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Thanks man! Yeah I really wanted her to be a mismatch of lithe female body and heavily augmented bionics

I'm glad it comes across that they're being observed. I've made a conscious effort to very rarely ever describe anything from the Crows' perspective. Makes them seem a little more on the periphery of your known characters, and also fits with how people tend to observe nature which fits their animalistic tendencies

Like the little fluff snippet too!

Back with a vengeance. Loving the crow-cubine. She has that John Blanche something, for sure. This group has been a resounding success.

Great work! Can't wait to see what you paint next!

Thanks guys! Really glad you like them

I have got the next thing in the little world of the Crows sorted, but it's a little sideways step. The idea being to expand a little on the world surrounding the Crows to give them a little more depth (and give me the opportunity to play around with different bits!).



They trade sometimes, with the Elk-men. Fellow nomads, meandering through this icy plane.



Oh nothing of real value. Mainly scavenged tech and weapons, food supplies, little handmade trinkets. That sort of thing. Sometimes the Elk-men barter passage to other systems.





The elk-folk wander around in bands of five or six usually, plus a pack animal or two. People say they used to congregate in massive numbers, but not any more.





There were millions of them once. Great warherds, stretching as far as the eye could see. Not seen them in any sort of numbers for a couple of centuries now.



So that's the first of the Elk-folk not that there will be many...

Still, enough to tell their story at least, and how they link in with the Crows and the Wolves

Still have a couple of Crows to come too, so we won't be seeing the last of them

Excellent stuff really heading into uncharted territory here.

Wow really liking that elk-man. My favourite part of him is the right hand for some reason. Why did he replace his entire arm but keep his organic hand? Does it have anything to do with the hand print on his helmet? Some things we were never meant to know!

Oh man this makes me want to do some mutant necromunda team real badly

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like him

Yeah somewhat uncharted territory or at least I hope it feels that way for these guys. Set on the wild fringes of the Imperium, far from the crowded hives, deafening forges and incense-ridden cathedrals (although hopefully lacking none of its weird anachronistic techno-feudalism feel). It will all loop back to the Space Wolves in some way, but hopefully in a way that feels cool

That's the plan anyway

Ooh I love the idea that the still-biological hand could have something to do with the hand-print motif boundless not that I'll explain it mind you're absolutely right that some things are meant to be left a mystery...

Great idea Desubot! Haven't looked at the new Necromunda rules yet but they'd definitely be the best fit for most of my little gribblies hope there's plenty of scope for mutants!

I'm glad you like him though as here's another!



Over there, I spy two big stags. White Hands by the looks of it. I know little of their braying tongue, but enough to barter us supplies. Perhaps enough to procure a guide to our destination.



Looks like they're on their way to the herdstone. Meeting places for the horned folk. You can find them scattered all through the twelve systems, and a little beyond. Monuments to the Old Gods...

This stuff looks really cool!

Digging the new tribe, man.

Please, please, please, make some sort of moss-gatherer/priest thing...

Great stuff - the basing really works - light enough for contrast, but very barren and bleak with what look like little whisps of vegetation. The Crow band is outstanding all around!

Thanks guys! Glad you like them

I'm happy the bases work. It was my first real foray into actually painting bases and snow effect and things. The snow's trickier than it seems using the ol' baking soda and glue method. I find it dries really quickly and clumps together making it hard to apply. Perhaps I've got too much baking soda or something...

Either way I'm happy they look suitably bleak

@Ember Ooh I love the idea of a 'moss-gatherer/priest' no idea what it is but it's evocative! My google-fu has failed me on that front, care to elaborate?

I was actually thinking of doing some sort of priest as a narrator model. As part of the inspiration for these warbands I've been reading a lot of late dark-ages/early medieval history about Saxons and Vikings and Franks and Britons and the like, what we know of their pre-Christian pagan beliefs, and the priests that were sent from Rome to convert them.

So, I thought of the idea that these systems are populated by a host of different creeds of technobarbarians with various polytheistic faiths. These Elk-men worship the Old Gods (the Ruinous Powers) in a sort of 'gods to be appeased so they don't kill everyone' way (more on that later!), whereas the Kearls and other people's left behind by the Space Wolves have pagan faiths worshipping Astartes (again, more on that later I hope!).

The little narrative/diary snippets I was thinking would be good coming from a Ministorum Priest sent to convert these heathens to the light of the Emperor so yeah, I priest would be kickass!

It's not all waffle though I have a little update too first bit of scenery as well!

There it is, the herdstone. Great stone menhirs erected where the veil allegedly wears thin, back in the times when the warherds swept through these worlds. Fell monuments. See how this one weeps blood from its pinnacle.



The two big stags collided with a sickening crunch. Enough force behind them to break bones. Enough force behind them to pulverise a Crow. This was the rut. One of the few times the Elgr gather in greater numbers, filtering in from the deep forests of their worlds. A time of blood and bone and muscle. A time to ensure that the future of their kind is as strong as possible. Strong enough to survive the coming hunts.



See the younger bucks on the periphery. Not quite their full-horned glory just yet, but practicing for when their time comes.











Another two Elk-men done that's nearly my whole scatter-herd. Just waiting for a final bit for the last model and we should get a little closer to why they're here, and just what the story of their worlds is...

Oh, I love the differentiation between younger and more experienced warriors with the helms. An awesome cultural detail.

You could basically run these posts as a class in world building.

These posts get better and better by the day, love the Elk-Men a lot and the younger ones i love a lot

I'm gonna try spot the bits used.
Ruststalkers for legs, chaos marauderers for bodies, Chaos warriors for heads.

Thanks guys! Really glad you like them

Glad you like the differing helms Youwashock. That was half-inched directly from 40k beastmen where big horns are indicative of higher social status

Very pleased you like the worldbuilding aspects amazingturtles as that's by far my favourite bit about coming up with this stuff I've got a whole host of ideas just waiting for models to show them off with, from ogryn-like ettins to voidborn dokkalfar to Fenrisian wolf-people (as a bit of a teaser!).

I'll try and keep it up Thunderfury!

You nailed the Ruststalker legs CREEEED, but the bodies and upper thighs are Ungors (the older ones are some older sculpts I had spare and the younger ones are the newer kit), and the heads are from the Blightkings kit

I am not sure if I keep coming back to this blog for the great looking minis or the story telling. As usual very good stuff Ynead.

Yorkright wrote:
I am not sure if I keep coming back to this blog for the great looking minis are the story telling. As usual very good stuff Ynead.

it really is amazing how much he can get out of a mini.

totally stole your conversions too. sorry(notsorry)

love seeing more of your conversion work. Epic job on the beastmen!

Haha thanks guys! I'm just happy I've found a medium where I can quite happily witter on about the little worlds I concoct

I definitely think that's a major thing that 40k has going for it. It's phenomenally easy to come up with a little short snippet of fluff, a little window into the 40k universe you've created, and just throw it out there to see if people like it. Takes very little time compared to, say, writing a short story about it. Plus you get a little model to set the tone

So yeah, 40k's great

Oh, and thanks for pointing me to your mutant scavvy dudes Desu they're great! If anyone hasn't seen them they're delightful

This is one of the most unique conversion projects I've seen and it's very well done. I especially enjoy the story behind the models, it creates an atmosphere that qualifies the conversions. Without that reference they would be excellent models without application beyond a creative expression.

Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

@Ember Ooh I love the idea of a 'moss-gatherer/priest' no idea what it is but it's evocative! My google-fu has failed me on that front, care to elaborate?

Well, reindeer are the only large animal that can digest lichen, and feed primarily on reindeer moss. It'd be cool if your deer-people had some sort of bioengineered stomach that allowed them to do the same. The might also have a certain love of hallucinogenic mosses, which allow them to "speak" with the gods.

Thanks Skalk! Glad you like them

Neat Ember you learn something new every day a priest/shaman is next on the list actually (just waiting for the right head to arrive in the post).

Definitely adding the 'genetically engineered stomach' to my headcanon for the Elk-folk. I was just talking on the 'Favourite Headcanon' thread in the Background forum about it's part of my headcanon that humanity in the 41st millennium is largely unrecognisable biologically and genetically from humans of the 2nd millennium.

My thought was that during the DAoT humanity would have had the capability to eliminate a ton of issues with our biology via genetic engineering. Things like reducing muscle-wastage in freefall and increased ability to tolerate alien foodstuffs. Some of it would likely occur on the species-wide level before we set out to colonise the galaxy, and some would have been done on a more local level in different hubs of population to deal with local difficulties.

Cue the Old Night and everyone gets cut off for thousands of years and technology largely goes to pot, then the Emperor set out to unify 'humanity' (or, rather, anything that superficially still looks close enough to the human form regardless of genetics).

Not only does it allow for some kickass modelling and fluff opportunities with different types of human, but it also really hammers home the ignorance of 'the Holy Human Form', given that not only is 'humanity' unrecognisable genetically from when we evolved, but also that humans from different planets could easily be classified as completely different species let alone sub-species, but are marked as a-ok just because they look vaguely human enough.

So yeah, elk-folk with holdover-genetic engineering to allow them to digest a whole load of largely inedible plant foodstuffs, helping them survive in the frozen forests

See that one over there? That's a Bray. Close as they get to cultural leaders these days. Elders who preserve their histories, administer what passes for justice amongst their kind, and lead the bacchanal rites to appease their vengeful gods.







It's curious, really. At first I believed the herdstones to be malefic structures, with little purpose but to provide a focal point to tear the veil of the materium. However, from my time with them I believe their actual function is to bleed off power from the immaterium in manageable doses. The constant weeping of blood, the bacchanal orgies of violence, the blood-sacrifices. All serve to prevent the anger within from bubbling over.



More than most, my time among the elk-folk has given me an insight into their psyche. I believe they view themselves as exiles, cast apart from their forebears who lived side-by-side with their Gods. Forced to wander through this icy plane and scratch a meagre existence. They remember the times where their kind swept through these systems as a great conquering tide. They remember the great armies of the Emperor arrayed to stop them, the mighty Wolves of Fenris at the fore. They remember the days their Gods forsook them, and left them upon these frozen worlds. For them, their rapture has come and passed.







So there we go! That's the last of the planned Elk-Folk (although I do have a few more ideas to revisit if the bits-box contents align)

Hopefully the fluff snippets have given a decent insight into their history, but if not here's a little explainer. These elk-folk were a bunch of feral-worlders picked up as chaff for a Chaos Warlord's army which swept through the sector before being stopped by the Space Wolves. Their armies crushed, the PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) were abandoned planetside and over the centuries since have carved out a society alongside the other abandoned inhabitants of this world (we'll get onto those next!).

The idea about the herdstone was a thought I had about human cultures living under the gaze of the Ruinous Powers. In order to have survived for this long, even primitive cultures that find themselves close enough to warp-rifts must have some sort of mechanism to deal with the machinations of the Gods. The herdstones are in actuality arcane monoliths designed to relieve the pressure of the warp in places where there's danger of a breach, quite literally bleeding off the power as a constant trickle of magically generated blood, augmented and maintained by bacchanal rituals and sacrifices to appease the War God.

The fact they can also be used to rip holes in the materium is just a secondary function, put to ruinous use during the times of the great warherd.

Amazing, each elk man is better than the last! The herdstone looks great as well. Very realistic

Great model to finish on. He looks every bit the part. The shot of him with the herdstone is really good.

These came out amazing man.

Thanks guys! Really glad you like them all

The next dudes will be hot on their heels (literally as well as figuratively). They're all painted, just need to snap some photos