Inq et nunc - Inquisitor Janez Belec

Inquisitors come in all shapes and sizes. I've always been fond of those in the Eisenhorn mould - radical-leaning and a bit world weary. Those with a more subtle nature rather than being god-like warriors.

One of John Blanches concept sketches for a veteran Inquisitor from The Inquisitor Sketchbook really stands out to me:

Here is an imposing character in a commanding pose. He carries a cane almost as a mark of office. I love the echoes of Don Quixote and that slender bionic arm.

I had it at the back of my mind that I would try and convert an Inquisitor based on the sketch, but wasn't really sure how to approach it. Then I found a figure up for sale on eBay that was screaming to be used:

I'm not sure what the original owner was planning with their conversion, but the combination of Covenant's legs and Von Castellan's torso was exactly the starting point I needed. Not only that, but there was a filed-down Covenant head that would be perfect to oversculpt.

I approached the conversion to be 'inspired by' the original Blanche sketch, rather than an exact recreation. I didn't want to get distracted by replicating unnecessary details as long as the overall feel was right. After quite a lot of work, this is where the figure ended up:

You can see I made some alterations and added a whole host of details onto the basic body that I bought from eBay. This included:

• A new right arm (from Major Jaxon) with a hand from the Inquisitor hands sprue and a bolt pistol made from a Rogue Trader ork bolter. The shoulder pad comes from Jan van Yastobaal, the Rogue Trader character).
• A new left arm partly scratchbuilt, with a Kroot shoulder pad and the lower part taken from a murder-robot sculpted by James Sheriff. The cane is from an Inquisitor accessory sprue.
• Removed the original high collar from Von Castellan's torso.
• Repositioned the head and sculpted new hair and beard.
• Sculpted a new belt and added parchments, icons and a knife from various 40k kits.
• Made a new belt buckle with an =][= symbol press moulded from one of Cherubael's locks.
• A few additional purity seals for added flavour!

Whilst the resulting figure isn't an exact replica of John Blanche's sketch, I'm pretty happy with how he looks (perhaps it's a different day after a haircut and change of outfit!). 

I kept the paintjob pretty close to the concept sketch with his distinctive red coat and yellow trim. It was interesting to paint with a tighter colour palette than usual, but I think the results are great.

Inquisitor Janez Belec.

I left off the lightning flash decoration from the front of the coat as I felt it didn't need additional busy details.

Given that the Inquisitor has a servo skull in the sketch, I decided to paint up one to accompany him. This med-skull was the closest I had!

The flyers on the ground are some sort of Imperial warning notice. They read "Heretic. Mutant. Xenos." All dangerous things a vigilant citizen must watch out for!

I attached the med-skull to a spare piece of Cities of Death terrain with a short piece of paper clip that I tried to conceal behind the servo arms.

I think they make a fine pair. I'm looking forward to finding some esoteric companions support Inquisitor Belec in his ongoing work.