The Conclave

After a spot of shoulder surgery put me out of action on the modelling front I am delighted to say I'm back at the work table with a new warband.  I'm going back to the faction that grabbed me back in Inquisitor's infancy, the Xanthites.  My original character, Mikael Van Helser was a full blown Horusian and in my precocious years stomped around the original Conclave's IC Forum with scant disregard for Imperial Law.  He was great fun, but I'm going somewhere new with this new warband.  Warp dabbling will be a recurring theme, but I'm also using this warband as an opportunity to bring some members of the Imperium's underclasses to the fore.  Expect ne'er-do-wells!

Anyway, here are some WIP pictures:

The Inquisitor


Eldar ranger as the base model, with Cherubael's head.  Arms from Major Jaxon (right) and Dorian Black (left).  Right hand is the trophy hand from Sergeant Stone and there's a skull from the book accessory sprue in the left.  Covenant's backpack, Eisenhorn's clockwork thingy and plenty of ProCreate round off the current build.

The Assassin


It took me almost a year, but I have finally begun to use bits from the Dark Eldar Cronos kit I got last year with my IGT winnings!  So many funky pieces in this set.

The Scum


Murke's legs, Stone's torso, Ork arms and a sculpted head.  The dumb muscle of the group.

The Psyker


Gruss's legs with new sculpted boots, Damien 1427's torso, Stone's head and ProCreate arms.  Struggling to contain the power within!

The Mutie


Stone's legs, Quovandius's torso, head from the Chaos conversion pack and Ork arms with a chainsword blade from the Chain Weapon Booster pack.  Not the chap you want to run into in a dark alley!

There's still work to do to the first four, but I will be beginning the painting of the Mutie today hopefully.  I have plans to add a Beastman to this group, a Reclaimator and a Daemonhost at some point.  No promises on keeping to these plans though!

Ruaridh

Very nice models. All of them look good. The inquisitor looks like he is either doing some sorcery or talking dramatically, both things fitting for a Xanthite. The psyker has the classical psyker look and it is done very well, he has a lot of emotion.

I'm liking them! I think the apologetic reference to Yorik on the Inquisitor might be a bit off, but I'm interested to see how you bring it all together! Out of all of them, I rank the =I= and the psyker the highest on my private scale of kewl.

Strangely, I am most drawn to the mutant. There's something I like about the model, but I can't pin it down just yet.

The other look great- especially the assassin, with all that strange, strange.... stuff in place of arms. I like how you've taken a stock character and done something new with them (how many times have we heard that phrase?), and of course the psyker looks good, with his "If I don't remove my hands my brain can't come out of my ears" pose. Or am I the only one that thinks that's what he's doing?

I love this team. I like the Hamlet look a lot. But I think my favourite is the kook of dumb concentration on the face of the scum. Really characterful and lifelike. Ratios on his face like on the cover of The Stars My Destination please.

Thanks all.

The Inquisitor is supposed to be doing some sorcery - though he may be doing Shakespeare come to think of it.

Emphasising the psyker's abilities through his pose was an attempt to do more than simply build a character and give him psychic abilities.  I wanted to model him in such a way that it was clear what he is.  Judging by your feedback I guess he's doing just that!

I am probably most proud of the mutant - I think Stone's legs really add an intimidating nature to any model.  He has a big stride that says "I mean business".

Lastly, Lacerto, that's genius.  The Stars My Destination is one of my favourite books.  Tiger stripes as per Guliver Foyle would be fantastic.  I hope I can pull them off!

Ruaridh

If there's ever been a model to attempt modelling lightning arcing out from between his fingers, it's that one! He does look a wee bit naked though - do you plan on adding some gubbinz to him at a later date?

Really just fantastic pieces all around. The Inquisitor works so well together, I love that clockwork piece and it lends a lot of character to the armor. He looks suitably grandiose (and possibly verbose). Mutie is menacing, great sculpting on the psycher (although I echo the sentiment that the arms are a little bare, though tattoos could fix that). The scum's head looks, well, scummy (in a good way) and the assassin is very Blanchian.

The Inquisitor is particularly great. Rather than an "Alas poor Yorick" moment, he looks more like he's having a deranged argument with the skull. And the Dark Eldar bits on the Assassin work perfectly.

Loving the yelling at the skull thing.  Is it actually any use to him or is he just nuts? Or, mid 'dr who' type distracting monologue (don't see that working on orks).

Looking forward to seeing these guys finished.

Very nice, and another good demonstration of getting new life out of old parts with minor embellishments.

Have to say though that I'm not wholly sold on the assassin. The gribbly arms just look too short to me when mounted straight onto the shoulders.

Really like the Inquisitor and the use of the Eldar body which I don't think I've seen before.   I think the assassin works well and looks very Blanchean.   

I have just about finished painting the mutie now, but I'll get to that in a second.

The psyker will have some more embellishments added before he's painted.  A sash around the waist, a back banner from the Empire Flagellants set and possibly manacles on his wrists to match the neck restraint are planned.

The skull the Inquisitor is holding will grant some bonus or other to his sorcerous powers.  I was thinking it either came from a psyker, or possibly a daemonhost/illuminatus.

Euan, I was thinking that myself about the assassin, but in the end just said screw and stuck them on at the shoulder.  The idea of arms at various points on her torso crossed my mind, but it would've required more work than I wanted to do to pull off properly.

Right, back to the mutie.  The light is fading here, so the photos aren't the best and the base isn't finished, but I thought I'd show off the day's work nonetheless:


Took me a while to settle on the skin tone, but having seen plenty of bare, striated muscle on daemons and the like I thought it wouldn't be out of place on a mutant, and I'm always looking to improve my skills with new things.  I think it's turned out well.  The rusty chainsword hopefully gives the impression of being well used - with the other shots you can get a better look at the trophies "Ol' Screamer" has delivered.  I plan some special rules for it - it will either be devastating or not work at all!

Next up will be the Scum I think.

Ruaridh

The mutant looks very good, the muscle came out very well and the colour on the lower back somehow strikes me as well. The chainsword looks very well-used but in a reasonable state, wounds caused by it would certainly get infected.

Top shelf. I think he could be one of my favourite muties ever; the hunchback works perfectly on Stone's legs. I may have to nick that one. And the paint job isn't half bad either. ;)

I quite like the rest of them as well. The assassin's fairly terrifying - it would never have occurred to me to use those arms as, well, arms. And Inquisitor Hamlet looks suitably crazed, though the horns might be a bit much. Have you considered filing them down? I think the point's well made even without them. (Actually, some horns on the skull - which I've begun to think of as Horatio - might not go amiss.)

Glad he's meeting approval. He's horrid, but in a good way! Nasty, festering wounds from the chainsword was the impression I was aiming for. 

Zakkeg, I had considered removing the horns, but I have done that with a model already and wouldn't want a "duplicate".  The characters couldn't be more different (a Xanthite, and a preacher), but I'd know!

Ruaridh

Loving how they've all come together,

I'll be honest im stealing the mutant pose, hunchback on stones legs but at least im honest for it,

How did you go about painting his flesh tone?

Quote from: Van Helser on May 30, 2012, 06:07:03 PMZakkeg, I had considered removing the horns, but I have done that with a model already and wouldn't want a "duplicate".  The characters couldn't be more different (a Xanthite, and a preacher), but I'd know!

Ah. Fair enough then. Personally, I'd still file them down and try to differentiate the head some other way (fill in the =][= and give him a beard, most likely - he's a villainous goatee waiting to happen), but then I never did much care for Kessel.

Quote from: Van Helser on May 30, 2012, 06:07:03 PMNasty, festering wounds from the chainsword was the impression I was aiming for. 

Well done, I'd say. Between that and the flayed appearance, he looks like he could single-handedly turn tetanus shots into the local medicae's number one earner. ;D

Knobby2, the flesh was done with a basecoat of Dark Flesh, Badab Black in the recesses and then thin strokes of first Dwarf Flesh, and then even finer strokes of Elf Flesh as highlights.  Apart from a steady hand, it wasn't that technique sensitive.

Zakkeg, a villainous goatee may not be such a bad idea actually...

I have finished the Scum today.  Inspired by Lacerto, I whipped out my copy of "The Stars My Destination" and used the cover image as inspiration for some facial tattoos for him (now named Gulliver Bester) and continued the pattern onto the chest and left arm.  Looks okay, but the close up photo shows up the not so symmetrical bits.  Trousers were deliberately painted to look washed out by running thinned Gnarloc Green over a white undercoat.  I am pleased with the result.  Couldn't resist a Necromunda-inspired hazard stripes on the shoulder guard.  It's good to be old school sometimes.


Ruaridh

He is AWESOME! ^_^

He looks very good, I love the tatoos, they go very well with the skin.

"BESTER! Get your Prairie Harpy off of my Boat!"

Love the Old School Scum.

No such thing as a bad mohawk! Excellent stuff

Great job on the tattoos (not ratios, pesky smartphone)! The industrial stripes keep him nicely 40k.

Time to add the psyker to the mix.

Here he is before painting:


I covered him in gubbins essentially, and sculpted manacles onto his wrists to match the one around his neck.  The back banner comes from the Empire Flagellants box set, the book from the Imperial booster sprue, syringes from the Eversor (these will represent Psi-omn from my DM psyker article), knife from the Eversor, Malicant's flame icon and some parchment from Gruss and some Space Marines.

Here he is painted:


Any and all comments welcome.

Ruaridh

Wow!  Great conversation and even better paint job!  I really like the pose,  It gives life to the model.

A very nice model, it has a lot of character and emotion.

I have been a little distracted with other projects recently, but have found some time to go back to 54mm models.  I was planning to do the Inquisitor last, but I experimented with using blue on the assassin and killed my enthusiasm for that model!  She'll get re-sprayed white and I'll begin again at some point!


The Inquisitor himself has had a couple of different paint schemes to get to this point - originally the black robe was Knarloc Green, but with the brown boots and dark green loincloth, he looked far too much like a wood elf for my liking!  He also had a freehand Aquila on the back of his overcoat, but it looked terrible.  I'm open to ideas for tarting up the coat with something else if there are any suggestions? 

I hope it looks like his eyes are glowing with sorcerous power, and not that he overdid the eyeshadow this morning (perhaps he purchased some from one of the numerous passing rouge traders the 41st millennium is overrun with...).

What do we think?

Ruaridh

The Inquisitor looks great. I like the colour scheme and don't think the coat needs any embellishment, he's already got that enormous tome with it's =I= to show who and what he is. The blue around the eyes looks more like some kind of woad battle tattoo than sorcerous power I'm afraid. Perhaps painting the eyes an unnatural colour like green or pure black could give the effect you want.

The Inquisitor looks fantastic. I do agree with Cortez on the eyes though, my vote is for the black. My only real criticism is the pattern on loincloth, it just screams eldar at me. Otherwise, it is a great model.

Edit - Still think that he would be reciting Antony's speech to Caesar's skull.....

Nice colour scheme! What's that by his foot, is it a book? I couldn't comment on the eyes though, I've never tried something like that myself, and I don't think the photo does it justice. Could we have some more angles please? :)

I'd echo the comment on the loincloth though - the design seems a bit indecisive. Perhaps the bottom half of an Inquisitorial =][= ?

Thanks all.

The design on the cloth is meant to be circuit board-like - his sorcerous powers tie in to corrupted tech.  I may redo it.

I've had mixed comments on the eyes so far.  I may go and look at some more models with eye-shine and see what I could do to emphasise them some more.

It's a book on the ground Rob, from Delphan Gruss.  There are also some sorcerous symbols painted on the base.  When I make changes to the model I'll come back with a couple of different angle shots.

Ruaridh

These are amazing models, the mutie and the psyker in particular; they look like the parts were always intended to go together.

I'm in awe of the paint job on the inquisitor's coat - open expanses like coats are something I've yet to get right.
The eye-glow just needs to spread over a smaller area, I think.  If the eyes are the light source then the brow would block the glow from reaching the forehead and it looks to extend a little far around the sides.
My first impression was that the glow was coming from within the skull as he focuses his power into it, which I thought was really cool.

Man, these guys look fantastic! I particularly love the mutant's feral yellow eye. The inquisitor also has a really great pose and paint job :) Can't wait to see that assassin :D

The Inquisitor's pose is like something out of a Shakespeare play.  Was it Macbeth?  " Alas poor Horatio, for I knew him well." 

Great pose!  I find it can be the most challenging part of creating a new model is finding a pose that speaks volumes about their character.

I believe you mean Hamlet... "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest"..... but agreed, excellent pose, and a nice paint job to boot.

Thanks for the correction.   ;D   Alas, my poor mind has failed me again. :P