Inq28 Navigators Finished

After a few weeks of hobby inactivity, I've finally had the chance to sit down and finish off my Navigator war band. Though I haven't had the opportunity to use them in any games of Inquisimunda, this was mostly just a chance to try and experiment with a different style, which I've enjoyed doing very much.

House Invespucci of the Navis Nobilite

As I've had a lot of fun with my Navigators I decided to make a dedicated, boutique box for them to be carried around in. I've never done something like this before, but I've seen others do it for their Blanche-esque adventures and thought I'd give it a shot. I didn't really have a plan for what I was going to do with this box and I ended up trying out a few different things before eventually ending up with this tortured face rendered roughly in acrylics. Its kinda weird and disturbing, thus fitting in nicely with the war band itself.

Novator Ludovico 'il Magnifico' Invespucci, and the mutant Pigafetta

As I final addition to my Navigators, I have my Novator. Should I actually play some Inq28 I'll not field him until the final few battles and agree some suitably powerful psychic abilities for him with the GM. In a moment of madness I just had the idea of mounting someone on top of my mutant to make an incredibly bizarre duo, and the precocity of it all really lends itself to the style of some of John Blanche's 40k pieces of towering masses of bio-mechanical insanity.

The contrast of the heavy armour and relatively static pose of the Novator, and the fleshy whirling motion of the Mutant go really well together, setting the Novator apart as a serene master of the battlefield.

Pigafetta, once Antonio the Illuminated

Ramusio Acosta, and Countess Katerina Invespucci with her familiar

Galvano 'The Drake', and Sir Hakluyt

I've really enjoyed attempting to emulate (and developing my own version of) John Blanche's distinct style through both conversion-work and paint scheme, and though it didn't end up quite how I imagined it would I am very happy with the results. I don't know when I'll next have the chance to do any of this kind of work again as I've lots of other projects to be working on, but it would be nice trying to do another little grim dark war band some point in the future.

Inq28 WIP - Navigators II

After some more rooting around in my bits boxes and quite a lot of green-stuffing, I have put together my next three Navigators to finish off my war band and I've even started to get some paint on them. I've no idea if they'll ever see use on a tabletop but its proving to be an enjoyable little side project as something very different to my LOTR forces. Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll start getting them finished so check back soon to see the end results.

First up we have the leader of this war band whom I'm calling 'The Banker' for now, alongside her familiar. I really wanted to capture the essence of John Blanche in this piece, so theres plenty of weirdness all over. Though probably a negative for gameplay purposes, I wanted this miniature to have great height so envisioned this character striding across the back of some poor slave. I imagine she does not deign to walk the surface of any planet herself so has a small retinue of slaves that she walks upon the backs of whenever she descends from space.

The Banker holds a handful of keys in one hand and I thought it would be cool to convert up some kind of chest-based familiar to carry around some campaign funds in. This went through a lot of different iterations, but eventually I managed to cobble together this cyber-cherub with a bird's skull for a head which I thought was delightfully creepy and tied into the crow/raven motif I'm using in this war band.

Next we have this chap who I'm thinking of calling 'The Herald' for now who I'm envisioning as a non-combat specialist of some kind. He's based off the old Death Jester miniature with a host of other pieces and a lot of green-stuff on top. I'm looking forward to doing something fun with his banner, though I'm yet to decide if ill go with some freehand work or if I'll make a custom transfer of some kind.

Finally we have the towering mutant Navigator who I imagine is a failed challenger to the rule of the Novator, and as a consequence has been reduced to a walking guinea pig for the house Gene-wrights to experiment upon. Upon his back I've placed a sinister-looking machine which injects him with all manner of mysterious substances and records his battle performance for his brethren to review. I really wanted to make a big, hulking mutant for this force and thought it would be fun to create a miniature with a lot of movement. St. Celestine's long purity seals and the flowing hair from Fulgrim's head really help add some extra dynamism to the already leaping Crypt Horror body which I think looks really good.

Inq28 WIP - Navigators I

So I've finally started work on my little Inq28 war band of Navigators. Thus far its been a whole lot of fun bringing my ideas to life from the original concepts I started coming up with last year. I thought it might be fun at this stage in the project to compare my original concepts with the assembled miniatures and talk about how things developed adapting from page to model.

First up I have my Navigator 'Duelist' who defends the honour of his house. The basis of this miniature is the Navigator from Blackstone Fortress whose cane I have replaced with a fencing rapier. While I originally planned to have him at rest, the angles on the base miniature's arm led to me having the sword pointed up instead so he looks slightly more ready for battle. I also eventually opted for a helmeted head over an exposed mutant one, to try and reinforce his more martial role.

In the process of kit bashing something else I created this bird-cherub thing that now lives on his shoulder. I thought it was delightfully creepy and decided to use it on this miniature of the war band to help frame the sword when viewing the Navigator face-on, as well as evoking the idea of an aristocrat out with his hunting bird.

Next, we have my first big kit-bash based on Commissar Yarrik's body. I mostly stuck to my original plan, the only deviations being a pointing arm as I couldn't get hold of a sextant, scrolls as they fit better than a book, and I felt like adding a backpack which perhaps serves to help coordinate the mechanical birds. Birds have in fact started to become a recurring element in this war band as I have assembled them, and I think I will end up making a crow or raven their sigil when I come to add free-hand designs. I was a little wary of using the slightly large ghoul hand releasing the birds, but I think it helps add some more asymmetry to the miniature and alludes to the mutant nature of the Navigators.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this project and I've already got my other three Navigators in the pipe-line which should hopefully be appearing on the blog sometime soon, first though I have some Middle-Earth stuff to get working on as the armies of Mordor are slowly taking over my desk...

Thinking about Inquisimunda/Inq28

For the first time since I've been at uni (which is getting to be quite a long time now), I've been going along to the wargaming evening that the Tabletop Society runs on a Friday and there has been talk of a possible narrative campaign some time next year using the Inquisitor or Inquisimunda rulesets. I've never played in a campaign like that before but I've always wanted to really go crazy kit bashing a bespoke little war band for 40k and creating a story with them. Many years ago I had a great time doing something similar with Mordheim and I'm getting that itch again. I've long been an admirer of the guys over at Iron Sleet who have churned out some glorious projects over the past few years, The Pilgrym in particular being absolutely stunning and exactly the kind of modelling and gaming experience I'd like to have with some fellow minded hobbyists.

I've always been amazed and inspired by the Navigator projects done by weirdingway (Found here on DakkaDakka) which have always made me want to explore the Navigator houses myself in a modelling capacity.  Though it may be a while before I have the chance to do some converting, I have started to do some sketches roughing out ideas and thinking about parts I might use to create a unique-looking Navigator war band.

Hopefully in the next few months people will start coming together and the campaign can get organised. I'm getting rather excited at the prospect of such a project so I really hope it gathers enough interest to take off. Even if it doesn't, I may do some of these conversions anyway as a fun little side piece to the other projects I plan on undertaking next year. Much like how I briefly worked on a Kill Team alongside my Custodes this year. We shall see, if things go ahead I'll make sure to try and document my work and the campaign as best I can on the blog.