Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor.

Here is the fruit of my christmas holiday from work. And my first real attempt at a non kitbash conversion and first time using greenstuff for anything more than filling the odd gap (and it shows). I had bought a dkok commissar from forge world ages ago, but never ended up painting or including it in my guard because I thought he looked a bit diminutive compared to the metal commissars. I wouldnt normally have the courage to chop up an expensive forgeworld mini on a whim, but he had been sitting in my bits box for years without any hope of a posting in a guard regiment so I didnt feel as bad as I should of considering how much he cost.

I carefully mananaged to cut off his head and hat but left the gas mask and its thin hose intact. Unfortunately the brim of the commissars hat comes down over the collar of his stormcoat, so I was left with a gaping hole where the back of his collar should be ( cue loss of greenstuff virginity ) I ended up using a bare head from the cadian command sprue as it reminded me a bit of the haughty face of the old metal cadian company commander (sans monicle). I also cut off his sword arm and replaced it with the power fist from the cadian command sprue.

The gauntlet mounted inferno pistol was cobbled together from the barrel of a meltagun, a cut down scope from a space marine bolter and several Bits of feed from the barrel-less melta and a flamer. Lastly I cut the chamber/magazine off the meltagun in a thin slice and attached it to his back, I think it blends quite well with the rebreather backpack that was already there.

I added a space marine double purity seal to the bottom inner lining of his coat (inspired by the old necromunda bounty hunter) and a rubbush homemade greenstuff purity seal on his belt buckle ( you can just...just about make out the inquisitorial I its supposed to have on it) I had a few 40mm scenic bases knocking around from the blisters of black cat bases I had bought for my astral claws, and nothing to use them for so I decided to use one on this. I know he's meant to be on a small base, but as the inquisitor is usually the centerpiece of the warband; I dont think it matters too much.

The staff/pole behind him is another conglomeration of bits thats meant to be his Inquisitoral mandate on display, the bottom is a space marine combat blade, the haft is part of a chimeras antennae array, the main boss and tassels are the top of the plastic banner from (yet again) the cadian command sprue, with the decoration on the top cut off and repaced with a skull from a space marine back banner. The mandate itself is a fairly common space marine decorative bit.

On the stone floor of the base itself I painted in the edge of a khornate mosaic, the idea being for it to look like he's standing in the smoking wreckage of a very recently destroyed cult hideout. Overall im reasonably pleased with the end result, but not 100% by a long stretch. For example im pleased with the 'flow' of it, how the purity seals and tassels are all gusting in approximately the right direction, but I think its a bit unbalanced with all the action on his right side (prehaps I should have mounted the mandate pole on his left to compensate for the oversized fist/gun combo) Secondly, the paint job doesn't really do justice to the crisply detailed forgeworld base model, I really need to invest in a wider range of colours, im fine muddling through on basic infantry, but when it comes to more individual, less regimented and uniform models, my palette is definatly lacking. After downloading the inquisitor rulebook free from gw and reading some truly great stuff on the conclave forum and the tears of isstvan blog, Im thinking I could use this guy as a basis for a warband that could be used in both 40k and inq28 (seperate to my ordo malleus warband of standard gw minis) and ive been inspired to try and come up with a background for my inquisitor, im starting to put a backstory and motivation together and will post it up at a later date.

Ordo Malleus Cherubaum servitor.

This was another really characterfull, but challenging mini to paint. These are some great old sculpts from gw. They've got a very dark flavour to them I thinks been a bit lacking recently.

I thought I'd paint over the eye holes, to make it more of a 'death mask' I thought having no visible means of seeing was more sinister.

Ordo Malleus Servo Skull.

The world's quickest mini to paint. Striking whilst the iron of enthusiasm was hot, I pressed on with painting inquisitoral henchmen. I'm not sure if a servo skull is really a henchman? Probably more like wargear. Here he is.

I love the concept of servo skulls. Inquisitive little things buzzing around... this chap is from the cadian command sprue and appears to have found an old plastic goliath gangers head on his travels

Ordo Malleus Interrogator.

I got the chance to do a bit of painting today; I was a bit sick of painting astral claws, my (already low) standard of painting definitely drops as I get towards the tail end of a lot of similar minis ( ie my legion cohort ) so I thought I'd paint something different that I had a bit of enthusiasm for. I've enjoyed reading eisenhorn and ravanor (got into them quite late!) And I'm looking forward to reading pariah over Christmas and I've had a few minis knocking around to form the basis of a couple of inquisitorial warbands for ages. I've just never gotten round to them. I'm sure many of you know how it is! The first miniature I've tacked is this henchman I bought off eBay very cheaply. He's a really characterfull chap. Really quite a hefty metal mini for a non character. And absolutley packed with details, if you're an expert painter this is one model you can really go to town with, but if your like me, and more used to painting with a limited colour palette to a basic tabletop standard, he's really quite difficult. I had to really think about what colours I was using and where they would be repeated to avoid him looking like a complete mess. I didn't want his to look overtly religious. Despite the big staff and brazier, so I ended up painting his robes to look like my Commissar's leather stormcoats, which I think gives him a more grizzled feel. All in all I'm really pleased with him, but I might go back and redo the blue highlights especially on the chest gem/lens thingy.

Tyrants legion Astral Claws Legion Cohort update, two thirds complete!

I thought I had better put in a quick update as I don't think I'm going to get much painting done in the run up to Christmas. I have thirteen of the fifteen squad assembled. And have run out of bits! I'm not going to buy another tac/combat squad box for two marines so I'll have to see what washes up on eBay I can salvage. Here are the ten astral claws I have painted so far. Apologies for the photo quality, I'm at work during weekday daylight. After reading the advice from readers comments making myself a better setup is definitely on the cards in the new year.First up then. Five veteran Astral claws including the sergeant with combi melta, and battle brother with heavy bolter.

Next five neophytes, including missile launcher.

A few closer shots...

I've been thinking about the twenty auxillia I need to take as a compulsory troops choice. The default option would be to use twenty of my imperial guardsmen. But I'd quite like to do a proper tyrants legion unit. I really don't want to use the plastic cadian or catachans, I've already painted a shedload of these for my imperial guard armies. And also there's a question of scale, stood next to a cadian plastic your average space marine doesn't really look imposing. I've looked at a few options. Including the dystopian legions fsa infantry (again probably too large and quite pricy as metal) another option are the pig iron kolony militia, with are nice miniatures. However, warlord sell a box of 25 multipart plastic Germans in true 28mm for 25 quid. With is a bit of a bargain compared to a box of ten cadians. Having read up on it it seems the general consensus is that the bolt action range is too diminutive to work with 40k, but then I saw this photo on t'web.

Now to my eyes, that doesn't look half bad, the space marine is about a head taller, which seems fine considering he's supposed to be a genetically modified power armoured angel of death. The best bit is... looking at the sprue, the arms are all separate from the weapons, I've got loads of plastic Lasrifles and metal necromunda autoguns/lasguns so I reckon I could give them a 40k flavour. It's just a case of taking the plunge, any comments and suggestions much appreciated!

Astral Claws tyrants legion minor update.

Just a quick update on the slow progress of my astral claws. Following comments I decided to repaint the tabard on my retaliator sergeant in brown.I'm not too sure. I might rip it off and replace it with a blue loincloth

And a couple more members of the legion cohort. I've finished eight including the sarge and two heavy weapons. Only another seven to go!

Badab War, Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Centurion.

Here is my completed tyrants legion Centurion. He's a simple kitbash with a regular body. Company champion shoulderpads, apothecary head and veterans powerfist from the plastic command squad sprue. The stormbolter and backpack decoration are from the commander sprue (I have to say i stole the idea for the backpack decoration from john at 'johns toy soldiers' excellent tyrants legion - i seriously recommend his blog. Theres a link to it in the bloglist on this site).

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. Especially his posing, I can just see him stalking the corridors of a loyalist starship. I wanted to give him a slightly sinister look and I think the segmented company champion shoulderpads really make him and give him a hunched, malevolent feel

And a rear view, every Centurion worth his salt needs an auspex in a boarding assault. I will try and add a better picture (as i have done with the retaliator squad) when there is some daylight when I'm not at work!

Now I just need to hurry up and finish the legion cohort and I'll actually getting somewhere with this mini project.

Badab war. Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Retaliator Squad.

I have finally finished my first tyrants legion unit, an elite squad of Retaliators. Huron's discipline masters and shock troops. First up the sergeant...

He's a pretty simple kitbash, the head is a maxmini steampunk knight head with the laurels from the small commander sprue, as is the loincloth thingy. the axe shaft and arm are the company standard bearers arm from the command squad sprue, the axe head is an old Chaos space marines bit. The part I'm most pleased with is his combat shield, with its cool feline heads. This is from the plastic warhammer fantasy knightly orders box (knights panther I assume)

Next is the squads weapons specialist with a melta gun. A basic conversion of a tac marine with an empire fantasy shield.

Next is a gnarled old veteran, brother Tanin. He has another maxmini steam knight head, the combat shield from the plastic company champion, and a bionic arm.

Next another really basic conversion of a marine with another empire shield

Lastly a marine with a black Templars chainsword arm (I scraped the iron crosses off) and the combat shield from the plastic assault squad box. This combat shield arm (unlike the company champions) doesn't hold a bolt pistol. So I made sure to put a holster on this model.

I'm really pleased with this squad and looking forward to getting the legion cohort and characters painted, and then thinking about the twenty auxillia that are a old school style 'mandatory' troops choice for a tyrants legion army. I think at some point I'll bite my tongue and pay ten quid for a sheet of forgeworld transfers to finish them off properly, if you've looked at the photos you will understand painting them is beyond my skills!

Remembrance

As a hobbyist I think it's important to take a moment to think about the true cost of war. Rather than the romanticized, abstract parody that we dabble in.

Badab war... Astral Claws Work in progress.

A quick update on the Astral Claws. Apologies for the rubbish photos... I will try and get some better ones with the finished units.

Here are the Retaliators I have finished. The Sergeant is now undercoated and awaiting paint and I need to sort out another combat shield arm for the final trooper in the 5 man squad. I hope to have the squad finished in the next week to ten days.

And a couple of members of the (to be) fifteen strong Cohort. I want to put a lot less gold and detailing on the bulk of the squad. To represent them being the newly recruited neophytes that pushed the astral claws numbers into the thousands, the sergeant, however is a hoary old veteran, he's almost finished on the paint front, just a couple more details and the base to do. I also have my centurion and corpse taker assembled. But I think I'll put off painting them till I've got a few more regular marines painted.

Badab War. Tyrants Legion test miniature. Astral Claws Retaliator.

Imperial armour 9 is probably my favorite of the series. I really liked the political aspect to the story, with themes of tangled loyalties and a murky sense of right and wrong. A series of skirmishes motivated by pride and political brinkmanship that turned into a full blown civil war with the intervention of the puritanical fire hawks chapter of space marines who already had a grudge against the astral claws that gave their part in the campaign an ignoble ulterior motive.......My current plan is to try and paint several 500-750 point mini forces based on the themes of space combat and boarding assault. (As well as finish my three imperial guard armies, two inquisitors and reunites, Chaos Space Marines and traitor guard allies-I have a butterfly mind when it comes to projects!) Smaller forces will give me a better chance of getting two forces finished from both the loyalist and secessionist sides. First up will be the Tyrants legion. Thoughts for the others are Lamentors for the secessionist (lots of inferno pistols and flamers) and Minotaurs (Terminators and a dreadnaught) and perhaps Raptors (scouts - old space hulk style, and maybe sternguard) for the loyalists.

Here is my test model for the Astral Claws in the Tyrants legion. Retaliators are basically assault squads that have combat shields instead of jump packs, as they specialise in boarding assaults and ship combat. This chap is the squads weapon specialist armed with a melta, all the better for blasting bulkhead doors and the like into slag. This was just a tactical marine straight out the box with the addition of an old warhammer fantasy empire shield (anyone remember the old single pose plastic halibarders?) I wasn't sure if it would look ok but I think a couple of purity seals and some small arms damage 40K's it up quite nicely. the bases are resin from black cat i think, i wanted to do something different than the usual ash wastes but not something like ship decking or gantries so that they would look out of place in a normal tabletop situation. It was my first time using resin bases and I was quite pleased with them.

Company Command Squad, A Company, 17th Hive Chosin indentured Militia.

Command squad in its entirety...

Captain & Vox operator...

Meltagunners...and lower image are the regimental advisors-two bodyguards.

Although Commissar Antaris is the guiding hand behind A' Company. Command nominally falls to Captain Bakarr.
A giant of a man with a brooding temperment, he had been given command of the Company because of his reputation in civilian life.

Bakarr had been the leader of 767, one of the largest 'contracted security guilds' (basically the largest most organised gangs) in house Antrim, organising protection teams on the great tanker land-trains and mine holdings and plotting attacks on the houses rivals.

Ruthless and never afraid to lead from the front, Bakarr was lightly wounded several times but had a reputation for escaping death in the face of impossible odds.

His vox operator is Corporal Schieo another 767 veteran of the inter-house trade wars, schieo's loyalty was to Bakarr first and foremost; having been brought up from a feral sub-level juvenile by the tough and brutal family that was the 767 outfit.

Captain Bakarr also has two troopers that serve as his most trusted aides and bodyguards. The first is Jorpal Thjornsson, a former smeltery worker in the Sire Estiff Mustafa contructorium, Journal found his calling in life in the hell of close quarters combat. As a squad sergeant he was a devil, both with a chainsword and the enemy and with any member of the 17th who crossed him with his fists. Mentally unsuitable for command Bakarr made him his personal bodyguard.

The second aide is the infamous 'Mutt' Maro, universally known across half the lower hive as mutt the bounty killer, almost a legend amongst the underclass of hive Chosin, mutt had carved out his career on the bounty of the southern continent's biggest outlaws, mutants and desperados, said to be able to shoot the tail off a running felid; or crush a man's skeleton with the strength of his bionic arm...

Trooper Bretz is mutts current main preoccupation in the command squad, a vile psychopathic murdering rapist only given a stay of execution because of his formidable fighting talents, even fitted with an explosive collar, Mutt still doesn't trust him with a meltagun.

Vekal and Rouse are the other two meltagunners, both combat veterans with very different backgrounds. Rouse as the boss of a sump side hijacking gang. Vekal as one of house Antrim's personal retainers

Company command squad - 50pts basic. x3 meltaguns +30pts. x2 bodyguards +30pts. Officer w/ bolter and Powerfist +17pts. Vox caster +5pts. Total - 132 points

The officer is the old metal catachan captain.
The vox caster is a 2nd generation 'fanatic' orlock mini with a Cadian comm link. ( I thought this more chunky than the catachan vox and therefore more suited to being the company's master vox)

The first bodyguard is the original alternative metal Catachan sergeant, which I think is a great (Perry?) Miniature you don't see that often. Mutt the bounty killer is a necromunda bounty hunter.

The meltagunners are an orlock leader. Metal catachans, and the reprobate is 'animal' from the last chances....as a unit from mixed sources I think they work together pretty well and apart from my amateurish painting... bring across the rag tag nature of a hive militia.

Infantry Squad One, 12th Kieler Armoured Pioneers.

Squad one in the infantry platoon, kitted out for fire support with a missile launcher, grenade launcher and vox caster - 75pts. They all have forgeworld resin backpacks, a few have respirator heads. The sergeant's chainsword is from the 2nd edition orlock leader weapon sprue and his laspistol hand is forgeworld. I was quite pleased with how the heavy weapons team turned out as you only ever seem to see them in static poses. The gunners right arm is from the old Leman Russ plastic tank commander. The loaders right arm is forgeworld, I cut the bipod down into a folded postion so he could be posed running with it. I also added a bloody boot and shrapnel peppered helmet as detail to the base