, complete with bent road sign and some ruiny basing. I’m quite pleased with how his pose turned out, though it turned out to be a lot more difficult to keep proportional than I anticipated. Hope you like him – don’t think a model’s spent this long in the sculpting phase in quite a while!
And finally, a quick model I threw together for a vet squad. Not too special, but I like how the leg came out. I say ‘quick’ - Actually started this model about 2 years ago, but was never pleased with her. Think she’s sorted now!
And finally, major (as in, mapping out the territory around Skew Spire, rewrites on quite a few stories, bios for most QA characters and hopefully a few new things!) fluff update coming in my showcase blog at some point over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out!
Hope you like this little lot, and please let me know what you like / hate – best way to learn!
nice update scarp! lodge is looking really cool, i love the fact that he isnt much holding his gun, but interacting with the invironment..and latchkeys pose is amazing, he looks great
Hey up Scarp, you just keep getting better and better at modelling man - just looking back and seeing the ridiculous sculpting you do these days, it's awesome!
I quoted this pic because I'm sensing a theme appearing here 'morrigan, pointer at refuse'.... I hope he subtly pops up pointing at other things in future.
Apart from that, my only feedback is keep it up, and have you ever considered consolidating all your fluff in one easily-accessible place? I find it difficult to remember the different backstories.
Apologies for the delay! Work has been a bitch, and I've had very little time. Here's the first part of an intro to the campaign world, which I'll hopefully be giving out to some other players eventually. Not my best, but I wanted to write something. Hope you like it.
Thanks a ton also for the comments, replies to come below!
Irradiated dust and surface dirt howled with the wind through the rent in the dome roof, pooling and swirling in vast dunes around the rusted metalwork of the Creek. The single spar of cold sunlight seemed alien here, throwing long shadows from ancient archways and spotlighting the thick powder that hovered in the air. It was the first time the dome had been exposed to the surface for probably hundreds of years, but Leeson’s Run had brought a lot of the structure down with it as it collapsed. They’d been lucky not to be buried alive. The sound and fury of Caitiff’s surface forcing itself upon the dome made the fragility of the place more palpable - already the fearsome winds were making their mark on the virgin buildings of the Creek. It would not be long before the antique structures were just more sand-eroded ruins, walls carved smooth and razor thin. Crow sighed.
Even through the harsh filter of her goggles and the harsher filter of nearly half a millennium, the beauty the Creek had once possessed was unmistakeable. Hundreds of years ago it would have been an exclusive suburb, ornate and ornamental, a fashionable address for the upper echelons of pre-Imperial society. Permeated throughout with placid canalways, veins running from what was now the Grey Sea, the water proved a genteel and anachronistic means of transport – a serf at the helm, a nobleman reclining. The waterways were once lined with self-commissioned statues of great statesmen, their names now long-forgotten. If you searched hard enough, fragments of these illustrious men could still be found in the detritus that carpeted their former homes. Jutting spars of marble, pockmarked and streaked with runoff, are now the only hints of the dome’s former grandeur: it’s noble purpose did not last. As the hive grew, so too did the expectations of its richer denizens. Was it not right for the upper classes to be on top of the pile, both figuratively and literally?
The Creek had fallen from fashion as one by one its residents moved up in the world. Their homes, though, found new owners. A hive is a living thing – the flow of people ebbs and changes, but an empty chamber will soon be filled. The ready access to a renewing supply of water was not ignored - the newly vacated Creek quickly developed into a hub of industry, with pipelines, walkways and twisted metal production lines snaking round and through the existing buildings. Manufactorums need vast resources and produce plentiful waste, and the beauty of the dome did not stand long against these twin assaults: Lavish but crumbling mansions were gutted and converted to worker’s hab blocks and pumping stations, ornamental architecture demolished to make space for larger vehicles. The canals became putrid lakes of brackish water, filled with both the human waste of the workers and the industrial run-off of the factories. Fumes filled the Creek, rising through cracks like steam from a sewer to taint the domes above. But even this period could not last. With the Skew’s inexorable growth, hivequakes, floods and tsunamis became more and more frequent, interrupting productivity in the lower levels. Such environmental disasters had been common for years, of course – a few thousand workers killed here and there did little to dent production. But these larger events threatened the buildings themselves, and with the infrastructure of manufacture endangered, the industrialists moved on.
By the time Easthollow fell, the Creek was nothing but a den of cutthroats, occupied only by gangbangers; criminals and mutants unable to live in civilised society. But for the hundreds of millions of refugees seeking shelter in the hives from the toxic surface, little option remained. Living conditions were squalid and overcrowded in the Spire even before the Easthollow disaster, with rival factions warring over the most basic spaces to live. Where else but the largely abandoned underhive was there for the new arrivals to call their own? Compared with the alternative, even a life among the outcasts did not seem such a daunting prospect. Shanties and shacks built from corrugated metal and scavenged wood sprang up in their hundreds, their ramshackle facades adding further incongruence to the opulence and industry of the Creek. When conflict over territory escalated, even the waterways were utilised, with crookedly inter-connected archipelagos floating tentatively in the waste. A new economy of scavenged and stolen goods emerged, and for a few months, the Creek became, once again, a home to hundreds.
The Creek today was abandoned. In the months that followed the Easthollow disaster, the air on the surface cleared – It would never be safe again, and even now Crow was sure they were dying a little with each breath they took, but it was, at least, breathable once again. Over time, people began to venture back into Skew State, forming new communities, and reconnecting with those who had found shelter in the open. The overcrowding of the hive eased off, to a degree. But unknown to those that stayed, the air was filtered by moving water on the surface, and it became clearer at the exact rate that the ocean took up its poisons. The floating citizens of the Creek, those who had built their own shelter even on the turbulent effluent that made up what was once the canalways, were the first to fall sick. Those that stayed were not far behind them. From the day the first refugee died from contact with the tainted water, it was less than a month before, for the first time in its history, the dome stood empty.
It was in this historical water, surrounded in equal parts by riches and poverty, that Riff had drowned.
Loving your work. The thing i like best is hard to put into words i can best describe it a 'civilian' and/or 'down to earth' feel to your models. They look like a crew of normal guys who kinda fell in together and are learning through experience and Bungled heists etc.
I can imagine these guys trading firefly style quips and the rugged heroes possesing a Vintage Han Solo wit.
@Rogue Wolves - Thanks a bunch! For these guys I'm going for a post-battle, relaxed type theme, rather than a combat sort of thing. Glad you picked up on it
@Prototype - It might be a bit late for that dumpster, but cheers for the idea! I'll try to remember for future projects - I'm working on a fair bit of terrain at the mo.
@dsteingass - Thanks, buddy! You inspired me to have a bash at terrain in the first place, so I really appreciate that.
@Baldsmug - Not quite what I was going for, but he kinda does! It's promethium, though, so hopefully no-one's drinking it
@PDH - Thanks so much, Peter! I'm actually really happy with his pose - took a lot of readjustment to get it to work!
@Cap'n R - Thank you very much, Cap'n, you're way too kind Glad you like what I'm doing though! I'm working on consolidating the fluff at the moment - I just want to finish off one or two of the stories that are half done (I am doing them, honest! Remember the Jackal squad that found the shaft?!), and I'm currently working on a map of the area round Skew Spire, but hopefully this week or next. Will be sure to post here when I do.
And as to Morrigan, I have no idea what you mean
@Skalk - He's just milking it, really. Little bit of traumatic peritonitis never killed anyone. Well, no one that shouldn't have manned up and dealt with it
@Perkustin - Thank you! That has totally made my day: you just described perfectly what I was going for with the Jackals in better English than I could even manage. Thank you so much! Really glad you like what's going on, hopefully I can keep it up
Thanks so much for the comments, everyone - hopefully some kind of model update this weekend!
Today's update is a little bitty - I've been doing lots of small things, but nothing I really thought worth posting. So now you get lots of small and rubbish updates in one larger rubbish update!
First up is something I've been working on for a little while - thought I'd try my hand at sculpting something from scratch. It's a steep learning curve and I've learnt a fair few things, but it's still all looking a little rough. Obviously he's still unfinished (the arms in particular are just skeleton at the mo), but I wanted to show you how everything looks so far!
I think the pose is working ok, and I'm quite proud of the oxygen cylinder with the tiny watch parts. The head needs work, but I've never sculpted a face before:
I know I say this a lot, but I would genuinely LOVE any input people might have on this guy - it's very new ground for me, and I'd appreciate any tips at all.
I've also been playing with oil paints and rust washes on a few terrain pieces. These barrels got a wash that wasn't quite thin enough, but I still reckon they work, and now I know for next time.
Some techniques produce better results than others - I'm a big fan of how the one on the bottom left here came out:
I tried a different oil technique (I think it's called 'screening' or something ) on these:
and I finished up the sofa pile and started on some quick mesh fences:
Finally, another Remnant truck is a little further along:
Again, apologies for the bittiness, but I haven't really had time to do much sitting down and hobbying at the moment, so I've been doing small things when I have the time! I've got a Gen Med exam on Thurs, have been working full time placements, and signed a lease on a new flat today, so have been fairly busy!
As always, please let me know what you reckon, but I'd love any C&C at all on the sculpt in particular, be it good or bad. Hope you're all doing ace!
If you can drag yourself away from revision can you let me know how you did both of the bottom barrels (green and blue) because I think they look great.
Very nice necro bulkheads, fences and I think the sofa is genius.
The climbing man is very well done. I really like his vest and backpack. Comments on the face...I applaud it because I think it is great and a very big step. While it isn't perfect it is a good start. I think the details need to be finer at the moment they look quite blunt. Did you make the face up or did you try and copy it from somewhere? If you made it up I suggest you find a face on the internet and try and copy it. I know when I have been altering models faces using faces from the net really helps me get there.
Good Luck for Thursday....when will you be staring on Junior Doctors?
@PDH - I have found worse reasons to drag myself from revision Glad you like them! The wash is applied sparsely, and it's a small blob of burnt umber oil, some orange rust weathering powder, and about 10 drops of white spirit. Next time I'll probs add more spirit - it was a bit too thick for what I was going for. Really easy to do, just kind of a pain needing spirit to clean your brushes afterwards.
Thanks a bunch for the compliments on the terrain stuff, and especially your critique on the sculpt. I did indeed make the face up - I thought it might be easier to just get general shapes down before trying to copy something existing, but now that I think about it using a real reference makes everything easier Will definitely have to try that on my next face. Do you happen to have any tips for the fine detail? Your recent stuff has been amazing, and half the reason for me attempting this. For this I got the basic shape with my clay shapers (kind of like trying to do calligraphy with a paint roller) then used a hobby knife to carve, but I was having trouble getting it to behave how I wanted it to.
Thanks for the well wishes! No fear on the Junior Doctors program - I don't graduate til the end of June, and I have more sense than to televise my first few weeks on the job I start in August - I recommend not getting sick AT ALL in August - there will be roughly 150 brand new junior docs in Edinburgh alone. Be afraid!
Thanks for the well wishes! No fear on the Junior Doctors program - I don't graduate til the end of June, and I have more sense than to televise my first few weeks on the job I start in August - I recommend not getting sick AT ALL in August - there will be roughly 150 brand new junior docs in Edinburgh alone. Be afraid!
The funniest and most frightening thing I have read all month!
Fine detail not really as I say I've only added bits to faces. I used two a clay shapers both size 0 (taper point and cup round) and a thin pointy dental/sculpting tool. Plus remembering to let areas dry before moving onto the next part. Another thing I cheated with the two of the faces that needed eyes a mutant navigator and a scavvy so no need to be anatomically correct.
That's not even the worst of it - a lot of the consultants take holidays in August because they don't want the hassle of dealing with the new recruits! It's a terrible system - seriously, but off that illness til September
Working with white spirit and brush cleaners keep in mind that they can do terrible things to your brushes by degreasing the hair entirely. I never use my Series 7s with brush cleaners.
On sculpting, I was in a sculpting workshop some years back and I've learned so much. One thing I wouldn't ever do again for example is sculpting something from scratch with GS. If you want to sculpt an entire miniature get a proper polymer clay like Super Sculpey. You can work that stuff for weeks even months, it doesn't dry until you bake it and it's allows a lot more detail.
Apart from that, there are a lot of tutorials around, the guys on Massive Voodoo have some, Scibor has some, just have a look around.
And if you want to see a god of sculpting at work, have a look at smellybug's aka Peter Konig's work (yeah the guy who made pretty much every great creature in the movies come alive, back when nobody knew CGI would feth up a whole line of work/art. Jurassic Park, Coneheads, Dragonheart bla looky herehttp://www.peterhkonig.com/resume/):
@dsteingass - Hey! We get like one month of sun a year and we are going to make the best of it, damn it! There does seem to be way more of a culture that values free time in Europe than America though - have you considered a move?
@Baiyuan - Thanks a ton for the tips, I really appreciate that. I've heard great things about super sculpey - will have to see what i can find. I'll have to have a look around for tutorials too - Peter Konig's stuff in particular looks amazing! Guess I'll have a fair few things to read through this weekend!
I've been asked a couple of times to put my fluff in one place, so here's most of it. A lot of stories have been rewritten, there are a couple of new bits, and a map of the area around Skew Spire in there too. There are a few stories about miniatures that I haven't finished painting yet still to come, but I'll save them til that's done. More to come on the Jackal cell investigating the lift shaft too! Realise this is a pretty huge dump of words and images, but I hope you like it! I posted on my showcase blog too.
TL;DR campaign fluff - Caitiff is a planet recently returned to Imperial control. It’s economy boomed on the offworld export of a mineral known as rusinate. As supplies dwindled, unrest developed, and Easthollow hive eventually fell during a civil war, triggering an environmental disaster. An evacuation was planned, but only a miniscule proportion of the planet's population were able to reach evacuation points. The planet now has no system of government and conditions are anarchic outside of several larger settlements. Much of the air on the surface is poisonous, though settlements have sprung up in pockets of clearer air, and hive cities with their own air filtration systems remain. Major factions include Ridgeway's Remnants - a small community originating from civilian and PDF remnants; the Quadring Accord - a group originating from prisons and penal legions; the Hollows – a community of oppressed survivors of Easthollow, many of whom are twisted by the effects of rusinate runoff; and a few others. The two main gangs at the moment are the 21st Jackals (the first gang), affiliated with the Remnants; and a scavenging cell of the QA (the second).
Info on the planet setting: (I reckon this one is pretty important, but spoilered anyway for those who aren't really interested )
Spoiler:
Caitiff is a medium-small temperate world on the outer southern fringe of Imperial-controlled space. Its population once stood at around 15bn, with several small hive cities containing the vast majority of the population. Its income and value to the Imperium came from a rich supply of rusinate below its surface, a material essential in the production of, among other things, bolter cartridges, temperature regulation cells and in the refinement of various mineral ores. For several hundred years after its reintegration, Caitiff prospered – a bolstered economy, protection and trade with newly contacted Imperial fleets produced a new upper class of self-made industrialists and traders.
As stocks of rusinate dwindled, however, so too did Caitiff’s value to the Imperium. With a relatively small population and little other minerals of value, the off-world contact and trade that had been the life blood of the new Caitiff slowly ebbed away. The economy suffered, and rising food prices and increasingly squalid living conditions kicked off a process of grumbling unrest among the working classes of Caitiff’s larger cities. The planetary governor at the time, Dyran Lavenne, was a corrupt bureaucrat widely recognised to be in the pocket of various industry moguls, and little to no relief effort occurred. Food riots in Skew Hive and The Point were met with live fire from PDF forces, and an increasingly brutal arbite force enforced draconian ‘austerity laws’, leading to the disappearance of many dissenters. Civil war seemed a certainty. A number of popular resistance groups arose, and a pattern of ‘liberated’ population centres being mercilessly retaken by government forces began to emerge. Civilian casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but it was only when several companies of the PDF defected to the rebel cause that the rebellion became a real and credible threat. Reports of executions and massacres on both sides could not be verified.
The downfall of the government of Caitiff didn’t come through military action, however, but through accident, poor construction and bad luck. The last hive city to spring up on Caitiff was different from the others. Over thousands of years as the previous cities had grown, councils had been elected to ensure adequate ventilation, constant power and water supply, and structural integrity of the spire itself. Most of these councils were hereditary positions, chosen from the educated and wealthy elite. Some were benevolent, some self-interested, but all ensured the safe growth of their cities, both in height and spread. Easthollow, however, was in essence a vertical shantytown, a swaying and ever-expanding structure that sprang up over less than two hundred years. It was composed entirely of the dwellings, both official and makeshift, of workers employed at the hundreds of vast rusinate refineries that made up the hive city’s base, and whilst an Easthollow council did exist, its members were hand-picked by the plant owners. At every turn, the council made concessions in the name of ‘austerity’, pocketing the funds that went unspent. A looming tower of plasteel, corrugated metal and scavenged building materials, housing a workforce of labourers widely considered disposable, run and maintained by a panel of corrupt and uninterested industrialists. It was a miracle that the hive stood as long as it did.
It’s unclear exactly what happened on the day that Easthollow collapsed, and survivor’s accounts are few and far between. It’s known that the ventilation system for one area of the hive was damaged in a wilful act of sabotage by a small rebel cell, though it’s unlikely that they were fully aware of what kind of chain reaction they were setting into motion. As their bomb, fashioned from stolen mining and factory equipment, exploded, Sector 12, location of one of the largest reactors powering the spire, lost both atmosphere and temperature regulation. The fires that started in the sector should have been stopped by auto-regulated flooding systems put in place to protect the lives of the inhabitants in such an emergency, but these never engaged, even as the fires spread into the power plant itself. Immense explosions ripped through the facility, containment domes failing and contingency measures overcome. It is likely that the colossal supporting beams housed in the area collapsed or melted in the intense heat, bringing entire layers of the hive down with them. The sudden and immense pressure on a single quadrant of a structure already weakened by cheap materials and years of poor maintenance proved too much to bear, and in less than an hour, the hive tore itself apart.
Refinement of rusinate is not a clean process. Several of the by-products produced are toxic to both plant and animal life even in miniscule amounts, and many of the radioactive elements have a half-life of thousands of years. Official policy required all waste from the process to be shipped off-world as soon as it was produced, and conveyed to planets designated ‘dead’ for long-term storage. This course of action was, of course, highly expensive, and many unscrupulous plant owners had taken to storing waste on site until such a quantity had been produced for a more efficient round trip. This efficiency measure proved disastrous with the collapse of Easthollow hive, and millions of tons of untreated industrial waste escaped into the atmosphere.
In the weeks following the incident at Easthollow, it became quickly apparent as the death toll rose that there was no containing the environmental pollutants, even if the various warring factions could put aside their differences long enough to enact a plan. Evacuation of ‘loyal citizens’ of the planet was organised by the planetary government, but woefully few evacuation centres were arranged, and rebel blockades, rioting, and bandit roadblocks made travel all but impossible. It is estimated that of the entire population, less than 1 million people were on board when the evacuation ships left for good.
The current story on Caitiff takes place fifteen years after the ‘evacuation’, and the planet is a very different place. The air on the surface itself is in many areas poisonous, though microclimate and uneven spread of the toxins from Easthollow results in wide variation - small pockets of more hospitable land exist, whereas the radiation in some areas would kill a man within hours. The atmosphere has thinned, and water vapour is scarce, resulting in sweltering days and freezing nights. Plant life, too, has been all but extinguished on the surface, and sprawling cities stand empty and abandoned – almost all surviving humans live in the vast hives, where filtration systems ensure relatively clean air to breathe. Humanity still thrives, adapting as it always has, and small, self-governing settlements exist throughout the world. Supply leads to wealth, and the settlements near clean water or functioning manufactorums quickly grew in power. With no central government, though, war and conflict are constant. Manufacture still takes place, though with no off-world interest raw materials are scarce. Scavengers pick through the corpses of the old world for technology that can no longer be reproduced, or simply materials or product that would be useful to surviving communities. This work is lucrative, but dangerous – many a team of fully equipped soldiers has failed to return from relatively simple pick-ups. Hardier creatures still stalk the surface – wiry, venomous nightmares that occasionally find their way into the deeper depths of the towering cities. Outside of the rudimentary justice system of the settlements, anarchy reigns, and gangs of murderous outlaws and bandits control vast swathes of the surface. Dark rumours persist of cannibalistic or mutated sects sweeping the land (always one continent over, or in an uncontactable hive); or of hive cities on the other side of the planet unaffected by the toxins, where crops still grow, the air is clear and clean water flows. The sensible take these stories for what they are. Life is hard on Caitiff, but, for better or worse, humanity prevails.
Area map and some important settlements:
Spoiler:
Pinepoint: A large settlement run by Ridgeway's Remnants in the mountains North East of the Skew, Pinepoint used to be a Mechanicus centre for research on hydroponics. It was founded by Lukas Ridgeway, a Captain of the loyalist PDF who had once served in a company defending the facility. Unlike many of the other settlements outside of the hive that unfortunate survivors flocked to for shelter after Easthollow fell, Pinepoint's high altitude kept it mainly clear of toxins, and the air remained relatively safe to breathe. As the air throughout the surface cleared in the months following the crisis and residents of the Skew ventured back onto the surface, Pinepoint rose to be a centre of trade. The mechanicus equipment provided a unique ability to grow various fresh crops and foodstuffs, enough even to sell to outsiders for vital equipment - it was not long before Pinepoint became a waypoint on every travelling merchant caravan's route. Many of the settlers are previous members of the PDF, and a military training program keeps Pinepoint relatively safe from raiders. Leader: Lukas Ridgeway
Quadring: A former penitentiary overtaken by it's denizens in the days shortly before the evac. It's residents were sheltered during the months of toxic air by retreating into a network of underground cells and the extensive mines where the convicts worked. Originally, Quadring survived as a settlement by providing manpower for the construction and protection of the new settlements that sprang up around it, though with changes in leadership the citizens of Quadring have a history of raiding and enslaving the nearby populace. Most residents of Quadring are vilified by the citizens of the local wasteland, and with rumours that their supplies of food are dwindling, many are hoping that the settlement will not stand for much longer. Leader: The Warden
Roth: A settlement found right on the border of The Skew, 3 domes below the surface. A centuries-old leak from high on the spire has run off the outer dome throughout living memory, providing a filter for the poisonous air. With the effluent come spoils from the hive above, and the water erodes deep into the underhive, bringing many treasure hunters to the area. The constant flow of water and sewage has cracked many older domes around Roth, and though the risk of flash floods and hivequakes is high, the lure of archeotech draws many. Surrounded on most sides by water, Roth provides a safe, though expensive route into and out of the Hive, and relative shelter from the foul climate of the surface above. Leader: Rena Crane
The Hulks: Formerly an offshore fuel derrick, attached to the Skew only by a walkway of pipes several miles long. In the days that followed the Easthollow disaster, many ships docked at the derrick, their contact with the anarchic mainland lost. Over time, the crew of the ships began to intermingle, developing their own roles and jobs within the group. Eventually, the vessels were bolted together, and a complex system of walkways, gantries and platforms was formed. Over the years that followed, the settlement of The Hulks grew, with vast structures springing up on the floating city. The water that surrounds them protects the Hulks from both bandits and toxins, and many crave the relative safety of a home there. The residents of the Hulk survive by selling prometheum siphoned from the derrick and food caught from the sea, as well as charging toll for entry to thier boats. Active Hulk wagon trains sell their produce in the hive. Leader: Tharan Locke
Info on Jackal cells:
Spoiler:
Among the residents of Pinepoint, service is required for citizenship. Outsiders, paid in credits, alcohol or food, are hired for work, but military service is a requirement to stay within the relatively safe and desirable Remnant settlements. Ridgeway was criticised harshly for the introduction of this system, but he called for realism among his people – there simply were not the resources or room to shelter everyone who came begging. Despite this, he relented, saying that those too weak or ill to serve could also be sheltered provided another within their group would serve double time to take their place.
Newcomers wishing for full citizenship in Pinepoint or one of the smaller Remnant settlements had two options – work with Ridgeway’s Remnants themselves, or service in a Jackal team. The Remnants were a form of defence force and military police. Once given brief training, they would carry out local patrols outside the settlement, settle disputes between citizens, and form the only line of defence should the settlement be attacked. They were reasonably well equipped, with each ‘volunteer’ issued a rifle and armour from the remaining PDF stockpile, to be returned at the end of their service. Whether this equipment was still functional was another question. The minimum service within a Remnant squad is one year, though many stay longer than this. With steady (though meagre) pay, free equipment, and a relatively stable lifestyle, service in the Remnants is seen by many as a great way to live.
For those wishing to finish their service sooner, give something back to the community, or simply the poor misguided souls bored with life in the settlement and seeking adventure, joining a Jackal cell is an alternative option. Usually led by a veteran of the PDF, Jackals receive no training, no equipment and have no official instructions. There is no fixed term on service within a Jackal cell, but the cell is dissolved once it is judged to have acquired a resource of “significant value” to the settlement itself. The Jackal cells are usually a ragtag group with scavenged or homemade weapons and armour, and many have not returned after leaving the safety of Pinepoint. Others have forged trade routes with other settlements, discovered large caches of fuel or medical equipment in the wastes, or travelled to old military bases to pick through the broken equipment left behind. Some have been rumoured to have sacked other settlements for the resources they own. No questions are asked as to how the gain was made, but those proven to have stolen or murdered face the full force of Remnant justice. Any weapons and equipment that a Jackal may come across during their service are theirs to keep. Service with a Jackal cell is seen as a quicker way to gain citizenship in Pinepoint itself, but few are fully aware of the dangers that they face when they sign up.
THE 21st JACKALS
Murdock
Leader of the 21st Jackal cell. Claims to have been a sergeant in the PDF, but carries a lot of ‘non-standard’ equipment. He has spent many years on the scavenger teams training and living with Jackals, far more than his required service. If asked, he tells people that it’s because he upset a high ranking officer in the Remnant forces themselves, but other stories have been suggested. Some believe that he hates Pinepoint, and will do anything to leave it. Others have suggested that he is fighting to his death, his only means to reunite with a family killed in the rebellion. Others, perhaps more realistically, have wondered if he simply enjoys the work. Whatever the suggestion, put forward to Murdock it results in scorn and hard labour. Often brusque and unfriendly, he will nonetheless go out of his way to protect those under him. Reports of personal trinkets or new equipment discovered in their packs by Jackals who have been struggling to cope have never been linked to Murdock, though many have their suspicions. Murdock recently suffered a serious head wound after a blast knocked him from a window during a skirmish with some local outlaws. He recovered well, but on recent occasions his reactions and instructions have occasionally seemed slower during combat situations.
Farrell
Medic and plasma gunner. Farrell was found in the wastes a mile outside of Rukob by a different jackal cell. He was bleeding badly from embedded buckshot and a (clumsily stitched) stab wound to the stomach. He was carrying an infant girl, unharmed, but with a strange symmetrical birthmark on her back. Both were carried back to Pinepoint, the largest Remnant settlement. His wounds were infected, and the fever almost killed him as he raved about mutants and monsters. As he recovered, he first asked about the girl, then about other wounded who may have been brought in from the same area. The medical staff became concerned that he may have a bounty on his head. Many of the Remnants don’t trust him, and from his strange arrival to his refusal to explain where he came from, he hasn’t helped himself. The plasma weapon he carried was also a rare find, unusual to see outside the slaver camps to the North. Leaving the girl in the safety of the camp, he joined a Jackal team to pay back the kindness he was given, believing that his skill with medicae, and especially his work with bionics (an especially unusual skill in Skew State) would prove invaluable. Friendly and jovial when spoken to, Farrell was nonetheless rather quiet, with a tendency to stare into space and tune out of conversations. He was most vocal when discussing his frustration at the lack of medical equipment available – there was nothing on the planet, he said, more heartbreaking than knowing exactly what was wrong with a man and being able to do nothing to fix it. He regularly wrote notes in a small book, telling any who asked that it was a diary. Convinced that that he was a spy for the QA, Twitch stole his book and handed it to Murdock. Whilst he did write detailed notes of his own activities, almost the entirety of Farrell’s book was filled with letters to a woman, none of which it appeared had actually been sent. Murdock spoke to him about it, but saw no reason for concern. Farrell went missing following a series of engagements with an offworld private security company, and is presumed dead or captured.
Completely unrelated vox-file:
Spoiler:
+++ Case file 6134:49C4 +++
+++ Caitiff Enforcers Automated Service +++
+++ Security-level gamma+++
NOTE: 4235 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE VALIDATION OF FILE SYSTEM. PLEASE INITIATE SYSTEM REBOOT TO STABILISE.
begin vox feed
male voice. Slow, laboured
Malaena,
heavy breathing
it’s me.
I’m sorry I haven’t sent word in a few weeks now – I wasn’t sure anything was getting through. It’s been tough.
I’m not –
I’m not going to be coming home, Malaena.
It’s all gone to hell. Everything out here, just – I don’t know what happened to the others. Eli, Pirren, Clara. I think they might be dead. I took her with me, the girl. It was stupid. Throne, it was stupid.
But she was so desperate...
pause, heavy breathing
I’ve been missing you, Malaena. I wanted to come back to you. I tried to tell them we should go, that we should have left when the guards did, when he moved in – but... Crucien wouldn’t let us. He said it was humanitarian, but it – it wasn’t humanitarian anymore.
I don’t know how far I can –
Rustling. Subject grunts with pain
I’m going to keep moving. If I leave her here, she’ll die. If she dies, it was for nothing. I’m leaving the transmitter, I- I won’t contact you again. Crucien will look for you. Play him this. He’ll know.
I love you, Malaena. Always will. I’m sorry.
Stay safe.
file ends
Skragg
Heavy weapons enthusiast and inventor. Apparently mute, but adept at rigging technology from scrap, Murdock considers Skragg an idiot savant. Many of the others in the team think his silence is not a result of lack of intelligence, but rather a conscious choice. He had a close relationship with a younger Jackal named Scout, who was killed early in the campaign while the pair of them rescued Blind from rising floodwaters. Extended fluff story in the spoiler below. Skragg’s hearing has suffered as a result of his fondness for loud weaponry.
Skragg and Scout part 1:
Spoiler:
The guy with the...? Oh, you mean Skragg! Big guy, spiked hair, doesn’t talk much, carries a gun that looks like you couldn’t lift it? Yeah, that’ll be him. Don’t take offence or anything, he doesn’t talk to anyone. He’ll smile at you, laughs at jokes and that, but he’s been with us for years and I never heard him say a word. Nothing wrong with his head though - You know he built that gun himself? Parts from two autoguns, a couple of chips and springs out of an old transit cart we found out near Saltash, some rings out of a piston, Throne, I don’t know. Put it all together with that welding gun on his hip. Makes his own bullets, too! Keep an eye on him next time we’re out in the wastes. He stops every now and again, picks stuff up and pockets it. Trash, utter junk. The kind of thing you don’t look twice at, but give it a week and it’s part of a firing mechanism, or he’s fitting an autoloader on your rifle. Murdock reckons he’s some kind of idiot savant, but I’m sure he’s all there. Just keeps himself to himself, y’know? Just cause someone don’t talk, doesn’t mean they don’t know how to.
His story isn’t the happiest though – you sure you want to hear it? Well, take a smoke, it’s kind of an epic. Nah, don’t worry bout it, got packs of them back at camp. Factory uphive was run by some friends of ours from Roth for a while, Coop worked security for them. Perks, y’know?
Right, well I can’t tell you about Skragg without telling you about Scout, the kid we met him through. First time I saw either of em, they were in this drinking pit together in Hole, some kind of sewer water between them. This was maybe two years back, I think. We’d been following these rumours of some kind of tech stash that had been uncovered near Lent (turned out to be bunk, before you get your hopes up), and Murdock had us out hunting for someone who knew the area. We’d had a fair few choices, loud mouths proclaiming themselves the best around, wanting paid upfront. Crow’s a good judge of these kind of things though, wasn’t having any of it. We’d heard mention of Scout from a few different people, this kid who’d been in town for a few years, supposed to be the go-to guy. He wasn’t like the others – he was calm, relaxed. We’d heard his name and he knew that. He was 16, maybe 17, no older. Sitting at the table with Skragg, this giant of a man, just talking away at him. Told us he’d learnt his way around scavenging for tech to sell for as long as he could remember, and if we wanted a guide in the badlands, he said, he knew routes and domes that few others did. He knew where the local gangs holed up, and where the local wildlife hunted and nested. If that sounded useful to us, he said, we could hire him and his associate for a 10% stake of whatever was found. No questions about what we were looking for, who he’d be working with. He was good to his word, too. While he was with us, raids went smoother, we didn’t get ambushed once, not even a cave in.
He was a great guy, too. Generous with what he had, great sense of humour. Laughed at himself – not many men around who’ll do that, a real rare quality. He was always with Skragg though, just talking to him. The guy never replied, of course, but he always listened, and listened intent – had that look, you know what I mean? Complete concentration. Always together, too. They were more than just friends – maybe that way, maybe not. Never felt it was my business to ask.
He told me they’d been partners in the scavenging business since they were kids – they’d been slaves together, working a chem pit in the Northern Wastes. Do you remember Derrick? No? Ah, well, little settlement to the North West, got overrun by the QA maybe 10 years ago. Everyone killed or captured, Scout and Skragg included. Reckoned he was 6 years old at the time. Second night they were in the mines, a friend of his dad’s, a barkeep named Garret, caved in the skull of their guard and made a run for it with four of the neighbourhood kids in tow. You ever met the QA? They’re pretty soulless, even by badlands standards. One of the kids was shot in the head as they ran, and Garret took a bullet to the gut, bled out in a basement a few miles from Hope. Sounded like a real fighter – apparently he didn’t even let on to the kids that he’d been hit ‘til he couldn’t run anymore. That left three of them. Skragg, aged maybe 7, Scout, and an older kid named Relleck. They did what any kids would do in the situation – panic. Scout wanted to go South, keep running until they found another settlement. He’d heard horror stories of what happened to kids who tried to pass through the wastes on their own, but he knew it had to be better than the fate that waited for them in the mines. Relleck wanted to go back, thought that if they returned, hands in the air, they’d let them rejoin the chain gang as if nothing had happened. They’d have been crucified, for sure – the QA don’t forgive the killing of one of their own. Skragg, as always, said nothing. They argued for a few minutes before Relleck pulled the pistol off Garret’s belt and pointed it straight at Scout. For a few minutes, no one did anything. No one knew what to do. Scout cried. He told me that - no bravado, you see? Didn’t take long for Relleck to realise the position he was in. He broke into a smile, and told them to walk. He could at least save himself, he told em, if he bought the escapees back. He'd tell the guards he’d been dragged along, that he’d killed Garret himself, thought he'd be a hero. He told em he wouldn't care if they got boiled alive. Skragg elbowed the kid in the face, put him flat on his back before he could say another word. He broke his wrist and took the pistol, shot him three times before calmly handing it to Scout. Just like that. No simpleton, right? I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.
With just a few bullets and a single pistol, they headed South, into Ruckarnlan
Blind
Blind used to be a gun for hire. He was never well known, never put his head above the parapet, changed his name every few months. When he met the Jackals, he was going by 'Jackdaw'. He had been hired with some other mercenaries by some off-world noble to retrieve a unique power cell he believed to be located deep in the Western Skew underhive, close to the water’s edge. After discovering that the manufactorum had already been looted by Murdock's Jackal cell, Blind contacted RiffRaff, an old friend with whom he had once worked a caravan route, to arrange a trade. When they met for the handover, the stranger's men sprang a trap, blowing a resevoir dome and causing the area to flood with water. Blind was badly injured in the initial explosion, but was carried to safety by Skragg and Scout as many others drowned. After Murdock sold Blind's equipment to pay for medical supplies and bionic replacements, he joined the cell, with few other places to go. Gruff and unfriendly to strangers, Blind feels most at home with other professional soldiers and often seeks out the company of bounty hunters and other hired guns.
Crow
Before finding the Remnants, Crow scavenged the rocky and mountainous wastes North-East of the hive with her brother, who had raised her since they became separated from their parents during the Evac. After serving several months as a construction worker in the compound, Crow volunteered to join a Jackal team to rediscover the adventure and excitement of living rough. She may or may not regret her decision. Agile and sure-footed, Crow tends to stay high above the hive floor, shooting from vantage points wherever possible. She is good humoured and friendly, though with rather a dark sense of humour. She rarely takes off her rebreather, pointing out the very real danger that surface pollutants pose to the lungs. When pressed (or after a little too much wildsnake), she may relate the fate of her brother, who suffered worsening breathing problems on the surface. A few days prior to Crow’s discovery by a Remnant patrol, he left their camp in the middle of the night and shot himself without a word. He had complained over their campfire that his laboured breathing was slowing them both down, and one day waiting for him might get her killed. She had brushed him off, joking about carrying him. To this day, she resents his choice to make the decision without her, forcing her to carry on alone.
Ferret
Joined the Remnants after being caught attempting to steal food from the Pinepoint stores with her teenage son. Both agreed to serve in Jackal teams and eventually join defensive patrols if it meant access to the compound. Before the evacuation, Ferret worked as a teacher, educating the upper classes in Caitiff history, and the value of their contact with the Imperium. She was forcibly conscripted by the Eurata Separatist Front once the rebellion began, and served several years in a guerrilla unit, fighting hit and run engagements with government forces in Crockfall. Ferret is very fast and a reasonable shot, but has been injured several times whilst in the 21st. Keen to return to base, Ferret rarely socialises, but will scavenge during her own time, hoping to find some archeotech valuable enough to merit a return to Pinepoint, and the peaceful existence that she craves.
Riggs
Friendly and affable, Riggs was born inside the Remnant compound. Initially charged with farm-work and looking after the animals, he joined a Jackal team as soon as he could, and acts as a friendly second-in-command to Murdock. Despite his affable demeanour, Riggs has a natural gift for negotiation and persuasion, and often accompanies Murdock to trading posts or to form treaties with rival groups. He tends to know a lot of residents in the settlements they regularly visit, and takes care of the team’s dogs, Loki and Cass. Riggs was badly wounded and one of his dogs killed by an unknown animal during a scavenging excursion on the surface. Farrell fitted him with a bionic replacement taken from the remaining PDF supplies.
Coop and RiffRaff
An ex-penal legionnaire with a history of forced service with the QA, and a once-wealthy runaway who served with a trade caravan specialising in electronics. Coop and Riff sold their services as caravan guards together for several years before meeting Murdock with his previous Jackal cell. Tired of life on the roads, they planned to complete their time in the Jackals and acquire citizenship in Pinepoint, where they could live peacefully. RiffRaff knits (badly), and Coop has been known to decorate buildings where the Jackals camp with vast, spray-painted murals. The two were inseparable, and a few fluff stories are under the cut. During the campaign, RiffRaff drowned in an engagement with the QA. Coop continues to serve with the Jackals, acting as a kind of carer to Twitch. He has struggled to cope with the loss of Riff, however, and has developed several self-destructive tendencies. He fights with a jerry-rigged flame-thrower created by Skragg, and tends to throw himself into close quarters fighting whenever the Jackals are engaged by rival groups.
RiffRaff origin:
Spoiler:
Ah, Riff and Coop. A great pair, those two – funniest bastards I’ve ever met who weren’t trying to get me to buy something. You’ve got to get them started on something, there’s – you won’t have heard nothing like it. No one else gets a word in, once they’re going at it – It’s always a competition. Just got to outdo eachother’s stories, you know? Has Coop told you how he ended up in the Penals yet? Oh, he will. I don’t want to spoil ‘em, but there’s one for every occasion – last I heard he got busted impersonating a Commissar to get at the Amsec rations in his PDF conscription. As to what he actually did? Pshh, who knows. Something small, I’d bet. Can’t imagine him hurting a rat if it wasn’t looking funny at Riff. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t cross him; he wouldn’t think twice if he had to, you know? Just - not one of those men who gets enjoyment from it.
They’re good people, basically. Twitch too, though he’s not right any more. The fact that they stick by him, what with his new mindset and all – kind of thing that says a lot about a character, I’d say. They’ve been through a lot together, and I wouldn’t believe how they tell it neither – the real story’s a lot less cheery. Less bear-wrestling, too.
So RiffRaff first, right? From what I’ve heard, she really did live in Haverbrook, and she did leave of her own accord before the Evac. I know! It’s not the ‘coming of age’, swashbuckling adventurer type exit she likes to spin though; it was a little more sordid; a little more sad. She wasn’t the same girl back then. There was a man involved – I know, I know – but this wasn’t a romantic story. Not through his eyes, anyway. He was some real scum from Skew, some gangbanger from deep in the Underhive. His settlement kicked him out and he found his way to Haverbrook. He was living rough, stealing whatever he could to survive. Got cornered by the enforcers, of course – they didn’t used to put up with the underclasses there. By then, though, he’d met Riff, and Riff’s parents were in the guild – real important people. She wasn’t so smart back then, too trusting, too naive. Typical surfacer. He span her a story about false accusations, an evil associate setting him up to steal his business or some such, saving orphans from landmines, I don’t know. But she bought it, and begged the watchmen who came for him to let his crimes slide, for her. Promised to make him her personal project. Considering how upset her parents would be if their daughter didn’t get her way, they actually listened. You believe that? Bastard probably couldn’t believe his luck either.
The guy kept in touch, of course. Wasn’t going to lose a mark like RiffRaff. Over the course of a few months, he started giving her a taste of underhive life – spun it as a way of thanking her. He had some old contacts who sold him ghost, kalma, spur, whatever they’d scraped out of the chem pits, and she took it all; she’d never seen anything close. Thought she was doing something spiritual, some kind of cultural vibe, and you can guess where it led her. There’s no place for addicts outside of the hive, no tolerance for them. She needed her hits, and he was the only place she could get them. He knew it, too. When her parents began to suspect that she was spending their credits on something other than booze and clothes, he suggested they run away together, live on the road and follow the rebels. He talked her into stealing nearly ten thousand credits from her parents – after all, what had they done for her? They would never understand. If she took what she could, they would have all they needed to live the good life, away from their meddling. The good life for Riff, of course, began with multiple stab wounds in a ditch barely three miles from Haverbrook.
Amazingly, that’s not where her story ended, though no doubt been the end of many other lives these days.
A trade caravan ran from Skew city (that’s the polite name for the sprawling expanse of corrugated plasteel and concrete that surrounds Skew proper) to Easthollow, run by a young guy named McCaughey. They dealt mainly in reconditioned electronics, buying and fixing mining and industrial equipment – junk that others considered beyond repair. The caravan stopped at some of the smaller shanty towns along the way to sell their wares - an old-fashioned way to do business, at the time, but they made good money in the places that the bigger conglomerates didn’t consider quite profitable enough to cater for. McCaughey and his partners made a comfortable living, and Skew state was fairly secure in governmental territory, meaning that the route was also ‘safe’, as far as trade routes went. Course, the rebellion had been underway for a fair bit of time, and bodies turned up on quiet stretches of every highway. No one asked questions anymore; it didn’t matter who they were. Some were dissenters, killed by governmental forces; some were soldiers – men and women who had fought on either side. Some, no doubt, were the poor bastards killed by bandits: desperate men feeding their families in any way they could, or simply those that had come to enjoy the anarchy. It’s hard to judge a man who couldn’t watch his children fade away, you know? Whoever they were, they all carried equipment and goods, and McCaughey quickly realised that a corroded autogun or repainted flak armour could fetch a decent price on the black market. It was in this capacity that one of his men discovered that RiffRaff was still breathing.
McCaughey was a businessman, and mercenary as all get out, but he wasn’t a monster. Riff rode in the back of one of their trucks as their expedition medic, an old PDF dog named Kew, looked her over. He gave her as much medication as they could spare. She had lost a lot of blood, gone septic from the dirt in her wounds, and was going through one hell of a comedown from the drug withdrawal. She would have been raving, seeing things; fighting and lashing out. Wouldn’t have been easy to deal with, even with the ReBound they pumped her full of. They took her anyway. Good people. McCaughey planned to offload her in one of the last few free clinics that the sisters were running once they got to Easthollow – keep her safe, but no longer his problem.
Over the few weeks they travelled, Riff recovered. Physically, at least. Her temperature dropped, the demons left her vision, and though the shakes came back with every missed dose, the gnawing pain in her gut was much more short lived. The pain in her chest, though, was there to stay. She had betrayed her parents, left her home, burdened and attacked strangers, and nearly died, all for the sake of protecting a man who then tried to kill her. She’d thrown away everything – everything she had ever known, you understand? – and she was only realising now how well she’d been played. The man she’d saved had stolen her life, and she would probably never see him again. Riff knew that she would never return to Haverbrook. How could she? She begged McCaughey to take her on for work, anything that he might have going. She had no skills (who the hell does, growing up in a palace?), but was desperate to repay the debt that she felt she owed. McCaughey turned her down though. He wasn’t one to refuse free labour, but the girl was a liability. Since she wouldn’t tell him where she was from, he would leave her in Easthollow, and that was that. Only, they never got that far.
Before the haze, you could see Easthollow for days. A crooked spear jutting into the sky, mottled orange and brown, like rotten wood. There was no getting lost, it was just there – on a clear day, you could almost make it out on the horizon from the Skew. Which is why, despite being a few days travel away, the men and women working for McCaughey saw Easthollow fall.
RiffRaff’s never really told anyone what happened next. Doesn’t like to talk about it, you understand. You ever see someone that’s been burned with rusinate runoff? Nah, I suppose you wouldn’t have. No one goes near the dumping sites anymore – most of ‘em are wired off and signposted by now. But this stuff, the stuff they used to ship off world? It’s – I can’t really properly get across the horror this gak provokes in anyone who survived Easthollow. It’s corrosive, it burns you, right? But that ain’t always what kills you. Sometimes it’s slower, more painful, inevitable. Get contaminated, and it burns you fierce on the contact site, sometimes through to the bone. Some people died then and there – I don’t know if it was the burn, don’t know if their blood carries the poison around their bodies, burns ‘em up from the inside. Just a splash, though, step in something out scavenging, stray too close to a restricted site, that won’t kill you by itself. I’ve got no idea how it works (Farrell’s your man for that, if he’s in a talking mood), but those who die outright are maybe the lucky ones. The survivors - they got the burns, sure, but there’s something else in there too, something that stays in your body once the burning’s stopped. Over a couple of weeks, they just started to swell up. Cancers, tumours, I don’t know. Some kind of growth that just starts out and don’t stop. Didn’t hit them evenly either: might just affect one arm, might be your face; could be your liver, might be in the brain. Some people went crazy – turned violent and aggressive, beat someone to death just for staring. Farrell says it must have been compression – in the skull, you know? Others just went vacant, staring into space or just walking into gunfire. A lot of people killed themselves. Barely looked human anymore, guess they didn’t feel it either.
You’ll still see them around, sometimes. You probably have, just wouldn’t recognise them. People don’t take too kindly to those who got burned. After the hive fell, a lot of people saw the crazy ones, saw what they’d do if they got close to you – There are still people around who’ll shoot a hollow on sight. I’ve only met one or two, but they keep wrapped up, no skin on show. I don’t think there’s many left now. It’s - just no way for a man to live.
Ah, Throne, you’re right. Sorry, where was I? Poor bastards always throw me off. Right! Easthollow. And the aftermath, I guess. Rumour is, it rained runoff in parts of Shantytown. Literally poured from the sky. Think of the worst acid shower you’ve seen out on the wastes, kind of thing that strips paint from your truck, and imagine it doing the same to people. Reduction compounds got thrown up into the air too – you know the stuff that gives you blight throat? This is where all of it came from. ALL of it. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? There were rebreathers and gas masks around, of course, industrial protection for workers and the like, but nothing like as many as we’ve got today. More people back then, too, so less to go around. McCaughey’s train had masks – reconditioning gear like that was what they did, but the general public had nothing to protect themselves. Riff would have seen it all – the burned, the people whose lungs were slowly dissolving, the hollow crazies, hell, starvation and regular disease will have taken thousands. At first, they sold to the crowds, but Kew eventually talked McCaughey into giving out the spare masks they had left for free to any who would take them. It was already too late, really. All I know for sure is that once it was clear that there were more refugees than there were resources, people got desperate. Once the shooting started, McCaughey made the wise decision to get the hell back to Skew.
Their flight took them past Haverbrook, of course, though they didn’t slow down. Riff still wakes up sometimes convinced that the glow off the generator is the fires of her home. She had no idea if her parents had reached an evac, fled to safety, been killed in the fighting. Who knew? She had the realisation, then and there, that she didn’t really care. She felt nothing when she thought of them, of all her old friends and neighbours. It was like a different reality. Numbed.
Over the course of the next few months, McCaughey let Riff work. She’d told him she was from Easthollow, and as far as he knew, she had just watched every person she had ever met burn. In a way, she had. Bresnan, one of the younger lads working for his team, showed her how to make repairs as he fixed up the few things they had left, and slowly but surely she began to pick it up. They stayed in Skew Hive, for a few months, same as everyone else on the continent. Too dangerous to head out, back when the air was still poison. That’s when Riff learned to fight – the hive was crowded before, now there was scarcely space to move. You fought for what you had, or you lost it. They were one of the first caravans to head back into the wastes, though, among the first to re-establish contact with all the new settlements that had sprung up in the carcass of the old ones. Over the course of the next five years, they helped more than thirty settlements start up in the wastes – mostly for profit, of course, though I understand McCaughey was known to sell below cost if he could see that people were dying. Once again, though, he was making himself a tidy living. They had a pretty high turnover of caravan guards: riding shotgun was dangerous in the early days. Lot of desperate people.
The last day that Riff saw her friends from the caravan route, they were travelling from Pallain to Ruckett. A pretty safe route, usually – through the bones of the old world city of Newhall. Lots of stories were told in the camps of sinewy monsters eating travellers there, or gangs of cannibals, creatures that used to be human. Nonsense, of course, but it made for a quiet route. They were a small convoy – a couple of smaller buggies up front, heavy stubbers and flamers on pivots, to keep the road clear. Riff and Bresnan were in the back of the first merch truck along with a couple of guards. One more truck ran behind them, a single buggy following up from the rear. Safe, but manoeuvrable. She was chatting with Bresnan, she remembered. Joking about vampires ambushing their route.
The first explosion, the one that killed her driver, knocked Riff to the wooden floor and threw boxes from the flatbed, spilling scavenged circuit-boards behind the truck. Shots rang out as the truck skidded to a stop. The caravan guards, kids McCaughey had hired from a local settlement, began firing wildly into the buildings along the side of the street. The leading cars were on fire – Parin and Holt, the men who had built Riff a shelter back in The Skew, already dead. Bullets ripped through the canvas around her, killing one of the mercenary guards and catching Bresnan in the shoulder. He screamed, and fell from the truck. More shots echoed out, and his screaming stopped. The other guard jumped from the back, dropping his rifle as he ran. Poor kid had probably never been shot at before. Riff saw him collapse. Before she had even taken it in, the shooting had stopped. She could hear men laughing, two voices arguing over the stimms in Kew’s medical pack. A louder man with an Easthollow accent barked orders. Shaking, Riff pulled a pistol off the belt of the man lying dead alongside her, trying not to meet the empty stare of his wide eyes. When a face appeared at the foot of the truck, a young man in a penal collar, she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened – a faint, repeating click revealing the jam in the firing mechanism. The butt of a rifle met her temple, and the world slipped away.
And though she didn’t know it yet, this was how she met Coop.
Coop on the planet surface:
Spoiler:
The surface – the true surface – now had a strange kind of beauty to it, Coop thought to himself. The emptiness, the silence, had a unique sensation, a feeling all of its own. Between the settlements, in the mainly intact ruins of the old world, it still felt like trespassing, like sneaking out as a teenager. The truck growled through the silent city, echoing back and forth in the empty buildings. He felt as though he were walking through Greenmile City again, footsteps echoing impossibly loud in the early hours of the morning when the streets were dead. You could be the only person in the world. It would be easy to ignore the signs of what had happened, if you kept your gaze high enough. Facing skyward, the pockmarked walls and burnt out vehicles would slip out of view, the upper levels of what used to be Ruckarnlan jutting dark and silhouetted against the yellow-hued sky, looking now as he imagined they always had. He’d never come here before the evacuation – the empty streets of the old city were all he’d ever seen of it, a passing blur thrown up and down from the back of Carson’s caravan. The city told stories, like every place on the surface. He’d learned to read the environment as they drove, hear the history it whispered, just below your hearing, through the tedium of the long ride. Here a former shop-front was boarded up with scrap scavenged from nearby buildings, corrugated iron and rotten wood. Empty food cans littered the ground, a rainwater collection duct rigged to the front of the building. A scavenger, maybe a family, had lived there once, maybe died there. Picked the area clean before moving on, or succumbing to the poisonous air. Conditions on the surface were harsh, and few survived up here for long.
Here, a faded mural. Scorpions, a gas mask, crossed rifles. A gang? Perhaps just a lone waster? Might even have been prior to the rebellion – images of warfare and revolution were nothing new on Caitiff. There were others around Ruckarnlan, less warlike, less violent – things of beauty. Real artworks, sprawling growths of painted plants, painstakingly etched representations of women, surrealist blooms of colour. Multi-storey buildings covered in swathes of pigment - hours upon hours of work in the deadly conditions of the wastes. He’d often wondered about who could produce such things: could they be the work of a single man? Some crazed artist lost in the wilderness? Coop had seen shadows moving through the buildings, all of them had – ghosts of the old world, they called them. Killed so quickly when the violence began that they’d never realised that they were dead. Stories were common in the hive of people taken by these shadowy spectres, vanishing silently from the back of vehicles in dust storms, not a trace of their passing, only to be seen in the painted walls of the surface. Coop didn’t believe them, but he still shuddered as the wind picked up.
There were still signs of the life that had once thrived here, if you looked high enough – tattered rags hung on what had once been washing lines, faded curtains still blew from open windows. The signs were always there, though. Windows, shattered. Paintwork peeling and torn. With time came decay, and decay was all that was left in the wastes.
Pulling at his uncomfortable mask, Coop nudged Riff awake. It was her watch, and he’d seen enough.
Coop and Riff join the Remnants (written a waaaay back, and not very good ):
Spoiler:
Riggs moved through the shattered entranceway, following the glow of the fire. He could hear them talking - low and cautious, still unsure of themselves. He smiled. It would be good to get some new company. The dog growled, leaning into the rope around her neck as the campfire came into view. Riggs bent down, pulled her in and patted her side as her hackles rose.
"Easy, Cass. Calm down, girl. They're friends, ok? No one's trying to kill me today."
The strangers by the campfire turned towards him, the male half rising. His hand was at the holster hanging off his belt. The girl spoke first.
"Uhh... hey. You okay, man? We're new. Murdock's cleared us, so... no need for the dog, alright?"
Riggs laughed, raising his arms in what he hoped was a disarming gesture. "She's not that bad, honest - just talks a big game. She'll be fine once she's used to you." He tied her off against a door frame and patted her muzzle once more. "You mind if I join you?"
The man sitting opposite the fire still hadn't lowered his hand. The girl turned to him, and he nodded, sitting back where he had been. He smiled, and appeared to relax. Riggs pulled a bottle optimistically labelled "Wildsnake" from his bag and offered it to his new companions. With a muttered ‘thanks’, the girl took it and drank deep before spluttering a few times and passing it back.
"Not the best, huh? Got it in Jento - should have been warning enough, I guess." He took a sup of the spirit and passed it on to the man opposite him. In the light of the fire, the thick gouges in the newcomer's arms were thrown into relief. "Name's Levin Grigg, though the folks round here tend to call me Riggs." He sighed. "Guess two syllables was a little much to ask. The girl growling at you on then end of that rope is Cass. I know the welcome Murdock gives to strangers can be... a little less than friendly, so I figured I'd stop by and say hi. What're your names?"
"Coop." It was the man who had spoken first. He was tall and heavy set, but probably no more than 25 or 30 years. Fresh cuts lined his features, and fresh bruises covered much of his face. His nose was set at an awkward angle - a look that seemed recently acquired, based on the crusted blood underneath it. Riggs could make out the profile of a penal collar beneath the man's coat - an interesting one, no doubt. "My friend here is Riff Raff." He paused for second, and grinned a smile with more than a little wince in it as he extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Riff Raff?" The girl laughed. She was about Riggs' age, with dark eyes and bright green hair cropped short to her head. Slung at her side was a heavy backpack, filled with what looked like computer equipment.
"It stuck! I grew up in Haverbrook – you know it?" Riggs looked blank. "Haverbrook! Oh, come on. Big, fancy, posh oppressive arsehole community, couple miles outside the hive? Lots of trees? Back when there were still trees, that is. You'll know it if you see it." She paused for a second. "You know what a tree is, right?" Riggs smiled wanly, took the proffered bottle from Coop.
"So it's an ironic thing?"
"Sort of. fething hated that place, ran away the second the factories blew up. I like it - burning out my roots, y'know?” She paused, taking a sup of the alcohol and grimacing. “Guess my family got evacced though – maybe I shoulda stayed." She laughed.
Riggs thought for a second. "So how did you guys end up in Rukob?"
"Series of coincidences, I guess." RiffRaff grinned. "Coop, me and Twitch - have you met Twitch? You'd uh... You'd remember if you had." She chuckled quietly to herself. "We’ve been working as caravan guards. Good work. Couple of different employers, of course, and a few disputes over pay, but there’s plenty of opportunity around Skew. This latest donkey-cave though -"
Coop, who had been valiantly swigging at the bottle, cut her off with a smile. "Aw, come on Riff. He wasn't that bad. For a guilder." RiffRaff glared at him, turned back to Riggs.
"This latest donkey-cave –“ A pointed glare at coop. “– was a solid gold prick, even for a trader. He ripped off everyone he met."
"It was his job." Coop shot back.
RiffRaff ignored him. "He charged more for drugs if people were sick."
"Demand was up."
A smile hung on the corner of her mouth, but she beat it back. "What about the maps he kept selling after the QA took Derrick? People died."
"He had to make his money back."
"He shot that trader in Saltash!"
"The one who tried to stab him?"
"I’d have stabbed him too!" RiffRaff was laughing now.
Coop broke into a playful smile, which was apparently a little too wide as he grunted and rubbed his bruised jaw. He turned to Riggs. "Carson was an underhanded, backstabbing con artist, but that just meant that he was good at his job. With us though, he was a good guy. Mostly. We sat shotgun on his caravan between settlements. Easy money. There were the odd raiders or waster lads, but between me, Twitch and this one, they didn't really have a chance."
"So what happened?" Riggs took another swig of the 'wildsnake' Coop had passed him, gagging a little as the aftertaste hit him. It really was foul stuff.
"Well," RiffRaff muttered. "like he said, we covered his ass between settlements. If Carson wants to shoot his mouth off to every guy in every drinking hole in Skillett, we can't be there to stop the guy who... well, shot his mouth off." Coop laughed and put his arm around her shoulder, but stopped when she threw him a look. "Turned out he insulted one of the local mercs, some real badass apparently. And apparently he wasn't in the mood for Carson's gak talk." A look of sadness spread momentarily across her face, before her features quickly hardened. "Either way, we found ourselves between employments." She passed a bacc-stick to Coop, lighting her own off the campfire. "You want one?" Riggs shook his head."Eh, your loss, they're good."
Riggs smiled, patting his shirt sleeve. "Got my own. From uphive." RiffRaff looked briefly impressed, but pulled it into a good natured sneer, rocking her head from side to side. "So how'd you find yourself here? Skillet's what, like, 10, 15 miles East?"
"Business venture." Coop replied. "Whatever we think of Carson," a glance to RiffRaff, "he went out owing us a fair few creds in backpay. He also left behind a fair few crates of spirits, munitions and condensor parts that he was no longer using. We heard of a trader who didn't ask many questions out at this end, but unfortunately didn't quite make it all the way here. The guide we hired was the same guy who gave us the tip, and said he knew the fastest way from Skillet to Rukob - yeah, yeah, I can see in your face that you know where this is going. It was stupid as hell, I know." Riggs raised his hands and shook his head, trying to repress a grin. "There were 20-odd armed men - thugs hired by the local guild interest - waiting for us in a pass about 5 miles out. We did what any sane people would do in that situation - gave em everything." He paused for a moment. "Twitch was – having a bad day. He was raging, practically frothing at the mouth, couldn’t stand to think that we were just going to let them walk away. We managed to calm him down before he shot anyone though, or I'm guessing we wouldn't be here." He spat in the fire and watched it hiss. "Still, I'd love to meet that 'guide' again. Just the once." RiffRaff cracked her knuckles.
"They let us live, which was an unexpected courtesy. Took everything, of course, but let us go. Not before their boss had given me a "lesson about trade rights"." RiffRaff put her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and smiled at her. "We made it though. It's almost hard to hate them, they played it so well."
The dog had been whimpering for a few minutes. Riggs pulled another bottle from his pack, set it on the rubble he'd been sitting on.
"Well, you’re welcome here. We could always use another couple of experienced eyes, and you’re one hell of a lot friendlier than the last batch. Look, I need to move, or Cass here'll never forgive me." He gestured at the bottle. "That's yours, if you think you can stomach it. Sounds like you guys could use it." He untied the dog from the post, pushing her back as she licked his face. He stood upright, turning again to the two newcomers. "Welcome to the Jackals. Hope it treats you better than your last post."
Twitch
A close friend of RiffRaff and Coop, Twitch worked with them for several years as a caravan guard. Somewhat of a heavy drinker with a talent with cards and a fast mouth, he was known widely as a story-teller and writer. Around a year before the three came into contact with Murdock, though, he was thrown from his truck in a collision with some local wildlife, striking his head against the road. Whilst he survived, he has been wildly unpredictable since, breaking down into tears with no provocation or attacking strangers over imagined slights. Despite this, he still experiences periods of lucidity, and can for days at a time seem the man he used to be. Whilst most men in such situations would not have lasted long, Riff and Coop stuck by their old friend, even though his outbursts cost them several contracts. Murdock was not happy with his inclusion in the Jackals, but allowed him to remain, as long as the others accepted responsibility for his behaviour.
Scratch
At 19, Scratch is the youngest member of the 21st Jackals. Optimistic and adventurous, she spends as much time on the surface as she can, and adores the ruins. Scratch had no real experience of the world before the Easthollow disaster, and was carried to Pinepoint shortly after the evac by her parents, both of whom have since passed (her father of rusinate lung, her mother of radiation sickness while serving with the Remnants). She was raised mostly by Elara, another orphan girl discovered by Remnant patrols shortly before her arrival. The two are very close. Scratch revels in finding what she can of life before, and has developed a penchant for old world luxuries – she has spent many an evening with a begrudging Elara combing ruined stores in Crockfall for lho sticks, soda and sour candy. She also delights in finding gifts for others, hunting out undamaged spray-paints for Coop and Riff, or interesting mechanical parts and wiring for Skragg.
Originally from the poorer quarters around The Skew Spire, Scratch’s parents had little money for medical care, and her birth was complicated. She suffered a nerve injury to her right leg, resulting in a complete loss of sensation that led to multiple fractures and injuries as she grew. Though it does little to slow her down, pain and fatigue quickly set in if walking longer distances and Scratch is loathe to admit this, pressing through the pain for as long as she can. She learned to drive at a young age and has developed some skill, often being entrusted with the truck by Murdock on their expeditions outside of the hive.
Elara
A few years older than Scratch, but willing to put up with her, Elara served as her begrudging big sister as they grew up together in Pinepoint. She looked out for Scratch, keeping her out of trouble with the local gangs and ensuring she had food and water, but mostly allowing her to find her own way. Elara taught her what she could about the world before Easthollow fell, and what to avoid in the world since. Elara has a boundless interest in seemingly everything, and her shack in Pinepoint is a treasure trove of books and holodisks – acquisitions from years of scavenging and trading. The darker side of this voracious interest is the obsessive hoarding tendencies that she has developed, building collections of seemingly useless trinkets that she will trade anything to obtain. Whilst she understands that her ‘collections’ often defy logic, Elara has difficulty controlling her compulsion, and has developed some kleptomaniacal tendencies, kept in check mainly by Scratch. Through badgering Farrell and some instructional data drives, Elara has taught herself basic first aid, and will happily sit watching Skragg repair equipment for hours.
THE QUADRING ACCORD
Background on the QA:
Spoiler:
The QA, or Quadring Accord, are a loose band of ex-convicts, penal legionnaires, miners and manufactorum workers, working under a vague common goal. They emerged from, and are still based in, the Quadring Penitentiary, a detention camp North of Skew Spire where prisoners were held before their assignment to a legion or labour duty. The exact details of how the group came to be are unclear, though their founder, a man calling himself “The Warden”, was widely believed to be Colonel Lockwood, an officer of the PDF awaiting sentencing for insubordination at the time of the evacuation. Not all of the inmates in such facilities were dangerous, or even guilty – as the Revolution dragged on and governmental forces found their numbers dwindling, penal legions proved invaluable as disposable assets to take entrenched positions or provide a distraction. When numbers fell low, governmental forces were known to arrest large numbers of citizens for arbitrary crimes, filling out their ranks once again. Colonel Lockwood was rumoured to have been imprisoned for refusing to carry out such arrests.
Many loyalist penitentiaries were found to have massacred their inmates as the shuttles left the planet, but the denizens of Quadring had overthrown their guards in an armed uprising a few days previously, leaving them in control of the facility when the PDF arrived to dispose of them. It is more than likely that a bloody power struggle took place within the walls of the detention centre, but no one outside of the complex will ever really know how The Warden took control.
It was several months before anyone emerged from the complex, and the extensive underground network of cell blocks is understood to have protected the inmates from the worst of the rusinate storms and radiation that plagued the surface in the months following the Easthollow event. To the surprise of the surrounding settlements, who had been dreading the day that the prison doors would open, the initial emissaries from the penitentiary were friendly, and keen to establish trade. The ‘Quadring Accord’, they told them, had been created as a place for the downtrodden – the jumpsuits that had marked out poorer manual labourers and prisoners were now a badge of honour. For several years, peaceful contact existed between those in the prison and the outside world, and many flocked to Quadring itself as a sheltered and safe settlement. Small contingents of QA soldiers, armed with the weapons of their former guards and whatever could be manufactured within the facility, were eventually hired to protect the smaller satellite settlements around the prison. The Warden himself even introduced a rudimentary system of law – any who stole or killed were forced into labour for a set term, constructing new housing around Quadring, or working the nearby mines to provide Quadring with a resource for trade.
Eventually, however, the Warden changed. Those within the inner workings of the QA would swear blind that the man leading them was their founder, but it was fairly clear to all that the reins of power had changed hands. The new Warden’s policies were rather different than his forebear’s, and it became quickly apparent that those who had not served within a legion or labour team were second class citizens. Murder and theft by the ‘protection’ teams became commonplace in the surrounding settlements, and crimes committed by the former prisoners went unpunished. As there was never any substantial proof, QA teams would often drag away individual citizens and travellers for crimes that they themselves had committed, and few survived the labour sentences they received.
As the profit from mining increased, so too did the number of ‘arrests’. Eventually, the soldiers of the QA dropped the pretence and dragged away any remaining citizens of the surrounding wasteland at gunpoint, killing those too weak or old to work. The shanties that had formed around the complex were put to the torch. Discipline among the newly captured slaves was by brutal example, and the QA developed a vicious reputation for sadism and cruelty among the settlers of Skew State. Whilst not all members of the QA were involved in the atrocities committed in its name, it is rare for an outsider to greet them with anything but fear and hostility. Most denizens of the wastelands will shoot a man dressed in blue fatigues on sight.
The title of ‘Warden’ changes hands regularly in a society of cut-throats and thieves. Whilst the face of their leader changed regularly and the uniform that marked him out acquired more holes, the attitude of the QA remained relatively stable for many years. Settlements further and further from Quadring were raided and enslaved, and it was only with a drying up of resources that the hostile advances of the former convicts seemed to slow. Those trading on the surface have little opportunity for making moral judgements on their customers, but even the most amoral trade caravan will consider their own safety first. Attacks on caravan routes through QA territory became more and more commonplace as The Warden’s influence over his hungry citizens waned, leaving very few settlements willing to trade. The area surrounding Quadring itself was hit hard by toxic runoff, leaving very little arable land – the penitentiary was dependent on outside trade for supplies of food and clean water. It seemed that the QA had burned itself out. For several years, the compound has been quiet, while ex-QA defectors have become a more and more common sight.
The man holding the title of ‘Warden’ today is attempting to move away from his group’s violent past. QA envoys dressed in civilian clothes have made contact with settlements throughout Skew State, offering protection for trade routes and free shelter and work for any who come to Quadring. Many such envoys were lynched by the settlements before they could get their message across. QA scavenger teams have been sighted – groups of men out salvaging the old cities, interacting (relatively) peacefully with other prospectors. Cynics would say that the new behaviour of the QA is a desperation measure – a forced civility with nowhere else to turn. Others, perhaps naively, believe this may represent a change in the group, a rise in influence of the less violent political prisoners held within the prison walls. The new Warden himself is somewhat of an unknown. He is not a wicked man, in wasteland terms. His hands are not clean, by any means - Perhaps some innocents have died under his orders. Perhaps he has killed a man for the equipment he carried. There are few on the surface who could plead innocent to such claims.
It will take a lot to erase the legacy of the years of murder and violence, but new caravans have been sighted within QA territory, and Quadring-produced munitions have begun to appear in the stocks of merchants as far afield as Roth. Whether this marks a new chapter in the history of Quadring, or simply a blip before the inevitable assassination and rise of another Warden remains to be seen.
The Warden
Fairly chewy update, but you've seen most of it before! As always, would love any feedback / comments / insults, so please fire away Wish me luck for exams tomorrow!
Great pose on that sculpt mate , i have nothing to add to the great tips already given , i did look at the scibor stuff and he did have some good tips especially for the face , but i guess Tom Meir is the go to guy , listened to an interview with jes goodwin recently and he said that Tom Meir was one of his early influences.
Looking at them all again I think Crow is my favorite. Must be the sublime in simplicity. No fancy pose or equipment, just a person living a live, which is what makes your work stand out, as I already said a dozen times.
@Neil: Good find, the name didn't ring a bell, but gosh those are the most realistic looking faces I have EVER seen on a miniature, even down to H0 scale. Crazy!
There's a great sculpting tutorial over on MiniatureStudio.com . He suggests using Fimo, which comes in massive blocks in Hobby Craft for not very much.
@Neil - Ooh, I had no idea that those were Tom Meir! I actually have those heads - unfortunately they seem to be a little on the sizeable side (rivalling even the catachan box), which makes them a little hard to use. The detail is absolutely incredible though, so much expression! The foreheads in particular just look real.
Thanks a bunch for the links, and the kind words. I thought it was about time I actually localised some of the places I keep mentioning, as I was having trouble keeping track myself. Can't even imagine anyone just reading about them I'll have to check out some of the Scribor tutes, I need all the help I can get for faces...
@Rogue - Thank you! Glad you're still a fan of the Warden - I feel like I could have done him a little better, tbh. Live and learn though!
@Baiyuan - And for the dozenth time, I really appreciate that, thank you! It's really kind of you to comment, and I will never get tired of hearing it if you like something Crow is one of my favourites too, such a beautiful sculpt. No idea why GW discontinued the Tanith range.
@endtransmission - Oooh, thanks for the tip! That's a really fun tutorial, and it's really interesting seeing something go right from the concept to the finished product. Can't wait til i have the skills to have a bash at creature design - looks like such a creative outlet
@dsteingass - I think the whole world has their fingers crossed on that one Message received on the brushes lol - I've heard that from a few sources, have been using exclusively knackered old brushes for the oils. Might have to get a set of cheapy ones that actually hold a point soon though - the broken ones are fine for terrain, but won't be much good for detail work. Thanks for the compliment, I'm really glad you like the gang!
Today's update is another addition to the motor pool. It's a reoutfitted mining vehicle, altered by the Remnants for defensive purposes. Could count as a chimera (or maybe hellhound at a stretch) for my Remnant guys, or will maybe get purchased by a Jackal cell if we end up playing with Ash Waste rules. Fun to make, anyway!
There are no words for how frustrating that guitar string cabling was, the stuff has a flexion memory like nothing else I've worked with. I think it came out quite nicely in the end though. Shot with a volunteer for scale:
And finally the gunner - I wanted a real 'civilian' vibe for him, as this vehicle will be used by expansion crews when it's not on the field. Plus as anyone without vet status in my remnant army is basically militia, he'll fit in better. For some reason Victoria Lamb seems to have forgotten to give this guy a nose (at all! Flat from eyes to mask :/), so I extended his mask a little too.
Hope you like, and please let me know what you think! Hopefully you can expect a few more updates this week, as I have a few days off
Scarper wrote:Today's update is another addition to the motor pool. It's a reoutfitted mining vehicle, altered by the Remnants for defensive purposes. Could count as a chimera (or maybe hellhound at a stretch) for my Remnant guys, or will maybe get purchased by a Jackal cell if we end up playing with Ash Waste rules. Fun to make, anyway!
Great model here, Scarp! What did it begin life as?
Thanks a bunch, guys. The original vehicle is a Ramshackle 'Armoured gnu' - great company, awesome models, but among the worst casting I've come across and not the greatest customer service. It's kind of a bind, as I love their vehicles!
Today's update is based off MauS's awesome building tutorial. The pictures aren't the best, but it's a (very!) early WiP of a concrete prefab hab block. Each room will get different colour paint in the end, and hopefully I can build a little trashed furniture to spruce the place up! As you can see, you can access the roof via some collapsed concrete, still held up by the rebar.
The roof is removable too for indoor gaming action!
Wow you're on a roll Scarp! Good stuff man!
tip- cut and bend some pieces of paperclip and stick them out of your foam edges to represent rebar in the concrete.
cool looking buildings scarp, should look nice seeing it littering your battles, and might i suggest, when you paint the internal walls, seeing as your making them different colors, i wouldnt paint them too bright. I'd personaly add a dheneb stoney type color to what ever paint mix, and then make it really dusty and dirty on the inside otherwise it might look.. odd
Great usage of my tutorial Scarper!
Looking good, and i must explore the ruined aspect of the buildings too. Not all should be pristine in Necropocalypse.
Thanks so much for the replies guys, will be sure to respond this evening or tomorrow, just in kind of a rush now cause I'm running late! THey are super appreciated though.
Sorry for the lack of updates - finals are looming, and my free time has taken a nose dive (75 hours of unpaid night shifts last week did not help). Here are a few things though:
Elara (member of the 21st Jackals, fluff above!):
Not the greatest photos, but I was actually quite proud of the paintjob. I was going for subtle highlights, but I'm not sure how well that worked out. The base is unfinished - the large sandy area will be getting a murky water effect soon. Will post better pics when she's totally done
And my melta vets for the Remnants. As these guys are veterans, their gear is a lot more uniform than my usual stuff. Not many of them though, so don't worry, more ramshackle to come!
(click for a bigger pic with zoomage capabilities!)
Hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you reckon. Promise I'll get back to people who've already commented as soon as I can!
@dsteingass - Thanks a ton, buddy! And you're one to talk - I saw how much you did over the weekend, and I'm pretty sure you were more productive than my year so far! Believe it or not there's actually some paperclip rebar in there already: it's poking out of every damaged wall, and even holding up the collapsed roof section! The pictures are not exactly brilliant though, so easily missed.
@neil - Hey, waste not want not, right? Glad you like - I absolutely love your current gothic stuff by the way, keep meaning to comment, but i have 0 time at the moment. It's really really inspiring though: I have absolutely no idea how you did the ground the way you did, let alone the crags and ruins! Will try to keep up to date, but sorry if I'm quiet!
@Rogue - Thanks! And aye, don't worry, they will definitely be faded, burnt and stripped, I'm not thinking day glo! Just a hint that people with individual identities used to live there - I always feel the GW cityscapes are so sterile. THanks for the kind words on the new stuff too - the autopistol chap is one of my favourites of the bunch too!
@MauS - Thanks so much! Barely a start, I know, but I thought you might be happy to know that people are taking inspiration from your stuff. Not that there's been too much recently
@Illumini - Thanks a ton, that's really really appreciated. I'm still never sure whether to post my fluff stuff, so I'm really glad you like it! The scavenger army is a uhhh... long term goal, but I'm working towards it! Someday...
@PDH - Thank you! Thought I'd try my hand at hazard stripes seeing as I've never done them before. Harder than they look!
@marty - Thanks a bunch, I'm glad you like em! They might not see paint for a little while i'm afraid, but I'm working on a civvie scav at the mo, so hopefully you'll like him too.
Apologies again for the lateness, and thanks for all the comments!
I'm not sure if I've explained it already, but when it comes to the very slow process of building up my IG army (the Remnant force that defends Pinepoint, fluffwise), the veterans and standard infantry will look very different. The guys in scorched brown flak and tan fatigues are veterans - ex-PDF or professional soldiers. Their gear varies a little, but they're all reasonably equipped from old PDF stockpiles. Morrigan, the gent pointing out a sofa, is an example that I painted quite a while ago:
The infantry squads are serving to secure the right to reside in Pinepoint, and as such are very varied. They're all armed, but might be civilians, wastelanders, gangers or ex-military. I'm trying to include some red in all of them for some uniformity, be it a sash, an armband, lenses or a rag. These guys are some (again, very old!) examples of models that could fit one of these squads.
The Jackals, my first Necro gang, are a scavenger cell working for Pinepoint, but distinct from the Remnants.
The point of this long winded nonsense is that when I'm a little burnt out on the gang I'm working on, I tend to paint up figures I have or have converted to serve in line infantry. Chance for a little bit of a different colour scheme, or to maybe try some new effects. This guy is one such example, and I was working on my leather and denim highlights, and wanted to have a play around with a very civilian scheme. Not finished yet, but I'm away for the weekend, and wanted to show what I had. He still needs a lens effect on the mask, and some proper basing. Hope you like him!
I've also got one slightly better pic of Elara:
Please let me know what you like / hate, and thanks so much for reading!
I HATE that everyone is not on Dakka today, but that I am at work and bored to tears
I LIKE the fact that you posted some yummy eyecandy for me!
I LIKE the leather and denim look! However, I think you should use a pin or something so that his boots are on the gravel/dirt instead of buried in it, but I'm sure you took these pics while the glue was still wet
dsteingass wrote:I HATE that there arnt any catpirates here! not really though i like this.
I LIKE the fact that you posted some yummy eyecandy for me!
I LIKE the leather and denim look! However, I think you should use a pin or something so that his boots are on the gravel/dirt instead of buried in it, but I'm sure you took these pics while the glue was still wet
@dsteingass - Aye, it was straight off the desk! Thanks for the kind words, glad you like him. Dakka does seem to have fast and slow periods, doesn't it?
@Rogue - I... I'm not entirely sure what that means. But thank you?
Mini, boring update. Based up the new guy, and Magpie, one of the QA from a while back. I am cooking up a few new models, but progress is painfully slow with revision and a crazy schedule! Hope you like anyway
Haha, thanks guys! @Rogue - the original is a copplestone scavenger, but I messed with his gun a little and gave him the mask cause I ruined his face trying to get rid of a huge mould line. Originally he looked like this:
Spoiler:
The guy on the right! (Obvs, I didn't paint these)
I watched a buddy cop movie on TV yesterday instead of studying. The music is still in my head....
The painting is as good as ever, but I have to say, the bases are really darn simple...and I love them They're great canvasses for the characters to exist within.
This is one great thread the work is interesting and mind provoking, some cool use of different manufactures never considered swapping heads of Copplestones miniatures
Love the GS work hoody guy is spot on, the guy holding his stomach is just a great pose love the fact he is holding onto the sign as well really sells it. could you tell me what arms you used on that I would like to borrow the idea slightly "cough"
Great work cool ideas and such an assortment of parts love it
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Scarper wrote:
Terrible what some people throw away...
As always, I love any feedback, great or terrible. So please hit me with what you think!
Just one thing as great as this skip it is ( which it is ) I kind of feel it's not authentic enough, the reason I say this is there is no wee stained mattress in it.
Good stuff Scarp. Nice to see all the fluff together, I'll go back later to pick out what's changed in some of them. Hanging guy sculpt looks pretty cool, that's a really good pose, wonder if I can get a greenskin into it?
@Neil - It's gotta be Magpie, doesn't it? If they've got one gun between them, the new guy's not going to get it - he's lucky to be carrying the wrench Still, neither of them look like they're too keen on doing things 'by the book', so maybe they'll get along fine...
@Prime - 80s stuff is catchy, isn't it? In a 'like the plague' kind of way. Thanks for the kind words! The bases are pretty plain - I feel like I've been overdoing the scenic stuff a bit, and tbh I kind of rushed them cause I was impatient to be finished They do have a little detail though - just not particularly visible from those angles!
Spoiler:
Some diamondplate and fencing that the welder was hiding
And a little cobblestone that Magpie's tramping all over
@PDH - I hate when that happens! I've started ctrl-Cing before I post now after I lost a massive post of replies to a 404 error. Cheers for the rewrite though, and the compliments - I'm really trying to improve my highlighting, so I'm chuffed that you spotted that!
@LDD - Thanks so much, and welcome aboard! Really glad you've found some stuff you like! The latest copplestone headswap was actually a bit of a forced hand - I obliterated his face clumsily removing an annoying mould line. Think it came out ok in the end though Caleb uses arms from the FW renegade line - I think the right is from a standard bearer, and the L could be any of the ones from the infantry weapons set, with some GS work. Sorry I can't be more helpful - I think any of the rifle-holding left arms would probably be ok if you were going for something similar!
If I can manage to sculpt a pee-stained mattress for you, I will deffo have one in the next one, possibly with someone sleeping on it
@dsteingass - Have a go! I'm not the first one to do it, I'm sure I've seen them on the internet before. And yours would be rivetted to perfection, no doubt
@Monkeytroll - Thanks monkey! I was going for something a little different, just to see if I could. And tbh, I don't think ork physiology is really made for climbing. Perhaps if some kind of bionic replacement could be found? But I have no idea who would know how to do something like that...
Thanks for the feed back on arms thats great help I new I had seen the arm somewhere ( makes sense now from the pose ) and the other arm (left) would be supporting a rifle then
Do you know your spoiler does not do anything shame I was hope full
Looking forward to the next update
The mattress with pee stain and a tramp sleeping on it well ……. " you can do it "
Also, the centre chap on this page here is toting the same right arm. His left arm might even be the same as the guy on the far left, but no promises there.
Scarper wrote:Also, the centre chap on this page here is toting the same right arm. His left arm might even be the same as the guy on the far left, but no promises there.
Bloody hell I own these Thats why they look so familiar I thought they were from the Kreig sets …… I think I have a spare one nocking around as well
The thing is on top of it all it was for my renegade guard I wanted it
Hey all! Latest paintjob finished is Lodge, one of the QA. He's also the most frustratingly difficult to photograph model I have ever made. Here's some shots, the best of a bad bunch. Hope you like him!
I honestly spent ages highlighting his face, I guess putting under a MASK DESIGNED TO BLOCK LIGHT was a bad plan if I wanted that to show up
Final shot is one that I thought was atmospheric, even if it doesn't show much up:
Please let me know where I could improve, I'd really like your input! Fluff will be up soon. Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!
Scarps.
I completely empathize with you when it comes to trying to take halfway decent photos of things. The heavy bolter is great, as is the highlight-obscuring welding mask The only thing I feel could be improved is the texture of the gritty stuff that makes up the embankment that Lodge is crouching behind. Right now, it appears far too regular for my tastes.
He looks good mate , lacking a bit of depth and highlights though , but that could just be your bad shots lol ;-)
really like the way the rubble and your graffiti turned out too. oh and kudos on the free hand ,matey. he looks like he is in a bad mood , scowling at tearaway asbo kids inn the second pic
I didn't realise the model was wearing a hoody until now. Very cool, good colour.
My only suggestion/criticism, since you asked for one, is the hole in the barrel of the heavy bolter, it looks too small for that calibre of weapon. You need a bigger drill bit imo. (I was going to make some joke about asking your girlfriend but that would have been childish )
Neil - The same way as I chuckled as I sent you that link earlier in the week
Aye been too long....I think it is time for a new jumper pic....bugger I just google searched "female fisherman jumper" and saw something I don't want to see again.
I second (or third, whatever) the pee stained mattress - there are three of them out the back of my skanky tenement block right now - I will take a pic maybs!
The dude with the orange hoodie and the heavy bolter looks real well done - I can see his face well enough to see a lotta character in there.
Love those cobblestone post apoc guys - I will get some eventually. Keep up the epic work.
Oh Lord, at this point I might as well just take it on the chin and title up the next post "Sweater girls and mattress stains", right? This blog's been heading that way for a while
@LDD - Isn't that always how it works? I'll try for daylight, but I'm in Scotland - we get about four hours a year that couldn't be described as "gray", "grim" or "greetin'". Cheers for the tip though!
@Rogue - Thanks a lot! The graffiti was really fun to do. The back of his top does in fact say CATPIRATE - Great eye, LDD! No seriously, I still have no idea what a catpirate is. It's supposed to be a stylised monkey wrench and 'STA', an autoworks shop, and there's another smaller wrench round the front. Lodge has never worked there, and if you check the tag on the front, it says 'Steve', and there's a stitched up hole. Strange.
@prime - Thanks for the kind words! Fair call on the grit, it could definitely do with a bit more variety. I usually chuck some GS bricks in the mix, but I was out, and feeling lazy on the day I put the base together. Will deffo do on my next one though!
@neil - Thanks! The highlights are a bit of both - They don't all show in the photo, but I didn't go as sharp as I could have either. Really glad you like the face: my plan for his pose was that he was being interrupted while he worked. Have you made any progress on your Tor, by the way? I'd love to see how you've got on! Hope you got all the job stuff sorted, mate
@Monkeytroll - Thanks a lot! Fair play on the highlights, I think I ought to give them another going over before he's done. And that's a little questionable on the HB - it was just a crude gang type logo, but it does look that way. Not much Imperial influence on Caitiff, who knows what goes on? Seems you've got a touch of it yourself, what with your photo finds
@PDH - I was about to say that the drill bit I used was the biggest one I currently have access to, but that would really be playing into your hands... I'll have to go out and get something bigger - maybe i can enlist the help of some friends Thanks for the kind words! The freehand was really fun to do, and not something I've done much of before - can't wait to try my hand at a larger surface when I get some terrain worked up.
p.s. I was really curious about your google search, but that didn't bring up anything nasty for me - you know google bases the results it gives you on what you've previously searched for, right?
@Scrazza - Thanks a lot, that's really kind!
@Weety - Fantastic, thanks for the offer As much as I'd love to see what your neighbours think of you taking photos of their soiled mattresses, I do have one or two skips near me - hard to avoid piss stained furniture in the stundenty areas of a city! Thanks a bunch for the kind words, I really appreciate that.
@Skalk - Glad you're enjoying, and thanks a lot!
Not much in terms of a pictoral update, but a bit of news. I picked up the eden convoy set:
(Not my paintjobs, obviously!)
Mainly for this guy, who I was going to chop to pieces for a QA conversion.
Absolutely scuppered by the terrible casting quality though - mould lines everywhere, blunt, non-defined features and some serious shifts where half the model is on a different plane to the rest of it. Really gutted, as I had a lot of ideas for stuff I could do with these. Could just be the one box, as a different mini I ordered from the same company came through with great casting, but I doubt I'll be able to get a refund after an eBay sale. I'm sure I'll be able to salvage them, but having a bit of a motivation fail. Sorry for the slow progress!
Thanks a ton for the interest though, and I'll get something good up soon, promise.
You are a cruel, cruel man, Peter. And I accuse that you made the picture enormous on purpose. But seriously, the naked guy with the jumper hat did not turn up on my google images - what have you been looking at??!
Get your money back man and did you pay by payapl ,if so go to the dispute section it tells you what to do contact the seller tell them of the problems, ask for a replacement or full refund but keep copies of all your emails.
After all if the models are gak then get your cash back or a better replacement, if you got a piece of furniture from a shop and it was broken or did not work you would get your money back same thing.
Aye, I was thinking about that, but the box is still in cellophane, and the guy that sold it to me can't really help the state of the casts - it's a guy with about 20 feedback selling off his unwanted miniature stuff. I'd feel a bit rubbish just shunting the cost off to him. I reckon I can still make them work, just with some... modifications. And a fair few hours
If your recent purchases are horribly miscast how about using them as those Twists that you've referred to in your fluff? Not Twists... The mutated people that you said you would eventually model up.
I like your heavy - the graffiti was a nice touch. If I may be so bold I would like to see more gangers like this - aggressive, potentially nasty types. Actually, maybe you could use the graffiti to tie in your whole gang in some way - art on their bases or on their equipment....
@ Monkey that is so creepy... @ PDH tsk ysk tsk .. That was not my fave website you little toerag I am still having panic attacks after that pic and are you showing Scarps your nasty picas again.. he did it to me scarper i just ignored him..you being a doc an all probably used to such grimness.
@ Scarps . pee stained mattress's and girls with sweaters , just rename it now and be done
Spoiler:
shame about the castings , mate , I considered picking those up a while back , but the lack of detail really put me off.. as for jobs, I stopped sending my cv out a while back .. need to lower my expectations I think , something I am not to good at .. keeping positive though I doubt even that Scottish weather could dampen the charms of Edinburgh
Stick a piece of white paper behind it before you shoot the picture in digital macro (zoom in too)- the background depth and darkness is tricking your camera's focus.
@PDH - Aye right, it filled my monitor all by itself. Totally believable
@Ragsta - Ahh, the Hollows! Good idea actually - I'll have to see what I can do. Thanks for the kind words: and I'll try to include some more graffiti wherever I can, it was a lot of fun to make! The QA are mostly pretty rotten people - hopefully I can show that through as I model up more of them.
@Rogue - Any idea on a genre? Hopefully it's not a descriptive title for the band...
@Neil - I may have left Peter a little surprise from the medical archives in his inbox - don't start a gross-out contest with a medical student! That being said, I have no idea where you find your images either. I'm trying to imagine a context for your last one and coming up pretty blank...
@Dave - Thanks for the tip! Haven't done that with these photos, but will have to try for the next ones. My camera doesn't actually have a macro function (criminal, I know!), but I reckon blocking out the depth should help a ton. Cheers!
Today's update is another QA. Still needs some detailing on the crowbar and his neck, but basically done. Hope you like!
Pretty sure I've mentioned this a few time, but I'm trying to model these guys hunting through a caravan they've sacked for documents and lootable gear, hence the searching. Please let me know what you reckon!
Love the shoulder armour, that's hand sculpted? And I love the posing, you could make some loot counters of piles of books for him to go after. He would make a great sentry in a raid/rescue mission too.
@Monkeytroll - I missed your post before mine Sorry! Thanks a lot for the compliments!
@Bruticus - Thank you! I sculpted the shoulder armour over a couple of sessions - I never seem to have much time to work on stuff at the moment, so small, layered sculpting jobs seem to work in my favour Really appreciate the kind words from you - I love the pit slave stuff you've been posting!
@Jackanory - Thanks so much! The head is one of victoria lamb's - her faces are so ridiculously characterful, you really don't have to do much to give a mini some personality.
@Dave - You're dead on. If I'd read your comment before I'd taken the photos I'd have listened! I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered a holster, but the down-the-back-of-the-pants gangster look seemed like an opportunity I didn't want to miss
Now i am wondering what the title of the book he is reading is ..
I vote for this ..
Spoiler:
he is looking great scarps , really like the way you add stuff by sculpting , the gun is a great addition and the armadillo shoulder pad is just cool .
Great pose great choice of pieces and the display it self is just brilliant love it, for some reason it reminds me of Equilibrium you know when he starts to feel again and takes the book.
A touch of enlightenment in the chaos, either way bloody marvellous and the shoulder pad and strap is great .
@Rogue - Thanks buddy! I'm really glad you like him Sex appeal's never been a big thing in folk music, so that kind of name probably won't hold them back too much: all the best to em!
@Neil - Hahaha, where did you even find that? I couldn't actually decide on the book - was thinking of a medical textbook or something, considering my current predicament, but I thought maybe a junky title could work better - something with no real value. Whatever I do will probs be too tiny to read, so maybe I will paint it as whatever you want it to be
@LDD - Thanks so much! I haven't actually seen Equilibrium, but I just IDMB'd it, and it looks really interesting, with a fair bit of inspiration from Farenheit 451. Will have to give it a look if I can!
WOW! I haven't been back in a while! I agree with Jackanory- I'm totally sold by the book guy's pose. First thing I thought was 'he's probably scrounging around for something' like he's going to toss that book after he finds out it's of no value. Totally spot on, man!
I'm definitely going to have to read a few pages back to see if I missed anything else good. Major strides from the PMW competition up until now... seriously. Kudos!
Almost forgot to mention! It's a bit of a plug, but I thought some of the guys who read this might be interested in the Kickstarter for Zombicide. It's a board game from the guys who did Super Dungeon Explore that's already made it's funding, so it will be out come September or so. It comes with over 70 hard plastic, varied, 28mm zombies and survivors, which look hugely convertible. If you back em now, you get 108 minis, including 4 exclusive survivors, for less than the price of the game when it ships. There's male and female zombies with several sculpts for each type, and special zombie types too. Not everyone's cup of tea, but thought it would be a shame for people to miss the opportunity!
Minis are under the cut:
Spoiler:
And I thought this guy in particular could easily end up in the QA with a head and arm swap and some foot surgery:
Spoiler:
Like I said, not for everyone, but just wanted to get the info out there!
We now return to your regularly scheduled post-apocalypse...
EDIT:
And bugger, I totally missed Remi's post, sorry about that! Thanks a lot for the kind words - you're really dead on with the pose I was going for, which made my day a little bit! It was just trail and error to put together, with a lot of reposing and doing similar things myself to try and work out how someone would stand like that. Thanks so much again!
3 days left on the kickstarter, so sign up if you fancy it!
@Weety - Thanks a lot! And Cornwall's not that bad, is it? Though I could always use reference photos for terrain making The books are actually real - I just put them in the microwave (about 600w, two hours or so) to shrink them down. Try it out!
Spoiler:
They're actually made pretty much how they look - tiny strips of card folded around the thin end of a sculpting tool with little bunches of paper snipped from an out of date BNF superglued in. Try it out! It's the painting I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle...
Today's update is a scrappy conversion, but a functional one - captured gangers in necro need a marker for rescue scenarios, and I wanted something fairly utilitarian, in case he needs to represent gangs other than my own. He'll eventually have some jewellery chain between the manacles, but I thought it would be easier to put that on after I've painted the lacerations on his back (the QA don't play nice!). Hope you like!
And bugger, I totally missed Remi's post, sorry about that! Thanks a lot for the kind words - you're really dead on with the pose I was going for, which made my day a little bit! It was just trail and error to put together, with a lot of reposing and doing similar things myself to try and work out how someone would stand like that. Thanks so much again!
LOL... no problem, man. I saw the quick response and my eyes bugged on that kickstarter game... I definitely want that game... although to play and/or chop up, I'm not entirely certain yet. Most likely to play... now if I can scrounge up some loot to get the high-level donation and collector's ed minis...
-Remi
-EDIT-
Love the hostage pose! Again, spot-on!
... and I just dumped $100 for that goddamn Zombie game...
dsteingass wrote:Oh Wow! Those are sweet! I'd like to see them next to something for scale though...seems too good to be true at 28mm no?
Ive actually gotten to play with the "1st production masters" (Cmon was showing the demo game off at adepticon) The "normal" zombies (Walker/runner) are about the same size as GW basic infantry, the "fatty" is a little larger but not much. I've pledged in to the KS and am really looking forward to the game and painting up the minis inside.
Awesome idea to build a universal captive, I might steal that one day. I assume the head will be hidden under a hood to make it more versatile and threatening?
Super conversion of a really great idea scarps , the hood really sets it apart , The bits are really unusual , reminds me of a penal legion guy waiting for the commissar .
You make mood , and drama seem effortless.
I have to say though I did think he had peed himself when first saw it .. now if only he had a mattress .
neil101 wrote:You make mood , and drama seem effortless.
Well put, that's what he does.
I have to say though I did think he had peed himself when first saw it .. now if only he had a mattress .
That happens all the time when people hear the hammer being cocked right behind their heads...
Scarp, imo you should really work that into the paintjob.
That captive is genius, might have to pinch this idea. I like the idea of making captives to represent my opponent's models, for a little extra humiliation.
Hey all! Thank you so much for the comments, I really appreciate them all - will need to reply later tonight though, supposed to be cooking for my gf in less than an hour and I don't even have all the ingredients yet (Asian pesto chicken though - it's going to be ace!)
Will probs be able to reply later tonight, or worst case scenario tomorrow. Thanks for all the interest though! To keep you going, here's today's mini, and my favourite from the Copplestone line. Haven't converted him at all, and the paintjob was a 2 hour quick job, but I'm pretty pleased! I was trying out some different skin tones - I wanted to see if I could pull off a sunburned surface-dweller look. Please let me know what you reckon, and wish me luck not burning anything tonight!
Automatically Appended Next Post: p.s. the jacket looks a little flat, but it's just the photos, honest. Need to dash!
Not bad, even more so, because it was done in just two hours. Those scavengers always tempted me, but they wouldn't fit my interpretation of necromunda. For yours they are perfect though.
Dinner crisis averted, here's a few responses:
(It was delicious, incidentally )
@Remi - Totally worth it though - I dumped for the 'abomination' deal too, and a couple of the extra survivors. Can't believe what a surge they got before the end! Glad you like the hostage, thank you
@Scrazza - Thanks a lot!
@Galorn - Would have loved to go to Adepticon and see it in action - from their demo game up on the KS, it looks like a lot of fun. Did you get to play? Cheers for the scale info - always good to know.
@Baiyuan - Thanks for the kind words! You're dead on about the hood, he'll have no facial details at all. He's got a canvas-type sack over his head, and though they're not the best pictures, there's actually a knotted rope tied round the base of it to stop it falling off. It was partly to anonymise him, but also for the dramatic effect. I'm not 100% on the pee stains - I can see how it would work, but I don't think I've got the painting skills to do it subtly enough to not just look crass
@Rogue - Thanks! LDD's actually done my job for me - Victoria Lamb body, Pig Iron Kolony rebel legs, and GW flagellant arms (with a little modification).
@LDD - Seriously good eye, I'm impressed! Those pig iron legs were only out about a week ago These are all yours:
Spoiler:
@Illumini - Thanks a lot, they were fun to make! The legs are from Pig Iron - Kolony Rebel leg sprue.
@Neil - Thanks so much, that's a huge huge compliment. I was trying to get some fear, or at least resignation in the posture, so I'm really pleased if that came through! And I hadn't considered that changing the colours would do that - it is an unfortunate fix! Maybe he was held in the dumpster beforehand
@Bruticus - Thanks a ton! I'm hoping it'll beat just having a generic marker, and will make a nice visual centre-piece for captive rescue scenarios - You know your gangers have got a pretty grim fate in Necro if you don't rescue them, so anything to tug on the heartstrings is good in my book...
@Monkeytroll - Thank you so much! And I wasn't sure about posting the KS - figured it was kind of off-topic, but I knew too many people on here who would be interested to let you lot miss out It does add up, but it works out at less than $1 a model if you got the abomination
@Two Spartan - Thanks a bunch! Hope you like the new guy
Automatically Appended Next Post: Forgot to mention, I've got some new little fluff synopses up for these guys. Nothing special, but just a bit of info on who they are!
Lodge Lodge was an engineer. Course, he hadn’t always been. Fought with the Desert Rats before, a ‘revolutionary group’ that quickly went the way of most revolutionary groups – vying with others for territory. Killed a fair few people, but not one of those bastards didn’t deserve it. Among the best up close and personal, Lodge led his own squad. Tried to lead by example, show his lads how to do it in person. No patience for weakness or cowardice. He was wounded when the slave caravan he was leading was ambushed by governmental forces – cowardly bastards couldn’t face them head on. His squadmates abandoned him, even as he shouted curses after them and tried to drag himself upright with the good chunk of thigh he had left. Treacherous scum left him to his fate the first time he’d ever really needed them. He learned a lesson then. Not a quick one, and not an easy conclusion to come to, but as the beatings went from hours to days he realised where he had made his mistake.
Didn’t matter who he had been anyway, he was QA now. Engineering is what he did.
He had served in the penal mines near the Quadring Penitentiary for two years, far longer than most survived. Hard time. He’d seen then how engineers were valued, how vital they were to everyone in the mines. Makeshift respirators and scratch-built structural columns saved lives, and with this salvation came privilege. The engineers, or even anyone who knew a little about the trade, could work shorter shifts, get better food, and get fewer beatings. Even the guards had respect for those who made the place safer: The convicts were manual labour, and the guards little better – as many of them were killed in mine collapses as the inmates. Lodge learned the trade from Borth, another man who had served with the Rats – he traded hard-earned lho sticks and smuggled alcohol for the knowledge he would need. Lodge had learned to make himself essential. Even if that involved ‘engineering’ an industrial accident for Borth.
Magpie ///datatagsearch drive C:// “Magpie”
searching… #ERROR 7C##: no results found
///datatagsearch drive D:// “Magpie”
///searching… 2 files found. ///locating files… ///downloading… complete.
///displaying pictoral feed 1 of 1
///displaying data fragment 1 of 1
Ah, this one. Apparently known locally as ‘Magpie’ – doubtless due to a predilection for shiny objects belonging to others. A ‘vagrant’, I understand? Charged with assault, participation in a riot, and public inebriation. Oh, and I do love this defence entered here – no memory of events, “not a violent man”? Moving. You’ll be right at home in the mines then. No violent men there. 30 years! Next! A factory worker from Hollow State, Silon had tried to flee with his family to the relative safety of the Skew in the final weeks before the Evac. The PDF were closing on pockets of resistance around Easthollow, and civilian casualties and reports of atrocities had caused panic in the local populace. The refugee column they were travelling in was attacked by slavers near the border, and Silon panicked, losing track of his wife and daughter in his flight. He escaped alone, but had witnessed the brutal deaths of many of the others who had tried to run. Eventually finding his way to Crockfall, he lived there for several months, begging and stealing whenever he could to stay alive. Though he found other refugees who had made it through the mountains around Crater Lake, he never heard word of his family again. His years of living rough have made ‘Magpie’ a useful asset in the QA scavenger teams – he has developed a reputation for making valuable finds, though much of his share is known to be spent on liquor.
@Baiyuan - Thanks a lot! I've overused washes and been a little slapdash in areas, but I'm pretty pleased. I really wanted to get something done between studying. I do love a lot of the Copplestone models: they've got flaws, but some of them have a lot of character.
That latest copplestone miniature looks good, especially considering how quickly you did him - 2 hours is pretty nuts. But something about him, maybe his hair or his earrings or his beady eyes or... well I'm not sure exactly, but he just looks like he would be a bit of a dick to hang around with.
Do you game with your gang much? Curious as to how the heavy bolter works out as crouching is useful, but the bigger base must cause some issues.
@LDD - I was impressed! Thanks a lot for the kind words - you should totally get painting
@Rogue and Baiyuan - Thank you, but that was NOT an image I needed on the bus into work And Neil promised he would never tell *sobs*
@Monkeytroll - I think two hours may have been a bit of a conservative estimate - I had most of the base and some basecoating done at the start of the two hours, so I was totally cheating Glad you like the fluff! I was so tempted to get all the extra survivors, but I managed to hold back a little - the Kill Bill clone wasn't really doing much for me anyway. Can't wait for September though!
@alabamaheretic - Thanks a lot, man, so happy you're keeping up!
@Bruticus - That's what I like so much about him! I personally reckon it's the general smug smile that does it - You can tell the sculptor thought the same thing as someone's already broken his nose I like the idea that you're going to get a few unpleasant gents in any group of survivors, so he fits well, I think. Thanks for the kind words, though like I said to Monkey I may have underestimated a little, so sorry!
I haven't really gamed much in the last few months - can't find anyone who's interested in Necro :( With the guys i used to play with we had a pretty story-based game, so small disadvantages like that didn't really pose too much of a problem. Necromunda's so unbalanced anyway, if you play to win, you will
Wow don't check in for a little while and you have three picture updates
The guy with the crowbar should have a squiggle on his book. That way and with a little comic timing you'll be armed for witty conversation or comeback with your opponent.
What a great idea for rescue scenarios. Off to a good start with the classic about to get executed pose. Never thought of making a prisoner model to act as a marker....oh boy that is another scavvy I'll need to do. (yes I know what is coming next .....and of course the dogs).
The copplestone mini is a two hour paint job! Damn looks good. Nice pink face, definitely a unique skintone so I think it worked for sunburn.
Scarper wrote:
I haven't really gamed much in the last few months - can't find anyone who's interested in Necro :(
Once I finally drag my butt back to Edinburgh (and more importantly get a Necro gang together) I will happily volunteer myself to play some games with you, mate.
These days I am far more likely to be able to put a gang of 8 together rather than an army of 80
@PDH - Not a problem at all! I've been kind of neglecting Dakka recently with all the studying for final - tonight's the first chance I've had for a while to really trawl through all the awesome blogs I've been following, and I still feel kind of guilty about it Thanks a lot for the kind words. I like the idea for Tollen - I hadn't considered the use of the book in battlefield banter, and I can see a lot of fun uses for that! I will stop badgering you about the dogs if it's bothering you - I thought it was kind of required now that one of them is my namesake... It better be the most diseased, clingy and irritating one, or I will be disappointed Two hours might have been a bit of an understatement, I'm afraid - three and a half or so was probably closer, but it's still speed-painting by my usual standards! Glad you like the skin tone - I was a bit frightened by the red wash I had down, but some highlights and further washes evened it out.
@Ragsta - I would love that! I've got a little more space in the flat I'm moving into in June, and a few buildings and terrain bits - you'd always be welcome for a game, or just a beer, if you fancied it Hope London's treating you well in the mean time!
A bit macabre, and not the best picture, but the gent in the blue parka brings the number of unlucky individuals posing as loot markers to 3. Looks like the local wildlife don't leave much to waste!
Scarper wrote:A bit macabre, and not the best picture, but the gent in the blue parka brings the number of unlucky individuals posing as loot markers to 3. Looks like the local wildlife don't leave much to waste!
Hope you like him!
i still like "glurp" the most of the "loot" markers. (no swimming indeed)
Haha, cheers guys! And Galorn, the swimmer is officially known as 'Glurp' from now on
Thought this would amuse one or two of you - my flatmate thinks I'm crazy after I cracked up and took a snap of this, right outside my block's doorway:
Spoiler:
It's seeping into real life! I'm living in terror of waking up and finding one propped against my front door tomorrow
If you are doing Fallout terrain, stained matresses are compulsory I should use the granny-grating rivet-making method for a matress..the staining can be done with paint
Scarper wrote:
I am beginning to regret posting a photo of my street
You're safe. It is a slightly blurry picture of a block of flats. Could be Cork, Cornwall, could be Wolverhampton, could be Upper West Middleton for all we know.
ok... scarper... i finally managed to see through all this thread here... tho not reading everything...
what makes this thread so unique is all this big individuality of your minis...! this makes this thread for me so much unique!... which in turn only can lead to a subscription of yor thread to stay in the knowing of your future works...!
well... it was high overdue... i love your munda minis... on neils and other thread they got so much applause...and well deserved i may add! now i need to find the time to read all your fluff...which is the real big load of your thread
Viktor von Domm wrote:well... it was high overdue... i love your munda minis... on neils and other thread they got so much applause...and well deserved i may add! now i need to find the time to read all your fluff...which is the real big load of your thread
(in a completly unasskissing way) before i started actual modeling, scarps thread gave me alot of my inspiration and ideas early on, mixed with a bunch of the =][=munda/necromunda gangs out there.. especialy molotov and majortom, neils individuality was also a big push for me into the miniature headspace that i am at now
@Rogue and Vik - Honestly, guys, I just rip off techniques I've seen on the internet, same as everyone else Thanks so much for the kind words though, I really do appreciate them. Just feels a little undeserved!
@Scrazza - Thanks, man, they're a lot of fun to make! I've got a few more, and need to make d6 of them before I'm done, so I'm sure a few more will turn up when I want to do some modelling and don't have the time for a full character.
@Neil - Much appreciated, the visual reference will prove invaluable, I'm sure Glad you like em! The gore is indeed Tamiya red, layered with a bit of GW black. It's really good for this kind of thing, genuinely seems to coagulate. If you attack it with a knackered brush as it's drying, you can get some really nice effects.
@Two Spartan - Thanks a lot, man! I was worried they might be a little OTT, to be honest, so I'm glad you like em.
MauS wrote:Hey Scarper, have any good ideas on how to create scale stained matrasses? Had to steal the dumpster image as an idea for scenery mate. Looking good!
MauS wrote:Hey Scarper, have any good ideas on how to create scale stained matrasses? Had to steal the dumpster image as an idea for scenery mate. Looking good!
If he doesn't I do...
This isn't something you want to tell the world, Galorn.
@Maus - Long time no see! Glad you like the dumpster stuff, have you been up to much yourself? I've been missing your thread - was genuinely considering necro-ing it a little bit again to see if you would post anything: it worked last time I believe we were promised some zombies...
@Maus, Rogue, LDD, Galorn AND Briancj - Thanks for the classy start to the new page
Nothing new today, but just so it's not a completely empty post - remember this guy?
I've been messing around with photoshop, so I can do something modelly even if I don't have time to paint (need to keep my sanity in revision season somehow!) Fairly certain that this is how he'll look painted up:
He's one of my least favourite gangers, so he gets painted next. Less pressure not to screw up that way! I've got some backstory in the works for him too, based on courier work before the Evac. Will post soon!
Do any of you lot do similar things when hashing out colour schemes? I find it can really help you spot any clangers before you've actually covered the detail up, but I reckon a lot of people have a much more natural talent for picking out good colour schemes than I do, so maybe its not necessary. Helps me out, anyway
i like that scheme... why is it your least favorite ganer tho?... the sculpted hand looks ace on the shotgun...and well with a shotgun you can´t go wrong...
Scarper wrote:@Maus - Long time no see! Glad you like the dumpster stuff, have you been up to much yourself? I've been missing your thread - was genuinely considering necro-ing it a little bit again to see if you would post anything: it worked last time I believe we were promised some zombies...
@Maus, Rogue, LDD, Galorn AND Briancj - Thanks for the classy start to the new page
WTF this is a cool looking dude the GS work is tops the helmet/hat looks cool the shotgun over the shoulder is a nice touch, what the hell don't you like
You astound me as your disappointment for this mini, I have to ask where are the feet from are they from the Vic Lamb range
The least favourite guys always have a special place .. unloved by the creator these souls strive harder than most to succeed in life .. i bet he lives longer than the other ganger's.. lol
I agree with the others he is something special his head and hand are wonderful.. i never really have the patience to work out colour schemes properly , getting more of an issue now i have more paints though.. normally see something i want to capture that already exists ..
Hehehe, thanks a ton guys, I'm glad you like him. I don't dislike the model, I just had a very particular image in my head when I was putting him together, and I don't feel like he lives up to it. I'm happy with how he looks, and pretty proud of some of the sculpting, but I'll always think of how he should look, rather than how he does. And there's always got to be one least favourite
@LDD - Don't pretend there are any doubts there - you've got an eagle eye, man! They're the legs from Victoria Lamb's kilted range - I liked the boots (I'm imagining them as hefty motorcycle boots), and couldn't see myself using the kilts any time soon, so I carved em up. Thanks for the kind words!
@Neil - That is truer than you know! Twitch was my least favourite of the Remnants, but he's bloody indestructable. Last count he had 9 separate serious injuries, and was still going strong (well, T1, S2, head injured, half blind and with a missing hand. But still on his feet!). I ended up rooting for him - a scrappy, limping underdog I'm actually struggling to keep the blue/green jumpsuits going in the QA - I like having more freedom in my schemes sometimes...
That's a pretty good idea with Photoshop. Might have to try that some time as I have real difficulties coming up with schemes. That guy's great. You have a real knack for coming up with realistic, evocative poses!
I really cannot find fault with this ganger love the look, the choice and mix of parts are great and so varied (like the feet great call on them ) seriously it kicks ass.
I love the ww2 feel to the head gear screams GI tanker to me, and the use of those damn empire archers bodies (which I have a box set of but never know what the hell to do with ) works great for a scavenger body
@LDD - Never! Wasn't fishing, but I consider myself chastened nonetheless. Thanks for the (even more!) kind words!
@Scrazza - Thanks!
@jackanory - Thanks a lot, man, I really appreciate that! I like the photoshop thing, as it helps you get a much better idea of what schemes aren't going to work before you've ruined the model I also find this colour theory tool really helpful - its supposed to be for designing websites, but it works really well for our purposes too! Hope it helps you out
Sidekick's all primed up now, and once he dries I'll slap some colour on him tonight. In the meantime, here's this:
The most dysfunctional family photo ever. From left to right: Tracker (Branan), Unfortunate victim #1, Colm, Sidekick, Latchkey (Caleb), The Warden, Magpie (Silon), Tollen, Lodge, Scaff, Raston. It's a pretty big picture, so you should be able to zoom right in for a better look.
Sorry for another Baiyuan update - I'll be sure to have some new content in there next time
They look really great together. I'm having a hard time imagining the guy that's lying down declaring a charge but he looks great. I can't decide if he is my favourite or the guy that is really scowling as he reads the blurb on the back of the book.
man with such a bunch of fine minis it is no wonder you don´t finish them of in this millenia... it would take me ages to do all these characters properly!
The group shot is excellent and really ties in the entirety of what all of this has been up to now. Each piece is a mini diorama in itself. I really like the work you do.
then you better arm yourself^^... i´ve stopped tlaking to my in-laws and this saves me the expenses for any presents for any holidays^^...and i never got anything good anyways^^
lol... invite them all on a big ship journey... no return tickets for them...^^ and get those big training weights form the on the ship training room... you know the rest^^
Viktor von Domm wrote:lol... invite them all on a big ship journey... no return tickets for them...^^ and get those big training weights form the on the ship training room... you know the rest^^
Erm big out lay but good return that one is worth looking into further
Hahaha, no worries, you haven't scared me off just yet, despite your super subtle disappearance plans. (I think Dave's is definitely most thematic for you guys) I've actually got my med school finals starting in less that 2 weeks, so free time is a bit of a rarity. Still trying to get stuff done to keep my sanity, but sorry if I'm a bit scarce at the mo!
@Dave - Thanks, man! Really appreciate that
@LDD - Hahaha, thank you, I'm glad you like them! Sure the craziness of the league couldn't get captured in model form, and it would be only fitting that I got distracted while making them and never finished
@Bruticus - Cheers, man! None of them really have an 'action' pose going on, but my original plan was for them all to fit into a looting diorama - something I may still do at one point if I have the time.
@jackanory - Thanks a lot! Hope Baiyuan doesn't mind too much - it's all out of love
@Vik - Thanks a bunch, man, I really appreciate that! I'd love to get stuff done quicker, but I tend to go a little too in depth with things, and don't have as much time off as I'd like. I've got a few weeks after finals before I start my job in August - will have to set a challenge to see how much I can knock out then!
@Rogue - It's come up once or twice. Still really glad you like them - thanks a bunch for the kind words!
@Skalk - Mentioned it in your thread, but so glad to see you back! Thank you so much for the compliments - that diorama comment really made my day I took a lot of inspiration from your own cult - would love to see you tackle them again. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
@Neil - It's such a handy site, someone on here recommended it to me, so I try to pass on the kindness and flog it wherever I can! Thanks again for the kind words, mate, you're really spoiling me.
So when I said that Sidekick was being painted next, that was just a bare-faced lie to infuriate you all. Objective markers don't take too long, and revision is leaving me short on time at the mo, so these objectives get done first! As these will get used in most games I play, I thought it was only fair that unfortunate individuals in these markers get their stories told - I was planning on starting out by writing a short fluff piece for this lady before posting, but I'm really not in the mood for written stuff after being in the lib all day. Sorry about that, I'll have to get on it in a few weeks These models are fun to paint, but I wasn't too keen on the hand, so I scratched this fire axe together from a few different parts and hacked up the arm. Hope you like her!
1. L O ing L
2. Agree completly
3. scarp this is amazing, looks like someone pushed him on the ground and hit him in the face with a sledgehammer! I LOVE IT!
The family picture is terrific, that was not an update following my tradition. Besides if by that you meant "updates without showing anything new" I'd say that's unfair, my updates are just tiny and teasing, but rarely redundant.
Anyway the crew looks great and I have to once again say your ability to create miniatures that look like people, who could actually exist, is setting you apart.
so good news scarp you still make awesome guys! that last marker looks like his ex wife wapped him a good with a frying a cast iron frying pan. (beware the evils of exwives)
on another point hope your free time does not get eaten too much with with work and what not.
@Scrazza - No, you're right, it is a bit of an odd pose. I'm not really sure what they were going for with this one - the arm was even rigid straight outwards and just balled up in a fist. I do like the model though, and I wanted to use her anyway. Thanks for the kind words!
@Vik - It is indeed - I think some of it may be the angle of the photo, but it isn't pretty at the best of times The blood is tamiya clear red with some GW chaos black stippled in, glad you like it!
@Dave - That is a disturbing gif. But fitting!
@Rogue - Thank you, I'm really glad you like!
@Bjorn - Thank you so much again for the kind words, they mean a lot coming from you. Sorry if I caused offence, it was absolutely not intended - I'm a big fan of your blog, and it's great getting a look at your creative process as you develop something! Didn't mean to imply any of your posts are redundant - It was just a silly jibe, I'll knock it off in future
@Alabama - Cheers, man! I will take your advice to heart (both the working too hard part and the ex-wives bit )
Panting, Solomon slowed his sprint to a jog, finally stopping and collapsing against the railing beside him. It shifted, but took his weight. Several figures stumbled behind him, heavy packs and gear thumping against their backs, headlamps flashing in the half light. Solomon checked the charge on his power pack, setting the rifle down on the rusted metal floor. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he turned to the oldest of the group behind him, a man with sparse white hair, cradling a battered long rifle.
“Alright,” He muttered. “We’re clear, I think. Lor, did you get the one that was following?”
The old man nodded, a grin revealing his missing teeth. A younger girl slid to a seated position, hands trembling
“Good.” He whispered to himself. Sitting down beside her, he cuffed Jorn round the back of the head, half miming. “Lot of trouble we didn’t need, kid.” She looked up at him, smiling. “Leave the walkers to themselves.” The leader turned to the other men - “Mule, can you keep a watch? Might be more behind us. Corin, you’ve still got some more heat packs, right? Get one going. Got a couple of cells I need to recharge.”
“What were they?!” Jorn was still out of breath, a slight quaver in her voice. “Why didn’t they go down?”
“Walkers?” Solomon sighed. “They’re sick people. You really need to learn to keep your cool, Jorn. You find them in some of the older parts of the Hive, or out in the Wastes. You come across any more, save your ammo. Takes a lot to drop one, and they’re not the brightest. Steer clear of them, and they’ll leave you alone”. She looked chastened, then her features hardened. Solomon regretted being harsh on her – he could barely remember the first time he’d seen the damned things.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke. “They just startled me, is all. “What happened to them? Why are they - like that?”
“No one really knows, Jorn. They’re sick, they’ll pass on what they got to you if they bite you, so just stay the hell clear, alright?”
Lorek coughed, sifting through his pack for a canteen. “You’ll be too young to remember the militias, eh, girl? They were around before the Evac – pro-government, pro-rebel, whatever. Bad people. Killed a lot of civilians for living in the wrong place, being kin with the wrong people.” He turned and met her gaze, taking a long swig from the canteen before offering it to her. “That’s what happened to them after they did what they did – it’s a curse. Poor bastards can’t die – you saw the state they were walking around in, right? That’s what happened to every one of them.” He sighed as the younger man sitting beside him held in a laugh. “Deserve what they’re getting, course, but you wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” A pointed glare in Kaylan’s direction.
The younger man, a heavy set, dark skinned giant in a creaking mass of enforcer plate and leather, sneered at him. “There’s more to em than that, old man. Besides, a decent shot’ll still drop one. You seen the ones in the combat gear? You ever notice how many have PDF stuff on them? Mate of mine back in Roth used to put em down for their gear."
The old man scoffed. “Then your mate and everyone he sold to are probably more of them by now.”
“I heard that it was what the government used to do to defectors." Kaylan continued, his voice a few degrees louder. "Some engineered virus. A warning to everyone else.”
“Whatever they are,” Interjected Solomon. “They’re dangerous. So leave ‘em be.”
What self respecting Necro player could have got this far without a few plague zombies?! There are a few more in the works, but just thought I'd post these up for now. I wanted to do some that would fit into Caitiff, so I was going for a scavengery vibe, as always The gent who looks like he would have the most difficulty playing a guitar looks like he had a pretty rough time pre-infection - he is supposed to have an officer-style cap attached to his skull (you can see the nail that someone has kindly attached to stop it from blowing off in the 3rd pic). I'm having a little difficulty in sculpting the rim - does anyone have any ideas? I've had trouble getting GS to support its own weight at that thinness, and my plasticard-fu is pretty poor, so I'm not really liking that option.
Anyway, hope you like, and thanks to everyone for all your comments so far - they are, as always, hugely appreciated! Hope you like these guys, and I'll try and keep a presence here as I drown in exams for the next few weeks
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also - Arg, so many faces! It's getting like facebook on here - what convinced you lot to demask?!
excellent zombies, love the officer one especially. You might be able to use a hole punch to cut plasticard in the right shape. Or make it from greenstuff and then glue it in place when it has dried.
@Jackanory - Thanks, man! Really glad you like it - I kind of wonder if anyone reads the fluff bits sometimes
@Alabama - All in good time Thanks for the kind words! And don't worry, I deffo don't need more caffeine - thing I've had about 3 litres of coke zero already today!
Emailed you out those signs this eve too - let me know if they work for you, got 1 or two smaller things if they're not the kind of thing you were after.
@Bruticus - Thank you! And especially for the holepunch idea, will have to try that out.
@Rawson - Of course I kind of like it like this though - a step less anonymity! Kind of weird to actually see what people I've been speaking to for a while look like though, it's all very surreal. Glad you like the stagger - i spent a little while pretending to zombie walk in my room to get it right. Made sure my flatmates were out first!
@Vik - Thanks so much! They were really fun to make, so expect a few more...
well zombies are the regular chips of the minifigs world... once you start you can´t stop, eh?one of these days i think i jump up on that bandwagon too^^
What are those zombie banners about, btw? I keep meaning to ask one of you =l_= guys! I'd love to see your take on some zombs, Vik - you can never have too many! The more of a horde, the better the effect
Thanks for the compliment, RW! The first guy has the top half of a flagellant body, sawn off the legs and with some GS rucksack straps added! The B&W makes it kind of hard to tell...
well not really for now... tho one of my earlier works is a monotlith that would have been the centre piece of a terrain idea i have...and i have collected quite a noticable amount of skeleton and other carcass pieces for that... so some zombies would be nice to be added for that... gootta have some upstanding ones too^^
the banners- that was a long zombie survival talk on one of the =][_,= threads, and since i was bored i just made them.. and ahh flagellant body, and btw you didnt alter those legs at all did you? i know i have a few and they are in an odd shape! perfect for zombies
@Vik - So what you're saying is, you have the gear, the knowhow, and have been directly challenged? This can only end one way
@RW - The legs are off the Empire Militia sprue - they'd probably work pretty well as is, but I actually lopped off the right leg just above the giant... boot... thing, and reangled it to give him more of a limp. Glad that it looks like I haven't changed anything though!
I... possibly do that when coming up with poses more than i would like to admit. Thank Christ I've got a door lock...
@alabama - Glad you like them, man! The other stuff isn't really posters, just suggestions on sites to get etched signs from and things like that. Just if you're interested!
@Alabama - Will do, as soon as I can find it! Deffo by tomorrow.
Final zombie, and probs final model for a little while. I don't like him as much as the others, but he was still fun to make!
Liquid GS is an awesome product, incidentally. A little limited in its uses, but fantastic at what it does if you water it down a touch! As always, would love to know what you reckon, and thanks so much for all the input so far!
Scarper wrote:@Bjorn - Thank you so much again for the kind words, they mean a lot coming from you. Sorry if I caused offence, it was absolutely not intended - I'm a big fan of your blog, and it's great getting a look at your creative process as you develop something! Didn't mean to imply any of your posts are redundant - It was just a silly jibe, I'll knock it off in future
No offence taken, really never mind dude, feel free to jibe as you like I can take it. All I was really saying was, that it really wasn't an update "baiyuan style", because you just showed too much and that the only possible/pointless critique would be redundancy, because most minis had been shown before, which is something I haven't done a lot...yet. So it's all good, no need to walk eggshells. Would be a terrible thing if the matey jibes on our blogs just dissappeared.
Using the half corpse from the renegades is a stroke of genius. Awesome munchers.
Oh for goodness' sake :( So you've got zombies in YOUR log too now? No fair, man!
The first batch look awesome, I like the lasgun dangling in one hand. Is there any chance you could convert one to look like Bob in Day of the Dead?
The final one... Hm. I don't like the way the right arm is hanging, do you have a shoulder pad you could blu tac to the shoulder to see if it improves the look?
By the way, you mentioned having issues keeping the QA jumpsuit colours interesting. Have you thought abbout orange jumpsuits instead? Or having some of them wearing prison guard uniforms? Maybe that's the variety you might like to stay interested.
P.S. I am finding all the actual faces appearing on Dakka quite terrifying. Some of the faces I DEFINITELY did not picture belonging to their owners!
@Baiyuan - As long as you're sure! I didn't think you were really too ticked off, but didn't want to take the risk Thanks again - I've had that FW torso kicking around for ages with no idea what to do with it, and this just seemed to fit!
@Ragsta - I'm just getting ready for August! Besides, I've got a long way to go before I'm approaching the levels of your hoard Thanks a bunch for the kind words though, will have to see what I can do about Bob!
I know what you mean about the faces - it's a lot of fun to see how people really look, but I had a real picture of lots of people in my mind's eye, and it's a little jarring to see how it differs... Anyone in particular shock you? I understand what you're saying with zombo 3 - The arm angle looks a little - off - and I'm not too sure how to fix it. I tried all kinds of different poses and ended up settling on this one, but it is still flawed. I'll have to dig around for a shoulder pad! Here's how he looks when he's cominatcha:
@Shaso - Sorry mate, you ninjaed me there! I did love the Fallout series, so there are bound to be a few similarities, but I've tried not to stick too closely to that mythos. I never actually played dead money, but looking at the pics on the FO wiki, you're right - they look quite similar! I was really going for more of a Metro / Stalker kind of vibe with this one, something like this:
Spoiler:
(Random cosplayers found on google, not actually anything bad happening!)
Thanks for the interest, hope you like what you find
Thanks for the faith, Vik! Would you believe he took longer to do than the other two? He's not quite as complex in terms of parts, but I think with a scrappy paintjob on the hoody and the armour he'll fit in just fine
Cool rule, if the zombies killed anybody, you left them laying there, on the zombies' next turn, or something, a roll of 4+ they got back up as zombies, under the zombie player's control.
Check out 'Tales from the Underhive' on Yakromunda.com, I've been itching to try out that zombie scenario, even ordered a bunch of mantic zombies to get started. Pitslaves with chainsaw hands vs Zombies in the murky depths of a hive city - that's my kinda scene.
The 'scavvy' ruleset for necromunda has rules for ghouls and plague zombies - the plague zombies are great. They move 2D6" (the 'zombie shamble' - really unpredictable and a lot of fun ingame), have a chance of infecting (after the game ends) anyone they wound, and are generally hard to put down. Ghouls had some rubbish fluff about cannibalism, and could put permanent injuries on people that they put down in combat, if I remember correctly. Never been a massive fan of them!
As Bruticus recommends, Yakromunda has an absolute library of rulesets and scenarios for free online, and a great gang building tool. Fantastic little website!
@Vik - I would call that misplaced faith Thank you again though!
@Bruticus - That is one of my favourites too! Always been itching to try it, but I need a bigger zombie hoard.
@RW - Cheers man, I really appreciate that!
Today's update it nowt from me, but done by my girlfriend, Hannah. Between practicing examinations of patients with thyrotoxicosis tonight, she finished off these guys, who I am informed are "Jeremy" and "Company". I personally have not touched this model with brush, knife or glue, so all credit is hers. It's her first ever painted model, and she wanted me to post it up for you lot to see! She wanted to make someone who could be "friends with my team", so Jeremy shares the Jackals' colours. I personally think he's awesome
aye... say your missues i am too thinking that the knees look very good... for a first time she skipped the complete horibble amount of mutilated minis i made myself... going to start like this...heck if it came to this i think i am not even on that level atm
This is so unfair first you make great looking mini's that I want to build now you have your misuses to paint cool looking minis where dose it end, trying to push my other half to give painting ago with no joy she just wont take the bait
Cheers guys! Hannah's really pleased you all like Jeremy, and she asked me to say a big Thank You! I'm really impressed that she managed to get the eyes right, and tried out dry brushing on stuff like Company's fur and the road. Way better than my first model, by any rate
@KillyKaveKommando - (Was going to abbreviate your name there, but stopped myself - yikes! ) That's Ken, from the hasslefree adventurers line. Great little mini, and he comes with a couple of different arm options too! Company is a 15mm Giant Wolf from Copplestone Castings
is that a pee stained mattress? cuase that looks pretty sick (in a good way) and who is that fellow next to the mattress? I don't thiunk i have seen him before...
Holly crap the pee stained mattres how cool and how weird to think that not sure what had happened on the other one mind is that a blood stain great work love it and tell the misses great start and want to see more of her work.
There seems to be a real woman,s touch appearing around here as of late must be the change in season
lol... what has the world been coming to...? lol... that P-stain matress...lol... and yuckjy all the same... and then the well... let us just say... the second one could have been avoided with the usage of a sanitary towel
Hope you like it!
could you tell me what arms you used on that I would like to borrow the idea slightly "cough"
shame I was hope full 
I doubt even that Scottish weather could dampen the charms of Edinburgh
mine are just weird 
great work love it and tell the misses great start and want to see more of her work.
