Tuesday 6 January 2015

Upholding the Law - Adeptus Arbites Agents

Happy New Year to you all! After two weeks without painting, I decided to get back into the swing of things by painting something relatively simple. This pair of figures have been lurking unloved for several months, so I decided to get them off the paint queue and into the cabinet.

Adeptus Arbites Troopers and Proctors are visible deterrents to those who might break the laws of the Imperium. But sometimes a subtler tool is required in law enforcement; a questioning mind, capable of analytical assessment of evidence. Arbites Agents are officials with just those qualities - while Arbites Troopers act as riot police and 'beat cops', Arbite Agents ask questions and gather evidence, 'detectives', if you will!

Arbites Agents Brand and Kobi
 

I went for a very simple colour scheme - grey overcoats and black boots with white and blue trim (to evoke law enforcement colours). I'll probably use the colour palette to paint up some Arbites troopers in due course.

Agent Kobi questions a suspicious-looking abhuman.

The two models are very simple conversions from RT-era Imperial Guard Commissars, with heads from the old Citadel Paranoia range.

Images courtesy of Stuff of Legends and Collecting Citadel Wiki.

After chopping off the capped Commissar heads, I replaced them with the Paranoia Troubleshooter's heads. The remaining repair work just involved sculpting Kobi's hair and right ear, and the collar on Brand. I also removed the bayonet from Kobi's lasgun as I felt it was probably a bit too militaristic.

 
 
Hopefully that's got 2015 off in the right manner and I can follow these two in the not too distant future.

10 comments:

  1. Happy new year !

    this is excellent, I love them. The simple and cohernet colour scheme make their uniform look good and makes their role clear. Having one with black skin and white hair is also really fun and 80's looking for some reason.

    One question, who plays "bad cop" and who plays "good cop" (or maybe they just play bad cop and worse cop)

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    1. Cheers JB. I like to think that Brand (black) is the badass, but Kobi (white) is actually more sinister - he'll try and manipulate you emotionally! :)

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  2. Those are great and the concept makes sense too. Making sense isnt always a requirement in the 41st millennium, but its nice all the same.

    Some Arbites in a related colour scheme will look fantastic I reckon. I feel obliged to lock my Arbites into a Dredd scheme even though I already have a load of actual 2000AD Judge models painted. Maybe I will go for a new scheme for the Arbites when I get to them.

    I watch for further developments with anticipation!

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    1. I think the beauty of Arbites is that they can be a range of different colours - traditional GW black, white and yellow; blue; green or even 2000AD Judges. I spent quite a while working out how this pair of Agents was going to look, and how the Arbite troopers might mirror them. All will be revealed in due course, but for now Kobi and Brand will have to conduct investigations without back-up ;)

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  3. These are brilliant, Jon. Great use of heads; never thought to use Paranoia ones before. Having not owning any before, I didn't recognise them in the main picture and was keen to scroll down to find out who they belonged to. 😊

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    1. The Paranoia range is great. They're a good match for RT if you don't mind the slightly cartoony faces. I have some security guards, robots and civilians which will all be put to use and some point in the near future!

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    2. Yeah, they should work well. Mark Copplestone figs had a slight cartoony edge (not a bad thing!) which clearly go well with the paranoia range. I suppose the JD perps would as well.

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  4. Exceptionally well done. The head swap makes them feel much more civilian/detective and much less third empire in space. (Fourth empire? I always have felt like 40K was to the Holy Roman Empire much what Star Wars is to the secular one. And I suppose the original HRE was the first one. Of course there may have been one or two others in the intervening 38K years somewhere.)

    Anyway . . .

    Nicely done! I love 'em. I have SWAT guys with eagles. I have a few beat cops working up. Now I need some detectives, it seems. Bug planted. Bravo.

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    1. I agree, sometimes the whole look of a figure changes just with a simple head swap. These have gone from grim faceless militaristic types, to individuals, each with their own visual identity.

      I look forward to seeing your own detectives ;)

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  5. Hm, such clever touches here and there, they fit in perfectly in their role, well done!

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