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Mike's 54mm Collecting, Modelling & Painting Thread

Started by Mike712, September 17, 2020, 11:04:43 PM

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Mike712

Hello Conclave community!

I started collecting Inquisitor models on their release some 19 years ago.

This was one of my first major inquisitor 54mm conversion works. I believe it to be a copy of something that was in white dwarf at the time.

It was my first attempt of serious conversion work, with sawing white metal and using green stuff for more than just filling, considering I was in my mid teens when I made this I'm still rather proud of it to this day.



Unfortunately during my last house move, this model, apart from one leg, gun, backpack and part of his sculpted tabard went missing along with 10 or so original inquisitor figures and some other conversions.

Over then last two years I've re-assembled my old collection and more, I've started playing Inquisitor 54mm, with a friend who's very much into the 40k background and is now making his own 54mm conversions.

With this thread I'd like to share my inquisitor 54mm hobbying, including maybe some images and summaries from the games we play.


Collection

Lady Jena Orechiel                          - WIP Assembled
Inquisitor Eisenhorn                        - Complete
Inquisitor Covenant                        - Complete
Inquisitor Witch Hunter Tyrus          - WIP painting
Daemon Huntress                          - WIP Assembled
Thorian Inquisitor                            - WIP Assembled
Familiar                                          - Not Owned
Inquisitor Scarn                              - Not Owned
Adeptus Arbites Judge                    - WIP Assembled

Chaos Magus                                  - WIP painting

Battle Brother Artemis                    - Complete
Navis Nobilitae                                - WIP Assembled
Bodyguard                                      - Not Owned

Delphan Gruss                                - WIP painting
Techpriest Tezla                              - WIP Assembled
Special Security Enforcer Barbaretta  - WIP painting
Hunt Team Leader Lucretia              - WIP painting

Sister Repentia                                - WIP Assembled
Preacher Josef                                - WIP Assembled
Devotee Malicant                            - WIP Assembled

Eversor Assassin                            - Complete
Callidus Assassin                            - Complete
Vindicare Assassin                          - Complete
Severina and Sevora                      - Complete

Damien 1427                                - Complete (converted) x2
Simeon 38X                                  - WIP Assembled
Cherubael                                      - WIP painting
Unbound Daemonhost                    - Not Owned

Krieger Krash Thrax                        - WIP Assembled
Quovandius                                    - Not Owned
Emissary Fabian                            - Not Owned

Slick Devlan                                  - WIP painting
Damian Bloodhound                        - WIP Assembled
Bounty Hunter                                  - WIP Assembled
Hive Ganger                                      - Not Owned

Duke von Castellan                        - Not Owned
Jan Van Yastobaal                          - WIP Assembled
Kal Jericho                                    - WIP Assembled

Sergeant Stone                              - WIP Assembled
Sgt Dorian Black                            - Complete (converted) x4
Major Jackson                                - Complete (converted)
Toothpick Murkle                            - Not Owned

Eldar Ranger                                  - WIP Assembled
Eldar Ranger with conversion pack  - WIP painting
Kroot Mercenary                            - Not Owned
Tau Water Caste                            - WIP Assembled
Krashrak the Stalker                      - Not Owned
Purestrain Genestealer                    - Not Owned

Imperial Workers                            - Not Owned
Imperial Citizens                            - Not Owned
Crimelord                                      - Not Owned

Conversions

Death Watch marine                      - Complete
Death Watch marine                      - Complete
Ultramarine Veteran Sgt                - Complete
Black Legion Chaos marine            - Complete
Gal Vorbak Possessed marine          - Complete
Daemon (40k Daemon prince)        - Complete
Bloodletter of Khorne (Be'Lakor)    - Complete
Inquisitor Cadius Vect                    - Complete Based on covenant
Inquisitor Quixos                          - Complete Based on Tyrus
Chaos Cultist with shotgun            - Complete
Devotee with Bolter/Eviscirator      - Complete
Inquisitor  Martyn Sebt                     - Complete Based on Eisenhorn 


Third party miniatures
Artel W, Katerina 54mm                              - Complete Assembled as living saint 
Artel W, Katerina 54mm                              - Complete Assembled as battle sister
Artel W, Unforgiving Chaplain                    - WIP
Unknown, Plague Doctor 54mm                - Complete
Creature caster, Warrior Daemon             - WIP painting Converted as a 54mm Daemon prince
Scratchbuilt/Antonis Bouras NDK              - Complete Grey Knight terminator
Cyber Ogryn with las cannon                      - WIP painting
Khorne Brute with Axes                               - WIP painting
BMM Necron Immortal x3                           - WIP Assembled
Tau Firewarrior 54mm                                 - WIP Assembled
Reaper Belladonna Salvager 54mm          - WIP painting
Tin Bits Domina 54mm                                - WIP Assembled
SK Miniatures Steampunk The Searcher  - WIP painting
Tom Mieier Female 54mm Figure              - Complete Converted as female daemonhost

Mike712

I'd like to start with a converted chaos Warband, devotees of the Blood God.



Kratus, Chosen of Khorne, based closely on Tyrus, with a trimmed down 2nd edition era heavy bolter, for a bolt pistol and metal 40k Daemon prince shoulder pads, leads a pair of arco gladiators and a Bloodletter of Khorne using the old Be'Lakor model.

This powerful warband provides a terrifying opposition to even the most hardened Inquisitor lords and their retinue.

Some WIP images:




Mike712

Ok, so a squad of imperial guard are perhaps not best suited to games of inquisitor, but they are a ton fun to include in games and look great hunkered down in a ruin.

The plasma gunner will inevitably melt himself at some point in the game, which is always hilarious!



All 5 are based on Jaxon and Dorian black, using the imperial guard booster packs for some added variation, the plasma gunner has Covenant's carapace chest plate heavily dremeled down. Each model apart from the specialist includes a full webbing pack and a combat knife taken from the Artemis kit.

Mike712

From a squad of guardsmen to a deathwatch killteam, for those missions when one space marine just isn't enough!



Watch Captain Artemis



Brother Sangriel, heavily reposed and mildly converted Artemis with a chainsword from the chain weapons pack.



Brother Donager, another converted Artemis with the very rare heavy bolter.




Mike712

If you're going to play with space marines of any sort, then you need suitable combatants for them to go up against.

What do you get if you cross Artemis with a metal and a plastic Daemon prince? ....This apparently :P

A huge amount of work went into fusing these 3 models together (4 if you include the pistol, 2nd edition havoc heavy bolter)



Because I've always liked Khorne Berserkers



Because a friend told me I should make a Gal Vorbak



Mike712

A living saint in 54mm. This is a mild conversion of the limited run kit made by Artel W



A variation of the same kit also mildly converted.


Mentirius

Hi Mike,

I'm hardly integral to the community myself, but since I got here first...

Welcome to the Conclave!

I am impressed by how much sawing/green stuff it must have taken to repose so many Artemis models...not a great fan the original pose really, but in my own days of teenage hacksaw-wielding I could never quite face the ordeal of attempting to change it.  Those are some top-notch paintjobs too, especially how aged/weathered everything looks.  The IG plasma gunner and the first Chaos Marine are probably my favourite models overall. 

It is extremely quiet around here these days, but personally I'll keep an eye on this thread.  It is comforting to see some proof that Inquisitor is still alive out there somewhere!

Mike712

Thanks!

I've used a dremel equivalent with a flex shaft and a fine rotary saw to do most of the cutting, it goes through white metal with ease and makes a very narrow cut, or an army painter hobby in cases where the dremel can't make a deep enough cut. My original conversion was done with a junior hacksaw :P

I used to make Plasticine models so that's probably where my green stuff sculpting ability comes from, but you need to practice with it. I'm gradually getting better with it again, because I've not sculpted anything in well over a decade. I'm getting more ambitious with sculpting and it should show in my more recent and any future projects.

Thanks for the kind words on the painting. They in my own opinion, don't stand up that well to close-up photography and I feel my style leans towards "better in the flesh". I aim for a certain overall look of the model and find painting super accurately and cleanly a little tedious. Like the works of the impressionist artists, they're best appreciated from a few feet back, or maybe that's just my excuse :P

I'm very fond of those 2 models too, I'm happy with how they came out, considering they were my 2 first major conversion works after starting collecting Inquisitor again. I have plans for a second black legion marine after I finish a handful of current projects.

It's nice to see any activity at all from a community based on a niche within a niche and a game long abandoned by the developers. I was quite surprised to that a forum still existed!

I'm definitely going to be keeping Inquisitor 54mm alive....and will be more careful with my prized collection next time I move house. I still do and will always love the 40k universe, but the rapid content creep in the main game is tiresome. I also loathe the art direction of many on the new style CAD designed minis. The Inquisitor figurines are truly timeless, after painting a literal horde of 40k firewarriors, I've discovered I'd much rather spend time on unique characterful one-offs, than a heap of plastic clones every few months to keep up with now constant shifts in the meta. And I'm still able to roll out a mat, put down some terrain and throw some dice whilst enjoying the 40k background and aesthetic.

I hope to be able to finish my collection of all the original 54mm figurines before they become impossible to find (I'm at around the half way point, 23/47) and amass enough bits and random 54mm figurines to keep me painting and modelling for years to come.

Mike712

Some original figures

In my opinion two of the best miniatures ever produced by Games Workshop.

Here presented close to the box art with my own style.





I have not tackled Tyrus yet as I need to spend a day or two practising gold filigree on a black piece of card before I'm confident in achieving the box art look.


Mike712

Here is a current WIP. Anyone who's ever put a Covenant figure will know how awkward it is to align the arms, I wanted this inquisitor to convincingly 2 hand wield a force halberd.



I think it worked out rather well.

cymrilian

those space marine and chaos space marine conversions are great! and the paint jobs look good too

Mentirius

Well, your painting certainly blows mine out of the water as far as I can tell!  Agreed that Eisenhorn is a work of genius who needs no improvement besides a solid paintjob, though as a knock-on effect he can be a bit hard to heavily convert...or at least my limited toolkit and sculpting ability found him hard to heavily convert!  He has a habit of still looking very Eisenhorn to me, even with some of the parts swapped out.  On the other end of the scale, I reckon Covenant is pretty much the king of spare parts as far as the original range goes, unless one counts the elusive Kal Jericho - the number of potential uses for his torso and/or legs seem to know no bounds.  I think I actually prefer your dynamic halberd-wielding version to his original pose.  Admittedly I do have a bit of a thing about Force Weapons, as I've always been particularly fond of Ordo Malleus and "psychic warriors" in general. 

As far as the 40K Universe goes these days, I must admit I have in no way kept up with 40K as a game, though I have been reading through a ton of lore recently - theoretically I'm still up for Inquisitor and maybe a bit of Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader at some point in the future, but I can't see myself being bothered with full-on competitive wargaming again.  I was never really very good at it to begin with!  For me the hobby was always more about the art/story, even as a teenager...I do get the impression not everyone is happy with the Era Indomitus stuff, but from a purely background-centric perspective, I don't see really see the harm.  In fact I think it opens huge possibilities for new Inquisitor campaigns and in-universe fiction set in early M42, developing factions with strong opinions on Guilliman's reforms, remote regions isolated by the Great Rift and affected by time distortion going off in weird directions before being rediscovered by the Imperium, and so on.  The old-school status quo still technically exists on the timeline, so setting things back in M41 remains fine, but M42 is now a whole new playground for my imagination and personally I'm in favour of that.  If the day does come for me to get back into modelling, a fiercely pro-RG Inquisitor with a vaguely Roman vibe, lots of gold embroidery and some Ultramarines iconography worked in is sounding pretty juicy.


Mike712

#12
Added to collection - Daemon Huntress & Eldar Ranger (no conversion pack)




The severed Daemon head was removed from the Huntress' left hand so she could 2 hand her halberd. Still need to do some further sculpting work on her fingers.

I feel this more dynamic pose works well for the model.

Love the idea of the Roman stylised inquisitor, https://www.andreaeurope.com have a selection of Roman figurines in 54mm. Not having purchased any myself I'm unsure if the scale fits well with the Inquisitor range, but I'm tempted to find out. I've also had my eye on a samurai figurine for a from http://www.competitionminis.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=38005. The Steampunk range from the same site could easily make for some interesting Rouge Trader characters with a little customisation and the sifi and fantasy range has good options too if the 54mm scale is right.

I will be uploading images as I build/work on things. If there's anything specific you'd like to see, from the collection list I've added to the OP, I'll take some photos and upload them.

Lots of interesting things coming soon, in the way of multiple interesting 3rd party miniatures, I'm also going to aim to complete some of my partially painted models.

I also have an idea for some Tyranids to go up against my Death Watch Squad, based on some of the larger GW/FW and third party kits.


Mike712

#13
Recently finished project

In the early days of Inquisitor, when I used to spend my weekends in Games Workshop Cardiff, one of the older regulars there had created something quite special. An entirely scratch built 54mm Grey Knight in terminator armour.

I have over the years attempted to create my own version of this concept, with several abandoned projects.

My sculpting is ok, but I don't do enough to achieve certain components of the terminator armour in a quality I'm happy with.

Recently I discovered the Antonis Nemesis Dreadknight conversion kit, which included exactly the parts I felt I was unable to properly sculpt. I ordered one from https://popgoesthemonkey.com/collections/arch-battleknight/products/arch-battleknight-antonis uncertain of the exact scale, if it was way off, I would use it to build a cool looking NDK for my 40k Grey Knights, so no big loss either way. I ordered the kit in the cheaper monkey resin, rather than the hard clear plastic.

Turns out the scale is really quite good for 54mm with the helmet being slightly larger than the space marine helmet from the Inquisitor range and the breast plate being a bit more chunky than that of Artemis.

So with the conversion kit in hand I started thinking up ways to scratch build or convert the rest of the model. I checked the contemptor dreadnought legs, which could have worked but I think the end result I achieved ended up better. Custodes dreadnoughts were also an option. In the end I used a spare pare of Artemis legs and sculpted over the top of them.

The arms came from the 40k dreaknight kit, the stormbolter was made with 2 servitor heavy bolters, the backback made a decent magazine.

The rest of the body was made up with miliput then green stuff with a carved up rhino door thrown in to create the flat surface on the back.

The model was completed with some Inquisitor 54mm and 40k bits and a green stuff purity seal, imprinted with an imperial eagle from the rhino kit.

WIP images





So I present to you the finished article, a goal of mine for almost 20 years. I'm rather happy  ;D



The model stands at just over 80mm, a space marine based on Artemis, if posed standing upright stands at around 70mm, based on the lore a space marine stands 7 to 7.5 foot tall and terminator anywhere between 8 and 10 foot, so the overall size is pretty much bang on!

But what could a Grey Knight terminator possibly fight that would pose any sort of challenge.



I have done further work on this 54mm Darmon price (using the Creature caster Warrior Daemon) and will get some updtade pictures online soon, I just have a little more work to do before I'm completely happy with it.

When I'm finally able to play again, I'll have a story arch leading up to an epic final dual between these monstrously powerful characters. I'll also be doing some play testing and toying with statlines and rules to ensure they're somewhat equally matched, with ideas taken from the Exterminatus magazines I have for source material.

Mentirius

That is a damn masterpiece right there, if utterly terrifying from a game perspective.  Very impressive work, and bonus points for making him a similarly formidable nemesis from the outset, to avoid the otherwise inevitable problem of wiping out everyone he meets with a sneeze! ;) 

Funnily enough, I was just about to say "SHOW ME THE GREY KNIGHT" when you posted this, having read your formidable character list.  I was not disappointed!  Inspiring stuff.  I love the Creature Casters sculpts too - if they had been around in the early 00s I would probably have bought half their catalogue.

Those Artel models are also very nice, though by the look of it I think Andrea probably have the most overall variety for interesting 54mm alternatives...Inquisitor characters based on old historical miniatures seem to have a lot of potential for unique flavour.  For more NPC beast alternatives, aside from Creature Casters I've seen a number of 3D-printed resin miniature sellers on ebay and Etsy who will print a wide range truly gigantic "D&D"/generic gribbly monsters for relatively tiny prices.  I was looking at some recently, thinking "those would be great daemons/aliens in Inquisitor, except that they'd eat all the player characters by the end of the second turn"...but a Grey Knight Terminator and/or a whole squad of Deathwatch marines?  Probably not such an unreasonable proposition.

There were some pretty solid daemon rules in Exterminatus at one point as I recall, so they should form a solid starting point for Big Red, though you might need to house-rule the GK Terminator Armour.  I think Gav Thorpe suggested 15 armour points, which frankly is going to take a Daemon Prince to do much more than scratch!  Regardless of how you stat it out, that should be one epic finale.

As far as further source material for Inquisitor goes, there are links on here via the Dark Magenta board to download free PDFs of pretty much every Exterminatus issue, relevant White Dwarf article and Sourcebook ever printed, along with a bunch of innovative stuff cooked up by the community since GW dropped the game, all of which I've been having some nostalgia-based fun going through recently.  Worth checking out at some point if you haven't already.