A Few Inq28s More

It's cowboy inquisition day here at PVP - hence the Few Dollars More title reference with yet another small Inq28 Warband for that last commission.

They're mostly themed around a kind of Wild West vibe (not sure on manufacturers but I think most are MERCS with a couple of exceptions). Some minor conversions here and there helped 40k-ify them up a bit. In terms of colour scheme for the unit, I felt that practical leather dusters, surplus military green armour and the traditional black, red and white of the Inquisition as spot colours/main tones in the absence of armour and coats. Rather than going through them all - some of the ladies at the back were not the greatest sculpts - I thought I'd focus on the pick of the bunch, the front row. Lets start with the boss whom I have christened Inquisitor Ned Kelly for the metal face:

Pretty sure this chap is from the MERCS range, though he's had inquisitional arms weapon swapped on and a tiny grey knights icon shaved off a bolter and added to his hat. For the most part he's not a bad sculpt, though the posing of the legs is a bit mad. What Blackadder would refer to as a "Heroic Stance". I'm reasoning that he has just jumped down from something high and is taking the fall on bent knees. Unfortunately, and this happens a lot with sculpts like this, because he's almost the same height as the people around him with his legs spread that far apart he must be at least 7ft tall. But heck, heroic imposing Inquisitor, who cares? Painting wise he was nothing too remarkable. The Val Leather Brown coat and Val German Grey shaded down to black for the fatigues dominate the palette. The bits worth picking out are, first, the flame. Always remember that fire is whitest where it is hottest and it is hottest at it's source. So many people go the other way, red up to white, just isn't right. I tend to drybrush a little black around the edges of my flames too for sooty smoke.

Next the pouches. I needed them to stand out from the background black but didn't want to stray too far from the scheme, I could have used an olive drab but this would have been close to the armour colour and it can be a momentary confusion ("wait are the pouches armoured?") a visual equivalent of "had had" and "that that" in writing, to be avoided if you can. Instead a Khaki shade close to the leather but distinct from it did the job nicely. Lastly, the eyes, hatband and sword hilt. The other models in the unit have quite a bit of red on them. I needed just a few tiny spots to help tie him to the rest. I also needed to draw the eye to the metal face under that very, very wide hatbrim. So red lenses for eyes and red leather (that I'd figured out painting Captain America) for the sword and hat brim. Done.

Next up is the rather steampunk-ey lady who I suspect is designed as a doctor. In my head though as I painted her I was thinking how cold it would be for this prim, proper, Mary Poppins style character to be the interrogator. The gladstone bag full of "confession encouragers". A calm, neat, precise, terrifying individual. Cool huh? She's a lovely sculpt, I need to chase down who makes her as I think I want one for my own band of miscreants. As with most really nice models she practically painted herself. Just a matter of deciding which of the scheme's colours would go where. A red jacket - won't show the blood see - to cover the demure white frilly blouse seemed to be a win.

Then we come to yet another Brother Vinni model. This one is another from their "Totally not Fallout, nope siree" range that I rather like. The weapons have been swapped out for more 40k choices but otherwise untouched. Rather like Inquisitor Ned Kelly, this chap felt like he needed a utilitarian, military scheme which left not a lot of room for red. A small helmet detail sorted this out and believe it or not really helped bind him to the rest of the unit. I tried doing some pseudo-writing on his name badge but it just looked like a squiggle without more lines of text to help it. Blank beats bad in my book (same for eyes, if you can't paint a good eye yet, just leave a darkened socket, it will look better, trust me).

And finally we come to the Infinity model sneaking around at the flanks. As with most Infinity models she's a clean, crisp job, nice to have an Infinity female sculpt that doesn't look like it's about to be picked up for soliciting too... I replaced her weapon - which looked weedy for 40k - with an Elysian lasgun that fitted the existing bullpup grip very nicely. I saw this character as an infiltrator type, sneaking about with the hood up to distort the lines of her head and the sword as a primary weapon. The gun is for when the midden hits the windmill and someone yells "go loud" through the comms. Hence the red being only for the lining of the coat and the bindings on the katana. Like a lot of the Infinity sculpts her face is a little spare on the detailing so you have to force some features in with the painting.

Thats all for today folks. With models remaining on this commission down to about a dozen and a handful of tanks, the end is in sight. Fortunately I've been keeping the best Inquisitors as treats to paint so there will be quite the conclave at the end.

TTFN