Inq28 - Eisenhorn and friends!

Late last year I rolled the dice on ordering some models from an Etsy shop called Artel W. Miniatures that caught my fancy. Generally speaking I wasn't expecting too much being the first time ordering from a tiny caster in the Russian federation so I was prepared to be disappointed. Turns out in the end I was not!

First off, the miniatures did take nearly six weeks to arrive which is on the long side for these sorts of products, but not completely out of the ordinary, and to be fair there was the Christmas and New Years in there. Once the package arrived I was eager to get stuck in but was greeted by a rather cool surprise inside the shipping envelope - the box was wrapped in parchment, bound in twine and sealed with a rather cool wax seal. I have to say I was rather charmed by that little extra detail!

Rather eagerly I set to building the models - They came with plastic bases but thought they deserved some more interesting resin bases. The models that caught my eye initially were totally-not Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, the psychic blank Alizebeth Bequin, Chastener Godwyn Fischig and the Daemonhost Cherubael. Holy moly are the models fiddly, but really dig how they came together!

(Edit: They've subsequently released several other models, including one called "The Distaff", leading me to believe that what I took to be Bequin when I originally ordered her is in fact Patience Kys.)

(Edit to the edit: Apparently they've updated some of the models names on the shop since I placed the order back in November. It's apparently supposed to be Elena Derosa from DOW2, but personally I think she'll make a perfect Patience Kys anyway.)

The second batch of models that I couldn't pass up included Inquisitor Covenant, Commissar Ciaphas Cain (Hero of the Imperium), and his loyal dogsbody Jurgen - Interestingly, also a Pariah like Bequin (albeit far more fragrant).

(Edit: As Jarvalex points out in the comments below, what I had taken to be Covenant is in fact a pre-Thracian-Disaster Inquisitor Ravenor, which makes sense!)

Since I placed the order they've released several other new models that I plan on ordering. While the shipping was long, the sculpts are beautiful and I look forward to painting them up!

Inq28 - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Silenia Phocris

Leading the Ordo Xenos contingent is Inquisitor Silenia Phocris. She's pulling double duty actually, as I've also introduced her as a potential ally/adversary in the Rogue Trader campaign I've been running as well! Quite often I take inspiration from the miniatures I have on hand to come up with interesting foils for the players, and Inquisitor Phocris is no exception. When she was originally introduced to the group it was a cliffhanger moment and they haven't had much of a chance to interact with her as yet. Originally I'd intended her to be a foil to the group, but as I've been working on the warband her demeanor has changed in my head - plans are afoot to have her actually be an ally to the group, as her Radical leaning means many of her aims are in alignment with the group's particular breed of Xenos collaboration. Granted, this currently involves the Rogue Trader dynasty helping a disgraced Ork Freebooter Kaptin build something he calls "Da 'Pockalypse Kannon", with the aim of firing on and destroying entire planets in a nearby system. Let's just say we're nearing the end of the campaign and the mayhem is getting dialed up to 11!

Picked this model up ages ago from Wargames Exclusive, and is based on some artwork from one of the earlier Inquisition codexes with the paired Conversion Beamers. On the tabletop it's just a single one, as carrying two while allowed by the list doesn't actually allow for two shots with them. In the rpg world however, oh yes she can!

Went with a relatively muted palette with her, just a few spots of color - had to work in the Imperial Purple on her trousers, and the greenish hue of the Conversion Beamer's power sources. The green should help tie her in with the stormtroopers, and I'm considering going back in and doing their fatigues in purple to match. Thoughts?

Inq28 - Ordo Xenos Inquisitorial Warband nearly complete!

As part of the planned Armies on Parade force, I'd opted to include an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and her warband. The Inquisitor is only primed so not interesting to look at but I did crack on with the 5-man Stormtrooper team over the last couple days!

I wanted to keep with a dark moody theme for the Stormtoopers armor and fatigues, and gave them some pretty strong spot colors to help them pop. I tried to steer clear from the strong red and blue spot colors of the Deathwatch, so went with some fiery yellow and jade greens instead. These blokes have been sitting in a quarter-painted state for YEARS, it really feels good to finally get them finished! Was a little damp outside this afternoon so they have yet to be sealed, but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

In addition to the Stormtroopers, I wanted to include some more flavorful characters. You can't have a warband without an Assassin, right? The Inquisitor's personal Astropath Brother Vicente provides communication and psychic oversight, while as befitting Inquisitor Phocris' Radical-leaning nature she is often accompanied by her personal Jokaero, affectionately known as Euclid. These three models were painted months and years ago, so were just given a little touchup here and there and had their bases repainted to match the current scheme. Job done!

Next up, the Inquisitor herself!

Inq28 - Hereticus Inquisitor On Combat Bike

A little Inq28 interlude today, I recently got a package from Wargame Exclusive miniatures which included a recently-released Inquisitor on a combat bike. I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to paint one up!

Rather cool sculpt, the bike is just brutal looking, and while the Inquisitor is improbably buxom as most of their models are, she's at least not totally risque as some of their more recent models have been. So much so that I'm not going to be buying them in fact - just not to my tastes when it comes to miniatures design.

 

If you're gonna have a tricked out ride, you may as well mount a plasma gun to it, right? Still coming to terms with the black-rimmed bases after a decade of painting them in reddish brown, but it's growing on me!

Along with the biker I also ordered up a selection of their 'combat cars' to use as scatter terrain, but mostly because I thought they too would be fun to paint!. It's good to have some little one-off models like this to paint in order to shake things up - I plan on using these as little palate (palette?) cleansers in between swaths of Thousand Sons over the next few months. I have to build and paint 2150 points between now and the end of August which should prove doable provided all the bits arrive in a timely manner. What could possibly go wrong?

Merry Christmas!

...Or based on the minis should that be Merry Fishmas? It's been hellacious in Real Life(tm) of late, but I have been puttering away at the rest of the Tau Hunter Cadre for the Inq28/Rogue Trader RPG minis when I could steal a little time behind a brush, and after a couple hours this afternoon I got 'em more or less finished up!

When all is said and done it ended up being a nice 10-strong unit, that breaks down into essentially 2 mirrored teams. The miniatures all came from Wargame Exclusive and they all really have a ton of character. albeit a little on the cheesecake side.

 

For leaders there's the cigar-chomping Big Shas, and a jet-pack equipped fusion gun-toting Little Shas.

 

A pair of techs/trackers - the more cheesecake-y of the two got the 'buns out' treatment, while I went with a bodysuit for the other.

 

Similarly on the snipers, one is quite risque while the other is a bit more modest.

 

The pair of gunsliners were quite dynamic, went with the red cloak on the male to tie him in with the red hair on the rest of the unit.

 

Lastly are a pair of swordmistresses, went with the jade green swords to tie the spot colors back to the other models here and there. Was pretty fun working with the muted/limited palette!

Definitely a fun little artistic palate cleanser, now it's time to dive back into painting more of the Geno Five-Two. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and a wonderful new year in 2016!

Inq28 - Qui Medicus?

Quick hit today, as I'm waiting for the next bits to arrive for the Geno-Five Two.

The Inq28 side project I've been fooling around with are mostly minis I'd intended for use in RPG sessions, and I'm pleased to say there's plans afoot for me to run another Rogue Trader campaign where those minis will come in handy! That's got me looking back over the notes and remembered I'd intended to include an antagonist/comedy relief character in the form of Ordo Chronos Inquisitor Iohannes Claudius Camillus Fransiscus Van Varenberg. The Ordo Chronos concerns itself with instances of Temporal Heresy, an issue with which the players will be finding themselves in a couple different ways throughout the course of the campaign, and Inquisitor Van Varenburg will be a recurring antagonist (not a villain per se, but he's not a good man to cross).

Among all of the fragmented and contradictory records of the Ordo Chronos, Inquisitor Van Varenberg is noted to generally arrive via his Teleporting Armoured Redaction Delivery and Investigation Shell... Hah!

Inq28 - Tau Mercenaries (all sorts of heresy!)

I'll admit right up front that I've never been a particular fan of the Tau - mostly that came down to the model range however, I quite like the fluff. I rather enjoy the Surprisingly Sinister Space Pope and his Ethereals, the whole caste system is interesting, and the fact that they embrace all the species they come across rather than just automatically exterminating them makes for a breath of fresh air in the grim darkness. (Heresy!) Ran across these alternate models on ebay a while back and thought they'd be fun to paint up, and subsequently thought "Hey, these'd be perfect mercenaries for a radical Ordo Xenos warband". I wasn't super happy with the initial skin tones so spent a little time touching them up and got some new pics taken:

"Big Shas O'Mal'y" along with an air caste tech and fire caste sniper joined forces with Inquisitor Travinski during an investigative mission into the incursion of Hive Fleet Kraken. The Tau were rescued from almost certain death at the claws of a Genestealer cult (side note, also thinking about doing up some villain warbands), and subsequently pledged their service to the Inquisitor, further cementing her status as a radical in the eyes of her peers. (Double heresy!)

A bit more cheesecake with these models, especially the sniper - Let's just say I had to take a few pics before I got one that's SFW. (Triple heresy!) Was fun to paint up some xenos filth though - had fun with the skintones and tried a number of different washes to try to approximate the 'typical' ochre Tau armor color. I have another few female Tau mercs coming to add to the group - they may end up spinning off into their own warband when all is said and done!

Inq28 - Things start to get out of hand...

Anything worth doing, is worth OVERdoing, right? While I've had literally zero painting time over the last week, I did go through all the various shelves and boxes and pulled out a whole mess of minis that I've collected over the years. Mostly picked up for use in various Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader games, they're all perfect fodder for Inq28!

I think there's more than enough to divvy up into three warbands - Hereticus, Xenos and Malleus! Gotta figure out what models will go with whom, but it's already getting me thinking about backgrounds and history just looking over all the models!

Inq28 - Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Helios

The new work schedule has really bit into my hobby time these days, but I managed to carve out a little time to work on another model for the Inq28 warbands. Today it's the head of the Ordo Hereticus warband, Inquisitor Helios.

Inquisitor Helios is a hard-line Puritan of the Ordo Hereticus, a man of firm and unswerving dedication to the Emperor who has spent a lifetime rooting out the foes of the Imperium both in the depths of the hive spires of the core worlds, as well as in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy. Wearing an ancient set of Terminator armour and bearing a combi-psicannon and force stave, Helios is not only a terrifying combatant but also a potent psyker who has used his powers to destroy innumerable cells of rogue warlocks and demagogues of chaos.

  

I've had the bits for this model banging around in the Closet of Doom for nearly 30 years, the body is from one of the first incarnations of the Grey Knights, while the arms are from the old terminator inquisitor (which had been used in another project ages ago). Felt good to get an old school mini finished up for the modern age!

Inq28 - Ogryn Bodyguard Horgg VanDerHuge

Got a few weeks to kill while I await the various bits to start trickling in for the Geno Five-Two, so I thought I'd pull out the Inq28 models and work on them for a while. Any self-respecting warband needs at least one meatshield, which brings us to Horgg VanDerHuge, Ogryn bodyguard!

I wanted to ensure he was very slovenly as Ogryns are wont to be, so after laying on the basic colors I went over the model with a number of different grey, brown and rusty washes to give him a scruffy appearance. I tried to do a little grey stippling around the jaw and chin to try and approximate a 5 o'clock shadow, but it's not particularly convincing in the pics. Pretty sure I need to hit that area again. I don't recall what range this model is from, I'd picked it up a few years back at GenCon, I want to say at the Mike McVey booth?

  

A big ol' Ogryn ought to have a big ol' gun, and it's hard to go wrong with a minigun right? Still working on the fluff for the models, and I'm finding their stories are growing out of the paint scheme. Somewhere along the way Horgg worked alongside (or perhaps fought against) the Ultramarines, and he proudly wears one of their shoulder plates. He also has a pet grot, which has spun off an idea of doing a couple different warbands - The puritanical Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Helios (pictures to come), and an opposing radical Ordo Xenos inquisitor whose warband includes a number of Xenos/Abhuman mercenaries (many of which to be unveiled soon).

Definitely challenging to just paint one model at a time, but to be honest I'm quite enjoying it!

Inq28 - Death Cultist Tranquilla Morte

In the process of building the next batch of Ad-Mech, and in between gluing my fingers together and trying not to cut off any fingers with the ol' exacto blade I finished painting up the first of the as-yet-unnamed Inquisitor's warband - Tranquilla Morte, Death Cultist of the Imperator Ex Sanctus Sanguine sect.

She was already half painted when I pulled her off the shelf, so mostly it was just a matter of finishing up some detailing. Bit of gold, bit of parchment, some hazard stripes and she's ready to cut the enemies of the Imperium into little quivering chunks!

  

The model is a little cheesecake-y, but also has a sense of menace to it. I'd considered adding some blood spatter to the weapons, but found that my bottle of Blood for the Blood God wasn't sealed properly and had dried into a solid mass. Gotta find some time to get to the hobby shop to pick up a new one, I suppose!

Was quite fun to just paint a single model for a change!

40k Adeptus Mechanicus - Skitarii Rangers painted

As of last week the company I work for moved their headquarters and suddenly instead of a 5 minute commute I have a 45 minute commute. I'm finding that stolen hour and a half of each day is sadly eating into my hobby time - no more getting up an hour early in the morning and paint, it's get up an hour early just to get to work on time. Nevertheless, I did manage to get the Skitarii rangers up to the pre-transfers-and-weathering stage, marking the final unit that remained unpainted, and the goal line to indulge in some build time!

While they'll all get some ad-mech waterslide transfers, I decided to leave the base troopers coats fairly bare and keep the cog-tooth pattern for the leader to help him stand out a bit. They still feel a little monochrome, but the green static grass should really help 'em pop once we get to that stage.

Felt good to flip the colors over from yellow to green, now I get to reward myself with some build time - gonna finish up the two final units of infantry (the Vanguard and the Infiltrators), and do the Knight at the very end as a capstone to the army. Still on track for an end-of-August finish date!

While I was poking around up in the hobby loft I pulled a selection of models from the "this would be a good Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader RPG model" shelf, with an eye towards painting up an Inquisitor warband. No real plan as yet, but I think it'll be fun to come up with some backstory for 'em, and it's a nice varied set of minis to dabble with when I need a brief breather from the army painting process - more to come on this little project in the future!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Veterans Painted, and something unexpected...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year! It's been rather busy on the Real Life(tm) front, back to long hours at work for quarter end and year end fun. Woo. That doesn't mean there's been no hobby time, though - for as of the post, everything that was purchased and planned for the Iron Hands has now been painted! The last unit that was waiting in the wings was the Veteran squad:

They're designed to take advantage of the Tank Hunters upgrade, and are armed with a trio of melta weapons and a thunder hammer to help pick off those pesky vehicles. As befitting their veteran state, they all use the Iron Hands legionaries models which are chock full of cog tooth icons and bionics!

With those out of the way, I really wanted to just paint something for fun, and my eye fell on a trio of minis I'd purchased from Victoria Lamb miniatures which have been waiting to spring forth and shout... Well, you know. Heh. I need to go back in and clean up the faces a bit it seems. Amazing how taking pics shows up all the little screw-ups, eh?

Next up are some really colorful minis to counteract the months of black and iron we've been slogging through!

Inquisitorial Storm Raven, Complete!

Now that the lion's share of the Dark Eldar are done, I wanted to switch gears and paint something else for a bit. The closest model to the painting desk at the time was the Storm Raven, so I figured I'd knock it out:

Nothing too special about it really, just your basic black and red scheme with gold details here and there. Some Boltgun metal on the engines and weapons, a quick bit of blue on the Plasma Cannons and cockpit, and white-tipped rockets and I called it good.

Unfortunately I had a bit of an issue with the sealant (for the first time in a long while). No frosting, thank the Emperor, but there was a bit of a 'crinkle' effect here and there on the fuselage. It's not super noticable in the picture, but just above the red flap on the wing you can sort of see it. A friend has suggested that a little wet sanding may be able to remove it, and even if it removes the paint it should be relatively simple to repaint the black area. Ah well.

In any case, my Inquisitors now have a new ride that is much more robust than the Aquila lander they used to use!

Inquisitorial Storm Raven, Part 2

While I was working on the Dark Eldar, I also had the Storm Raven out on the desk and as such it got a little paint slapped on it to start blocking out the colors. I knew I wanted it to be predominantly black, so I started by giving it a quick drybrush of shadow grey along the edges and picked out a few panels in Dark Flesh, which acts as a base color for the intended red.

I also went over the model and picked out most of the decorative bits in Shining Gold followed by an Ogryn Flesh wash. The cockpit glass got a Midnight Blue coat while I was at it.

Some of the gold ended up running a bit (such as the =I= symbol on the back of the Hurricane Bolters) but those sections will be cleaned up with a black touch-up pass later on in the process.

I took a crack at painting the interior of the Storm Raven before I assembled it, mostly a quick Boltgun metal drybrush, some leather seats and green monitor screens. However I've found that once it's assembled, there's not a lot of light that makes it into the interior even with both hatches open and the top turret removed. Ah well, at least I didn't accidentally glue it shut for a change!

There's still quite a long way to go on this model, but thus far I'm pleased with the black and red scheme. It definitely comes off looking pretty menacing!