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"Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
~ Ancient Saying



It's hard for me to believe, but it's been nearly two years since I posted anything I've been working on here, on Dakka. During that time, I had a long fallow period when I lost my hobby mojo and struggled hard to find it. However, I've recently found myself inspired again, thanks in huge part to the great online community that is the backbone of the Inq28 hobby. So a new blog for a new age, one that I hope will be productive and inspire me to stretch the limits of my hobby.

Rather than using this first post to show what I'm working on now, I'm going to post the last thing I finished.

I'm working on my own little corner of the 40k galaxy, simply for my own amusement. It's a system controlled by a secretive, Machiavellian Navigator House known as Tranquil Gate. Rather than launching straight into creating a band of Navigators, I wanted first to work on a supporting cast; servants, adversaries, by standers. My first idea was to create an ambassador. A figure who, while not a navigator themselves, could be their servants in the wider Imperium.

Captain Mina Vashti began as a simple conversion of Inquisitor Greyfax. I often convert something that I think looks cool and work out what it is afterwards, but here I knew where I was headed very shortly after the initial idea. A voidship captain, working for Tranquil Gate, Captain Vashti would be an standard human, but one equipped with the most ornate armour and weapons. She quickly acquired a pet cybersphynx, Sredni, and a small band of henchmen containing two crewmen from her ship and an old psyker conversion that I decided would fit well with her group.



Mina Vashti, Sredni and her crewmen prior to painting. To make Vashti, I replaced Greyfax's arms with arms from a Sister of Silence and sculpted short sleeves onto her robe. Her head is from a Dark Elf, one of the Hydra handlers if I remember correctly, with an afro sculped from greenstuff.



Vashti finished with the crewmen in progress.



... and the finished warband. Intrepid Voidmen and representatives of Tranquil Gate. I was lucky enough to be able to use them in an Inq28 game at Warhammer World in May, where they got horribly mauled by superior firepower, but Captain Vashti survived and will, Emperor willing, go on to further adventures.



The next phase has begun and another sinister group is emerging from the shadows ... soon.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Looks like a great (re)start. Really nice conversion and paint job.

Very nice. I think projects like this bring out the best, interested to see where it goes.

Cool that you've returned after such a hiatus! I often catch myself in long breaks but the hobby always brings me back. Subbed

I have to confess that I completely neglected this thread in the last year. I’m going to change that, so here’s the first of 2 posts to bring it up to date.

I’ve developed a slowly expanding Death Cult. The initial impetus was to do something with some Necromunda Eschers just to make them different from other Eschers. The silhouette of some of the minis reminded me of swashbuckling duellists so I played on that idea by adding greenstuff ruffs. The result felt like if Vivienne Westwood worked for Games Workshop.

The masks came out of the practicality of finding heads I liked. I wanted to move away from the Escher, big hair and their heads look tiny without it. Witch elf heads were the answer (cos I’m a GW purist, for no reason other than I like the challenge). What I’d made were clearly Death Cultists to me, but a step away from the usual archetype.



The rest of the minis came from wanting to inject a heavy dose of gothic. I had a conscious choice to un-Flanderise the Death Cult. The idea that Death Cult assassins are all pvc clad women with swords comes from just two minis created for the original Inquisitor game. I wanted to reference that but broaden the field to include a wider variety of characters.

Thanks for reading my rambling and please forgive my less than stellar photography skills.

Amazing stuff, really inspiring.

Very cool stuff. I like your skin tones a lot.

Thank you.

My god...they're beautiful.

Navigator conversion finished towards the end of last year. I was quite happy with the result, but there’s a few things about it I don’t like. I may revisit this conversion for a second attempt one day.

Looks like a great conversion to me. I like the definition on the red dress. Looks very warm and realistic.

Another lovely model. Strikes me as a mix between a Newcomer and Plavalaguna. Plus 40K.

Great work MonkeyBallistic.

Cheers,

CB