Iron Sleet Invitational: Naval Officer WIP

A mind without purpose will wander in dark places.

Having finished the Inquisitor for the Invitational, I started working on a Imperial Guardsmen to accompany him. I wanted the guardsmen to have a similar reserved tone like the inquisitor, fitting a scene where both are part of a tense audience with a rival inquisitor, one that had just turned towards confrontation.  To accomplish this sentiment, I knew that I needed the model to be drawing a weapon, preferably with a tranquil confidence.  Interestingly, like the inquisitor, I ended up finding just the model that I was searching for in the Death Korp line of models, as well.  The Quartermaster, with his skeletal vistage, calmly drawing a las pistol to perform his grim task fit all my criteria for the model.  And since it too was designed by Simon Egan, it was scaled appropriately to the inquisitor.


The first thing I wanted to do was replace his boots/ankles with something a bit more armored, to go along with his breastplate.  I ended up using the lower portion of a set of Death Korp Grenadier legs for this purpose.  To distance the model from the quartermaster, I wanted to remove all the skeleton elements from the model.  Towards this end, used green stuff to smooth out his breastplate so that it would not look like a ribcage.  In the same vein, I resculpted the skull clasps for his cloak, as well as his belt buckle.  Without the skulls, the model looks a bit less like Death-incarnate, ha ha.

In addition to changing his legs, I smoothed out his breastplate and remodeled the clasps holding his cape in place.

One of the most important elements that I wanted to get right for the model was his sidearm, after all, I chose the model due to his pose drawing a pistol.  My initial thought was to give him a revolver, and I started to convert one from plasticard and an archaeotech pistol, but despite my best efforts, it still ended up being too large for my tastes, so I went back to the drawing board.  Being a fan of HK firearms, I decided I wanted to try to convert an autopistol that looked more like a modern polymer pistol.  Due to the large size of the model’s holster, I ended up choosing the HK MK 23 (one of the largest pistols on the market, and also the favored sidearm of Solid Snake…).  The Death Korp las/hell pistols are not overly large, so I decided to use it as a base for the conversion.  The first step was to cut off extending portion of the barrel, as well as carve away some of the metal casing that partially covered  the pistol’s las cartridge.  Since the pistol was going to have its ammunition housed in the weapon’s grip, I wanted to turn the las magazine into a flashlight.  So that the ammunition would feed properly, I needed to extend the slide and frame back a little, using a small piece of resin from a las pistol.  I carved out a little of the side to create the base of the barrel/ejection port.  I used small pieces of plasticard to add a front and rear sight, as well as the hammer and an extended barrel (so that it could accept a suppressor).  I also added some details to the light with plasticard as well.  I used green stuff to smooth out and build up the slide, as well as add a slide release.  Importantly, I sculpted the floorplate of a magazine on the grip of the pistol (so that it would actually have ammunition!).  Lastly, I sculpted his trigger finger such that it was not touching the trigger (safely first in the grim darkness of the far future!).

Although I was happy with how the revolver came out, it is similarly too massive for the model.

I spent more time on this little pistol than the rest of the model combined, but I think it was worth it!

A size comparison between the revolver, FW las pistol, and the Mk 23 I converted. 

I have been having a little trouble determining a proper head for the model. Many of my initial candidates turned out to be too large to fit with the Quartermaster (pretty much all space marine heads). At the moment, I am leaning towards two different heads, one from an Elysian Drop Troops and the second a repurposing of Karl Franz’ head. Karl Franz’ head has proven to be quite tricky because I wanted to remove his helmet and replace it with a Naval security hat (in retrospect it might have been easier to just modify the helmet). With the helmet carved away, I have been busy sculpting on his ears and the back of his head. What does everyone think of the two heads? Do you have a clear favorite, or even another suggestion entirely? I am open for any thoughts on the matter.

The model with an Elysian Drop Troop head.

The model with converted version of Karl Franz' head, with his helmet scraped away to be replace with a hat.

Besides the choice of head, the large aspects of the model are primarily complete. At this point I am considering small details that could be added. I have been entertaining the possibility of adding a knife to his belt, for example, but am not sure if it is necessary.  Now I am focusing my attention on the third model in the series, a rival Thorian Inquisitor!  He will likely be in a suit of heavily modified power armor.  I cannot wait to get him to a stage that I can share a few pictures!

-Adam Wier