Modelling ideas for Inquisitorial Retinues: Penitents and Chirugeons

To complete my series on the theme of alternative models to use for WH Inquisitor retinues:

The Penitent (Bound Psyker/Penitent Witch/Pariah):
The current IG range have some OK psyker models, but they don't really look bound enough for an Inquisitor. The penitent is a dangerous psyker who has been captured by the Inquisitor and bound as a punishment for thier crimes, so they need to look both dangerous and punished.

I'm struggling with models for this one, so I'd welcome suggestions. One possibility might be the human that is strapped to the front of a Penitent Engine (I think you get two with the kit so you might have one spare), attached to some kind of frame. The WH hunters rule book has some example in the back but I really don't like them that much.


The Chirugeon (Torturer/Excoriator/Sister Hospitaller):
Once the Inquisitor has captured his prey, these guys use their abilities to extract information from the suspect. For a torturer/excoriator (excoriate means to strip skin, in case you were wondering), you could do something like Narg the Torturer. He's basically hooded, and with some green stuff work, I think you could quite easliy do this using a GW Empire Flagellant as a base. Use the flagellant as a base and add the hood using green stuff. There are various flames, sticks and other weapons on the sprue that could be used as weapons for the torturer. I'm planning on doing this for my torturer, adding a brazier of hot coals to the base and having the model carrying a red hot poker. I've used the Empire flagellants before as the basis for a WH priest, and they're a really good source of bits for WH conversions.

So these are some ideas for alternative models and conversion project for Inquisitors. Any more suggestions, then I'd love to hear them.

Modelling ideas for Inquisitorial Retinues: Warriors and Familiars

Continuing the theme of alternative models other than those in the GW boxes to use for WH Inquisitor retinues:

The Warrior (Veteran Guardsman/Servitor/Crusader):
The Warrior provides combat support for the Inquisitor, either in close combat or at range. Veteran Guardsman would be easy to cover, as there is a huge range of models already in the IG range (with more to come soon). I particularly like the Cadian Senior Officer, the Vostroyan models, or some of the characters like the Jungle Fighter captain. Probably for the veteran guardsmen, the model you choose will be based of what you're going to arm him with (like a plasma gun).

Alternatives to using guardsman are many. For example, some of Necromunda Arbites models look great and would fit in pretty easily (Godwyn Fischig in the Eisenhorn novels was an ex-Arbites). Here's a picture of Fischig, courtesy of WH40K Lexicanum:

Eisenhorn also employs other warrior types, such as the bounty hunter Harlon Nayl. Bounty hunters would be well presented by Necromunda models like the Delaque Gangers (check the Delaque leader in the top left of the picture). Some of the models from Armor Cast would also make good bounty hunters, such as this one, though I'm not sure on the scale of the model compared to GW models.

As a complete alternative (and because we don't see enough of them), why not resurrect some Squats? How about this one from Hasslefree minatures as a plasma gun armed one?

Servitor models are available through GW, but given they come in packs of two, one ranged servitor and one close combat so you might need some conversion work if you want both to be one type. A nice alternative would be some of the Iron Brotherhood minis from Micro Art Studios that I posted about as alternative sages. The figure on tracks would be ideal as a close combat servitor.

Crusaders are close combat specialist in the retinue. In the Eisenhorn novels, Eisenhorn has a couple of death cult assasins which accompany him (beginning of the second book if I remember correctly, here's the Inquisitor scale models of them), so the models for those at 28mm could be used as "count-as" Crusaders. Strictly speaking Crusaders are armed with suppresion shields and power weapons, so it would need to be a shield armed model to be more accurate to the weapon configuration. I particularly like the model for the Beast Hunter from the Mordheim range, and with some weapon swaps (a shield on his right arm, changing the axe in his left hand for something more 40K-ish), I could see him as a warrior from a feral planet that the Inquisitor has bought into his retinue. You could also use Arco-Flagellants as "counts-as" crusaders if your Inquisitor is particularly gung-ho.

The Familiar (Cherubim/Servo-skull/Cyber-Eagle):
I'm drawing a bit of a blank on alternate models for these creatures, which act as psychic conduits for the Inquisitor. The Coteaz box set has a cyber-eagle (on Coteaz's arm) which could be clipped off and added to a perch as an alternative. The Necromunda arbites box has a cyber-mastiff which you could also use.

That's all for now, in the next post I'll look at the two remaining members of the retinue: the Penitent and the Chirugeon.

Modelling ideas for Inquisitorial Retinues: Acolytes and Sages

Continuing the theme of alternative models to use for Witch Hunter Inquisitor retinues:

The Acolyte (Interegator/Explicator/Notary):
These guys are Inquisitors in training, so re-using Inquisitor models could be a possibility. Both the WH and Coteaz boxes provide Acolyte models, with the WH being the better of the two in my opinion.

For the Acolyte in my retinue, I've based a conversion of the Warhammer Empire priest with hand weapon and shield.

You can read the details of what I did to this figure on an earlier post .

As for other models which would make nice Acolytes (or possibly even Inquisitors), the Necromunda range has a few like The Redeemer and some of Redemptionist gangers. The Redemptionist gang leader would also make a nice Inquisitor as well. The Kal Jericho special character would also look good as a Acolytle. With some additional conversion work, then some of the miniatures from the Mordheim range would be good, such as the two lead models in the Witch Hunters warband.

The Imperial Guard Missionaries would also make absolutely ideal Acolytes.


The Sage (Autosavant/Lexmechanic/Sister Dialogus/Calculus Logi):

These guys are responsible for assisting the Inquisitor in gathering and recording information, processing information, translating texts and so on (think Uber Aemos from the Eisenhorn novels). I think Adeptus Mechanicus models would look pretty awesome as sages, and there is a great looking Mechanicus army in the last issue (#8) of Firebase magazine. The minis used for that army were by conversions of models by Micro Art Studio and they look really good. Specifically they were the Iron Brotherhood models, which if you have a look on their site, the HTTP-05 models would look good as Mechanicus information gatherers (or the guy on wheels, though he'd be nice as a servitor as well). Bear in mind, that I don't think these alternative models would be tournament legal in an official GW tournament.

Similar models which would also work (and look a bit more combative) and the Techpriest Enginseers from the Imperial Guard range.

Modelling ideas for Inquisitorial Retinues: Inquisitors

Just a post today with some thoughts on an upcoming project I'm going to be working on over the next month or two. I've not got any painted miniature updates this week as I'm working away and haven't been able to paint anything. Anyway, back on topic: Witch Hunter Inquisitors. For me, the chance to model and paint Inquisitors and their retinues is one of the best things about the WH list as it gives some really good scope for conversion work and putting in models you wouldn't normally use. I thought I'd share some ideas around each of the members of the retinue and the models I'm thinking of using for them. I'll probably split this over a few posts to avoid them being too massive.

Most (probably all) the models I'm going to talk about will be GW models, as this is a range I know best. I'd love to hear from anyone who has ideas which use other model ranges.

-Inquisitor: I'm not a huge fan on the stock WH inquisitor that GW make:
It's nice enough, but not unique from every other players inquisitor. Inquisitors are individuals, and should be modelled up as individuals (a bit like Daemon Princes and Chaos Lords). I also don't think this one looks "lordly" enough to be an Inquisitor Lord.

Instead of this figure, I'm going to use the Inquisitor Lord Coteaz model with some conversion work. Technically, he's a Daemon Hunter Inquisitor, but with some light conversion work this won't matter so much. Anyway, any Inquisitor going into battle with an SoB army is going to want to put some armour on, unlike the WH Inquisitor above. I've got a few things planned for the Coteaz model which I'm still crystalizing in my mind, so I'll post more on that when I'm closer to converting him. I particularly like what Andy Hoare did with his Inquisitor which you can see on the GW website, so I might do something along these lines. As the model is armoured, then I think Space Marine bitz (arms, weapons etc) should fit in pretty well with him.

The limited edition Gideon Lorr model from GW would also be a possibility, but you can expect to pay £20+ for this one on ebay.

Caesar and Cleopatra card game

I received this game as a Christmas present, and I've had the chance to play a few times with it, so I thought I would share some thoughts.

Ceasar and Cleopatra is part of the two player Kosmos series from Rio Grande games, and as it is mostly myself and my wife playing it suits us well. The background to the game is that Egypt is attempting to win independence from Rome and each player plays one of the two factions. The aim of the game is to win the support of Roman senators. This is done by playing numbered influence cards against difference groups of senators. When a vote is called (this is done each turn) the player with the highest (usually) influence for that group wins the support of one of the senators. At the end of the game, each senator won gives a point, as does winning the majority of senators in a group, and there's a bonus for acheiving a certain goal given to each player (winning a certain number of senators in a group).

So the game boils down to:

-Hand management: You can only hold 5 cards at a time which can be a combination of influence and action cards. Action cards allow special actions such as removing a influence card from your opponent.

-Bluffing: Influence cards be played either 2 face up or 1 face down. There is a special type of card called the Philospher which means that the player with the lowest influence total wins the vote. The fear of this card can be a useful bluff tactic when you play a card face down.

So that is the game mechanics in a nutshell. The components are OK, the box is compact and portable and takes only a couple of minute to setup and tear down. The artwork on the cards is quite nice, though some of the Roman senator names are a bit dubious in some cases.

The game plays quite fast (about 45 minutes) and is quite good fun, though there is a strong element of luck to the game. Overall, I quite like it and if you're looking for something for two players and you like the theme, then it's worth a punt

Scribd

I chanced upon Scribd a couple of week ago, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's basically like a giant library, but its got loads of fan created 40k and Warhammer stuff. You'll probably also find Codexes on there which is useful for a quick check on an army you might be facing. I wouldn't have said it would replace buying a proper codex or rule book (GW still need the money to keep producing stuff after all), but its useful to check out something before you buy it.

How cool does this look?

Bell of Lost Souls has got some pictures of a rumoured new Nurgle Daemon Prince from Forgeworld. Looks awesome, I'll add this to the list of things I really want but can't afford (I'm looking at you Dark Heresy...).

Morbus Legion of Nurgle Army List

Here's the current list for my Nurgle army:

HQ: Morbus the Foul, Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime (175)
Elites: 5 Chaos Terminators, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper Autocannon, 3 combi-weapons (1 flamer, 2 melta), Lightning Claw, Chain Fist, Power Fist (265)
Troops: Anthrax Squad: 7 Plague Marines, Plague Champion with Power Fist and melta bombs, one Personal Icon, one Flamer, one Meltagun, Rhino with extra armour (276)
Botulism Squad: 7 Plague Marines, Plague Champion with Power Fist, Plasma Pistol and melta bombs, one Personal Icon, one meltagun, one Plasma gun (251)
Canker Squad: 7 Plague Marines, Plague Champion with Power Fist and melta bombs, one Personal Icon, one meltagun, one Plasma gun (236)
Heavy Support: Defiler (150)
Vindicator, daemonic possession (145)

Total 1498, 8 kill points.

This is by no means an optimized list, I mainly chose it for flavour and modelling opportunities hence things like the 7 member squads. If I could make up the points somewhere else I might even swap Warptime for Nurgle's Rot as I like it better for flavour. The plan is for Morbus, the marines in the rhino, with close support from the Defiler and Vindicator, to bring it in the enemies face. At least three of these will be fire magnets, but something will get through. The other two marine squads bring support in and hold objectives with the terminators deep striking where needed.

Probably the list needs more than three troop choices, so I'd be better changing to some plain CSM squads rather the Plague Marines, but I went for flavour and I like the legion of disease theme.

The 1750 point list (I've yet to get the models for this many points), it's as above with a couple of tweaks and the additional of a fourth Plague Marine squad in a rhino.

Morbus Legion of Nurgle

With the whole army complete, here are some pics of the finished product:

Morbus Legion of Nurgle:


Anthrax Squad of Plague Marines:



Chaos Terminators, Chaos Vindicator and Spawn:



Defiler, and Botulism Squad:



Morbus the Foul, Bringer of Pestilience, Destroyer of Karvin VI, Daemon Prince of Nurgle:



This army has taken me a long time to complete, due to time constraints but I'm pleased with the final result and they look good and coherent all together.

I'll post the army list once I've re-jigged it (thought I had already but I can't find it...)

A Fanfare!

Here it is, at long last, ladies and gentlemen I give you the final model in my 1500 Chaos list: the Chaos Vindicator!





Techniques and painting job was pretty much the same as the Nurgle rhino I completed early for the project.

Conversion: Some light conversion work was done on this tank. I simply added some manky skin bits to the unit. These were done pretty simply. I started by sticking a lump of miliput on to provide bulk to the work, and then added a green stuff skin over the top. This was done for the lumpy bits on the top and the gun barrel.

Painting: The green armour was done with Catachan Green (the green standard for the whole army), and then washed with Thraka Green. The skin lumps and gun barrel then had an additional wash of Devlan Mud and then Leviathan Purple. Finally the whole bit was drybrushed with Catachan Green+Bleached Bone mix, followed by an light brush of Bleached Bone..
The purple dozer blade and details was based with 2:1 Liche Purple/Chaos Black mix, and then drybrushed on the edges with 3:1 Liche Purple/Chaos Black.

Weathering effects were then drybrushed on the bottom of the tank, as per my earlier post, however this time I did it more as drybrushing rather than dappling and I think the effect is better. As a final touch I used some Chestnut Ink to add some rust effects, drips and dribbles.

So, all done. Next up: play some games with the army ;)

Things I wish I'd known

I found a very old copy of "How to Paint Citadel Miniatures" today, published in 1989. This little booklet was all the painting advice I had in my early painting career, long before the internet was around of course ;) I might put a few pictures of the guide up if anyone is interested in seeing some of the old skool models in there.

Anyway, it got me thinking about some of the things I didn't know when I first started out which I wish I had. Here's a few points:

You don't have to undercoat in white: This was the only colour I thought you could undercoat in at the time, and while there's nothing wrong with a white undercoat, I feel a black undercoat is a bit more forgiving.

Thin your paints: A lesson I still forget and end up with crappy results. Thinned paint goes on better and smoother. For a base you don't need to make it watery thin, I just thin it a little to improve the way it goes on to the model. For highlights, then you want it much thinner. Guides say you need to experiment with thinning, or it needs to be the consistency of milk whatever that means, which didn't help much when I was learning, but unfortunately it's accurate, you just need to try it to get a feel for it. The down side to thinning: you may need more coats to acheive an even colour.

You won't be able to paint like the 'Eavy Metal team: You look in White Dwarf, you look at pictures online, you see awesomely painted figures. You paint, it looks like a three year old has done it. Getting to any level of proficiency in anything in life takes time and practice. Each mini you paint you get a tiny bit better so keep going.

How many paints do you need?: Often painting articles will list dozens of paints used to finish a mini. Do you need all these from day one? Probably not, because at the beginning you should focus on simple neat paint jobs. I started out trying to do fancy colour schemes or detail and they just look pap. Get the colours you're going to be using for your army, or the most common paint colours (like black, white, metal, flesh colour, a basic green, a basic blue etc) then build up your paint collection as you need it.

I'm sure there are many other tips as well, if anyone would like to share.

Sisters of Battle Canoness

This is the HQ choice for my SoB army, and I'm pretty pleased with the way it has turned out, though the picture doesn't seem to reflect that *sigh*

I've put alot more effort into the face this time and it's paid off greatly so I will be using the same technique again with skin and faces in future. Namely:

-Tallarn Flesh base coat
-2 washes of Ogryn Flesh wash
-1:1 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Bleached Bone
-Highlight with Bleached Bone

At this point the flesh looked really chalky, so I did another light wash of Ogryn Flesh and it really bought the highlights down and reduced the chalkiness.

The flame was done "inside out" so I started from white and "highlight" up to the dark colour on the tips. This was done with a Skull White base, Sunburst Yellow next, then several layers of Sunburst Yellow/Blazing Orange mix, Blazing Orange only and then the tips with Red Gore to finish it off.

My next project is my Chaos Vindicator tank.


Edit: Here's a slightly better photo:

Back in the saddle

Given it's been two months since my last update, I guess this one is overdue. I've not been doing much painting recently with Christmas and New Year and work. I'm also back playing City of Heroes, an MMO which dominated my free time for several years. I'd taken a break of almost two years, but I reactivated my account before Christmas. It's still an awesome game.

Anyway, on the painting front, I find it hard to get motivated for painting when the work I'm producing is total crap. I just find it de-moralizing. All I've managed up until this week was to build, convert and undercoat a Chaos Vindicator (this was over a two month period). This week I've started putting some work into my Sisters of Battle Canoness, and I think she's looking pretty good. Since I suck at painting faces (see my Seraphim below for evidence), I've spent some time on the face for this one and it's really made a difference. There's a good painting article in the current issue of White Dwarf (UK WD350) which goes over some techniques that I have found really useful. I'll post pics when she's done.

Weathering Effects

My Nurgle Rhino was looking like it had just rolled out of the factory, so not really very Nurgly. I chanced upon this tutorial from the Painting Corps, which gives an effective way of weathering tanks. I've tried it out on my Rhino and here are the results:




It's turned out pretty good for a first attempt. I didn't really get the rust markings to work that well, my Chestnut Ink was either too thin or too thick, depending on the attempt. I'll probably use this same technique again, but maybe as more of an overbrush than a dab, on my Vindicator which is just waiting on it's green stuff work.

Dead Set

If you've glanced at my profile (and I don't blame you if you haven't, I'm frankly pretty tedious) you will have seen I like zombies. If it has zombies in it, then I'll probably watch, in fact I'm watching Oasis of the Zombies as I type this (it's absolutely crap). What's not crap is Dead Set (Dead Set site contains graphic images of zombies, you've been warned), which was on over Halloween on E4. If you like zombies, then you should catch this. The website allows you to watch all the episodes (about 3 hours worth) again, so there's no excuse and it's available on DVD.

The series was set in a fictional Big Brother house, during a zombie outbreak. The BB house is well fortified so the housemates initially don't know anything is wrong, and then seem to be the only people still left. An excellent series, and actually quite scary and gory for a TV series. You won't be disappointed.