A day in the life - Art Concept.

Hi all,

the project continues apace. Not much time to blog right now, but here's my concept art order to my old chum Bob Shaw, of Sprung Chicken Productions. Check him out here.

Hey bobbins,

As promised, here's my art brief (sorry it's coming from the iPhone, haven't had five minutes to myself in a couple of days)

Basically, I want a concept art piece, which will go up on my blog, and will appear on assorted bits & pieces I do for the UK GT this year...

What I want is something like this:



A proper concept piece, in other words.

The regiment I want you to do a piece for is called the Armageddon assault corps. There's some grainy pictures of some concept models here:





Basically, draw me one! I've included some background below, which will help you visualise these guys. I'll pay you £X, plus you'll have a neat concept piece. I'll ask for more if it's good!

Brief Concept:

Guard Hardened Veterans with Jet Packs, jumping out of planes on to hive spires.

Basic Background:

The Assault Corps is a part of the Armageddon Steel Legion, an Imperial Guard regiment raised on the highly toxic hive world which gives them their name.

The Steel legion are highly mechanised, and much better equipped regiment than most other regiments of the guard.

Their signature equipment is their box respirator gas masks, big dust goggles & ww2 german paratrooper helmets, 3/4r length coats, which conceal their body armour.

They look sort of like this:

http://www.battleforarmageddon.com/?p=10

But with turbine powered rocket packs like this:

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=49

Deeper background

The assault Corps was originally founded with one idea mind - capturing the spires of rebel hive cities. Hives are vast sprawling super cities, with Walls 100s of feet high - designed to keep out invaders, but also roaming mutants and bandits who haunt the planetary ash deserts.

Hives are often seething with discontent: in the long history of Armageddon, hives have been seized from within many times- by insidious psychic aliens, charismatic demagogues and scheming nobles.

The key to taking any hive is the void shield controls, which usually reside in the tallest spires. Take the shield down, and the hive is vulnerable to bombardment from aircraft & artillery. Usually the threat of such action is enough to quell the rebellious populace.

Taking a hive without taking down the shield is a nightmare. Huge gates, shielded by spacecraft level energy fields must be broken down. Usually, this leads to a resort to spaceborne weapons, such as nova cannons or mass drivers, or arcane machines controlled by the Adeptus Mechanicus, such as siege titans or the terrifying sonic annihilators mounted on Ordinatii.

In addition to the crippling damage these weapons do to the infrastructure of the rebel hive, the favours of the fleet or the mechanicus do not come for free, and having to resort to inflicting such damage (and admitting a hive has rebelled successfully) will often be enough for the high lords of terra to order the death of the planetary overlord.

With this in mind, following the freak riots of m41.636, the assault corps was formed. The assault Corp are equipped with voss pattern turbine flight packs, which enable them to leap from aircraft on to spire towers, or even leap from building to building, window to window, smashing their way in.

Not for these guardsmen the refinement of long range gunplay - spirefights are tough and close range. The weapons of choice are the shotgun, the submachine gun, the boot, the knife.

Environmental protection is vital - even at the top of the hive, atmospheric pollution is deadly to unprotected humans. Indeed, many rebellious hives have been conquered without a shot fired by the assault corps, troopers smashing through giant viewports, showering traitor commanders with shards of glass before the rolling clouds of poison finish them off.

Of course, until the shields are down, the assault corps are without support. Thus, the will tend to be armed to the teeth. The average trooper will be festooned with guns, pistols, bullets.

He will carry grenades of all types - smoke, frag, krak - even rare explosives like plasma or melta charges, or atomic demolition charges.

The prevalence of explosives is explained by the nature of the spirefights. If the assault Corps cannot get where they are going - through Walls, blast doors & bulkheads, they are dead.

Thus, many troopers will eschew the normal mix of revolvers, smgs & shotguns for esoteric breaching weapons - meltaguns, phasefield generators, eviscerators & telekinetic mountain blitzers.

Of course, occasionally the corps will have to fight at range - for example, requiring cover from their vendetta gun-ships during an assault. If their aircraft cannot support them, picked marksmen among the troopers employ a variety of super high powered sniper weapons, such as the voss pattern slug rifle. In emergencies, such as when confronted by armoured vehicles like dreadnoughts or large beasts like cyberogryns, the marksmen can use special rounds made from imbatainium, which can punch holes in all but the thickest armour, and shatter even an ambull's skull like a ripe melon.

Veterans who survive full tours in the corps often carry rare and esoteric personal equipment common to hive nobles - even incredibly rare or xenos devices like hrud fusils, tau digital rocket rippers or barghesi hyperviolent smashfists.

Culture

The assault corps is an elite force, with high standards of combat efficiency required for entry. Most recruits have already completed careers in the PDF or Steel Legion.

The violent, close combat nature of the work frequently attracts former hive gangers. Even guardsmen from high hab zone families will adopt gang tattoos, markings & traditions, which have become as much a part of the regimental identity as flags or uniforms in other, more regular formations.

Indeed, many of the assault corp's officers are rough & ready former gang leaders, as ready to swap a tale about running drugs like brilliance or squab as they are to offer tactical advice.

That's as far as I've got thus far - new updates soon!