Inquisitor 28: Enoch 451 & Molotov XXVIII – two souls in purgatory

Ahh, the Arco-flagellant — yet another character archetype that makes Inquisitor the dark and gothic masterpiece it is. Those guys got their first day in the limelight when Inquisitor was released, and they manage to embody much of what is wrong with organised religion in the 40k universe.

The process of Arco-flagellation is used to turn heretics into horrible weapons that can be wielded by the Ecclesiarchy. Use of an Archo-flagellant may also be granted to certain Inquisitors: a perfect excuse to have one or more of them in an Inquisitor warband!
What’s interesting about them is not only the fact that they probably pack quite a punch on the table, but also the hidden tragedy behind these creatures. Granted, Arco-flagellants certainly aren’t the leading roles in the shadow war for the Emperor’s soul, but with a bit of creativity, it’s quite easy to imagine suitably tragic and/or horrible stories to describe their fall from grace and their subsequent transformation into living weapons.

So it was clear to me that I needed to build one or more of them! All the more so since the official models are unfortunately quite horrible. Take a look.

So I once again turned to the Crypt Ghoul kit for a suitably twisted and tortured look. Here’s what I came up with:

The first model I built was once again inspired by Phil Kelly’s Inquisitor Lichtenstein warband: His Arco-flagellant Gryx uses an Ork power claw (from Ghazkull Thraka, no less!) which ended up looking very cool. So I tried the same at the 28mm scale. Apart from that, I added some mechanical doodads to show the “augmentations” the Arco-flagellant had received. The back of the Crypt Ghoul body also sported a nice, sharpened stake and some chains punched through the skin. I kept both, since it looked like they could have been part of the poor individual’s “punishment”. When painting the model, I took care to make the skin look extra pale and clammy. Looking back at it now, I will probably have to go back to touch up the vial supposed to be containing stimulants on the model’s left shoulder at some point, since I am not perfectly happy with the colour there. But apart from that, I was reasonably pleased with my first Arco-flagellant. All that was missing was a suitably dark piece of background for him…

Arco-flagellant “Enoch 451”

In the long years of his career, Inquisitor Antrecht has been forced to use rather “unconventional” means more than once. So it is no wonder that his work would attract the attention of the Ordo Hereticus’ more puritan members sooner rather than later. Consequently, Antrecht has had to deal with the Ordo’s scrutiny on more than one occasion, but few of these confrontations have been as monumental and – ultimately – tragic as that with Inquisitor Ferrante.

During his long fight against the heretic Amnon Helix, Antrecht was forced to use some extreme measures, which earned him Ferrante’s scorn. The Witch Hunter declared his intention of bringing Antrecht in for strict questioning, but his quarry managed to elude him time and time again. Ferrante was man driven by the fires of fanaticism, however, and when he could not apprehend Antrecht, he turned his attention to those close to him instead. Towards this end, he managed to capture Antrecht’s Interrogator, Hamlin Rheden, laying an inescapable trap for the Inquisitor, for he knew Antrecht would try to free his disciple.

He had been right: Antrecht came out of hiding in a desperate bid to free Rheden, only to be confronted by Ferrante and his henchmen. Little is known of the two Inquisitors’ confrontation, but it marked the last the galaxy had ever seen of Witch Hunter Ferrante, leading some to suspect that Antrecht may have had a hand in the Inquisitor’s disappearance (or even his death) and earning him the undying enmity of Ferrante’s own pupil, Holm Fiegmund — a situation that would, in time, have its own dire ramifications.

Ever since Antrecht’s confrontation with the Witch Hunter, an Arco-flagellant designated “Enoch 451” has been a member of the Inquisitor’s retinue. Beyond that, nothing is known with any degree of certainty.

Enoch’s trigger word is “Discipulus”

***

Well, the first model was finished, but I couldn’t really stop at one, could I? So I built another Arco-flagellant, trying to improve on different aspects by using what I had learned while building Enoch 451: I wanted the model to be a little more dynamic. And I wanted to use a somewhat different head, so the model would look different enough from Enoch.

Fortunately, this one is a bit better documented. Here’s a work in progress on my second Arco-flagellant:

Once again, a Crypt Ghoul body formed the basis for the conversion, although this time I shaved off the quills and spikes emerging from the model’s back, replacing them with two electric coils to indicate that there’s some kind of generator powering the flagellant. His right arm was replaced with a Sentinel chainsaw, while I used a flail from the WFB Empire flagellant kit on his left arm to represent an electro-flail. I also added a couple of screws on his back to show where crude surgery had been performed on him in order to suitably “modify” his body. His head is a normal skull from the old Skeleton warriors, although I added a bionic eye that was built from some leftover bits and bobs.

Regarding his base, I had to elevate him a bit to prevent the chainsaw from touching the ground. I achieves this by using cork and the base of one of the energy generators that came with the “Battle for Maccrage” box set.

Concerning the paintjob, I’d like to highlight my method this time. It’s certainly nothing spectacular, but it will probably show you how a very basic paintjob may be transformed by the judicious use of washes.

I started by painting him in the basic colours I wanted. Take a look:

I have to be honest with you: At this stage, I was extremely nervous because of how horrible the model looked. But then came the application of washes: Ogryn Flesh for the skin, Badab Black for the metal parts and Devlan Mud for…well, pretty much everything. After about an hour of waiting and some careful touchups here and there, here’s what he looked like:

Quite a transformation, don’t you think? Granted, this way of painting is not going to win me any prizes, but it’s a fairly quick, effective and, most importantly, fun way of getting your models finished before you get bored. You also don’t need to take my word for it either: This way of painting is championed by much more talented people than me, for example by Steve Buddle, who even explained it in some depth in a Blanchitsu WD-article some time ago.

Concerning the model’s name and background, I decided to name the Arco-flagellant “Molotov XXVIII”, as a small nod to Commissar Molotov, who is a very talented modeller in his own right and a tireless advocate of Inquisitor played at the 28mm scale. A heartfelt, albeit strange and twisted way of saying thank you, admittedly – but of course a perfect fit for the equally strange and twisted 40k universe. So, cheers mate!

Arco-flagellant “Molotov XXVIII”

The man who should become the being called “Molotov XXVIII” was a devout believer in the Imperial Creed and a lay preacher on the Shrine World of Tabeathah. His piety managed to attract quite a large number of followers, inspiring hope and religious fervour in those who came to listen to him. This rankled the Cardinals of Tabeatha greatly, however, for they only allowed their own version of the Imperial truth and feared the growing popularity of the preacher’s teachings. So the man was abducted under cover of night and subjected to arduous torture in an attempt to make him confess to being a sinner and a heretic. But the faith was strong in him, and he could not be broken. It took the punishment of arco-flagellation to wipe his mind clean and end his existence as a human being. Instead, he was turned into a mindless killing machine and left in the dungeons of the great Vetranio Cathedral to wither away or be used in some religious war.

But his captors had been ill advised, for the loss of such a prominent figure incited a religious frenzy in the believers, and they stormed the cathedral, killing the Cardinals who had taken their leader from them. When Inquisitor Antrecht arrived on Tabeatha in the wake of the violent uprising, in order to investigate whether the Cardinals had been influenced by the ruinous powers, he found the lone Arco-flagellant in the catacombs beneath the sacked cathedral and took him along when he left the world. Through a twist of fate, Molotov XXVIII would be allowed to do the Emperor’s work once more…

Molotov XXVIII’s trigger word is “Advocator”

***

And with that, I have managed to show you all of Antrecht’s henchmen, except one: His Servo-skull Mercutio, actually the first model I built for Antrecht’s retinue:

It’s just the Servo-skull from the Cadian Command Squad, glued to its own base. I also have no background for the little guy, although, knowing Antrecht, there is probably some dark and disturbing backstory of some sort. But that, as they say, is a story for another time.

With Inquisitor Antrecht’s retinue completely presented, my future INQ28 posts will turn towards some other individuals, but fear not: Antrecht will still make an appearance from time to time. So look forward to all the strange and demented Inquisitor characters waiting on my workbench…

Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Reasons why you should build your own terrain, pt. 4

As part of my ongoing sermon about why building your own terrain is so great, we already discussed why building your own terrain is fun and cheap and why terrain you built yourself is truly your own. Today I would like to explore yet another angle and show you that…

4.) Building your own terrain makes for a nice change of pace

Before we do that, though, let me make one thing clear: The point of this series is not to dissuade you from buying terrain kits! Far from it! In fact, anything that makes the battlefield look more interesting is cool in my book! As are most of the terrain kits released by GW. You couldn’t really expect to emulate the quality of that stuff without trying really hard — much harder than I am when I am building terrain, in any case.

So all that I am trying to do here is to explore an activity that used to be a cornerstone of the hobby but has somewhat waned in the last years, partly due to the proliferation of (admittedly very nice) premade terrain. It is also something that newcomers to the hobby tend to feel rather dismissive about, probably due to the fact that they tend to have enough on their plates as it is, and the prospect of having to build their own terrain from scratch can be pretty scary. But it doesn’t have to be! It’s easy, and with the recent price hike for some terrain kits and the purported importance of terrain in 6th edition 40k (honni soit, qui mal y pense, and all that), knowing how to build your own terrain has, once more, become pretty useful.

Right, with that one out of my system, let’s get back to the topic at hand:

Like I was saying, building your own terrain makes for a nice change of pace from other hobby activities. The reason for that is that building terrain allows you to paint in much broader strokes. And this goes for the actual painting as well as for everything else!

Say about painting miniatures what you will, but sometimes, it can be a bit of a chore. There are days when the prospect of painting yet another squad of World Eaters doesn’t look too inviting to me and the simple view of my trusty pot of Mechrite Red makes me want to scream. And sometimes, even painting or building an INQ28 model as a distraction just doesn’t cut it. What am I to do then? Easy: I go and build some terrain.

I previously outlined the fact that building terrain can be a very intuitive process. Granted, if you are going for a truly complex project (like a Cathedral, an Imperial city or a whole jungle), some careful planning can go a long way. But sometimes it’s enough to just grab your materials and go with the flow.

Cue exhibit A: Here’s an Imperial base I built using an interestingly shaped piece of styrofoam packaging, some foamcore, a bit of plastic grating and one or two pieces from my bitzbox. I did a small preparatory sketch, but by and large, I really played this one by ear. The fact that the styrofoam piece already looked like some kind of military installation really made things easy for me. I just added a base, a metal floor and a hangar door made from foamcore. Here’s the finished piece:

Building this thing really was a blast. As was the paintjob: When painting terrain, most of the tricks you use when painting your models still apply. You may have to adapt some of them to the slightly different circumstances, but you won’t be sailing totally uncharted seas. Many of the tricks will even work a lot better or be easier to pull off. And you can cut some corners without the whole piece looking completely horrible, something that is considerably harder to pull off with your models.

In this case, I basecoated everything with dark grey structure paint I made myself from black and white acrylic paint, a little glue and some birdsand. Then I used fairly cheap spraypaint from the craft store to lay down the base colours. And finally I added in the details with GW paints. Nice and easy.

This gave me a nice little piece of terrain. At a side length of about 10 inches, it makes for a useful centrepiece on the table in small to medium games of 40k. It’s also quite versatile: It could be used as just a LOS-blocker, as an actual fortified emplacement or even as a bunker of some sorts. I still need to paint some old Space Crusade Tarantulas to serve as optional cannons. Maybe we could play a mission with two armies in a race to take control of the installation, with the first to reach it able to use the base’s weapons to fire at the advancing foe? In any case, this piece of terrain is rather useful when fighting for control of some kind of building during our campaign, since it’s far more fluffy to actually have the prize there on the table instead of just fighting over a green meadow. Shortly afterwards, I even added a modular tower, made from foamcore, to be added to the piece whenever we were playing for control of a communications base, an orbital relais point or something of the like:

All of this took little work and proved to be really relaxing when I was quite fed-up with painting regular models.
Again, this thing certainly doesn’t look as great as a premade set from GW. But it’s very easy to prepare terrain like this as a setpiece for an upcoming event, campaign battle or what have you.

When building terrain, it’s also quite easy to be  productive. Let me present you with exhibit B, some small ruins I built while I waited for the paint to dry on a bigger project. These were made from the same materials as that very project: Just glue together some leftovers, add some small details and you’re done:

These ruins can then easily be painted in a short amount of time to give you smaller pieces of terrain or just some additional decoration for your battlefield. Take a look:

Like I said, all of this can be done using leftover materials and paint from your bigger projects. And you can easily churn out several of these smaller ruins while you are waiting for the paint to dry or glue to set on your bigger buildings. That is really great for people who – like me – have the attention span of a very small bird. No painful waiting for washes to dry without anything worthwile to do in the meantime! Instead, you are losing very little time waiting, and you are constantly getting stuff done which enormously helps motivation. Here’s a look at another little piece I did, using some leftover foamcore, and old 2nd edition plastic Space Marine and the cardboard from a loo roll:

Some basic drybrushing with Skull White makes the Space Marine actually look like a stone statue:

It may be hard to believe, but there was actually a time when these guys were the latest in plastic miniature design…

And even if you botch the job on any of those smaller pieces, it’s just some foamcore and cardboard: You won’t have ruined an expensive kit you bought!

While the previous exhibits demonstrated how building your own terrain is different from painting your models, exhibit C will focus on one of the similarities between both activities: You’ll be getting better over time.

The first ruined buildings I built for 40k were based on a simple template I drew on an A4 sheet. I would build one perfectly intact wall and then cut it apart to get pretty much all the pieces I needed for a ruined building. On my third try, though, I did get a little more adventurous. Here’s the result:

While the walls are still based on the same template, I wanted to add a more interesting interior to the building. So I built the remains of the different floors as well as a central column, still supporting a part of the roof. While this shouldn’t make too much of a change for games of 40k, at least it makes the building more interesting to look at. And the additional floors and interior walkways should make sure that the building gets just that more interesting when used in games of INQ28 or Necromunda:

So while you are building terrain, you will naturally get better at it, and the scope of your projects will benefit from that. You will feel like you are exercising a set of muscles you didn’t even realise you had.  And before long, you will want to try all kinds of crazy stuff — just like when you are getting better at painting!

So there you have it. I’ve said my part. The next time you are frustrated by having to paint the same six colours on a model over and over or whenever the next breakthrough on a model you are currently working on just isn’t happening, go build some terrain! It’ll help relax you. And I assure you, it will make for a nice change of pace.

Do you have your own experiences with building terrain or do you want to add your point of view to this series? I would love to hear from you in the comments section! Next time, I will discuss why building your own terrain is a great outlet for creativity. Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

More traitors!

Today’s update consists of nothing more clever than showing you my next batch of traitors. One box of Cadians and Chaos Marauders each gave me enough parts to build the Platoon Command Squad as well as two squads of traitors. Once again, I wanted the squad’s loyalist origins to show thorugh while also leaving no doubt as to their current allegiance. Here they are:

I think the squad has a nice mixture of standard Imperial and more primitive elements. Some of the soldiers look quite a lot like loyalists (the chap on the right, for example), while others are channeling a more barabarian vibe. I also added an icon bearer, because I am of the opinion that every squad in every Chaos force needs an icon, if only for flavour. As you can see, the squad also has a traitor carrying a flamer.

Once again, the models were kitbashed from Cadians, Chaos Marauders, Marauder Horsemen, Warriors of Chaos and the odd Chaos Space marine part. As you can see, the Marauder and Cadian parts fit together rather nicely, allowing for a lot of customisation options. From a WYSIWYG perspective, the squad’s equipment seems rather hodgepodge. But then, it certainly adds some flavour to the unit. It also means that they can be used with different weapon loadouts depending on the army list I use for them — and the fact that they are not strictly WYSIWYG shouldn’t be a problem for the most part, as long as my opponent knows in advance what he’s up against.

And finally, let’s have a look at some detail shots of the squad leader:

The head from the Marauder Horsemen kit gives this guy an almost Viking vibe. It also looks like he also salvaged some Marine armour parts from the battle field. The fact that he uses it to on his arms while his torso remains pretty much unprotected shows that this armour is worn for decoration almost as much as for protection. Looking at him now, I also realise that is sword is not entirely straight, but I guess I’ll have to live with it now…

There’s one more squad of the same size where these came from, although I have yet to paint it. I have also begun looking at options of giving these guys some kind of transport, though I will probably eschew the classic option of using a converted Chimera in favour of a more “creative” approach. I am also not that big on tanks, so don’t expect this turning into a heavily mechanised army anytime soon…

And with that, my next batch of traitors is complete. As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

A knight’s tale

In preparation for a possible new Chaos Codex, let’s look at another model that may yet prove pretty useful once the new book hits.

But first, a bit of a foreword, if I may: I can still remember the Chaos Lord I built for my first WFB army in the mid-nineties. I combined a WFB champion of Chaos with a metal Juggernaut of Khorne and ended up with a model that was massive, very cool and quite heavy. Here’s what he looked like, by the way:

Granted, the paintjob is definitely nothing to write home about, but that was a long time ago. I can still remember the stiflingly hot afternoon when I got home with my purchases, sat down, built the model and painted it right away in one session. Like so often in my hobby life, I felt that it coudn’t possibly get any better than this (on a related note, I could still kick myself today for giving away the World Eater that came with the juggernaut. Oh well…).

But time went on, I stopped playing Warhammer and took a break from the hobby altogether. Then, a couple of years ago, the new plastic juggernauts were released,  and it was only a question of time until I would follow the pull of my addiction. And so, after hopelessly losing a game of 40k against cousin Andy at the FLGS, I comforted myself by buying the shiny Bloodcrusher kit.

And what a kit it is: The plastic juggernauts combine all that was great about the previous jugger incarnations (the basic design, the sheer brutality) and drop all that was horrible about the old model (the weight, the nearly unsalveagable, static pose). There’s also lots and lots of cool bits and bobs for use in a Khorne-themed army. So I got to work, and soon this guy was standing before me:

Those of you familiar with what it is that makes World Eaters players tick probably have an idea where this is going……and you would be right, of course ;-):

Ever since the Bloodcrusher kit came out, World Eaters players all over the world have started to convert “Brazen Knights”: Legionnaires of the World Eaters mounted atop huge juggernauts of Khorne. Even the fact that the current book doesn’t offer any option of using such a squad (apart from the lone Lord on a juggernaut, which, I am led to believe, is not really worth the hassle) didn’t manage to dissuade them from building the models: World Eaters on juggernauts are a prospect that is just too tempting to ignore!

Many World Eaters players play their army using the Space Wolves codex, so they can use the Brazen Knights as Thunderwolves. But I have always stuck to the actual Chaos codex. So when I built my own Brazen Knights, it was not in order to use them, but just for the joy of building them. However, there are several rumours about Brazen Knights being featured in the new Codex — we will see…

But enough talk. What I want to show you today is the first Brazen Knight I built. I’ll have to come clean right now and admit that the pose of my test model for the squad was stolen wholesale from one of Sprugly’s amazing Jugger-Knights here. Check out his thread! It’s fantastic!

Anyway, here is my model:

I used a standard Khorne Berzerker model with a couple of added bitz: The weapon arm is from the WFB Chaos Knights, while the shield came from the Chaos Marauders. The Brazen Knight’s helmet was converted by adding Khornate “bunny ears” to one of the head options from the Chaos Terminator Lord kit.

When painting the model, I decided not to paint the juggernaut in the same red as the World Eater riding it. Instead I went for a darker shade of the colour I normally use on my World Eaters’ daemon weapons. I think it makes for a nice colour contrast between rider and juggernaut (and, come to think of it, adds a nice bit of consistency to my army, with everything of “daemonic” origin using the same basic colour).

Last but not least, here’s a closer look at the base, with an unfortunate loyal Terminator trampled underfoot:

I have already assembled two more Brazen Knights. One of them will use another lance from the WFB Chaos Knights, while the third one will be outfitted so he can also be used as a Chaos Lord on juggernaut and will look the part. While the models are basically complete, I am still trying different head options for them (the Lord currently has Inquisitor Coteaz’ head. It’s quite a nice fit). This model was basically my test piece for the squad.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the new codex offers any rules for actually using these guys on the table. But even if it doesn’t, it’s a conversion any World Eaters player worth his salt should have done at least once!

Let me know what you think in the comments section! As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Power from pain

I already showcased the Grotesques cousin Andy converted for his Dark Eldar army some time ago, although the photos were rather more grainy than I would have liked. So it was a nice coincidence that Andy recently took them along to the FLGS in order to paint the squad’s last model (instead of using them to utterly annihilate me for a change). I told you already that I love those models, so I jumped at the opportunity of taking a couple of new pictures to put on this blog. Let’s start off by taking a look at the newest member of Andy’s happy familiy of twisted monstrosities:

This one’s a pretty straight kitbash, basically taking nearly all of its parts from the WFB Minotaur kit. However, the addition of a Talos/Cronos faceplate instantly transforms the model into quite a convincing Grotesque, in my opinion. I also like the pose a lot.

Next up, the squad’s champion:

This guy is always the star of the show for me, using more parts from the Talos/Chronos kit to create a really disturbing monster. I think this model is a great example of why the Minotaurs make great Grotesques right along with the the Blood Island Rat Ogres and Crypt Fiends.

And finally, the squad’s third member.

I can’t keep from shivering when I look at those horrible, spiny tentacle things. Brrr…

I learned during our last game that these guys can be very bad news for armies focused on close quarters combat. So I think it’s great that now they also really look the part…

So, while we are on the topic of twisted abominations, let’s also take a look at one of my newest creations! Cousin Andy has been looking for a good recipe for building the Wracks to go along with his Grotesques and Haemonculi for quite some time now. Of course, he could just buy the official GW models, which are quite nice, but he doesn’t like Finecast all that much and would rather convert the models from something else. He’s funny like that, but then I like to imagine it’s me who got him infected with the whole conversion business, so I won’t judge him.

We spent some time bashing around a couple of ideas, and I tried to talk him into using my beloved WFB Crypt Ghoul kit in his conversion. He was not that easily convinced, however. Well, I couldn’t let it go, so I built him a Wrack model as a proof-of-concept:

This conversion is, once again, basically a simple kitbash. The legs are from the WFB Empire Flagellants (the upper body was clipped off at the waist). The torso and arms are from the Crypt Ghouls. The left hand and forearm are from the Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors — although you could ostensibly use any Dark Eldar arm and weapon you like. I added a couple of vicious looking Kroot knives. Again, there are many grisly trophies and suitably sharp and wicked implements across the whole GW range to use here.
And finally, the head came from an old Dark Eldar jetbike pilot — a part that almost every Dark Eldar player in the world will probably consider all but completely useless. I shaved off the eyes to make it look more like some kind of alien gimp mask. I took this idea from a blog somewhere, though I cannot recall where (if you are reading this and it was originally your idea, just drop me a comment and I’ll be glad to add a link to your blog!).

The conversion took some cutting to make sure everything was a nice fit. I shortened the Ghoul neck to make it look less like a vulture’s and added a bit of GS to smooth out the gap between legs and torso, but apart from that, it was a fairly easy affair.

When painting the Wrack, I tried to adhere to cousin Andy’s colour scheme as closely as possible, using a mixture of bronze and red that is the trademark of his Dark Eldar army. The skin was the only departure from this, as I defaulted back to my tried and tested recipe for pale skin. I think it’s more plausible for Wracks to look less like suntanned bodybuilders and more like pale, sickly creatures of the dark.

Painting the model was a quick job: Using a fair amount of washing, it took me about 30-45 minutes, and I imagine it would be quite easy to further streamline the process and work on several models at once. Here’s the result:

I am rather pleased with how the model turned out. Now I am definitely not saying that this guy looks as good as the official models released by GW – those are fantastic! But if you don’t like to use Finecast models or are looking for a bit more variety in your squad (or are a conversion nut like me), this is a nice and easy alternative recipe. It’s also pretty cost-effective: Buying a box of flagellants and ghouls each costs less than buying two boxes of Finecast Wracks (42,75 € versus 52 €) and will give you the same number of models with lots and lots of leftover bits that may be squirrelled away for other projects. Granted, you’ll need some additional Dark Eldar bits, but most DE players should have those lying around anyway. The one setback is that you’ll end up with ten clipped-off flagellant torsos and ten pairs of ghoul legs, respectively. If only there was a way of combining those for yet another conversion. Hmmm…definitely some food for thought!

Anyway, so much for converting suitably gross abominations for your Circle army! C&C always very welcome!
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!