The Velsen Sector: KrautScientist's INQ28

[Stercus]

The grey on the books works. Is the head from the stormraven servitor?

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, guys! :)

 

@ grailkeeper: I did think long and hard about the skin tone, and ironically enough, it was the thought of his retinue that actually convinced me not to go with grey skin, because I want (most of) the warband to actually look like living people. My compromise was to go for a really pale, unhealthy look, as though Orlant spends very little time aboveground, in natural light -- which is probably the case. It doesn't really show well in the pictures, but the prominent parts are almost whites. I also found something to mirror the slightly purplish look in the recesses, after all -- but we'll be getting to that in a minute ;)

 

@ Stercus: Indeed, it's the servitor head. If memory serves, Biohazard was kind enough to let me have it for my bitzbox, and it seemed quite ideal for this conversion.

 

 

So anyway, Orlant was only missing a base really, so I whipped something up yesterday: I used a piece from one of the 40k basing kits, mostly for the pretty cool relief:

 

 

The piece was cut down to fit a round base, the gaps were filled with GS. I also liberally stippled on Liquid GS for added texture and to counteract the very soft and artificial looking quality of the stock piece. Ironically enough, most of the relief actually ended up being covered by Orlant:

 

 

Oh well, if nothing else, it still provides some texture and structure, making the base look more like a part of some long-deserted Imperial archive.

 

So here's the finished model:

 

 

 

=][=

Redactor Tiberias Orlant
Ordo Scriptorum

 

 

A long serving member of the Ordo Scriptorum Terra, Inquisitor Orlant has discovered many ancient documents and hidden truths during his long years of trawling the bibliocathedra and sunken data vaults of Holy Terra. Moreover, his rank as a Redactor of the Ordo means that not only does he endeavour to find records from the Imperium's past, but he also gets to decide which truths are revealed to the masses and which are suppressed with every tool at the Holy Ordos' disposal.

 

Orlant has recently embarked upon a mission known only to himself, making his way to the Velsen Sector, situated far away from the Throneworld in the Ultima Segmentum. His colleagues consider this most recent endeavour a fool's errand at best, yet Orlant is not known as a soul given to flights of fancy -- what could he have discovered in the vaults of Terra to inspire his latest investigation?

 

 

 

 

 

I did end up making one last colour adjustment after all, repainting the wax of the purity seal in a slightly colder tone than before. It's really a small detail, but it ties back to Orlant's skin tone (see above) and it also doesn't use up much visual estate, so I think it's an imrpovement.

 

As you can see, I have decided to add two books to Orlant's base:

 

 

-- I wanted to hint at the fact that he probably spends most of his work scouring ancient vaults and sunken archives for lost data and hidden secrets. It's an idea I want to explore with the rest of the warband, albeit in slightly different ways. We'll see...

 

I also found out, by sheer coincidence, that Orlant has a nice kind of "Red Oni, Blue Oni" thing going with Inquisitor Arslan. Take a look:

 

 

In closing, here's a comparison shot putting Wayne England's illustration that inspired the model and Orlant himself next to each other:

 

 

Maybe not a perfect match, but I am reasonably happy with the resemblance, to tell you the truth.

 

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

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Redactor looks great!

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot, Bjorn! :)

[Brother Pheidias]

An amazing addition to the upper echelons of =I= logs. Very inspired to work some more on my Rogue Trader and Friends.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot, Brother Pheidias! Glad you like him! :)

[Spiny Norman]

Am I the only one who thinks he looks a bit like Mark Hamill? In a good way obviously! :D

[KrautScientist]

@ Spiney Norman: Googled an image of Mark Hamill, now I cannot unsee the resemblance in the mouth area. Damn you! :)

 

So working with Wayne England's excellent artwork for reference once again actually led to me frantically trawling the internet for more artwork of his from around the same time. Unfortunately, his work seems to be much less well documented than, say, John Blanche's, and many images are only available via that abominable hellpit called Pinterest ;) It's also really hard to find out where many of those illustrations first appeared, particularly the ones mainly coloured in turquoise hues -- they could be from the Dark Heresy books, but I have no way to check. Can anyone corroborate that theory?

 

I also kept looking back at one piece of art in particular. This one:

 

 

It seems to portray an underhive ganger of some sort, and I really like the style of the character. So much so, in fact, that I started to create another conversion based on a Wayne England illustration earlier today:

 

 

Still a bit rough around the edges, certainly, but I think the resemblance should already be obvious. I think I'll be adding this character as a bureaucultist, a member of a clan of former Administratum scribes gone feral (and tribal) when their particular vault/bibliocathedra was sealed off from the world or forgotten by the Imperium of Man.

 

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

[Gederas]

So working with Wayne England's excellent artwork for reference once again actually led to me frantically trawling the internet for more artwork of his from around the same time. Unfortunately, his work seems to be much less well documented than, say, John Blanche's, and many images are only available via that abominable hellpit called Pinterest It's also really hard to find out where many of those illustrations first appeared, particularly the ones mainly coloured in turquoise hues -- they could be from the Dark Heresy books, but I have no way to check. Can anyone corroborate that theory?

 

It seems to portray an underhive ganger of some sort, and I really like the style of the character. So much so, in fact, that I started to create another conversion based on a Wayne England illustration earlier today:

 

Still a bit rough around the edges, certainly, but I think the resemblance should already be obvious. I think I'll be adding this character as a bureaucultist, a member of a clan of former Administratum scribes gone feral (and tribal) when their particular vault/bibliocathedra was sealed off from the world or forgotten by the Imperium of Man.

 

As always, let me know what you think!

 

I really, really like that cultist/ganger model. He looks pretty cool. Also, that head.... I recognize it, but can't put my finger on it. Where's it from?

 

[frankendoodle65]

That latest ganger looks great, though the revolver is a tad on the ginormous side! How are you planning on basing him? I feel like the pose doesn't make much sense on a flat Base, but would look great standing over a fallen enemy or high up on some kind of ledge.

[Biohazard]

Can’t help with more Wayne England pics but this latest guy looks really good so far. I’d agree with possibly building up his base a little more, that cultist head is almost a perfect match for the artwork. :tu:

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the comments, guys! :)

 

@ Gederas: Like the body, it's actually from one of the Dark Vengeance chaos cultists (the shirtless guy with the knife). I just added some cabling and a proper bionic eye ;)

 

@ frankendoodle65: Sure, the gun is big, but it also matches the artwork nearly perfectly, so I knew I had to use that old Gorkamorka pistol -- I even snapped it off another conversion ;)

 

As for the basing, I am actually thinking about incorporating the railing from the artwork in some shape or form. As for posing him on a ledge, it doesn't show well in the picture, but I actually turned the head a bit, so the model's no longer unambiguously aiming down the barrel of the gun, but could also be seen as being "at rest". A small ledge could happen, though ;)

 

@ Biohazard: Cheers, buddy! That's actually one of your old chaos cultists you sent me ages ago ;) Getting him off the base will be quite a hassle, though, as it seems you used copious amounts of superglue ;)

[Herald of Ultramar]

That illustration is indeed in one of the 1st ed. Dark Heresy books, it's on page 17 of the Core Rulebook. The Dark Heresy sourcebooks have a tonne of England art in them, actually.

[hushrong]

Another awesome conversion in the works! I seriously love seeing the artwork and then the mini inspired by it. That is some good stuff!

 

I also love the idea of a Bureaucultist. That makes for a very interesting background.

[Shovellovin]

I really like this new direction, inspired by Wayne England artwork. Both the Redactor and ganger are well done. Looking forward to seeing the ganger finished and painted.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! :)

 

@ Herald of Ultramar: Yes, I only realised this after the fact, but some of the best Wayne England artwork seems to appear exclusively in that book! At least GW salvaged the brilliant art for the various psyker disciplines for a recent blog post, but the fact that virtually none of this stuff seems to have been used elsewhere just blew my mind.

 

@ hushrong: Cheers, mate! Just to clarify, the Bureaucultist idea wasn't really mine, originally, but rather came from the excellent fan-made Dark Magenta supplement on Holy Terra as an adventurescape. I really love the concept, though: There's something incredibly grimdark about the thought of clerks and librarians going feral after their archives and bibliocathedra have been sealed off, forming gangs and fighting for their respective "section" of the archive, maybe for resources like electricity, memory units, clean paper or dry shelf space).

 

@ Shovellovin: Glad you like this direction, as I am currently having a ton of fun experimenting with it :)

 

So after another round of tweaks and the addition of more messy GS fur, I think I can call the Bureaucultist ganger finished:

 

 

 

Here's a picture with Redactor Orlant for comparison. It also shows you the latest model in all its different colours, warts and all ;)

 

 

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

[KrautScientist]

So here's another quick look at the bureaucultist ganger, with the base colours and first round of washes in place.

 

 

Nothing all that spectacular, admittedly, but the photo does show how the colours pull together the conversion, if you ask me.

 

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

[Augustus b'Raass]

Creepy bugger!

[Vairocanum]

Wow that is a brilliant conversion, really natural arm posing! Can't wait to see the model all painted up!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys! :)

 

As it turns out, you didn't have to wait for long, as the bureaucultist ganger is just about finished:

 

 

 

 

The model was painted to match Redactor Orlant's palette, using a slightly grubbier, dirtier version of the colour scheme, as it were -- and as befits the character:

 

 

And of course I couldn't help myself and had to mock up a comparison with the model, the artwork that inspired it, and some tweaked colour settings:

 

 

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

[hushrong]

The bureaucultist is looking great. And I still dig that background and would love to see more stuff like that. The idea behind that is super grimdark and awesome. Gangs made up of former clerks going to war over books they find only sacred and its really just and old T ledger.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, hushrong! I love the bureaucultist concept as well, and I would argue that it's really fun to imagine the guy from Wayne England's illustration as a bureaucultist, even though he certainly wasn't intended to be one

Edited April 4, 2018 by KrautScientist

[sockwithaticket]

Very cool interpretations of classic artwork.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Wow, you knocked that artwork-inspired clerk-turned-ganger out of the park! I think this is your best real-life imaining of a piece of artwork yet, for sure! 

 

IMPRESSIVE :tu: :tu: :tu:

 

I'm especially impressed with the pose and the eye-piece. Incredible. :yes:

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the comments, guys! And I m really glad that you appreciate the resemblance with the artwork :)