Heavy

Nid colours me and Nakoo been thinking of the colours for the Tyranid army that invades the planet we are setting our story on. The planet is used by mankind as a harvest zone for speciality spices and food which are grown there with the use of large fertilisation plants.

The planet is a little bit smaller then our own (as such gravity is a tiny bit less, so things are not as heavy, but not to an extreme or anything that's overly noticeable over time) and is only 58% water (or less). The water is soaked into the ground mostly, turning the land to marshy swampy areas. The rest of the land is made up of high mountains and rough rock, which often gets covered in snow fall. Snow and marsh is our main background elements, whites, dark browns, greens all cover the environment and are often illuminated by orange skies. Humans have come in and changed the land at some point to fit their needs, planting vegetation's everywhere and introducing wildlife.

The humans farmed the land, planting rice like plantations everywhere which could survive in the wetter soil. They are maintained by only a few hundred people whose main job it is to fix and repair the machinery that runs along large cables over the fields. The planet was very uneventful, yet very important to the empire of man as a resource to feed and supply its masses. A type of tea leaf was also farmed there which proved popular with many.

Humans brought along with them both horses and accidental carry-ons which continued to evolve in the new environment. These include fluffy mammel creatures (from rats and mice), large canivore mammels (from dogs and cats), dinosaur like birds (from pheasants, chicken) and strange sea monsters (fish). All of these beasts are human based. The only species that is not are the insectoid creatures which were already present on the planet.

At some point the planet becomes targeted by the Nids, who are keen to consume all the very lush organic matter that is widespread over the planet thanks to man. Our story is based around the battles between mans forces (DDK themed IGs and later on SW) and the Tyranids.

Here are the other two rejected colours. We are going to go with silver grey carapaces, Dark blue scythes and spikes and cyan body flesh colour. Their blood will be bright slimy pea green.

The human colours are going to be black (splashed with dark blues), red, white and gold. Copper colours will also be used sparingly.
Horse colours I will vary wildly, however most will be of the black and white type with mottling (like shown below).
Remembering I will be sculpting this out in Mudbox for the competition (ending April 13th) me and Nakoo continue to detail the design out exactly for our  Commissar; Konrad Tiberius. His clothes are super important and we want them to be perfect.
As for his horse, we are yet to name him, tho I have coloured him something like my Oreo Diesels colours. Which I am fond of.

Please note the modified Aquila. One side being mechanical and the other the original gold. This is a throw back to Venria who will be very important in the story alongside Tibbles.

The horses, there are two separate breeds- the Thoroughbred type, descended from our racing horses(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoroughbred). These are used for the original DKK as they are strong, speedy and athletic.
The horses I have been drawing (noticeable for their feathered feet) are of the draught type, descended from our larger horses for manual labour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_horse). These will be used by our IGs often for their power in battle, not so much speed. They will also be good at moving large equipment where tanks and other vehicles cannot go and even armed with huge heavy weapons mounted on their sides.
The feathered feet are retained because they will direct water and snow away from the foot (like a parasol for the feet) which will become mud fevered if left soaking wet too long.

Work by Nakoo, going over the particulars of Tibbles uniform and body scars etc. Also she has provided huge amounts of visual reference which I will need later. The coat shown in the second draft is one worn in wet climates, a fluffy white coat will be worn in snowy colder ones which we will design later.
The uniforms are all fitting for horse riding use which Tibbles and his men will experience a lot.
Bikes are not used at all due to the unfitting land (trenches, ditches, swamp water, deep snow etc) however tanks may be used on the more open field for their obvious power. Horses will have to be used because of how they can jump and leap over obstacles that would hinder anything with wheels or treds. They are also good because of how they on their own can make decisions on where to go on battle fields, their instinctive and progress knowledge of how best to navigate large bodies of water, nid infested ditches, organic obstacles like fallen trees among other things would be far better then that of any rider. They can also be used as a weapon them selves, biting, kicking and ramming targets.

Thumbnails for my sculpt from the four main angles.

First skull shaped gas mask ideas. I really liked the top one at first and continued to work on it via the computer for final ideas. However I was suddenly put off it and really dislike its look- preferring a more horse skull shape idea. I will continue work with this later.

nids. However they serve mostly as a warning sign of danger as they rush away from large enemies.

That's all for now. Last few weeks I have been extremely depressed and sad, both my personal life and work life has been very rough and overall miserable. I am hoping things will improve but currently things have only got more hard for me. This deeply affects my artistic skills which are very lacking of skill due to the low moods.
Lets just see how things go. If things continue to deteriorate I would very much like to take a step back and have some time off to myself to reevaluate my needs and generally stop being a miserable cow.