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I've been following the Inq28 movement for some years and have some assorted opinions on it.

If you don't know what Inq28 is, it originally began as an adaptation of GW's Inquisitor tabletop game, which can be described as a collaborative RPG/skirmish game hybrid, but using 28mm scale instead of the 54 mm scale of the original game. The 28mm scale allows for lots of kitbashing and creation of custom characters for Inquisitors and their retinues.

The painting style is very much inspired by the "Blanchitsu" sections of White Dwarf, where Blanche featured Inquistorial warbands that fit his artistic vision of the grim, grimy, and absurd everyday experiences away from the battlefields or 40k. Blurry, muddy transitions, muted tones, and warm colors. Although Blanche's style is not my favorite, Blanchitsu was one of my favorite sections of WD. When my backlog clears, I eventually want to make an Inquisitorial retinue of my own.

When it comes to the positives of Inq28, the greatest strength is the creativity and flexibility. There are no hard and fast rules. The rise of 3d printing and the relative ease of access means you can print whatever characters or bits you want and make whatever conversion. When done well, the Inq28 art style can look far better and rooted in 40k than 'Eavy Metal (which is really meant to show off each and every edge of the miniature). GW is also releasing more and more stuff that easily fits into Inq28. The community seems more into story-telling and collaboration vs. competition, which in my opinion is wonderful.

As for drawbacks... my main issue with Inq28 is currently how same-y a lot of it looks. The fifth edition of 28 magazine (a fanzine made by members of the Inq28 scene) recently released. If you hid the names of the artists featured, you might struggle to tell where one artist's work stops and another begins. The Inq28 scene has seen a huge influx of work clearly more inspired by Dark Souls and Souls-likes than Warhammer, which has displaced the gothic industrial look with something which is more organic and baroque. Evolution is inevitable, it is the nature of leaderless art movements, but I much prefer the style when the scene was new and not blended with Soulsborne aesthetics.

As much as I like Inq28, a lot of the work being posted, particularly some of the derivative movements such as "Turnip28", is... not good. I see a lot of haphazard kitbashes are basically a tinted sloppy grayscale with a pop or two of muted color, and smeared with weathering enamels and pigment powders. A lot of the art featured is clearly just aping off of Blanche than introducing anything fresh or unique. In my opinion, the community should have higher standards about what gets featured.

However, to end on a positive note, Inq28 allows for artwork in miniature that allows exploration of areas ignored by GW and other miniatures publishers in an-ever evolving scene.

What do you think?

You formulated a lot of things that were spooking around in the back-chambers of my head very succinctly, and i can't but agree to most of what you wrote. Especially your remarks about a lot of it looking very same-ish or literally tarred with the same (weathering) brush ring true. I'd add that especially in 28 magazine, you just get tired of the endless parade of deformed creatures - what is shocking, engaging and stimulating in Blanche's sketchworks gets trivialized by ubiquity: if everyone is deformed, covered in grime or horribly mutated, that's just the normal for this setting, and loses its provocative edge. It just looks like you made a feature movie out of that scene in the original Toy Story where you see the horribly treated toys of the neighbour's boy. It's what rankled me with a lot of the later Mordheim stuff: there's using themes and visual cues, and there's overdoing it to the point of parody. Not everybody needs to have a fish or a severed hand nailed to it, for example. I called it 'mutation sprue syndrome' for a time, because these rat-tail tentacles, the eyeless head etc. just turned up everywhere...

The Toy Story reference made me chuckle, and you are absolutely right about that. What makes monsters "monsters" is that they are something severely out of the ordinary. The current way things are presented in the movement makes them... well... ordinary. What was part of the appeal of the movement originally was that it depicted "ordinary" people in the setting. Their appearances are different, often unsettling different (especially Admech, which is the point), but they are still people under the future-medieval garb. You can get more invested in them than something that has five different mutations crammed onto it.

I have a feeling in the near future we may see an "OG-Inq28" that goes back to the original intentions and stylings of Inq28 before the mutations and turnips took over.

I can't say I agree. But then I've been included in 28mag and my stuff looks nothing like the 'normal' aesthetic you'd associate with the 28 movement.

I think the issue here is you are looking at the mag as its own entity, when really its a tiny, tiny proportion of the wargaming hobby as a whole. On its own, its going to feel same-y, as its a collection of very similar minded folk, painting (mostly) in a very similar style. Compare it to any other hobby magazine and its wildly different.

The style has been going on long enough now, and has grown that there is lot more people imitating the style compared to 8-10 years ago when it was still 'new' and more unique. But it is what it is. Its really not to dissimilar to 'regular' styled warhammer hobbying. How many people painting space marines with edge highlighting posting their work up online can you actually tell apart without seeing their name?

MTMP wrote:
In my opinion, the community should have higher standards about what gets featured.

I think its a hobby and whilst there are some people who might been seen as having 'mastered' it, I think anyone should be able to have a crack at it and if they enjoy making "haphazard kitbashes" or painting "smeared with weathering enamels", then why should anyone care. The magazine is a hobby mag, not a sterile product catalogue.

I attended a Forbidden Psalm event at the Gardens of Hecate this Saturday and I demo Turnip28 at conventions, so obviously I disagree. Moving away from 40k kitbashes is good and there's loads of creativity still to be had.

Here's a Facebook photo album of our models.

Inq28 honestly is what got me back interested in the 40k universe again after having had enough in the late 2000s. When I discovered it it was the biggest breath of fresh air since... well since the original Inquisitor game. My favorite parts of 40k are the dingy dark corners where everything scuttles about and tries desperately not to be seen, and the Inq28 side of the hobby absolutely revels in that side of the universe. Sure, Space Marines and Lord Commanders and Farseers and all that, but tell me about what lives in the sump sea at the bottom of a hive and the ramshackle "civilizations" that surround such perilous locations.

But it's like anything that starts from a single group and radiates into the wider world. People take it radically different places that don't mesh with what created the style in the first place or slavishly stick to the "rules," but only at the shallowest level. IE, sepia above all else! It's the natural result of people doing their own version of a thing they didn't come up with themselves, and I'm just a guilty of it as others. We're just not as creative as some of the people who founded the style, but we're still going to emulate it as best we can.

It's established enough that it's no longer "new," which is probably why issue 5 of 28 Mag isn't as enthralling as issue 1 was. There's just more of it, which inherently makes it less special. Sad, but true.

I still think it's the best thing to emerge in the 40k milieu in at least 10 years.

Love any iteration of the INQ28 aesthetic.

I'm not at all worried that 28Mag might be a bit samey. I've been around long enough to see trends of various length come and go in the wargaming world.

On a personal level, I love seeing how some of this aesthetic has managed to divorce itself completely from the GW ecosystem with games like Turnip28 and sludge.

As for the perception of sloppy conversions, I love them. I don't at all mind the elevation of work that might not "professional". It's nice to see more attainable work featured. There's plenty of outlets where the work of "professionals" can be seen.

Inq28 is amazing. The spinoffs are even better in how they twist and transplant the atmosphere of Blanche's work across a bunch of different contexts. Turnip28, Sludge, Trench Crusade, Gardens of Hecate, Iron Sleet... just pure creativity.

There is nothing wrong with the quality of work on display - it's right where it should be. The community is small so naturally there won't be as many highly skilled artists to feature compared to that of a more mainstream style.

It's true but it's true of any painting style. Yeah, there's a bunch of mediocre derivative and formulaic stuff in the style but how many times have we seen badly done OSL sprayed on every surface of a model because "OSL is a pro painting technique"? Or shiny chrome NMM on models that would never be that shiny in "real life" because chrome NMM shows off blending skills better than a more realistic look? Or a basic cannon fodder soldier model with elaborate freehand on every possible surface because painting judges give more points for freehand work? I'd say at least 90% of featured miniatures painting work is bland and formulaic, with very few pieces having anything original or interesting beyond being gaming pieces.

I feel the same way about Impressionism! /S



I like it. I also like the idea of Inquisitors and working in settings OTHER than all-out warfare. Much more nuanced and interesting.

I recall seeing a game of INQ where neither side fired a shot, and instead the two players role-played the scenario out and resolved the scenario. That blew my mind, and sort of got me hooked on the idea of INQ (any scale).

I played a ton of the original Inquisitor game and started following the Inq28 movement after it became a thing and I really like it and all the other styles and games that came from it.

Maybe a little off-topic for this thread, but you got me thinking, since 28mm is essentially a less expensive and more convenient way to play Inquisitor.

My group, years ago used to play Inq, but the models were pricey and the players were mostly high school or college kids.

So we came up with a rule that only 54mm GW models could be used as PCs

http://blackmarketminiatures.su/product-category/games-workshop/inquisitor-rpg

but anything else 54mm, could be used as NPCs. Thus, these guys got a lot of play

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TimMee-Galaxy-Laser-Team-Space-Figures-Black-vs-Silver-50pc-Set-Made-in-USA/162439757?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1239&adid=22222222222286879261&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=74629452976290&wl4=pla-4578229029088064:aud-813924292&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=162439757_10000000566&wl14=galaxy%20laser%20team&veh=sem&gclid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252

These guys

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0747QDHGV/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0747QDHGV&pd_rd_w=BPI3B&content-id=amzn1.sym.f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_p=f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_r=PG4WAS2AHS93ZY7EXE45&pd_rd_wg=bKQvo&pd_rd_r=52c9256f-6ba8-498a-a5f0-abf006ce27b3&s=toys-and-games&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

and these guys

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G9QGJFB/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07G9QGJFB&pd_rd_w=29Xfp&content-id=amzn1.sym.f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_p=f734d1a2-0bf9-4a26-ad34-2e1b969a5a75&pf_rd_r=E71SM90C328K49TJYMSP&pd_rd_wg=DvZnU&pd_rd_r=7bcef552-72a6-4045-8d97-aa7ca7e0b64d&s=toys-and-games&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

were not around back then, though I'm sure they would have.

Again, just kind of a trip down memory lane, if anyone thinks this is too far afield of the discussion, I'll remove it.

I follow a INQ28 group or one of them on facebook. I'm working on a warband using my Ratskin renegades and some Inquisitor models but I'm looking for a colonel Kurtz to complete it. I thought why now, a hart of darkness warband would be interesting. I have about 20 Ratskins painted and the Inquisitor so far but the project has stalled out.

I'd love to play but none of my friends ever expressed interest.

It's Mordhiem with 40K.

Same passion, Same vibe. I have not had any of the issues you have in the game.

Playing the game in smaller teams/ groups makes for a solid , fun experience. The fact that you have to develop and shell out your piece, leads to you being INCLUDED in the evolution...

THAT is the essence of good table top gaming. Being part of something bigger then you are. Don't look down on the less then "Professional" gamers. That's why we work together to improve the whole, collectively.

What rules does Inq28? I get that it started with the OG Inquisitor rules but I was wondering if in the multiple decades since it's been fan adapted/advanced to something more.

That is a very loaded question. LOL.

Some people just reduce INQ to 28mm scale. Others make new rulesets based on Necromunda or other games. Others use 3rd party rules like Planet28 and others.

The only consensus is more around setting and style than on rules.

Thanks. I know of things like Inquisimunda only by name.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:
Maybe a little off-topic for this thread, but you got me thinking, since 28mm is essentially a less expensive and more convenient way to play Inquisitor.

My group, years ago used to play Inq, but the models were pricey and the players were mostly high school or college kids.

So we came up with a rule that only 54mm GW models could be used as PCs

http://blackmarketminiatures.su/product-category/games-workshop/inquisitor-rpg

but anything else 54mm, could be used as NPCs. Thus, these guys got a lot of play

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TimMee-Galaxy-Laser-Team-Space-Figures-Black-vs-Silver-50pc-Set-Made-in-USA/162439757?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1239&adid=22222222222286879261&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=74629452976290&wl4=pla-4578229029088064:aud-813924292&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=162439757_10000000566&wl14=galaxy%20laser%20team&veh=sem&gclid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252

That's awesome! Fantasy wargaming started with old plastic Robin Hood figures, so you're in good company!

I run an Inq28 campaign using a modified version of the Kill Team 2021 rules. I love the Inq28 movement, though I haven't really adopted the most popular artistic style. My miniatures are usually closer to the late 80's 'Eavy Metal style than anything else.

I adore the 28mag (patreon of theirs as well) and every issue that comes out heals my hobby soul a little.

Models looking samey? Compared to what exactly, paint-by-numbers stock GW armies, built 100% according to the assembly instructions, utilizing only paint shades outlined in an official GW video or article?

Painting styles are never synonyms for quality, isn't that kind of obvious if you think about it. I personally like the "Imperial Armour Masterclass" painting style the most, but also like Blanchitsu and Grimdark over the trad Eavy Metal style. You can create masterpieces or terrible eyesores with any of them.

What I adore the most about 28 things, is the passion and creativity of the people involved. They are not just "buying GW product", they are participating in "world building", which always has been a core value for me in RPG's and "3D Roleplaying Hobby Games". This collaborative DIY ethos is becoming extinct from the mainline 40K et al.. We sorely need stuff like 28 to keep this ethos alive now that GW themselves have abandoned it over prioritizing the large end of "the Hobby Trumpet" (ie. the preteens who play GW games for a year or two then drop out - a vast majority of GW's income)

I've never played Inq28 myself (no-one I know is interested in playing something like that), but I'd be very keen to try out some sort of KT21 rules-based skirmish game in the Inq setting. I have toyed with the idea of homebrewing a version of Rogue Trader which uses the KT21 core mechanics, but the scope of such an undertaking is too vast for a single person to tackle..

 tauist wrote:


I've never played Inq28 myself (no-one I know is interested in playing something like that), but I'd be very keen to try out some sort of KT21 rules-based skirmish game in the Inq setting.

Have you read Acolyte? A fan adaptation of K21 into an Iquisitorial campaign system. Might be right up your alley...
https://linktr.ee/acolytegame?fbclid=IwAR0r-ooyblcYz7IHz6R_Cv_GS-Rssk9gfGogkVPomcrFuSinxhx-Ry_Fo4A

 tauist wrote:
Models looking samey? Compared to what exactly, paint-by-numbers stock GW armies

Well... yeah?

I like Inq28 and don't have anything against people who love painting in a Blanchitsu style.

But I'd say I see it far more often than "'Eavy Metal done properly" because you don't have to spend hours doing edge highlights on every model.

MTMP wrote:
I much prefer the style when the scene was new and not blended with Soulsborne aesthetics.

I consider the entirety of the Soulsborne aesthetics to be a complete disaster for the art industry. Ever since this game series became popular there is unending parade of imitators all doing the same awful, grimy "organic" artstyle, over and over, over and over.

As for the grimdark28 movement in general - whatever, I don't have strong opinions here. I'm never going to play any of these games, their aesthetics don't interest me.

 Pariah Press wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:
Maybe a little off-topic for this thread, but you got me thinking, since 28mm is essentially a less expensive and more convenient way to play Inquisitor.

My group, years ago used to play Inq, but the models were pricey and the players were mostly high school or college kids.

So we came up with a rule that only 54mm GW models could be used as PCs

http://blackmarketminiatures.su/product-category/games-workshop/inquisitor-rpg

but anything else 54mm, could be used as NPCs. Thus, these guys got a lot of play

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TimMee-Galaxy-Laser-Team-Space-Figures-Black-vs-Silver-50pc-Set-Made-in-USA/162439757?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1239&adid=22222222222286879261&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=74629452976290&wl4=pla-4578229029088064:aud-813924292&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=162439757_10000000566&wl14=galaxy%20laser%20team&veh=sem&gclid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=760acc7fb4f61b83f89da8d3e6486252

That's awesome! Fantasy wargaming started with old plastic Robin Hood figures, so you're in good company!

I run an Inq28 campaign using a modified version of the Kill Team 2021 rules. I love the Inq28 movement, though I haven't really adopted the most popular artistic style. My miniatures are usually closer to the late 80's 'Eavy Metal style than anything else.

Sounds very cool, but I guess I don't quite get the question.

Why would you change the rules? If all you are doing is changing the scale of the figs, why not (off the cuff) just do the measuring with 1" converts down to 1cm? That's usually the way I've seen it done when converting scales back and forth between 25mm and 15 mm.

Or am I missing something?

I'm sure that everyone has their own reasons. For me, I like how fast KT21 plays. Also, many of my models have stats and rules written up for them already in that system, which makes it easier to prepare for games. It also supports larger model counts a bit more smoothly than Inquisitor does.

But yeah, people use Inquisitor, Necromunda, Planet 28, etc. etc. rules.

 Pariah Press wrote:
I'm sure that everyone has their own reasons. For me, I like how fast KT21 plays. Also, many of my models have stats and rules written up for them already in that system, which makes it easier to prepare for games. It also supports larger model counts a bit more smoothly than Inquisitor does.

But yeah, people use Inquisitor, Necromunda, Planet 28, etc. etc. rules.

If you are talking about streamlining the rules for more playability, then, yes, I'd more than agree. Inquisitor at "army" level is about three figures per player, and that can be a TOUGH evening, especially if everybody hasn't been too conservative with the really outre' abilities.

Speaking of which, does anybody know where I can get a copy of the old White Dwarf that had the rules for Inquisitors spending points on more campaign level and political stuff?

Secret bases, hideouts, allies, that kind of thing?

I'm not sure I'll ever play Inquisitor again, but that article was fun, and would be much appreciated.

I'm not a massive fan from the GrimDark aesthetic to begin with, although I can appreciate the homage to Blanche's art style.

I think I agree with many posters on this thread that the "SoulsBorne" additions to the Inq28 artstyle has been largely to its detriment. I'm personally not much of a fan of the "separate art styles" of Turnip28, GrimDark with oils etc, that are popular at the moment, because to me they are all the same art style on slightly different mediums (space marines as opposed to root vegetables etc). I think I just have a problem with the "everything is more enjoyable/realistic if its darker, more horrible and washed out" mentality that also pervades a lot of that art discussion. I suppose I'm more of a GrimBright kind of guy, so I still paint my gribblies and monsters on Goblin Green bases. Different strokes for different folks!