A Long Unexpected Inquisition...

 Something a little different this time, and something not quite so-Old Hammer.

This is a project that I began several years ago but abandoned incomplete. I can't say exactly what caused me to go back and finish it (and dive off down this particular rabbit hole...).

To go back to the very beginning, when the Inquisitor game first came out, I came up with a background idea for a pair of rival Inquisitors, Ankyra and Tamerlane Voth. The basic premise was that Inquisitor Rastaban Tycho (whose name I subsequently borrowed for one of my RT Inquisitors) discovers a twin brother and sister who are unusually both psykers, and both strong enough to not be Astropathed or make a one-way pilgrimage to the Golden Throne.

Tycho took the two into his retinue and eventually both became Interrogators and finally Inquisitors themselves. However, their mentor had always been on the radical side of the coin and finally took a dive off the deep end and was declared a heretic by his peers. The Voths were not directly involved in these events and avoided censure themselves.

However their reactions to these events were dramatically different. Ankyra, always secretive in her actions became even more so. Tamerlane comes to see their mentor's downfall as being inevitable and swings to the Puritan side and becomes suspicious of his sister.

I never actually played Inquisitor and thus nothing every came of it at the time.

Later I started following the Inq28 community and made an attempt to build models for characters I had thought up, which is where this model came in. I didn't have much experience with converting metal models so I stuck to plastic parts.

I cannot claim any originality in this model, being based on a model made by Keravin (that I saw on the old Ammo Bunker forum), based on a Dark Eldar Warrior body with a hooded Wood Elf head. 

So this is my homage to that model, Inquisitor Ankyra Voth.

I trimmed down the sharp and spikey bits, like the sides of the knee pads and spikes on the lower leg.

I used a bit of green stuff to fill a gap behind one arm and give her a bit of a neck, as well as covering the pattern on the knife scabbard (although that was ultimately obscured by the sword...).

The original came out long before the appearance of plastic Sisters of Battle so Keravin used a set of metal arms. I originally tried to use the Dark Eldar arms rearmed with Imperial weapons, however I was using a splinter rifle supporting arm and couldn't find anything suitable to put in the open hand. This was the main reason along with failure to find a sword that I liked that I lost interest originally.

After finishing this I went on a bit of spending spree gathering bits for Tamerlane Voth and members of their retinues, I've already built a gunslinger/veteran and an Arco-Flagellant, which will hopefully get painted soon.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Arrows of fortune...

 Greetings once again Oldhammers...

I have managed to squeeze a few more minis before the turn of the year.

This time they are a deliberate group, a new mini-faction for my Euphoria setting. Although they use many of the same colours on the models I haven't used a particular colour scheme for them. Instead tying them together with an Arrow emblem that all of them have in several places.

So I present the Broad Arrow Gang, a small mercenary outfit in the lawless badlands of Euphoria, hiring themselves out to carry out a variety of jobs for anyone who needs some discreet muscle for any purpose.

First up the gang's leader, Simeon Kolchak.

His arrowhead symbol was source of the gang's emblem.

Although generally known as "Colonel Kolchak" or just "the Colonel" there is currently no substantiated evidence to prove that he has ever held that rank either in the Imperial Army or any Planetary Defence Forces.

 

Kolchak formed the Broad Arrow Gang gathering various often disparate associates and welding them together through force of personality.

Next we have Pirosteq Balveda, one of the first recruits to the gang.

She has a tiny arrow on her eyepatch, and a white one just visible on her gasmask...

Balveda lived a rough life as a scavenger in the Euphorian badlands prior to being recruited by the Colonel. She is renowned for her almost miraculous skills as a healer and for her uncanny ability to not be where you thought she was a minute ago...

 

Next up is Lancelot Ponsonby-Wilberforce (some may recognise this model since I actually painted him a while ago but decided to add him to the Broad Arrow Gang and gave him some arrow symbols).

An eccentric individual known for his singular attire who has wandered the badlands for years, how the Colonel convinced him to join up is unknown. If you are looking for information then Ponsonby-Wilberforce is your best source, there is seemingly nothing happening on Euphoria that he doesn't somehow find out about.

Then we have Amos "Breakout" Conrad.

 

 

"Breakout" Conrad is an individual infamous in the Euphorian underworld for his ability to inevitably escape custody no matter how securely he is imprisoned. Having recently escaped from a cell within the Euphorian Arbite Precinct itself he appears to have signed on with the Broad Arrows.

 

Tried to make it look like the arrow was made of metal studs.

Hiro Gishima is the next member of the gang.

 

Attempted a different method of painting skin on this one.

 This muscle-bound brawler is much more sophisticated than his primitive attire and attitude would suggest, speaking a number of alien languages and knowledgeable about variety of obscure subjects. Rumour says the gang found him wandering half-mad in strange ruins out in the badlands, however no such ruins are recorded in any official records, so this is almost certainly an urban legend.

The final member of the gang is Skabbers, the Ratling.

Originally he only had the arrow on his cap but I decided he needed one visible from the front.

A highly successful handler of illicit goods moving on and off world the diminutive Skabbers was "recruited" by Kolchak after attempting to scam the good Colonel over a shipment of fake Charadonian Fungus Beer. His natural talent for marksmanship has lead to him providing covering fire for the rest of the gang.

Have started work on a few more Colony 87 models I got from Crooked Dice.

Till next time.

Cap'n Smyrk

More Heroic Types...

Hello all


Haven't been doing much on the Oldhammer front of late but I have come up with my selections of what to use as the Heroes for my Rogue Questesque game.

These are selected from minis that I currently have painted but show my basic thinking even if I decided to use a different mini later.

I decided to follow the basic Advanced Heroquest pattern.

As such we have the Warrior:

The Wizard:

The Dwarf:

And the Elf:

Next on my painting table is probably going to be this Eldar scout to use in place of the one I've already painted as he looks more adventury (is that a word?).

 

I would also like to have something a little more impressive for the wizard but I don't currently own anything suitable other than this guy (but I'm saving him to act as a possible bad guy):

Alternative to the Warrior would be a Barbarian although again this model is along with the rest of the Astral Wyrm Cult earmarked to provide targets enemies.

Anyway that's the state of my current thinking hopefully I will have something move leaden to show you next time.

Till then.

Cap'n Smyrk

Adding introspection to injury...

No modelling progress at the mo and there may be a little while before there is any, not due to work commitments as I mentioned last time but because I managed to nacker my shoulder before I even went back to work... :(

Oh well...

So as an aside I've been thinking about the way I've gone about selecting the models used in my Euphoria warbands. When I first got into the Oldhammer zone a couple of years ago it was purely on the basis of collecting old models I liked or wished I had owned back in the day. The ideas for the Euphoria setting and collecting its various warbands came later.

I never specifically planned to restrict myself to Citadel minis as part of this, indeed although all the ones I've produced so far have been I still have plans to include some non-citadel. However there are several characters I've produced so far I originally intended to use non-citadel for but ended up finding a citadel figure to fill the role.

Most notable are Sphinx who was originally going to be an EM4 (old Grenadier) scavenger.

But upon seeing whiskeypriest's example on his blog I changed my mind and went searching ebay for Spit Gun Suzies.

Psi-Judge Anjersen (prior to being named) had various non-citadel minis considered for the role before I fell back on the old Judge Dredd line.

Most recently I had been searching to for a suitable mini for the Milady d'Wysper lady in waiting to Euphoria's Governor with a peculiar selection of (deadly) skills. Again originally I was looking through several other ranges and was leaning towards the Reaper's Pathfinder Hellknight Signifer.

But then I found a citadel figure that struck me as perfect, I'm not going to say which one just yet, I'll show her off when she's done. When she arrived in the post I did find one snag, she's tiny...
However on reflection its not so much of a problem, I've already used Anderson who is dwarfed by her Arbites comrades. Plus something about the tiny girl actually being a stealthy and exceptionally deadly killer fits the background I've dreamed up.

Anyway I suppose my main purpose here is being impressed with how extensive and versatile the old citadel ranges (fantasy and others included) are, being able to find a mini to match so many concepts (ignoring of course those with the skill and will to convert, can't bring myself to cut up any of my old lead even if I was practiced enough to actually do it successfully...).

Again a shame that this side has been lost in the the modern era of stupidly oversized models...

Til next time...


Cap'n Smyrk

Euphoric Missive...

No new painted stuff to show you this time round although there are a couple of minis on the go at the moment which will hopefully be ready by the weekend.

Instead I thought I would give a bit of a run down of the 'warbands' I'm planning for my Euphoria project/campaign/pipe dream.

First up we have Cap'n Smyrk's crew which is the most complete one currently. Ultimately this will include Smyrk and his 'command staff' of Sphinx, Squatty, Helmsman Pyke and his first mate 'Ace' Ryker (currently being painted). To back up this 'main cast' I plan to have at least three (possibly as many as five) 'extras', additional redshirts like Rizzo.

The second warband is the next nearest completion which is the Euphoria Arbites Precinct. Ultimately this will be a five to six man patrol team (led by Judge Diens, also currently on the painting table) with Psi-Judge Anjersen acting as back up.

Next on the list is Inquisitor Rastaban Tycho and his retinue. Currently this band stands at just Tycho himself (waiting on paint, once I decide what colours to use). The plan for this one is again to have two seperate sections, one of shadowy agents and the other of Tycho and his three Space Marine 'heavies'. The agents maneouvre the target into place and then Tycho and his muscle swoop in and take all the credit....

Fourth up is the Cult of Incandescent Astral Wyrm. Again this currently consists of one figure, the Emissary and nothing else. Haven't fully worked out what this will consist of yet but plans include a mutant space pirate and his minions as well as possibly more 'standard' cultists.

Finally I hope to produce a small entourage for Euphoria's governor, Regis Evangeline Margarette d'Sarck. This will include an Astropath, a ceremonial bodyguard (in Mk1 powered armour) and a shadowy lady-in-waiting/assassin. Eventually this may include some local security forces (directly under the governor's control unlike the Arbites) but I need to work out what minis I want to use for these (don't really want to use just ordinary guardsmen, looking for something a little more 'eccentric').

The Inquisitor's retinue and Governor's entourage will both probably include my first forays into non-citadel minis.

Anyway til next time when hopefully I'll have Ryker and Judge Diens ready for show.


Cap'n Smyrk

A Voice in the Wilderness...

So its been a quite a while, sorry about that.

Various factors have contributed to my lack of progress on this little project, including unexpectedly having to get a new car, concentrating on getting some of my historical models finished, currently working away from home during the week, and I will admit a certain lack of interest...

With this in mind I don't have anything new to show painting wise unfortunately but I have a few ideas I have been mulling over for a while. I've been thinking about adding a bit more structure to the project and start building some small warbands with their own (linked) backgrounds.

This will be linked to the back story I wrote to go with my 'Emissary' a few months ago. In that I introduced a couple of other characters, Captain Julius T. Smyrk and Inquisitor Rastaban Tycho, and it is these two that I intend to start with.

Captain Smirk (and all his thinly veiled Star Trek references) has been my internet nom de plume for several years and was also attached to this blog more or less as an after thought.
I intend for Smyrk to be former Rogue Trader who took the "rogue" part of his title a little too literally and has fallen foul of the Inquisition (in the form of Tycho). He now travels with whats left of his crew always managing to stay one step ahead of the increasingly obsessed inquisitor.

Rastaban Tycho has rather different origins having started out as a background character for some unrealized Inquisitor characters (although maybe the Inquisitors Voth may turn up in younger form in Tycho's retinue...).
Admittedly Tycho's character has changed somewhat from his particularly radical bent in that tale. The new Rastaban Tycho is a little more puritanical. I see him working through a series of agents and underlings to manoeuvre his targets into incriminating themselves before swooping in like a shining paladin of the Emperor's wrath with his Space Marine bodyguards to apprehend them (and take all the credit).
He attempted this tactic on Smyrk but somehow the wily rogue managed to escape and has been doing so ever since. Tycho has become obsessed with bringing Smyrk to justice and is pursuing him across the Imperium.

Well those are the basic ideas behind the two leading figures, I'm working on their respective underlings. Now I just need to acquire some figures to use for them...

Anyway that's it for now. Hopefully I won't be so long before posting again.


Cap'n Smyrk

Incoming Transmission...

Imperial Record      IR 01/886

Cross file to:           Office of the Inquisition OI

Planetary ref           Euphoria A3 Atar System

Input ref                  Personal Log, Inquisitor, Tycho, Rastaban
                                43/968 ES367

Input dated              0672968.M41


My pursuit of the reviled heretic and scoundrel Julius Smyrk has brought me to this unremarkable planet on the outer reaches of the Imperium. I am at a loss to explain why its founders chose to name it Euphoria, there is certainly little euphoric about it now.

Unfortunately Smyrk's trail appears to have gone cold but my investigations continue nonetheless. More worrying is the presence of a previously unrecorded heretical cult upon the planet. This cult appears to be spreading widely amongst the planetary population and the Imperial Commander and his forces seem unable (or possibly unwilling?) to stem the tide.

I have contacted the local Arbites precinct and gleaned as much information from them and other sources as I can. The cult denies our most benevolent Emperor's light and instead directs their worship towards a shadowy entity/deity referred to as the Incandescent Star Wyrm.

The centre of the cult revolves around a mysterious individual known only as the Emissary. This individual purports to be a messenger or prophet of the aforementioned Star Wyrm. I have been unable to acquire much information about this 'Emissary' who seems to a be able to travel great distances in an impossibly short time. He has so far eluded all attempts to apprehend him.
Reports do mention his miraculous powers and inhuman charisma.

My suspicions are that this 'Emissary' is in all likelihood a psyker, probably a dangerously powerful one. Other evidence points towards his being a mutant or possibly some form of alien infiltrator. Certainly he represents a clear and present threat to the people of Euphoria and the Emperor's interests.

I will therefore call a temporary halt on my search for Smyrk and concentrate my efforts on the destruction of this cult and its malign leader.


Rastaban Tycho


Thought for the day:        There are no shadows without light