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ok storag... i have to think again about the colorchoice... hmmm...the SW idea...generally thinking is a good way... hmmm.... i think if i waste some time with gimp i might come up with a good idea...if you would be so good as to provide us with a good full shot of the space-elf that would be helpful...

A fluff.. I only have some general lines in mind:
- He's a human, but from a planet with low gravity and that's why he has this tall, elven-like appearance
- He's a seasoned veteran and been a mercenary for many years. Has psychic powers
- He lost his right forearm fighting tyranids, almost died there but survived and ordered himself a special weapon designed to stop those who try get close.
- His weapon is a custom melta gun. More compact than a standard pattern, it is well balanced and outfitted with a stock to allow fire on-the-go but at cost of range. Basicly it's a melta variant of a well known sawed-off shotgun. So it fires a sort range cone of plasma that melts and corrodes everything it touches, much like acid spit of an alien/nid - this is why it's called Venom spiter The decoration followed to complete the image.

hmmm... he sounds like a cool chap...i like that... maing stories for the minis we make...makes them even more intersting.


so i have thought about the scheme...

i´d go now for the ivory color with...gold trimmings for the details? this for the weapon... and maybe some classic dresssetup like:





but skipp the green in that setup...

i think this might work...

Hey Storag, your post on my blog led me here and it seems like I've got return the compliment. Your conversions are great, right up my alley.

Great updates , the grot with the hat and the tall ork made me lol , excellent stuff . The new guy is very nice , a very original and detailed conversion , sits perfectly well within 40k imo. looks like a rogue trader or bounty hunter /merc sort of a guy , maybe a eldar ranger/pathfinder ?

really like Viks dread paint-scheme with those shoulder pads , but I also found a couple of pics to add to the mix ;-)

neil what book are those pics from?

rogue trader into the storm , fantasy flight games addon :-)

@ Vik, that's a nice scheme. I like the bright-yellow gold and evengreen gloves/boots may look great. This it something to think about! But what if I change deep-blue to halo covenant purple?

@ RW - looking forward for your orcs friend!

@ neil - great artworks! The elf looks so much like my mini.. Do human/eldar crossbreeds exist in 40k? If so, I might alter his heritage fluff...

@ Baiyuan - thx mate! That means alot

Crossbreeds are a blasphemy to the Emperor and will ruthlessly hunted down by the Inquisition... whenever they stumble across them and don't deem them too useful, that is.

I'd say you'll find lots of wicked hybrids especially close to the eastern fringe.
Also with all the different planets that are part of the imperium, their different populations and respective genetical adjustments due to their surroundings over the millenia, I like to think that "humans" can look so different, it would be hard to tell whether one had eldar ancestors somewhere along the line or an orkish grandfather (don't try to picture the mating process).
I mean just imagine what encountering a completely new race of men for the first time must have felt like. An Innuit who has never seen an African in his life must think he's from another planet.
I think it's one of the most fascinating aspects in scifi, when a different race or even species is convincingly presented. It's too rare though, too many clingon, vulcanian, men with a minor twist things going on. People from a different planet wouldn't just talk differently, think more logicly or have bony growth on their head.
But in the miniatures-scene "People" mostly have to have the same size and proportions, if some limbs are longer you'll be called a bad sculptor or your miniature is automatically an "alien". There still is no room for evolution in many heads.

Well, M.D.Geist was apparently the inspiration for my Space Marines

halo covenant purple

...this would look like how...? can´t picture the color atm...

neil: like the hooked inquisitor looking guy...that one is oozing authority!

2 Vik - like this


Grey underlay and purple armor plating. A bit darker purple. Instead of blue cloth suit.

@ shas - good scheme, but to dark for my taste and my painting skills. Making volume and contrast with dark colours is a major test to one's skill.

@ Bai - exactly my thinking. But that's 40k, we - players accepted the frame of this setting and thus should fit in our creativeness. Sometimes this is as much fun as converting. Anyway, mastering the craft of expanding what others made without ruining it, is a step to making something of your own..

Oh this is pure genius! I cannot wait to see more. Keep up the awe inspiring work.

Well fluffwise there are lots of examples for obvious genetical mutations on humans that are not considered flaws. The 40k novels are full of them, so it's not a matter of accepting the framework of the background. Also it's a common but narrowminded notion to think the known space of the 40th millenium was all ruled by the imperial forces, far from it. So if you ask me, there is enough room for your half-eldar and all the alien bounty hunters one can come up with, the inquisition cannot be everywhere.
"Xenology" makes a great read regarding the a few of the known varieties of aliens.
Most people simply don't have the balls to create something that isn't literally mentioned in their respective codex. But I agree with you of course, that others go over the top in taking too many liberties with the background.

i see how the purple could work well with a slightly brighter grey... maybe a not too shiney purple too...
ad maybe even a puple and lilac (?) combo like the sentinels from the xmen saga of marvel...:

I wonder why everyone wore underwear on the outside of the tights?

that was the fashion back then... i mean how can you show someone that you are someone special? easiest way... wearing your undies over your head... these went the extra mile and put them on over their tights...next to the same thing^^

also:



which i think is way more strange...

You wouldn't by chance have an ogryn model to place these guys next to for a size comparison? They look great, And if the size is close, I would use them to represent Ogryns. Little green stuff nose, and make the teeth not pointy, and walla, Ogryns.

Hi guys!

Today I'm breaking up the silence ! Damned be those game developing companies who overvelmed me with all this great games of late. Damned be they all!

@ Fosner - sorry mate, I only own orcs & grots from GW minis. But afaik Ogrins are huge, even meganobs are smaller.

Slowly, step by step, I've been working on my #3 - yes the overcooked one - and finaly came the moment, that I started to think will never happen, - he seems to be completed!

It was a hard way. More details than I ever done. I even sculpted extra muscles to broaden his back and shoulders. Can't say if it was worth it and I want to hear what you have to say about all the time I've invested in it.

As fate may have it, this one grew huuuge! Now average GW nobs only reach his elbow with their tops

Enough with words and may the pics speak!








CC please!

Wow! You have some amazing detail going on here! I almost missed the necklace! But it looks great! The only concern I have is how the straps go into the disk on the back, it looks a bit off. But if you are planning to put a backpack on him, you'll never see it. I can't wait to see it painted!

you can see the difference just by the way they present themselves, these orks are much smarter and dangerous than the gw ones

Some kind of smart-ork

Sounds like Imperial Geno-Manipulation.

Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnn

for some reason the necklace came to my view first... then the rest ofthe wonderfull details came to me too... the cloth looks simply stunning and all the rest is too numrous to list here... no wonder you spent so much time on him...and on gaming...^^

i think your orks are what i´d like the orks to be as ment to be from the start... brutish..for sure...but not looking as dump apes but rather like brutes that are clever and an evil menace to human kind... those fellas you create are not to be mowed down so easily...


vik

For three long days was I cut off from the Net... But I endured!

Thank for comments folks! And welcome to da thread RSJ!

I see people started to build theories about my guys and this might be just the right time to clean things up and fill the gap in their history.

Be warned that now follows an extensive text that might not be interesting to those of you who aren't fascinated by the subtle fabric of fictional logic.

Please bear in mind that English is a foreign language for me and I'm not sure about the quality of this text. I'll welcome any tips on improving my written English.

As any good fiction starts with a right "what if" I pick a number of such questions to make up a field for experiment and arrange the basic concept.
I draw inspiration from the lore given by GW in the Orc codex and Xenology - Information on their physiology and social structure is what I find most intriguing. Their impressive adaptive capabilities, both genetic and psychological, make for ideal copy-cats and place them in a unique position among other aliens of 40k universe - they aren't evil by nature, their actions aren't determined by any outer will and they adapt not only through genetical mutations but through social changes and learning.
To me they are in many ways like humans, who's development is greatly affected by environment, and the first question I asked myself is what will happen if a small bunch of very young orcs will become separated from their usual, genetically pre-constructed environment? From Xenology we know that orcs breed through spores and before the very first orc shows up in an infested area, all kinds of simpler orcoids are born ahead of it so he had what to eat and whom to beat. Generally we can say that conditions, in which orcs across the universe mature, are identical and this ensures minimal dispersion in their development and scarce variety in their psychological profiles.
It is safe to assume that when torn from such artificial conditions and free of their clans behavior patterns orcs would develop differently. How, is, however, a second question.
To answer it imagine a pair of baby guinea pigs. One we'll leave to herself in a den with her kin but other we'll take home to be raised as you would raise a cat or a dog. In a year time this two will differ to the point they won't accept each other as members of one species. First one will care for nothing but food and a place in their hierarchy. It will view humans only as an annoyance and threat. The second will be what you'll teach it to be and will view itself as a member of human flock.
That's when an idea of orcs raised by humans came to my mind. Not new for classic fantasy this idea appears fresh for 40k and I only had to carve the details. So the next question was where in the space such blasphemy could take place.
I found no better place than a war torn world of Armageddon, where orcs are constantly hunted by men in a fruitless attempt to eradicate the infestation.
Think of a merchant guild caravan loaded with all kind of goods, carefully treading through the dangerous maze of hive Hades underbelly. The most precious amongst the goods are several young orcs - hard to find and rarely captured alive they'd fetch a fortune if you know where to sell. And guilders knew it better than anyone. Part is destined to fight and die at the arena pits, others - to rot in a private zoo of some extravagant and rich spirer.
But the dangers of underhive aren't limited to hazardous environment and foul creatures lurking in its depth. The ever shifting nature of this labyrinth is what jeopardize even the most experienced dwellers. The luck turned blind on this slavers and a sudden landslide buried most of their ranks separating crippled survivors from their cargo. The cargo, however, endured. Orcs roamed the tunnels in search for food when they were found by a hunting party from a nearby village of Spoiled Creek. Actually, village is a bold name for a tiny settlement of several humble shacks lost deep in the underhive, inhabited mostly by mutants so repulsing that every other community rejected them. Born in the underhive those mutants hardly knew about greenskins and the wars that ravaged the surface of their home world. They captured what seemed a bunch of strange
young mutants and dragged them back to the village so the elder may determine what to do.
The elder of Spoiled Creek was a ratskin renegade, so old that everybody including himself had long forgotten his name and called him Splinted Tail due to the weathered skin of mutated two tailed rat he kept wearing through the years. Unlike his younger subordinates the elder encountered orcs when some of them occasionally slipped inside the hive's lower levels after the war. He knew how fearsome this creatures can be in battle but besides that, he knew nothing. Maybe that is why he took a risk that a more enlightened human would never take and kept the orcs to train as hunters and protectors of their community.
Orcs grew fast. There were plenty of enemies to channel their aggression and the dangers of underground life taught them to harness their entropic nature. They appeared to be born predators, much better fitted to hazardous environment then humans and after studying the ways of the underhive under the elder's watchful eye they became a dire fighting force hardly matched by any local gang. For years they fought in the depths earning fame and riches, building up the reputation of unwavering mercenaries. Few dared to do business with them but those who did
never went away disappointed. Finally words of their reputation reached members of the Synapse Syndicate who searched them down to propose a whole new level of operation. Feeling that they overgrown all the local challenges, orcs could not turn away the opportunity for more loot and fighting.

That's all for now. Hope you won't find my fantasies boring

Great fluff! Plausible, interesting, and unique!

Were you going to explain the atypical stature of your orks in your fluff, or just leave it to design preferences?

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

Thanks Rawson! Being mutants, villagers remain humans in most aspects - they think, speak and move just the same. Watching and learning orcs adopted their motion patterns as Mowgli did from wolfs..

that is absolutly a wonderful read... i don´t think there are any loopholes...this is solid and i like it! by the way... rawson beat me to the only questions i could have had... tho i think the mowgli idea was one i also had... imitation is one of the best way to show admiration so the orks would copy the ways of their new found families...

Not new for classic fantasy this idea appears fresh for 40k

that is my point exactly what the whole idea of the orks in 40k lack for me... you solved it now...and make this race a people to look eye to eye to... have you heard of "das schwarze auge" it is a german bases rpg...pen and paper ...and it is a system that treats orks as culture working race... they have structures that go beyond the mere clubbing of innocent bystanders and such things... like you now bring in 40k so you are now official a orkish culture attaché!

i am very happy that you shared that insights and ideas of your work here! and i am looking forward to more of that... maybe some individual stories? i would like to see some kind of 40k version of this book here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcs:_First_Blood

i read the first book and it hit me like a brick wall to see a new and fresh point of view on such a downtrodden thing as an archenemy of all nice and clean heroes out there...!


vik

Glad you like it Vik!

I know about the "Dark Eye" and I even played PC Drakensang game a bit, but I never had a chance to read the rule books of this system =/

The Individual stories will definatly follow, with painting I think And I'll add "First Blood" to my to read list. I like authors that care to show the oposite side of usual things. I remember one interesting book from russian writer I read at school where he showed the Lord of the Rings events from Mordor perspective. Mordor appeared to be a industrially developed nation with simple machinery. For example the infamous Nazgul steeds appeared to be premitive bikes and that's why they where unable to cross watery obstacles I think that after this book I really understood that there can always be more than one point of view.

storag wrote:with painting I think