Tuesday 19 February 2019

The Path to Damnation (Part 3) - Renegade Inquisitor

The path to embracing the dark gods is not the same for all traitors. Those who defend humanity in full knowledge of the power of chaos have the furthest to fall. An Inquisitor may be tempted by the power and riches of the dark gods. Or they may be corrupted into thinking that chaos can be used against chaos. Or they may become so disillusioned and world-weary, that embracing chaos seems the logical conclusion.

The second of my chaos renegade's followers I've chosen to create is my traitor Inquisitor, Drugh. He is a potent fighter in his own right, with an excellent array of wargear.

Inquisitor Dirske finally tracks down the renegade Drugh and his followers.



When I was looking at suitable figures to use for Inquisitor Drugh, I was looking for a figure which followed the same pattern as the Imperial Inquisitor models - well equipped and armoured in an esoteric and individual style.

After some debate I settled on using a rather obscure Blue Trooper from Citadel's short-lived Paranoia range. The painted example in the picture on the right below is from Matthew Sullivan's excellent Oldenhammer in Toronto blog (check it out).

Paranoia Blue Troopers painted by Matthew Sullivan.

I removed the slightly cartoony head, left hand and right arm at the elbow. I then added a new head and some weaponry to drastically change the look:



The head is from an old Citadel cleric, whilst the chainsword comes from a mid-1990s 40k preacher. His bolter is also a period Rogue Trader  addition, whilst his new lower right arm is from the Rogue Trader plastic Imperial Guard arms sprue.



The final addition is his backpack, which might well be Denizen, but I forget. His new spiked collar was carefully cut from a plastic servo-skull, but for me is the key part of the conversion that turns him from mildly unsettling to nailed on bad guy!

Like the ratlings in Part 2, I went for a traditional Khornate colour scheme of red, black and brass. I kept his undersuit black, as I was envisaging that Drugh might have originally clad himself in a black outfit, then painted or added to his outfit as he gave himself up to chaos.



The colour scheme uses the same red, black and grey used on the ratlings, so they tie together visually.




Drugh has given himself over to Khorne, so the spiked collar was rendered in brass (it could well be a collar of Khorne gift). The final step was to add some gore to the chainsword blade. Blood for the blood god after all!

The Path to Damnation will spiral on at some point in the near future!

Part 1 - Creating the Warband
Part 2 - Ratling Renegades

32 comments:

  1. Drugh is great. He looks like he has embraced the glory of Khorne, rather than feels that he is bending chaos to his will. I look forward to seeing his story unfold.

    Fab, rich palette on these gents.

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    1. Thanks Paul! I really wanted to produce a character that was clearly chaotic, without being mutated. Remove the collar, and paint him in grey and white, and he could easily be a loyal servant of the Imperium. But the colours, and his collar provide the 'sell' as to his true loyalties without resorting to horns or scorpion tails. I hope so anyway!

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  2. I'm really enjoying following along with the warband build. You really have my brain churning with conversion ideas.

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    1. I am enjoying creating them far more than I had anticipated. The process has taken me down a very different route to that which I thought I would take. I have a dozen dog-faced Khornegors that I figured were a shoe-in for this project, but I'm working one some autogun-toting goat-headed beastmen even as we speak!

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  3. It's really cool to follow the process and how some random rolls forge characters, Drugh is the new Ghazkull ^^

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    1. Drugh may yet prove to be the real master in this force - perhaps he's happy to let a blinkered psychopath act as the figurehead whilst he bides his time?!

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  4. the collar totally sells the khorne look, it's like he wants to show off his patron god, but doesn't want to looking Khorne-y doing it ...

    I'll get my coat ...

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    1. You've got to get those lines in when opportunity arises! I have to say I was pretty smug when I found the servo skull in the bits box and inspiration struck to make the collar.

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  5. This warband is shaping up wonderfully. Lovely conversions and paint scheme.

    I have been wanting to do a RoC warband for fun for like an age now... Not really thought about whether I want to go with classic miniatures or heavily converted modern plastics yet though, they're both nice in their own ways.

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    1. Thanks very much! Hopefully the rest of the warband lives up to it.

      I think the key to any warband is selecting the right figures - old metal or modern plastic doesn't really matter if they have the right look or can be adapted to suit.

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  6. Excellent work, and yes, that spiked collar does make the figure. Although as a follower of Khorne, it seems like he should have a pistol rather than a bolter...

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    1. Thanks! I refute your claim that Khorne followers should only have pistols - that's really only become a trend since the early-mid 1990s. Khorne was originally as much about martial excellence as close quarter combat - just look at the RT Khorne renegades (armed with bolters, plasma guns and a heavy weapon) by way of example. Khorne doesn't mind how blood is spilled in his name, just that it is ;)

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    2. So Khorne has been about frothing loonies who want to get into close combat for only... 25+ years?

      Damn it, now I feel old and will have to have a lie down.

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    3. It's difficult to pin it down, but the 1994 World Eaters included frothing combat loons (berserkers) and renegade marines armed with bolters. I suspect it wasn't until the 3rd edition chaos codex or possibly the plastic berserkers in 2000 that Khorne troops in 40k became exclusively combat focussed. So maybe only 18 years ;)

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  7. Man, you made a totally different mini. Dammit, it's so cool. I love how you see minis and bits and then you envision something totally different. Wow.

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    1. Thanks Suber! It helps to have a fair few minis and lots of bits! I often spend a lot off time trying different combinations before deciding what I'm going to cut up :)

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  8. He's ace Jon! it's a very subtle, but effective conversion. I completely agree with your previous comment too, about removing the collar and he could well pass for a well adjusted Inquisitor...if such a thing actually exists?

    I've got a few questions about the build though:

    Did you bend the original mini into a standing pose? The original looks like he's hunched over a little.

    Also, that Bolter, can you remember what mini you grabbed it from? I remember looking for large RT Bolters back when I was doing my jetbike project....had no luck there.

    Awesome build Jon :)

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    1. Thanks Shane. Perhaps when he's being discrete he tucks the collar into his backpack?

      No, I didn't straighten the figure at all. He's still a little hunched, but perhaps the backpack balances it.

      As for the bolter, I might have a bunch of RT sculptors dollies... ;)

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  9. I need those bolters so much!! nice mix of bits, keep the good work!

    Cheers from Argentina!

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    1. Spare weapons are so useful! I wish I had an unending supply.

      Thanks!

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  10. I really like the way that the renegade's warband can feature such individual characters as this, it's a very strong element of the RT era that I miss in the newer editions of 40K.

    I experimented rolling up my own warband and ended up with a marine minor hero that had an inquisitor, a minor renegade and three orgryns in his warband.

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    1. Your warband would be a sight to see, but might struggle with lack of numbers!!

      It's definitely a fun element that modern 40k lacks, for all the greater balance these days.

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  11. It feels slightly bold/strange to ask this when you're starting a new warband (which looks very promising by the way), but does this mean you're done working on the mutie warband from late last year? And if so, is there any chance we can get a picture of the full gang? It was one of the best necromunda gangs I'd ever seen, and really ticked all the boxes of all the stuff I love about this hobby. Anyway, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Keep up the good work!

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    1. That's very kind of you! Yes, the muties are finished for now. I've been meaning to put up a gallery of the finished gangs - I'll aim to get round to doing that soon.

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    2. I'll be looking forward to it, thanks!

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  12. Nailed it! I particularly like the hint of gore on the chainsword. My Navigator wants to hang out with your Inquisitor.

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    1. Your Navigator is most welcome! I'm sure they could illuminate each other regarding some forbidden tidbits of knowledge!

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  13. Cleric and Paranoia! What a heady cocktail of classic ranges! Marvellous conversion.

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    1. Citadel made such a variety of figures, I reckon it's well worth searching through to pull out off-beat components for converting. Cheers Curis!

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  14. Really nice work axiom ... good conversion work and painting.

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