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is there??!?!

Good luck down under scarps, Probably a good time for me to catch up on all your fluff .

Wait. Tasmania is a real place?

Just kidding.

See you in a couple months, hope you enjoy your time there.

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all the kind words and well wishes! I actually feel pretty bad about my forced break - I'll be sure to get started again as soon as I'm back

Not much of an update, but an update nonetheless. My sculpting stuff has still not arrived (curse you Aussie postal system!), but I'm a little short on cash this week, so I've had some extra time sitting around in parks / woods to sketch and write! Nothing particularly exciting, but the first character bios for the QA - two that you haven't seen models for yet (mainly as I've barely started them). They are known to the rest of the gang as Tracker and Latchkey, and they come from Grangelow, an area that retains it's original language. Hope you enjoy!

Branan understood his brother. He didn’t condone his actions, didn’t support them by any stretch, but he understood them. Travelling with Caleb was difficult – he was intelligent and articulate, but unpredictable. People around him got hurt.

Caleb was a psychopath. Not in the emotionally charged, pejorative sense, but in the medical sense. The part of his brain that dealt with empathy, understanding that others experience their own lives, had simply never developed. Branan pitied him. He wasn’t a gibbering maniac, not a sadistic killer, but merely someone whose brain did not function in the way it should. He killed because he didn’t understand why you wouldn’t – If a person had something you needed, and you had the means to take it, why would you not? It seemed wrong to call him remorseless, when the concept of remorse itself was entirely alien to him.

Branan was no fool. He understood that Caleb’s actions were unspeakable, and he understood too that in protecting him from persecution, Branan's own soul was little better in the eyes of the Emperor than his brother’s. He knew, deep down, that Caitiff would be a better place if Caleb was dead, and perhaps if he were too. But Caleb was family, and now the only family he had. On many occasions as his brother slept, he had considered the pistol in his pack. He had thought of turning themselves in, but he knew from childhood what happened to the mentally ill on Caitiff, or worse, what would happen to his brother if his ‘skills’ were considered valuable to a penal unit. Besides, staying on the move was easier since the Evac, and they had traversed continents in their time together. Even Caleb’s tendencies toward aggression were perhaps less conspicuous – it was the only way that many men had to negotiate in the wilderness, and they stuck to the wilderness wherever possible. By staying with him, Branan knew that at least his influence could reduce the threat that Caleb represented to the world. And if they were both killed in the process of wandering, perhaps that was for the best.

Branan was not a sentimental man, and he understood that his brother was incapable of being one. Should he pose a barrier to something that Caleb wanted, or simply no longer serve a purpose, his brother would happily abandon him, or worse. His solution came through a lucky accident - The pair were fitted with explosive collars following their one and only capture at the hands of PDF loyalists. When a rebel cell attacked the convoy taking their captives to their fate, they were freed with the rest of the revolutionary captives. Rather than removing the collars, Branan doctored them both – implanted sensors that will detonate both collars should either wearer’s life signs fail. He described it to his brother as a motivator, but to Branan, it formed a secret insurance policy. Should he die, his brother would no longer be free to roam the Wastes alone, with no positive influence on his amoral actions. Should his brother die, Branan would receive the fate that he deserves for his crimes, with no need for the moral courage of suicide. For his part, Caleb was quietly impressed by his brother’s apparent ruthlessness. A messy solution, but an effective one.

Being from Grangelow, both Caleb and Branan have a poor understanding of Low Gothic. Despite this, they understand well enough the identity of the men in whose company they reside – every local tells fearful stories of the atrocities committed by the jump-suited men of the QA . The pair had spent several months living rough around the ruins of Crockfall, and had moved from place to place as they picked areas clean. They had been settled overnight in Thane to trade salvage and buy supplies when the QA raided, and were carried off with the rest of the slaves. It was only the reams of hand drawn maps in Branan's pack that had spared them the fate of the rest of the village in the mines – from what he could gather, it seemed that the men believed them some species of guide, well-versed in the local area. He supposed that this assessment was not that far from the truth. Though it took some months for Caleb and Branan to pick up enough low gothic for their beatings to stop, it seemed to Branan that work in the scavenging team was… acceptable. Their treatment was brutal at the hands of both their compatriots and the QA’s many enemies, and what better means to seek death than to wander the streets wearing the uniform of a devil? Caleb was among kindred spirits, so should his impulses overcome him, the wastes would not miss another raider. Even their work with the QA was perhaps less immoral than the banditry they had been forced into to survive in the wastes alone. It offered everything that Branan was looking for: A comfortable living and the prospect of a quick and violent death. An elegant solution.

I've also got a few holiday snaps that I thought would be useful reference. Taken from an abandoned mine we found in a place called Beaconsfield. Thought maybe some other people could use them too!


Hope they're useful to someone! Please let me know what you reckon, and I'll see what I can do about more updates. Maybe not too soon though - Work this afternoon, then I'm hiking for the weekend round Cradle Mountain. Exciting!

firstly MAN that seems like an exelent place to take pictures! very nice work there. And of course you would reveal some new guys to the QA without models CURSE YOU!!! But 1 thing i know for sure is that when you cant work on minis for a while you end up narrowing down your ideas to something awsome, for example its been nearly a year since my last mini's its just recently that i am able to get back into it and throught all that time i went through MANY different ideas for my IG untill i finaly chose the one i wanted. Looking foward to seeing your models when your back Scarp. have nice trip

Cool pictures, pretty sure they will come in handy , thanks for sharing . The brothers sound like those two from Dusk till Dawn. Excellent idea , should make for afun build. Life sounds pretty adyllic down under ;-)

scarp!
glad you're having a nice time in beautiful foreign, and your minis are looking great as ever since my last appearance. Big ups!

Nice fluff update, and cool pics. Could see a little bit of the Grimdark around the lush green and bright sunshine...


*edited for bad speeling*

I love the pictures... my favourite one



The exposed metal with the tree ferns and bench looks so pretty.

I shall take these pictures and try to incorporate the colours into my Nercomunda buildings

Sounds like you're having a good time out there....sure beats freezing* Scotland!

Peter

* I haven't checked I just assumed

Mmmm rusty rivets.

That's the kind of 'holiday snaps' we like to see

Glad it's all good with you, take it easy.

Hey again everyone!

Hope you all had fantastic new years, and whatever holiday you choose to celebrate in December. I'm finally back in the home territories, jetlagged, knackered and broke beyond anything I have previously experienced. BUT I had an awesome time, learned a ton of new medicine, and it was totally worth it

Had a few days to unpack and do some model stuff before I get back to work, and I thought I'd show you a few things I've knocked together. Hope you like em!

First up is a WiP of Tracker, (or Branan from the story above). Once I'm done, he'll have a kind of hammock set up going on (map making is hard work!), and that'll be a completed map in his arms and a pen in his mouth.



Next is the completed loot marker that I first showed off a few months ago:


And finally a few teasers on other stuff I'm working on:


I've also got to say a HUGE thanks to Jihad_ragsta for an awesome care package he sent - more on that as I use it

Thanks a ton for following, and please let me know what you reckon of the new stuff!

@Rogue Wolves - Hahaha, thanks! I'm really glad you like the QA, even if that is conveyed through cursing my name I totally understand what you mean - being seperated from all my stuff really let me focus my energy into fleshing out the QA, and Caitiff itself. I've written a fair bit while I've been away, and hopefully made the campaign world a much deeper place than it was before. More to come when I finish it all

@Neil - I haven't actually seen that movie! I wikipediad it, and it looks quite good - will have to add it to my 'to watch' list. Cheers for the kind words!

@Cpt. R - Helloo! Cheers for the compliments as always - always great to hear from you, buddy!

@Skalk - Thanks! I'm really glad you like them. And there's grimdark everywhere, if you look hard enough

@PDH - It looked even better in person - Can never get the colour balance quite right on my camera. Would love to see what you do with it though! I'm actually a little glad to be back in the negative temperatures, sun's alright for all those fancy people down South, but gray skies and frost in your lungs is home to me

@dsteingass - I almost posted that pic specifically on your thread Hope you can use the reference!

@monkeytroll - Well, I had others, but I thought this was probably the wrong crowd for snaps of my hiking! Thanks a ton for the well wishes.

Welcome back mate , and pretty pics too, the tracker is wicked , and the object marker turned out nice and clear. look forward to seeing your progression again.

Glad to have you back

Liking the gas mask and the under-slung flamer....one model I'm really looking forward to.

Branan is off to a great start....though I'm a little lost in imagining the hammock set up....which means I'll just have to check in here regularly. Oh it is such a hard life.

Welcome back Scarp, glad you had a good experience

Like the idea of Branan in a hammock, and the objective done turned out good

I've been missing your unique blog, mate! Now get to (hobby) work!

welcome back scarp! glad you had a fun time. the tracker looks cool, and im loving those little teasers you posted

Scarper wrote:Hey again everyone!

These are totally stunning.

Love the firebat flamer attachment, and what did you use for that map? it looks perfect. Looking forward to more creative joys, and glad your placement went well - got a lot of mates in the medical profession, placements can be very hit and miss, then actual work even moreso, but hey the money's good and job security's a definite even in this day and age

Big ups Scarp,

Cap'n R

Oh MAN! hat flamer handle is INGENIOUS! You think maybe the barrel pipes might need to be a bit longer though? I am thinking the same length as the Ork Burnas maybe?

Yay update! Welcome back.

Always impressed with the poses you create, each one genuinely tells part of the story. And congrads on fixing your objective marker!

Nice work in here mate! Keep it up!

Wow, thanks for all the responses everyone! Glad you haven't forgotten me

@neil - Thanks a lot, man, it's good to be back! I'm really happy with how the marker turned out - maybe 2 months is just the appropriate time to leave a water effect for before messing with it

@PDH - Thank you for the welcome and the kind words! I actually changed my mind about the hammock in the end - It was actually quite easy to make, but as Branan is pretty low ranking in the gang I couldn't picture him setting it up while the rest of the gang looted their spoils. Not without risking a beating, anyway! Hopefully you'll like the new set-up, anyway.

@monkeytroll - Thanks a ton, and I'm really glad you like the objective, it turned out to be a lot more work than i originally anticipated!

@Baiyuan - Thanks so much, Baiyuan! Hope it'll be worth the wait

@Rogue Wolves - Thanks, buddy! More will be revealed over the next few days...

@Cap'n R - That's high praise! Thank you! The map is just really thin paper (I think it was from the little booklet you get in a box of painkillers) folded multiple times - couldn't be easier to make. And I totally know what you mean about the placements - they're so hit and miss that I was a little loathe to max out my loan for something that might have been disasterous. Still - you're dead on about the jobs, and I get the results of my application in a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed I can actually pay back the bank in 10 years or so! Hope things are going well at your end, mate.

@dsteingass - Cheers, that's really kind! I actually cut the pipes down a bit (the DKoK flamers are really long to start with) - a lot of this gang's weaponry is looted from prison guards, and I imagined that they would want to keep their gear as compact as possible for tight corridors. Point taken though, and if I'm not happy when it's all put together, I'll have a bash at stretching it out again.
(p.s. haven't really had time to comment on other people's blogs recently [totally going to get on that soon!], but that vending machine you did was absolutely stunning - by far the most characterful piece of terrain I've seen. All your terrain is pretty mind blowing at the mo [far better than the stuff in the necro rule books, so kudos for that], and you've inspired me to start putting together some of my own. So thank you!)

@Skalk - Thank you! That's absolutely what I'm going for in a nutshell, so you just made my day a little bit Very kind.

@MauS - Welcome, and thank you! Hope you see some stuff you enjoy

Been working a lot on story stuff tonight, but I've painted up a few bases and put together Branan's. Hopefully can get him painted up tomorrow or Sunday! He's basically been left to guard the spoils, an easy enough job for the new guy. Hope you like, and thanks for all the support!

Sweet looking set-up Scarp

Haha- The map reader is ACE! Full of a story in itself!

And thanks bro! Really appreaciate that!

He's looking way too relaxed... A disaster waiting to happen.
Are you sure you want him guarding the stash? He looks like he'll see nothing but his maps. Only thing missing is reading glasses...
Seven-Dwarf prey I'd say...

Excellent posing! Love it!

Yeah! give him glasses!!

i kinda like him exactly how he is, i think adding glasses would change his personality too much

Rogue Wolves wrote:i kinda like him exactly how he is, i think adding glasses would change his personality too much

A couple of shot glasses beside him however, that'd look rad...

Nice shotgun

Make sure that, once you paint it, the pen is in a distinctive colour. Otherwise people will take it for a cigarette and you already have a few gangers smoking those

Captain Roderick wrote:

Rogue Wolves wrote:i kinda like him exactly how he is, i think adding glasses would change his personality too much

A couple of shot glasses beside him however, that'd look rad...

aand we have a winner!