Friday 19 July 2024

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.



8 comments:

  1. What wonderful work, he looks excellent !
    Alan Tradgardland

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  2. He's another great addition to your Inquisitor scale mini's!

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  3. Bloody amazing. it look great to me.

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  4. Hallo mate, been a long while since I've popped by your blog. To sum up 3/4 of a year of posting that you've done - wow! Your typical fathomless sense of creativity and constant levels of the highest hobby output shown here just continue to amaze.
    Not sure I could move to a new scale, but darn yours and JB's current 50-odd mm projects are wanting me to at least grab "something" big out of my unpainted mountain just to join in. :)
    This Inquisitor is a fantastic homage to the Blanche artwork. (I feel the hair might be a little too stark-white for my tastes? But that's a small nitpick and more my problem than yours LOL)
    Where does the servo-skull come from? I ask, because I have this one in my bits box along with a handful of others in a same sculpting style from a trade years ago but have no idea of what they are from.

    Best regards - Dai

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    1. Glad you popped by Dai! I think blogs are probably a bit old-school these days, but I find it a good way to record what I'm doing 😄

      The 54mm stuff is just a palette-cleanser really - something a bit different to keep it all fresh. I'll be back on 28mm after the summer I reckon. You'd be welcome to join in though!

      I'm comfortable with the white hair. There's probably a bit more depth to it in hand mind.

      Lastly, the servo skull is one of 4 servo skulls made for Inquisitor. They came in a blister pack - you can check out a pic here: https://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/File:Inquisitor_54mm_Servo_Skulls.jpg

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