Make way for the Inquisition

Hey guys and girls,

So its been a while and not much has happened on the hobby side of things - work has been kinda hectic and I have been diverting a lot of my attention towards Magic the Gathering with the release of Gatecrash at the beginning of February. However, I did manage to devote a couple of evenings to painting and was able to complete High Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz - read on to check him out...

I have always wanted to add an enamel type effect to Coteaz's armour as I thought it would really make him pop and when arrayed against my army of silver knights. My girlfriend was able to find me a lovely Tamiya gloss white acrylic (White X-2). While it looks great, painting with it is a pain. It gets tacky very quickly so make sure to give it a really good shake before use, also it doesn't mix very well with water. However, it only takes a couple of coats to build up a really strong colour. 

I am planning to use the same effect on the Crusaders to continue the theme of a "pure" force of Inquisitional troops. The perfect complement to the most hallowed of Space Marine Chapters. Although I am giving some serious thought to experimenting with tinting the plating to see how it looks with the glossy effect. Of course, no Inquisitional units look quite complete without some red thrown in; the bright red of the cloak really helps to contrast against the glossy white plate. The Cyber-Eagle was an interesting aspect to paint. I decided to base the colours on an American Bald Eagle as they are kinda the iconic poster-child for eagles. After doing a number of gem types / lenses on my Stormraven, I really think I nailed it first time on the Eagle's bionic eye!

So, there isn't too much time left until Vanquish in April and I need to get the final two squads finished so the rush is on to get them done. The Crusaders will be up soon, they have had their base coats and I have done some sculpting to make their shields a little more "Inquisitiony". The real challenge will be completing the Death Cult Assassins in time... until next time!

-Lucifer

Conversion to Crusade (Part 1)

Hey guys,

Just a little update on what I have been up to this week. Work has been absolutely manic for the past couple of weeks and as a result, I have had hardly any free time to devote to the hobby… I got a little spare time this weekend and thought I would start working on my Grey Knight Henchmen to combo with my Stormraven gunship (there is a Pictures in Progress article on BLOODYdice detailing the Stormraven's progress).

So, I ordered a box of GW’s ‘Warriors of Chaos’ for the Crusader conversions and ‘Dark Eldar Wyches’ for the Death Cult Assassins. They arrived earlier in the week, around Monday I think, so I started playing around with the Warriors as I only needed to make up four for the unit. The bodies are fairly free of Chaos symbols; however the shields were not and needed some serious work to get them cleaned down to a smooth layer. Even now, I think they could do with a bit more work – I have a plan to make them look awesome which I will be showing you in the next post or so :D

The bodies did require some gap filling and removal of mould lines although although taking photos always reveals bit you have missed D: After that, I had to root through my massive box of bits to try and find some heads and weapons for these guys. I managed to find some without power armour helmets or too much in the way of augmentation and dry ran them before deciding which to use.The next major issue was trying to decide how to represent the Power Axes these guys were supposed to be sporting. The weapons from the Warriors box were too medieval as they naturally come for the Fantasy Battle range. I decided to go with the common Grey Knight theme of halberds. I reduce the length of the handle so they would look less like pole arms and more long-handled blades. I am not entirely sure how successful this was but I thought the effect was nice!

The next moment I get some free time, I will be working on the shields and hopefully finishing off the final bits and pieces for the Stormraven. In the meanwhile, keep posted and enjoy the pictures. Also feel free to check out BLOODYdice for more table top hobby and interests.

-Lucifer