Thursday, 15 December 2022

Erasmus & Retinue

 Image

This was my Inquisitor warband for Golden Demon 2022. I'll post up a few individual shots in the coming days with a little more description around each in turn.

It's also my Plan B! was a late-in-day change of plan from my original idea - an Eldar Seer Council of classic metal sculpts, but I hit so many issues trying to paint them that it was abandoned after a few days trying to wrestle with the combination of metal and pock-marked sculpts. "Just fill it and sand it back" I hear you say, but a number of the glaring issues with the model were visible but not easy to correct to a competition standard. It was a little demoralising, but after a bit of time away from the desk, this was my refocus.

I love the Necromunda setting and opted to build out an oldschool style warband with the Inquisitor as the focus. The first draft plan was to have the Inquisitor, an apprentice then four or five henchmen but it was quickly apparently I was screwed on time and had a rethink on the characteristics that should be present.

It's an analogous paint scheme, with the ogryn in yellow, the henchman in orange and the Inquisitor in red. I've tried to incorporate lots of different textures in here, and pulled elements from each model into the next. So you have the liquids in the gloves of the ogryn mirrored in the canister on the back of the henchman. Leather on ogryn and Inquisitor, chromed metal on the Inquisitor and henchman ... you get the idea. It brings a little uniformity to a disparate group without making them overtly military and samey.

There's so much more I wanted to do with this, but for 60 hours over 25 days, I feel this is the best I've painted. The other figures are still sat on my WIP desk and will join the group over the coming months, albeit not to this standard.

This entry didn't receive anything. Not a commendation, not even a pin. I was genuinely disappointed by this, but the standard of the other entries in the same category was remarkably high and inspiring so it would be nice to go again in 2024 (I'm skipping the 2023 one) and push myself to do better. Already it's obvious to me how many elements need to be refined, improved or even just finished properly to lift the piece. That's a learning for the future on the next project, this one's done and will take pride of place on a display shelf to spur me on.