The 2020 Inquisitional Conclave (Decision time: Part 1)

Greetings!
Last month I declared my intentions to host the Inquistion Conclave here on the Neverness Hobby Chronicle, and from the feedback I received we are definitely going to do this. All you have to do is get yourself an Inquisitor miniature and throughout August, paint it up and send me your progress updates. You can message me directly at neverness92@gmail.com, and send me either pics or a link to your own blog. It's up to you). Of course, I'll post my own updates here as well. We will kick this off on August 1st, with the Conclave itself to happen on the first week or 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 need to decide on what I am going to paint. I have a few candidates to chose from, but first let's see who they are:

This first model also happens to be the first Inquisitor I ever owned. Dr. TSG and I, on one of our jaunts into Ipswich in '89, had a little spending money left over and we decided to split a blister pack. This had just came out, and he really wanted the mini with a goat tee*. We didn't even know which arms went with which model, we just worked it out. He loved that mini so much he painted it that weekend.** I didn't even own paints yet, so he remained, and remains still, unpainted.  He is an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor and looks ready to burn some witches. Note, this was the only blister pack I ever got from the Rogue Trader era or since, that came with gray bases.

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor.

 The second Inquisitor I acquired was purchased in the USA around '95, deep into 40k's 2nd edition. Unlike the above model which was cast in lead, this model is pewter. I think that GW US's early pewter castings were a bit sloppy and often lost detail. Regardless, this guy with his weird "car body" armor got to get into a few games back then. He was fairly common here in the States because he was sold with the Imperial Assassin which was kind of a "must have" miniature in the early days of 2nd Edition. Armed with a chain sword and... a...ah... whatever gun.

Inquisitor in VW class power armor.

 This next miniature is not an official  Inquisitor model, but with that attitude I say why not? He is the Space Eunuch from an old pack of Adventurers. I have used him as an Inquisitor, a member of an Inquisitor's Retinue and as a corrupted Imperial Governor. I still think he would make a humorous, yet bold, Inquisitor.

Space Eunuch.

 This next one isn't an official Inquisitor either, but he is very rare, and if you know his lore from Lost And The Damned it would be very cool to use him as one. I can see how this model may have influenced some of the later Inquisitor sculpts also. Anyway, this is a Sensei, or rather the Sensei as this is the only official GW model of a Sensei (AFAIK). It could be fun to have this guy crash the 2020 Inquisitional Conclave, yes?

The Sensei.

I have other options to consider which I still have mint in box or blister.

Inquisitor Lord Cortez (and friends).

The Witch Hunter and his host of fanatics.

 I think this next one may have been a limited release but I am not too sure. I just recall thinking at the time that $15 was a lot to pay for a single model blister. Current me would like to slap past me with a big fish.

Yes, his arm option is a pointing finger.

 I thought I had another of this miniature with a different gun option but I was apparently wrong.

Lady Witch Hunter.

And as shown in the previous post I also have the special release of Eisenhorn.

Soon I will make my final choice. Heck, I might just say screw the lot of 'em and get that bald woman with the shuriken catapult.  Clearly my options are open, and so are yours! We will see what I pick before the month of August is over.

My buddy The Bob got so excited last month that he jumped the gun and started painting up two Inquisitors. One of which he has already finished! He keeps this pace up, and we'll just host the Conclave at his house! 😆

TheBob's WIP Inquisitor. 

Bob's finished Inquisitor. 

*The same model that the painting of Inquisitor Draco on the cover of the 1st edition of Inquisitor was inspired by.

**I hope to do a feature on this miniature of his in the near future.

The 2020 Inquistional Conclave (August Challenge) -Declaration.

Nobody was expecting this!

So I got an idea to do something akin to Dreadtober for August and I wanted to share it with you guys, to see if you all think if it could be a cool thing to do. I want to do a paint challenge based around Warhammer 40k Inquisitors. It's simple, in August start painting an Inquisitor, send in weekly updates either via your blog posts or emails, and I will do a weekly update here on my blog. Or people could just send in a pic by month's end; whatever works.

I am thinking about calling it the 2020* Inquistional Conclave. The goal is to paint an Inquisitor model by the end of August. At that point I will gather up the final pics and the showcase the final paint jobs. For those not doing a named character it might be fun to encourage folks to write a short blurb about their Inquisitor character. It wouldn't matter to me if the Inquisitor was from the old large scaled game (the one aptly called Inquisitor), a Rogue Trader era model (guy with a European car for a chest?**), something rare (Gregg!) or something current (Greyfax). They'll all come together in their painted glory. There's no contest, it's just a goal vs. a calendar.

Personally, I could use something like this to help me get my painting projects done. I found that with the artwork I have been doing that I work better under a deadline. Indeed, this past October my Dreadtober goal was great motivation for me.

And, I don't have a single painted Inquisitor, despite owning Inquisitors since the year I started this hobby ('89! Yikes!)  I will likely do a follow up post to this one soon showcasing my collection of unpainted Inquisitors.

Greggie needs paint! 

What do you all think?

The folks on the Neverness Hobbies Facebook Group seem keen to do it, and if I get enough positive responses from this post then I think we'll do sign-up in late July and roll it out at the start of August.

So let me know if you think this is good idea (or not) in the comments below or email me privately at neverness92@gmail.com.


*If successful we can make it an annual thing.

**I'll explain it in the next post.

The Deadly Assassins (Part 6)

Death Cult Assassin Knosso Prond.

Greetings. It's that time of the year where I paint an assassin. Last year I finished off the quartet of Imperial Assassins that I had set out to paint when I started this series. That act completed that Execution Force. This year I wanted to do something different, and with the launch of the Adepta Soroitas Codex a few months ago I have been itching to get something going with them. So I thought it would be a neat idea to select a Death Cult Assassin as this year's assassin model. I have the old models but after seeing Knosso Prond from the Rogue Trader Kill Team boxed set I just had to have her for this year's project. Thanks to those bitz sellers on Ebay this was acquired without having to break the bank for the Rogue Trader boxed set.  It was a surprisingly odd model to assemble, and definitely not the pushfit model that I have become accustomed to with recent boxed sets.

Knosso Prond, assembled in her red glory. 

After priming the miniature with Citadel Colour Grey Seer I set about painting her up using some Contrast Paints. The red areas were done using Blood Angel's Red and the black areas had Black Templar applied to them. I was actually impressed with how well the colors worked over the Grey Seer and figured I would use Citadel Shades on some of the remaining areas. Druchii Violot was washed on her hair and Drakenhof Nightshade was applied on the "ribbed" areas. In the end I think the whole thing was coming together nicely at this point.

Basecoats and Contrast Paint layers. 

Like some of the other assassins I painted over the years, the straps and leather areas were painted Khorne Red with the intention of using Pink Horror as the final highlight.

Ink washes applied. 

Most of the techniques used to complete this model are nothing I haven't applied in the completion of other models on this blog so in the spirit of saving a bit of time, let's just skip the end:

At the finish line.

 Touch-ups on the red Contrast Paints were done using Mephiston Red. Indeed, I found this to be a subtle highlight color which doesn't compromise the effects and benefits of using the Contrast Paint in the first place.

Blood for the Blood Emperor! 

 The head of the plague zombie was a bit more challenging to paint. I started off by using Plaguebearer Flesh as the base, followed by a highlight of Elysian Green. At some point the old Nurgles Rot Technical paint was used. For the deeper recesses Agrax Earthshade was thinly applied. The eyeball was colored using Ulthuan Grey, which is the perfect 'dead eye' color. The pupil was done using a Micron pen. The bloody stump was finished using a liberal application of Blood For The Blood God of course, as no other paint will do.

Dart champ of the 41st millennium. 

One of the things that took me a while to decipher was the dart protruding from the severed head. Even after looking at some painted examples online (and there are some lovely examples, go check 'em out!) I did not make out what was happening at first. It wasn't until I realized that there were darts on her left shoulder pad that I got that there was a dark sticking out of the head. A fun detail, and one that sort of tells a story.

An ode to John Blanche.

The red I chose reminded me of Sevora and Servina, the first Death Cult Assassins from the old up-scaled Inquisitor game (you know, the one no one played but people collected the miniatures because they were awesome) which were themselves homage to the works of John Blanche.

Legs like only Blanche can draw them.*

Another stunning Blanche piece. **

The Blade of Clean Cutting. 

I didn't put Blood For The Blood God, or any color to represent blood, on the sword. My reason for this is that I assume Ms. Prond cuts quick and clean, leaving the blood to pour from her victims wounds where they fall. Because she is bad-ass.

I am keen to give her some companions soon so I dug out these old Death Cult Assassins blisters.  Perhaps the number of painted Deadly Assassins in my collection will grow sooner than later?   Surpassing the number unpainted Assassins in my collection with painted ones seems like a lofty goal, especially at a rate of one per year!

How old does something have to be to qualify as "vintage"?

And we shall finish with Ms. Prond with another obligatory natural lighting shot. I hope you enjoyed this one!

The hills had eyes. 

*These images are shared here for reference and review purposes and should not be construed or interpreted as a challenge to the respective copyright holder(s).

**Yeah, she's not in red leather, but damn, how I could resist that teddy bear? It's creepy as heck! And GW, whenever you guys make plastic Death Cult Assassins or Inquisition models, you got to include a Teddy Bear servitor.

Bad Moon Nob (Part 1)

Back in late May of 2019 I found a game store close to my job that sold used miniatures, and I was able to score a complete Ork Boyz boxed set (sans box) for a very generous price. I had been wanting to whip up a Bad Moons unit of Boyz to supplement my budding Bad Moons regiment. Like, a week later I lost my job, and that entire project went to the back burner; but not before I was to construct a single model for the unit: the Nob.

Flesh base coated.

 While working on my Dreadtober project I found myself with too much of my orky flesh wash mixture, so I snatched this guy out of the queue and got him painted up to that stage.

I didn't touch the model again until fairly recently. I next base coated the yellow areas using Fiery Orange.

Basecoats. 

Then it was back to the skin which I used a color called Kiwi. Sunburst Yellow, a discontinued yet still amazing, Citadel Color paint from the '90s, was painted on the armor. I had to apply two coats however to really work out the splotches.

Sunburst Yellow coat. 

He's getting there, and hopefully with my (albeit challenged) persistence I will be able to finish him and the squad he belongs to.

Wolfpriest Jorvik Blacktooth (Part 2)

Wolfpruest Jorvik Blacktooth.

With a pause in my art duties, and a slight Spring break for myself, I took a few moments to try to complete a few things in my painting queue that wouldn't take too much work to finish. One such model was Wolfpriest Jorvik Blacktooth which I started on, and nearly finished, last summer (see Part 1). I do not know what fizzled out the momentum I had going on this guy, but I suspect it as something to do with getting a job with a long commute.

"Dude, where's my Eldar trophies

I didn't take any stage-by-stage pics for these final steps as I was primarily focused on just finishing him up. That said I can tell you a few things that I know I haven't covered elsewhere. The interior of his cloak was painted by first applying a basecoat of Mournfang Brown. Next I added a layer of Zandri Dust. I then glazed it with Agrax Earthshade followed by another glaze of a mixture of six parts water to one part Carrosburg Crimson. This last mixture made for the subtlest of hues, but I like how it turned out.

I applied a decal on his left pauldron, and I would like to note that if really is less challenging if you put the backpack on after you apply the decals to your Marines. Trust me.

One he was done it was time to take him out for his natural lighting glamor shot. Expect to see him soon in the Space Wolves gallery and in the Neverness Rogues gallery. And with hope, in a battle report!

My first completed model of 2020! Yay!

It is nice to finally have a completed model for 2020. I have a few more I hope to get done soon, but in the meanwhile I literally have to get back to the drawing board!

Tales from the Smoking Wyrm #2

Hello.
 Blind Visionary launched the Kickstarter for Tales from the Smoking Wyrm #2 a few days ago. And I'm happy to report that it has already funded!
 Yay!
And if you were one of the contributors for this or the previous issue, then I humbly thank you.

Cover snip of Tales From The Smoking Wyrm #2.

An old ('cuz we're old) art school classmate of mine did the cover for this one.  But I have some pieces in this one also, including a Shoggoth piece that I am particularly keen on.

WIP snippet from Onward Retainer #2. 

And my comic, Onward Retainer! has it's second installment. It's wordy as hell, but I like this one more than the first one. It's been a lot of fun working on this and getting my art groove back on, and this comic has been an important part of that. I still don't think I'm quite at the confidence level I was at the turn of the century when I stopped doing this type of art, but I feel that I am improving with each work I do.

A colorized version of the zine's host, Niarb. 

If you play Dungeon Crawl Classics (or know someone who does) and you're interested in it, check it out on Kickstarter, we would appreciate it and I think you will be pleased with it also. One person declared it,  upon holding the first issue in his hands for the first time, "The Fanciest Fanzine Ever". And I do think he is right; it's a nice product we managed to produce and I look forward to getting more people to experience it and to making more!

I am holding the limited edition printing of #1 for the first time.

Onward Retainer! (c) Joel R Phillips. 
Tales From The Smoking Wyrm (c) Blind Visionary. 

The Neverness Crusade

Praying for you. To burn for your heresy!

Here is a post that I should have written many years ago. I have been a fan of the Adepta Sororitas since Rogue Trader, when we were presented with just a snippet of info and a glorious pic of Sister Sin snuffing out a traitorous Rainbow Warrior Space Marine. Not a peep was mentioned about this curious faction of the Imperium until Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition when they were included in the Black Codex and in the Codex: Imperialis. Within it there was some new background but also a small John Blanche rendering. It wasn't much to go on, but it was inspiring. So much so that I used it, and the Sister Sin pic from Rogue Trader, as the inspiration and reference for the illustration that I did which was published in Armorcast's Inquisitor Magazine in the later '90s (the issue number escapes me at this time...#15 or #16?). This preceded the official miniatures and Codex release by quite a lot of months. You can see a snippet of it in the bad scan to the right. The point of all this is that clearly I had an interest in the Adepta Soroitas long before models were available for them, so it would make sense that I played them, yes? 

Oddly, no. 

But I collected them, yes. 

The first Sisters boxed sets.

Back in the late '90s GW US Mail Order used to have preorder and precast options if you just called them and asked the Trolls*. And I did in fact preorder my copy of the Codex: Sister for Battle along with the first Squad box, the Seraphim box and Immolator. I was all geared up to go! I quickly chose the Order of the Bloody Rose as my faction of choice and I was ready to proceed, but, and I don't quite recall why, I just didn't. Maybe I was trying to finish another army first? It wouldn't be the first or last time that I gave into that delusion. I think it was that I always found the metal models to be intimidating in regards to painting them. This pattern would repeat years later when they were expanded in Codex: Witch Hunters and my Crusade was expanded considerably.

Witchhunter boxed sets.

A few years ago I did finally paint a single miniature to use in a game of Dark Heresy, Sister Secunda. but that was it.

Sister Secunda. 

I was tempted many times to sell the army off. Time, interest, too many miniatures to paint, etc. But each time I got serious about it I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I love these miniatures far too much and just couldn't part with them. So I just held onto them and kept them secure.

The original Arco Flagellents.

Now with the release of the army in plastic (cue chorus of FINALLY!) my interest in them is really strong. However instead of cracking open all of the old miniatures, I bought a box of the new plastic Sisters of Battle Squad with some xmas gift money and my intention is to paint them up first. If I am still excited with them and want to play them as a full army, then the crusade will truly be launched and the frenzy shall begin. Time permitting of course.

The Warriors of Redemption set.

I probably will likely continue with my original choice of The Order of the Bloody Rose, but how I do this scheme might be a deviation from the established GW examples. With hope I can get to try some of my ideas out soon....

I drew this after their 2nd edition launch.

 *At some point, they hated to be called that and the title was dropped, much to my disappointment...