The Conclave

I'm back in my house after a long time away and have dug out my bits box!

I've never done an Ordo Obsoletus warband before, and decided I would build an intrepid band of investigators of the mysteries of the universe.

Still very WIP, but here we go:


The Inquisitor has one of Kal Jerico's heads, two of the Bounty Hunter's arms, Eisenhorn's torso and Josef's legs. He's a kind of Noir detective. Plan to have him holding a lantern in his left hand.


The Techpriest has Gruss's head, legs and unattached mechadendrites, Slick's torso and bionic arms from the "Cyborgs" (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CYBORGS-TERMINATORS-Sci-Fi-6-Toy-Soldiers-Figures-54mm-1-32-plastic-NEW-/301302479238?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item462706f986) by everyone's favourite Russian manufacturer of 54mm toy soldiers. He is here to help apply the knowledge of Mars to the mysteries they uncover.


The Psyker has Sergeant Stone's dynamic legs, Sergeant Black's torso under the ProCreate and Von Castellan's coat tails. His arms are from Malicant, but haven't been secured yet. He's a divinator, and will use his abilities to search the warp for clues to answer the unexplained.


Lastly, the Arbitrator. Eisenhorn's legs with the Thorian's torso and attached head (previously sawed from his legs for another model), the Judge's shotgun arm and a bionic arm from the aforementioned "Cyborgs" with cut down 40k bolter. The "muscle", and a damn fine interrogator of suspects. I've started trying to sculpt his head over the Thorian's odd helm. Not quite sure if the soulstone is to be turned into a looking glass of sorts, or just filed off entirely.

All comments and criticisms welcome!

Ruaridh

Great looking models and poses!

Was it easy getting the coat tails to fit on the waist of the psyker?
I'm interested to see what he turns out like, as most psyker models are pretty static in pose, and portray physical weakness - yours on the other hand seems happy to jog about!

I'm also keen on the lantern idea - any idea for parts? - the Cities of death lights spring to mind...
http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/cities-of-death-street-light-p-886.html


EDIT - forgot to ask: What is the Ordo Obsoletus??

I'm endlessly impressed by the new combinations of parts that people come up with. Josef's legs have plagued me for a while, I'm going to take a look at leveling off the waist as you've done here and see what it'll match with then!

PS, I ordered a couple Russian kits that should arrive in a few weeks. With how great the cyborgs look here blended in with stock models I'm even more excited now. Great stuff! Looking forward to see what you do with the Thorian's face.

Seaglen,

The coat tails went around Stone's legs okay, but they are a lot chunkier than Von Castellans. One of the reasons he has a jacket sculpted over the torso was to get it to line up with the coat tails. A little bit of gap filling wasn't going to cut it in this case. It is a dynamic pose I've chosen for him, and I hope the photos below show off the look I was going for. More on that later... The lanterns from the Cities of Death kit are a great little component, but I had a lantern from a Techpriest Tezla kit looking for a new home, and I have added that to the Inquisitor. The Ordo Obsoletus are colloquially referred to as the X Files branch of the Inquisition. Their role is to investigate the unexplained and events that defy description, be it appearances of the Legion of the Damned, space hulks, ghost ships, celestial phenomena and miracles. They offer something a little different from simple heresy.

Alyster Wick,

Josef's legs took a bit of work to fit Eisenhorn's torso - I had to shave them down considerably on the reverse. Still, the combination is worth the effort! I look forward to seeing what you manage with the Cyborgs - there are a lot of tasty bionic parts for pillaging...

So, my next progress pics. I have almost finished off the construction phase, but there is some tidying of the sculpted areas to do once the ProCreate is dry, and if anyone has any suggestions for what else could be done with them.

The Inquisitor first of all:


His stubber now has a gun sight, and Tezla's lantern is in his left hand. I will be trying some source lighting when it comes to painting. He has Quovandius's creepy doll as a keepsake from a past case. I'll explain that in his backstory once I get to it.

The Techpriest:


Main difference is his mechadendrites and gubbins around his middle. Pretty standard for a techpriest!

The Psyker


He has had the most changes. First of all, I dispensed with the Judge's head and went for Jan Van Yastobaal's alternate head. I felt the first one was lacking expression, and this one has more of a strange and tortured look to it. Perfect for a psyker! He also now carries a lot of ephemera around with him, including the skull he bears. The skull is his psi-focus; and through it he better communes with the warp.

The Arbitrator:


I have added an aquila clasped in a fist to his right shoulder and smoothed over the detail on his left. His helmet is a lot smoother now and I decided to file off the gemstone from the middle of his face. Just didn't work as a bionic eye in that position.

As I was saying earlier, I'd love to hear any suggestions people may have.

Ruaridh

Many thanks for the info about the coat tails!

With regards to the new warband:

Inquisitor -
Lovely looking model!
I especially like the positioning of the bags on his side and back, and the lantern looks great!
The gunsight certainly adds a bit of interest to the stubber.
Have you had any thoughts about the colour scheme for him?

Techpriest -
Again very nice looking.
I would personally add a few more cog insignia to him to really get the Mechanicus feel across.
Are the mecadendrites sprouting from his back, or will there be some sort of servo-unit on his back for them to be mounted on?
I love the hourglass - I picked one up and haven't found a use for it yet...

Psyker -
Really enjoying the changes you have made.
Yastobaal's head looks brilliant as an eccentric piece of psyko-gubbins.
The coat tails give the impression of being buffeted by the winds of the empyrean.
Will you paint the skull's eyes glowing or something to that effect?

Arbitrator -
really coming on nicely!
Are you painting him the black/red/yellow of the old-school arbites?
The sculpting looks great on him - I am making an arbites enforcer out of the imperial guard, judge and enforcer model, and was looking for inspiration. looking forward to how he turns out!

Your noir-Inquisitor and Arbitrator are great!

Thank you both.

Seaglen, the Inquisitor's (now Inquisitor Casimir Fearon) colour scheme isn't settled on yet. I might go for a sandy coloured mack, but a muted green might work too. The light from the lantern will have to be taken into consideration. I'm going to be googling OSL for a while before starting.

As I alluded to in the blog, I am just not excited by the Techpriest, so thanks for saying he looks nice. My worry about him as that he is just "too safe" - he was the simplest build of the lot and isn't really pushing it with the combination of parts. I have added more gubbins since these photos, but I am tempted to abandon him (I can hear him screaming to not be put in the Box of Shame). The mechadendrites, for what it's worth, have had some of the padded flak sculpted over their bases to show that they're poking through from his spine.

I am pretty happy with the Psyker now. The Yastobaal head works really well I think. The skulls eyes will indeed be glowing!

The Arbitrator will be getting an old school colour scheme. There's no other choice in my mind!

Ruaridh

Yes I can imagine the sandy colour would work well - maybe mix in with some very deep browns to give the "antique" aesthetic to the model - a few dark reds/purples would be great. I almost imagine him lie a walking Victorian smoking room in terms of colour scheme...
(http://inequalitybyinteriordesign.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/man-den.jpg)

With regards to the techpriest, I'd like to see the additional gubbins added. But yes at present he is very standard for a magos - maybe replace one arm with something more exotic?

Glad to hear the Arbites will be as per 1990s.

Painting of the Inquisitor has been progressing steadily over the last 10 days or so. I am closing in on the end result but I am taking a little pause for advice on the OSL from the lantern. Does it look okay as is? Does it need more or less coverage? Where would it catch on the rear of the model, if at all?


Thanks in advance.

Ruaridh

It's a good start, but I'd say you need to get more of a contrast going.

Quickly messing with it in Photoshop, I added some shadows, increased some of the highlights (particularly on the light itself, don't be afraid to use white for the highlights of a green glow) and moved around some of where the light is falling (less on his upper thigh, some highlights further from the source):

(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Miscellaneous/10703834_639779222795576_165951625006743499_ncopy.jpg)

In order to help play spot the difference, I have also animated it:
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Miscellaneous/10703834_639779222795576_16.gif)

That said, not seeing the model in 3D, some of the shadows and highlights may not be in quite the right place.

Looking wonderful!

I didn't think of green for the lantern glow - very nice touch.

I agree with MarcoSkoll with regards to the OSL. Definitely some on further areas that would reflect light, and a white glow for the inner parts of the lantern.

Fantastic so far, and looking forward to seeing more.

Well, first of all thanks to David for going above and beyond the call of a commenter's duty by not only giving tips but also doing a mockup on photoshop, and then making a .gif.

Along with other feedback I've received (cheers Alan and Euan), it became clear that I wasn't doing enough to accentuate the difference between light and shadow on the model. So, I whipped out the paints again and had another go:


I'm very happy with how he's looking now. The base is new to you all - the overgrown ruins are hinting at his past (the Schola Progenium he attended was purged in mysterious circumstances). All the models in the war band will have a similarly themed base.

Overall, this was a fun model to paint, and I got to work on three elements I find tricky: wet-blending, freehand design and OSL. There's a lot of room for improvement, but that's what the hobby is about after all. Now to decide on which member of the war band gets painted next!

Ruaridh

Quote from: Van Helser on September 25, 2014, 11:16:18 AMWell, first of all thanks to David for going above and beyond the call of a commenter's duty

Sometimes things are just that much easier to illustrate than explain.

He's looking pretty damn good now - particularly with your decision to go for the really deep shadows, it's created a beautifully atmospheric look.

Moving on, I've started painting the psyker, but I've gone back to the Techpriest and redone him in a big way. As I said before, I wasn't too happy with him. There wasn't anything interesting about his pose, and he wasn't that exotic a combination of parts. I received some good criticism and ideas from Kraut Scientist on the Ammobunker and have implemented a couple of things he suggested. He has a backpack (from Fabius Bile) and another pair of (small) bionic arms folded across his chest. I also added the MIU gun from Covenant, as I have at least three kicking around my bits box. I think he's looking a lot more interesting now.


Finally, the Arbitrator has had some more detailing, in an aquila upon his helmet, and shock maul slung from his belt.


Ruaridh

Looking good! I had meant to post re: the lighting source paint job but everyone beat me to it. Thank you for going through that process, it's given me some food for thought in terms of how I'll be taking a stab at light sources.

The tech priest does look more interesting now. I'll reserve judgment on vestigial robot arms until after it's painted, I'm having a tough time figuring out what's going on there right now (at first I thought it was a funky extension on the armor).

I'm really liking the Arbitrator. Once observation/question/critique, does he have a glass visor going across his eyes? Or id he meant to have a viewing hole between what I'm thinking might be the visor and the Aquilla symbol? If the later, I think the viewing port is way too high. If the former, what's going on with the gap? Not that the gap is a bad thing, I'll just have to see what it looks like once painted.

Regardless, these pieces are coming together nicely. The Thorian model is rather bulky in its proportions so it fits an Arbitrator well, he'll look like a monster on the field. Also, the helmet and shoulder eagles look awesome. I'm taking it as a challenge to up my own sculpting game.

agreed on the eye slits being too high if indeed that is what they are, love the pose on him though, any plans to remove eisenhorns leg braces?

Good call on the eye slit guys. Can't believe I hadn't noticed that! Eisenhorn's leg braces will probably stay - I like the questions they raise. I'm really happy with his pose, probably most of all out of the group. He looks suitably imposing, which is perfect for his role as the muscle.

The secondary bionic arms will show a lot better once there's some paint on there. At the moment everything is a shade of grey and hard to differentiate.

Ruaridh

Looking good Ruaridh! Excellent work on that gif. Dave!

Thanks Josh - sorry to hear you can't make the DH sessions any longer.

The psyker has had his paint work completed:


I went for a green coat as a nod to the official colour for the robes of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Decided on a spooky pink glow for the eyes of the skull as a contrast to all that green. Shame though that with it being forward facing, there isn't much room for OSL like the Inquisitor's lantern. Even wonder if I've gone a bit too far on reflection now that I'm looking at the photos.

What do we think of him?

Ruaridh

I really like the green, it also ties him in nicely with the green lantern (object held by inquisitor, not superhero).

So the green is the official colour for the Astra Telepathica? - is that the same as Navigators?
Are there specific colours for each robe within the Imperium's society? - I recall blue/grey for Adeptus Administratum?


As for the eye glow, I would take it off of the fingers on the hand, as it looks a little too saturated with pink light for an outwards beam emminating from the eyes.
Other than that, looking really excellent!

Well, after 2 months wait since the last update I'm glad to say the warband is finished! EpiComp kind of took over my life, but after getting some tiny Orks painted I got back to the Inquisitor stuff.

The Techpriest was the bane of my existence for the vast majority of the last few weeks, but after getting some paint on him I am now content with him. There were a few aborted attempts, and much redoing of some areas, but at last he is done.


Could've gone for red robes, but decided to make more subtle allusions to the Cult of Mars with his tabard. One surprising high point with this model was the hourglass on his belt. No gloss varnish there, but it has come up looking shiny, which is great.

In contrast to the Techpriest, I have been quite happy with the Arbitrator since his inception. The model had a great dynamism and looked quite solid, which are both aspects of the character I wanted to show off. I went for some old school Arbitrator colours, red and gold over black, and snuck some Necromunda-esque hazard stripes in there:


I think this is my favourite model of the four to be honest. Aside from the look of the figure, I'm really happy that I finally managed to put the torso from the Thorian Inquisitor to good use. That had been in my bits box for years looking for a home.

Finally, here's a group shot of the four:


Now, who wants a game?

Ruaridh

Let me get my last warband finished and sure; it's been too long! ;D

Wonderful warband!!!

just let me get mine together and Ill try to give them a run for their money...

Really great, bold colors. It's amazing how the strong red throughout really helps to pull the warband together.

I heartily approve of the techpriest (your paint job does do a lot to make the vestigial cyborg arms pop) and the arbites looks fantastic all painted up. He's really a great parts combo.