Competition Is Good For The Soul

I have an admission to make – I have been distracted from painting my Inquisitor miniatures by a large number of very small orks. This time of year sees the annual EpiComp, where 6mm wargaming in the 41^st millennium is showcased with a painting contest of these fiddly infantry stands and dinky tanks. I am a long time fan of Epic gaming, though it has been years since I've actually played a game, but I have never entered EpiComp. Although I don't hold out much hope of winning anything I am using the contest as motivation to get some units painted. My Epic collection is probably only around one tenth painted, which makes my 6mm box of shame gargantuan compared to its 54mm counterpart!

Some Epic Orks that I have finished in the past...

I am sure I am not the only Epic player that's using the contest as a deadline for some new units, and it has occurred to me that having a finish line in mind is a good way to finally put the finishing touches on a model. With that said, I want to have the Ordo Obsoletus warband out of the way by Christmas... The Techpriest is practically done and dusted, and the Arbitrator has half his base colours blocked in now. The next three weeks will fly by, but I am sure I can pull it off!

So much happier with this model now it has been painted.

Once I have them off my desk, my attention is going to fully turn to those Inquisitors spoken of in hushed tones by their Ordo brethren, the Xanthites. After many years of gestation, I am getting close to putting together a first draft of a new sourcebook detailing these mistrusted Inquisitors and the unorthodox methods they use to protect the Imperium. In years past, the fan-written Recongregator, Istvaanian and Amalathian Sourcebooks have been largely well-received by the Inquisitor playing masses, and I hope that this one passes muster. As well as getting the manuscript sorted, there is the small matter of building and painting some new models to grace its pages. I have a daemonhost that I just can't wait to put together...

The new daemonhost isn't based on Cherubael...

One other thing I was doing this weekend was mapping the Carthax Sector. Previously, a number of subsectors and astrographical regions had been named and described, but nothing existed to relate them to one another. I freely admit that my work is pretty amateurish, and doesn't include all the systems and planets that exist on the wiki, but it's a start. One day soon I hope to get around to describing the subsectors in more detail. This will be important for the Deathwatch campaign I plan to start in the new year. At the moment, there seems to be precious few threats out there...

imgur link available here.

Not much to chew through this time round, but I thought a wee update was in order. I hope to be back with pictures of the Arbitrator soon!

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

Humanity’s Finest

Before I get started, I must apologise for neglecting the blog in recent weeks. I have started a new job and have been struggling to find free time for hobby-related activities. I am now determined to set aside four hours per week for painting, modelling, writing or whatever else and making sure I keep up with output for the blog.

The iconic character of the 41^st millennium is that ceramite-clad, genetically-modified, angel of death that is the Space Marine. Each one equivalent to a hundred men in battle, these peerless warriors are the ultimate soldiers, without whom the Imperium would wilt under the endless assault of their enemies. Each individual Space Marine is a product of arcane science unfathomable to the very minds that implement it, and for every Marine that serves his chapter, dozens of unfortunate, lesser men have failed to survive the implantation process that elevates them to the demi-immortal beings they are. Each of the thousand Chapters that serve the Imperium has a proud lineage that stretches back through the millennia, with the nine oldest having served with the Emperor and the Primarchs in the Great Crusade at the dawn of Imperial time. Each Marine serves with the greatest pride, loyal to the traditions of his Chapter and ever-willing to lay down his life in defence of the Emperor and his brethren. While their combat doctrines and recruitment processes may vary, each Chapter shares the common bond of duty to Terra.

Gav "greenstuff_gav" Fry was kind enough to allow me to use photos of his Space Marines in this blog post.

Earlier this year when I had the luxury of free time, I made my way through the Deathwatch RPG supplements The Jericho Reach, and the Achilus Assault. I wanted to read them as inspiration for developing the Carthax Sector’s* background, and while I gained a lot of ideas, I was also taken with the idea of running a Deathwatch campaign, something I had dismissed previously as I had felt that Space Marine characters were too one dimensional to roleplay, and any campaign featuring them would be an endless line of combat encounters and nothing else. However, the writers at Fantasy Flight Games have done a fantastic job of opening different avenues of exploration for Deathwatch groups, including involving them in the political wrangling of the crusade’s higher command and attendant Inquisitors. The RPG line also does a good job of showing how a Space Marine character would function from a roleplaying point of view. Honouring the Chapter is foremost in a Marine’s mind, and serving with respect to his Chapter’s traditions can bring a Marine into conflict with his fellows and leave him at a disadvantage in combat. Though they lack the gamut of emotions that plague humanity, they are not just simple killing machines. Many will struggle with swallowing their pride and following orders that run counter to everything they hold in high regard. While a Space Marine will still never be able to search for rumours in a dirty tavern, campaigns tailored to them can still be a rewarding experience for players and GMs alike.

Gav is aiming to produce a model from each of the Chapters of the First Founding - seen here his Ultramarine, above his Dark Angel. 

Taking all this into account, I have begun looking at Space Marines in Inquisitor in a different light. I have never been comfortable with high-powered characters in my Inquisitor campaigns as I always worry that they seriously unbalance things in favour of their players, and make things too easy without hamstringing them with GM powers. Doing so is a good way to turn off player interest as they will feel they are being treated unfairly, and with the limited interest in Inquisitor anyhow this is not something any GM will want to be doing. I feel that the answer is getting together with players long before your campaign has been plotted to discuss what characters they want to use and what goal they want to achieve. With lots of planning, Space Marines and other powerful characters can be used, but the GM has to be very careful that these characters are played appropriately and that players are reminded of their objectives regularly. It can be a tough gig, but with a firm but fair attitude, all players will have equal fun. The Artemis model is a hugely popular model too, and plenty of non-players even have one as a display piece. It’s a shame that so few get to grace the tabletop, so with the following guidance I hope we can all find a place for Space Marines on the Inquisitor table.

Here is Gav's Salamander.

One of the big problems with using Space Marines in Inquisitor was that the profile provided in the rulebook abused the D100 system that Inquisitor is based upon. Having any stats above 100 can break the game, especially for statistics that are rarely tested with modifiers and have an effect on other things like Speed and Base Injury Value or Damage bonuses. It is an oft-repeated observation that Artemis could cause more damage throwing bolt rounds at his enemies than by firing his bolter. Clearly, that is not as Inquisitor’s writers intended, and while a Space Marine should stand head and shoulders above the common man, some of their characteristics are plainly too high. Fortunately, an excellent set of alternative rules are available. Written by Eoin Whelan for Dark Magenta Issue 2, the Apocrypha Angeli Mortis not only sorts out the major issues with characteristic values, but also goes into unprecedented detail regarding the various Adeptus Astartes implants and their effects on a Space Marine. Missing and malfunctioning organs are now taken into account during the character creation process and various marks of power armour are also detailed, with their particular strengths and weaknesses included. I can’t recommend these rules enough when bringing Space Marines to game with.

As well as the loyalist Chapters, Gav has completed a Night Lord.

When writing campaigns and scenarios for Space Marines it is important to bear in mind the capabilities and limitations of the archetype. As I’ve said before, a Space Marine is unlikely to be found undercover searching for rumours, but they will be at the forefront of any military action. Setting a campaign in a warzone is a simple way to excuse the presence of a Space Marine, and the 41^st millennium is hardly lacking in battlefields. Within this environment, a Space Marine could be guarding an important dignitary, acting as an ambassador to a warlike non-Imperial human enclave, or assigned an assassination mission. He may have been called in to assist an Inquisitor, or he may be acting on the bequest of his Chapter Master. It is important for the character to have a definite objective, and this should be stressed to the player. It would be unlikely for a Space Marine to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and drafted into an Inquisitor’s retinue, for example. With only a million across the galaxy, these characters don’t tend to mooch around on holiday. They will always be on duty, or training for their next mission. Whatever form this objective takes, it is key to keeping a Marine player on task, and stops the temptation to start butchering their way across the table.

My personal favourite of Gav's First Founding models is his take on Kargos Bloodspitter of the World Eaters.

On that note, it is probably for the best if Space Marine characters aren’t directly opposing human PCs in your scenarios. Even with the slightly toned down version, they are still exceptionally deadly. This advice goes for other powerful characters like Eldar Corsairs and Daemons too. If mundane PCs meet their end early in a campaign, it’s over for everybody. The power of these characters allows for tougher enemies however, and most GMs will relish the opportunity to put away the goon squad and bring out the deadly assassins, Genestealers, Daemonhosts and murder servitors. By evening the odds with these enemies, Space Marine players will suddenly find they aren’t the all-powerful beings they thought they were and will have to approach scenarios more thoughtfully than they have done before. It is entirely possible to include allied warbands with Space Marines without making the table too hard for the mundane PCs or too easy for the Space Marine by introducing localised hazards that only the superhuman can overcome (and even then with a certain risk). For example, high radiation levels, high gravity, fire, or vacuums would be deadly or nigh on impossible for a human to negotiate, but not so a Space Marine. Cooperation between the Marine and his allies could be vital to the success of the mission; perhaps a series of remotely locked doors need to be opened so the Marine can access the area of high radiation, or perhaps the Marine needs his allies to trap the xenos creature he is goading towards the airlock. All the while the allies could be assaulted by lesser enemies. Conversely, the Marine could be tasked with holding off a powerful foe to allow his allies to set demolition charges. To draw an analogy to a popular film series, the Space Marine is an Avenger to the human PCs S.H.I.E.L.D. While the latter locates trouble and plans how to deal with it, the former is needed to save the day with their incredible attributes.

My Relictor is a good example of a Marine the Inquisition may wish to investigate.

For another take on the subject of Space Marines in games I recommend reading Gav Fry's Dark Magenta article “Huge Chunk of Man”. Not only does it talk about gaming with Marines, it also gives great advice on converting the Artemis model into different poses. Your Space Marines don't always have to be sprinting everywhere! If you want to see more of his First Founding project, including his work in progress models, head to Build Your Imagination.

This isn't my final word on Space Marines in Inquisitor by a long shot, so expect more on the Adeptus Astartes in the future. If you have any pictures of your Space Marines you wish to share, post them on the Facebook page, or tweet @T_C_Inquisitor. Finally, I promise the next blog post won't be so long in cooking up as this one was!

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

*It’s worth noting that the Carthax Sector Wiki is moving, and will now be found at: http://carthax.wikia.com/wiki/Carthax_Wiki. The move is not yet complete, so some content from the old wiki has yet to be transferred across.

GMing in Obscurity

One question that was asked a couple of times when I first shared pictures of the war band I've been working on was "what is the Ordo Obsoletus?". I was happy to explain that they are a branch of the Inquisition that have tasked themselves with unravelling the bizarre and confounding mysteries of the galaxy. The Ordo has been involved in investigating alleged miracles, space hulks, ghost ships and appearances of the Legion of the Damned. They are the group that investigates the threats to the Imperium that defy categorisation. If like me you reached your formative years in the nineties, you would happily compare the Ordo's work to that of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the X Files. Except of course in the 41st millennium, aliens are real, and have a whole Ordo arrayed against them. 

Not sure if the now finished Inquisitor looks much like David Duchovny...

Now, I thought that the Ordo Obsoletus were a fairly well-known minor Ordo, after the Ordos Sicarius and Sepulturum. Not so it would seem, and in actual fact there are few mentions of them anywhere in the canon (I remember them from a piece of colour text on the Legion of the Damned from the depths of a White Dwarf article sometime in the colourful realm of the late nineties). There is no mention at all of them in the Inquisitor rule book even, a tome that really laid out the bones of the previously little understood left hand of the Emperor. The Ordo then is little more than a footnote. It is by no means alone either. A quick search of the 40k wiki brings up no less than 25 minor Ordos in addition to the big three of the Ordos Malleus, Xenos and Hereticus. I couldn't tell you how many more fan created Ordos and Orders there are on top of that.

Not even the powers of the warp could tell you that.

As Inquisitor players then, is there a risk of being too obscure with our references? The Warhammer 40,000 universe has been written about for over twenty seven years now, seen hundreds of publications with its logo printed on the cover and had countless contributing authors. Some pieces have been well-received, some have been met with the bile of a million angry keystrokes. Goodness only knows what the word count of almost three decades worth of back story is. Within the mountains of source material, one can find throwaway sentences from which an entire race of xenos creatures could gestate from, names of worlds, saints, heroes and villains that practically no one else will recall. The sheer number of ideas hidden amongst it all is mind-boggling, and worthy of a sub-department of the Adeptus Administratum itself. This has the potential to create confusion, as well as ideological conflicts over seemingly retconned pieces and the work of unpopular writers. By using an obscure footnote as a basis for a character there is a risk that our ideas are ignored for the familiar, in vogue story lines by other players and GMs.

The Hrud linger in the background...

If that seems alarmist, I do remember a time when popular opinion would shout down the idea of Grey Knights using the tools of Chaos, but now we have Castellan Crowe wielding a daemon weapon. He is a special case, but a well-known trump card in that argument nonetheless. Inquisitor is an unusual Games Workshop production in that there is no etched in stone set of rules and army lists. The word of god in its case lies with the GM and players cannot point to their army codex and say that the book says I can have this. Discretion on the part of the GM is what sets Inquisitor apart. 

The GM is the conductor of the piece.

Being a good Games Master is making yourself head of a committee that involves the players. In this forum, all participants can say their piece, their ideas can be discussed upon by everyone and a consensus reached. Every Inquisitor player I've met has been a student of 40k lore and enjoys the tangled depths of its immense archives. What people don't like is surprises, so by having a discussion before your games is a good way to avoid disenchanting players who come across something they don't like mid-game. It's far easier to deal with gripes before they happen. You will find that most players just want to get their models on the table to play and will happily acquiesce to the will of the group. You are there to facilitate a game, and it's a much more rewarding experience if the participants are going in happy. On occasion, you might unfortunately find that no amount of discussion will talk a player round. In those instances a tough stance might have to be taken. As the GM you are the law and you have the right to veto anything you don't think fits in with your image of the game. That said, I always feel that offering an alternative is better than outright taking things away. Once again, the best games play out when all the participants go into them excited to play.

Combat on the edge of tall buildings? Yes please.

Does the obscure have a place in Inquisitor then? Absolutely, and for me that is exactly what the game should be about. Investigating the tantalising morsels at the fringe of the collective knowledge of the 41st millennium is an exceptionally rewarding creative exercise. However, open channels of communication with other players and the GM are vital to the enjoyment of these adventures by everyone.

You might notice blog entries become a bit more irregular from now on as I am starting a new job. The construction of my Ordo Obsoletus warband will continue, and updates can be found on The Conclave, Facebook and through Twitter. If you have any comments on today's post please send them my way.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Even with a painted model and a backstory, an Inquisitor PC isn't truly complete until his character sheet is filled in. The nine little boxes along the top of the sheet actually go a long way towards to governing how we play our characters in game. They represent our characters' strengths and weaknesses, and mould how our characters act in the scenarios arrayed against them. I am not a fan of randomly rolling for characteristics as it can upset your perceived plans for the character. It's all too easy for a nicely modelled, chainsword-wielding fanatic to end up with low Weapon Skill and high Sagacity for example, or a nicely modelled trickster presenting an image of force with a chainsword to end up with a high Weapon Skill and low Sagacity. I much prefer to settle on characteristics myself. However, it is important to impose limits.

An Arco-flagellant is unlikely to be another character in disguise, so expect a high Weapon Skill!

One of Inquisitor's strengths is that players and GMs are free to stat and equip characters in any way they feel. Some players prefer high end campaigns, where stats in the 80s and 90s prevail, and some prefer middle of the road campaigns with stats in the 50s and 60s. I dare say there are some that play with no stat above 40. It doesn't really matter, as long as everyone involved is playing at the same level. As soon as one war band has stats which are more than +20 above everyone else’s, and brings meltaguns to a knife fight, it's often the case that that war band will dominate even with careful scenario design on the GM's part, and that can suck the fun out of a campaign for others.

A fair fight?

The Inquisitor rule book is an interesting beast when it comes to giving characteristics to characters. At the start of the book, it gives a rough idea to appropriate stats (p.15 Living Rule Book), with suggestions including: “a normal human would have a Toughness of 40-50” and under Nerve “a trained Imperial Guardsman would be in the 40-60 range”. If we turn to the back of the book and look at the sample characters, a Desperado is given a Toughness of 60 and a Nerve of 75. Is it the case that the authors are ignoring their own advice, or is the argument that the characters involved in an Inquisitor campaign are on a pedestal above the massed ranks of humanity? It could be taken either way.

For what it's worth, I prefer to play with stats around about the 50-60 mark, with particularly weak characteristics dipping down to 40, and focussed specialities going up to 70 or so. I do so as it means that actions aren't always a formality. To me, this makes games far more interesting as nothing ramps up the tension like a make or break roll to take out the big bad at the end of a scenario.

The savant Pret Hirschfield is one of only a handful of PCs with an Initiative in the 40s.

After settling on characteristics, I often look over the Special Abilities section of the rule book and the Carthax Wiki to see if there are any I feel appropriate to my character. Selecting Special Abilities can be a bit of a slippery slope however, and once you've chosen one or two, you start seeing others that might just fit. All of a sudden you have six or seven and you struggle to remember them in the heat of the action. Your declaration of actions slows down as you try and work out how the combination of abilities on your sheet will affect the turn; you remember you could have done something the previous turn; or half way through the game you bring out the ability that was scribbled on the back of your sheet as there wasn't any more room on the front much to the annoyance of the GM who now has to implement a do-over. I'm a big of fan of keeping games of Inquisitor flowing quickly, so I limit the number of Special Abilities I take, usually to two, but quite often some characters will have none.

Psychic and Exotic Abilities don't crop up too often, but as with Special Abilities, I tend to stick to a smaller number so things don't get out of hand. Usually, I don't give characters psychic powers from more than two disciplines as in my mind, psykers tend to focus on one discipline, and perhaps can draw on another power they trust themselves to use in the hectic action that constitutes an Inquisitor scenario.

Telepathy is unsurprisingly the Astrotelepath's primary discipline, but here he shows some telekinetic abilities by levitating spookily.

Equipment is the final piece of the puzzle for me, but most of the time I am governed by what looked cool during the modelling process and is already stuck to the model. The vast majority of my models are armed with stubbers, shotguns and more mundane hand to hand weapons as I have found through bloody experience that things like bolters and power swords can quickly end scenarios and character's lives! That's not an absolute rule of course - the only rule that matters when building characters is the Rule of Cool.

Every now and then, one of my characters comes with a fearsome weapon.

Where does Inquisitor Casimir Fearon come in in the character sheet department then?

	WS	BS	S	T	I	Wp	Sg	Nv	Ld
Fearon	59	63	57	58	68	72	70	68	71

Inquisitor Fearon is right-handed

Special Abilities: Compelling (see Additional Rules on the Carthax Wiki), Leader

Equipment: Auspex (Motion Tracker), Padded Robes (AV2) on all locations except head, Short Sword, Stubber with Infrascope and two reloads

Painting is underway... only now do I realise I forgot to add a pendant to the cord around his neck!

Fearon then is a bit of an all-rounder, with higher mental stats than the average, befitting his position as an Inquisitor. His experience in dealing with the varying branches of the Inquisition means that he can convince many of his course of action, and is reflected with the Special Abilities Compelling and Leader. His equipment isn't that unique or noteworthy, but as an investigative type, he doesn't need to be dressed for battle. With his auspex and infrascope he can track down his quarry in a multitude of environments.

That wraps it up for this entry. I'd love to see some other takes on character creation, so please share your ideas on Facebook and Twitter (@T_C_Inquisitor).

The Carthaxian Inquisitor 

Who are you?

Work on my Ordo Obsoletus war band is progressing. After selecting and assembling the raw components last week, I have been adding equipment with bits and pieces and sculpting details where needed. Although I had a vision in my mind of how I wanted the models to turn out when I began, it's not until things are underway that you can really get a feel for what will look good and what just won't work. It's not unusual to end up with something completely different from what you planned when assembly started. Some components won't combine without a lot of cutting and re-sculpting, and some things just don't look right together. So far I'm happy with how the Inquisitor looks; he turned out pretty much as I imagined; the Arbitrator is progressing nicely; the Psyker has undergone a transformation; and the Techpriest just isn't quite right yet.

The Inquisitor

The Inquisitor now has a lantern in his left hand, a gun sight on his stubber, and some bits around his belt. The lantern is a more “grimdark” source of light than a handheld torch, and adds to the investigative air I am hopefully building around him. It will also allow me to paint some source lighting, which is always a nice challenge. The gun sight is there for no other reason than because I thought it looked good (the Rule of Cool), and the pouches on his back help add detail to an empty space. The doll from Quovandius has found pride of place on his belt. It's an odd little piece, but there must be a story behind it (more on that later).

The Arbitrator

The Arbitrator has had his shoulder pads altered with ProCreate, adding detail to the right in the form of an Aquila grasped in a fist, and has had the left smoothed over. Initially I had intended to alter the winged symbol of the Inquisition on the left into a symbol more fitting the Adeptus Arbites, but in the end kept to the traditional decoration of the right pad. I have also removed the gemstone from the centre of his helm after trying and failing to get it to look like a convincing bionic eye. It has been suggested by users on DakkaDakka and Warseer that I add an Aquila atop his head and a shock maul, and I am heading in that direction next.

The Psyker

The Psyker has had the most work since the last blog entry. I replaced the head from the Judge with Jan Van Yastobaal's alternate head as it conveys more emotion and the strangeness of it works well with the inhuman oddity of psychic characters. His arms have been added, with his hands clasping a human skull. This is his psychic focus, allowing him to better sample the energies of the warp. I plan to paint the skull so that an aethereal glow emanates from the eyes. Finally a selection of equipment was added to his back to fill in a rather uninteresting void. I am pleased with how he is turning out – I hope he carries something of the supernatural with him.

The Techpriest

Lastly the Techpriest. Plenty of gubbins arrayed around him now. He certainly looks like a disciple of Mars, and couldn't be mistaken for anything else. Why am I so unenthused with him? I am wondering whether or not he's just too much of a conventional model. There's nothing new about the combination of parts used here, and he's undoubtedly the safest of the builds in the war band. If he was paint, he'd be magnolia. Tear him up and start again, or make further alterations? I have added sleeves since these photos again at the suggestion of a DakkaDakka user so that he no longer has a flak wife-beater, but I'm not yet convinced. All suggestions welcome!

Getting back to that freaky doll on the Inquisitor's belt... what's that all about?

Inquisitor characters are personalities after all, and it's important that every one has a story. How long that story is really comes down to the player's choice, but I think it needs to be more than just a name and occupation. In most cases a sentence or two will do. Let's take a long-standing character of mine as an example. Inquisitor Tomashek Goddard was originally conceived as a foil to Mikael Van Helser; a puritan daemonhunter on the trail of the daemonhost Voor'acht that Van Helser had fallen under the sway of. That's a compact description, but I think it's enough to grasp the character's motivation and plants an enemy as a plot hook. Of course, there's far more to Goddard (his biography can be found in the Amalathian Sourcebook), but if I was GMing a game where a number of unfamiliar players and characters were attending, as happens at most Conclave gatherings, I would only want the short, snappy version of his story so that I could throw him into the story of my scenario and get on with the game. However, if the player could only tell me his name, and that he was an Inquisitor, I would struggle to tell if the model was responding “in character” to events in the game.

Inquisitor Tomashek Goddard

My Ordo Obsoletus Inquisitor's story starts now, and that doll is an important part of it. I will keep a loose framework to begin with, as undoubtedly, I will have better ideas down the line. I'll keep things compact for now for the same reasons, and to make it easier for others to understand who he is. Allow me to introduce Inquisitor Casimir Fearon:

A student of the discredited Schola Perceptus, the young Casimir Fearon served in the Carthaxian fleet's Arbites corps. Fleeing from a purge of Perceptus alumni, he found himself indebted to Inquisitor Epsis of the Ordo Obsoletus for concealing him from his hunters. After six decades of service, the elderly Epsis elevated Fearon to the rank of Inquisitor, suitably impressed with his acolyte's deductive skills and open mind to the shrouded face of the galaxy. Inquisitor Fearon now travels the breadth of the Carthax sector lending his expertise to events the Ordos cannot fathom. Secretly, he desires to expose the truth behind the purge of the Schola Perceptus, and uncover the conspiracy that saw his alma mater and classmates put to the pyre. He carries a doll he plucked from the ruins as a memorial to those lost.

I will be getting back to the models now, and trying to work out just what to do with the Techpriest. Check for updates on The Conclave, Facebook and Twitter.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

The Box of Shame, and the Renaissance

Sometimes we start projects and fail to finish them. Quite often in wargaming circles, new shinier models come along and grab our attention. Sometimes we start something with great enthusiasm, but find our excitement sapped by the sheer amount of work required to turn our vision into reality. Sometimes we're just plain lazy. Put your hand up if any of these apply to you.

My hand is raised. I am so bad at completing things. I think I have made over 50 Inquisitor figures, and failed to finish at least another 20. Why? I'm not sure I can come up with an honest, comprehensive answer. I'm probably over-critical of my output, and if something doesn't look like it will live up to my expectations, it never gets to see the light of day. I'm also lazy, and I have a demanding job. I am listing excuses here.

Just a selection from the box of shame...

If I was a fanatic, I would stand up here and swear that I will never again fail to complete a project and make it my life's goal to dig out all the half-built, half-painted models from my attic. I'm not though, so I have a far more mundane promise to make.

The point of this blog is to get people excited by Inquisitor again, whether they are old-timers like me, or a potential new recruit that's never heard of the game. The principle I am working from is that content inspires more content, and that dormant Inquisitor players need to be reminded of the joy that the game brings, and new players need to have their attention grabbed. My promise then, is to get building and painting Inquisitor models and show them off to the world. It's not much, but it might just catch the attention of enough people to get them in a building mood and start them sharing their new creations.

With all that said, let me show you how I go about building models.

I usually have a simple, one or two word basis for any war band I dream to put together. Monodominant, Ecclesiarchy, mutant rebels, Genestealer cult... you get the idea. This nucleus lets me start thinking about the general philosophy of the group. For example, is the Monodominant bombastic and outspoken, or does he work behind the scenes? Once I've worked out the answer to the question, I think about which archetypes would lend themselves to the group. A bombastic Monodominant might draw to him followers of the Red Redemption, while the more subtle Inquisitor may have a cadre of silent assassins.

Whole bodies, legs and torsos from my bits box.

Once I've settled on the plan for the group, I sort through my bits box to start piecing components together. I usually start with legs and torsos and try out combinations that look like they'll roughly fit together without too much work. Severina/Sevora's legs clearly aren't going to work with Tyrus's body, but there are plenty of combinations that work, or will work with a little bit of sculpting or disguising of the join with ammo pouches, holsters, books or whatever other bits of ephemera the denizens of the 41^st millennium lug around with them. I love Sergeant Stone's legs – their wide stride lends a great sense of dynamism and menace to every character that includes them, and Slick Devlan's quilted flak jacket-wearing torso works for just about every possible archetype. I usually look at arms next, often in combination with weapons to work out what suits the pose and finally the head. The head is the focal point of every model, so it's important to have it well-positioned. This often means cutting or extending necks and sculpting hair and hoods to get things right. I find Slick Devlan's head to be a good all-rounder, as it's in the mid range of sizes and comes with a reasonably lengthed neck. Heads that are trickier to work with are the Judge's, which are quite a lot smaller, Covenant's, which is a lot bigger, and Tyrus has an incredibly long “neck” so that the head sits above the collar of his armour. Sawing it to fit other torsos is a necessity.

Parts for four new models laid out.

I have started a new war band this week to further explain my building process. The nucleus for this group was “Ordo Obsoletus”. This minor Ordo investigates the mysteries of the galaxy, and is something I haven't yet covered in all my war bands thus far. My Ordo Obsoletus Inquisitor would need a group of skilled investigators to cover every potential branch of study. To this end, the group thus far consists of the Inquisitor, a sort of Noir detective, a Techpriest to apply the knowledge of Mars, a Psyker to divine the answer, and an Arbitrator to get the truth out of suspects.

The Inquisitor has one of Kal Jerico's heads, two of the Bounty Hunter's arms, Eisenhorn's torso and Josef's legs.

The Techpriest has Gruss's head, legs and unattached mechadendrites, Slick's torso and bionic arms from the "Cyborgs" by everyone's favourite Russian manufacturer of 54mm toy soldiers.

The Psyker has Sergeant Stone's dynamic legs, Sergeant Black's torso under the ProCreate and Von Castellan's coat tails. His arms are from Malicant, but haven't been secured yet.

Lastly, the Arbitrator. Eisenhorn's legs with the Thorian's torso and attached head (previously sawed from his legs for another model), the Judge's shotgun arm and a bionic arm from the aforementioned "Cyborgs" with cut down 40k bolter.

There's a long way to go. I have started some sculpting to fill in gaps and align parts, but there are many components to be attached yet. This process will likely take a few weeks, so stay tuned. I will be updating a thread on The Conclave as I go. As always, feel free to share your WIP pictures on Facebook or on twitter (@T_C_Inquisitor).

The Carthaxian Inquisitor