And so, along comes January and a new painting challenge on the Oldhammer Facebook group. The rules of 'Naismithery' are simple - pick one or more models sculpted by Bob Naismith and paint it within the month of January. It just so happens that Bob sculpted both No Face and Kylla...
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| Inquisitional Commandos conduct door to door searches on the trail of a notorious space pirate. |
I put together a 5-man squad comprising of two Imperial Light Troopers (Fargo), one Garrison Trooper (Conditti) and two conversions.
The bare-headed trooper (right above) is simply a Garrison Trooper with the head from Major Magnum from Citadel's Rogue Trooper range - a figure also sculpted by Bob Naismith.
The Commando officer was made from Major Magnum with the Garrison Trooper head and some extensive over-sculpting.
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| New combat trousers, sleeves and a glorious moustache. |
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| The backpack was donated from an old Kasrkin model and cut down a little for a closer match to the troopers. |
I may yet repaint the officer's bionic eye blue as I'm not entirely happy with the red, but for now it's done!
I enjoyed painting this squad very much - they were relatively quick but look pretty striking. In fact I'm already assembling some other figures to add a second squad and some specialists.
Oh I do like these!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, glad you like them!
DeleteLovely as ever Jon. I agree I think the bionic eye should be blue. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's an easy change to give him a blue eye. Later this week perhaps! Cheers Tom
DeleteThe black paint scheme reminds me of the old 2nd ed Storm Troopers. :3
ReplyDeleteI was very much thinking of the Storm Troopers when I painted these. The black fatigues is such a strong look.
DeleteNice greenstuff work :) Simple and efficient :) Bravo Jon !
ReplyDeleteThanks Nico! It's a bit scrappy in places but the paint hides it :)
DeleteNice green stuff work there. The chest emblems/awards/rank things remind me of imperial naval officers for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the big hat skulker in the first picture. A conversion I imagine?
I honestly couldn't get Death Star crew out of my head while painting them - perhaps that's the naval link?
DeleteThe big hat skulker was a space pirate from a while back: http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.com/2018/11/scaling-up-spacefarers-28mm-star-lane.html
They look great, I’m a big fan of that moustache!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think secretly everyone has a little bit of moustache envy!
DeleteGreat figures, and love the mustache!
ReplyDeleteI have done a number of "minor" support squads for Inquisitors, but there is always room for more... after all, they may (will) end up fighting one another at some point!
Thanks! It's fun that the moustache seems to be the most popular element!
DeleteI agree, there's loads of scope for small squads of troopers to hang out with inquisitors for those occasions when a firmer hand is needed.
Really nice. The conversion work is excellent, looks totally natural. It's true that they have that Star Wars-y touch, but I'd say it's part of their charm!
ReplyDeleteThanks Suber. Star Wars is pretty much a touchstone for a lot of stuff I'm making, so that's no bad thing!
DeleteSuper cool. Love the idea behind these and once again, yours and my opinions on an Inquisitor/Interrogator's henchmen are similar.
ReplyDeleteThe orange visors work just fine too and I think a blue lens on the bionic eye would look better to stand out more. The black fatigues - what's the recipe?
I'll probably will switch to the blue bionic eye at some point. I actually painted it before the visor, but I think the proximity to the orange doesn't work so well.
DeleteThe black fatigues are very simple- basecoat Foundry charcoal black A (base). Highlights with 50/50 charcoal black A and B (mid). Highlights with pure charcoal black B. Was with a black wash. That's it!
Really clever use of the Major Magnum mini there for two minis the Jon. The head is a perfect fit, scale wise, for the other trooper, and the GS work on the officer model ties him in perfectly with the others.
ReplyDeleteI actually bought the Major in a mixed lot years ago, but his weapon was all mashed up and his face had a big dent in it. I gave him a weapon swap with a grenade launcher and painted up the dent like a scar. Not as subtle as yours, or as skillful, but there you go :)
The colour scheme looks cool, especially with the orange visors! I wouldn't bother changing the bionic eye from red to blue though.....looks fine to me.
Could I ask how you did the black Jon?
Great stuff mate :)
I really likeconversions and
Thanks Shane! I've had Major Magnum sitting unused for a while. It just seemed sensible to use 100% of the figure with a simple head exchange! The body did need quite a bit of work to match the uniform, but the result seems to fit well enough. Did you blog your Major Magnum conversion? I need to check that out.
DeleteHere's a repeat of the black recipe I posted for Dai above: basecoat Foundry charcoal black A (base). Highlights with 50/50 charcoal black A and B (mid). Highlights with pure charcoal black B. Was with a black wash. That's it!
He's packed away at the moment, awaiting transport to the colony, but I managed to find a pic of him that I took perchance on my old blog. He's not the greatest conversion by any stretch, but I did what I could with him to fix his mangled weapon.
Deletehttps://papafakis.blogspot.com/2018/02/building-better-cheaper-backdrop.html
Thanks for the recipe too Jon, I'll give it a try.
Cheers mate :)
That's a nice weapon swap. Looks better than the weird pistol I kept!!
DeleteWonderful! Look like they might be the sorts that come in the middle of the night and whisk suspected psykers off to the black ships!
ReplyDeleteI have one of these fellows in my "veteran" squad of Imperial Guardsmen!
They are exactly the kind of despicable intimidating troops from.an oppressive regime who remove undesirables in the middle of the night. If you happen to be an unregistered psyker, you'd better keep your head down!
DeleteThe models are pretty flexible with their neutral stance and gear. They would be great as Guard vets.
That opening picture could/should be in a magasine, it's perfect, I love the force here, it's just tight and efficient enough, perfect balance, I'm eager to see the Inquisitor that leads them and I'm sure they could use a fancy shuttle as well ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day I can get something into a magazine :) I hadn't thought about a shuttle - these things really can start spiralling out of control can't they?!
DeleteBrilliant. I have a squad of imperial guard which I'm painting black to act as inquisitorial bodyguards myself so I fully endorse the concept behind these. I also think orange was the right choice for the visors!
ReplyDeleteBlack has got to be the right colour for inquisitional bodyguards! It's both discrete and goes with everything ;)
DeleteGreat work. Those orange visors really pop!
ReplyDeleteThanks! That's the beauty of a bright colour against the stark black.
DeleteThis is a great looking squad! To me they feel like hit squad posing as a naval security team in the Eisenhorn novels – they have that sinister look of a crack squad operating with an agenda.
ReplyDeleteGreat work on the converions, you've got a real knack for making the conversions seem entirely natural.
Cheers Curis. I reckon you're right, they have that sinister yet highly trained feel :)
DeleteI sometimes think I should try and increase the quality of some of the sculpted detail on conversions, but actually when it's painted it generally is perfectly adequate.
Addition of the mustache was genius! And the end results were excellent! Great work axiom.
ReplyDeleteThanks! That moustache was primarily to make sure he didn't have the same face as the trooper, but it turned out to be pretty popular!!
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