INQ28: Studio McVey Jetgirl conversion - Paige Levkau

Thought Begets Heresy

Although it has been over 5 months since I created my last Inq28 model (Beltran Destrieux, of Stygies VIII Explorator Fleets), I am always on the lookout for models that might serve as a starting point for creating more characters to stand along side Lucanus Molnár and Anton Soljic.  Recently, I found such a model when looking through some of the resin models offered on Studio McVey’s website, in particular this model.  The leather jacket and flightsuit of the model reminded me of Medea Betancore, the Glavian pilot who flew Gregor Eisenhorn’s guncutter.  I realized she would be the perfect starting point for creating a pilot for the ever practical Anton Soljic of the Ordo Xenos.

Leviathan Dreadnought: Impressions

Blood Runs.  War Calls.

I do not think that I am out of line by saying that we all love Space Marines.  And for the most part, Games Workshop has created a fantastic line of models to represent them on the tabletop.  There is one notable flaw with them, however, and that is that they simply are not in scale with other models in Warhammer 40k.  Instead of being mythical godlike giants, they stand as tall as Imperial Guardsmen.  Because of this, many talented people have created their own “true-scale” marines.  Just to name a few, MoneyBallistic has some seminal Iron Hands, while Kari has some terrifying Red Corsairs.  Also from Iron Sleet, Migsula is creating a whole army of properly scaled Space Wolves with his Vlka Fenryka project.  The only other thing as iconic as a Marine in power armor is the lumbering armored sarcophagus that is the Space Marine dreadnought, so it stands to reason people would want to try to create a true-scale version.  This task, however, presents a whole new range of challenges.  While not easy by any means, the task of creating true-scale marines is dramatically aided by the availability of plastic and resin terminators, whose added bulk is often a good starting point for such conversions.  But when one tries to move beyond simply creating warriors in power armor, the task becomes substantially harder, because all the Space Marine vehicles are based upon the improperly scaled power armor marines.  There is really only one other plastic kit, besides the basic dreadnought box, that might serve as a base for such a conversion, and that is the Dreadknight.  As a part of his Invitational entry, Kari did exactly this, to excellent effect.  The Dreadknight’s long limbs do not quite mirror the aesthetics of the traditional Dreadnought, so I have been looking for alternatives.  I am excited to say that the search may be over, after seeing Forge World’s newest release, the Leviathan pattern Dreadnought!

Deredeo Dreadnought: Assembled

Dreadnoughts keep getting bigger and bigger!

Forge World has a particular talent for making impressive robots, from the cyclopean Warlord titan all the way down to the more humble dreadnought.  In recent years, Forge World have done a lot with their Contemptor dreadnought, making countless variations and legion specific versions. Just when I thought they had reached a natural end, they released an even bulkier variation of the Contemptor theme, the Deredeo pattern dreadnought.  In the excitement that accompanies any FW release, we promptly purchased one. Despite our excitement, and getting an incredibly well cast version of the dreadnought, other projects pulled us away from the new dreadnought, and it did not get built.  In the last few weeks, however, something pulled me back to the armored giant, and I was able to clean and assemble the model rather quickly (and just in time for FW to release another new dreadnought, the Leviathan Dreadnought?!).  Although it was a fairly straightforward build, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts about it, along with some pictures!

Musings: What makes an Inquisitor

No Miracles, just Men.

Migsula, over at the excellent blog Iron Sleet, just wrote a fascinating post musing on the thought process behind building an effective Inquisitor retinue.  In it, he puts words to some concepts that I have tackled and explored while creating models for Inq28, but never consciously put down in writing.  He argues that the key to creating an evocative and effective retinue depends largely on the hierarchy in the group and the contrast in this stratification between the Inquisitor and their lowly henchmen.  The Inquisitor is the radiant sun around which the other members orbit.  These Humble Human Henchman (thanks for coining the term Migs!) that surround the Inquisitor serve to anchor the group in reality; they are humans that we can relate to, and not Saints, Space Marines, or Alpha class psykers.  To emphasize the importance of this contrast, Migsula asked “how interesting would a group of equally and similarly powerful individuals be?”  And while I think he anticipated the answer to be a resounding “Not very,” my first thought was the opposite.