The Hanged Man's Tarot

[Luna707]

Wow that cloak is amazing, I am loving these!

[JackDaw]

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/4b690fa6-d408-4f5c-995a-9d2eb06b7054_zps9xnhkyhc.jpg

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160327_134833_zpsvuxk5yux.jpghttp://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160327_134929_zpsrqahhqbd.jpg
http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160327_134946_zps2iyaw3kx.jpghttp://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160327_135000_zpsxsaygdpv.jpg

Willem Elias; a hunter of bounties and tracker of men, of late in service to the Holy Ordos and currently a passenger on the vessel Caconym. He travels to the city of Haven in the company of others to find a man once hoped to be dead.

[JackDaw]

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/16a55abc-bcf8-4a70-871a-def82ee9f21f_zpsyouxepaf.jpg

 

~ Exterior; the streets of the Glasshouse District, city of Haven 

 

Three men stalk down the length of a refuse-strewn street in the wet night air, punch-blades and rods of plasteel wrapped in leather gripped in their hands. The few guttering streetlamps still functioning do little to push back the darkness, it has been many years since repair-servitors and Haven function-men have bothered to visit the Glasshouse District. The rains are heavy tonight, fat bullets of oily water that fall from the skies in thick curtains. Gutters are already overflowing and the canals are lapping at the heights of their channels.  The men advance slowly towards the figure standing under the dirty orange light of a failing lamp. Hook-nosed and wrapped in a long coat against the rain, the Knave waits patiently for them. 

It has been several days of fruitless searching  following their ego-bruising dismissal from the premises of Segundus Much, and frustration has congealed into fury and vindictiveness. Boosted on too many stimms, too much liquor and not enough rest, the men are adrenal-buzzed, bubbling with testosterone and misplaced anger. They have decided that the Knave doesn't need to be asked a question. The Knave needs to be taught a lesson.  

 

As they spread across the dirty paving, grips tightening around weapons, teeth baring in snarls, the Knave starts to laugh.

"Oh, come now gentlemen. Really?"

The three men begin to spit and bark insults, weapons raised and readied. The leading gang-tough steps in, plasteel rod swinging down but the Knave has already moved, closing the gap and driving a fist into his neck. The tough staggers back, choking for air through a crushed throat and the Knave is whirling onwards in a spray of rain and whirling coat, a glittering length of blade in one hand. It sidesteps a thrusting jab from the next of the men, punch-blade slicing through the air inches from the side of the grotesquely hook-nosed mask, grips the wrist of the gangwit and keeps the arm extended before punching its own blade up into his armpit. The man screams as the blade parts flesh, and then screams more when the Knave twists the grip it has on his wrist, locking his arm out at the elbow before shattering it with a brutal short punch. The joint gives with a soggy crunch and the gangwit drops to his knees, screaming dying to a keening wail.  

 

The third man has not moved yet, fury quickly sliding away to be replaced with something colder, something that trickles along his spine like the rain that finds its way into his clothes. Something approaching sense makes it way through the chemical fog in his head and he finds himself taking slow steps backwards, arms held out and weapons dropped. The Knave is still, doesn't even seem to be breathing hard, is flanked on either side by the kneeling men it has crippled in mere seconds. It tilts its head to one side, chuckling again as it draws a long barrelled las-piece. 

 

"Heh. Clever boy. Now, you run along and tell your boss something for me. Can you do that, clever boy?"

The las-piece fires with a sharp crack, the bolt punching through the head of the gangwit gasping for air through a ruined throat. His body splashes into the growing puddles beneath their fee. The Knave did not look away from the last of his hunters still standing.  

 

"Tell him this - not every death in this city is my doing. Heh heh. Tell him he will know when I kill someone." 

 

The gangwit cradling his ruined arm has enough time to look up and begin to babble some prayer or call for mercy before the las-piece cracks again and punches him over like a string-cut puppet. The Knave has still not looked at the men it has just killed, is still chuckling as it watches the last gangwit turn and run along the dark wet street. 

 

"Heheheh. Good boy, run home."

The Knave glances at the sprawled corpse at its feet, seems to ponder something, before raising the las-piece again at the fleeing hunter. The sharp bolt burns through the wet night air, hissing at it flashes through the sheeting rain and cuts the fleeing figure down.  

 

"Heh. On second thought, maybe I'll tell him myself. Heh. Heheheh."

 

~ End Scene

[JackDaw]

A wild update appears! Well, not really wild, but you get the idea.

Kobrakei - I don't think the mask really stood out until it was in that deep red. It was pretty much the first piece I knew I wanted on the Knave though, everything else came around that. And thanks man, I am embracing the Blanche on this one - the next hand of Cards has some proper Blanchian stuff in it.

Luna707 - Thanks very much man, much appreciated. The freehand on the coat was the first time I've tried something like that so it's a huge relief that it's come out that well. Will be doing more of that kind of thing I think.

Not much to report progress wise - the Tower is maybe 75% complete, and other than the Warden (whose new version should be appearing in the post in the next couple of days) everyone else has had their pics done and is ready for undercoating. Working on the Tower has taken up the majority of my hobby time and in wanting to keep it an absolute secret until it's the right time story-wise to reveal it, it means I can't really show off all the work I've done. But man, there has been work. So still loads more to come, including a whole other new hand of Cards. I have been on a mini-eBay spree as well, which I may or may not regret at some point and snaffled some bargains, some of which will be helpful for the new set of characters and some just because I wanted them and they were crazy cheap.

I also got a bit of painting done on Harlowe today, so he's coming along nicely - only really the metallics and detailing to do now.

 

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/IMG_20160408_174649_zpsgrvlr9d6.jpg

C&C welcome as always folks, hope you all enjoyed the last Scene as well.

[Soldier of Dorn]

Harlow looks absolutely fricking beautiful. I love the shade of red you've chosen as a spot color, as it's not too often you see a dark rich shade like that used on a model in that way, but because of the overall monochromatic and dark scheme you've chosen it works amazingly.

[Daemon2027]

I haven't commented in a while but I have been following and really enjoing. I really like Harlowe, I've been wanting to do something similar for a while.

[ChromeZephyr]

Quality work, boss.  Though I can't help but feel that he should be...dunno, paler.  He doesn't strike me as the type that sees the sun very much...well, even less than the little the other denizens of Haven see.  :D

[JackDaw]

Evening folks

Really quick update tonight - on a course all of this week and next week, so hobby time is rather limited and the chances of getting painting done before the weekend is slim. I have been able to tweak a few assembly bits and pieces tonight though - and the end result is that the Tower is pretty much done....

Still not gonna show it off yet though. I was a bit annoyed today as some parts I'd ordered from eBay on the 1st still hadn't arrived, including the most important part of the Tower, the head. Awesomely though, some other stuff I'd ordered had arrived and in a happy case of serendipity, one of the heads from that order was surprisingly perfect for the Tower and really helps give it something that it had been missing so far. Happy days. So then I cancelled the missing eBay order, got a refund straight away and ordered a pile of parts for the next 'big' Card, the Son. Because no impulse control.

Other than that, I did get some more paint on Harlowe over the weekend - its just the base and a few minor details that need finishing up on him.

The Psycho - Ah thanks buddy :) I have to admit, I'm super pleased with how he's coming along. I've deliberately kept every other colour fairly muted so that the mask pops even more, even though it's not a particularly vibrant red itself. Hopefully I can make sure his final pics do him justice in terms of the shading and muted pallete on him.

The Hydra - Glad to hear you've been keeping up and enjoying things mate. Harlowe was a conversion that I've planned and wanted to do for a while too - that WH model is a fantastic base to work from and it being finecast gives you so much scope for doing stuff.

 

ChromeZephyr - Cheers fella :) Ha I see where you are coming from there - Harlowe isn' actually a native of Haven though, unlike Much, who is a lot paler than Harlowe. That's my excuse anyway ;)

Before I forget - a quick look at the new Warden. Although I like the original one I did, the more I looked at him, the less his "old age Winter Soldier" look worked for me. He wasn't fitting the character I had in my head, the grizzled mercenary who was professional military first, agent of the Ruinous Powers/Cognitae second. Then Deathwatch Overkill came out and I fell in love with the 4th Gen cultists because goddamn GW can make some awesome Inq28 fodder and human models when they want to. One kind donation from a fellow hobbyist on FB and a few tweaks here and there, and the Warden - working name Jerom Steyne - now looks like this:
 

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/IMG_20160412_174633_zps0yvnednz.jpg

I think the base model is so good that I didn't want to do too much to him - just a different set of legs for a more braced pose, a few additions to the autorifle (the one flaw I think the D:O and DV cultists have is no stocks on their recoil-riffic autorifles) and those patented Random Tubes . There's a tiny bit of gs work needed to tidy up a few areas but he already works for me far far more than the first conversion ever did.

And that's it really. The plans for the next hand of Cards flicks between another 7 or another 10 on an almost daily basis - I've got the parts for 2 for sure, with another 2 on the way. I think 7 might be a better idea, just to stop myself from running out of ideas and putting out lacklustre stuff. Then again, the Tarot has potential for a wide cast and I'm honestly having the most hobby-fun in a long time coming up with individual characters instead of armies and so on. Haven is a big place as well I guess....
 

 

[Draakur]

Super cool, still loyally following and utterly enjoying. Looking forward to the final knaive :tu:

 

What are your thoughts on colours for the new Warden at this stage?

[Soldier of Dorn]

The new Warden looks awesome, loads better than the original, though I do kind of wonder what he would look like with the Sternguard head from the old model (incidently, that's my favorite bare Marine head from any kit.) If it's at all possible (i.e. if the head isn't glued into the other model) would you be willing to do a mock-up and show us what it would look like? Right now, to me, he just looks like a regular soldier/grunt and not a grizzled veteran, but the appropriate headswap could change all that, IMHO.

[JackDaw]

Draakur - Thanks buddy, awesome to hear that you'll still enjoying and following everything. The Knave is very close to completion - should be done this weekend so pics should be early next week I think. I'm not sure on colours for the Warden at the moment, I haven't really been following a scheme or anything for the loose affiliations and crews so far - instead just painting what I think looks natural and fitting for the character. I need to decide if his 'armour' is going to be actual armour or a refitted vac-suit or hazmat suit or similar. It is tempting to go for a muted orange or something. Any suggestions people have would be awesome.

 

The Psycho - He's pretty cool isn't he? Those D:O cultists are just fantastic, even as stock assemblies. The head is glued in so I couldn't do a quick swap, however, with the aid of a spare torso I did this instead:

 

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/IMG_20160413_165109_zpskip3zgml.jpg

 

So the Sternguard head is a little too big for the regular cultist bodies - the chin and beard stop it from sitting 'inside' the collar if you get what I mean, the rebreather style doodad should be just coming up in front of his mouth if it fit properly. On the Primus though, it sits a lot better and looks more proportionally right - the Primus has a much wider and larger hood so it looks reasonably decent in there.

 

I get what you mean about him not looking grizzled/vet-like at the moment, I think a lot of that will come in during the painting. I am considering using a thin layer of gs to give him burn scarring all over one side of his face and head, in a Freddy Krueger/Hound from GoT style. And I'll be honest, going from the slightly ragged looking DV cultist to the way more teched-up D:O cultist probably does move his character overall into professional merc more than veteran. Almost more along the lines of the Blood Pact insurgency team in Blood Pact.

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

As ever, JackDaw, you seem to have a Midas touch when it comes to the holy hobby triptych (modelling, painting, writing). :)

[JackDaw]

Brother-Captain Arkhan - Ah thanks man, that's awesome of you to say so, specially considering hows utterly balls-to-the-wall awesome all your stuff is. It's really great to hear that everything I do hobby-wise hits the right notes with people, really keeps me enthused and wanting to do more. 

 

A few little bits and pieces sorted this weekend, so not much progress to show off. The Warden, Dancer and Grotesque all got undercoated and so will be getting painted up soonish. Need to sort out some fluff and reveals for them first though. Harlowe was finished off today and is currently having his coat of matt varnish dried - finished pics of him to come soon. Other than that, I've not managed to get much done, which sucks. The Tower is probably done - few little details needed on the base but I think he's pretty much there. Very excited to work up to his reveal and start painting him.

Hopefully this week I can be a bit more productive and get more done - the fluff and reveal for the Warden is up first, then Harlowe's finished pics. Then, well, who knows. Distracting myself by ordering one of the anniversary Imperial Space Marines probably wasnt the best idea either....

*UPDATE!
I did actually get some more painting done in the end, and in true hobby-magpie style, it wasn't on the Warden. Mainly becuase I can't decide on a colour scheme for him yet. So instead I cracked on with the model that I knew exactly how I wanted to paint - the Dancer. A quick 45 mins or so and the base colour and highlights on the synskin are done:

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/IMG_20160417_190827_zpsfiqir2ty.jpg

She's actually a light ivory with bone shading rather than the pristine white she seems there, but there's still a way to go yet with washes and shading and freehand. There's a comic based inspiration I'm working from for her, so hopefully I can pull it off.

C&C welcome as always folks. And suggestions on a colour scheme for the Warden would be greatly appreciated

[Soldier of Dorn]

Personally, I think that an olive/drab scheme would look cool on the Warden. You've been going for a lot of muted tones for the Tarot and I think you could do some really cool things with a greenish color scheme, and it would evoke the idea of him being a grizzled military veteran a lot.

 

The Dancer looks really good. Really can't wait to see her finished!

[SalvationOfReason]

With the white/off-white color scheme, the Dancer kinda reminds me of Moonknight (Marvel Comics).

Mind if I ask the (actual) inspiration?

[JackDaw]

Evening folks

 

The Psycho - Good call on the colours there brother, good call indeed. I'll have a look into that. Haven't used a greenish tone for a while either so that could be pretty cool. Thanks for the compliment on Abbileth as well - I did manage to get a bit more done on her last night and the synskin is now completely done. Course, that means she's like 90% finished already bless her.

 

SalvationOfReason - Ooo that's a good call, very close. But it's not MoonKnight. The inspiration for her look is mainly from the awesome SpiderGwen, who is one of the best looking character designs I've seen in a while and proof that simplicity is a winner.

 

Extra updates to come soon!

 

 

[JackDaw]

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/30f9d676-d188-4109-95f2-0210e58bdbd6_zps3jyx8ydz.jpg

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160419_190008_zpsx6cnkixc.jpghttp://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160419_190033_zpsegpd5vnu.jpg
http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160419_190023_zpsgfsle4ds.jpghttp://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160419_190104_zpsgkvo7wfm.jpg

Reyn Harlowe; known in Haven as the Knave - a source of much gossip and fear amongst the common man and a known rogue. Named a murderer and criminal, hunted by many and never welcomed by those he meets.

[Captain Nameless]

I just found and read this whole thread. Have a belated welcome back from me, I'm looking forward to how this plays out.

[Soldier of Dorn]

I said it when you posted the first few WIPS of Harlowe and I'll say it again- perfection. He's beautiful, man. Just beautiful.

[Evil Eye]

Wow, this is an incredible log! I've considered doing an INQ28/In the Emperor's Name/Necromunda collection for a while, and this might have tipped me over the edge (at least, once my veritably colossal backlog of Tyranids, Emperor's Children and Daemons is reduced).

 

I'm excited for the Tower in particular- from my limited experience, the Tower is the card representing woe and misfortune, so I'm expecting something great...

[SalvationOfReason]

JackDaw- ah, nice. Spider-Gwen is a fantastic c example of a simple, effective character design.

Still wish it was MoonKnight :P

For The Tower, is it going to be a defunct, malfunctioning Construct or Murder-Servitot?

[Phatsquirre1]

This is some beautiful stuff Jackdaw.

 

Quite honestly, I haven't been into 40k for a long time now, focusing on my 30k IVth Legion instead, due to the fact that every new codex just keeps making things worse and worse, and every 40k fluff-piece I read is the same- lacking in the kind of intrigue and mystery I read growing up that made the 40k universe so gritty and nasty but awesome to read about.

 

This log is such a throwback to that time, and is inspiring me to look at 40k again- but at a smaller scale. Thank you so much for coming up with this.

 

Also, The Knave is one of the coolest characters i've ever seen. His model is perfect for the fluff you've written. Great Job.

[JackDaw]

Evening chaps, hope everyone is just dandy.

So, after two long weeks, I have finished the course I was on. Huzzah. I immediately celebrated today by doing a load of laundry and tidying. Rock and Roll. I also spent a few hours getting some hobby done as well, the fruits of which labours I will show later on. I also received three awesome bits of post - my Anniversary Astartes (which will be converted, eventually, into a White Scar Vigilator - possibly as a Coda to the Fall Of Seraph), one of the sweet limited standing Knight Scions (which I haven't decided what to do with yet, but I couldn't pass him up at the crazy low price he was), and finally, finally, I've got my grubby hands on some sculpts that I've wanted for years - but I don't want to reveal them just yet as they may well find a place in the Tarot. Suffice to say, they are super special. Anyway, back to our regular programming:

CaptainNameless - Thanks man, great to be back. And glad to hear you're looking forward to more.

The Psycho- Ah man, you're gonna make me blush. Harlowe may well be one of the best, if not the best, things I've painted. And more than anything else, as the whole point and centre of this story he had to be spot on. Just have to make sure everyone else reaches his level now.

Squigsmasher- Ha, glad to hear about the tippage fella. You should totally do some Inq28, it's so good to be working on just one model at a time and getting exactly as you see them. Plus, you don't have to do loads, so it's easy to squeeze them inbetween other things Oh and the Tower is definitely bringing some woe and misfortune...

SalvationOfReason - SpiderGwen is pretty awesome isn't she? MoonKnight is a great design as well and there's certainly some =][=28 potential there. The Tower may or may not be a malfunctioning Construct or Murder-Servitor, I couldn't possibly say. There is definitely something pretty much spot on to those lines in the next hand of Cards though.

Ninjaman - Thank you man, that's very much appreciated. Honestly, posts like yours make me incredibly happy and proud to do what I do and it means a lot that you're getting so much out of the small hobby stuff I do. And if you're looking for that old school style gritty and nasty 40k, =][=28 is definitely the place to go for it.

And onto today's painting. Worked on Abbileth for a good few hours today, a lot of which was spent painting and then repainting the knife blades. I wanted to avoid metallics on her as much as possible, thinking she would be wielding ceramic or glass blades for maximum sneakage. Getting a result for glass blades that I was happy with took longer than I thought. First though, I finished off the synskin and added some extra colour:

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/IMG_20160423_194511_zps0blkai7o.jpg

I lost track of how many sepia and black glazes and shading went into that synskin, along with how many highlights and how much defining went on with ivory and tan. The red adds a little colour and a focal point on the face, and echoes her comic-inspiration. Of course, once that bodysuit was done, she was like 90% finished. So I pushed on and got another 7% or so done:

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160423_172035_zpsi3blvc3l.jpghttp://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Jackdaw1982/The%20Hanged%20Mans%20Tarot/20160423_172020_zps9ccfkzf2.jpg

Man, those blades. Took a while to get there but I'm happy with the finish. Only the manhole cover and the grav-harness left to do on her really, so she should be sorted pretty soon. I really should crack on with the reveal of the Warden and everyone else....

Thanks as ever for your continued interest folks, always love hearing your thoughts.

Cheers, Jack

[Brother Dallo]

Looking good JackDaw.

 

I have to agree with your comment about inquisimunda style figures. I'm working on a few Dark Heresy-esc figures in my thread, and it's a lot less intimidating than trying to paint a whole army.

 

Keep up the good work. I'd be interested in seeing your coda for Seriph, but the vigilator sounds interesting too.

 

Dallo

[JackDaw]

Thanks Brother Dallo :) She's actually finished now, but I'm holding off on the pics until the next card is revealed as I don't want to run out of painted stuff to show off. I'm certainly getting a lot more satisfaction out of single characters than I ever did out of armies. Can't really see myself ever doing a 'proper' size army again, and not just because 30/40k gaming has no interest for me anymore.

 

Regarding the Coda for Seraph, if I do head down that route it'll take the form of a ViV Kill-Team of Heresy-era White Scars (which I've always kinda wanted to do) who will have a thematic and storyline connection to the Angels of Seraph. It'd be a nice way to kinda show how I wanted to finish the Angels off in the first place and put a cap on my Astartes/30k stuff once and for all.

 

 

In current hobby news, things are progressing slowly. I'm taking step back from the Warden at the moment while I work out his introduction and colour scheme, and instead bringing in another character first. That intro is all ready to go, but I'm waiting for Photobucket to catch up and actually show the formatting tweaks I made to his pics before I post them up. Should be coming early tomorrow though.

 

Update soon, promise.