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I've been meaning to start a blog for a while, and I've finally gotten my things together enough to really get one going and keep it going.

I'm in love with Inq28, or Inquisimunda, or whatever you want to call it. When Inquisitor came out I really dug the concept, but couldn't get into the 54mm scale. I love the attention given to each character, and how individuals don't get lost in a massive flood of bodies. I'm not a gamer, and don't give two craps about following the rules of the game, but I read them anyway so I am aware of wargear options, and the general makeup of warbands so that what I create follows established fluff.

My two biggest influences are Molotov over at Inq8 and Migsula at Legion of Plastic, who really opened my eyes to how much character you can give a group of models in the 28mm scale. I'll be trying to do my own thing with this blog, but at times there are definitely going to be moments where you can see where I got my inspiration from. I'm going to be building several different warbands, hoping to give each one a sense of character and philosophy you can see just by looking at them.

To start things off I have a few members of an Ecclesiarchy group. I'll let the images do most of the talking:







I feel like each model is 90% done. Each could use something else, I'm just not sure what it is. If anyone has feedback or suggestions, I'd love to hear it. I'll be updating again soon, with some WIP Inquisitors, and hopefully some henchmen and a (mostly) scratch-built Navigator.

I have two basic methods of creating characters in 28mm. The first you saw in the last post. I will see a model that captures my attention and creates a character idea to go with it all by itself. This method is quick and easy, but it doesn't tend to produce memorable models. The other method I use is to start with a concept sketch, without any particular model in mind. I dream up the character and what his/her personality would be like, and do sketches until I come up with something that resembles what the character should look like. Here's my sketch of Inquisitor Moretti, a zealous, moderately-insane witch hunter of the Ordo Hereticus.

http://dexterkong.deviantart.com/art/Antoni-Jesaiah-Moretti-CS-258308669

After I had a drawing I was happy with, I did some part-sourcing. The design changed very little during this phase, and the most significant change was the design of the hellpistol, because I saw the pistol on the Skaven Engineer from the Island of Blood set and fell in love with it. Here's what I came up with:



I'm happy with the result. I'm working on another Inquisitor to work alongside him, as a larger, more powerful-looking mentor figure. I also am putting together an idea for a Tech Priest at the moment.

Comments and criticism please! Updates coming soon.

These are all incredible models.

As for the first three needing something....
#1) maybe a bookmark tassle with a skull
#2) aquilla necklace, like the aquila that comes in most vehicle kits
#3)purity seals on the flamer, BURN THE HERITIC!

Well done making your sketch come to life. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Thanks for the compliment, and the tips. I have put a purity seal onto the flamer of #3, which was a really good idea because it covers up some sloppy putty work on the back of his hand. The book on #1 already has a tassel sculpted on it, which is folded back in such a way that putting a skull on the end won't work. I'm considering either filing down the end of the tassel and re-sculpting it, or possibly sculpting a relief =I= symbol on the book's covers. #2 could indeed use an aquilla necklace, but I'm not sure I can sculpt that small. I'll give it a try, but if it doesn't work, I'll freehand an aquilla onto his collar armor when I go to paint him.

I'm also thinking about freehanding Ecclesiarchy symbols onto their robes, along with some scroll work and embroidery.

Do you have a bitz box for spare parts? I have had good luck carving some very small details off weapons and using them. I've taken aquillas and skulls off bolters and such. You might try that.

My bitz box is huge, but unfortunately VERY unorganized. It is for this reason that I came up with a much bigger, chunkier solution to the necklace idea, thinking I didn't have an aquilla small enough (and the brilliant idea of scraping one off a bolter not occurring to me). It was after I had finished this necklace that I found the sprue from the Space Marine Commander set that included two unused symbols that would be perfect for the idea. You live and learn, I suppose. I'm going out to buy some organizer trays tomorrow.

I'll post pics either tomorrow or later tonight of the progress I made. Aside from the necklace idea, I re-designed the Confessor's flamer a bit, and have started on an Engineseer.

I actually only caught this thread by chance as I was flitting through the forum, but you've got some really fascinating conversions going on. I'm keen to see where you go with this.

Sweet, a compliment from Molotov!

Here are the updated models:







I actually rather like the necklace solution on the Templar. At first I wasn't sure if it was a little too gangster-rap, but I think it has a pope-ish vibe to it. The engineseer is about 80% done. I was inspired by the jaw-dropping Pimp My Wizard thread, which actually inspired a few other conversion ideas that will pop up on here eventually. I need to finish his staff, and for that I am waiting on a delivery of watch parts I picked up off eBay. I'm really happy with how his head turned out. The putty work on his right arm is a little messy at the moment, but I'm going to start smoothing it out with Liquid Green Stuff.

As always, c&c is much appreciated.

Nice work you have going here...

DexterKong wrote:
To start things off I have a few members of an Ecclesiarchy group. I'll let the images do most of the talking:

I definitely like the hat. Is it a tomb kings bit?

It's from the Empire Wizard kit.
And the more I see done with the new wizard plastic the more I want to convert them. I love the "necromancer"

DexterKong wrote:Sweet, a compliment from Molotov!

A deserved compliment. I really like some of the conversions you have going on. The flamer is a really creative idea.

Shame you're in America, as I could've gotten you to help me with a project here... alas!

I look forward to seeing some more from you. Have you organised your figures into solid warbands yet? Any chance of gaming in the future?

At the moment, I have loose ideas for warbands. I am not a gamer, and am putting together these warbands because I love the narrative and flavor behind Inquisimunda. I am also an artist, and am slowly writing a story arc for a webcomic focusing on many of the characters I will be creating here. Since webcomics can rely on story elements to make sure things are exciting, I don't have to worry too much about making my models "too powerful". Some rules are inevitably going to be bent/broken along the way, but I'm not letting a silly thing like "rules" get in my way of having fun. That being said, some input would be appreciated to help me determine how I'm going to load out my warbands.

My Witch Hunter warband is going to consist of one senior Inquisitor, and two freshman Inquisitors. One of these two new Inquisitors you have seen in this thread. He's the crazy-looking fellow in my second post. His other freshman buddy will have a hand flamer and sword. The senior Inquisitor is going to be equipped with a sword and an inferno pistol. I have a PDF file of Inquisimunda rules to serve as a general guide, to tell me what equipment is available to what warbands, but the inferno pistol is missing from the Inquisition Cell armory. However, the character I have envisioned uses an inferno pistol, so that's what I'm modeling him with. Rules be damned. I am also planning on adding in a handful of henchmen.

My Ecclesiarchy warband will consist of the Confessor, Templar and Preacher you have seen here, in addition to some henchmen to round them out.

Obviously, when I say "some henchmen", it's pretty vague. Any tips? I want the Witch Hunter and Ecclesiarchy warbands to feel as if they are allied, or perhaps guided by the same hand. The Witch Hunter warband is highly Puritanical, and in my backstory, both of the younger Inquisitors had been recruited in from the ranks of the Schola Progenium. Together, the two warbands have a general "kill it with fire!" mentality. The real difference between the two groups is that the Inquisitors in my Witch Hunter band are all seasoned warriors and lead from the front (hence the close-combat loadouts), while my Ecclesiarchy higher-ups tend to lead from behind, bellowing prayers and chanting litanies of hatred as their henchmen surge forth. I have a ton of plastics in the mail which should arrive later this week, from which I will build the henchmen for at least one of the warbands. I think it would be interesting to have a pair of flamer-armed troops to accompany the Templar. His flaming staff would tie them together neatly as a unit. Maybe two more armed with lasguns for extra ranged support, and a pair of zealots with close combat weapons for balance. Of course, I'm also thinking about swapping out the zealots for a few Sisters Repentia to serve as stand-ins. For my Witch Hunters, I know I want there to be a cherub in the group, although I have no idea what that would do in terms of gaming , and again, nor do I care. A cleric and perhaps some zealots and a few recruits, to emphasize the arrogance and high-handedness of the Inquisitors.

A bit all over the place with that, but toss me some ideas and I'll see what gets me rolling. Now, on to my other planned warbands:

My Mechanicum warband is going to represent a Magos Militant of an Auxilia Myrmidon expedition, tasked with aggressively seeking out a cult that has stolen a piece of sacred technology. Here is where wargear is going to be a very abstract concept. I absolutely love building Mechanicus models, and I don't worry too much about what the weapon I'm building is actually going to represent. I just care that it looks cool. So, that being said, my Magos is going to be equipped with your standard gear-bladed axe, and his other arm will end in an exotic looking gun. That's about as specific as I care to be at the moment. Beneath him will be an enginseer (who you have seen a WIP picture of earlier in this thread), and a secutor, who will be armed with some sort of heavy ranged weapon and a gear-headed combat weapon. A handful of lasgun-armed skiitari, a praetorian with some sort of large rotary cannon, and some servo skulls armed with las weapons.

A Ordo Malleus warband will consist of an Inquisitor armed with an advanced bionic arm, which I suppose could count as a power fist. He will also carry a bolt pistol. In his retinue will be a sage, an assassin armed with poisoned weapons, and an astropath with a laspistol-armed minder. Since this warband is relatively small, I would like to ally him with a female Rogue Trader, who will be armed with pulse pistols, and some sort of alien sword. I'm not sure if it should be a diresword or an agonizer. I'll get to that later. She will have a Kroot mercenary bodyguard armed with a chainsword and a stub-carbine.

The final group of models I am planning on (at the moment, anyway, I'm sure more will develop and find their own special place in the pipeline), are a trio of very shady, nasty, unscrupulous characters. The first is an Inquisitor Lord of the Ordo Malleus, who manages to stay a field agent by the use of proxies. He will be a powerful psyker of indiscriminate age, who is a reckless radical at heart, but is clever enough to cover his tracks. He may or may not have ties to a dark organization that is notorious for pulling strings from behind the scenes. With him will be a Culexus Assassin. Rounding out the trio is a Daemonhost, completely bound to the Inquisitor's will, and further kept in check by the ever-present threat of the Culexus. If I ever do get around to organizing games with these warbands, these three will serve as NPCs, primarily existing to drive the narrative in the direction I want them to go.

That's a lot of words I just wrote. Kudos to those of you that chewed your way through them. Coming up soon are sketches of the other two Inquisitors from my Witch Hunters band, and the Magos Militant. Until then, keep the commentary going. I'm really eager to hear what you all think about fleshing out warbands with henchmen and lower-ranking characters.

Alright, I have some conversion progress and two new concept art pieces to show. Forgive the quality of my scanner, it is extremely old and I can't afford to get a new one just yet.

The first concept art piece is for the Magos Militant, whom I am naming Izri Amalasand. I wanted to give him a terrifying, inhuman look, and set him apart as the clear leader of the group. The thought of an uncounted mass of mechandrites moving around under his robes like tentacles, allowing him to grow taller at will, struck me as something suitably hideous. Humma Kavula from the most recent Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had something similar going on, and it creeped me out enough to want to duplicate it.


Next up is the senior Inquisitor of my Witch Hunter band, Orazio Pietro Moretti. Clearly, he is heavily influenced by the concept art for Witch Hunters for that god-awful Warhammer Fantasy MMORPG. I have a decent plan in mind of how to build him, and most, if not all, of the bits I will need have been ordered. He will require a lot of sculpting and putty work, but I think I'm up to the challenge.


I've done some work on the Enginseer. I built him a servo-arm out of plasticard. I'm not sure about it yet, but when my watch parts arrive in the mail that will offer me a lot of opportunity to jazz it up. I will also add some gear icons to his axe. The putty work on his right sleeve needs to be sanded into smooth folds, and after I take care of all that he'll be ready to paint.


Finally I have the beginnings of a Navigator sculpt. I'm not sure if I'll be building a warband around this guy or have him serve as an independent character, but I think Navigators are super-weird and I love the Dune influence on them. I don't have a concept sketch for this guy, but I know where I'm going with him.


Let me know what you think about these models, and the above post about the warband makeups.

lookin sweet man count me in as subscribed i'll be checking back here

DexterKong wrote:Next up is the senior Inquisitor of my Witch Hunter band, Orazio Pietro Moretti.
I have a decent plan in mind of how to build him, and most, if not all, of the bits I will need have been ordered.
He will require a lot of sculpting and putty work, but I think I'm up to the challenge.

Finally I have the beginnings of a Navigator sculpt.

Some hints/tips/inspiration:
Empire Pistoleer/greatswords arms and head, gun barrel from an ork nob, shoulder pads from kroot or valkyrie gunners,
GK's sword, hat from Inquisitor or greenstuff, robes from chaos sorcerer. Empire armour.

(that's fifteen minutes I'll never get back...)


And what head do you use for the navigator?

I love the sketches your doing. I have started a series of wire frame sketches that I plan on sculpting. I may have a few ideas for your Magos, a scratch built servo arm drill and 4 claw mechandrite. I made a couple tutorials check out the end of page 2 in my blog. (link in my sig). keep up the great work

Amazing sketches and the navigator looks amazing!

Speedfreek:
You and I are thinking along the same lines. I've already ordered most of the bits I'll need for the Inquisitor, and you nailed pretty much all of them. I hadn't considered using the Ork gun barrels for his inferno pistol, but when the bits arrive and I start chopping things up, I'll definitely see how it looks. The hat is going to be sculpted.

Depraved:
That tutorial is perfect! Thanks for pointing it out to me. I'll definitely use it when it comes time to build my Magos.

I've got a few new pics. Yesterday, the clockwork pieces and my bits order showed up in the mail (which is to say, both arrived late), so until last night I hadn't been making much progress. However, I did manage to throw together a Secutor for my Auxilia Myrmidon warband. I would like to have more robes to him, but at the same time I wanted plenty of armor to be visible, so he comes across as heavy and plodding. I hope the conversion doesn't come across as lazy. I plan on adding a servo arm to him soon.



I did a little more work on my Enginseer, and think my conversion work on him is done. Just need to paint him now.



The Navigator got some more sculpting work done on him. He is going to be about 70-80% sculpted, and since I'm learning as I go, I'm taking my time on him. I know what I want him to look like when he's done, so we'll see if I can get him there.



That's it for now. Like I said, I got in a shipment of bits and am ready to start work on some henchmen, but am unsure yet what to arm them with. A few posts above I rambled on about ideas for henchmen loadouts, so I'd love to hear opinions on them.

Glad your continueing im enjoying your =][= very much keep up the great work

You've got some really nice conversions here. I'm pretty excited about where this blog is going. I'm a big fan of the ad-mech AND the =][=. Consider me subscribed.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. While I ponder the henchmen and wait on tips and opinions, I started work on a hunter/tracker mercenary. My goal is to give him a grizzled redneck feel to him, like he was raised in a swamp or bayou, and has been hired by one of the warbands (probably the Witch Hunters) to assist in navigating the sewers of whatever hive world it is that my narrative is taking place on.

That reminds me, I need to cook up a setting for this mess.

Speaking of which, I've decided that while I slowly write out the long-term plot for my web comic, I am going to experiment with a more free-form manner of storytelling in this blog, using images of WIP models, finished models, and artwork ranging from rough sketches to full-color pieces. My goal will be for each narrative passage to be written from the point of view of one of the characters I have created, in order to help me better define their personality.

One specific characters I have in the immediate pipeline is a a sharpshooter and my Rogue Trader.

Updates!

I've started piecing together my senior Witch Hunter Inquisitor, which I posted the concept sketch for above. He's still pretty rough, but the general idea is there. I've got a lot of putty work ahead of me.



Also, I built his Inferno Pistol:



Finally, I put together a hunter/tracker type of mercenary. I wanted him to have a sort of redneck look to him, like he had been raised in the swamps or bayous of some backwater planet, and has a simple yet deadly appearance to him. I think I nailed it, and am really happy with how he came together. He's about 95% done, I just need to fill in a gap or two with green stuff and double-check for mold lines.

some nice models, im LOVING the new witch hunter inq. where did you get that head?

Thanks! The head is from the Empire Great Cannon/Mortar set. It was a bit thicker than what I was looking for, so I shaved in the cheekbones some. I'll be sculpting his hat towards the end of the conversion process with him, and am currently working on his robes.

I Love conversions and minis with odd hats and bizarre weapons so I'm in.

A quick update on my senior Witch Hunter, Inquisitor Orazio Pietro Moretti. The sculpting of the cloak is about 95% done. I just need to clean up some gaps and the sloppy transitions between green stuff and plastic. I also need to add the glove to his left hand, and give him one of those magnificent hats.



His sword is done and ready to be attached, which will be the last step. I'm also toying with the idea of adding some stuff hanging from his belt, or keeping it open and doing freehand work on the robes. What do you all think? And give me ideas on henchmen, already!

There will probably be another update tonight, including a new character.

Some really nice updates since I last checked, the inquisitor is looking amazing and I can't wait to see him and the rest of the warband finished.

Great miniatures and cool design. Can't wait for seeing more stuff.