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So, with the summer holidays nearly over, I thought “what better time than to start a project?”
I originally toyed with the idea of dabbling in some casting, inspired by BLACKHAND’s excellent tutorial thread, which I recommend:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/450/307451.page

To this end, I began drafting, and I came up with an idea. My idea was, to create a robed, hooded character, with several arm options on one, basic body.
Now, this “hooded Acolyte” would in theory (and utterly coincidentally, in case anyone got stingy with their IP’s), make an excellent Inquisitorial henchman.
So I sat down to make a GS master, from which to make a cast.

After a few hours, I had a rather uninspiring green blob. This, coupled with a sudden realisation that I had insufficient funds for casting even on a small scale,
led me to decide to keep it simple, and just make one unique model, and keep the market domination schemes on the back-burner.
This is what I have at the moment, it's very much WIP, and I think I may do the belt buckle again before the GS cures, as I'm not at all happy with it yet:





Looking at it here, I thought it looked a bit priestly, rather than the threatening, robed figure I intended, and I’m now fighting with the decision to go “full Priest”, and make a Ministorum preacher,
or whether to go with my original plan and make the hooded Acolyte.

So, does anyone have any preferences?
Also, I'm debating whether the hands extending from the sleeves will be bare, or armoured, when I get around to them - Any opinions on this are very welcome!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

To help you all visualise the kind of thing I was intending with this mini, here's my main concept sketch:



So far I think when I get the hood in place the Model will look much better, and I'm leaning towards him becoming a warrior Acolyte rather than a priest...

Although making the hood itself could be an interesting struggle of man against Greenstuff!

Ok, so the hood is now on!
After much cursing, and experimenting with methods, here's the Robed Acolyte in his "Concealing Cowl of Concealment" (TM)



As you can see, He now has a re-sculpted belt buckle, a weapon-belt-thing across his chest, a purity seal, and some shoulder armour - to cover up a nasty join that was beginning to annoy me!
The weapon-belt-thing (which I need to find a proper term for!) attatches to the belt at the back, with another purity seal - here's the view from behind:



And a scale shot, with an old, metal Crusader. Love that model, I've been meaning to repaint him



Any thoughts or criticisms?

Main body is looking good so far! Pretty much exactly the same as your sketch!

What sort of weapons are you going to give him?

Looking forward to see how he turns out

Hey HoeJarris, thanks for commenting!

To answer your question, so far I've not decided on weapons, possibly some kind of 2-handed power sword, but I'm not decided... If anyone has better ideas, I'd be very glad to hear them!

First of all, anyone who attempts to sculpt anything out of a blob of GS, is a winner and a Sir in my book. My GS skills are still close to 0, so I'm always in awe when anyone sculpts.

I like what I see so far but I honestly think the legs are... gigantic when compared to the torso. Maybe it's just me, but the images I see, it seems he has exceptionally long legs when compared to the torso.With that image side-by-side with the Crusader, this feeling is reinforced.

Hmm... you may be onto something there DraconicLord, I was going for a kind of "grim reaper" thing, tall and vaguely skeletal, although looking at the image, he does look like he's wearing platform shoes!
I think it's a little late to go chopping his legs off, so I'll leave them long, and explain it away in the fluff - perhaps he's from a low-gravity world, or some such...

And thanks for the compliment - I don't rate my GS skills that high, certainly not as high as some I've seen on Dakka, but they say that the best way to learn is to dive in at the deep end

Really, this project is an exploration of what I can do, and I'm hoping to learn as I go along - And I'm enjoying it immensely so far!

I think that the legs are the right size for his body because he is standing up tall where as the Crusader has that usual 40k action-squat pose.

If he's supposed to be some sort of strange skeletal being this works perfectly!

I'm back! With PROGRESS! Let's have a big hand for the Robed Acolyte - NOW WITH HANDS!



Ok, so - you may have noticed that while he now has hands, the Acolyte has... NO WEAPONS?
But fear not - I'm not sending him onto the INQ28 battlefield without any defences, for this robed chap is a Psyker - I got the idea from the pose watching DBZ Abridged - lots of energy beams and whatnot, and I thought; "Ahah! an option which means less converting!"

Still some work to do on the robes and sleeves, but he's getting there!
Here's a side view...



And a Scale shot, in the INQ28 retinue he'll soon be joining - The one with the hat is Inquisitor Lucarde of the Hereticus, and the brazier-toting one is known only as "Purity servitor Beta".
You don't want to know what happened to Purity servitor Alpha



Inspiration willing, more tomorrow!

If by tomorrow I don't see a giant ball of energy between his hands, I shall hunt you down with a sharp stick!

Great work so far! I wasn't expecting this turnaround and with him being a psyker, he looks perfect!

Hah, Right you are, I'll see what I can do - I tend to avoid "sticky" situations when possible
Thanks for bearing with me!

He looks great now he has hands!
When you paint him I think he would look good with some sort of OSL effect in his hands that matches the blue flames of the others

Ok, The sleeves are on, and the gloves are off (figuratively) so...

Say it with me now - KAMEHAMEHA!



I think the sleeves really helped tie the hands in with the model, so that's a relief - the raised hand looks massive, but that really is just perspective - trust me
The energy ball is only blue-tac at the moment, because I'm not sure if I'll keep it in its current form - I like it, but I'm still not 100% about it.
I think he's almost ready to be primed, once I fix a few little bits I've missed - I may re-point the hood, it looks a bit like a smurf hat at the mo...

Anything else you think he needs before I douse him in chaos black primer?

BTW, HoeJarris: I've looked over some OSL tutorials, and if I do leave the energy ball, I will be doing some OSL (or trying, anyway) - Thanks for the tip!

If you feel like really, really pushing it, you could try gluing a small metal rod / part of a clip, contacting his hands. Then you could create your ball of energy between the hands and make it like it's suspended between them.
You could even GS the bits of rods near his hands as if they were energy beams originating from the ball.

Yeah, I had considered that - here's a quick mock-up of how the ball would look suspended between the hands...



Thoughts?

I think that looks really cool like that, even if it is just blu-tac!

Yeah, I quite like it - I'll see what I can do with a bit of wire and some skulduggery...

OOhhh yeah, suspended it's the real deal! Now for your next project create the same guy but with the arm stretched. Then you can either write KAMEHAMEHA or HADOKEN! on the base's rim.

Cue howls of disappointment, but I'm afraid that the floating energy ball idea has hit a brick wall, and I'm going to prime him without it.
I can still add the ball later, but right now, I just want to see him with some paint on!

Weather permitting, primer goes on tomorrow, along with the other two members of the retinue I'll be painting up alongside him.
Here's the gang - recognise the crusader?

Ye gotta do what you gotta do! Let's see some painting action!

Primer's on, I won't bore you with a pic - now while I'm waiting for it to dry, I'm deciding what colour to paint the robes - at the moment, I'm leaning towards red, like on the 2 finished members of the retinue, and very pale flesh for the hands.
If anyone objects, speak now or forever hold your peace...

Sorry for the absence - Came down with a cold, and got the shakes which made painting a bit tricky!
I'm back with the brush, but there's still some improvement to be had before I get my steady hands back, which explains the quality of the paintjob so far...
So, with my excuses prepared, here's the latest shot.



It's very PIP at the mo', and there's a lot of fine detail and cleaning up lines to do, plus a few washes, but the overall scheme is there - what do you think?

.

Oohh, very cool looking. Original to boot, too. I'm a sucker for red robes, so I probably would have painted it red, but that red and white striped pattern is very unique. A bit like Waldo

But here you don't find Waldo. Waldo finds you: AND KAMEHAMEHA'S THE OUTTA YOU!

Thanks very much - I'm glad you like it, because I was sorely tempted to do red robes...
But I quite like the grey, it seems to suit his shadowy nature

Here it is - the big finale!
First off, I'd like to thank the academy...

Here's the hooded Acolyte - finished!
Funny to think he started off as that unassuming blob of GS not too long ago!



Here he is with the rest of the retinue:



So, shall we take a tour through the team?

Here's the bossman, the bloodthirsty Inquisitor Lucarde:

From the Ordo Hereticus, Lucarde hunts the heretic, the witch, and the mutant with zeal - and leaves only ashes and bloodstains in his wake.

Sister Veronique:

Seconded permanently to Inquisitor Lucarde, Veronique is a silent figure behind her ceramite faceplate, though she has a strange habit of collecting children's toys from the warzones she visits - a symptom of battle fatigue, or something more sinister? Only Veronique herself could say, and she delights in not talking.

Crusader Boone

Almost entirely augmetic, Crusader Boone has no fear of incoming fire, embracing his enemies shots with unusual willingness.

Purity Servitor Beta

No-one knows what Beta did to deserve servitorisation, but he has since become an excellent addition to Lucarde's retinue.

And finally, Acolyte Maximillian Sares

A potent psyker, Sares was horrifically disfigured when he exceeded his limits, and was blasted with his own psychic pulse. He now hides his twisted visage in his hood, and keeps to the shadows, only emerging to smite the foes of the Emperor.


So - my first published project, finished!
Thanks for bearing with me - any feedback is still much appreciated - and feel free to suggest anything I've missed!

Ok, I know the main focus here is our dear psyker acolyte, but Sister Veronique stole the thunder and all the glory. Good looking miniature with such an awesome background. DAMN!

Hey, I'll take a compliment wherever I can get one!
I'm sure Sister V is very flattered... although I can't be sure, for obvious reasons!

I've been thinking, maybe I'll try writing a little bit of fluff, while I plan my next project - anyone interested in that?
If not, I'll post it anyway