Marco does something

[MarcoSkoll]

And now, rather than just some drawings, some actual modelling - the return of the Lady Kasrkin:



She's still largely held together with blu-tac, needs some light tweaking and tidying up (some of which has already happened since I took these photos - I find that the extra size on the screen is both annoying and helpful in finding mistakes) and me to find wherever her knife has gone, but I think I'm reasonably happy with the effect so far.
I'm guessing most people won't notice the slight changes* to pose or shoulder width (or simply wouldn't believe that anyone would be bloody minded enough to try such a thing) and will just assume it's a simple head swap, but she's pretty much what I wanted and expected, given that one of the criteria/challenges of the project was that there would be no chainmail bikinis or other such nonsense.

She probably also has a (first) name now, as I've taken a real liking to "Calleigh" as an option.

* For the benefit of those who can't remember or don't know, most of the early work is documented starting here in my old separate 28mm thread.

[MarcoSkoll]

Various tweaks, missing knife found and some glue applied:





These pictures lead me to spot something about my adjustments to the eyes that I've since re-tweaked (she was a bit sunken-eyed before, and ended up a bit bug-eyed here), but I'm now reasonably happy with the real world result, so I think she's more or less done as far as the modelling is concerned.

The only thing that's definitely still on the list is removing the base tab and giving her foot pins so she can be transferred to another base. What base, I don't know - I'm lacking ideas on that front.

However, I may be making progress on naming her. If she ends up in the same agent cell under Inquisitor Rhodes as the Ratling, she'll be Calleigh Fielder, I think.
(As for why it matters which cell, most of the characters associated with Rhodes have surnames based on those of famous guitarists.)

~~~~~

Anyway, some Ratling.


For reference, Hayden as she comes out of the pack.


Step one was shaving her head. The plan is to reuse this head, slightly tweaked, for the final result, but even if I decide against it, wherever I use it in future will probably want a different coiffure, so I've removed it at this stage, as it was going to be far easier to deal with while it was still firmly attached to the model than when it's a tiny piece of its own.

At this stage, the work was mostly done with a Stanley knife (used with a little care) and diamond file.


Many more cuts. The head, weapon sights, left arm, one of the knee pads and breasts.

The breasts are perhaps a bit of a surprise, but they were a bit too comically oversized for my tastes, so the plan is to resculpt them some cup sizes smaller. (If you look back at my sketch, it's considerably less top heavy than the original miniature).

Other than the aforementioned tools, I broke out the razorsaw for some of these cuts (primarily the decapitation and masectomy) and used a riffler file for some of the tidying up of the chest cuts.

[MarcoSkoll]

Right, something from the drawing board.

Silva's background talks about her considerable strength and weight letting her wield heavy weapons if the mission calls for a firepower upgrade, so I thought it would worth giving her model (which I will finish eventually) swappable weapon options.

There's various things on the list of what she's supposed to wield - it's mostly crew-served or mounted weapons such as heavy machine guns, short autocannons, automatic grenade launchers, etc that have been modified to be used as personal weapons. However, with Inquisitor Skoll having a history as a gunsmith, it seemed appropriate that she should have at least one completely custom option.

After a while throwing around ideas, this is what I'm currently looking at:



The working title for this is "Elise" (after Silva's younger sister). Loosely, it's a large combi-bolter (by human standards) - the whole package is a little over a metre long and is somewhere excess of 20 kilos (I haven't decided yet). Not so big and heavy most people couldn't lift it, but more than they could effectively fight with.

The bolter half uses a bullpup configuration (to maximise the barrel length, improving the velocity imparted by the conventional stage of the bolt round, and by extension the round's ballistics and penetration), will accept most standard varieties of magazine (Silva tends to use 20- or 24-round sickle magazines for standard rounds, but often loads specialist rounds in 12-round straight magazines), is manufactured with a left side ejection port (as Silva is left-handed) and,oddly rarely as far as GW's art is concerned, has a proper recoil pad to maximise the weapon's controllability.
(Whether it will have something other than iron-sights is up for debate)

The other half is an auxiliary grenade launcher with a three round revolving magazine (considerably smaller than that on drum fed grenade launchers, but rather lighter and still a notable firepower increase over a standard auxiliary grenade launcher) and capable of loading and firing high velocity grenades (Silva can handle the fierce recoil and it dramatically increases the range she can engage at).

The intention is that it provides Silva a versatile weapon capable of decisively engaging a wide range of infantry and light vehicle targets - obviously not something to use in every game, but something suitable to serve as her standard "heavy" weapon option in game. (While other weapons might be reserved for specific mission requirements).

If anyone has any smart ideas for improving the design, critique of any god-awful styling or fluff ideas, or the like, feel free to chip in. (As for rules, I may or may not post those at a later date, depending on how much I feel like being called a dirty power gamer. )

And no, I'm not yet entirely certain how I'll be making the model of it. Probably lots of dissecting bolters out of my bitz box, but some parts will need a different approach.

[MarcoSkoll]

You've already seen my sketch for Hayden (if not, see this post), with relatively short hair. However, while poking around in my bitz box, I came across the hair from Infinity's Anyat (left over from a Sekban conversion). It'd need sculpting work to blending it into her scalp, but I've blu-tacked it into place for the moment:




I'd normally ignore the impracticality of a character's hair, because it's a very good way of visually expressing their individuality and personality. However, I'm not sure if this is perhaps a little too over the top.

The other problem I've got with it is that I intend for Hayden (I'm coming to think I may actually keep the name) to be of an Sub-Saharan-esque ethnicity - and the combination of long black (or maybe brown) hair and a dark skin tone may just look off, as genetically their hair can't normally grow very long. Yeah, I know - abhuman, future ethnicities, etc, etc - but on some level, things still need to seem "right".

So, thoughts?

[TheNephew]

I think that'd rest entirely on a good paint job and colour scheme.

In plain metal, it looks like a .lot. of hair, and between the dark hair, dark skin and (presumably) practical clothing colouring, you're setting yourself up for a not-terribly-exciting palette.
That much hair goes a bit beyond 'slightly impractical' too. With that in mind, I prefer the shorter style.

On the other hand, done well it'd look great - between good highlighting/shading and the bionic arm, you could put a lot of life into her.

[MarcoSkoll]

@TheNephew: Fair points. I'll have to think about it, but I am becoming slightly fond of the possibility of the silly 'do. Perhaps I'll sketch it up in Photoshop and throw some flat colours in to see how the scheme might work.

Anyway... pictures. Apologies for the quality, but it's late and the lighting I have available in the cabin I'm in for the fortnight is a little mediocre.

Hayden:



While I'm not yet certain on what's happening with her hair, I've completed her breast reduction. She's still rather well-endowed for a small lady, but it works a little better for me.
I've also done the start of the quilted flak pads. I may have to rework the one on the left leg - being bent at the hip, the fabric should have rucked, but it proved a little interesting to do that at the same time as the quilted pattern.

Calleigh:

She's been subject to some probably largely imperceptible tweaks, work involving adding or removing tiny fragments of greenstuff to eyelids, cheeks, lips, etc to tweak her facial features and expression.

I'll take another look in good light tomorrow morning, and then hopefully get her photoed up properly and undercoated on her. (Or, more likely, undercoated before I remember to take photos of the conversion work...)

Gala:
Some time back Molotov used one of the Wyrd Games "Viktoria" models for his character Ophelia Dannica, after which I decided I wanted a Viktoria too. While I assigned the model a character a long time ago - Interrogator Cymone "Gala" Regin, optimistically upbeat to the point of earning her chipper nickname - I'm only really getting around to modelling her now!



Looking back at the model at this stage, it shows a few signs of being one of Wyrd's earlier efforts - there's a few things about the model that seem a little off to me.
I vaguely considered swapping to either the Hasslefree Sedante or the Wyrd Vanessa (one of their newer plastics) I picked at Salute earlier this year, but Gala is already in the background as a sizeable 193 cm/6' 4", so Sedante is a little short and I think I want to something cleverer with Vanessa...

... so tweaking it is!


Thus far, I've changed the shapes of her thighs, bum and lower legs and given her an undershirt in place of Viktoria's cleavage. And apparently mixed the green-stuff up in different quantities for each stage, based on the colours in that photo.

Reaver:
No photos, 'cause they came out poorly, but I've gone back to her, stripped the incomplete paint-job and I'm trying to resculpt the right side of her face so I'm happier with it. We'll see how that goes, but in the mean time, I've sculpted a zipper on the back of her bodyglove, because a) I thought it was funny and b) it should add a little more detail to that area.

[MarcoSkoll]

Once again, I'm blowing dust out of this thread. I've been getting involved with the local gaming club and that'll often mean I'm just heading over there to model/paint, so there may be a slightly more regular output from me. (They don't currently play Inquisitor there, but that doesn't have to have a bearing on what I paint).

For now, I've finally started painting Corporal Calleigh Fielder:



The face and beret* are largely done (apart from all those mistakes you only see when you take a picture...) and the base coats are laid in for the uniform and armour. The messy fingerprints... well, I'll deal with those eventually.

* I'm not sure what the canon is on beret colours in the Imperium, but first try is a red/maroon to see if it works as a contrast. It's possible I'll redo it in tan, which is traditionally associated with special forces units.

Other than the beret question, she's going to end up in the same colour scheme as my Sgt Gillmore (or at least as close as I feel like painting it), as she also hails from Tryphosa and its Cadia-emulating military.

[MarcoSkoll]

There has been more painting on Calleigh, some of it complete/near-complete, some of it just base colours or test areas. Have more pictures than the current progress probably merits:

[Alyster Wick]

That's all good stuff. I should take a look at trying camo some day, it really helps add something interesting to otherwise dull spaces. The shading on the face and beret look great, by the way

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, I'm back from the club again, and have started to have some luck in finding potential players. I also used the evening to do some more painting, so have some "not quite finished yet" photos. (Which is why I haven't bothered to go back and find out what the hell the camera's colour balance thought it was playing at).





I'm still in the early stages on the NMM*; I tend to start with a very rough approach in order to figure out the lighting (often deliberately painting with my eyes slightly out of focus so I can see the overall effect), then tidy it up and blend it all afterwards. Some of of those reflections currently look about right, some of them need more work.
I'm also planning on darkening down the power feeds (they're too "bold" at the moment, I think) and fixing whatever the hell that mess is I managed to do all over the knife sheath.

*Just to be clear, the base is not claimed/meant to be NMM. That's regular metallic metal.

@ Alyster Wick: Camo is interesting, but needs moderation. After all, the whole point of camo is to be visually confusing, which isn't really what you want on a carefully painted miniature. (Also, proper camo is a right whatsit to paint).
I quite like the Kasrkin camo pattern from that perspective. It's not exactly realistic, but it suggests the concept without being hard on the eye or a nuisance to paint.

[MarcoSkoll]

Things have been somewhat in disarray here for the last week or so, as my grandmother died at the end of February, which has meant quite a lot of arrangements and inheriting a second dog.

However, to convince you I've not completely forgotten her, some updated pictures of Calleigh:




She's fairly close now. Some areas still need fixing (the cabling, antenna, chest badge and the sight lens), but the NMM is less of a mess now (it's also actually slightly darker in real life, more steel than aluminium. That said, photographing on a grey background seems reasonably successful).

[MarcoSkoll]

Anyway, now she's done (and scored reasonably well at the GT) , some pictures of Corporal Calleigh Fielder:





And side-by-sides with a couple of appropriate models:

Lynx:


And Kai:

[mcjomar]

As I said on the day, she has fantastically done eyes, which to me are a very difficult part on a model at that scale.
I also like the colour blend on the beret.

[MarcoSkoll]

In some kind of effort to occasionally post things on this thread, a pile of things I acquired at Salute:



Not all of it is for Inquisitor, although most of it is. (Some of it was just in the Salute goody bag, although that's not necessarily going to stop me using it for Inquisitor).

The Gathering Storm boxes are standard INQ28 fodder (although I've yet to decide whether I'm keeping the big guys or throwing them on eBay to make a little money back).

Of the rest of the stuff, most of it is actually 32 or 35mm scale ranges, but I believe I can shorten them for 28mm reasonably easily or, in some cases, accept them simply as big characters.

The Clockwork Droids were a bit of an gamble buy. Someone suggested them on the INQ28 Facebook group, but it was hard to find out their exact scale next to GW models. They're a little bit tall, but with a little work (or just leaving them on a thin base), they should be a good starting point for some NPC nobles.


Probably my favourite of the various experimental buys was Nyx from Prodos Games' "Space Crusade" range. I'm not a fan of most of the models in said range (which mostly seems to be "skimpy WH40K", or even "topless 40k"), but I kind of liked Nyx when I saw a preview on some gaming news site a while back, enough to remember her when wandering past the Prodos stand.

As you can see, she's pretty imposing of stature, but I'm very tempted to keep her height - partly because it'd be a nuisance to change, partly because I think it would add to the impact of the character. (And people on the INQ28 FB seemed generally cool with it when I asked about her height, although there were naturally a few people who prefer sticking with GW models).

I'm not sure which of my ideas for her as a character I want to go with yet, as I've got a heap of different thoughts from different places on the heresy spectrum that I all like.

When it comes to the Hasslefree model and the Open Combat rules - they aren't directly Inquisitor related, but I liked both at the demo table that Gav Thorpe was running on the day, so I bought them. (It's a "miniatures agnostic" game which gives players freedom to stat their own characters, so it appealed to me as an Inquisitor player).

[TheNephew]

I thought I spotted you at the HF stand but wasn't sure, under-rested and under-caffeinated as I was.

Nyx looks great - I was sorely tempted by the Cybertronic RPG minis set, but my local FLGS regularly grumbles at length about what an awful company Prodos are, so I had an uncharacteristic attack of morals and decided not to.

I think for any character in giant power armour, you'd want towering presence at a minimum - she doesn't look wrong-big, just big.

Similarly, your average noble should be well-fed and un-bowed by back-breaking labour, so a bit on the gangly side doesn't look out of scale.

I missed the Nimue figure, sadly, but I picked up a couple of Wolsung minis - Sir Jonathan Wormwood initially looked like he might make a decent 'quirky posh Techpriest', but sadly he's a bit too top-hatted.

This was my first year - I think in future I'll work out a hard budget and shopping list, and then try and be a little less conservative with my pocket money, as there's still stuff I didn't buy that I'm kicking myself about.
Very enjoyable afternoon though.

Edit: And you got Gav to sign your rulebook! Brilliant!