A few weeks ago I was sat in a bar with a friend. We'd had all the normal discussion that mid-30 year olds have (family, work etc), and had moved onto furtively looking at pictures of toy soldiers and sci-fi artwork using the bar's wi-fi!
We started talking about John Blanche's artwork and figures, and some of the interesting stuff being done by bloggers such as Jeff Vader over at
Officio Convertorum and the
Spiky Rat Pack crew. My friend then mentioned the Ammobunker
Inq28 forums, and we spent a happy hour or so oggling some very fine miniatures:
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| wierdingway's Navigator Head of House |
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| Nordic's Inquisitor |
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| Grag's Servitor on ice |
The John Blanche influence is very strong with many of the Inq28 figures, and I have subsequently spent a long time ploughing through the threads and enjoying the creativity and skills on show. Realistically, I'm unlikely to want to start kitbashing plastic, or learning new painting techniques which focus on texture and mood.
What I can do is use the Inq28 template as motivation to complete some more figures and create a little group comprising of an Inquisitor and his retinue. I rummaged around in my boxes and found a likely selection of figures (including a couple already completed that you may recognise). Although I'm not planning heavy conversions, each figure has been selected to fulfil a role in the retinue and for overall 'character'.
The first 3 figures:
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| L-R: Inquisitor Acolyte Ekros; Desperado Felix Catal; Beast Trooper Gaxt |
I know, Ekros and Gaxt aren't new - I painted them over the summer when I was planning on joining in a Sensei game at 'Bring Out Your Lead' 2014. They will now form part of my new Inquisitor's retinue - Ekros in the role of Inquisitional Acolyte and right-hand man, while Gaxt will add a little bit of muscle and ferocity.
Felix Catal is freshly painted to work alongside the other two figures, using the RT Imperial Scout figure from the Adventurers range. Asslessman over at
Leadplague had already painted up a lovely version of the Scout and I kind of copied the overall look, just with a slightly different palette.
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| Felix Catal, gunslinger for hire |
What about the Inquisitor himself? I'll be using the impressively equipped and self-importantly posed Ordo Malleus Inquisitor below. I already have plans to add a sixth member in the form of a psyker.
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| Inquisitor Dirske and his retinue |
The little chap pictured below is definitely: a) some sort of nasty little ratling; or b) an ugly stunted human mutie. Feel free to guess what he's made from!
The gunslinger is really cool, the dark colours with rea don guns and headscarf really make him stand !
ReplyDeleteMutated stunties like the one you did are brilliant, I dond't know Why I never thought of giving a normal head to a goblin body to make some sick gnomes but yours is just brilliant.
The inq28 scene is indeed fascinating in many aspects and its creativity and ability to come up with unique models is mindblowing. i totally share your view though and don't mean to slavishly follow John Blanche's style. God knows I love the man's art and I do love adding some red ad checkers like any other guy but I'd rather keep a personnal take on this as you did.
As for kitbash, it often gives birth to excellent models and does wonders when you have that particular idea in mind, when it's just sticking anything's head on any other thing's body and giving the rsults guns and various bits, I'm less interested, in the end painted models are always good models in my eyes though ;)
Selective kitbashing is the key thing...and you've got to have vision and a great stash of bits I think. I'm not sure if kitbashing is quite the same as old-school converting (the modularity of modern plastics isn't the same as hacking apart good old lead).
DeleteI've had the grot / gretchin / gobbo in my trade pile for ages, then I just had one of those moments where it clicked! I'll be going for a pale off-white skin tone too - to completely diguises the greenskin origins!
He is so Cute!!
ReplyDeleteI've been pouring over the Inq28 stuff for a couple of years now and have even had a go at putting some figures together. The creativity on the forum is quite astounding and people just keep coming up with wonderful conversions. I think the most impressive figures are the ones that take a figure that we are all familiar with and present in a new and surprising role with subtle conversions and part swaps that bring them to life.
Cute! He's a deadeye marksman and grim loner. Not cute!! ;)
DeleteI'm wholly with you Colin...there's some amazing stuff on show...although there are some figures which seem to be ubiquitous (nurgle champion perhaps?). It's certainly got my juices flowing :)
...or was it the little mutie you were calling cute? ;)
DeleteYep the little cutie is the little mutie!
DeleteLooking good, John!
ReplyDeleteLove the little mute. He's got a lot of character and he's not even painted yet!!!
Inq28mm on Ferrograd at BOYL 2015 sound like a good idea to anyone else?
(Colin - hope you don't mind me volunteering your board. After all, it is amazing!)
Cheers Chris! Hopefully he'll be on the painting table for next week :)
DeleteLike he has a choice... ;)
DeleteLol!
DeleteIf I can make BOYL 2015, I would be up for some INQ28.
DeleteWhat an amazing group of sour-faced menacing guys! I concur, they have a lot of character, they all look superb.
ReplyDeleteGrim and hard-bitten: just what's needed for an Inquisitor and his lads :)
DeleteVery nice work on the scout, and the mutie looks promising as well.
ReplyDeleteI have been lurking the Ammobunker forums since before they had a dedicated Inq28 forum, and have been ...er..."harvesting" some of the most interesting models and concepts and putting them in my pinterest boards
Free to guess on the mutie, huh? Without googling around to confirm, he looks to be a Citadel grot to me. Probably from the WHFB range, rather than the 40K range, as the musket looks a little more delicate than I'm used to. Probably an earlier figure. So I suppose he's more accurately a reheaded goblin. (Grots, gobbos, and squigs, oh my.) Nicely done, whatever he might be. Great crew you're working on there. The Ordo Maleus figures and the adventurer scout are long time favorites. (My scout's about due for a dip and strip, seeing the glory that's been about lately.)
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