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Hi everyone. I'm getting into Inquisitor at the original 54mm scale and thought it would be cool to start a build diary. Any advice from Inquisitor veterans would be greatly appreciated.

I'm starting with my favorite character type from the 40k universe. The dashing, in it for the money Rogue Trader

What sort of advice are you looking for?

If you're looking for painting and modelling techniques, I'm afraid my experience focuses on "Green-stuff the frak out of it".

Background and game-play wise though, I can spout a great deal. I guess my opening tip on that would be to catch up on the current evolution of the game, if you haven't already; over the fourteen years the game's been around, the community's come to various unofficial consensuses on some of the things the original rulebook could have improved on.

I suppose the main thrust at this point would be how much scenery and how many models is a good starting point for a new player. I've got a copy of the original rule book, and a collection of supplements and PDF's I'm currently working through.

I've also been looking at the Conclave web site

 Duke Bohemond wrote:
I suppose the main thrust at this point would be how much scenery and how many models is a good starting point for a new player.

I'd generally advise that players use two to four characters each, with a normal limit of about 10 PCs and NPCs total between all players and the GM. I tend to find that more characters than that tends to get crowded and slow, but having only one character both kills any intra-warband roleplaying and tends to result in the player having nothing to do for several turns if their only character gets stunned or heavily injured.

Terrain-wise, you want it to be pretty dense. Here's some examples of how we've set up tables at previous WHW events (on which note, I see your user flag puts you in the UK, so consider joining us in future!):


Okay, the last one is sort of cheating, as it's just one of the layouts of WHW's own Spyral Prime table, but we've found it to be a pretty good table for Inquisitor scenarios.

That sort of brings up a second point. Most of that is WH40K terrain or, in the first picture, Necromunda terrain (now sadly disposed of, as far as anyone at WHW will admit to), but other than a couple of easily ignored oddities (like the 28mm scale Rhino you can see embedded in a pile of debris on the right edge of the last picture, and therefore conflicting a bit with its big sister on the other side of the picture), it works fine for 54mm scale. Most terrain's got to account for Ork Warbosses (wif boss polez), Tau Battlesuits and other large 40mm based models anyway, so it's usually viable for to make it or convert it to suit both scales with a little thought - GW actually deliberately did this with the Cities of Death stuff.

I've got a copy of the original rule book, and a collection of supplements and PDF's I'm currently working through.

If you've found my archive, I particularly recommend "Giving Birth to a Monster" from the Exterminatus section. Although its use of random generators is a bit dated now, it was one of the earliest discussions that really helped Inquisitor mature as a game.

I've also been looking at the Conclave web site

You may also find the Carthax Wiki useful.

The scenery looks great in the selection you provided, its just the atmosphere I had in mind.

I've add the Carthax Wiki to my favorites and I'll certainly give the " Giving Birth to a Monster" article a look.

Thanks for your help Marco, I really appreciate it. I've sent a request to join the Conclave forum, so hopefully I'll see the there as well very soon.

No problem. I've also pinged the admin over on the 'Clave to give him a heads up about your application - it should make it easier for him to find it amongst all the spambots trying to register.

Again. Thank you.

My first Inquisitor Character. Paint job finished and a few bullet points to be expanded on later

On to the next build

I like it. Not sure if a cape would add anything of value to the model, although a coat like in the picture you listed as a source of inspiration could be nice, I think.

It does need a bit of something to distinguish her as an inquisitor rather than a death cultist, I think. A cloak, a headpiece. Something more flashy than a simple assassin would wear.

I've never tried to model a coat on a model before. I think maybe a trip to YouTube may be in order. Thanks for the comment


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Crystal-Maze wrote:
It does need a bit of something to distinguish her as an inquisitor rather than a death cultist, I think. A cloak, a headpiece. Something more flashy than a simple assassin would wear.

That's what I was feeling when I put her together. She needs to look more grand some how.

Looking at Duke de la Fere...

"Won his warrant in a game of chance" is bordering on a cliché - it comes up every now and again in character backgrounds, but seldom explains the circumstances under which a Rogue Trader would be gambling such an unfathomably valuable document. These licences are the foundation of huge financial empires, authorise the possession of small trade armadas, and permit the leadership of armed forces enough to explore outside the borders of the Imperium.
How inconceivably badly would you have to be losing to have to put that onto the table? It's also hard to imagine that a game going that badly wouldn't lead to accusations of cheating - and, whether it were a legitimate loss or not, copious amounts of violence.

If you're not too attached to the original idea... I'm assuming that he wasn't quite far enough up the Navy's chain of command to have been directly rewarded with a Trade Warrant for his services. However, what if he were a favoured junior officer of some admiral or commodore who was thus rewarded, and was taken along as part of the now-ex Admiral's new command crew? The new Trader dies without heirs, and his will passes the Warrant onto de la Fere - or, if you really want to give him some political enemies, the Trader does have living heirs, but Bohemond was chosen over them!

It's interesting to see you've imported him into Carthax, so do feel free to discuss that as well. I can't pretend I remember all of the stuff related to the sector, but if you have any ideas for the Duke , there may be related Carthax fluff you can build on.

~~~~~

Moving on to his character sheet, it perhaps feels a little light.

What I probably should have mentioned alongside "Giving Birth to a Monster" is we sort of hit a medium between that and the rulebook! I mean, it's a good thing not having characters making pin-point shots from across the table, but you should feel free to be a bit more liberal than GBtaM.
GBtaM is a bit campaign focused, talking about characters "levelling up" their skills and equipment through games, but this is a rare way to play these days; it's now common for characters to be produced in something of a status quo near their peak. A player is always free to readjust a character sheet if he/she feels in-game events make it appropriate (for example, a character who keeps getting tied up by web pistols might quite reasonably decide to acquire some solvent, or an arm lost in game may get replaced with a bionic - well, might, anyway. Many characters have access to vat-cloning tech if they want), but characters will often remain much the same for years. Heck, they'll even shrug off in-game "dead" results if the player decides it's not their time yet - these are action heroes, so they absolutely should be able to dramatically swagger back into plot lines to save the day and quip that reports of their death were greatly exaggerated.

As such, while characters should have reasonable weapons, equipment and skills (bearing in mind that things like power armour, boltguns and plasma guns are rare, conspicuous and finicky items, so characters will often eschew them in favour of equipment that would blend in better with the shady environs in which the Inquisition and their foes must work and hide), they should still be written in a way to help cement them as an individual in game.

It's not uncommon for my characters to have several skills in order that I feel that they will play uniquely enough as a character - but these are often minor, custom-written "fluff" skills. For example, Sergeant Kronen, from the tunnel fighting Mordant 303rd regiment gets a skill that halves her penalties in darkness. It's simple and not very powerful (compared to some skills and equipment that ignore dark entirely), but it's one of my favourite skills for how it helps her feel like she really is a tunnel fighter.

So...

... while Rogue Traders are rather eccentric people, they are also rather wealthy. They might grow attached to rather odd choices of weapons, but they will have access to a great many options. Looking into options that don't require adjusting the model; his clothes could perhaps be made of xeno-mesh, he might have some exotic rounds for his stubber (which is itself possibly a model and make of some prestige - if not necessarily great looks), or his sabre may be forged from a bizarre alloy that has abnormal properties. And what if he's got something both illegal and strange hidden in those pouches?

And if there's any other skills you think might suit him, I can help discuss those too.

~~~~~

Beyond that, I'll echo the general points above. The lady could do with something to show that even if she was once part of a death cult, she is an agent of the Inquisition now.

Thanks for the input Marco.

As you can probably guess, I'm still trying to find my feet with this whole character creation malarkey

Your correct in saying that the stats are light and the reasons for this was two fold.
Firstly: I didn't want to take the mickey and have a super character that no one would enjoy playing against.
Secondly: I wasn't sure whether or not he would be in an Inquisitors retinue or lead a force of his own, like Rogue Traders used to do in the original version of Warhammer 40K.

I would like to go to the Conclaves Inquisitor event next year. So with that in mind, would bringing a Rogue Trader retinue be fine with the organizers?

Taking on board what you've said about the background, I'll make the following amendments.

Duke Bohemond was born into the De la Fere family, one of the wealthiest mercantile families in the Segmentum Pacificus with ties to the nobility, hence his title. Because of his status and the best maritime training provided by the family the Duke was placed in command of a squadron of his family's escort cruisers. His task was to protect family transports running supplies from the port of Hydraphur to Armageddon. This effectively bought his squadron under the command of the Armageddon battle group. One of the Admirals in charge of a large section of this fleet was Bohemond's uncle, Godwin de Martel. Many battles were fought and commendation won during this time in young Bohemond's life.

However tragedy was soon to strike for Bohemond. During a fierce engagement with an Ork waaagh fleet, Admiral de Martel was killed. The Admiral left all his worldly estate to his second wife and her two sons. Save one item.
During the year leading up to his death, Admiral Godin had been awarded a Warrant of Trade by the High Lords of Terra, and it was his intention to take Bohemond with him as his second in command once his obligations in the Armageddon sector had been fulfilled .

Bohemond is now a Rogue Trader and has taken it upon himself to explore the unknown reaches beyond the Carthax sector.

Ill add more when I have time

 Duke Bohemond wrote:
Firstly: I didn't want to take the mickey and have a super character that no one would enjoy playing against.
Secondly: I wasn't sure whether or not he would be in an Inquisitors retinue or lead a force of his own, like Rogue Traders used to do in the original version of Warhammer 40K.

Well, on the first point, it's fine for characters to be special. They just shouldn't be "more special" than other people's!

On the second point... I can sort of understand what you're getting at, but while I might adjust a character based on who else will be in the same group, their position in the chain of command is less relevant. While the core WH40K game loves giving leaders massive stat boosts, leaders are not actually likely to be the best fighters. An Inquisitor or Rogue Trader's job is multi-fold, so it's almost certain that they can recruit people who better specialise in fighting

I would like to go to the Conclaves Inquisitor event next year. So with that in mind, would bringing a Rogue Trader retinue be fine with the organizers?

Absolutely. We regularly have Inquisitorial, Rogue Trader, Mechanicus, Cultist, Munitorum, Ecclesiarchy, etc retinues along.

Although, hopefully we'll have an event before next year. Both Van Helser and I have proposed story-driven events, but the dates are yet to be set for those at the moment. (Ideally, I'd like to have my Warhound ready before I confirm a date, so I know for certain that it can be part of the plot).

Taking on board what you've said about the background, I'll make the following amendments.

Sounds good.

Hello again. Well after taking a little break from my Inquisitor build, to finish off some Bolt Action troops for a game this Tuesday at my local club. Its back to a ll that lovely 54mm goodness

After many years of just being a strait "swap and chop" style of converter, who only uses Green Stuff to fill in gaps. I've taken my first foray into the art of sculpting, with some pleasing results.

Just please keep in mind these are my first attempts when commenting

very nice conversion work you've got going on here...
the Ork pistol works very nicely on Kal...
it is also interesting to see him in a unique color scheme...

the assassin looks great...
that head and bob haircut are perfect!!!
i am a bit dissapointed by the cloak, because it hides her backside, which is beautifully sculpted...
that preference aside, the cloak falls nicely, and it may just be the angle of the photo, but from the back it looks like there is a strange flap on the right edge, just where her knives are on her hip...
it breaks the fall line of the cloak, and really drags the eye to that square edge...
the way the cloak wraps around her right leg is a nice piece of work...

i don't play, but have been a huge fan of these 54mm minis since the day my pre-order arrived at the Amsterdam GW store, all those years ago...
it is great to see people keeping the spirit alive...
i'll be keeping an eye on this thread...

cheers
jah

Awesome stuff! Inquisitor is probably the most fun I've had in almost two decades of the hobby, so nice to see people keeping it alive.
I used to have something like 80 figs, 20 of which were fully painted. I've lost almost all of them, but if I can dig some out of storage I'll post some pics.

jah-joshua has covered most of the things I would. (Although I'd not add any complaint about the cloak covering up her arse. It's fine for a model to be sexy, but don't let it detract from the result).

The cherub looks pretty good too - I find a surprising amount of the 28mm range can have uses at 54mm scale.

Thanks for the comments guys.

The cape was tricky for a first attempt but I feel a half decent paint job should bring it together.

Yes she probably would look sexier without it, but the Idea is to make her look more dignified with a sense of authority that an Inquisitor should have.

I look forward to seeing some of your miniature collection Walnuts. I myself plan paint the few I have (about 7-8 models) then buy one a month from ebay.

This is realy shaping up to be a fun project, and the encouragement from the forum is very appreciated.