Marco does something

[Heroka Vendile]

superb sculpting and conversion work dave.

[MarcoSkoll]

Having a bit of a dilemma.

I've been putting various NPCs for the Twin Arches, such that I have the NPCs to run most of the games at either scale.

I need an extra Inquisitor, and a rummage through the bitz and sprue boxes turned up parts I thought would make a nice power armour conversion:



With lots of Chaos Warrior in there, I though I'd end up with something a bit unique and not too Space Marine like. Big, definitely, but still about the same size as my feudal worlder.

Unfortunately, it turns out if you put a Marine helmet on the model, you do still end up with quite a nice truescale Marine:



So now I'm at the stage of trying to work out whether I should finish him up as the Inquisitor I need... or the Marine I don't and then run around like a headless chicken trying to work out what model I use instead.
The interesting models I have around to use are generally non-GW, so present a little bit of a pickle given the venue. I may have to hope I've forgotten what's in some of these other boxes of old models.

Or see if there's a model I can borrow for the day, I guess. Hmm.

[Inquisitor Dionzi]

Out of curiosity, what's the blue stuff on his right arm?

[MarcoSkoll]

Nothing more impressive than Ultramarines Blue, I'm sorry to say - a lot of the Marine parts in my bitz box are broken down from a set of models I never actually painted after having sprayed them with one of the colour sprays GW did at the time.

As it's only a thin undercoat layer, it's never seemed worth going to the trouble of stripping hundreds of parts back (which is also why his greaves are blue).

[Gilleon]

IMO, make him the inquisitor you need, yes he will be big and burly, but he shouldn't stand out too much. Yes it does make a good true scale marine, but i think the armour is different enough that it shouldn't have to fall into that box, if you don't want it to. Maybe a different head (from the bare one) will help make it more inquisitor than marine.
That's just my 2 cents though, nice work as usual.

[greenstuff_gav]

magnets; allows head swaps

regardless, looking great!

[Heroka Vendile]

I think I agree that a non-marine head would help move the look further away from helmet less space marine.

[MarcoSkoll]

Funnily enough, the bare head, while a Marine head, does actually make him less Marine like than a lot of my valid alternatives (having collected both High Elves and Eldar, a lot of my spare heads are elfin in some way).
It's quite a large head (to the point you'd wonder how he can fit it in a helmet - perhaps why he's not wearing one), so has the effect of changing his overall proportions so it's less like the "nine heads marine" you see in the artwork.

(In any case, I would probably remove the headset mouthpiece to make it a bit less recognisable a head).

@ Gav: Swapping between the two is problematic, as they probably wouldn't have the same paint scheme (or even the same weapons) and I'd want to be able to mount a backpack on the Marine.
Ultimately, if I were doing both, I'd probably just dig out more spare parts and make each a separate (and slightly more distinct) model.

However, as it happens, I have turned up a good case of a model I'd forgotten I'd bought. I'll have to see if it works...

[Kaludram]

I think a Catachan head would go well here...someone closeby has got to have a few.  I know I sure do, and I only bought one set of sprues!

[Dwi]

Agreed. I think that a head from the Catachan Command Squad would be exalent though perhaps a converted head from the basic guardsmen set would be good too.

[MarcoSkoll]

The Catachan heads I have around are too thuggish to go with what, either way, I envision as entirely custom (and thus suitably ornate) power armour.

In any case, I'm thinking it'll be the Marine now.

[MarcoSkoll]

Completely forgot I hadn't posted this guy up here...



He still needs some more highlights on the blue (and the gold fixing - I find yellow/brown metallics bad enough that I tend to do them as NMM, but didn't have the time), but he's mostly as he will be now.

[Kaludram]

Overall a good development from the base Ethereal model.  The three fingers adds an extra subtlety to the mutation that says "I'm pushing the edge of tolerance in the Imperium" with just enough flavor that a really puritan Inquisitor might be tempted to just eliminate this guy out of good measure.

All around good.

[Hadriel Caine]

I feel your pain Marco- I hate painting gold. Lovely conversion. Sorry not to have been around in so long- all the sculpting is superb.
I think a wash around the edges of the flesh areas (particularly under the hood) would tie this guy together perfectly.

[MarcoSkoll]

You'll have to forgive these being posted without too much explanation, but I'm up later than I should be.

These are some old Catachan conversions (often with a sprinkle of Empire parts) I used as a Necromunda gang. I've taken the ones I like most, stripped them, did a bit of updating on the conversions, and you see them here as sprayed ready to be repainted. (Not that I normally use black undercoat, but it's what I found first.)

Not sure exactly who they'll be, but there's always room for a violent thug or two in the Battle for the Emperor's soul.