The 2023 Inquisitional Conclave.

 The time has arrived. 

This year's secret location, in an orbital station somewhere close to the Maelstrom, has attendees arriving slowly and cautiously to it. 

Voidsmen by Da Mastacheef

The first shuttle arrived, and when the doors opened these chaps spilled out, securing the docking bay and roughing up the concierge servitor. They heralded the arrival of this guy:

Inquisitor Wyrd, by Da Masta Cheef

Unlike most of Cheef's characters this guy doesn't have a name yet so I'm calling Inquisitor Wyrd. Anyway, after mind-probing the station's staff, he led his entourage into the Conclave Chambers. 

The next shuttle arrived, spilling forth a motley assortment of henchmen and archo-flagellants onto the deck. 

The Baddie Team by Zzzzzz 

Here is Zzzzzz with the details: 

The central character here is the demagogue: she is part of a select coven hunted by the OH.  She is flanked here by two close combat bodyguards with ceremonial flensing knives from the Grox herder enclaves of the northern parire: they've brought their traditional tribal tools to use as weapons in their new religion.  There's also her principal muscle, Xondar, who as you tell from his stature, was once even a giant amongst Space Marines.  Anyway, he's long turned to the ruinous powers and sometimes manages to cause a plague zombie or two to come into being, but he has no real control over this and it's not something to rely on.  There are three more cultists with a variety of weapons, including Xondar's bolter, which he can no long use, because plot armour.  The last member of this team is Sav.  She is a chaos aligned astropath.  

Sav and three cultists by Zzzzzz.

And some arcoflagellants.  These were glued together two years ago on a child free break in Somerset, but only painted and based now to have something for the conclave.  I'll post them on Devos IV, but not until the middle of September.

Arcoflagellants by Zzzzzz.

The station security team was a bit weirded out by that lot, but they were getting used to the flamboyant and eccentric styles of Inquisitors and their followers. So into the chamber they shuffled. 

From an antechamber, bedecked in overpriced swag, emerged the Inquisitor who goes by the call sign Alpha. He looked around the room suspiciously, as an Inquisitor of Ordo Hereticus is likely to do, before taking his seat at the conclave table. 

Inquisitor Alpha by Neverness.

Quote by Lord Inquisitor Torquemada Corteaz

+++++++++++

Despite opening the entries up to include Imperial Agents, very few people participated this year. (If I missed you let me know and I will edit you into the post. ) Shall we see what happens next year or give this thing a rest?

Inquisitor Alpha (Part 3)

 

Inquisitor "Alpha".

This guy was more challenging than my initial assessment of the model led me to believe it would be. There are odd wires and minor details I didn't catch until I really started working on him. And whatever the hell is going on with his gun arm confused me throughout the process. 

I finished the cape by using Folk Art Baby Blue*. Then a thinned layer of White Scar before highlighting it with a thick layer of White Scar.  Quite a bit of the blue shows through but creates a nice contour effect  which is what I was going for. 

The gold was finished by using the '90s era Citadel Colour Shining Gold. It's still the best gold color I own. It's perfect and I will be lost if I ever lose it. 

The sword was kept intentionally dark. I liked the contrast and juxtaposition of having the main focus of the model be a dark and sinister looking blade. 

The 'writing' on the scrolls and parchment was done using a Micron.  A very small tiped Micron. 

And that's essentially it; he is done! 

OK, so we only have a few days left in the month. If you are intending to participate in the 2023 Inquisitional Conclave you have until September 1st to get your images and links over to me. I am planning to post the Conclave on Sunday the 3rd. 

*For the record, this color has never been used on any of my Space Wolves models. Seriously. 

Inquisitor Alpha (Part 2)

 Just a small update showing the small amount of progress I was able to make on this guy since the last post. 

This top picture shows the progress just past the basecoats stage. I used Contrast Paints on his clothes and skin. I was, again, less than impressed with Spaces Wolves Grey Contrast Paint. This time I used it on his cloak and robes, and I just hated it. I used Catachan Flesh on all the armored bits. I sometimes like to use a dark brown as a base for gold as it gives it extra depth. I painted over that with a classic from the '90s: Tin Bitz. 

Here we are at the early stages of the mid-coats. Retributor Armor was applied here and finally the gold is beginning to come together for me. Model Color Azure was painted over the Contrast Paint on the clothes which I think is now starting to work the way I visualized it. I generally dislike Vallejo paints as I find them to be too runny for my style but this one worked out for this situation. 

Alright, a short update indeed. Remember, the month is flying by fast and the Conclave will gather on the first of September. So if you want to be a part of it this year there is still time! 

Inquisitor Alpha (Part 1)

GW stock photo from the blister pack.

 I have selected my Inquisitor for this year's Inquisitional Conclave. This year I went for this generic Inquisitor.  He looks like he might be fairly quick to paint (famous last words, right Blood Axe Orks?), and he is often the cover model for the Imperial Agents. I decided to name him Alpha, who was the mysterious Inquisitor that my players worked for in the Dark Heresy game I ran about 10 years ago. 

The 25mm base. Yeah, not feeling it. 

This miniature is a white metal miniature, and I was relieved to find him locally last week,  and even more relieved that he wasn't in Finecast. He comes with a basic 25mm base, and as you can see from the stock photo and the one I took above, he just spills off of the thing. So I decided to put him on a 32mm base. And he's still a bit big for it, but at least now I have room to add stuff to it. I cut a slot into the base and accidentally shattered it. No problem really, but I did have to wait for it to glue together. And for some reason the bolter was being difficult about gluing into place also. I had to balance it against my exact-o blade for a while while the glue cured. 

The gluing.

Here he his glued together and looking like he was born too soon and missed out on the 'Tactical rock" craze of the previous decade (who are kidding, it's still a thing!). 

Rocking a new base. 

I wanted a small stack of skulls on his base. Inspired pretty much from the classic Blanche Sisters of Battle art. I'm even planning on putting red Xs on their foreheads. 

Skulls for the Golden Throne!

Ok. Just waiting for the TN  humidity to be on my side so I can get him primed, and then it's on to the action! 

Inquisitional Conclave 2023 (Kick Off)

 Is it that time of year already? Dang! 

A  Blanche work for your inspiration. 

Well this is the fourth annual Inquisitional Conclave.  The rules are simple: 

The rules (more like guidelines really); all you have to do is obtain for yourself an Inquisitor miniature or any Imperial Agent model and throughout August, paint it up and send me your a pic of the finished miniature and or a link to where you might be sharing this online (a blog, Instagram, whatever). Also, please leave a comment below announcing your commitment to this challenge (this is not required, but it does provide motivation to the rest of us). 

Inquisitor Draco, my 2021 Conclave Inquisitor. 

You're not just limited to an Inquisitor specifically, you can paint members of their retinue to accompany the one you might have painted for a previous Conclave or any Imperial Agents your Inquisitor may requisition. A good gauge of this to check out the Imperial Agents index cards, but you're not limited to those. Heck, the more Blanchitsu you getz the better! 

And Inquisitor and retinue from 2020 by Da Masta Cheef. 

You can message me directly at neverness92@gmail.com, and send to me either pics or a link to your own blog (Instagram, whatever social media platform you prefer). Of course, I'll post my own updates here as well. We will kick this off on August 1st, with the Conclave itself (the post where all the final finished pics are showcased) to happen on the weekend of September; I will know more as we get there. That should be plenty of time for most of us -I hope!

Now I got to figure out what I want to paint... 

And figure out who gets a Mohawk this year.