Inq28 Ecclesiarchy warband

I am not asking for blood. I can take your blood.
I am asking for souls. Only you can give me your souls.
- Dolan Chirosius - Sermon On the Road to Gathalamor

In the 40k universe the church has a rather central and all-powerful role. The Ecclesiarch is amongst one of the nine permenant slots on the council of the High Lords of Terra. They have militant and fanatical servants and some even take to the battlefield in the form of the Frateris Militia. They're also the subject of today's post.

These guys are a part of the fast-finishing Inq28 commission, a gang of servants of the church rather than the Inquisition. Rather like the US law enforcement agencies the Imperium has many branches of it's organisation whose jurisdiction overlap. Rooting out heresy is as much the Ecclesiarchy's job as it is the Inquisition's. This sometimes leads to, shall we say... friction between groups in the field. A subtle Inquisitor's investigation might be blundered into by a loud and fervent Ecclesiarchy cell. Or a group that has been left alone to be studied and followed to a greater heresy might be captured and burned by a monodominant maniac. There's a nifty bit in Eisenhorn where he is pursued by a nutcase Ecclesiarchy Witch Hunter who is convinced that he is a chaos worshipping heretic. So a gang of pure Ministortum agents makes a lot of sense and can cause all kinds of fun.

Painting wise, we'll start with the basic frateris militia lads. As usual the client had done all of the assembly work so with some of the bits later on I don't know their source. In this case it is a mixture of Empire flagellants, Catachan lasgun arms and a marauder axe. The anatomically challenged "sack'o'footballs" Catachan arms look as good here as they do anywhere (silk purses and sows ears y'know) and really change the tone of the flagellant models. They look much beefier and less malnutrition ridden. As the gang was to fit in with another mob of religious nutcases that the client had already painted blue that was the overall tone. There isn't a lot to say about it. Kantor Blue all the way really.

There is though one special frater. The chap with the massive flag. I do not know which company makes the huge burning banner but it was nifty to paint. By using the blue and white used on the rest of the warband to edge the banner I freed the inner section to be whatever I wanted it to be while trying it to the rest of the group. With that design, it had to be stylised flames, as usual, brighter flames closer to the source, red flames further away. Lots of gentle blending to give nice gradients on the bigger sections. I'm chuffed with the finished effect. The big cross needed to contrast without introducing new colours so either white, blue or black... black is more gothic... black it is! To make it stand out I threw some of my faux not-really-NMM-gold on the edging, I generally use the NMM-ish for "metallic" fabric. Differentiates it from the actual hard shiny stuff.

Lastly we have the pair that I mentally named The Cardinals. These are both Empire wizards with some 40k bits kit-bashed on and nifty mitre-hatted heads from I know-not-where. I especially love the shifty yet contemptuous look on the face on Sword Cardinal. The gas mask on Flag Cardinal means we'll never know his face. Speaking of Flag Cardinal, I was in a quandary about what to put on his banner. Some sort of devotional icon seemed appropriate, the dirty linen colour I'd achieved as the background colour got me thinking Shroud of Turin. That in turn made me remember an old Sister of Battle banner for the Order of the Argent Shroud which had a skeleton with halo. That seemed to work so I went for it. One stylised skellie later and job done.

With less than a double handful of infantry to go and one tank, this commission is well within site of the finishing line. There are 4 corsair tanks to go as well but the end is neigh. Mixed feelings about that but I really need to finish so I can start, y'know, the rest of my life ;) Until next time folks.

TTFN