Review Heresy Labs: Inquisitor Messalina

Inquisitor Messalina

There is, of course, no such thing as a Traitor Inquisitor. On the other hand there are Radical Inquisitors, some of which can be reclassified by their peers as Rogue Inquisitors or even Excommunicate Traitoris.

But, by their own lights, they are not traitors.

One such is the Radical Inquisitor, Messalina. An Ordo Malleus Horusian, she believes that Fabius Bile;s cloning technology holds the secret of merging warp power and biology to create a divine avatar for the resurrection of The Emperor.

So she and Fabius are nominally allied in their research into 'superhumans but obviously each intends to betray the other at some point. The question is who will be quicker of the draw.

Weapons

Messalina is equipped with a power stave and a high compression sprayer loaded with highly toxic and corroding chemicals laced with unstable lethal viruses (i.e. a flamethrower). She has been busy in Bile's laboratory.

This model is resin and obtainable at a very reasonable price from Heresy Lab.

 

Ordo Hereticus Madame Inquisitor: A Sense Of Style

Have At Thee, Rogue

I suspect that this will be the last Finecast model I ever paint....God Willing!

It reminded me why I stopped buying Geedubya models. Finecast was truly the utter pits as a wargaming material. The models were so loaded with sprue attachments that you had to nearly sculpt them yourselves - except that the material was brittle and snapped if one looked at it in a funny way.

Great model though....just full of style and very steampunky.

Warp Pistol Charging

Another point is how small these old models are compared to modern Warhammer. I have decided that this is a petite Lady Inquisitor as the model looks too small to be a Lord Inquisitor. Being petite will not, of course, stop her sticking a power sword up a heretics jacksy....

Hi Tech Miniatures Inquisitor

I fancied doing something different for an Inquisitor model so selected something from Hi Tech Miniatures, who do a vast range of pseudo-40K stuff.

These models are high quality resin and not cheap but IMHO worth it.

Incidentally, if you only want to buy a single model you may find it cheaper postage-wise in the UK to buy from their eBay offers.


The only change I have made to the model is to remove the rather anaemic storm-bolter and replace it with a Mechanicus gun.

Kitbashed Inquisition Gun-Cutter

High Altitude Flight.

"What rose above the landing platform out of the blizzard night,its down thrusters wailing, was my gun-cutter. Four hundred and fifty tonnes of armoured alloy, eighty metres from barbed nose to raked stern, landing gear still lowered like spider legs, it rose on the blue-hot downwash of angled jets. Banks of floodlights under its beak-nose cut on and bathed the deck and the cultists in fierce white light.

The gun turrets in the end of the stubby wings rotated and washed the platform with withering heavy fire.....Bodies were reduced to sprays of liquid.'
Xenos

Thus Dan Abnett inspired me to kitbash a Gun Cutter for my Inquisitor and gang. Eighty metres is a trifle on the large size, about 1.2 metres in game scale, so I cut it back a bit.

I started with one of these, A Revell snap-together Halo Pelican kit. This is modelled at 1:100, roughly 15mm in game scale, so is manageable as a 28 ml model on the table top. These models can be bought for about £25.

This kit really does snap together. The parts fit tightly without glue. I am a little uncertain about this being suitable for children as quite a bit of pressure is needed on the snap-tights. The assembled whole has great playability with lots of moving parts, bits that light up and a 'whoo-whoo' space noise.

Assembled it's about the same size as a Valkyrie. The great thing is that the cockpit bubbles are huge at 15mm, so just right for 28mm.

I was so pleased with the result that I used the model more or less as is.

Gun Cutter in Flight Configuration.

I sprayed the model all over in Citadel Mechanicus Standard (medium) Grey to prime and undercoat - with the cockpit removed. To this I airbrushed on a top coat of Vallejo metallic black (gunmetal) and on top of that Humbrol Multi-Hue Blue. I then spot painted with Mr Colour Metallic Red. Some spare Citadel 'flight' decals completed the look.

The Business End.

I put a couple of searchlights on the front hull. The model comes with four hard points on the wings so I added some Old Crow resin missiles from my bits box.

The cockpit is colourised on the inside with Citadel 'candy' blue transparent paint so one can't see the 15mm seats but the blue interior flashing light is still visible when i want to make woo-woo noises.

Landing Gear Lowered.


With the gear lowered and the ramp dropped down at the rear, the Cutter can easily be loaded.

Rotating Thrusters.

Ready for Vertical Lift Off.

I added two rotating cannon mounts under the engines. The Cutter now has the same weapon loading as a Corvus so may be played as one and still be wysiwyg.

So there we go: a really neat Inquisition Gun Cutter for the princely sum of £25, some paint, and a few spare bits.

Result!

Some Early Efforts - Daemonhunters

I have been ruthlessly weeding out my back catalogue again for eBay fodder (my credit card bill has arrived) and came across a Daemonhunters Army. It's kinda interesting to see how I painted five years ago.

I think layering has made my more recent efforts somewhat better - although I am never going to win any awards.

What do you think?

Inquisitorial Codexes

Or should that be codices? I never know.

Anyway the Damonhunters and Witchhunters Codexes are up on the GW site here:

http://bit.ly/9E4gju

You will need to be signed in first before clicking and you will get the National page first - just choose a nationality and it goes away.

I have had a quick look through the Witchhunters. It is exactly the same except that it has been shortened by removing fluff, pics and additional bits, such as the extra scenario and the Aversaries army list.