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yay updates

That picture is actually a still...




I like him. The pose is spot on. Re-jigged Murdock is a worthy gang leader. I love that grenade launcher (shotgun )

Peter

@PDH: I thought I'd say something about the crossdressing picture coming from your porn vault, but after seeing the clip, I'm deeply impressed. It's an important message, so I'll save my jokes for later.

@Scarper: Kudos mate! That's definitely one of your best, if not the best paintjobs. Thank you, that you mentioned me helping you, if it has really had any impact on your painting, which clearly seems to have improved, then I'm more than happy to have helped.
The overall look of murdock is awesome, way better than the old one, more authority and attitude, worthy of a leader. I'll get back to convert my gang leader soon and I'm concerned I might fail in that precise point. Compared to the others I'm afraid he might look bland.

Baiyuan - LOL - I like to refer to it as the pron folder.... Very important message though. Oh and as for a bland gang leader, I can totally understand...I kept on putting mine off.

Peter

@Scrazza - Thanks, Scrazza! Can't really avoid the lice on Caitiff though...

@samwellfrm - Cheers! That's a massive compliment, and I'm glad it looks like I'm improving.

@Monkeytroll - THere's just no hiding it really, is there. Probably in the way he walks too! Thanks for the kind words

@talons 58 - Hahaha, thank you! The hand cannon is a DKoK grenade launcher, no retooling or anything. I think they're great - really primitive looking!

@porkchop806 - Thanks for the enthusiasm! I'll try to be a bit more regular

@PDH - Huh, never seen that one. A good cause, no doubt. Thanks for the kind words! I think my dislike for the old Murdock was probably because he was missing those kind of features Baiyuan mentioned - I just couldn't put my finger on it at the time!

@Baiyuan - Thank you so much! And not at all, it made me think more about what I was doing, which is endlessly valuable. I really appreciate you taking the time! I'd love to see what you have in mind for the Delaque leader - I'm still tantalised by the weapon you showed for your Scarecrow boss

Still working on Scratch at the mo - can't seem to get her pack to look right! Hopefully an update or two on Monday. Thanks to everyone for following!

EDIT: Typos and repeats. Whoops!

I'll add a description of my gangleader's conversion status to my blog now, head over there, I don't want to pollute your thread.
The weapon for the leader of the miners became an orphan, I'm currently not having any plans for it, since I've discarded the conversion idea it belonged to.

Nice work with the rejigged Murdoc, it looks like snake bite leather on his duster ? the chipped red shpoulder pads and blue scarf are a nice colour touch , i think you should keep down this route of adding splashs of colour to your muted pallete.

@Baiyuan - On my way now! Shame about the Scarecrow leader, it seemed like an idea that really fitted their background. Will he still be using some kind of 'eye for an eye' weapon?

@neil101 - Good eye, it is! I thought it looked horrible til I set about it with washes and highlights, pretty pleased now I'm glad you like the colour splashes - I've been looking into colour theory a bit, and hopefully I can keep it going.

So despite my assertions, I've got very little done. I'm trying to get all my background for Caitiff down in one place, but I feel like this might be one of those posts that's more interesting to me than anyone else in particular. Still, the story of Caitiff itself:

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 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 Rookpoint Spire 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 hundreds 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 fifty 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 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.

Hopefully I'll be doing a summary of the major factions in Rookpoint Spire (including the QA and a scavvy group) over the next few days. Hopefully that's vaguely interesting, and feel free to TL;DR away if it's not really your thing

This is great!

I love Murdock. Such a cool pose!

WOW i havent poped down here in a while but nice work on the modles and you fluff was a great read!

Good bit of fluff Scarp! Always nice to know a bit more about the background when the models are bult with stories in mind, keep your fluff coming. And the models too obviously

Scarper - I like it. Well thought out and its going to have scavvies soon, which makes me kinda weak at the knees.

Peter

The fluff is very good, you managed to create a gapless setting for your tales.
I'm looking forward to read more when you start elaborating on the individual areas and settlements.
I also like the fact, that there seems to be little wealth left on the whole planet, except for the new gained wealth of those controlling valuable resources. Is that correct? So there is no degenerate elite left, like in the spires of many hive worlds? I like that, it takes away the typical necromunda flavor and creates an even more hopeless scenario. On necromunda there is still a feint hope you can make it to the spire or off-world, your world sounds more desperate, that's good.
I can also totally fit your gang into that scenario. You might remember that I was from time to time attracted and repulsed by your gang's more realistic flavor, I can now see where it came from... Good work!

Good fluuf Scarper , Clever how you tied the post apoc feel to 40k, look forward to more stories about Rookpoint spire matey.

Great fluff. Now I feel like I know your planet well.

I really enjoyed reading the new background, looking forward to hearing more about the gangs themselves. Its been ages since I've been on here, revision getting in the way, somehow, not enough procrastination I feel!

I second neil101 on the mixing of post apoc and 40k, the way you've done it seems really natural, and would be a common thing in the 40k universe. Are you thinking of involving other aspects like Ecclesiarchy warbands or AdMech disciples? I'm sure what ever you get up to will be as inspirational as the rest.

Keep it up dude!

Updating my blog more than once a month! Damn it, I knew there was something that I was supposed to be doing! Sorry again, all

@Sageheart - Thank you!

@Cadaver - Thank you! It was a happy accident as much as anything: couldn't believe it fit together at all...

@Bigmek35 - Cheers man, I really appreciate that!

@Monkeytroll - Thanks! It's always fun coming up with backstories and relationships as I'm making a model, and gives me a lot more motivation to finish it too. I'll try to pick up the pace a little.

@PDH - Thanks a ton! I am getting to the scavvies, just trying to finalise how they will interact with the other factions in my head. Hopefully you'll like where I'm going with the Wiz competition...

@Baiyuan - Thanks a lot mate, I'm glad I've managed to change your mind a little! Wealth is strictly tied to resources on the planet - if any of the ruling elite didn't make it to the evac ships, they were in the same boat as everyone else. Paper currency doesn't carry much sway in the wasteland! There may still be offworld influences, but more on that later....

@neil101 - Thanks a ton, man, and for your other comments. Really inspired me to do a little more, which I'll show you soon

@samwellfrm - Thank you! I felt like it was about time to get it all down in one place.

@mohaniker - You're back! Thanks so much for the kind words. Revision is a bit of a killer, but it actually seems to be the time i get most done modelling wise: 10 minute breaks are perfect for applying that extra layer of GS, or those few highlights you missed. Probably not the best for my grades though!
I'm really glad you like the fluff - I'm leaving it a little open when it comes to admech and the like at the mo, so I can write them in later if it suits a campaign. Probably going to stick to my own factions for the mo!

In terms of today's update, it's pretty minor, but Scratch is basically ready for primer now. Fluff update on her to come, and as the youngest member of the Jackals, her understanding of the world may be different to the others!




Hope you like, and if you fancy a little more, I've left some fluff and a (rubbish) picture over on PDH and Baiyuan's competition thread. Please check it out - the others are doing some great stuff there!

Nice to see Scratch Finished , the back pouch is a really nice addition and quite feminine. would be nice to see her have longer hair at the back , just to add that final feminine touch , but i still like it as it is , though, looks she keeps it short for ease. the renegade arm works well with her .And what stuff are you moddeling with , i mean the brown stuff btw? looks handy.

btw here is a link to dark future on wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Future take on 40k kinda remids me of this albeit a little more grimdark .will post up some pics asap.

Just finished reading your plog, the fluff is amazing, and i like the feel you have going, just a question where did blind go? or did he fall in to a septic pit and die...i think thats how some of them die in necro...any way great stuff love to see where its going oh like Scratch the only thing that looks kinda off to me is her pack but that might be my eye of inexpeirence talkin...i think its the way the straps are connected at the bottom.

Just finished reading your plog

What is a plog, please?
Is it a plug for one's work in a blog?

I like it!
Henceforth my blog will be a plog...
...of shameless self publicity!

Sometimes used to refer to a painting blog

sorry didnt know that calling it a plog would cuase this much ruckus... >.>

alabamaheretic wrote:sorry didnt know that calling it a plog would cuase this much ruckus... >.>

Now you know.

And knowing is half the battle!*

--Brian

*The other half is Multilasers.

You need to be very careful what you say on the internet Alaba
there will always be some pillock with a daft smartarse comment....

oh


that would be me then...

Just as well no one mentioned fishermans jumper girls otherwise scarpers thread would become a haven for frivolous banter again

Your models are just so full of character. Love it!

PDH comes in strutting his stuff "Did someone mention Fisherman Jumper Girls?"

She is looking good...nice jumper and lady bag.

I downloaded the rules for the Dark Future game from the GW website a while ago....I've still got them

Hahaha, where would this thread be without fisherman jumpers? You can call it what you like, I just feel like a painting log requires a little more painting than I seem to produce

@neil101 - Thanks a lot neil, I'm really glad you like her! I considered making her hair a little longer, but I keep thinking about how hard it's likely to be to get hold of products for washing and the like - a short look would be one hell of a lot easier to manage than a matted mess, I reckon, especially if you need to get gas masks on and off quickly! The modelling putty is actually 'grey stuff' with rubbish lighting It's great for things that need hard edges like straps or metal, as well as bulking up things that you'll detail with green.
Thanks so much for the link: would you believe that I never knew GW ran 'modern' systems? The cameos from Elvis I can imagine being really fun or really jarring - looks really interesting though! Did you ever manage to find those dystopian pics you mentioned in PM?

@alabamaheretic - Thanks so much! That's really kind of you to say, and I really appreciate it. Blind is still around somewhere - last pics I took of him are here:
and he's still kicking around in game terms - he's pretty deadly with that power fist actually, and regularly ends up an mvp! I see what you mean about the straps on Scratch's bag. I've attacked htem with a file now and the join is looking a little cleaner. Cheers for the heads up!

@Anung un Rama - Thanks a ton man, really appreciate that

@PDH - Admit it, you've got a little light and claxon on your desk that goes off whenever "jumper", "girl" and "fisherman" are mentioned in the same sentence, right? Glad you like Scratch, thanks for the compliment!


Remember Ridgeway's Remnants? They're the small force that protects the interests of those under Ridgeway's care, and were once my IG army until that kind of fell aside to play necromunda. They have some old PDF equipment, so are a little better equipped than the Jackal squads sent out to scavenge, but even their gear is starting to fall apart, and there's little uniformity.
Well, my girlfriend talked me into joining a gaming club (the Edinbugh League of Gamers - they're seriously awesome, if anyone was considering), and I'm joining up with their escalation league. I've never really played 40k before, and am far more excited than I thought I would be To get ready, i thought I would fix up the paintjobs of some of my earlier models. No rebasing, but touching up faces, adding damage and dirt, that kind of thing. I'll post pictures of each squad here as I finish them.
So here is a retooled red squad 1: (you'll probably need to click to go to the gallery and zoom in if you want a good look)


Not as much character as my necro models, but quicker to do, and still looking uniform enough to be a force, I hope. Not the usual stuff, but thought maybe someone might be interested. Hope you like, and a return to the usual flavours soon!