Hi, everybody! My name is Nate Feyma, and I’m the Lead Concept Artist here at Privateer Press. It’s my pleasure to work with talented and awesome people from nearly every department in the company to turn words into pictures that can then be turned into models. I’ve been meaning to introduce myself for over a year now, but with a new faction coming up fast, there’s no time like the present!

The unit I want to talk about is the Crucible Guard’s heavy infantry, the Crucible Guard Storm Troopers. These troopers, like many of the Guard’s members, serve a purpose both on and off the battlefield. At peace, they are first responders—trained and equipped to deal with the sorts of alchemical disasters that occur during the course of the Order’s experiments. At war, they are well-protected shock troops wielding advanced weapons.

When I read over their initial description, they were to be clad in heavy, sealed armor with extra filtration and breathing equipment. Their gear included alchemical grenade launchers and heavy picks suited for either digging through rubble or punching holes in armor.

For my first batch of roughs, I wanted to lean into another suggestion from the brief—that these suits might look something like old-fashioned diving suits—and I worked up an initial batch of silhouettes. After reviewing these, we decided that a mix of B and C would get us pretty close to what we wanted, so I took the elements the concept group liked best and started some sketches:

Once again, B was my lucky letter, and we went forward with the rectangular visor but grabbed the shoulder pad from A to make sure he looked properly protected. That led us to one of my favorite parts of the concept process, the line art. There’s something calming and fun for me in laying down clean lines.

This version was close, but it wasn’t quite there yet. The armor felt a little hunched over and pinched in areas, and it was rightly pointed out that his big metal apron was going to be a pain to walk in. A few tweaks later, the final version of our troopers was good to go!

Working on the Crucible Guard has been an absolute blast—I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do. Until next time, happy gaming! We'll see you at Lock & Load GameFest 2018 for not only the pre-release of the Crucible Guard, but also our chance to hang out with you - our community and play some games! Get your tickets and reserve hotel space today.