The Velsen Sector: KrautScientist's INQ28

[ElDuderino]

Awesome squat! The blue pops, and is a good contrast to the baroque gear.

 

So... will we see any crazy space nuns here?:)

[DaBoiKyknos]

@ Kyknos of Athena: Cheers! As for the backpack: Along with the head and right arm used on the IH model, it came from that Iron Hands member of Kill Team Cassius (originally from the Deathwatch: Overkill box). Hope this helps! :)

Thanks for the answer!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys!

 

@ ElDuderino: Haha, I missed out on the release, and now they are all gone I am not bitter, though, as I probably wouldn't have had the time anyway -- so I am going to wait for stocks to be re-filled, hopefully early next year.

 

@ Kyknos of Athena: You are quite welcome!

 

 

In the meantime, here's another, more thorough look at Skuldi Kulva:

 

 

 

I chose to go with a rather drab colour for the overalls, while still using the bronze armour (and white elements) of the Barak Zilfin colour scheme. The bright blue glowy parts have become a bit of a recurring element with many of my models, yet they seem to fit really well here, hinting at the fact that, in spite of its medieval/early-modern trappings, Kulva’s suit is actually quite high-tech — maybe even moreso than standard Imperial tech.

 

 

The “K” on his shoulderpad stands for “Kombinat”, the German (and, to my knowledge, also the Russian) word for “combine”. It seemed blunter and more 40k-ish than the English word

 

I also tried to suggest the Adeptus Mechanicus cogwheel design — or rather an evocation of it, to show how these guys are different from the AdMech, yet there may be some shared heritage.

 

 

One thing that I have used to strengthen the 40k feel of the model was the combination of white armour parts with orange markings and a suitable decal. I think this is another small step towards bringing the model more firmly into the 41st millennium:

 

 

 

All in all, I am pretty happy with the finished model, even moreso because I went into the painting process with some disparate ideas and have somehow managed to bind it all together into a coherent look — or at least that’s what I think. I would be happy to hear your opinions as well!

 

So that’s one more member for Inquisitor Alvar’s warband:

 

 

As always, let me know what you think!

Edited December 7, 2019 by KrautScientist

[Master Umbra]

Oh! How I didn't see this! Those models just ooze with character. Crisp conversions all around, solid paint jobs (love the skin tone of the biologis) and that squat is one of the jewels of the crown, no doubt  .

Edit: the last picture setting is just a superb touch. Great presentation.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Umbra Lynx

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Excellent painting and conversions! They look great so far!!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys! That is very nice of you to say! :)

 

 

A while ago, I picked up a box of the new Necromunda Delaque gangers, to be primarily used as conversion fodder for INQ28 related projects: You see, the world of shadowy inquisitorial dealings has great need for suitably shadowy, robed figures, yet outside of the (slighty too worn-down looking) Empire flagellants, proper robed figures have been in short supply across GW's catalogue, and the new Delaques have very much worked as a fix for that. So I already had a couple of plans going into this latest kitbashing session -- in fact, I even took the time to quickly sketch out one of my ideas during an idle half hour at the doctor's office:

 

 

Granted, the proportions on this are completely dodgy -- good thing, then, that the resulting model looks much cooler already:

 

 

 

Official GW Tech-Priests are all twisted and insectile these days -- which I love, make no mistake! But I like a little variety in my collection, so I thought a tall, upright tech-priest with an air of haughty arrogance might work well. I'll still have to come up with a plan for his left hand, obviously, but I think he's getting there.

 

I have also started putting together an Imperial Scribe /Inquisitorial Savant type character:

 

 

 

 

 

Now this guy still needs a bit of work -- lots of cables and a few scrolls, for starters, but I think the scribe-angle already comes across pretty well.

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Gederas]

Woah..... That's a brilliant idea to use the Delaque gangers for that. Might steal that idea!

 

I quite like the results so far. On the second one though, where'd the right hand holding the scroll come from?

Edited December 8, 2019 by Gederas

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

It's the Cadian medic's hands that are rolling out a bandage but it's a very clever re-purposing on that figure. Great stuff, Kraut! The haughty tech priest oozes character already. 

[TheTrans]

Loving the use of the Delaque figures!! 

[Midnightmare]

Wow mate, I have certainly missed a lot in my absence! You make all your conversions so individual, but also like they are the original model and all very characterful. Some of them are sublime!

 

Brilliant :tu:

[Sagentus]

Your vision and execution in building/painting this squad is awe inspiring Kraut!!!! amazing work as always, look forward to seeing how the next model turns out!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Love the conversions, I too have a box of Dalaques gangers I've yet to do anything with. Aside from being sick at the moment that's the real only thing holding me back. I've got a half built Sentinel for this #Sentinelchallenge on facebook I wanted to do but my entire desk is covered in bits and I can't figure out what direction to go in lol.

[DaBoiKyknos]

(...) I like a little variety in my collection, so I thought a tall, upright tech-priest with an air of haughty arrogance might work well.

 

It does work well, indeed! Edited December 10, 2019 by Kyknos of Athena

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the kind words, everyone! Glad to hear you like those kitbashes! :)

 

and BCK is exactly right: those hands are from the Cadian command kit, yet I have thought for a long time that they could also be interpreted as unrolling some kind of sealed message.

 

So here's a small update on the Delaque-based kitbashes:

 

 

The Tech-Priest still remains unchanged. I still need to come up with a suitable left hand for him, and while I do have several  Ruststalker/Infiltrator hands holding guns that would work, I think an open hand (preferredly with some calipered fingers) would work better for the model. Anyway, I've taken some new photos of him as well, while I was at it:

 

 

 

 

The scribe/savant, on the other hand, has turned into a rather delightful model to work on. Here he is, in his tweaked form:

 

 

The most important addition here was some kind of augmetic cowl (similar to the designs you see on some of the FW AdMech models) with some cables and head implants feeding into it (as well as some cables dangling from it). This element breaks up the characteristic Delaque silhouette a bit and also hints at the kind of augmetics a scribe would need for their work in the 41st millennium.

 

 

 

At the same time, I also included a leather document satchel and an additional scroll - complete with skull, of course - so as not to make him look too hi-tech and bring him back into the gothic madness that is 40k.

 

 

 

Anyway, I have grown really fond of this guy! :)

 

 

On a semi-related note, I have treated myself to a small, premature Christmas present:

 

 

The original 54mm Inquisitor Eisenhorn: I have wanted to own this model for a long time, yet was never smart enough to pick it up while it was still freely available. Now the model you see above is missing some bits and bobs, but I did get it for a pretty good price, and I am confident I'll be able to sort most of it out with the leftover INQ54 bits I already have. In fact, Eisenhorn will make a swell companion for my salvaged Delphan Gruss/Nagash mashup from a while back:

 

 

Picking up the classic model also inspired me to make another attempt at digital drawing, trying to copy a piece of art from the INQ rulebook freehand:

 

 

It's a pretty clunky piece with all kinds of problems, but this digital painting is something I could really get used to, I can tell you that much. Here's a quick coloured sketch of my Ordo Scriptorum Inquisitor to round things out:

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Gederas]

Really, really loving how the Delaque-based conversions are coming along. I'm guessing the robes will be red on the Tech-Priest and the scribe will be..... Brown?

 

Also, what are you gonna do with the other 8 though? ;) :lol:

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

I really dig the Dalaque looking conversions I too have a box of a Necromunda warband yet to be built still waiting for my imagination to run far enough passed the idea to actually create some Inquisition related for it. Probably will wait til I get everything I ordered in the mail to start kitbashing, I'm still a green stuff novice but working slowly at getting better.

[Filkarion]

As usual, great job!

I'm with you on the "diversity" for tech priest: not all of them come from Mars-orthodox forgeworlds and the beauty of galaxy spanning/inefficient communication setting is that you could almost fit anything. "Standard" miniatures represent only the "standard" after all.

 

I also share your love for the Delaque kit. Actually I love all Necromunda gangs, they offer so much as conversion material! This also reminds me I have some Goliath still to open...I decided to go for them as they have one of the rares things in GW kits...smiling human faces

Back to Delaques, I love their coats and sneaky type bodies a lot, they are so 40k and still so uncommon, as usually the focus is on bulky warriors or very cyborg/armored figures. as if only eldar could be humanoid and skinny!

The kit is widely used to put some very welcome diversity in GSC armies and for that I point you at this year ETL Tyranid outpost 

I did a Kellermorph and OldSchoolSoviet did Some locus(es?)

 

I have not a great deal of suggestions for the left hand of the tech priest, except the fact that necron destroyers have opened empty left hands... do not know if one can fit

 

For the scribe/servitor I have some humble suggestions: I think the scroll can use some kind of scroll handler on the top (on a side note I discovered searching for some examples that those things are more things from movies that historically used)

 

 

And I think it would be great for him to have some ancient cipher machine

 

A roman scytale

 

16th century French cipher machine in the form of a book

 

 

Thomas Jefferson's cypher

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FS30rpvPtnw/TWWKApPSNFI/AAAAAAAADF8/KCLCksYoewA/s1600/thomasjeffersonwheelcipher.jpg

 

a cipher disk

 

 

 

I do not know if it would make the model too crowded or just be impossible to represent one of these object on a miniature, but i can easily figure a 40k cipher master to use hyper-advanced technology and 200 BC stuff together in his work

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, everyone! :) As it seems to be getting harder and harder to get people to actually comment and engage with a threat, your contributions are even more appreciated! :)

 

@ Gederas: Haha, I am sure something will come up for the other eight Delaques -- as it stands, I have a couple of additional ideas I want to try out with those robed bodies -- to wit, these are the first shot we get at properly robed figures outside of the Empire flagellants (who are very ragged and rather small).

 

@ Kolgrim: Well, maybe my conversions can help you figure out what you want to do -- I would probably advise you to just jump in and build something for starters, even if you just tac it together -- the perfect can very much be the enemy of the good when it comes to kitbashing models ;)

 

@ Filkarion: Cheers for the detailed comment, mate! I'll definitely head over to the GSC-topic -- I have already seen OldSchoolSoviet putting the Delaque kit through its paces, for one. Also, those are some pretty cool ideas for the scribe! I like the idea of the cypher engine, maybe I can cook something up. I am a little strapped for space on the model, though, because I still want him to wear a lantern on his belt...

 

In the meantime, I have built a - hopefully - suitably creepy hand for the Magos:

 

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Filkarion]

Actually I hope I did not went a bit over the top with details! I just wanted to point you to the roman scytale as giving him a hexagon section "stick" would be feasible and a (maybe too subtle) reference to the use of ancient cipher techniques, then I google a bit and found a lot of "very warhammery" stuff. All comes down to evening the scales a bit, as your work has given me lots of ideas over time.

 

The hand on the magos fits very good, both for shape and pose. As someone who proud himself on bits recognition skill, in this case I declare myself beaten (after some research, no less) and I have to ask you where doses it come from  

 

Edit: actually, rereading my post, I see I did not wrote why the hand fits: it goes well with the arm pose and the faces, just as the magus is showing something or, even more characterful, he is looking at  someone while calibrating/checking his clawed hand (I can almost hear the clicking sound) in a casual (but maybe wanted) creepy gesture. I am all for "bits storytelling" and this is precisely the case (the "story" would be very different with another hand) 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Filkarion

[Cadius]

 

The hand on the magos fits very good, both for shape and pose. As someone who proud himself on bits recognition skill, in this case I declare myself beaten (after some research, no less) and I have to ask you where does it come from:sweat

 

Adeptus Mechanicus Sicarians

[Filkarion]

Sicarians where my first guess, but after examining the sprue on gw site I could not see the small hydraulic pistons you can see in the second picture... or maybe I missed them?

 

Edit: By the way GREAT THANKS Cadius! I discovered the Conversion challenge thanks to you and your signature!

Edited December 19, 2019 by Filkarion

[Evil Eye]

That Magos and adept are awesome. I really love that hunched over adept in particular, he has a sort of Blanche/Wayne England "page filler art" look which I absolutely adore.

 

Also, that digital art you've done is really nice! What programme are you using? I've found even though I enjoy painting in acrylic and watercolour, my own attempts at digital painting usually come out...wrong. The best attempt at a digital 40K drawing I've done thus far has been a (very) rough 40K-ification of Sucy Manbavaran as a Chirurgeon in a rather poor imitation of Jes Goodwin's pencil sketch style, though admittedly that was a while back.

[noigrim]

Consider the following

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the comments, guys! :)

 

Edit: actually, rereading my post, I see I did not wrote why the hand fits: it goes well with the arm pose and the faces, just as the magus is showing something or, even more characterful, he is looking at  someone while calibrating/checking his clawed hand (I can almost hear the clicking sound) in a casual (but maybe wanted) creepy gesture. I am all for "bits storytelling" and this is precisely the case (the "story" would be very different with another hand) 

That was exactly the look I was going for -- so happy to hear it seems to have worked! :)

 

@ Filkarion & Cadius: Ah, but you're only partially correct about the hand: The thumb did, indeed, come from the Ruststalkers/Infiltrators. The creepy fingers, however, came from the surgical servitor that's part of the 40k battlefield objectives.

 

@ Evil Eye: Cheers! As for your question, so far, I have been working with an Ipad, an Apple Pencil and "Procreate", which has been so much fun! The great thing about the software is that it allows both for pencil sketches and full-blown painting, and it's almost uncanny how closely the drawing process actually matches the actual, physical activity. At the same time, there are some things that are very different and that I've had to adjust to: working with layers, like in Photoshop, being able to enlarge parts of the picture as needed, but also the way how opacity and brush strokes work in a digital medium. Anyway, it's been a steep yet exhilarating learning curve -- be glad I'm not showing you the slightly tacky "The Joy of Painting"-inspired landscapes I have been doing on the side ;)

 

@ noigrim: Uh, come again?

[Bryan Blaire]

As always, let me know what you think! :)

KS, the Magos looks awesome, and I'm always amazed by how much atmosphere you can evoke with your converted miniatures.

 

The new arm with fingers is nice and creepy, but I honestly thought, from the first picture - "Why the Warp did he attach an arm to the end of that breather tube...?" :lol: Unfortunate camera angle.

 

All the latest look fantastic, sir! It's always so much fun going through your thread.