The Velsen Sector: KrautScientist's INQ28

[DaBoiKyknos]

The hand on the tech-priest works well!

Looks like he is elaborating with someoneon how it is to be a cyborg - in a suitably creepy way, of course!

[noigrim]

The pose looks like this old meme

 

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/634/987/b4f.jpg

Edited December 21, 2019 by noigrim

[Master Umbra]

 

@ 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.

Oh, so clever! I was wondering that too myself! That is one obscure piece, indeed.

 

Keep up the excellent work!

[KrautScientist]

Thanks, everyone! :)

 

@ Bryan Blaire: Thanks a lot! That is very nice of you to say! :)

 

@ Kyknos: In fact, fellow hobbyist Mr. Booksii elaborated on this very aspect over at the Ammobunker:
 

 

Time to draft a Mechanicus themed version of "This Little Piggy" in honor of that hand.  "This digit voided the air from the mass hauler Gibraltar ...."  Either that or build the scatter terrain case where the tech priest keeps his different bionic left hands.  "No no, not that one.  Note the rune at the base of the thumb...yes it is a vortex grenade but we are only attending a ceremony of ascension for a minor forgemaster not securing a fully functional STC."

 

 

@ Umbra Lynx: Haha, yeah, I kinda wanted to save that bit for a while yet, but it just seemed perfect for this model, so yeah... ;)

 

 

In the meantime, I have made some progress on the last model for my Ordo Xenos warband: Shiv Korlund, former hive ganger:

 

 

She's still missing most of the highlights and detail work, but I think you can already see pretty well where this is going.

 

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

[KrautScientist]

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

 

Here's a small update for today: I have finished the final member for Inquisitor Alvar's retinue, former underhive ganger Shiv Korlund:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And with that, one of my longest-running INQ28 warband projects has finally been completed: Meet Inquisitor Titus Alvar of the Ordo Xenos Velsen and his operatives:

 

 

 

=][=

 

The retinue of Inquisitor Titus Alvar, Ordo Xenos Velsen:

 

House Alvar has been one of the more influential noble houses for centuries. As a scion of the house, Titus Alvar grew up in luxury and power, the intricacies of the Imperial courts with their waxing and waning support for one house or another a game he quickly mastered. Maybe the search for new and more immediate thrills was what made him enter that perilous region of space known as “The Veil of Impurity” time and time again, and tales of his exploration of ancient ruins, of treasures discovered and adventures survived, made him the talk of the courts he had left behind. As a matter of fact, one of his expeditions into the treacherous cluster of stars resulted in a standoff with Inquisitrix Cimbria Carscallen. Under normal circumstances, someone running afoul of the Ordo Xenos would have been executed without second thought, yet Carscallen must have seen something in Alvar that made her reconsider. And so, Titus Alvar, noble, adventurer, became an Interrogator in the Emperor’s Holy Ordos of the Inquisition and, in time, an Inquisitor in his own right.

Though the years of doing the Emperor’s work may have somewhat mellowed his once flamboyant lifestyle, Titus Alvar very much remains a socialite and a political animal. His standing as a member of an influential noble house makes him a common guest at social functions all over the sector, and the tales of his exploits have led some of his peers to suspect that he is a glory hound, first and foremost.

In truth, Titus Alvar is, above all else, a pragmatist: The trappings of nobility are as much of a useful tool to him as the artifacts he has recovered on countless expeditions or the retainers, some of them quite exotic, that comprise his warband. Meanwhile, some of Alvar’s colleagues have grown suspicious of the Inquisitor’s continued expeditions to the Veil of Impurity and some of the alliances he may have forged there…

 

 

From left to right, back row: Didrik Kerst, sanctioned Psyker | T'L'Kess Kroot mercenary and scout | Zekharia 'Foreman" Lunn, veteran of the Eisenberg Factory Guard | Magos Xenobiologis Harland Leitz | former Underhive-gang member Shiv Korlund | Professor Abelard Marbray, Xeno-Archeologist |

Front row: Inquisitor Titus Alvar | Millerna Acheron, his interrogator | Skuldi Kulva, abhuman explorer and enginseer | Researcher Tancred, assistant to Professor Marbray

 

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

Edited December 26, 2019 by KrautScientist

[Midnightmare]

That is a motley crew if ever I saw one! Great work as ever on Shiv - a classic model you have done justice too. Out of the whole crew, and it’s a difficult choice, but Skuldi Kulva is the favourite for me for both model and paint job - he reminds my of a grumpy Gimli from LotT, can imagine home trying to fix something and losing his temper :D

[Captain Mike]

Retinue looks excellent mate.

 

I remember those old Escher gangers, fairly good sculpts for their time.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks, guys! :)

 

@ Midnightmare: Haha, yeah the "motley crew" look was exactly what I was gunning for: It can be equally entertaining to create a warband where all members share a strong visual language, but here I wanted to channel the colourful look of a somewhat flamboyant adventurer's retinue, with strong inspiration from the original 54mm Inquisitor models and archetypes. Oh, and I do have a soft spot for Skuldi Kulva as well ;)

 

@ Captain Mike: Cheers! Those Jes Goodwin Escher sculpts definitely still hold up! To the point where the faces are much, much better than those on the new plastic models. They are surprisingly tricky to paint, however, due to how slender and detailed they are.

 

 

So I just wanted to break through my holiday lethargy and get something painted before the end of the year, and I started with something that I thought might me quick and fun: One of the terminals from the Necromunda starter set.

 

 

Had lots of fun sponging on the base colours ;)

 

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

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

WOW that thing looks great, the way the lights seem to be glowing really add to it. Nice work!!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate! :) It was a quick distraction, to be sure, but a fun one.

 

Here's my 2019 output for INQ28, by the way:

 

 

I am really happy that I managed to paint most of the models for - and thereby finish - my Ordo Xenos warband, one of my longest-running INQ28 projects, if you can believe it. There's also Lord Sebastianus Danver Balzepho Vlachen, heir-apparent to the Lord Sector and a nasty piece of work. And that terminal from my last update, of course ;)

[Markus_]

What a wonderful troupe you've amassed here!
Lovely conversions all around.

[Freakshow668]

Beautiful work, truly inspiring.

[Son of Sacrifice]

That's a satisfying year's work I'm sure. I like the squat the best.

[Midnightmare]

Again, your quality is brilliant and when combined with your Eternal Hunt it is quite an output B)

 

Again, squat-boi is my favourite - he has a lot of character, which is testament as they all do

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot for the kind words, everyone! :) Incidentally, I do have a soft spot for the squad myself ;)

[Dosjetka]

The Inq28 characters you produced last year look great, but I'll admit that I'm a big fan of the humble Necromunda terminal you painted during the tail-end of 2019. Would you mind giving me/us a rundown on how you painted it, please? :)

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, Dosjetka! And sorry for only getting back now to that recipe you wanted. Hmm, let me try to remember...

 

That terminal was very much an exercise in trying to keep the painting process as short and sweet as I could. So here's what I did:

 

• undercoated with Mournfang Brown spray paint
• drybrushed/sponged with Ryza Rust
• sponged on Leadbelcher
• picked out the bronze and bone areas in Vallejo Tinny Tin and Rakarth Flesh, respectively
• I *think* I gave the whole thing a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone at this point, but maybe I limited it to the base?! Not sure
• the screen was painted with varying mixes of Vallejo Magic Blue, White and Black, using an approach similar to what you would use to paint a gemstone -- there are many tutorials for effects like that, so I basically just googled the first one.
• the red buttons were picked out in Mephiston Red, then higlighted with Wild Rider Red, then the buttons and area around them were glazed with a mix of Bloodletter and a tiny bit of Mephiston Red, then a final highlight was added using Fire Dragon Bright.
• The bronze areas were highlighted with Vallejo Brassy Brass, then washed with a thinned-down mix of Vallejo Milenario Turquoise and white.
• I added some Vallejo Smoky Ink to create stains
• gloss varnish was added to the screens and buttons.

Looking at it now, that seems like quite the ordeal, but the whole process only took about 20 minutes at most, drying time excluded. Hope this helps!

 

Anyway, here's a small update for today, in order to show off a couple of INQ28 characters/conversions that I am currently working on:

 

 

 

Next up is a conversion I am really happy with. By way of introduction, let me repeat that my buddy DexterKong and me are basically sharing (and co-developing) the same 40k adventurescape, our little corner of the 41st millennium, so to speak: the Velsen Sector. On top of being fun, this basically serves as a very handy resource, because the background we have (and continue to) come up with really serves as an extra layer of texture that informs our conversions and character ideas. Now a couple of years ago, Dexter came up with a character that I have been jealous of ever since. One Inquisitor Uraccen Falx, of the Ordo Xenos:

 

 

Now Dexter imagined Falx as a bit of a crackpot and a conspiracy-theorist -- to be fair, he came up with a character at a time where conspiracy-theorists weren't as much of a dangerous real-world political influence as they are today. But the idea of an Inquisitor who was basically a huge paranoiac, expecting vile xenos conspiracies behind everyone and everything truly appealed, and I think you can really see that kind of background in the model: Falx is an old, drawn, perpetually exhausted fanatic who will not allow himself to rest, lest "they" finally get to him. In case you are interested, you can find out more about Falx here and here. For now, suffice it to say that this was one of those models that I always regretted not having come up with myself -- until I realised recently that I could at least do the next-best thing and build a version of Falx for my own collection. So that's what I did:

 

 

For the most part, this was very much a case of trying to "colour inside the lines", so to speak, trying to match Dexter's model. I diverged from the original design in one or two small aspects (choosing a different tilting plate as well as a - very fitting - shoulder mounted AdMech gun. I also used a different sidearm, mostly because I didn't have any of those ancient Eldar pistols left ), but I think it's still recognisably the same guy. The one brilliant part of the original model that I didn't quite manage to capture was Falx's scrawny neck, making him look like a tired turtle, poking out from inside its shell. But oh well, I am still pretty happy with the finished model (and with having a version of Falx in my collection now).

 

 

DexterKong's version of Falx also uses multiple servo-skulls made from xenos-trophies, to show his ultimate disdain for those vile creatures. So while I was at it, I also built Falx a little friend:

 

 

 

The second character I want to share with you today is this mysterious figure, inspired by a conversion I saw online (on Pinterest, I think?!)

 

 

 

I saw this model that combined a Delaque model with one of the blank Dark Eldar helmets, and I thought that was a brilliant idea! It creates such a mysterious, sinister look! Just what I needed for a character codenamed "The Architect", a mysterious agent of the Neo-Thorian radical splinter-faction known as "The Fragmentarians", a recurring shadowy power within the Velsen sector...

 

As an added bonus, this model was also the perfect occasion for finally realising a long-standing plan of mine and build a conversion resembling "The Alchemist", the super-creepy villain of the 2001 film "Vidocq"

 

 

It also seems like I am getting quite a bit of mileage out of that Delaque kit...

 

 

And finally, my final WIP for today. This one isn't finished yet, but it allows me to also give you a great recommendation:

 

I recently blazed through the adventure game "Primordia", which I simply cannot praise highly enough: It's a wonderful little graphic adventure with lots of style which is both fantastically grimdark and, at least in places, rather funny. It also resembles some classic franco-belgian SciFi comic series, which was what drew me to it in the first place. Just take a look at this, and you'll see what I mean:

 

 

Oh, and if you play it with your eyes half-closed, you may be forgiven for thinking it's basically "Adeptus Mechanicus Forgeworld - the videogame"

 

Anyway, the game's protagonist is a robot named "Horatio Nullbuilt":

 

 

And I liked the game so much that I thought it might be a cool little project to built a model resembling him:

 

 

 

Now, again, the conversion isn't quite finished yet. Plus it only really makes sense if you know the game -- otherwise it'll just look like a slightly dodgy, off-brand AdMech conversion to you. But I've already had a laught building this guy so far -- especially when it came to recreating his trusty little plasma-torch

 

Anyway, that's it for today. As always, let me know what you think!

Edited February 1, 2020 by KrautScientist

[Augustus b'Raass]

Aw, such a lovely update! I cannot praise you enough for your iteration of Inquisitor Falx, and that Vidocq character looks suitably wicked. It's cool though, as I was scrolling through your post and saw the build - I actually immediately thought about the poster from Vidocq - it's one of my favourite early zero's films. I remember it being marketed as the first feature film ever to be filmed completely digitally. Anyway, my association is an indication you did a pretty good job, I would say :tu:
Horatio Nullbuilt looks cute. I'm going to check out that game for sure.

EDIT: spelling

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Augustus b'Raass

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Great job on the Inquisitor I really liked the back story and whole idea of him, looking forward to what else you come up with as always!!

[Markus_]

Such fantastic conversions again. The servoskull looks very sinister, as does the 'architect'.
Looking forward to see these painted.

[Xin Ceithan]

Awesome conversions ... but the idea to feature Horatio Nullbuilt is a stroke of genius. Loved that game. Now you just need a an abandoned Titan head and a servoskull. Instant diorama!

[ElDuderino]

I love all of these guys. The inquisitor has a very renaissance feel to him, reminds me of Galileo for some reason.

 

I'll definitely look that game up, I've loved all wadjeteye games I've tried. The screenshot looks very moebius.

[Givemead]

All your inquisitor stuff is great and these latest additions are no exception. I particularly like the Architect. I think I will have to get the Delaque kit as it looks like a great source of bits.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys!

 

@ Auggs: Aye, it's a really cool film, isn't it? It's a bit zany and scatterbrained in that special way only French (fantasy) films are, but the production design is really awesome, and the villain is just incredibly creepy -- fun fact, back in the day, scenes from the film were used in the music video for a song that appeared on the film's OST, and I was mesmerised by the Alchemist's appearance in the video, but didn't have any idea that those scenes came from an actual film. Years later, I walked by a DVD bargain bin and saw the cover artwork (just the Alchemist's "face", as shown above), and basically bought the DVD based on that alone

 

@ Xin Ceithan: Haha, I know, right? You know what, though, that scene inside the fallen Goliath robot was when the came really had its hooks in me: That slightly off-kilter dialogue with Goliath's partials, that was such a cool moment. ("...GAMMA!")

That being said, I do have one more model planned to accompany Horatio, as you'll be seeing in a minute

 

@ ElDuderino: If both Wadjet Eye games and Moebius are up your alley, then you'll be in for quite a treat, mate!

 

@ Kolgrim, Markus_ & Givemead: Cheers, gents!

 

So, just a small update for today: I finished my Horatio Nullbuilt conversion and also made a kitbash to represent his loyal sidekick, Crispin Horatiobuilt:

 

 

Here's a piece of artwork showing both of them as they appear in the game:

 

To be fair, I did "40k-i-fy" both of them a bit, but I think they are still pretty recognisable.

 

As always, let me know what you think!

Edited February 11, 2020 by KrautScientist

[Xin Ceithan]

"I am a flying bomb?! ... Wait... I am ...a .. flying Bomb!! Sweeeet!" - Crispin

 

Behold. Perfection!