Right, i've been on this bloody forum for 2 years now it seems and i still haven't started a
wip. thankfully though, i've had one idea thats managed to survive in the cacophany of creative flow that riddles my brain daily.
the basic idea was that i wanted to paint something other than space marines (because everytime i've left the hobby, i've returned with space marines
) as going back to space marines was out of the question i decided to go with catachans, but with a slight twist.
this blog will hopefully manage to show off my creative skills and maybe even recieve some positive critisism as well.
so..... where to start?
firstly i'll drop in some lovely fluff - it's not Dan Abnett, but it makes me smile and for some reason makes me want to paint them even more.
Atomic Avengers
in the north eastern reaches of the galaxy lies Carcera, the smallest world and the only habitable out of 4 planets in this binary system. Known as the Carcera system, its population is around a 120 million, more than half are in prison and are forced to work the mines for a rare classifeid material. this material is what makes this system worth caring about, and its far out location and small size makes it seem useless and too out of reach for anyone to even bother setting a course for it apart from the odd ork pirates (from the blood axe clan) who usually feel comfortable enough to trade with them, away from thier more prejudice bretheren.
this 'material' is rumoured to be used for deathstrike missiles. not that anyone on Carcera knows this, the material is so rare that they haven't found any in 300 years, but unweary onlooking eyes of inquisitors creates so much fear that they keep digging anyways.
it's said that there are three ways to live on Carcera; either become a criminal and hopefully don't get killed, get caught and hope you don't get worked to death, or join the military and hope to live through that. in some ways Carcera could be viewed as an 'urban death world' as there's not really much hope for many. narcotics are widespread and even corrupt bureaucrats and politicians are involved in the usage and illeagal trading of 'Nuke' a very addictive narcotic. its also said that many guardsmen are under the influence during battles. not that any of this matters to the imperium, as the rare materials from this world and its neighbours constitute enough leeway to leave them to it. of course, if the narcotics makes a Carcerian blaspheme the emperor or the imperium then thier tongues will be cut out and left as an example after they have been swiftly executed.
The Atomic Avengers are led by a man known as General 'Jack' Slater. a former corrupt arbite, then criminal of the penal legion, who swiftly rose up the ranks and was pardoned for his crimes on Carcera. As a former penal legionnaire Slater utilises penal legions in his army, a way of giving his past inmates a chance to leave the legion and join the ranks of his army.
other notable members of the atomic avengers are;
Mr Nukem - a vain, self obsessed maniac who runs around by himself pretending he's in a computer game. of course, he isn't. he's just become one of the most addicted Nuke addicts to record and Slater uses this to his advantage
Big Bad Bill - another former inmate, Bill Duke (as he was known before incarceration) was a bodyguard for a crime syndicate on Carcera's 'District 5', one of the worst districts in Carcera. Bill lost his loyalty when he only daughter was thrown off the pump tower because he was late to a meeting his boss had with a politician (a nuke deal no doubt). Bill, distraught, ran to the pump tower club, tore out the throats of every chump he could lay his hands on and then when he found his boss, he slowly broke all his bones and then pummelled his boss's face until his head looked like Carcerian soup. of course the politicains didn't like thier contact dead so they threw him in prison.
not that this was a problem for Bill, he simply kept killing people till he was spotted and asked to join the ranks, to which he answered 'gimme a heavy bolter and i'll kill anything you want'
Tank Girl - tank girl was probably brought up in the best way possible, her father managed to avoid going to jail and joined the guard. during his time in the guard he exelled at armoured combat, becoming a tank ace not too long after he joined, he managed to get what education he could for his daughter before she grew up and became a criminal herself. after he fathers tours became longer and longer she started reading up on tank engagements and tactics as a way of keeping her father close, he would a few times get his letters smuggled to her untouched so she could read what was really happening and feel that little bit closer to him. the last time she heard from him was when he told her about being transported to face tyranids, he fended off many of the xenos and chose to help a squad escape rather than provide covering fire for a commissar who left his sword, outraged the commissar executed him for insubordination, a member of his crew managed to smuggle his revolver back to her. Tank girl from that day was filled with rage, she joined the guard and made a joke of the current tank commanders scoring 100% on the training. when she finally got a hold of her first leman russ the first kill she claimed was that of a commissar, the perfect shot. but she denied this saying 's**t happens'. after countless 'accidental' commissar deaths she was bound for execution until Slater forbode the allegations and promoted her to tank ace a title her father only held in the Avengers, after that gesture, she swore ultimate allegiance to Slater. from that day commissars are never seen in the Atomic Avengers, and women are the only ones trusted to operate armour. Tank girl has command over the tank formations called the 'Metal Sisters'
The Atomic Avengers don't care about camo, they just want to get 'the rush' of battle and take down as many people they can before they die. they wear red shirts/vests with jeans and sport tattoos from past battles/ victories and such. and penal legions just wear thier striped prison garments. thier weapons usually denote rank, leigionnaires having nothing but thier number tag on thier guns, whereas normal soldiers have hazard stripes on thiers, sergeants then have gold plated guns with hazard stripes and high commanders have thier whole weapons gold plated. Vehicles have the same similar colour scheme, except tanks which replace red with pink and are all women.
Next up! first pics of my take on Straken..... when i manage to borrow a camera
